Christmas in July at The Shabby Tea Room

Good morning everyone!  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and are ready for the start of a brand new week. I awoke before sunrise this morning, and have been enjoying watching this day unfold.  I am not usually a morning person, so this is a very rare occurrence for me. But how peaceful it has been to watch the sun come up with a cup of coffee in hand, the pups who insistently woke me up bright and early with their need for attention now dozing peacefully at my feet. It looks like the start of another beautiful day.

We have a new challenge for you over at The Shabby Tea Room this morning. This week’s challenge, Christmas in July, is to create a holiday inspired card or project. After all the heat and humidity of the summer, a little dip into the chill of winter feels like a welcome relief.

Pulled out some of my favorite holiday papers of last season from Pink Paislee, as well as a few new goodies I picked up after the holiday. I love a combination of new and old. So satisfying on all levels.

The die-cuts are also Pink Paislee, layered onto a printed transparency and chipboard snowflake from LYB and dressed up with jingle bells and glittered stars. The sentiment comes from an older line of Webster’s Pages.  The lovely flocked velvet frame piece and vintage Santa are from Creative Imaginations.

Hope you all come join us in the Tea Room this week, and get a head start on your holiday creations.  One lucky winner will receive a package of goodies from Frost It Pink, our sponsor this week. Frost It Pink carries a variety of unique and newest products to fulfill your scrapbooking, crafting, cardmaking and papercraft needs. Be sure to check out their wonderful online store, blog, and gallery for tons of inspiration and eye candy!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a wonderful day!

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Banner Bird Meets Home Sweet Home

Good Friday evening everyone! Are you all ready for the start of another weekend? I know I am. Even though we are on full summer mode here, there’s still something magical about the thought of a couple of days with no schedule, no special wake-up time, and no routine. That’s my kind of living! In order to fully enjoy these next few days off, I’ve been super productive today.  I figure that way, I can relax tomorrow.  Sounds good to me!

I have been a busy little bee in my scrap room, working on some projects that I can’t quite show you yet, but that I’m very excited about.  I can hint and tell you that some of it is for a special event we have coming up for Webster’s Pages. This month, the Webster’s Pages Design Team will be featured guests at the online scrapbook store A Cherry on Top. You can join us on Wednesday, July 14 at 6pmPST/9pmEST as we chat and share loads of inspiring layouts. Shhh, word has it, that there might be a sneak peek to be seen floating about as well! Here’s just a small look at what I’ve been working on.

I do have a fun project to share with you today that I created using two digital stamp images from Digital Doodles. This is Banner Bird meets Home Sweet Home.

I have been loving the kraft cardstock this week! Guess that’s not too surprising considering that brown is my favorite color. I know a lot of people don’t particularly care for it, but brown makes me think of comfort, like a hot cup of coffee or dark chocolate.  It makes me think of trees and the great outdoors and Mother Nature, more of my favorite things. And it also happens to be the color I see when I look into my children’s eyes.

I printed my Banner Bird onto kraft cardstock and stamped a little welcome greeting on the banner.  I love that this area is blank, making it perfectly adaptable to all kinds of sentiments. I added a small touch of color to the bird using chalk pastels, cut the image out, and adhered it with pop dots over a pair of freehand clouds.

I also printed the Home Sweet Home images onto kraft cardstock. Cut them out and layered them on some of my favorite patterned papers from Jillibean Soup. Kept the design rather monochromatic except for the pops of bright red on the strip of paper and button.  The touch of coloring on the Banner Bird image pulls all the red together.

I hope you all get a chance to stop by the Digital Doodles blog and see the fabulous creations the team came up with this week using other combinations of Digital Doodle images. Once you start combining these little cuties, you’ll quickly see that the possibilities are endless.

Thanks so much for stopping by everyone!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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Hollywood Vogue

Hello everyone!  I hope you all are having a wonderful Thursday. I am having a great day because I have a little surprise for you! I am so excited today to be able to share with you the very first peek at one of four new lines Webster’s Pages will be debuting at Summer 2010 CHA.  Introducing Hollywood Vogue!

Here’s a little closer look at each of the 6 double-sided papers in this gorgeous collection.

This release, we want you to imagine what you can do with each line. Over the next few weeks, we will be previewing each of our four new lines in our special Summer CHA forum at inspireME.  Share your thoughts with us, and you could win one of the four new collections.

We also have extraordinary embellishments for each new line, so be sure to check back often for more peeks.  And……..

There will be opportunities for three of our members to WIN A GUEST DESIGNER POSITION. That means those three members will get lots of fun, new product to work with! The details will be posted soon.

Before I go today, I have a quick scrappy share for you all. Earlier this week I did some embossing with a lace background stamp using white powder on kraft cardstock. I really liked the way the white looked on the kraft, but I also had another idea I wanted to play around with.  And since I was in need of another card, I got to try my hand at a little clear embossing.

Perhaps a more subtle look than the white embossing, but I like it. And notice anything?  No patterned paper!

I know………crazy, huh??

You probably won’t see this phenomenon from me again for quite some time.

Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting me! You always make my day!

