Cup of Tea

Last week I finally had the chance to play around with the Cup of Tea set from last year's catalog.  I bought the set of cards and envelopes to match it as well as the Tea Boutique papers.  I made all 5 colored cards and matched the front of them to the envelopes.

I designed all of the cards myself and had so much fun playing around with this set!  I wish that I had used it sooner because now all of the pieces are retired.

For the first card, I used a the circle cut out for the background from Encircled in Beauty die set.  The sprig is one of my favorites and is one of the dies from Forever Flourishing.  

The red card has some stamped leaves that I cut out and added to the card.  I tried using the dies to cut the little flower but had better luck just using my scissors.  By the time I made all 5 cards and then 8 of each design, I was pretty much "done" with cutting out all of those flowers!  

My third card uses a diagonal piece of the designer papers with a Stitched Shapes circle for the focal point.  For this card, I stamped the greenery right onto the circle and then added the tea cup with dimensionals.

For the purple card base I added a strip of the designer paper to the top and a rectangle from Stitched So Sweetly dies.  I added a small piece of string to the tea bag and tucked it into the tea cup.  

The purple card is the only horizontal card of the set.  

Lastly, the green base features 3 cut-out tea cups from the pretty papers.  I added a banner in Petal Pink and embossed it to give it some texture.  

It took me a couple of days to finish all of the cards, but I loved playing around with this set.  I've made lots of cards to give out to my friends and family to be mailed out in the next couple of weeks for some different occasions.

Here is a pic of the entire set with their matching envelopes.  I enjoyed making these cards as much as I love a good cup of tea!

 

Tasteful Textures Cards with a Card Holder

 This week I sent a couple of days working on some cards for my card class.  I chose the Tasteful Textures stamp set along with it's coordinating framelits and designer papers.  I just love how they all turned out!

The cards are what I call "mix and match."  The sayings and images are interchangeable and you can make each card more masculine or feminine, as desired.  I had a fun time using this set and it's components.

I also made a card holder for the set of cards.  You can use them individually or give them as a set.  

It's hard to tell in the photos, but I've used embossing folders and Wink of Stella to embellish the cards.  The flowers and feathers have a bit of sparkle on them to make them stand out.

Although I could have used more colors, I decided to keep the color palate simple.  I used Navy, Misty Moonlight and Gray Granite.  I got the ideas for my cards from Jackie Bolhuis and Sarah Sayers.  The box holder idea is from Teri Pocock.  

What do you think?  

Avant Garden Card Set

Today I had the day off from work due to the Blizzard that we are having here in upstate New York!  I've wanted to work with this Avant Garden set for a while and I was so glad to have a couple of hours to play around with it!

I started out making the Card Holder using the Envelope Punch board and a 9" square sheet of designer paper.  I chose the Carried Away paper in the Sale-a-Bration catalog.  I added a thin band of designer paper in gray and then tied a ribbon around it.  Using the sayings in the stamp set, I made a circle flower and added a saying next to it.  This is so cute, it can be given as a gift! 

Then I added a couple of pretty cards that matched using Watermelon Wonder and Peekaboo Peach cardstocks.   I got the idea from stampinbj.com.

I also used the Delicate Details from Sale-a-Bration to add a line on the edge of the cards and give it some visual interest.  I love how these came out and the bright and happy colors that I used.  It brought some cheer to this bleak, snowy day.  :)

Card Set

This week I wanted to made a set of cards using only one stamp set and one package of designer paper.  I took out the Sunshine and Shadows paper and the Easy Events stamp set.  These are the cards that I came up with.  (I got some of the ideas from Julie Branhart on her blog.)

I just love the card made with the little tree that says, Sending you love.  I want to make a lot of these and send them to my family!   

I haven't really ever used this stamp set before, but after playing around with it and seeing what easy cards you can make with it, I realized how much that I like it now!

 

Which one do you like the best?