Week #12 - 'Dear to my Heart' WINNERS!

Another awesome week in the Tea Room ... 90 amazing designs from our loyal followers!  Each one was unique and beautiful in it's own right!  We love seeing your creativity and inspiration here so keep those wonderful creations coming :)

Thanks to all participants who worked on turning Word Verification off and Comment Moderation on in your blog settings ... the DT really appreciates your efforts as it's a huge time saver for us all when we leave a little {love} on your blogs!

A big thank you to our Guest Designer from Week #12, LIZZI DROEGE!  Her 'heart' card was absolutely shabby, vintage and magnificant!  Thanks for sharing your talents with us all in the Tea Room, Lizzi!

An extra special and 'heartfelt' thank you to our magnificant sponsor, JUSTRITE!!!  The DT loved playing with Justrite's awesome products and our followers enjoyed peeking at the Justrite site and viewing all the new products just released for summer!  Thanks so much for the generous prize package valued at $70!  One lucky winner will be giggling with delight when she realizes she has won :)  Stay tuned, Justrite will be partnering up with us here in the Tea Room during future months throughout 2010!  THANK YOU MUCH!

Okay, and now down to business!  There were so many wonderful submissions, as always, this week.  It makes the task of picking winners so challenging!  Your talent is simply amzing!  Here are the designs that caught my eye this week for capturing the essence of the 'Dear to my Heart' challenge by using lots of hearts in the most creative of ways:

HONORABLE MENTION CUPS OF TEA:

1.  Heather #17

2.  Sheri H. #18

3.  Lynne Phelps #23

4.  Ros Crawford #26

5.  Irit #33

6.  Gwen Snater #56

7.  Karen B. #69

8.  Lisa G. #71

THE SHABBY TEA ROOM TEA TIME TERRIFIC TOP THREE WINNERS:

1.  Lenet #23

2.  Leanne #40

3.  Nerina #52

THE SHABBY TEA ROOM WINNER - Week #12:

April Rose #74!  Oh my shabby goodness ... I am absolutely speechless!  This has got to be one of the most beautiful handmade cards I have seen in my entire life!  April HANDMADE the template for the teapot on her card and all the accessory layers too!  The attention to detail, the outstanding coloring, all the embellies and bling ... and that little pocket heart on the inside of the card made to look like a tea bag -- just FABULOUS -- all of it!  The pink and blue color combo is one of my favorites ... I just can't find words good enough to express my thoughts on this card -- April Rose, you are one talented lady!  Thanks for sharing your lovely work with us in the Tea Room.  You have earned a spot to Guest Design with us during an up-coming challenge week :)

Congratulations to ALL!  Tea Time Terrific Top Three and Winner can grab your badges from our sidebar that you can proudly display on your blogs!  Week #12 Winner please contact me via e-mail to claim your prize!

A Shabby Little DESIGN TEAM CALL!

It is with great sadness that I announce that our lovely Design Team Member, Jill, has decided to step down from her Design Team spot here in the Tea Room.  Jill's business is booming and she simply cannot devote the proper amount of time each week to keep up with her DT duties.  Jill will be sorely missed by us all, but we hope that she can pop in and play along with some of our weekly challenges as her schedule allows!

With that said, we are issuing a SHABBY TEA ROOM DESIGN TEAM CALL!  We have TWO spots available and would love to see your BEST work!

First, the DESIGN TEAM rules:

• You must be able to submit a card or project each week based on the weekly challenge theme no later than the Saturday before the new challenge is to go 'live'.
• You must be able to comment weekly on participant submissions.
• You must be able to host a weekly challenge once every six weeks -- this means coming up with a theme for everyone to play along with.
• You must currently have a blog and be an active blogger!
• You must be on the watch for any sponsorship opportunities for our wonderful participants in The Shabby Tea Room challenges and forward me any and all contact info.
• From time to time our wonderful sponsors donate products for the DT to work with!  You will have the option of accepting these donated products or declining.
• Our DT terms run for six months ... but this one is already past mid-way, so you'll have the option of re-upping at the end of this term in September.

