HMITM + WIP = Fun

Our current challenge at How Much Is Too Much coincided with the receipt of my February Work in Progress kit, and our challenge just seemed to be made for the October Afternoon Modern Homemaker stuff that was in the add-on kit. Our challenge? To scrap about our favorite drink and to use:

5 embellishments

4- patterned papers
3- word title
2- circles ( can be buttons or brads)
1- photo

The perfect opportunity to scrap about my tea obsession. As it turns out, I had just recently made this layout documenting my favorite tea, so I decided to add a twist to the challenge and scrap about my tea cupboard. The photo turned out kind of blah so I added a diffuse filter to it. I always have a hard time with the challenges that limit the number of supplies, so I was a little "flexible," with my interpretation of the 5 embellishments--1) the chipboard lady, 2) the tags, 3)the cluster at the bottom, 4) the vintage tea ad, 5) the hidden journaling card.

And some details... The OA chipboard lady was such a fun embellishment. She's quite large for my 8 x 8 page, so I decided I'd make her a big part of my design. I've placed her so that she's doing a sort of Vanna White on my cupboard. I adorned her apron and her collar and added a pearl earring.

I tucked a Making Memories journaling card that came in the kit behind the checkered paper to hold my story, which reads:

Every afternoon, I come home and open my tea cupboard and decide which tea I'm going to enjoy that night. Right now, I have exactly 64 different teas. Sometimes I'll drink one flavor all evening, cup after cup; other days, if I'm in the mood for variety, I'll select a bunch of different ones. Opening my tea cabinet every afternoon makes me happy. {Journaled January 27, 2011}

I found the vintage Lipton ad at The Graphics Fairy. I recently found her and she has the most awesome vintage images and shares a new one each day--for free! What a generous soul! And how cute is that little OA chipboard scale? I've been loving pearls lately--so easy to add that little extra shine and dimension.

Love the pretty satin bow that came with the WIP Project kit (I got all three this month!) and used it to adorn one of the tags I used to hold my title.

Come see what the rest of the HMITM team did for this fun challenge, and I hope you'll play along! The WIP kits are still available, so snag yours while they last! This was such a fun kit. The WIP Gallery will go live tomorrow, so I'll share more layouts in the coming days. Thank you for stopping by my blog and reading about my page!
 

A Warm and Invigorating Palette at Color Combos Galore

Challenge #175 is live at Color Combos Galore! We have an energizing palette and a Designer's Challenge that will make you feel all warm and cozy!

Here is the page I made, documenting my new favorite tea, Bogart Blend by Leland Tea Company. It is AMAZING and you must try it! I used Picnik to posterize my photo. I had to photograph my layout indoors again, so please pardon the imperfect image.

My layout was inspired by this Sketch #137 from Creative Scrappers:

I just had to use those cute little birds in a teacup from a Webster's Pages paper. I added some Stickles and an orange pearl to the top of the bird's hat.

The dark green threw me at first, and then I decided to add the cardstock circle and found a dark green BasicGrey fabric brad and added some greenery to the flower at the bottom.

Once I added the sparkles to the teacup, I needed more sparkle, so I added some Heidi Swapp bling to the photograph and a jeweled swirl over the lanterns I'd cut out of another Webster's Page paper.

The chipboard piece is from Crate Paper's Restoration collection, and I added some orange pearls. I love trying to mix some older stash with newer stuff, and I used this rub-on and the Making Memories definition sticker that I've had forever.

I love the look of white space, but whenever I try to leave some on my page, it always feels empty. Maybe it's because I scrap 8 x 8 and have to crowd things into such a small space. Anyway, the white space at the top was bothering me, so I added the punched piece at the top with pop dots. I thought it gave the illusion of white space and also added a little canopy to top of my page.

Thank you for looking at my page. Head over to CCG--this week's reveal has got to be one of my favorite yet! We have lots of guest designers from Stash to Treasure, our January sponsor, and be sure to read about the awesome prize up for grabs on the main page.

Here are my pages I made for Work in Progress

I just loved the March kits I got to play with as a guest designer for Work in Progress this month. Trish puts together such a fun mix of products in her kits! In my last post, I posted some detail shots.

My biggest scrappy wish is to get on a design team for a kit club, so this was a great beginning to realizing that wish!

So here are my layouts I made with the March Work in Progress kits.

So, ever since the big snowstorm, when I was buried inside my house for a week, I've been obsessed with tea. I discovered this cool site, 52 Teas, which invents a brand-new flavor every week. Really interesting flavors like coconut cream pie (my fave so far) and buttered cinnamon raisin toast. I made this page for our current challenge over at How Much Is Too Much?



It was really fun trying to figure out what stories I would tell using the products from this kit. The Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety from the March Project Kit was a perfect opportunity to scrap about my foray into growing tomatoes on my deck last summer. I just love those Jenni Bowlin banner stickers that came with the kit. I mounted them on brown cardtock and strung them on the baker's twine that came in the kit and added some brads in between the little pennants. I made the scalloped border at the top by punching circles from the "Sunday Picnic" paper and added brads between the circles.
For this page, I used a little bit from the main kit, the project kit, and the add-on. I love the doilies that Trish included in the kit. And how fun that I discovered the sticker that says "A work in progress" on my 7Gypsies "D is for Diet" sticker sheet! The leaves and flowers are from the "Strawberry Fields" paper from the Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety collection. I omitted the strawberries and added some jewels to the flower centers.

This page is a remake of a layout I did a couple of years ago. I love my journaling (even though I later discovered a typo), but I never liked the way that old page looked. The WIP kit had the perfect colors to go with this old photo of me and my sisters from back in the early 1970's. Isn't that Cosmo Cricket chipboard chick the cutest?

Finally, I made this page for Sketch This. I wound up adding a few more details to this page after I sent it to Janelle. I just love the new Birds on a Wire edge punch by Martha Stewart.

My Current Addiction

It all started with a box of tea my mom gave me for Christmas, the winter collection by Tea Forté. Then it snowed. And it snowed. And it snowed. And I was stuck home for a week. So I fixed a cup of tea. Then another. Then another, and before I knew it, my box of tea was gone. I went in search of some more and found a whole bunch of other flavors. My favorite from Tea Forte so far is Coco Truffle, which tastes just like hot cocoa, without the calories.

So I made this page for our challenge this week over at How Much Is Too Much? as a tribute to my favorite tea. I used the beautiful Noel Mignon kit called Seaside Cottage.