All Occasions | Catered Crop

Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary.
~ Chinese Proverb

As most folks know by now, October is Breast Cancer awareness month and one of my favorite hang-out joints, Splitcoast Stampers, is getting in on the 31 days of Pink action. Splitcoast is conducting their second annual Hope You Can Cling To card drive benefiting breast cancer patients at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

You Know I'm not gonna let a bunch of Pepto-Bismal-Pink wearing NFL players out-Pink me. Well, actually, my card doesn't have any pink. But, you get the idea.

This little creation is for one of the daily challenges to help prime our creative juices over at Splitcoast. Bev Gerard suggested a window card in her "Looking in on You" challenge:

" 'Looking in on You!' is something we've all done when checking on someone who is battling disease . . . from temporary sickness all the way to the battle of a lifetime, cancer. Whether we "look in" on someone down the street, or across the country, supporting our sisters in their battle is all-important. Our visits, phone calls, prayers, flowers, and heartfelt handmade cards are all a part of their total care package."

I'm hoping this cute Sassy Cheryl image will cheer up one of the patients being treated for breast cancer and her family – just a cup of tea to help them get through another day.

I'm following E.T.'s recipe for her beautiful card in our Catered Crop FTR22 party this week. I picked up her lace (for curtains), thread, buttons, gems (pearls), bow, and die cuts. Of course, I paper pieced nearly the whole card – my favorite things to do. I wanted to make the bottom panel look like wooden planks – well, at least it does in my mind's eye.

Here's the rest of the recipe. I'm trying something new and I'm anxious to hear what you think about it. I'm using InLinkz Link Manager to create little thumbnails of the products I used with links to sites where you can get them. I'm a little afraid it will slow down the site, so if you have time, I'd love your feedback. Besides the things below, I also used taffeta ribbon, retired Stampin' Up! paper and button, a sheet of acetate, and some stock piled lace.

InLinkz.com

Okay . . . off to bed for me so I can wake up and watch those Pepto-Bismol-Pink NFL players. Go Colts!

Hugs,

October 9, 2011 | Filed Under: All Occasions, Copic Markers, Sassy Cheryl Tagged With: Copic Markers, Follow the Recipe, Sassy Cheryl | 10 Comments

Hey, Hey, Good Lookin', whatcha got cookin'?
How's about cookin' somethin' up with me.
~ Hank Williams, 1951

If you've followed me for very long (God love ya!) you know I love to make things to go along with my cards . . . what I call "ensembles." When I saw this new Bon Appétit Die-namics and Stamp Set, I was all over it like white on rice, or as we Texans might say, like sauce on ribs.

Grab an apron – it's gonna get hot in this kitchen.

I started with the Pure Innocence set, "Fresh from the Oven," colored it with Copics, and combined it with Kaiser Craft paper (Nan's Favorite). I love the vintage script in this Bon Appétit set, and there are SO many phrases and kitchen images and die cuts. Oh darlins' – there's just a whole buffet of things you can make with this little tag and it's accoutrements.

If this card looks familiar, it's because it's a companion to this card. I love making matching sets of cards.

How about a lunch date?

Is that just stinkin' cute?! The ingredients for the lunch bag are, of course, a brown paper bag, some kitchen string to tie it closed, some torn gingham fabric and linen thread, the new Decorative Oval Doily folded over the top, a clothes pin decorated with some paper and Modge Podge, and, of course, the Die-Namics and Stamps from the Bon Appétit set. Oh, yeah, and a cute little dinner bell. I used the Jumbo Scallop Die to trim the top of the bag.

How about dessert?

Yummy (fat free) licorice with a tag that says "You're the sweetest." All I did was add some Baker's Twine and a little button to the die and stamp from the Bon Appétit set.

How serendipitous that the vintage feel of this set works so well with these retro recipe cards just released by my daughter's company, Feb10 Design. Of course, I had to add them to the mix.

Easy as pie – I just sewed the Decorate Oval Doily across the top of the glassine bag, added the tag and accoutrements from Bon Appétit, and tied it all up with some Baker's Twine.

It's Day 4 of the My Favorite Things Teasers. I just sit on pins and needles waiting to see all the amazing creations by the design team. If you'd like to see all the teasers for today and the Design Team's creations, click on over to Kim's blog. Be sure to leave comments as you go for a chance to win one of two $10 vouchers being given away daily, just for leaving a comment.

The My Favorite Things release is on October 4 at 10:00 PM EST. You can join the release party from 8:00 to 10:00 PM EST here in the forum for fun, games, and prizes! All the new sets and dies will be available October 4 at 10:00 PM EST.

Stampers! The guest designer contest is ON! Check out the forum for details on how you can win over $100 in stamp sets and play along with the design team for a month. This month's contest has something to do with a Perfect Package. I'm not eligible this month, but you know I love this theme. I'm on this like sausage gravy on biscuits.

Okay, stampers . . . there's to much heat in this kitchen – time for me to get out of it.

Pin It

September 30, 2011 | Filed Under: All Occasions, Gift Sets, Heather Ellis, My Favorite Things, Pure Innocence Tagged With: Heather Ellis, My Favorite Things, Pure Innocence | 53 Comments

The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
– Eden Phillpotts

You know, I have to confess. The word "abundance" doesn't creep into my vocabulary often. So, I looked it up and got this: "the number of atoms of one isotope of an element divided by the total number of atoms in a mixture of the isotopes." Seriously!? Apparently that's a chemist's definition of Abundance. For the rest of us, how about this: "fullness to overflowing."

Doesn't that sentiment just nail it on the head?!

I paired the "Sincere About Abundance" sentiment with the "Inspired by Autumn" from yesterday's teaser. I'm not going to tell you how many times I stamped these three images before I got them lined up right. Okay, Four Times! I used a masking technique to make the apple crate appear in front of the pumpkin. (If you'd like to know how to do this masking technique, just leave me a comment and I'll write up a tutorial on it.)

Yep, that's the same My MInd's Eye paper from yesterday. I thought I would make this a companion card to yesterday's card.

Don't you love this new Rolled Gardenia die? Hang tight because later I'm going to show you some tips to really make this pop. Here are the rest of the Die-namics I used.

We're celebrating day three of the My Favorite Things Teasers for the October release.

Oh my goodness gracious gravy – have you seen all those amazing samples from the design team? If you'd like to see all the teasers for today, click on over to Kim's blog. Be sure to leave comments as you go for a chance to win one of two $10 vouchers being given away daily, just for leaving a comment.

Stampers! The guest designer contest is ON! Check out the forum for details on how you can win over $100 in stamp sets and play along with the design team for a month. I heard a rumor that this month's contest has something to do with a Perfect Package. It's such a special treat to get that big yellow envelope in the mail with the newest release. I hope you'll give it a shot.

I love that this new stamp set, Sincere About Abundance, reminds me to enjoy the abundance of good things in my life. There are way too many good things to list here, but definitely one of the good things – all those sweet, sweet comments from all of you about my projects. Thank you! My heart is overflowing!

September 29, 2011 | Filed Under: All Occasions, Autumn, My Favorite Things Tagged With: My Favorite Things | 35 Comments