That is basically it!  Every once in a while we will do something fun like a blog hop or special little something for the holidays. 

If this sounds like something that you might be interested in, then here is what you will do next for submission and in order to be considered for a position on our DESIGN TEAM:

• #1 - Create a card or project ... or both based on the following inspiration photo.  You may be inspired by the colors, the theme, the vintage tea pot ... let's see your BEST work!
• #2 - Link your project here AND then send me an e-mail with the following information:  your full name, address, phone number, e-mail address, other design team experience (DT experience not required) and a brief write up about why you'd like to join The Shabby Tea Room Design Team.

• You may enter as many times as you wish.
• Although vintage and shabby chic design styles are not a requirement of this challenge blog, if you're so inclined to design with these styles in mind you may get bonus points!!!
• This DT call will run from June 6th through June 16th - and will end at midnight EST.  The two new design team members will be announced on June 17th and your term will begin with Week #15 on June 21st.

Good luck to all who choose to submit for this DESIGN TEAM Call!  I cannot wait to see your creations!

Week #12 - 'Dear to my Heart"

Using a heart as the main focal point or spotlight of your design, create a card or project for the Tea Room challenge this week!  We're excited to see lots of hearts ... get creative ... use heart embellishments, heart patterned papers, heart stamps, heart shaped cards -- anything goes!

Note:  You must use the Week #12 challenge requirements and DIRECT LINK your project back to The Shabby Tea Room in order to be considered for the weekly prizes.  Please only link your submission for this challenge POST and not your entire blog or multiple project submissions.  Questions?  Contact me!

I am very pleased to introduce you all to this week's Guest Designer, LIZZI DROEGE!  For those of you who are regular followers in the Tea Room, you will recognize Lizzi's gorgeous, scrumptious vintage work!  Lizzi's incredible design sense has earned her a few Tea Time Terrific Top Three and Winner honor's, including her win during our Week #4 Challenge - Embrace the White!  Please stop by Lizzi's blog when you have a minute and leave her a little {love}!

Lizzie Droege - buttercream and roses

And now for some more inspiration from our Design Team Members ... we have some extra inspiration this week due to the generosity of our sponsor - - -

Debbie Marcinkiewicz - Simple Treasures

JustRite - Friendship Set

JustRite - Applique Set

Audrey Pettit - Audrey Pettit's Weblog - Week #12 Host

JustRite - Plant a Little Love

Jill Hilliard - Jill's Card Creations

Melissa Hubert - My Paper Obsession

JustRite - Girl Time

Nicole Segnere - My Craftroom Creations

JustRite - Just a Note

JustRite - Let's Celebrate

Hop on over to the design team individual blogs to see lots more creative and beautiful inspiration!

So, drum roll please ... if you haven't guessed it by now, this week's fabulous sponsor is none other than JUSTRITE!

 

JustRite's new 84-page full-color 2010 Catalog & Idea Book, with over 100 projects, can be preordered here: http://preorder.justritestampers.com/category.aspx?categoryID=194 and will begin shipping July 12.

Beginning June 1, JustRite will be previewing their June release on the JustRite Inspiration blog: http://justritestampers.typepad.com/justrite-inspiration/ and will be taking preorders of the new June product here: http://preorder.justritestampers.com/category.aspx?categoryID=194. They will be rolling out a brand new concept of Nested Frames, Sentiments & Verse, and the new CLEAR stampers they fit on! Same great JustRite interlocking grid system.

And now for the PRIZE!!!  We will award a "The Shabby Tea Room Tea Time Terrific Top Three" badge to the three most creative projects!!!  One lucky participant will earn "The Shabby Tea Room Winner" badge and this prize package donated by JustRite:

JB 09210 All Occasions Nested Sentiments - $14.95

JB 09215 Cherish the Memories Nested Sentiments- $14.95

JB 09520 Clear Horizontal Stamper - $23.95

JB 09200 Baroques Nested Sentiments - $14.95

These goodies are from the new June release and are valued at nearly $70!!!  WOW!!!

