Monday, June 10, 2013

Shabby Sweets


I'm not usually fond of Mondays.  It's basically bitter-sweet for me.  You see, I don't work weekends or Tuesdays.  So, Monday, is basically a lone work day.  But this Monday, is especially wonderful to me! No, I don't have the day off.  I am a guest Designer @ the Shabby Tea Room {smile}!  How fabulous is that?  I know!
Well, over this past year, a few design teams I was on, changed owners or shut down, which opened some of my free time.  And as a paper crafter, if you have extra 'free' time, that just means you make more stuff for family, friends, and yourself.  So, I have been doing more paper crafting, and it has given me 'time' to actually play along with some of the challenge sights that I use to just visit.  
I earned the guest designer spot this week @ the Shabby Tea Room, from my win in their Challenge #164, found here.  That inspiration board had beautiful spring flowers and some canning jars.  I made my mom's Mother's Day card using their inspiration photo.   That card was alot of fun to create.  I was super excited when I found out that I won, and then I was even more excited to be asked to be a guest designer.  I have to admit, I mostly paper craft for myself.  I truly find joy in the whole process of creating.  But, when someone loves your stuff/work so much that they comment, purchase, and/or ask you to create something for them, well, it's pretty intoxicating.

Ok, enough of my blah, blah, blah.  Let's get to this weeks challenge, over @ the Shabby Tea Room! The super talented ladies, have come up with this great inspirational photo.  They ask that you use: blue, pink, white, and flowers.  

Sweet As Sugar

This has got to be the cutest cupcake ever!  (And yes, I bake, too!)  The colors are soft and sweet.  I just love the polka dot paper, the pink sanding sugar on the pillow of frosting, and that delicate pink rose. Yum!  I hope you get inspired! I sure did!


I didn't have any restrictions as to what products/companies I can use.  So, I basically used stuff from everyone.  This card, is basically a mish mosh of the collection of products I have. All the paper pieces (pattern and solid) came from scrap box.  (It's a box that originally held a case of printer paper reams.)
The card base is crumb cake cardstock from Stampin' Up!.  I love this stuff.  The paper is basically kraft.  But the weight and coloration is excellent.  I used whisper white card stock to matt the main panel on.  I really wanted to accentuate the white pattern in the main panel.  The main aqua blue panel is Be Amazing from Mind Mind's Eye.  I just adore the softness of the aqua -blue shade and the pattern is easy to coordinate.  The bold pink polka dot pattern paper, is from Lost & Found 2 Blush collection, is cut to 1 1/2" wide and flagged at the end with a square punch.  
For the middle panel, I used pink pirouette cardstock, from Stampin' Up! as my base for this.  I matted a piece of that beautiful floral print pattern paper from Lost & Found 2 Blush collection to it.  I just adore this floral paper.  It has pink roses on it, in various shades of pink, everything from light to dark pink.  The aqua leaves on the pattern paper is just gorgeous.  The white lace trim I added, has an unfinished side, so I machine stitched that, so it would be all gross, with jagged pieces poking through.  Then, I machine stitched a strip of Aqua Mist satin ribbon, from Paper Trey Ink, to the card front.  This aqua color goes so well with the aqua-blues in the card.  I created a bow through a rhinestone buckle and adhered that to the card front.  I really loved the sparkle from the sanding sugar in the inspirational photo, so I really wanted to add some sparkle to my card.  I tied a white Paper Trey Ink vintage button with some pool party bakers twine from Stampin' Up!, and added it to the other end of the satin ribbon.  I love how this little addition really balances the card.  To create the tiny tag on the button, I used a sentiment from the fancy flexible phrases stamp set and jewelry tag punch, both from Stampin' Up! 

For the collection of tickets/tags, I used two different digital downloads: vintage tickets and shabby tickets, found here.  I fussy cut them out and layered them on top of each other.  I used foam tape behind the cupcake ticket to lift it off the card front.
The paper blossoms were hand-made.  I used three colors of cardstock to create the progression of blossom's color: whisper white, pink pirouette and rose red, from Stampin' Up!  I used the vintage floret dies from Heartfelt Creations.  I used my foam pad and stylis to create depth to the petals.  The petals are held together with a pale aqua-blue brad.  Once assembled, I sponged blushing bride classic ink to the tips of the petals.  Then, all the petals received a brushing of picket fence distressing paint, from Ranger, and a dunk into my tub of dazzling diamond glitter, from Stampin' Up!.  I created the leaves with aqua mist card stock, from Paper Trey Ink, and sponged Juniper classic ink, from Close To My Heart, over the leaf tips.
And finally I added a lone half pearl from Melissa Frances to each of the corners.  I thought this little addition would help soften the whole look of the card, and help pull some of the whites forward.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  I hope the design team has inspired you to play along this week over @ TSTR.  I know the ladies would love to see what you create with this week's fabulously yummy inspirational photo!


this card is for sale in my Etsy shop

2 comments:

Maria said...

Big congrats on being guest designer this week for TSTR! Your card is absolutely lovely in all its shabby glory! Love the choice of paper, sweet cupcake image, flowers, and trims!

Debbie said...

Absolutely STUNNING, Sharon! What a shabby and wonderful card you have created to share with us in the Tea Room this week! Thanks for being our special Guest Designer :)