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

Happy Birthday

Hello and happy Monday,

Today is my first day off for a three week vacation. Whoo-hoo! On Thursday morning my sister and I are headed to Quito, Ecuador. We'll be in Ecuador for a week, then fly on to Lima, Peru and be in Peru for a week. We have our train tickets, hotel reservations and park tickets for two days at Machu Picchu.  That should be one of the highlights of the trip. We have many other excursions planned for the two weeks in each country. It may be one of those vacations that you have to go back to work to rest up. I've been finishing up my list of things to buy this morning, now it's down to laundry and packing.

Of course, I have to make time in my craft room before I leave it for two weeks. Yesterday I made a couple of birthday cards. This week's Paper Players Challenge is brought to us by Joanne and she has a fun Tic-tac-toe challenge. These are always so fun and I usually have a hard time deciding on which way to play. Also, the Seize The Birthday Challenge this week is "anything goes," so I'm posting my card there as well.

I ended up going the middle horizontal row. Birthday, Ribbon, Masculine. What threw me was the ribbon on a masculine card. Something I probably wouldn't normally think to do. Full disclosure, I thought of what ribbon to use first, and then picked my papers to go with the ribbon. Kind of crazy! Looking through my box of ribbons, I came across this SU naturals and decided it should work fine on a masculine card.

The small coffee containers are from the Lawn Fawn Love You A Latte set and the large coffee container die is Paper Smooches. I stamped the small cups randomly onto Neenah Desert Storm card stock with Memento brown ink and colored them with Faber-Castel Polychromos pencils. I stamped the coffee bean with Memento brown ink as well.  The large cup die is cut from the Desert Storm paper and a piece of MFT orange gingham patterned paper. The circle, heart and card base are SU Handsome Hunter card stock. I colored the large cup with the colored pencils to match the small ones. IRL, the Handsome Hunter shade is much closer to the green shade used on the cups. In the photo, it looks way more blue!

The inside greeting and image are from the same LF stamp set.

It's a super gloomy day here on the San Diego coast. In fact, we had a smidgen of rain this morning. A good day to be inside. I need to get a Mother's Day card made this afternoon so that Mr Personal Chef can mail it for me while I'm in SA.

Have a great Monday afternoon all! Thanks for stoping in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Love You a Latte set by Lawn Fawn
Paper: Neenah Desert Storm, SU Handsome Hunter, MFT gingham patterned paper
Ink: Memento brown, SU Handsome Hunter, Faber-Castel Polychromos colored pencils
Other: Paper Smooches Coffee Cup die, Die-Namics Pierced circle die, SU naturals ribbon, SU green enamel dots, Gemini Jr, dimensionals

Today Blooms Just For You

Happy Saturday afternoon to all,

I started out the day getting my hair cut, then attending Little League Baseball games. After those were done, Mr. Personal Chef and I had lunch at a local Mexican restaurant, and then I had some shopping errands to run for my upcoming trip. I'm finally home to relax a little. Time to throw a load of laundry in the washer and take some pictures of some cards that I made over the last few days.

This one uses this week's Freshly Made Sketch, by Amy.

I started by taping off the edges of the white card stock with some post-it tape. I stamped the flowers and leaves with Memento black and colored them with some SU Stampin' Blend markers. I used the Cherry Cobbler, Pink Pirouette and Old Olive sets. I trimmed the white layer down and mounted it onto a Pink Pirouette card base. For the greeting panel, I stamped Happy Birthday with VersaMark and heat embossed it with white EP. The small greeting is stamped in Cherry Cobbler. The panel is glued to a piece of fun foam and then mounted per the sketch. I added a few pink jewels in opposite corners for embellishments.

The greeting on the inside is from the same SU stamp set.

All in all a super easy card to make. Loved Amy's sketch too.
Thanks for stopping by,
Colleen

Supplies
Perennial Birthday set by Stampin' Up
Paper: SU Pink Pirouette card stock, Neenah Solar White card stock
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Cherry Cobbler, VersaMark and SU Stampin' Blends
Other: White EP, heat tool, Mini Misti, fun foam, pink jewels, Post-It tape

Happy Birthday

Happy Thursday afternoon peeps!

I've not had much crafting time this week, but I did manage to finally get a card made for this week's Paper Players challenge last night after we had dinner. This week, Jaydee has a sketch challenge for us. It's a classic with loads of design options. I, however, went with it just as it's laid out in the graphic.

I pulled out some really old SU DSP to coordinate with this embroidery themed stamp set from Neat and Tangled.

The hoop and stitched images are stamped onto SU Very Vanilla card stock with Memento tuxedo black ink. The cross-stitches are stamped with SU Regal Rose ink. In order to get them lined up around the circle, I used the Misti stamping tool. It came out better than I anticipated, which is always nice, LOL. The flowers, french knots and hoop are all colored with Copics. After coloring I fussy cut the image out so it could be layered onto the card. After putting it all together (before gluing it) I decided it needed something a little more. I remembered I have a ton of these paper SU doilies. However, white was the wrong color so I sponged one around the edges with the SU Regal Rose ink. I cut a circle from So Saffron card stock to layer behind it, then mounted everything on the card. Much more interesting!

The horizontal element is more DSP from the same package and a piece of So Saffron card stock cut with a Die-namics Fishtail Flag die.

Here is the inside. The images are stamped on So Saffron card stock and colored with Copics.

Besides work this week, I've been finishing up prep for a vacation to South America. My sister and I are flying to Quito, Ecuador on May 3 to meet up with my nephew, her son, who has been there since just after the first of the year for a semester abroad for college. He finishes school this week. We will stay in Ecuador for the first week, then the second week fly to Peru where we will stay in Lima, Cusco and visit Machu Picchu. We fly back to the US on 5/18. Needless to say, she and I are excited for a new adventure! But, I have a few more days to get in more stamping challenges, so I'll "see you" on my blog for a few more days.

Have a great rest of your Thursday!
Thanks for stopping by,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Handstitiched set by Neat and Tangled
Paper: SU Very Vanilla and So Saffron card stock, SU Sweet Stitches DSP
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Regal Rose and Copics
Other: Die-namics Fishtail Flag die, Spellbinders circle die, SU paper doily, Misty, Gemini Jr, dimensionals, Fiskars corner punch

Happy Birthday

Hi stampers,

I have another card that I made using the current CAS(E) this Sketch! layout. I actually made this one before yesterday's card. This one took a little longer as there are more layers and I used a craft knife to cut out the windows of the bus.

 

This is such a fun and cute stamp set by Avery Elle. I stamped the bus and it's party goers, and the other images using Memento tuxedo black ink and colored them with Copics. After cutting everything out using the corresponding set dies, my plan was to pop them up over the cloudy paper. I decided it would look great if I cut the windows out. It wasn't difficult, just took a little patience. The orange panel is cut with the Avery Elle Burst Elements die. I used a Die-namics Stitched circle die to cut the circle in the Burst die. The Stitched cloud die is from Lawn Fawn.

I'm also posting this birthday card to the current Seize the Birthday challenge, where the topping is Vibrant Colors.

The inside is super simple with a piece of the cloudy paper and a sentiment from another Avery Elle set.

Supplies
Stamps: Birthday Bus and Beside the Sea sets by Avery Elle
Paper: SU Whisper White and Calypso Coral card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock and Echo Park patterned paper
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Copics
Other: Birthday Bus set and Burst Elements dies from Avery Elle, Die-namics Stitched Circle die, Lawn Fawn Stitched Cloud Border die, Studio Calico puffy sticker arrow, Gemini Jr., diemensionals