Get your creative juices flowing and participate in this week's 'Dear to my Heart' challenge.  Play as many time as you wish!  We love to see your work!

Please do take some time to visit the sweet gals over at JustRite this week.  Leave them a comment and let them know that you heard about them from The Shabby Tea Room :)  Good luck to everyone!

Link your creations below by Sunday, June 6th to play along.  Winner and Tea Time Terrific Top Three will be announced on Monday, June 7th.  We will have an all-new challenge for you to play along with on June 7th as well, so please come back and visit with us again for another chance to win!

Week #11 - 'Polka Dot Tea Party' WINNERS!

OH MY SHABBY GOODNESS ... a record breaking week here in the Tea Room!  I'm so happy to see that so many of you {heart} polka dots and tea parties as much as I do - yippiee! 

We received an A-MAZING 137 submissions this week which broke all submission records during the past eleven weeks. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you all for sharing your beautiful creations with us here in the Tea Room.  We sure do appreciate your creativity and participation and it's so much fun to see this shabby little challenge blog growing so rapidly!  We now have 403 fantastic followers in only our first 3 months ... if you're not a follower yet, consider joining us!  It's a lot of fun -- we have GREAT sponsors and GREAT prizes each week  :) 

Thank you to Maddy Hill for being our wonderful Guest Designer this week and creating the most lovely card and fimo fairy for us all to ooohh and ahhhh over too!

A bit of Tea Room housekeeping next!  I've made a request the past couple weeks from myself and the DT members for your consideration in turning WORD VERIFICATION off and COMMENT MODERATION on ... thanks to all those that have adjusted the settings on your blogs!  I really have noticed a difference!

The wonderful ladies on the Tea Room's design team really do make an effort to visit and comment on all of your lovely submissions!  We simply love to see the creativity in all of your designs!  The Word Verification prompt is making our visits harder to achieve as it adds time to the commenting process, and in some instances, will cause computers to 'freeze'.  We want to be sure that you know how much we appreciate all of you taking the time to stop by and submit a project, and we can do so by leaving you some {love}!  We'd sure appreciate it if you would consider changing the settings on your blogs to comment moderation only.  This way you still are in control of which comments you choose to allow and which you will reject.

The Shabby Tea Room Design Team thanks you in advance!!

A special thank you to our wonderful sponsor last week, Sharon Johnson from The Stamp Simply Ribbon Store!  Thanks also to Sharon and the gals on her design team, Deb Saaranen, Barb Schram, Sherry Cheever and Michelle Woerner, for sharing their lovely creations with us in the Tea Room using polka dots and all things tea!

It was next to impossible to choose winners for this week's challenge.  There were so many submissions and so many outstanding designs.  In my book, you are ALL winners and I appreciate you all taking the time to design and submit to the Tea Room.  I loved looking and commenting on every single one of your creations this week! 

Okay ... and without a further moments ado, here are the designs that caught my eye this week for capturing the essence of the 'Polka Dot Tea Party' challenge by using a tea or tea party theme or polka dots .... OR BOTH:

HONORABLE MENTION CUPS OF TEA:

1.  Deb Hickman #49

2.  Michele Gross #52

3.  Nerina #56

4.  Carol R. #70

5.  Jo #90

6.  Terrie Bailey #101

7.  Lisa G. #124

8.  Chris #129

THE SHABBY TEA ROOM TEA TIME TERRIFIC TOP THREE WINNERS:

1.  April Rose #63

2.  Irit #102

3.  Mindy Baxter #106

THE SHABBY TEA ROOM WINNER - Week #11:

Clare Buswell #122!  Clare designed three cards, a 3-D tea cup, a spoon and a handmade tea bag for our Polka Dot Tea Party Challenge!  Oh my shabby goodness ... each creation that Clare designed was even better than the last!  The soft baby pink and robin egg blue theme she picked was just simply beautiful!  The soft vintage feel of all her projects with the added elements of lace, ribbons, buttons and sewing was simply stunning!  The little rose petal patterned paper Clare used for the handmade tag on the tea bag is just precious!  I just loved all the projects and am wondering if Clare needs my address to mail these all off to me {giggle}!!!  Thank you, Clare, for sharing your wonderful talents with us all in the Tea Room this week!  You will now be eligible to be a Guest Design Team Member with us in an up-coming challenge :)  Well done!

Congratulations to ALL!  Tea Time Terrific Top Three and Winner, please contact me via e-mail to claim your winner badges that you can proudly display on your blogs and the winner prize!

Week #11 - 'Polka Dot Tea Party'

Using this adorable photo for inspiration, create a card or project using either a tea or tea party theme or polka dots ... or BOTH!!

We're excited to see what you create for the Tea Room challenge this week!!!

Note:  You must use the Week #11 challenge requirements and DIRECT LINK your project back to The Shabby Tea Room in order to be considered for the weekly prizes.  Please only link your card or project POST and not your entire blog or multiple project submissions.  Questions?  Contact me!

I am very pleased to introduce our Guest Designer for this week's challenge ... MADDY HILL!  I simply fell in {love} with Maddy's lovely creations, both the paper ones and the fimo clay ones, since she first made an appearance in the Tea Room during our inaugural Week #1 challenge!!  Maddy's beautiful creations for the Week #1 challenge won her first place and this Guest Spot here in the Tea Room!  Please take a minute and hop on over to Maddy's blog to view her gorgeous inspiration and take a peek here at what Maddy created especially for us here in the Tea Room this week: 

Maddy Hill - Madimaginations

And now for some more inspiration from our Design Team Members ...

Debbie Marcinkiewicz - Simple Treasures - Week #11 host

Audrey Pettit - Audrey Pettit's Weblog

Jill Hilliard - Jill's Card Creations

Melissa Hubert - My Paper Obsession

Nicole Segnere - My Craft Room Creations

Now, hop on over to our Design Team individual blogs to see lots more creative and beautiful inspiration!!

We will award a "The Shabby Tea Room Tea Time Terrific Top Three" badge to the three most creative projects!!!  One lucky participant will earn "The Shabby Tea Room Winner" badge and this prize package donated this week by our sponsor - Sharon Johnson from the Stamp Simply Store:

Look at all that scrumptious ribbon and those gorgeous designer papers from October Afternoon's Thrift Shop Series - YUM!  Thanks so much to Sharon for sponsoring Week #11 in the Tea Room.  I {heart} all the lovely products that Sharon carries in her shop and am a frequent shopper of her store!!  Please visit Sharon's blog this week and leave her a sweet comment letting her know you're visiting from the Tea Room blog - she'd love to hear from you!  Sharon and her talented Design Team will be playing along with the Tea Room challenge this week and are doing a blog hop ... more inspiration ... check it out!!

Link your creations below by Sunday, May 30th to play along.  Winner and Tea Time Terrific Top Three will be announced Monday, May 31st.  We will have an all-new challenge for you to play along with on the 31st as well, so please come back and visit with us again for another chance to win!

Week #10 - 'Stars & Stripes' WINNERS!

Another totally FUN week in the Tea Room!  So many of you enjoyed our 'Stars & Stripes' challenge and got so creative with your use of either stars, stripes, the colors red, white and blue ... or all THREE!  We had 42 simply wonderful submissions -- so many designers went patriotic with their creations for the upcoming Memorial Day holiday!

Thanks to our WONDERFUL GUEST DESIGNER, LINDA COUGHLIN, for sharing one of her lovely creations with us all this week!

A big thank you also to Rae Barthel from Rae's Cards for sponsoring Week #10 in the Tea Room and providing such a lovely prize package!!

