White Elephant

Today was the day for the annual rescue squad White Elephant sale.  It was nippy this morning but that didn't deter the crowd from lining up early to get in the doors promptly at 9. 

Once through the door, I bee-lined for the table with dishware looking for bargains.  It was only a matter of minutes before I found my first purchase - a small white basket weave teapot for 50¢, right around the time that my box man (HWNSNBP) showed up with a box.  He had been parking the car.  After I added my find to the box he wandered off and called over to me as he found something he thought I might be interested in.  A lovely white teapot with roses for $4.  I told him to put it in the box. 

Then I found this interesting teapot for $1 that has two different looks depending on the side you're looking at.....

On the other side of the table there was a basket with four cups and saucers and five dessert plates for $3...

As I rounded the corner of that long row of tables, I found myself at a log jam of people.  When I looked down, I saw that I was at the end of the craft table.  Believe me when I say that I had no intention of looking through this stuff because I could have a very profitable white elephant of my own with all the stuff that I've accumulated.  However, this little blue case caught my eye because it had a 25¢ sticker on it.  At quick glance it had someone's sewing scraps inside, but I wasn't really interested in that, just mainly the case.....

Upon closer inspection at home, I found some old zippers which I am going to try to make some jewelry out of, some crewel yarn which I am hoping to find a good home, the strap for the case, an empty wooden spool, some buttons and needles.

There was also a box on that table that had some sewing tools in it for 25¢ each and a bag of buttons that I couldn't resist......

I did pass up a couple of jars and boxes of buttons that years ago would have come home with me, but I need to use what I have instead of just collecting them now.

Down the aisle I went when these little gems caught my eye.  The glass salt cellars were, again, only 25¢ each......

As the box, and basket were filling up fast, I made one more pass by where I had started and found this teapot and cups for $3.....

So, for less than $20 I think it was a pretty good white elephant!

F4A5 - The Great White Way

Today's Free For All Challenge is called The Great White Way, and for this challenge we were to create a card inspired by our favorite Broadway musical.  Do I have a favorite?  Well, I do have a couple of favorites, but let's see if you can guess what this represents.................. (if you click on the picture you can see it close-up)

Need help?  Okay.  We have trees.  Is it A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?  No.  I think that was a play, but I never saw it.

Is it Sunday in the Park with George?  No, although I'm sure you can find trees in the park.

Four trees?  Four seasonal trees.  Four seasons.  Four Seasons! 

Yep, that's right -  the musical is Jersey Boys.  Give yourself a good pat on the back if you figured that one out.

The trees are from A Tree for All Seaons, and the sentiment comes from Season of Friendship.  The trees were stamped in Basic Gray on Whisper White and then colored with my SU markers.  I added blue sky background with my pastels and a Q-Tip although I know you can't really see it in the picture.  I punched them out with a 1 3/8" square punch and then mounted them on Ruby Red cs. 

The card base is Chocolate Chip and the sentiment is stamped in the same color on Carribean Blue cs.  I ran the top portion of the Carribean Blue panel through the Big Shot with a texture folder.  The last touch is the Riding Hood Red striped grosgrain. 

The second part of this challenge was that it had to be an unusual size.  This is 4 x 8 and should fit in a #10 business envelope. 

As a Christmas present to ourselves HWNSNBP gets us tickets to a show to see during the Christmas/New Year break.  A couple of years ago he managed to snag some tickets to Jersey Boys - it had been sold out for a long time.  We still listen to the soundtrack in the car!

Want to see the rest of the challenge cards?  Click here.

Thursday's Throw Aways - Tip Week

Well there is a throwaway involved, but this is more of a tip because I'm not creating something with it, just using it to help creating something else. 

What you see is the leftover sheet from stamp labels.  It's a glossy paper that you peel the labels off of which is how I got the idea to use them in this way.

I removed all the excess sticker pieces and take my red line tape and lay it out in rows.  I load up the paper and then when I'm doing a project I can just go and cut the paper and tape all at once to the size that I need.  It does help things go a little faster. 

