My Time Made Easy - September Release Blog Hop

Today is the My Time Made Easy ™ LLC Release and to celebrate we have a BLOG HOP with some hidden treasure!

Each design team member is featuring a different themed house/Shoppe! You won't want to miss anyone!!

· Lauren Meader

· Katie Cotton (that's me)

· Lesa Rapp

· Lisa Kind

· Pam Imholz

· Silke Ledlow

· Stephanie Kraft

· Tracey Cuccia

· Tammy Hershberger

Kristin Bueter

and Dawn Easton

Be sure you leave a comment on each design team member's blog today because TWO of the design team members are going to be picked to have someone from their blog comments WIN a $50 Gift Certificate to My Time Made Easy ™ LLC!

NO ONE knows which two designers are hiding the treasure, so don't forget to stop by each design team members blog and leave a little love there. Include your email address-so you can be contacted if YOU are one of the lucky winners!

Winners will be drawn September 3rd, and announced on Lauren Meader's Blog .

Well it's midnight on the first! Well, at least it is when this is first posted! Which means anytime after now all the new products from My Time Made Easy are live and ready for shoppers on the site! Speaking of shopping, thats exactly what this release is all about! The release this month is a little different than in the past... only 1 template and it's a MEGA template complete with many bonus features that makes you able to recreate this 1 template again and again all the while being able to make it look different every time! Gotta love that! Ironically... in my project today, i only used the template base and none of the bonus features. I actually intended to create the chimney but totally forgot until i was typing up this post! haha!

Here is my Bit O' Blarney shoppe. I love the irish cottage feel and how this turned out. I was laying in bed the other night thinking of my sister who is currently IN Ireland. Yes, thats right, she's there and i'm here. Thats not cool. haha. Just kidding, my sister is MORE than deserving of this vacation and i'm so happy for her. In fact, this little cottage will be given to her.

Ok, back to my middle of night scheming of how to create the Shop Around template into more of an Irish Cottage. Well i know what an irish cottage looks like (I've been to Ireland, though YEARS ago and have a small collection of english cottage figurines but still i learned long ago that when you are working on a new art project, this first thing you need is RESEARCH. So i googled Irish Cottage Photos. Beware, the previous link will have you packing your bags and searching for flights to Ireland! Don't they just look so peaceful and serene. I could craft there all day long! Hahahaha!

So step one of creating my Irish Cottage shop was that roof! I went to PetSmart and bought a small bag of Rabbit Snacking straw. It was PERFECT for the job! Very easy to cut down to the size i needed and was light weight. It easily adhered to the scor-tape i had underneath.

In case you'd like to recreate this at home (you know you wanna!) I started with the sides before ever adhering the roof pieces together. This allowed me to cut the straw pieces in a straight line and now having to somehow magically know the exact length to and have placed.

Next up i did all the perpendicular to the ground pieces and assembled my roof. There is an extra roof piece (which i did not use in my previous shoppe post) which allows an overhand. I adhered my straw pieces to this separate roof piece and then adhered that to the top.

Ok, so you get how to make the roof... next up was making it look even more lifelike... so i knew i wanted some bright bits of green moss. I used Flowersoft in what else but SHAMROCK GREEN. :D It was the perfect extra!

Now that I had my roof satisfactory, I knew i still wanted very old looking walls and for that, i KNEW that the grey stone wall from the Construction Materials pretty printables paper pack would be just PERFECT. There are so many wonderful papers in the collection that it makes any project for the Shop Around template a breeze!

Next up came decorating the shoppe! I used the Home Improvment Stamp Set for my door. I was inspired by this photo and decided to use Barn Door red ink by Distress Inks. I then sponged the edges with Aged Mahogany to give it a more worn look. Since most all the photos i was looking at had dark windows, i decided to color in the windows of my door black. Also in the linked photo is a bright red wheel barrow and i thought... HEY! MTME has a wheel barrow in the Just for You set! I stamped and cut it out so that I could color in the wheel barrow with copics and then i added Flowersoft to the top.

I did want to make my template a bit more like a shoppe and not just an irish cottage. And any shoppe needs a sign! I used the boutique sign from the Shoppe Window set and just was very careful to only ink the sign itself and not the word Boutique inside. I then hand wrote my "Bit O Blarney" (thanks tangii for helping me think up the perfect irish shop name!). You can also see in this photo how i went a little crazy with the flowersoft for moss. I was having a lot of fun just adding bits everywhere!

Ok... ONE LAST THING (for now... hehehe). I also created a matching card using the Homemade and matching Envelope cut file. I wanted the over all look to match that of the Bit O Blarney shop so I created the same roof to stick out over the top and created a similar door.

The card then pulls out of the envelope (so cute, huh?) Since i wanted the card to slide in and out nicely, i opted to keep the inside simple. I've left the inside for a heartfelt note. The over all thoughts of this card for me is for Good Luck, which afterall is what a Bit O Blarney would be? Right?

So there you have it! Now be sure to check out the entire design team and have a wonderful day!!!