Ecstasy is a glass full of tea
and a piece of sugar in the mouth.
  ~ Alexander Puskin

Yes Ma'am, we Southern girls like our Sweet Tea. The sweeter, the better.

When I came across these heart-shaped tea bags on Design Sponge (via Pinterest), I knew I had to try to make them for our "heart" challenge this week. The tutorial is easy to follow, but here are a few tips I came up with to make it even easier.

• Use heart-shaped dies to cut your unbleached muslin. The slightly embossed edge makes a great sewing guide.
• You can stamp on the muslin after you cut out your heart shapes but before you assemble them into tea bags.
• A little funnel is handy for getting your loose tea into your heart shaped tea bags as you're sewing them shut.
• The My Favorite Things Notched Tag and Bon Appetit dies and stamp sets are great for making the tea tags.

Check out those sugar cubes. Yes, I made them. How cool is that?! They're just granulated sugar, mixed with a teeny bit of water and paste food coloring and then pressed into a candy mold. Cindy Hopper at Skip to my Lou has a great, pictorial tutorial here.

All of this sweet-tea goodness needs something to hold it all. Check out my tea bag baggie.

Yes! A treat box shaped like a tea bag. Adorable, right?! You can find a free template to make the tea bag baggie here, at Waltzingmouse Makes.

Of course that darling doll image is one of Heather Ellis' Digi Stamp Characters (Pure Innocence PO22). Run fast, because today Heather's having a sale on her images. I'm still pinching myself that Heather Ellis is sponsoring our challenge for these two weeks. Such a treat! For you stampers who to stamp ink over toner ink, you can find this same image as a clear stamp at My Favorite Things.

This project gave me a chance to try some new things. That was almost as refreshing as a big ice cold glass of sweet tea.

Here are the Copic markers and the rest of the recipe. Enjoy.

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth,
for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire:
it is the time for home.
          ~ Edith Sitwell

Babies it's cold outside. Well, not so much at my house, but I hear everyone else is freezing. According to the weather map this morning, Texas and Florida are about the only states not hit by an Arctic front.

Central Texas has two seasons: hot and not hot, which is lovely when it's not a squillion degrees outside. But, gee, I grew up in Southern Indiana where the gentle hills showcased the changing landscape so beautifully. Yes, just thinking about it makes me wax poetic. Almost 30 years later, I still get woefully homesick for winter.

I don't miss defrosting door handles, static cling from winter coats, hat hair, gray slush, or taking the puppies out in the cold. Woof!

I do miss toasting my bum by the fireplace, thick wool sweaters, mittens, flannel pajamas, hot chocolate (spiced with coconut liqueur), and snow.

I made this card for our "Button Up" Recipe Swap challenge this week. After curating projects with buttons on Pinterest, I was inspired by this gorgeous card to use buttons as something other than, well, buttons. I used a cheapo paint brush to give some vintage pearl buttons a light coating of clear liquid adhesive (Stampin' Up!'s Crystal Effects) and dipped them in some Diamond Dust glitter. Then I layered them on the My Favorite Things Wonky Scallop Border to make a little snowbank. 

Sometimes I have strokes of brilliance – or, you know, I just copy genius from Pinterst.  

Here's your recipe with all the ingredients for this card.

You all button up out there and stay warm! Oh, and one sure way to keep warm is to join us at our Catered Crop Recipe Swap – the party's really heating up!