Sunday, April 29, 2012

My Favorite Things Guest Designer Entry

I wanted to share with you today my entry for the My Favorite Things Guest Designer contest for May.  I cannot believe we are already down to the last three weeks of school here in Kentucky but the timing couldn't be better for the theme on this challenge-  Be a Teacher's Pet!  It's actually Teacher Appreciation Week at my son's school this week so you know, two birds - one stone and all...  Although it could be tough to let go of this one!  Many hours of work and lots of anxiety-  I am harder on myself than anyone else could possibly be.

As soon as I read the theme I knew that I wanted to use the new A La Modes set - An Apple for Teacher.  Then I saw the A La Modes- You Rule set and loved it as well.  THEN I looked in my stash and saw BIG Greetings set and I knew what to do- Use them all ! :)




I immediately thought that I needed to focus on doing some type of gift set for a Teacher gift. There were already some terrific entries posted when I began my project so I wanted to make sure to try to be unique.  I had made a stationery box a few months back for a card class that I hosted and I hadn't seen many of them on blogs so this is where I started... I used a tutorial by Jackie Topa for the box and it can be found here . The box is very simple to make from one sheet of 12x12 cardstock, one sheet of 8 1/2 x11 cardstock and a 12x12 sheet of patterned paper.  It is designed to hold regular size cards, gift tags and 3x3 cards so I designed samples of each to go with the box. 


For the main cards I started by stamping ALM- An Apple for Teacher on X-press It blending cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I stamped her 4 times for coloring!! Whew!  These are all of the Copic colors that I used on her. Yes, all of those on that tiny little girl!! 


I decided that her shirt and the apple needed a bit more style and texture so I stamped those on patterned paper (SU! DSP in Wild Wasabi and Real Red) and then paper-pieced them onto the stamped image.  While I hate to cut little things out I truly think paper-piecing adds so much dimension and flair to a stamped image- painful but worth the look! Much like high-heels, right ladies? :)



I also decided to add a little stitching to my card using my Janome Sew Mini machine...I love that little thing!  Here is the final sample, inside and out-




Here's a closer look at the stationery box


I used the MFT Tag, You're It and Jumbo Scallop Die-namics on the outside along with Twine from The Twinery. 

The lid lifts off the box separately


and the box opens up to show three separate bins for the different components of the stationery set


Here's a photo of the empty box

Because I never know when enough is enough I added two more items to the gift set-  a jumbo clothespin photo holder and an altered composition book.


On this piece I used ribbon tabbed over and stapled to the cover to create a pencil holder.  Using the Vertical Greetings and Button Quartet Die-namics I created a custom book label for the notebook.



I added a sentiment with the Mix and Match Banners Die-namics.  I bought the buttons at Archivers but fail to remember what company manufactures them.

I really enjoyed this challenge and I hope you have enjoyed it too! I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with using the wonderful stamps, supplies and Die-namics from My Favorite Things!  Wish me luck!!

Now I have to clean up this stamp room or else TLC may come calling for an episode of Hoarders: Buried Alive! 



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