Thank You, Ms. Berry

It is Teacher Appreciation Week at my son's school and I am saying a big "whew!" that Carolyn's Nurse Feelgood set came out this month! I'll be sharing more teacher's cards i had fun making. here is one I created for his 1st grade teacher, Tiffany Berry. This "teacher" is such a fun image to alter and customize! Here I removed the hat and made her hair longer and drew in a pair of glasses. I paper pieced her shirt with some of the Black Market Let it Bloom textured paper and used the rest of the print and its reverse (these are double-sided papers if you've never ordered!) for the layers on my card (base is Gina K Black Onyx). I tried really hard to pick colors and a large print I thought she would "wear" (this purple floral is one of my favorite prints in the pack). Ms Berry is pretty well known around school for her fly wardrobe ;) When I picked my son up , she seemed pretty EDITED TO ADD: "tickled" by it that she could recognize herself (thank you , Donna! I hate spellcheck, doesn't catch typos that ARE words!!), had been showing it off ot the other teachers! :) Image is colored with Copics. I layered some white paper flowers and punched out a circle of the DP for the middle topped with a page pebble.

TIP: My favorite detail: click on the pic above for a closeup is the loose-leaf notebook paper she's holding! So glad Cammie left this stack of somethin' in her arms blank, because it can be whatever you need! Here I drew horizontal lines with my Bashful Blue marker, a Pretty in Pink vertical line to mark the margin and tiny black dots for the holes.

Hug a teacher today!

When Life Gives You Wine... Make Lemonade!

or limeade in this case LOL! I decided to incorporate a couple of my tip suggestions from my "A Charmed Life" tip sheet into one card so you have a visual, but I didn't realize at the time I wrote about making a little lime wedge garnish how easily you could actually make one from the wine glass stamp in the set!! (hey, notice the little sunglasses charm? It's from "Little Tees"!)

For this card I inked up just the liquid part of the glass and stamped onto yellow and green DP from the Black Market "Letters from Paradise" pack Gina K sells!

Then I made some scribble lines with a black pen starting at the center and radiating out to make the textured sections in the citrus half.

I went back in scratching in some white with my Inkssentials pen and tracing the circle around the top, this adds a bit of rind and pulp! Cut out and mount on the card with dimensionals. Isn't that cool how the distressed pattern on the paper gives instant shadowing and the texture of the paper is a bit like a peel? (adds "appeal?" snort!)

The little umbrella I made by accordion-folding part of the pack's cover (approx 3x 1.5') so I could get all three prints on it and pressing a piece of 1/4" Scor-Tape along the top edge across the back and front, squishing it together and then adhering to my toothpick! Isn't that fun? (I still enjoy an occasional umbrella in my drink, a la Steve Martin in "The Jerk") ;)

And see the top pic for finished card! I pieced the drink concoction in the glass with a swirly part of the Black Market pattern I liked, just makes it more whimsical. I used more papers from this pack for my mats, too: yellow for the top since it had such a sunny afternoon feel, and the fuchsia pattern pattern (and again, that gorgeous texture!), gives it the look of patterned oilcloth on a patio table at some seaside cafe. I ran a black marker alogn the edge of each mat to give it the finest balck border. Don't forget some Stardust Stickles on the glass rim for some "sugah"!

PS I didn't even realize as I was making it, but it does fit the Stamp TV Potluck Friday Challenge this week, hosted by Sharri, to use something from your kitchen! The toothpick, score!! This is such a great challenge Sharri threw down, get ready to be inspired when you see how crafty our members have gotten so far with their kitchen supplies, please play along, too, you could win some stamps!

I am SO ready to hit the beach!!! Hope your day is sunny!