Teapot Tuesday

MariLynn, one of our fellow teapotters has stepped up this week and posted a teapot in Cindy's absence.  It is very fitting for this time of year.  Pretty cool, eh!

I love fall.  Fall hits all your senses.  I love the cool crisp days, the angle of the sun, the brightly colored chrysanthemums, Indian corn, and flowering kale. I love the tastes of autumn - pumpkin ice cream (oh yes! Polar Cub's the place until 10/18), hard and tart winesap apples, warm apple cider, and pumpkin fudge.  I love watching the chipmunk busily filling his cheeks with birdseed and running to hide them away for the winter.   I love the sound of the wind rustling the leaves and how they crunch under your feet as you walk.  Or the sight of a single spectacularly colored leaf against a deep green carpet of moss.

 

To celebrate the Autumnal Equinox I made up some matchbox treats.  I used one of the leaves from the new Autumn Splendor stamp set.  I embossed it in gold and colored it with a blender pen and ink from the the lids of some inkpads.  The opening is punched with the large oval punch and covered with some clear window sheeting.  The box itself is Chocolate Chip and Crushed Curry.  A length of twine holds the box closed.

 

  

Inside the box is a mixture of some special "autumn" jelly belly jelly beans and fall colored Jordan almonds.

So if I were really joining the ladies for tea, I would be sure to bring enough treat boxes for each and every one of them.

Thanks MariLynn for jumping in to bring us Teapot Tuesday this week.

Friday CPR 9/25 - Complaint of the Day

To view my Friday CPR post for 9/25 - Complaint of the Day, click here.

Thursday's Throw Aways - Week 29

I'm actually going to show you a card that I made a couple of years ago.  I made it for my husband for our anniversary.  I'm sharing it today because today is our 32nd anniversary and although we're not "celebrating" today, the day has been full nonetheless.

Some of you know that I work in a school office.  The school I work in is also in the town that I live in and since I've been paying taxes to this district for the last 30 years sometimes I feel I need to actually attend our Board of Education meetings.  This was especially true of tonight.   Someday I might fill you in, but I will say that any of you that live in the same town as I do should try to attend the next Board meeting.  The words, imbezzlement, fraud, and incompetence might come up.

A few years ago I actually sat down and put together a scrapbook of our first Lighthouse Challenge.  In doing so, I had a lot of scraps from the pictures that I used.  Even though they were cast-offs, I took some of the scraps and cut them into little pieces to look like mosaic tiles.  I ran a piece of cardstock through my Xyron to make the entire piece sticky - if you don't have a Xyron you can use a sheet of sticky paper.  Then I started placing the pieces on the sticky stuff.  And this is what I got.....

The hearts are made by bending a small piece of red wire into a heart shape and securing both sides with a clear bead.  Before I glued the hearts down I added clear embossing powder to the whole card - it covered the sticky spaces in between the scraps.  When heated it looked like glassy grout. 

Yes, it's kind of scrappy looking, but he liked it. 

And now I'm going to bother you with a commercial.

My daughter Rachel is participating in a Walk for Lupus in Baltimore this weekend.  She is doing this in memory of her aunt and godmother, my sister Andrea who lost her battle with Lupus in 2002.  If you would like to visit her pledge site and care to take a moment to make a pledge, both she and I would be very grateful.  Here is the link.

Teapot Tuesday

Teapot Tuesday is taking a little break.   This card is for our hostess Cindy hoping it will help her during a difficult time.  Love ya!!!

I used one of the cute little Poppy stamps that I got at One Little Spark in Tuckerton while on vacation this summer.  Isn't she so sweet!  I don't remember exactly where the sentiment came from, but it fit with this image.  The image is colored with Prismacolor pencils, punched out with the large oval punch and mounted on some Ballet Blue cardstock.  The card base is Bashful Blue.

This will go out in the mail tomorrow and hopefully will put a smile on Cindy's face!

Friday CPR 9/18 - Spell Check Anyone!

To view my Friday CPR post for 9/18 - Spell Check Anyone! click here.

Thursday's Throw Aways - Week 28

Did I happen to mention that we're doing some renovating in our house?  Yes, we're redoing a bathroom which has meant many trips to Home Depot, Lowes, and various other stores to compare, choose, and purchase the necessary accoutrements for our project.  I know that there are some people out there that find this kind of thing fun, but me..... not so much. 

So, to clear my head of all the choices and arguments discussions, while HWNSNBP stands in line to pay for our many purchases, I peruse the paint samples and pick, pick, pick to my heart's content.  He knows better than to utter those words "what are you going to do with those" to me!

Here is an example of one I brought home this weekend.  I was so excited to get going that I started to cut it apart before I took the picture.  Those squares were already punched in this chip.

And here's what I came up with.....