Cleaning Up

I went up to clean off my workspace yesterday and found some pieces of things and just started playing with them.  Of course I had to add more than what I already had going! 

Started with the lattice (I think it's real name is Trellis, but I kind of like lattice better) and added a solid background behind it.  The background was a leftover piece of Tea Party DSP I had in a box.  The vines were directly stamped to the background paper.  The flowers, leaves and vines are all from Vintage Vogue. I used So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, and Regal Rose for the flowers and Certainly Celery and Glorious Green for the leaves.  The centers were punched with the 1/4 and 1/2 inch circle punches.  Some of the flowers were popped up to give it some depth.

The base is So Saffron and the finishing touch is the pink taffeta ribbon and bow. 

I am sorely in need of some birthday cards.  That's what I will put this aside for. 

Teapot Reject?

This was my first endeavor for Teapot Tuesday this week.   I went through all the papers in the recyling pile on Sunday morning and pull out all the crossword puzzles so I could make that fluffy flower.  It's really quite easy.  Punch 20 scallop circles.  Use the crop-a-dile to make a while in the center and insert a brad.  Then you just crumple up the layers towards the center one layer at a time. 

The sentiment slides in and out of the black panel.  So what do you think - reject?

Teapot Tuesday 86

Take a look at this splendid teapot.  This is our inspiration for Teapot Tuesday 86.  There's a wonderful story that goes along with it and it can be found on Cindy's glob or at the Teapot Challenge. 

Christopher Spelling is in a crossword competition and he's stuck.  He's about to win $42,000 but he just can't get that last word. Wouldn't you know the word is TEAPOT!  Crisanne his fiance needs our help to send him some subliminal messages (and maybe some hard hints) to get him to win, win, win. 

So I did some research and yellow is the color that's most likely to help you remember.   So I placed my new yellow teapot on a crossword grid that's hanging out on a checkered yellow background.   Whew!  I hope that helps him remember the word TEAPOT!!!

Let's check out the gallery and see how the other teapotter's are helping.

I used my new Rubbernecker Teatime stamp set that was sent to me by none other than our Teapot Queen herself!!!  Thanks Cindy.

Engagement Birds

A friend at work asked me to make an engagement card for her son and future daughter-in-law.  I had originally planned to make a card similiar to the medallion card I made for the VSN Olympics but I realized that I didn't have a nice envelope that large.  So, on to the next thought. 

The only stamping on this is on the inside (see below).  The base is Very Vanilla with a Finial Press embossed panel of Kraft.  The heart is in Very Vanilla and embossed with the scalloped heart embosslit.  The two birds are punched with the two-step bird punch in shimmery white and the wings and birds are popped up on dimensionals.  The ribbon is Old Olive satin and I used a stickpin, pearls and beads from the pretties kit with a Very Vanilla taffeta bow.

The inside is stamped in Old Olive with a sentiment from In My Thoughts.  The panel was cut using the Top Note Die and then embossed with the flowers. (I stuck it down better after the picture, trust me!)

She loved it and I hope the couple will too!

March Downline Meeting Projects

My upline Debbie called a meeting for last Friday night and at the last minute it became a meeting of just the two of us.  She always comes up with such great projects.  We had fun creating these and gabbing away.  Thanks for the conversation, the pizza, and the creativity Deb!

An easel card with calendar using Totally Tess from the Occasions Mini.  This one went right on my desk at work!

This two-story birdhouse uses two of the mini milk cartons.  You leave one open and insert the other in the top.  And it went right on my counter at work!

Easter Blessings

Ooops, oh well, you weren't supposed to see this today.  This is a card I did for a workshop this weekend.  We used the new Abundant Hope Easter set from SU and the scalloped corner punch.  The ribbon is from last year's ribbon promotion.  We stamped the flowers in Chocolate Chip and colored with SU markers.  The Kraft cs is really nice to work on with your markers.

