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! 

Coffee Lovers Bloghop

I'm playing along today with the coffee lovers' blog hop in celebration of National Coffee Day and joining the fun with fellow card-makers who share my love for COFFEE! 

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For my friends who visit my blog often, you may recognize a similar card I posted for the Make It Monday easel challenge earlier this month. You can see my original card HERE. It was so much fun to make and the recipient LOVED the unusual card design I decided to make another. I think the easel and chalkboard is a perfect compliment to coffee. Most of the cafes I've been in have some type of chalkboard on the premises or outside. 

I used PTI Love Latte set again and die cut and color a fun stack of coffee cups. I don't color with Copics a lot because its so hard to get the shading right sometimes. But this stack is so easy to color and I love coming up with wacky color combos. I heat embossed the outline of the cups in brown to make it easier to color. 

I created an easel by die cutting a portion of the bottom out with a Half and Half die. I stamped my sentiment in white and rubbed my ink pad along the sides of the black 'chalkboard' panel. 

I drank cappuccinos and lattes a lot back in the early 90s when these hot drinks first seemed to hit the scene. I never drank brewed coffee though until my first daughter was born and coffee helped me survive a baby and full time job. And then two years later, my twin girls were born and well, I grew quite dependent on coffee. If I'm cranky or in a bad mood, my girls will say to me 'Mommy, have you had your coffee today?'. Ok, ok, you can say I'm addicted! 

I have a Kurig now and drink several brands but don't have a favorite really.  I do have very strong feelings about what I don't like....Starbucks tastes burnt to me and I have never enjoyed 'Morning Blend' made by any brand.  

My one rule....life is too short to settle for a bad cup of coffee.

Can't wait to hop around and see everyone's coffee cards. And if you have time today, check out all the information and prizes on Chaitali's Blog where all the Coffee Lovers BlogHop starts!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Two Cards for the Weekend

Hi friends.....lots to share!

Hubby is back from a year of active duty with the Coast Guard (Yay!) and its been wonderful having him around this past week before he heads back to his regular work again. We had a great day at the beach to close out the summer...less crowds because most of the kids in NJ had to go back to school after Labor Day.

First week of September has come and gone. Girls went back to school on Thursday (another Yay!) and are very excited about the school year ahead (5th and 3rd grades) and hoping that once we all get back into the swing of things, I'll get more crafty time.

Now back to crafty business....

First card I want to share is using the Easel technique for the PTI Make It Monday challenge. LOVE this technique because it is so easy and the results look so cool!

I love how easy the chalkboard look was using fresh snow ink and smokey shadow paper. Although I'm in back to school mode this week, I was in the mood to mimic a coffee bar sign and use the Latte Love set which has almost NEVER been used. The cutout for the easel stand was created using one of the Half and Half dies. 

I finally used the stacked coffee cups die which I embossed in brown to make it easier to color in with Copics. 

Next card I made is for this week's CASology challenge - UNDER - which reminds me of rain and standing under an umbrella. I cut out a panel of multicolored raindrops from the Pink Paislee Hello Sunshine collection and centered it on the white card panel which I die cut a stitched border.

I recently bought a used Scattered Showers stamp set so was happy to use it with dies that have sat unused for ages.  I clustered all the elements in the center to maintain a good amount of white space.

Well, that's it for me this weekend. Hope you had a good one! Thanks for stopping by!