What A Little Coffee Can Do

Don't know about you but I'm absolutely addicted to coffee and not ashamed to admit it. Not the fancy lattes or espresso drinks with syrup (though those are yummy on occasion) you can get at Starbucks. Just a plain old cup of coffee with sugar and a few of drops of milk for me. So two cups of coffee this morning are what inspired and energized me to makes these cards in less than two hours this morning.  So any fellow coffee fans out there??

First card uses the often forgotten Latte Love set which I was inspired to take out for this week's CASology cue word HOT.  I used the technique Tasnim Ahmed shared in the Clean & Simple class day 6 - masked stripe background. I stamped the image of the stacked cups and colored them in with Copics. I love this technique because even with the striped background there feels like there's still a lot of white space left.

For my second card I used a discarded chevron coverlet piece from my experimenting the other day with various cover plates for the Make It Monday challenge. I layered the Limeade Ice chevron over a white card base. For the center panel, I used a card from one of the Monthly Moments sets, stamped a candle in Limeade Ice, sentiment from Wet Paint, and added a touch of Stickles on the candle flame. Design inspired by CAS(E) This Sketch challenge. 

Last card today was inspired by the pretty colors at ColourQ which I wanted to pair with the Big Hugs set I haven't used very much. 

I stamped the scripted HUGS in Hibiscus Burst, Orange Zest, and Sweet Blush and the sentiment in Pure Poppy. I wanted the red card base to be showing at the top and bottom of the card so to emphasize I scored a line on the white panel for added interest and added a few enamel dots to finish. 

Thanks for stopping today. Hope your having a great week! 

Clean & Simple 4

I'm really enjoying this class this week. Lots of ideas brewing in my head. I don't have necessary supplies for a few of the more complicated techniques but there's still many other things left to try. 

First card uses the faux embossing technique demonstrated by Yana Smakula.  I wanted to make a masculine card with the fun die cuts from PTI Handy Hardware. I used Rustic White cardstock layered on an adhesive sheet to make gluing the pieces easier. Can't imagine adhering them with liquid adhesive. 

Simple sentiment on a chocolate banner. I LOVE how this look and I think this will be a technique I use again and again! 

Next card uses the Layered Inking technique that Jennifer McGuire demonstrated. I inked a piece of white cardstock completely with Hero Arts Soft Stone ink (direct to paper) and then blended Heidi Swapp dark blue ink along the edges. Love the 

Now here's where I cheated. The technique called for the butterflies to be stamped in Versamark ink and after some time, the Versamark ink would react to the dye ink and lighten on the background and appear white. But somehow this part didn't work for me...the butterflies never appeared. Not sure why but the technique worked for others in the class so maybe I did something wrong. 

I cheated by stamping the butterflies in white to achieve the same effect. 

This pretty background seemed perfect for a sympathy type card so I partially die cut a vase and stamped the sentiment beneath and adhered the strip with foam tape so that it floats above the dark sky and butterflies. 

So that's it for me now. Hoping to get some crafting time in tomorrow. Have a great weekend friends and thanks for stopping by! 

Border Gap Die Cutting

Hello friends! I'm taking the latest Clean & Simple card making class at onlinecardclasses.com this week and having some fun getting inky with the new techniques I'm learning. Kristina Werner, Jennifer McGuire & their special friends are making me bring out the big guns, the stuff that rarely sees the craft light in my room - distress inks, blending tools, stencils, and even the big Tim Holtz craft mat! Have to tell you that I'm in love with the look of ink blending...just need to practice a bit more so that I get a smooth and even finish and a better gradient look. 

On Day 2, Kristina shared the border gap die cutting technique. Here's my birthday card - 

I used a couple of bright distress inks to form the colored portion under my copic-colored cake. To give it a little more sparkle, I used my new gold wink of stella for the candles and heat embossed the brown cake topping in clear to give the chocolate ganache a more realistic look. 

But my favorite new trick I learned was to use big strips of foam tape (or even an entire layer of fun foam) to make the top card panel stand out. I would have used foam squares in the past and after a while the card panel would be uneven and when the card is flattened for an envelope the panel would be distorted. Now with the big strips of foam tape...looks nice and even for the long haul. 

And Post-It tape...LOVE it! Makes masking so much easier. Gonna have to get both foam tape and post-it tape in large quantities next time I'm shopping. 

ETA - Also entering this into the CASology Birthday challenge. That was the whole reason why I picked the cake in the first place. Meant to do that but got distracted getting the kids ready for school this morning! 

That's all for me now. Will have more to share from this class soon. Thanks for taking a peek!