Inside I gave them a square of So Saffron to highlight the punched corner and also a So Saffron Top Note cut out for the message page on which they stamped the sentiment from that stamp set.  It was easy enough for even a 10-year-old to do (if only she hadn't taken the pink ink and stamped ALL the other sentiments from the Whimsical Words set ALL over the front of the card!). 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The fancy favor die makes a great little bag.  Here it's punched in Green Galore and I added a 1" wide handle.  The front is decorateed with the lattice die.  I punched one each in Glorious Green and Hunter Green and layered them to make a medallion.  The points were trimmed and then the medallion was added to the front of the bag.  The center of the medallion used the SAB Vintage Labels and the shamrock from Year Round Fun (I think) both punched with the scallop circle punch.   (I got this idea from Kay Kalthoff - thanks Kay for your inspiration!)

This box is filled with green things.  Spinach seeds, a box of green jello, Andes Mints, and some green foil wrapped caramels.

Hope you have a greet St. Patty's Day!

Teapot Tuesday 85

This week's teapot is a hoot!  This is Flat Footed Booby Ruby and to get the whole story you must check out Cindy's glob and see her museum quality work. 

This may seem a little bizarre but it goes with the story, sort of.  Ruby the Flat Footed Booby is looking for some shoes. Some stylin' shoes.  She'd prefer if they weren't green.  So she'll be steppin' out and doing some major shoe shopping and the teapot partyers are going to bring her more shoes to choose. 

Well, while she was out her booby baby Bobbi was being booby babysat by her baba and was very good.  Ruby had found these booby baby slippers that looked liked baby booties which reminded her of her booby baby Bobbi and they were so comfortable she knew they would be perfect to relax in after all that shoe shopping so she bought them. 

Bobbi on the other hand (or should I say foot) hopped into the slipper and refused to get out.  So Ruby, being the good booby mother that she is, made a little nest inside the booty for Bobbi to sleep in. 

You see the shoes that Bobbi is holding in her mouth, well they're part of a memory game that one of the tea partyers made for her. 

So, you're probably wondering how I came up with this story.  I have no idea.  I think the time change had gotten to me!  But I can tell you how I put it together.

I found the shoe pattern on the internet. You can find lot's of shoe patterns if you google "paper shoe pattern".  I chose a baby girl shoe.  I thought the birds on this dsp would be perfect to go along with the stamped bird from the SU set Good Friend.  The shoes are from Year Round Fun II. 

The bird is stamped in Pacific Point on Whisper White cs.  The wings are punched from the 2-step bird punch, outlined with a white prismacolor pencil and layered.  The dots on the tail feathers are hand done with a black marker.  I punched a 1/4" circle in white and added a black brad for the eye.  The beak is stamped in Glorious Green and the shoes are all colored with markers and blender pen.  I added two toothpicks to the back of the bird to get her to stand in the nest material which is just crimped packing material. 

This little shoe, sans bird, would make a cute little baby shower favor filled with some candy don't you think?

Okay, I'm heading over to the teapot gallery to take a look and make some comments - care to join me?

Thursday's Throw Aways - Coffee Sleeve

Raise your hand if you like coffee.  I like an occasional cup of coffee though I'm more of a tea drinker.  And it definitely has to be decaf.  My particular favorite is Decaf Hazelnut and I usually get it at Wegman's.  Or, I should say, HWNSNBP usually picks it up for me.  Most of the time he forgoes the cup sleeve - being a man you know he would prefer to tough out holding that hot as hades cup.  But not me.  If I'm not wearing gloves, there has to be a cup sleeve. 

Recycling paper coffee cups is out of the question, but not the cup sleeve.  (At least not when you have a blog feature that needs recycling ideas!)   The cup sleeves are usually pretty sturdy and stuffing it back into your purse would probably suffice, but why not make it your own by decorating it.  I've seen some pretty nice ones recently that were made out of fabric, but not having a working sewing machine at this time and having a seemingly unending supply of lovely paper, I chose to use the nice cardboard sleeve that Wegman's provides. 

