Come to Tea!

Life is delicious, especially if you can step into a Tea Party all in Pink! 

What a wonderful way to celebrate the season!

Thank you, Alice, for the invitation. 

The Earl Grey tea with sweetened vanilla is so very yummy,

the strawberry biscuits are delectable 

and this cake to pretty to cut!

Happy Pink Saturday!

For more wonderful pink visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound!

Let's Get Crafty

I am thrilled to participate in another Creations by AR Customer Blog Hop.  This blog hop's theme is: "Let's Get Crafty"as you may have noticed if you have just arrived from Carmen's blog. The blog hop will run from September 19 and comments will be accepted until midnight Eastern time on Sat., Sept. 21.
There will be one blog hop prize (winner's choice of template). The winner will be randomly chosen from the comments on that blog), so please leave a comments on each blog. Please visit (and Like!) the CbyAR Facebook page and leave a comment there too!

With the cooler weather coming many of us are gearing up for the craft season to begin.
This year my goal is to get a little more organized. So for this hop I have created the Folder Organizer to arrange some sewing supplies in, such as fabric remnants, beads, ribbons and buttons as well as pins and needles. This organizer is quick and easy to make and keeps things so much more organized.

It's available on the Creations by AR site and is fun to make. I have made it from the Graphics 45 Gentleman paper line to match the guest room, which is also the sewing room when visitor's are not using the room.  The template is easy to download.
To begin grab 3 sheets of brown paper(the color that I used) and 3 sheets of coordinating  12 x 12. Follow the directions that come with the template cutting guides. With a bit of folding with a bone folder and some glue you will be organized in moments!

The organizer base

The directions for this wonderful organizer are easy to read and construction is quick, before long, you can be whipping up several of these for all different purposes. As I was putting it to together I thought this would even make a nice holder for a crafty friend to hold ribbons,dies or even handmade cards for different occasions.

Thank you for visiting and please leave a comment, as they are so nice to read.
Please visit Mary's blog next to see what craftiness is going on there.
And for more inspiration from the participants of this wonderful blog hop please visit:

Lisa Eisner - http://craftingwithprincesslisa.blogspot.com/

Diana Auberle - http://kreativfenster.blogspot.de/

Raissa Spatola - http://www.raissastamps.com/

Carmen Mitchell - http://carmenscreationss.blogspot.ca/

Gigi Lorenc - http://sunshinelollipopsandbutterflies.blogspot.com/

Mary Roberson - http://handmadeheartfelt.wordpress.com/

A Bit of Altering.....

The first moment I laid eyes on coffee cup sleeves, I thought..."what a fun substrate to do a bit of altering on".
Well, I finally took the opportunity and joined a swap with paper traders, I had made the commitment....

Altered Coffee Cup Sleeves

Pictured here are some of the sleeves that were created for the trade.

The first sleeve was inspired by this cameo as well as the vintage papers which were at hand. The combination of black with pink is so pretty. Using the soft brown paper printed with vintage ads as well as a piece of cotton  lace as  contrasting elements.

Cameo Side

Ad Side

 This next is a sleeve inspired by the bathing beauties of a wonderful Graphics 45 paper collection.  It was fun selecting the papers to use for this beach themed sleeve, as the colors are rich and images are perfectly sized for this project.

Side 1

Side 2

Another sleeve was inspired by the elegant color combination of the primary collage paper selected as the main element. Aqua and sand with a few jewel tones for contrast. The flowers look so pretty on top of the neutral colors of the backgrounds which are dictionary text and sheet music.

Side 1

Side 2

Graphics 45 have several fun collections, I could seethe dancers printed in this one dancing across the coffee cup sleeves looking wonderful against the gold that this sleeve was painted. It almost makes you feel like dancing!

Flapper Step

Quick Step

There are so many ways to alter a coffee cup sleeve. This is just a start.  One of the most fun things about this project is that the coffee cup sleeve can be bound together in a little book. This is a great tutorial on a coffee themed album which is you may find fun and inspiring or if you like something a little more elegant this may be your latte.  I hope you have a try, because if you do you may not be able to stop at just one!