I thought those colors would just be perfect for a fall card.  The card base is Soft Suede as are the images of the wheat and the pheasant.   I also used Dusty Durango for the leaves and the scalloped border on top.  You're asking "what scalloped border?" right?  Click on the card and you'll see that I did use the scallop border punch and cut off the scallops to give a notched look.  (Not my original idea!  I was this card by Stamp Muse that inspired me.)

The ribbon is Dusty Durango polka-dotted ribbon on the flip side.  The stamp set is Autumn Days and the images are stamped in Soft Suede on Whisper White, cut out, and mounted on dimensionals.

Got any paint chips lying around?

RAK from Dana

My blogging buddy Dana (Life is Good) has a special feature on her blog every Friday called "Friday Reader's Special" where she responds to the comments that were left on her blog posts for the previous week.  She then picks one comment that she particularly liked responding to and sends that reader a handmade card. 

And guess what?  This past week I was the winner.  And lookee what I got in the mail!!!! 

Ain't it purty?!!  Just look at that tiny bird!  I love this card. Thank you Dana!  

Now everyone go visit her blog and show her a little love - leave a comment.  Maybe you'll be the winner for this week.  She's posted an absolutely gorgeous card there today!!!

Teapot Tuesday 64

Hey Boo Boo, it's time to go to a pic-a-nic in Mississippi.  A tea party pic-a-nic that is!  This is Barney and he's guarding the basket.  So, I'll just have to bring a basket and a bear of my own. 

This is Bearnice.  She brought an armload of flowers for the party and if you look in her basket, she has some tea.  Bearnice wants to remind you that it's Uterine Cancer Awareness Month which is why she has the peach tea.  Go peach this month!

When I saw the tea peak on Cindy's glob I knew it had something to do with a basket and the feet I saw gave me a clue it might be a bear.  So I went in search of this basket stamp that you see.  It's probably one of the first stamps that I bought years and years ago.  And I did find it pretty easily, which was a surprise. 

Then I thought I remembered a bear that went in the basket.  Well, I was not so lucky to find that one easily.  It took some doing, but here's the good news, when I found the bear I also found the ladybugs that I was looking for last week.  Ha!  You know that was really bothering me! 

The basket is actually 3-D.  It folds on the bottom and has some tabs on the sides and forms a pocket.  That's where I've slipped in the tea bags. 

I stamped the basket on Creamy Caramel and colored it with prismacolor pencils.  I did not blend the colors on the basket because I wanted it to look a little rough like the texture of a real basket.  The bear, however, was colored the same way, but I used odorless mineral spirits to blend the colors together. 

I got my prismacolor pencils at a flea market in Vermont more than 30 years ago.  I remember I paid $15 for a set of 30 which, even though it was a flea market bargain, was a lot to spend at that time.  The kids were never allowed to use them (and since I've had them for 30 years, you could say I haven't used them much either).   I've added to the box since then, but I haven't used this technique in stamping for a while. 

Take a peak at the card that Cindy made and all the other wonderful cards from this week's party over in the Tea Pot Gallery.

Friendship Box(es)

I saw this pretty box on Julie Davison's blog and I knew I had to give it a try myself. 

I love how it came out.  So I decided to give it another try with another stamp set

There's that bird again!  I'm thinking these might make good swaps for an upcoming event I'm going to - what do you think?

Awareness

It's Uterine Cancer Awareness Month - Put on Your Peach

...... and there are many to thank - this is for all of you.

Friday 9/11 - Alternate Forms of Transportation

To read my Friday CPR post for 9/11 - Alternate Forms of  Transportation click here.

A Day of Remembrance

Thursday's Throw Aways - Week 27

While on vacation last month I used up a couple of gift cards during our shopping trips. 

They aren't that pretty to use just as they are so I covered the back (where the numbers are not raised) with some DSP - in this case SU's Night and Day.  Then I added some ribbon and an image from the new Twick or Tweet stamp set.  

Turned it over and added another piece of plain cardstock over the ribbon and just to finish off the back.  The last step is to glue on a pin back. 

Now I have a neat pin to wear to celebrate Halloween ...........   or maybe it'll be a gift.  We'll see!

Teapot Tuesday 63

Sunday morning HWNSNBP and I went for a walk.  It was a beautiful morning - crisp and cool.  And when we returned I decided to do a little weeding by the mailbox.  It really needed it.  While I was weeding I came across this

It was like finding a little jewel.

How perfect it was that this week's teapot should look like this

Look at all those ladybugs!   I haven't seen so many ladybugs since Rachel's sororiety days in college.  I think I tapped out on every ladybug tchotcke there was.  And I just knew that I had a plethora of ladybug stamps to choose from. 

Sadly, after spending a good 1/2 hour looking for the one particular stamp that I wanted to use, I couldn't find it.  It was an Outlines stamp.  I know it'll show up sooner or later, I'm just sorry it wasn't sooner. 

