Hi friends! Back again with the second installment of The Ton's December release. Aren't you just in love with those gorgeous sets released yesterday?! The bows... the roses... the inks... Gah! Well, we have even more fun in store for you today.
So, I will admit to being a bit of an Anglophile. I love tea parties, tea pots, tea cups, tea, the little tea sandwiches and cakes... I grew up watching Elizabeth Bennett and Elinor Dashwood daintily sipping tea from a porcelain cup and nibbling delicately on a piece of tea cake. When I was a teenager, I started collecting tea cups and tea pots, wishing for an excuse to throw a tea party. There was a fabulous little shop in the town where I went to college called "Bit of Britain." It has sadly closed down, but I will admit to purchasing a beautiful porcelain teapot and several matching porcelain, rose-bedecked cups and saucers, along with several tins of tea and cookies, and I used to imagine myself to be a British heiress while sipping tea from my (totally awesome) porcelain tea service. My husband thinks I'm nuts for having so many teapots, none of which are used for anything other than decoration these days, but that's another blog post...
Anyway, my first card focuses on a new sentiment set devoted to all things coffee: Caffeine Crush. It's got some really cute, smart-alecky sentiments that are just perfect for someone who would like to have an IV drip of coffee. I started with three pieces of card stock: pink, white, and kraft. I stamped the white panel using some Wplus9 Little Piggy ink on the Rose Terrace background set, then die cut all three using a comic strip block die. I then played with the different sentiments, deciding which fit best in which block, then heat embossing them using Bronze embossing powder, some on pink, then some of the white and pink rose background.
To accent the fun coffee sentiments, I used another stamp set:
Hug in a Mug, to create a latte in a pink mug. The set comes with multiple designs for the foam of your latte, and it really is so fun to play with. We don't have any coffee shops in my little podunk town that are fancy enough to do the beautiful foam designs that you see elsewhere, but now I can stamp my own! I added a touch of sparkle with some
Matte Gold,
Fairy Pink, and
Precious Pink sequins.
Next up is probably my favorite card out of the whole bunch. I just love this shade of orchid-y fuchsia and the gorgeous dainty teacups. This card focuses on another new set, this time devoted to beautiful, delicate teacups:
Tea Party. This set is fantastic because it allows you to stamp the outline, which you can then follow up with a beautiful rose pattern (the same pattern as in the
Rose Terrace background set), super chic polka dots, or just stamp a plain color. I chose to heat emboss the outline of the cups in silver on watercolor card stock, then add in the decorative patterns in silver heat embossing, as well, so that I could color them in with my Zig Clean Color markers.
After coloring the cups and fussy cutting them out, I decided to heat emboss the adorable (and scarily accurate) sentiment from
Caffeine Crush in silver on some hot-press watercolor card stock. I then took two different shades of purple ink in colors that matched the watercoloring on my cups and blended them around the edges, first the lighter color, then adding the darker shade of purple just around the very edge to add some highlights.
I lined up the cups along the top of the blended panel, then added some adhesive gems to resemble the "hooks" that the cups would be hanging on. I added a few sequins (
Smoked Amethyst, G
lass Slipper, and
Light Amethyst) to accentuate the sentiment. Wouldn't these cups be a pretty sight to see first thing in the morning?
This next card was inspired by one that I saw on Facebook in the Stamping Enablers' group. Someone had posted a New Year's Eve invitation using this layout with a champagne bottle and champagne flute on the second panel. I immediately wanted to translate it into a coffee-themed card:
I first took two panels of pale aqua cardstock, cut to 4x5.5 inches, and stamped the
Rose Terrace background on both in coordinating pale aqua ink for a tone-on-tone effect. I placed the panels flush on top of each other, then punched a hole through both using my Crop-a-Dile, connecting them with a gold brad that I found in my stash. I then stamped the teapot image from
Hug in a Mug stamp set and the teacup image from
Tea Party with Versamark and heat embossed them in gold on watercolor paper. I fussy cut them out, then watercolored the images with the Zig Clean Color markers and some gold Perfect Pearls for the handles. I used the same gold embossing powder to emboss the sentiments, (from
Caffeine Crush) then strategically placed the teapot and tea cup on the card so that, when the card was swung open, it would look like the pot was pouring into the cup. (I know the size of the teapot is a bit small for the size of the cup, but in my head it was one of those cute individually-sized teapots. Just go with it...) Wouldn't this be layout be cute for a tea party invitation?
My next card is super fun. I used the
Hug in a Mug set to create my own dainty little tea party! (Coffee party?) Anyway, I stamped the mugs and teapot on some pale blue card stock, then fussy cut them out. The
Rose Terrace background stamp was just perfect for a "tablecloth." I die cut a scalloped rectangle from cream linen cardstock, then heat embossed the
Rose Terrace background using white pearl satin embossing powder to add just a hint of pattern.
I wanted to add a bouquet to really make it look like a dainty little tea party, so I pulled out the
Mini Wild Florals set and stamped some flowers in shades of pink and leaves in mint. I fussy cut them and arranged them on a 1 inch circle punched from white cardstock and covered in liquid adhesive. The flagged sentiment is so good for a card of encouragement, something I'm sure everyone can appreciate. I added a few
Glass Slippers sequins to add a touch of sparkle.
My final card is probably the simplest of the bunch. I used a variety of shades of aqua and gold. The
Tea Party set comes with not only the darling little tea cup, but also a saucer. The cup and saucer are two separate stamps, so you can do a variety of techniques and designs with them. I chose to stamp them and fussy cut them out, then glued them together. I stamped the solid cup with a dark aqua, then heat embossed the polka dots in white to get a really good contrast between the colors. For the background, I stamped a panel of white linen card stock with the
Rose Terrace background in a pale aqua to create a subtle, elegant backdrop for the super chic teacup. I cut a strip of coordinating dark aqua card stock and white heat embossed the sentiment from Caffeine Crush. I added a few sequins to add just a touch of sparkle:
Medallion Gold,
Turquoise and Caicos, and
Bermuda Blue. I matted the whole panel with some gold foil card stock, then mounted it on a coordinating dark aqua card base.
That's all for me today! I just received some of my dies in the mail, so I will hopefully find time to create some cards with them in the next few days. I hope you all are enjoying all of the new products and inspiration from the Design Team! All of the products are available for purchase TODAY, and they will begin shipping on Thursday, December 10. Don't forget that each design team member has a GIVEAWAY, so be sure to leave a comment on each blog for your maximized chance to win! The contest closes at 11:59 on December 11, and the winners will be announced on The Ton's' blog on December 13.
Hop on around to the rest of the amazing Design Team's blogs to see more inspiration using these fabulous new products!!
The Season