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Much Appreciated

Good morning everyone!  I hope all of you who celebrate the 4th of July here in the States had a wonderful holiday yesterday!  We were blessed with absolutely fabulous weather here in NC.  It was hot, yes……..but not blistering like it usually is on the 4th. I had a wonderful time hanging out with neighborhood friends by the pool, and sharing a fabulous evening of pure fun at the home of my dear friend. What a fantastic weekend it has been.

Today we have a new challenge for all of you over at The Shabby Tea Room. This week’s challenge, Let’s Make an Impression, is to use some kind of embossing on a card or project.  It can be dry or heat embossing, or a combination of both. With all the embossing plates and systems available these days, I think this is going to be a real fun one for everyone!

Our sponsor in the Tea Room this week is Pixie Petals Etsy Shop. This adorable Etsy Shop offers vintage and vintage-inspired embellishments, as well as handcrafted blooms, bits and bobs!  Aesa generously provided the design team members with the most gorgeous handmade satin and lace flowers and yummy crocheted fleurettes.

Isn’t that focal flower lovely?  I layered the purple crocheted flower on the satin and lace flower and topped them both with a fabulous glass Vintage Sparkler button from Webster’s Pages. Kept the rest of my design rather simple to really showcase the beauty of the flower. I hand-stamped my greeting using a combo of sentiments from Stampin’Up’s Much Appreciated stamp set.  Added a couple of strips of patterned papers, some machine stitching, and that fabulous white eyelet trim from Webster’s Pages.

And now let’s talk about the embossing part of this week’s card.

I think I just may be one of the only crafters left on this planet that does not own ANY embossing or die-cutting system.  Not a one! So I opted for a heat embossed background using an old Stampin’Up lace stamp and Whisper White embossing powder. I really love how this looks on the kraft cardstock.

I hope you all come join us in the Tea Room this week!  There is lots of inspiration from the rest of the design team, as well as our amazing guest designer, Anabelle O’Malley!  And take a look at the lovely prize Pixie Petals has graciously provided for our lucky winner this week. A $10 gift certificate to shop in Aesa’s Etsy shop! You never know…..it could be you!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you have a wonderful Monday!

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Happy 4th of July!

Hi everyone!  I just wanted to make a quick stop at the old blog here today to wish all of my family and friends in the States and very happy and safe 4th of July! Whether you’re off to a big soiree, having a BBQ with the neighbors, or just spending a quiet day with the family, I hope you have an absolutely fabulous holiday. I’m heading out the door soon to join the festivities, and am looking forward to a day filled with good friends, good food, and good times! But before I go, I have a little share for you.

Here is a fun 4th of July project I made as a hostess gift for today.  I created this dimensional star from corrugated cardboard and several star templates I downloaded from the internet. Used adorable Report Card papers from October Afternoon for a perfect touch of Americana flair, and added a tag with a vintage holiday image from Crafty Secrets.

The Pink Paislee blog shared a tutorial for making these 3-D barn stars this week, and they are amazingly easy to do. Super fun and super fast, too. And great for so many projects. Think I’ll be making a ton of these come Christmas time.

Time to head out!  Happy 4th of July, everyone!

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A Touch of Patriotic Pride

Hi everyone! So happy it’s Friday today, and the beginning of our long 4th of July weekend here in the states. I always get a bit excited for a holiday. Those of you who have been following my blog for awhile probably already know I’m a fool for a special occasion. Any excuse to do a bit of decorating and spend some extra time with my family is a good time, in my book.

For today, I’d love to share with you all some peeks at my patriotic home decorations, including these fun crafty goodies I made this week.

Aren’t those pinwheels fun? I had such a good time making these for a project earlier that I decided to make some bigger versions for the 4th of July. They truly are a very simple process and take no time at all to create. I know some of you out there have templates for these, but once you see how easy they are, you will be whipping these out in whatever size suits your fancy, no template needed. If you missed my post, you can see all the step by step directions here.

I made my pinwheels using patterned papers from Webster’s Pages’ Home For the Holidays collection. I love that these versatile papers can be used for way more than just Christmas projects. I paired the papers with Webster’s trims and their gorgeous Bloomers, along with some shabby painted wooden chop-sticks stems.

If you’ve got kiddos around, this is a great project for them!

And now here’s a look at my dining room table, all decked out and ready for a party.

This table arrangement truly makes me happy.  I’ve combined some of my most favorite things here, including some vintage family pieces, a couple of recent antique store finds, handmade goodies, and brand new treasures just joining my collection.

Love these primitive wood pieces Mom and I found on her recent trip out here.  I knew as soon as I saw that red tool box that it would be perfect for the 4th.

I filled the tool box compartments with white petunias, wooden candlesticks and one of my brand new Lori Mitchell figurines.  Yup….I’m still addicted to those guys.

I layered an American flag table runner under my large wooden tray, and added a second flag for depth and color.  The Ball glass jars and the red glass vase were pieces passed down to me from my grandmother.  I am so lucky to have them. The barn star is a precious handmade gift I received from a friend last year. Thank you, Kathy!

Aren’t those figures adorable? I just cannot resist those little cuties. Why, oh, why, oh why did I ever stumble upon you………….

Sigh

Thank you so much for stopping by today and letting me share some of my patriotic goodies with you.  I hope you have a wonderful day!

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