I love coffee!

I am a coffee freak! I love to drink it, smell it, and I love to collect coffee stamp sets. I even have a rubber stamp of the Starbuck's logo.

Well, when I first saw the inspiration picture for Becky's challenge (see this post), it made me feel warm and fuzzy because the apron reminded me of a mother's comforting arms. That made me think of what makes me feel warm and fuzzy and gives me comfort every day...COFFEE!

So, I made another card for Becky's challenge using the Warm Happiness set. The white strip was stamped with the BB: Retro. I love those circles! Don't they look like the Target emblem? The sentiment is from the Verve stamp set Delightful and Delicious. That sentiment so applies to me!

Here's a close-up of the coffee steam. I wanted it to look like it was actually floating on air so I stamped the steam image on a piece of acrylic sheet with black Staz-On and cut it out. Then, I stamped the coffee cup on white cardstock, cut it out, and taped the acrylic piece to the back of it. I used dimensional tape to prop it up. I picked these buttons because they looked like the Target circles.

I thought I'd try taking pictures from a different view just for fun.

I had cut out an extra image of the cup, so I decided to use it for the inside.  

Thanks for visiting. Happy stamping!

New Poppy Seed Challenges by Lisa Johnson

I'm so excited! The very talented Lisa Johnson is starting a new series of challenges. She's calling it the Poppy Seed Challenge. Here's her very first one.

She'll be posting a challenge about twice a month. You'll have a week to link your post to her blog. Each challenge will have 3 different "seeds" or elements that you should have on your project. This week's challenge requires the use of crystals (bling), a flower stamp, and the color light yellow.

Here's what I made.  I used Summer Sunrise and Enchanted Evening for my colors. (After I typed this post, I realized that the color was supposed to be "light" yellow. Sorry, Lisa!)

The flowers are from the Friends Til the End set. I masked the middle flower and stamped the images in Enchanted Evening ink. I also used the Enchanted Evening satin ribbon to tie a simple bow. 

The sentiment is from Signature Greeting. I stamped it in Versamark ink and embossed it using sapphire powder. I love how shiny it is! Then, there's my bling.

Of course, I had to finish the inside. I like to take an element from the front of the card to decorate the inside. I also try to keep the design flat so that it won't add any more bulk. I masked the flower when I stamped the leaves.

If you have time, please visit Lisa's blog and join the challenge. You'll find so much inspiration.

Cakey Gift Card Holder

I like to give gift cards a lot. Not because I don't have time to look for an actual present, but because I don't know what people already have. So, giving them a gift card gives them that opportunity to get what they want.

I found a tutorial on how to make this gift card holder, but I can't remember where. If it comes to me, I'll post the location.

I love the vibrant colors that Doodlebug uses for their patterned paper. This is from their cupcake collection. I didn't do any stamping on this card. I used one of the stickers from this collection. Aren't the colors pretty? I love the mini cupcakes.

Here's what the card looks like when you open it. You stick the gift card into the slot that's in the center panel. When the recipient opens the card, the gift card pops up.

Thanks for stopping by.

My First PTI Blog Hop

One of my paper-crafting goals this year is to go outside my comfort zone. I've done that on a few projects. Now, on to something bigger (at least for me).

I am participating in my first PTI Blog Hop. In fact, it's my first blog hop ever!

The challenge this month is to choose one of the designers on the PTI Design Team and to re-create a project they did on their blog. All the PTI designers are soooo very talented, it was hard to decide on a designer let alone one of their projects.

I chose the designer that first made me notice Papertrey Ink and is one of my all-time favorites, Dawn McVey. I love her work! Her creations are clean and simple yet sophisticated and full of style. She can use very little materials and create something spectacular with them. From the stamp sets she designs to the projects she creates to the color combinations she challenges us with, she continually inspires me. I'm so in awe of her!

So, thank you, Dawn! I truly appreciate all you do and your contributions to the crafting world.

I couldn't decide which of her projects to do. So, I picked a month in her archives and went from there. I clicked on July 2009 and selected these cards:

I came up with this card. I love how Dawn takes a simple image and makes it the focal point just by surrounding it with little details and vibrant colors. For this blog hop, I even bought a pin frog to showcase my card, just like Dawn.

