Card Class

I taught a card making class at my house the other day. We had a lot of fun and it turned out to be more of a card party which gave me an idea: why not have card parties where everyone brings different ideas and tools? I also learned a few things while teaching everyone what I knew.

Here are some of the ideas.

One) Use Felt pens to color different areas of your stamp, giving your stamp a whole new look.

Cards by Jodie Barbour

Two) Use a mix of stamps and collage.

                                                                  Patty Fairbanks

Three) Embellish and tie your cards with yarn.

                                                                     Sharon Kerlin
Four) Use music and words to add meaning to your cards.

                                                                 LaVera Weidenbacher
Five) Add party hats to old photos.

Truc Thon

Six) Use yarn to embellish the design of your card.

                                                                          Sue Wu

Seven) Draw a frame around the edge of your card with a felt pen to add boarders. Make different things into balloons.

Eight) Use a felt pen to doodle a background design on your card.

Blue Bird Tea

Blue Bird Tea

I love putting together fun teas. I find a theme really helps. The Blue Bird Tea had a theme of Birds. It also helps to pick a color theme as well. I chose "blue and green" since those colors are cool and tranquil. I added pink to warm it up and give it punch.

After establishing my theme, I went through my house looking for any birds I had to help decorate my table. I placed them on my table and looked at what else I needed to add. As you can see from my past two blogs, I made a couple of the pieces I felt I needed to round out my table and complete my theme.

Now that I had my complete bird theme, and my colors, I was ready. Where do birds live? I needed a table cloth that looked like a bush. I found the fabric and sewed it together to create the table cloth.

I also love using a mix of my tea cups and plates, not using the same pattern, so my table's full of all sorts of wonderful colors and patterns. This also makes the table more interesting and guests feel special with their own unique setting.

I kept the theme in my food. The cookies and fudge were either in bird shapes or egg shapes. What fun! I did chocolate bird nests with jelly bean eggs. The blue birds on the table are made of molded Rice Crispy treats covered in a marshmallow fondant. The cake is a white almond cake with marshmallow fondant and the nest is covered Rice Crispy treats. The eggs in the nest are marzipan cookies.

Guests, even if they are not tea drinkers, can enjoy the managerie. The teas I chose were Jasmine green tea and Orange Pekoe, a mild black tea. I find that most people who don't normally drink tea can enjoy one of these.

The most important part of entertaining at a "tea" is to relax and take pleasure in each other's company. Everyone is delighted to be there. It is time for you to enjoy yourself and be truly present, this is the best gift your can give your guests.

Another Glass Food Cover

I decided it would be fun to decorate one more glass food cover for my tea tomorrow. This one is more difficult because it is a lot taller piece then the butterfly food cover I did in the last Blog.  You could see the backside of each image and that didn’t look good. I had to try a different method.


First: I had to go to the photocopy store and print the images in two directions. (there is a button on the copiers that will do this)


Second: I cut the images out and glued them together so both sides have the images face out which was very difficult. Of course the images didn’t line up perfectly so I had to trim the white parts off of them. (Warning: this process took hours.)

Third: I glued them in place and then coated the inside images with glue to seal them up.

I love how it looks.

Make a Beautiful Glass Food Cover

I've been preparing all week for my tea this Saturday by making different cookies each day. Also I decided to make some items to dress up my table. Here’s one of my projects you may be interested in making.

I found this glass cover at the Goodwill which was covering a round piece of cutting board. Here’s how to dress it up.

First: pick out a theme. I choose butterflies; I found these butterflies in a Dover clip art book.

But, you can use magazines photos, photocopies of anything you might like, and family photos might also be fun.

Second: cut them out.

I used Weldbond glue as an adhesive. I painted the glue on the FRONT of each butterfly then pressed it against the glass and smoothed it out. (Don’t worry about the glue looking white it will dry clear.)

Third: continue around your piece. I placed the big ones first, then the medium and finally the small ones, this will help you decide your placement.

Forth: once your butterflies are dry coat the inside of each butterfly with Weldbond and let them dry again. This will give the butterflies a protective coat.

Then find a pretty plate and you’re done.

A Walk in the Beautiful Eldridge Historic District of Bellingham, WA

Sometimes when I’m feeling uninspired a walk is the perfect thing to do. It lifts your spirits and nurtures your soul. Today I walked with my husband in one of my favorite neighbors, Eldridge, in my home town of Bellingham. Here are some of the things that inspired me.

I loved this blue house with its blue bike in front. The blue and the bike made me feel as if I knew something about who lived inside.

                                                      I love seeing butterflies and birds.

Beautiful gardens give me ideas for my garden and also ideas for paintings. Isn’t this one great? I love the statue.

                                  This old red truck next to a red house makes a wonderful photo.

                                                        Flowers never need a reason why.

                               I love to see places I just want to sit and have a cup of tea.

                                                 Color combinations that make me smile.

                                               

                    People’s creativity and passion, note the peace sign is made of fall leaves.

                                                         Don’t forget to look up.

Seeing people celebrating in the park makes my world expand thinking about how many lives are always moving and creating different paths every moment of everyday. How is your path going? Is it the direction you want it to be?

                         
                                                  Colors in general just make me happy.

                             
                                    Tree forts are a symbol of childhood, love and adventure.  

                                      I just want to sit and swing here on a sunny evening.

                                                              I love my path today.

                                     What a great place to eat a summer meal with friends.

                            This trucks placement just made a great photo, I couldn’t resist.

                                          How inviting, this porch could be a great painting.

I love flowers mixed with vegetables. In France the gardens are often mixed like this one which makes for some of the most beautiful vegetable gardens I have ever seen.

                               Don’t you just want to meet the people who live in this house?

                                                     
                                                        I love seeing peoples humor.

                            What’s not to love about a window covered in beautiful lace?

        I wish I could achieve this level of perfection in my garden, but that is just not meant to be.

I hope you enjoyed this walk and found some inspiration of your own. Maybe this will inspired you to take your own walk and link me your pictures.