I gently pried it apart at the seam and used it as a pattern, cut it out of a piece of DSP and glued the DSP onto the original with glue stick.  The seam was reinforced with red sticky tape.  Then with a coordinating patterned paper, I made a flower and used a brad to adhere it to the sleeve.  I also put a patch that consisted of a circle of cardstock over the brad prongs on the inside of the sleeve so the prongs wouldn't accidently puncture a cup.  Wouldn't that be a mess!

These flowers are pretty cool and pretty simple.  They're made with a 12" x 1" strip of dsp punched with the eyelet punch and then run through a paper crimper several times to make it pliable.  Then you take a circle of cardstock (I used a 1 1/2" circle), cover that with red sticky tape and starting at the outer edge, gently gather the paper while attaching it to the circle. 

So now I can keep it in my purse right along side the folded up shopping bag. 

Silver Medal Winner

I had a very pleasant surprise this morning when I opened my e-mail and saw a bunch of new comments for this card in my Splitcoast Gallery.  Of course I had to check it out and I came to find out that I had won a Virtual Silver Medal in the February Virtual Stamping Night Olympics for this Snow and Sky Challenge card.

I was going to be cheeky and say "everyone rise for the national anthem now" but I remembered they play the anthem of the gold medal winner.  Darn.  Oh well, I'll just virtually bow when you virtually applaud.  How's that!

Here's the Gallery with all the challenge winners.  Bravo to them all!

Teapot Tuesday 84

Oh, we've got a bunch of stuff going on this week.  And not only that, but the teapot is, well it isn't an actual teapot.  It's a lovely quilted teapot.  See what I mean.............

I think it's adorable.  You have to check out Cindy's glob for the challenge story and her work of "heart".  I say work of "heart" because this week our cards are actually going to a good cause.  That is not to say that those that I actually do send don't already go to good causes, but this is a special situation and it might become a monthly part of the challenge.  I think that's such a great idea!!!!

The other stuff is that it happens to be part of the weekly color challenge also.  We were to use Bashful Celery Melons (Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Melon Mambo), and neutrals of our choice. 

While I was working on my daffodil card the other day, the lattice that I used reminded me of a quilt which is why I chose to make it part of my card this week.  There's very little stamping on this and a lot of paper piecing.  I added some faux stitching with a white gel pen to give it some quiltability.

I did use Fresh Fillers in Bashful Blue on the white piece and the tiny flower from Simply Said was used for the flower on the pot. 

Say, I was debating whether to add some Polka Dot Melon Mambo ribbon under the Melon Mambo panel - what do you think?  Yes, with a bow on the side, or no - leave it like it is?  Inquiring minds want to know!!!

Anyhoo, I think this came out pretty cheery.  I hope the young lady it's going to will get a smile from it.  Now, go and check out the gallery for this week.

Abundant Hope

It was a gorgeous day today.  The daffodils are finding their way up towards the sun.  If we keep up the warmth, we might have some blooming in a couple of weeks. 

I used the daffodil stamp from Abundant Hope and stamped it in Basic Gray on Confetti Cream cs.  It was colored with SU markers and blender pen. 

The Garden Green lattice work framing the flower is a Big Shot die altered to get that shape.  I glued it onto the Certainly Celery panel and then used my craft knife to cut out the center.  The green panel is popped up over the flower.  The bow looks white in the photo but it is Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon. 

Unfortunately this will be a sympathy card but I might make another one to have for a happier occasion.

Fabric Anyone?

This seems to be the new "thing" - using fabric.  I've done a couple of posts repurposing some denim jeans (here and here) and some scrap fabric recently.  Today I'll show you another pin that I made using the Big Shot, Scallop Circle Dies, and cotton fabric. 

Like those colors?  This is made the same way as the scrap fabric pin highlighted above.  I took the scraps from these circles and made this embellishment...........

Then I took the embellishment that I made from the scraps and added it to this $1 frame I found at Mike's.  The sentiment is from All Holidays...........

