Creation Station April Blog Hop--Sweet Treat Packages

 

Welcome to the Creation Station April Hop!  Whether you've hopped over from Yvonne's wonderful blog or have just started your hop, I'm so glad you've landed here.  This month our theme is Sweet Treat Packages.  We have lots of inspiration for you today.  Be sure and click on the "Next" link at the end of each blog and hop around to see each of the design team's projects.

As I thought about what I wanted to do for today's hop, I made a mental list of my favorite sweet treats.    Blueberries, as always, topped the list.  Why?  Blueberries invoke some of my favorite memories from childhood and family camping trips.  We always took our trips from Kansas north to Northern Minnesota and Ontario, Canada, during the hot month of August.  We landed in our favorite spots as the wild blueberries were reaching the peak of sweetness--which is why they were our favorite spots!  My sisters, brother and I would take our buckets to find "our" blueberry patches.  Sometimes we arrived well after the bears had eaten most of the berries, and one time we arrived at the same time as a bear (another story); however, usually we arrived in time for enough berries to have blueberry pancakes in the morning (maybe two mornings!) and a sweet juicy cobbler my mother made by rigging up an oven out of foil to bake it in the campfire ashes.  That, my friends, is the sweetest treat of all!

A blueberry cobbler wouldn't fit in a treat package, so I baked some blueberry bars, cooled them completely and packaged them in Printed Gusseted Cellophane Bags (#151312) for sweet Easter treats.

The tags were created using the third and fourth largest dies in the retiring Stitched Nested Labels dies (#149638) and Misty Moonlight and Whisper White card stock.  The ribbon is the retiring Misty Moonlight 1/4" ribbon (#153624) and the Misty Moonlight/silver baker's twine from the Flowers for Every Season ribbon combo pack (#153620).  The greeting is from the retiring Well Said stamp set (#148796) and was stamped in night of Navy.

The blueberry image used on the tag and mini card set is from the retiring Field Journal Stamp Set (#152609--purchased because of those camping memories!).  The image was stamped in Night of Navy and colored using the following Stampin' Blends:  Old Olive Combo, Misty Moonlight Combo, Rich Razzleberry Dark and Soft Suede Light.

The 3" x 3" card set includes 5 cards and envelopes which fit nicely inside a 3-1/8" square Acetate Card Box (#150428).  It makes a nice little gift to go with a sweet treat.  The cards have both "For You" and "Thank You" greetings (the "Thank You" is from the Field Journal stamp set).  The background grid image is from the retiring Comfort & Hope stamp set (#152509) and was stamped in Crumb Cake.  The images were all stamped on Whisper White card stock which was die cut using the largest square in the retiring Stitched Shapes die set (#152323), then layered over Misty Moonlight card stock.  The Misty Moonlight layer on the box cover was embossed with the Old World Paper 3D embossing folder (#153200).

I've used several retiring products as noted, including the stamp sets and dies.  If you are interested in purchasing them, they are now available while supplies last or until May 3.  Shop Here to find these and other Last Chance products.

Whisper White card stock is now discontinued, but I'm using up my stash.  You'll find an equally nice card stock with our new Basic White (Shop Here).

Now head over to Julie's blog to see her cool sweet treat packages:

To Julie's Blog . . .

Have a wonderful day!

--Sara Nell

Behold Him, Behold Him

Lift up your eyes and see the

Son of Heaven.

Hosanna, Hosanna

Pour Out Your Praise

Sing the Name of Jesus

--Brandon Lake

"Son of Heaven" from his House of Miracles Album

Be Joyful!--#tgifc276

The TGIF Challenges color combo challenge this week is Magenta Madness, Bermuda Bay and Gorgeous Grape.  Happy, fun, joyful colors and just the combo to help me get out of a slump. 

Joyful colors called a joyful background technique--Bubbles!  This technique made a big mess and my old white tee now sports a colorful pattern! It was my first try at this technique.   It didn't turn out like I thought it would--but I don't care--it was fun and messy and all the things I needed!  A reminder to be joyful!

 

To create the background, I filled three shallow dishes with water, a drop of dishwashing soap and several drops of one of the challenge color refill inks.  After covering my kitchen counter with a towel, a piece of cardboard and several pieces of watercolor paper, I started blowing bubbles into one of the dishes using a straw.  Once I had a big load of bubbles, I transferred them from the dish to the watercolor paper.  I repeated this with each of the colors and added more bubbles of each color as needed.  I expected more white areas on the paper when it was dried, but am happy with the subtle circles and colors.

It took me a while to figure out how to use the background paper once it was dry!  I played around with different texture stamps and colors.  On this card I used the grid pattern from Comfort & Hope stamp set (#152509) and the rustic squares pattern from Textured Essentials stamp set(#152612).  The images were stamped in Magenta Madness and Bermuda Bay and then embossed with clear embossing powder.  Bermuda Bay splatters were added with a Water Painter (#151298).

The letters were die cut out of Gorgeous Grape card stock adhered to a piece of Foam Adhesive Sheet (#152815) using the Playful Alphabet dies (#152706). A bow of Magenta Madness 1/4" ribbon (#153623)enamel dots (#152480), a layer of Gorgeous Grape card stock and a Magenta Madness card base complete the card. 

Be sure and check out all of the fun projects using the color combo over at the TGIF Challenges blog here.

I'm thinking I may just keep this card on my desk as a reminder to look for joy!

Hope you have a great weekend!

--Sara Nell

Jeremiah 15:16