Tea!

Good Morning Everyone!

This wasn’t the blog I intended to post today. For the first time in a long time I actually have a back up of 3 or 4 posts, but this new one gets priority for today because I MUST tell you about my newest stamp.

As a child I used construction paper, crayons, and home made paste to create greeting cards for every occasion. As an adult I visited the Hallmark aisle to purchase greeting cards for all occasions.

But all of that changed when I bought my first issue of Papercrafts magazine, studied the cardmaking ideas in it, and said to myself, "I can do that!" At first I used mainly die cuts and clip art to create my cards. I steered clear of all kinds of stamps and told everyone, "I am not ever going to take up stamping." Yeah, right!

I started out with clear stamps. I liked being able to "see" what I was doing. I steered clear of wooden stamps. I was nervous about being able to stamp where I wanted the image to be placed on the card. One day I broke down and purchased a couple of wooden stamps. I went home and tried them out. I stamped and the images appeared right where I had hoped they would. I was hooked. Hooked on clear and wooden stamps. Then I heard about "cling stamps" and for reasons unknown to me, dragged my heels about giving them a try.

But I broke down one day and bought one to give clings a try. It was sort of a cross between a clear stamp and a wooden one and I liked it. Picked up a couple of others over the past few months and liked them too, but I wasn’t really excited about any of them until I bought the "big cup" cling from Hero Arts. I’m in love! With a cling stamp! With the "big cup" cling stamp from Hero Arts!

The stamp arrived in yesterday’s mail around 2 PM. I didn’t use it right away, but I am guessing it was out of the package and in my hands within an hour of its arrival. Since it’s arrival I have used it to create 9 cards! And I have other cup images cut and trimmed, but haven’t placed them on a card yet.

I’ve told you before that I like to buy stamps that can be used in more than one way or can be used for a variety of occasions. Well, the "big cup" fulfills both of my expectations. It can be used as a cup or cut off the handle, and it’s a bowl. I can create "tea tags" to hang from the cup that say, "You’re my cup of tea", "Feel better soon", "Happy Mother’s Day", "Enjoy" and more. I can place stamped text like "Happy Birthday" in front of a "bowl of ice cream". I’ve only just begun. The stamp hasn’t even lived here for 24 hours yet!

At first I selected scrapbook papers that had tiny prints on them that reminded me of delicate tea cups. Then I chose papers with more vibrant prints that remind me of dinnerware sets I have seen at the store. I stamped and embossed the big cup image onto all of the papers.

Since the cup is "big" it was easy to cut it out. My hand isn’t as steady as I would like it to be when I use my craft knife, but I was able to score along the lip of the cup so I could insert a tea bag or "scoop of ice cream" in the opening. I also scored inside the handle of the tea cup, but used scissors too, to remove the paper that was filling in the handle.

The string on the tea tags is taped to the back of the cup. The tea bags pull out of the cup so that they can be used, but the tea cup will remain intact. The scoop of ice cream can pull out of the bowl so that you can write a message on it.

Now I need to run out to buy some fine glitter for some different cards that I am creating.

Have a great weekend!

Carol