Okay, where is the rest of my fabric stash? 

Thursday's Throw Aways - Denim Again

With all the flower shows that HWNSNBP and I have been attending recently I was inspired to use my Blossom Party Die for this week's throw away.

Here's the start of the first project.............

After die cutting the flower pieces, I used my paper piercer to make a hole big enough for the brad to go through.  I cut the ribbon to approx. 9" and tapered each end.  The flower was added to the ribbon using the brad.  You can't see the back and I forgot to take a picture, but the ribbon is folded over the brad in the back and glued down. 

The second project revolves around some clothing tags I recently saved.  I thought these tags from Kohl's could be made over to something useful.

I used a regular white brad to put the blossom together and adhered it to the front with a large sticky dot. 

On the back I stamped the floral image from Vintage Vogue in Bordering Blue.  Then I stamped the bird tag from Garden From the Heart also in Bordering Blue, colored the bird and highlighted the edges.

Now I have a cute little package tie-on ready. 

I know I've used the denim before but it just seemed to be perfect for today's projects.

What do you think? 

Teapot Tuesday 83

How does a London Premier sound for a party place this week?  Oh, but how will we get there?  No need to worry, Cindy has procured several Leer jets for us to get there on time.  They even have official Teapot Logos!  I'd love to see that.  I wonder if anyone will have a card like that.

This week's teapot is called the Madhatter teapot and it fits right in with the release of Johnny Depp's new film Alice in Wonderland.  Head on over to Cindy's glob.  She's got a link to the trailer there and you'll have to look at it to understand my card.  And here is the teapot for the week......

These flying pigs were so busy inspiring people on National Pig Day when they heard about the Madhatter Tea Party and that the Red Queen needed pigs. Well, pig bellies! Not wanting to wait for the Lear Jets and risk making the queen cross, they donned their Madhatter Hats and took flight. Let's hope it will be clear sailing to get to the party and the premier. They're dressed in their best and promise not to squeal too loudly when Johnny shows up!

Okay, now fly on over to the teapot gallery!

National Pig Day

March 1st is National Pig Day.  If you know me, you know I like to celebrate some of the more obscure holidays and this is one of them.  I prefer to call it Flying Pig Day as to me, the flying pig is a symbol of accomplishing the impossible.  One can say that it expresses hope, perseverance, and determination.

I have my reasons for celebrating this holiday and they began several years ago.  You can read about that in my post from last year.  But it has become even more personal to me over the course of this last 14 months and, as luck would have it, I now owe a bit of my health to a pig.  (They used a pig's pericardium to repair the hernias I had in my hysterectomy incision.) 

Of course you know the phrase "when pigs fly" is a figure of speech that is, to quote Wikipedia "in the form of hyperbole taken to such extreme lengths as to suggest a complete impossibility".  But did you know that that has a name too - it's called Adynaton.  Another example would be "when hell freezes over".  These things that express the impossible.  I love finding new words that define the trivial things.  It doesn't always follow that I'll remember them, but in this case I just might. Call it a "when pigs fly" moment.

I have made some cards and tags to celebrate this year.  I have a list that keeps growing of my "pig ladies".  Those that may or may not at the moment need some encouragement or have in the past.   My message to them this year - The Sky is the Limit!  I hope they find something inside themselves to push ahead and overcome the things that they feel are impossible at this time. 

These are the earrings that HWNSNBP got me for Christmas and a pin that I recently found on Etsy that I got for myself.

Last week HWNSNBP and I went to a flower show and he insisted that we get this bird feeder.  I'll be putting it outside later today. 

So if you're reading this today, do me a favor and wish someone a Happy National Pig Day.  You never know, they just might need a little encouragement.  And I'll leave you with this.....

A pig that has wings

Does impossible things!

Over clouds it can fly

In the wink of an eye!

She may tickle you pink

But she wants you to think

Of her messge to each

"Nothing's out of your reach!"

©LMastalski 2007