Teacher Gifts

It's that time of year again folks! When we all start thinking about what to give our kids' teachers as a token of appreciation (or should that be badge of honour?!) for putting up with our little darlings all year! One of Harvey's trainee teachers left last week, and this is what I made her.

It's a small origami box made out of Island Indigo cardstock and the gorgeous Twitterpated paper. Inside are six 3" x 3" notelets with matching envelopes made from Twitterpated paper using our fabulous new scoreboard.

Each notelet was the same. I made them using Lucky Limeade cardstock and Twitterpated. I cut a square to one side of the DSP and filled it with a little "postage stamp" made using Perfect Postage stamp set and our matching stamp. Each one was finished with a small rhinestone.

As you can see, they all fitted neatly in to the box!

I used the scoreboard again to make the lollipop nedallion on top with more of the Twitterpated paper and finished it with one of our Antique Brads and some pleated ribbon.

I also made a quick card to match using the lovely new Tea Shoppe stamp set, the Twitterpated and pleated ribbon.

She was really thrilled with it, so I hope this gives you a bit of an idea of what you can do for teachers!

TFL! Joanne x

Nostalgia and Inspiration

If there's one thing I love, it is roses and gypsophilia. I always like to have a small vase of them somewhere in my house. They're not "on trend" in the floristry world any more, but for me they always provoke wonderful memories of my youth.

I remember, during the mid-late 80s, going to friends' weddings. In those days, the fashion was for huge bouquets of roses and gypsophilia and also huge coronets of the same flowers in their hair. I remember bridesmaids and flower girls with pomanders and hoops made from the same combination, usually in pastel shades of pink or peach. Just the sight of roses and gypsophilia takes me right back to those times, memories of lovely celebrations - the build up, the excitement and the actual day, and that's why I love them so much.

The reason I'm telling you all this is because the most recent bunch I got (pictured above) inspired me to create the following card:

It didn't start out as an easel card, and it just evolved into one.  The stamp sets I've used are Everything Eleanor (#124162 wood, #124164 clear) and Petite Pairs for the sentiment (#122495 wood, #122497 clear). The large frame was stamped onto Basic Grey cardstock (#121689) with Basic Grey ink (#109120). The flourishes were stamped with Whisper White Craft ink (#101731) and embossed with white embossing powder (#109132).

The roses were made to look shabby chic by punching out 1 3/4" circles (punch - #119850) of Pink Pirouette cardstock (#116203) and scrunching them up. I then separated them into two layers (like the faux suede technique) and cut them into spirals. They were then rolled up and glued. Separating the layers made them more pliable and easier to work with.

The teeny "gypsophilia" type flowers are made from Whisper White cardstock (#106549). For each flower I punched out two small flowers using the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack (#118309), glued them together and stuck a small rhinestone (#119246) in the middle.

The other punches used on this card are 1" circle (#119868), 1 1/4" circle (#119861), Large Oval (#119855) and Scallop Oval (#119856). The corners are punched with the Scallop Trim Corner punch (#118870).

TFL! Joanne x