Tree House Stamps New Release!

I just LOVE cupcake cards! Look at this adorable Birthday Cupcake set that was just released at Tree House Stamps! I was so excited to get to play with these stamps, and with all the stuff I've had going on Tuesday through Thursday I didn't get to play until early this morning, a day late for the going green WT challenge, but going green nevertheless! This paper is called Twitterpated...I think just the sound of it is adorable! It is really beautiful paper, and almost looks enameled in bright bold color. I wanted to make a card that would take advantage of the two-sided print, so this is what I ended up with. It is a 5.5 inch square single layer card base matted with the stripe, with a 4.25 inch square floral/dotted card mounted on that. I scalloped the bottom of the card with my SU scalloped edge punch, which revealed the bold red polkadots from the inside.

The cupcake was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, then colored in with a combination of SU and copic markers. I stamped another and cut out the icing, then colored it with copics and embossed it with a half-and-half combination of clear EP and Iridescent Ice EP. I popped just the bottom part of it up on dimensionals and glued the top down to the original layer to make it look as 3-D as possible, then mounted the whole thing to a scalloped circle punched with a Marvy Giga punch. For the inside, I stamped the sentiment on a square of white matted with real red...the picture sort of captures the gloss of this delicious paper!

Just to catch you up a little bit on what I've been up to this week...I attend a Precept study at NAS Jacksonville. Tuesday that group started a study of Isaiah, which is going to be phenomenal! I also teach a women's study at my church, Fleming Island United Methodist Church. Wednesday we began a new Beth Moore Bible study called Stepping Up into Psalms (a study of the Psalms of Ascent). When I first opened the cover, I had to smile and even giggle...there was a diagram of Solomon's Temple and since I SO loved her study of the Tabernacle, I just know I'm going to LOVE this one too.

Thursday I taught a basketry class to 8 homeschooled girls. This is the sample basket I brought, which is so old that the original rich brown accents have faded so much they almost match the natural reed of the rest of the basket. I dyed some beautiful rose pink reed for the girls.

This was a really adventurous basket to teach for a first lesson, but I love it because it gives a sampling of several different techniques to give a true taste of what basketry is all about. The girls learned to weave a flat reed bottom, and how to twine and do 3-rod wale. They finished off with a lacy decorative border. I was so proud of these girls, and of how their baskets turned out. As they worked, you could see the personalities of each girl emerge, both on their faces and in their work. Although they all worked from the same model, their baskets were very different! I hope they enjoyed the class as much as I did!