Tea Time

It is with great pleasure that I am able to share some creations from a very special person. Michelle is such an amazing and talented person and I admire her so much. She has definitely been an inspiration in my life. I am so blessed to be able to call her one of my closest friends. Although I enjoy being a demonstrator, I enjoy the friendships I have made through Stampin' Up! much more. Michelle is one person I know I will be friends with for the rest of my life. Thank you, Michelle, for your friendship and support. I hope you realize how much it means to me. Hugs!!

Hi! My name is Michelle and I live in Minnesota but am originally from Canada. I moved to the States to be with my husband. I have been interested in stamping since I was a child. When I learned about Stampin’ Up!, I jumped at the chance to be a demonstrator. I have been a demonstrator for 3 years and I love every minute of it. I love to create projects that will put a smile on someone’s face and I enjoy teaching others how to do the same. I find a lot of inspiration and many techniques on a variety of crafting web sites and personal blogs. Since I received so much valuable help on-line, I decided to start a blog of my own in order to hopefully help others in return. View my blog at http://mhoffman-atimetostamp.blogspot.com/ If there is a particular technique or project you would like to see, please ask me!

I have been a member of UDI for about 2 years now. I enjoy being part of a group of stampers who are positive and have great ideas and are willing to help one another out. I am the Spiritual Sunday coordinator, Baby Closet coordinator, and Tutorial coordinator for the group. It keeps me busy but I very much enjoy it.

Now, on to the projects...

This first project is a coaster box. I bought the chipboard coasters online at http://www.eclecticpaperie.com/. I adhered “Afternoon Tea” Designer Series Paper from the Occasions mini catalog onto both sides of 5 coasters. I applied a thin coat of ModPodge overtop of the paper to protect it from moisture and oils. Using the crop-a-dile tool, I punched five holes along two sides of 4 coasters, leaving the 5th coaster intact. The 5th coaster is for the bottom of the box and does not require holes in it. Once I had punched all the holes, I took an 18” length of ribbon and laced it through the holes of 2 coasters lying side by side. I repeated this step until all 4 coasters were laced together, then using a strong adhesive, I glued the 5th coaster to the bottom of each of the 4 coasters, creating the completed box. If you’d like to see a tutorial on how to create a coaster box, click on this link for the tutorial posted on Splitcoast Stampers by Taylor VanBruggen.

To create the paper flowers, I followed Sharon Field’s directions on her blog, Created By U. For the center flower, I folded a 1 1/4” circle not quite in half. Then I took one end of the folded circle, and rolled it loosely to get the “bud” look. I snipped off a tiny portion of the bottom of the bud to make it flatter so it would lay straighter when I glued it to the rest of the flower. I used a 1 1/4” circle punch to create the leaves by punching a complete circle and then punching only a portion of the original circle to get an oval type shape for the leaf. I used my paper snips to cut slits on both sides of the leaves to create more interest and dimension.

Paper: Afternoon Tea DSP, Ginger Blossom DSP, Wild Wasabi CS
Accessories: Chipboard coasters, ModPodge, glue dots, Crystal Effects, foam brush, bone folder, crop-a-dile, 1 1/4” circle punch, paper trimmer, scissors, double stitched ribbon- River Rock

This next project is a mini accordion album we created in my last stamp class. The butterfly is two dimensional but it didn’t show up very well in this picture.
To create this 9 page album, I used one 12 x 12 sheet of card stock. Cut a line along the length of the paper at 3 3/4”, 7 1/2” and 11 1/4”. Discard the left over narrow strip. Turn your strip horizontally and score at 3 3/4”, 7 1/2” and 11 1/4”. Score the other two strips identical to the first. Take one of the strips, and cut off the 3/4” portion at the bottom and discard it. Do not cut off this portion on the other two strips. Apply adhesive to the two 3/4” portions. Attach one strip at the 3/4” portion to the first square on the second strip. Then attach the second strip at the 3/4” portion to the first square on the third strip. Fold all 9 squares accordion style on the score lines. You now have the base for your album!

For the front cover, I cut a piece of Groovy Guava 3 1/2” x 3 1/2”, then a piece of Afternoon Tea DSP 3 1/4” x 3 1/4”. I stamped the butterfly from Garden Whimsy twice, and cut both out. I attached one butterfly cut out to the CS layers, using dimensionals. I made a score line in the middle of my second butterfly, folded the left side, then adhered the right side to the first butterfly. To get a 3-D effect, you will want to cut out a total of 3 butterflies and attach them accordingly. Then, I applied Crystal Effects randomly on the top butterfly, creating raised dots for dimension.

For the inside pages, each layer of CS is 3 1/2” x 3 1/2”. The rest is self explanatory, but if you have any questions, please post your questions in the comment area of this post.

Enjoy creating either of these two projects, or both! Happy stampin’ and creatin’!

Stamp set: Garden Whimsy, Warm Words, It’s All Good
Paper: Afternoon Tea Designer Series Paper, Whisper White 12 x 12’, Groovy Guava, Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White 8.5 x 11” CS
Ink: Groovy Guava, Close to Cocoa, Wild Wasabi Classic Ink
Accessories: Photo corner punch, 1/8”, 1 1/4”, 1 3/4” circle punches, scallop circle punch, tag corner punch, stampin’ dimensionals, Crystal Effects, SNAIL adhesive, scissors, sticky strip, paper cutter, double stitched ribbon- Wild Wasabi, Groovy Guava, button, mini envelope template

Thank you for sharing your works of art with us, Michelle.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Alicia :)