I used my Everday Button Bits set. My cardstock colors are Berry Sorbet, Aqua Mist, Sweet Blush, and Lavender Moon. I stamped the BB: Diamonds on the base and used Polka Dot Basics on the scallop pieces. The backgrounds were stamped with Versamark Ink and the hot-air balloons were stamped with Sweet Blush.

The sentiment is also from Everyday Button Bits and stamped with Rich Cocoa Memento Ink.

Thanks for visiting! Have fun visiting the other blogs on this hop!

Becky's CAC #5

Hurray! I'm early for Becky's challenge this week.

Here are the requirements and the inspiration picture for the challenge.

When I look at the inspiration picture, I think of an old-fashioned mother. It reminds me of "Mrs. Cunningham" from "Happy Days" or "June Cleaver" from "Leave It To Beaver". It is vintage comfort.

I knew that I wanted to use my Scattered Showers set and addition. So, here's what I made. 

  I used the vintage-looking umbrella. Instead of polka dots, I used the raindrop background from the additions set. I stamped the tag from the additions stamp with Aqua Mist ink and cut it out by hand. 

Here's a close-up of the sentiment. Since the inspiration gave me comfort, I wanted my card to do the same. 

 To finish the inside, I stamped the umbrella image again. 

Thanks for taking a look. 

Last of the Valentine Treats

`Please excuse the following pictures. My wonderful husband bought "me" a new camera and new lenses. I love the new camera, but prefer to use the Auto Mode since I'm quite the novice. My husband likes to experiment with the aperatures, brightness and depths. So, he kindly volunteered to take these pictures for me so he can play with the many dials and buttons. I didn't have time to take new photos so I had no choice but to use these. I guess I should be grateful that he "wants to help".

I know Valentine's Day is over, but this is the last of the treats. My kids expect me to post the stuff I make for them. They get a kick out of seeing their treats on the internet.

This is what I made for Riley's treats. It holds 8 starbursts candies (her favorites). I used the dinosaur and sentiment from the Tiny Treats set. I used the sour cream container template to hold the candy.

I colored the image with my copic markers. Nothing fancy since it's for 3 year-olds, but I still think it turned out cute. You can't tell from the picture, but I use my Sakura glaze pen to color the heart and give it a little dimension.

This was Peyton's treat for her classmates. Since the majority of her class are boys, she didn't want anything too girly. I saw this image at Pink Cat Studio. It's a digi stamp! I fell in love with it and though it would be perfect for her class. We bought the giant size pixie sticks and stuck these on the ends.

                  

I colored the little frog with my copics. Peyton colored the balloons with my Spica glitter pens. I also added some bling to the flower by coloring it with my clear Spica glitter pen.

The rest are some Tic-Tacs that I made a box for and decorated with various images and papers. I got this idea from here.

I love the hearts background. They turned out really cute.

I had fun using the Simple Valentines stamp set to make the heart image. I enjoyed adding each layer of stamp.

I used my swiss dots embossing folder to make this one. It really added another dimension.

Finally, I made this one just punching out mini hearts in the same paper to give it that monotone "embossed" look. The sentiment is from SU tiny sentiments. 

Okay, that's it for Valentine's Day. Now, I need to start working on springtime cards and a few birthday ones, too. Come back soon!

Becky's CAC #4

This was a really hectic week! I didn't have much time to do any crafting which makes me a cranky lady! But, I did have enough time to make a card for Becky's 4th challenge. Here's the requirements.

Becky's sample was gorgeous! You should check it and her video out here.

I loved her card so much, I didn't want to go off track from her sample. My problem was I didn't have a negative stamp to use. So, I decided to improvise. I used my Turning a New Leaf stamp set and I stamped it on black cardstock using Versamark ink. Then, I used white embossing powder and heat it to make it look more solid. I used my white gel pen to add some dots within the empty spaces. For the white background, I used the same set with Tuxedo Black ink.

I tried different ideas with the ribbon. I tried pleating, tying, knotting it. In the end, I kept it simple. I found this really cute button in my stash of Ripe Avocado buttons and decided to just tie it around the ribbon. This way,  you can see the cool design on it. 

I decided to do something different with the sentiment. Since there was too much blank space after I cut around the "y", I put black pearls below it.

In keeping with my goal to always finish the inside of my cards, here's what I did for this card.

Thanks for taking a peek!