Cindy asked us to bring lots of ladybugs to the tea party this week.  To get the whole story you must visit her glob.  You must go there and read the poem she wrote and check out the card she made.  Superb!!!

So I'm copping out with an excuse today.  I do have a card, but I'm not particularly happy with it.  So let me let you decide.   What do you think?

The ladybugs and swirls are called Bits and Pieces from sets 2 and 6.  The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and the flower is from the Bigz Daisy die.  The center of the flower is a corduroy brad in Summer Sun.  The flowered ribbon is from the $ bin at Mike's. 

My house is chaos right now.  Well, more than usual.  We are having a bathroom redone and today was demolition day in addition to our first day back to school with the staff.  We did our usual hotdog luncheon for the staff and it went well, however, there are so many "I needs" on the first day it sets your head spinning.

Creating and taking part in a challenge really helps to take your mind off things.  You have to refocus and that is a good thing. 

Stampin' Open House

Recently my upline Debbie held an open house to feature some of the new catalog projects.  Here are some pictures of the make and takes she had for us.

We all had a great time trying new products and creating these lovely projects.  Thanks Debbie!

Crabbing 09

Embossed Birthday

My friend Dolly celebrated a birthday this week!  Here's the card I sent her.  Don't the flowers look cool!  They're made with one of the new Impressions Embossing Folders for the Big Shot.  I embossed the Apricot Appeal panel and then used my pastels to highlight the raised areas.  The butterflies are from the set For a Friend and stamped in Melon Mambo.  And I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to add the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Wishes set around the edges. 

Hope you had a great day Dolly!

Friday CPR 9/4 - Shoe Shopping

To read my Friday CPR post for 9/4 - Shoe Shopping, click here.

Thursday's Throw Aways - Week 25

Raise your hand if you've ever ordered something from QVC or HomeShopping.  If your hand is up you'll know exactly what I'm referring to.  If not, you'll get it anyway I'm sure.

When you receive your package there always is material included so that you can return your purchase for whatever reason.

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I'm going to show you how you can put those sticky labels to use this week.  First choose a label and pull off the protective strip.  Then lay the label upside down on your work surface.

Next take some scrap strips of paper (some that are stamped, some that are not) and place them onto the sticky part of the label leaving some white space in between.

Now you have some sticky label exposed.  You're going to pour some embossing powder over the sticky areas and use your heat gun very carefully to emboss.  Take it from experience, you're not going to want to hold this in your hand while you heat it.  The label is very flexible and it's very hard not to burn yourself.  I suggest you lay the piece on a heat resistant surface like a potholder or a cookie sheet.

Add your embossed panel to the front of your card and embellish as you wish.  In this instance, before I glued down the panel I used the Word Window punch to punch out a hole, which became a pocket for the sentiment. 

You can see in the picture that I stamped some sentiments from Teeny Tiny Wishes onto scrap strips of Whisper White cs.  So this card is ready for a multitude of ocassions.  (Click on the picture to see them closer.)

Here's the particulars: 

Cardstock:  Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive, Brilliant Blue, Whisper White

Stamps:  Pocket Silhouettes, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink:  Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant

Accessories:  Return mailing label, word window punch, 1/4" Elegant Eggplant grosrain, Clear embossing powder, heat gun

Teapot Tuesday 62

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  Is it nap time?  Wait.  No.  It's time for Teapot Tuesday.  Take a look at this teapot

We're going to Africa this week with Zeke, Zena, and the Zebroids and if you want to find out more about this trip, please visit Cindy's glob for the whole story.  You're going to hear about Zeke, of course, and his parents Mr. and Mrs. Zebralski and the rock concert, or rather the tea party of the week.

Cindy said to bring our black and white animals to the concert so I brought a bird (yes, I know, you saw that coming).  My bird wants to be a singer - see the sentiment.  Actually, that's one of my favorite sayings.  It's something I've tried to relate to my crafting.  And I've seen it published a little different:  A bird does not sing because it needs an answer, it sings because it can.

Oftentimes people will say to me when they see my work, in an attempt at a compliment, that I have too much time on my hands.  Naturallly, I don't feel that way.  I have the same amount of time that everyone else does, I just choose to use it differently.  I don't create things because I need compliments.  I create things because I choose to use the talent that I was given.  But enough of that.

Is it my computer screen, or does this card look a little holographic? 

I used the Medallion stamp in black on the Real Red background.  The bird from Always and the sentiment were stamped in VersaMark on  black cs and then embossed with white embossing powder. 

The center of the medallion has a circle of red cardstock covering the center design.  I popped up the sentiment and the bird and added the ribbon and brads. 

Don't forget to check out the Teapot Tuesday 62 gallery at Splitcoast.  Check out all the other black and white animals that showed up and see who had to come in the back door this week!