All the Goodness of Life in A Cup

Happy Memorial Day,

I hope you are having a relaxing and meaningful day. Maybe spending it with friends and/or family. Me, I've been packing so I can head to the airport in a couple of hours. I'm working in Northern Arizona this week and I need to be at the customer site tomorrow morning, which means that I have to fly on the holiday. Poor me!

Yesterday I had a few hours in my craft room. Since I'll be gone until Friday afternoon, I wanted to get my card made for this week's Paper Players Challenge. LeAnne is hostess with a fun sketch challenge. I'm also linking this up to the 2018 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.

I pulled out a pretty old Taylored Expressions set called Let's Do Coffee to make my card.

I stamped the border coffee cups stamp using Dapper Denim ink onto the card base. The panel is a layer of MFT gingham patterned paper matted with a layer of Dapper Denim card stock. The images are stamped with memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics. I used some random white card stock instead of my usual X-Press It Blending and the Copics didn't blend well. Very disappointing, but I didn't want to re-do. After coloring, they were fussy cut and adhered to the gingham paper. The sentiment is from the same set. I masked off the lower part and stamped Coffee in Dapper Denim, then cut the circle. Then I masked off the Coffee and stamped the lower part on Dapper Denim card stock using VersaMark and heat embossed with white EP. Then, it's cut with a Die-namics Flag die. I added red, white and blue enamel hearts at the bottom of the circle for embellishment.

Here's the inside:

Again, all images are from the TE stamp set.

That's it from me for now. Enjoy your holiday and thanks for looking in!
Colleen


Supplies
Stamps: Let's Do Coffee set by Taylored Expressions
Paper: Neenah Desert Storm, SU Dapper Denim, & "random" white card stocks,  blue gingham patterned paper from MFT
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Dapper Denim, VersaMark, SU Crumb Cake, SU Emerald Envy marker
Other: White EP, heat tool, Die-namics dies, mini-dimensionals, Gemini Jr, Misti, enamel hearts

Congratulations Grad

Happy Saturday to all,

I hope you are enjoying the first day of the long Memorial Day weekend. I've been running the usual Saturday errands, but now I'm home and looking forward to doing some stamping. Mr. Personal Chef's birthday is 5/30 and I still need to make his card. Luckily, I have a design in mind.

One of my best friend's daughter graduates from high school this month. I was a little late getting her card made because of my South American vacation, but I finished it yesterday evening and just put in in the mail with a gift card. She is on her way from Chicago to Virginia Tech to major in engineering. She is also on the swim team. An ambitious young woman!

I decided to make a shaker card. For some reason, shaker cards and I are not friends. This one seemed to work better than most that I try.

I started with a Taylored Expressions stamp called Graphic Greetings Graduate and stamped it onto "window plastic" using Staz-On white ink. While it was drying, I stamped the Pure Innocence Graduate onto Neenah Solar White heavy weight card stock and colored it with Copics. As the graduate's school colors are Navy and White, I went with a navy card base and colored the cap and gown in navy. After coloring the main image, I colored the background with BG Copics in lighter shades. I wanted the white lettering on the window plastic to stand out.  The window is cut with a Die-namics stitched rectangle die. Using double sided tape I taped the window plastic to the back of the cut panel, then used foam tape to outline the area where the shaker elements would go. Finally, I glued 3 of the sequins stars to the outside of the card.

That's it from me today. Thanks for stopping in and I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Supplies
Stamps: Graphic Greetings Graduate stamp by Taylored Expressions and Pure Innocence Graduate by My Favorite Things
Paper: TE textured Navy and Neenah Solar White card stock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Staz-on White, and Copics
Other: Die-namics Stitched Rectangle die, window plastic, Misti Stamping tool, various sequins and shapes for shaker, foam tape, double sided tape

Thank You So Much

Well hello to all,

After about three weeks off, I'm both back to work and back to stamping. I had a wonderful vacation with my sister and nephew in Ecuador and Peru. Both are beautiful countries, very diverse and full of wonderful folks. There wasn't one thing that went wrong. We returned to the U.S. last Friday afternoon and I spent most of the weekend catching up on sleep and laundry.

I used this week's Paper Players Challenge to get back into the stamping mode. Laurie is the hostess with a Clean and Simple Floral challenge. Perfect to get the creative juices flowing again.

I stamped the branch with Tim Holtz Gathered Twigs Distress Oxide ink onto a 4.00 x 5.25 X-Press It Blending card stock panel. After it dried somewhat, I stamped the flowers with Tattered Rose Distress Oxide ink using my Misti. Most have two or three layers of ink. After the pink ink was dry, I stamped the centers with Seedless Preserves Distress Oxide ink.  The sentiment is stamped with Gathered Twigs. I mixed some of the Seedless Preserves ink with water on an acrylic block and splattered some over the panel using a paint brush.

The panel is adhered to a Blush Blossom card panel using a layer of fun foam. Finally, I randomly glued 3 clear crystals to the front. Still pretty CAS with a layer and the embellishments, I think.

I forgot to take a picture of the inside, but I just stamped "You're So Kind" directly on the Blush Blossom card using Gathered Twigs ink.

I'll leave you with an iconic view of Machu Picchu. It's truly a remarkable spot and so worth the effort to visit. We had perfect weather, as you can see. At that elevation, the sky is as blue as it can be.

Thanks for stopping in today,
Colleen


Card supplies
Stamps: Concord & 9th Beautiful Branches set
Paper: X-Press It Blending and SU Blush Blossom card stocks
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide in Gathered Twigs, Tattered Rose and Seedless Preserves
Other: Misti Stamping Tool, fun foam, clear crystal embellishments, paint brush, liquid glue