Heather Ellis | Catered Crop

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.

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February 7, 2012 | Filed Under: Card Gallery, Copic Markers, Heather Ellis, My Favorite Things, Pure Innocence Tagged With: Copic Markers, Heather Ellis, My Favorite Things, Pure Innocence | 12 Comments

But as long as you love me so,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
~ lyrics by Sammy Cahn

It's day five and still counting of a stomach bug. So far 2012 has been pretty icky and just plain frustrating. But, the good news is that I'm surely making advances toward my weight loss goals. I guess that's the Yin and the Yang of it.

Yesterday I bid the couch goodbye for a few hours in an effort to just get up and keep moving. And, let's face it, stamping isn't the most strenuous exercise, especially in the Crop Crib where I have everything pretty much within reach.

To make Frosty's scarf, I colored it with some red Copic markers, covered it with adhesive and then sprinkled a mix of red flocking and glitter. Frosty's hat is made out of Kraft paper shaded with some warm gray Copic markers. He's got a little German glass glitter on the rim of his hat and along the base of the snow. I shaded Frosty with some very soft Blue/Green Copic markers to give him a twilight glow, and his cheeks are blushed with pastels. For a snowman, he's very fuzzy, twinkly and cuddly.

The sketch is from My Favorite Things, and I took some inspiration from some of the amazing designers at My Favorite Things. Always in awe of Jody Morrow's beautiful sewing, I hand stitched around the border of the two circle panels (a great couch activity). Frances Byrne's sweet little button and heart embellishment on this card inspired my felt heart embellishment.

Here are the rest of the ingredients to my snowy valentine card.

This week I've learned nurses like me make lousy patients, but my family makes wonderful nurses. It's no fun being sick, but their pampering is lovely and so much better than what the doctor ordered. Snow much love to all of them!

January 5, 2012 | Filed Under: Card Gallery, Copic Markers, Heather Ellis, My Favorite Things, Pure Innocence, Valentine's Day, Winter Tagged With: Copic Markers, Heather Ellis, My Favorite Things, Pure Innocence, Valentine's Day, Winter | 3 Comments

There's a party going on right here –
a celebration to last throughout the years.
~ Celebration, Kool & the Gang

This card started out as a New Years celebration, but a nasty stomach bug got in the way of my plans. A trip to the Emergency Room, lots of good drugs, a bunch of couch vegging, and three days later I finally put the last touches on it. So, like Kool & the Gang sang, this may just be the card that kicks off "a celebration to last throughout the years" because I started it in 2011 and didn't finish it until 2012.

This Pure Innocence stamp set, Cause for Celebration, is such a versatile set, it really can just celebrate anything or anyone. Party Time!

Here's the inside. Yeah, I had as much fun making the inside as I did the outside of the card. I got to play with some of my new Christmas toys, like the Well Worn Die-Namic by My Favorite Things.

I'm especially pleased with this little star button. It's a pin, so It can be removed from the card and worn. My daughter got a professional grade button maker for her stationery business, and we're both having fun playing with it. I see lots of button magnets and pins in our future.

I couldn't resist making a party favor box, you know, for our celebration. I love this new Loopy Bloom die cut from My Favorite Things. Jody Morrow did a great video, Loopy Bloom Assembly Tutorial, that includes some terrific tips and great suggestions to kick it up a notch.

That fishtail panel (just behind the little darling) has gotten pretty popular with card sketches and designs. So, I put together a quickie little tutorial about how I make my fishtail panels. Turn up your speakers for the rag time silent movie.