So, here we go!  Here are the submissions this week that caught my eye for capturing the essence of the 'Stars and Stripes' challenge by using stars, stripes, the colors red, white and blue ... or all three:

HONORABLE MENTION CUPS OF TEA:

1.  Cammie M. #38

2.  Beth C. # 15

3.  Simply Shaz #23

4.  Marsha Sanderlin #22

5.  Tracy MacDonald #24

6.  Justine #30

THE SHABBY TEA ROOM TEA TIME TERRIFIC TOP THREE WINNERS:

1.  Ashley Cannon Newell #13

2.  Carol R. #25

3.  Jo #26

THE SHABBY TEA ROOM WINNER - Week #10:

Lisa G. #5!  Lisa's amazing design this week really captured the essence of our challenge -- Lisa used all of the elements we included for the challenge - colors, stars and stripes!  The vintage sheet music DSP is simply scrumptious!  All the embossing and folded acordian flowers - wonderful!  The vintage image and Shabby Vintage Seam Binding all just add such charm to Lisa's card!  Thank you so much, Lisa, for sharing your talents with us all in the Tea Room this week!

Congratulations to ALL!  Tea Time Terrific Top Three and Winner, please contact me via e-mail to claim your winner badges that you can proudly display on your blogs and the winner prize!  Lisa will now be eligible to Guest Design with us in the Tea Room during an upcoming challenge!!

Week #10 - Stars & Stripes!

With Memorial Day right around the corner, we here in the Tea Room decided to do a Red, White & Blue and/or stars & stripes theme this week!  Nicole is our cutie pie host and here is the photo she has chosen for us all to be inspired by:

We're excited to see your creations this week inspired by this photo ... use Red, White & Blue for your theme, use stars and/or stripes ... or use BOTH!!!  Have fun with our challenge this week :)

Note:  You must use the Week #9 challenge requirements and DIRECT LINK your project back to The Shabby Tea Room in order to be considered for the weekly prizes.  Please only link your card or project POST and not your entire blog or multiple project submissions.  Questions?  Contact me!

I am very happy to introduce you all to our talented GUEST DESIGNER this week - Linda Coughlin, The Funkie Junkie!  I fell in love with and began following Linda's work when she started participating in the weekly challenges here in the Tea Room!  Her lovely, shabby and vintage style just catches my eye each and every week and takes my breath away!  Linda was the winner of our Week #2 Challenge - 'Spring Inspired' and use stitching which you can view here!   Please take some time and flip through the pages on Linda's fabulous blog ... so much goodness there!!  And here is her submission this week for 'Stars & Stripes' ...

Linda Coughlin, The Funkie Junkie

And now some more inspiration from our Design Team Members ...

Debbie Marcinkiewicz - Simple Treasures

Audrey Pettit  - Audrey Pettit's Weblog

Jill Hilliard - Jill's Card Creations

Melissa Hubert - My Paper Obsession

Nicole Segnere - My Craft Room Creations - Week #10 host

Hop on over to our Design Team individual blogs to see lots more creative and beautiful inspiration!

Our sponsor this week is Rae Barthel from Simply Rae!  Among many other accomplishments in the paper crafting industry, Rae is a Design Team Member for the Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker company and has graciously donated some yummy goodies for our prize this week!  I hope you can stop by Rae's blog and leave her a sweet comment to show some appreciation for her sponsorship with the Tea Room this week :)  Look at all the goodness Rae sent - stickers, patterned papers, buttons, silk flowers and tons of embellishments to create with!

We will award a "The Shabby Tea Room Tea Time Terrific Top Three" badge to the three most creative projects!!!  One lucky participant will earn "The Shabby Tea Room Winner" badge and the prize package donated by Rae!

Link your creations below by Sunday, May 23rd to play along.  Winner and Tea Time Terrific Top Three will be announced Monday, May 24th.  We will have an all-new challenge for you to play along with on the 24th as well, so please come back and visit with us again for another chance to win!