Coffee and cupcakes

A birthday calls for coffee (or tea/cocoa) and cupcakes (or some other form of cake). Right?

Anyway, I'm back with another card for the current Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and a couple of other challenges, including the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challeng, which is celebrating it's 10th anniversary this weekend. Wow! And there's a new birthday-themed challenge out in blog land, AAA Birthday, which is a sister challenge to the AAA Cards challenge. Their very first challenge was launched this morning. So without further ado, here's the card I created.

Isn't it fun? And isn't it interesting to see how the type of stamp inspires a different type of card? The image of my previous card called for something elegant (or so I thought), while these stamps (from a huge coffee-themed set by Poppy Crafts that I snagged in an online sale) asked for a more playful approach. I stamped a few of the smaller images onto a panel of Ranger watercolour card and used my Zigs to colour them in. Since the colour doesn't move well on this watercolour card, I scribbled some colour onto my craft mat and picked it up with a water brush. That also gave me a chance to mix blue and green to create a teal colour.

I die cut my panel using the large rectangle die from the Bundle of stitched shapes (Simon Says Stamp) and used strong double-sided tape to adhere it to my lilac card base. The sentiment (Coffee Break, Whimsy Stamps) was heat-embossed in white ep (SSS) onto a scrap of black cardstock and popped up using thin foam tape.

I'm linking up my card at:

2019 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

SSS Wednesday - Birthday

AAA Birthday - #1 Anything birthday goes

Time Out - #134 Playful

Seize the Birthday - #164 No toppings for me

Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Hello and welcome! Thansk for stopping by!
In case you hadn't noticed, the Spring/Summer edition of the 2019 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop has started, which means that lots of crafters out in blog land will be sharing their coffee, tea or cocoa inspired creations this week. I had lots of play time this weekend, so here's the first card I created.

I used one of the two freebies that STAMPlorations is offering, printed it onto a sheet of Neenah solar white cardstock and coloured it in using Copics. I stamped one of the sentiments from About a Rose (STAMPlorations), trimmed down the panel and matted it onto a panel of purple shimmer cardstock before adhering it to my card base. To finish off, I added a little sparkle to the cup and saucer and to the yellow sprigs.

I'm linking up my card at:

2019 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Watercooler Wednesday - #219 AG Feminine 

The Paper Players - PP440 Friends

STAMPlorations CAS - Anything CAS goes 

(optional: lilac)

Create a Smile - Waving hello

Hello and welcome! I'm super excited to be guest designing for the new challenge at Create a Smile, after I won a recent challenge with this card.  The theme for the current challenge is Favorite critter, and here's what I created.

I have a weakness for penguins, but I normally only use them on my Christmas cards. Since I don't own many Create a Smile products yet – I do intend to go shopping soon to spend the gift certificate that I won – I was very happy to find this sweet surfing penguin among the freebies on the Create a Smile blog. I inserted the image into a Word file, adjusted it to the desired size and printed it onto Neenah Solar white cardstock. After doing some simple colouring using Copics, I fussy cut the image out. In the picture below you can also see the shimmer that I added using a Spectrum Noir sparkle pen.

To create my background, I started by running a scrap of blue cardstock through my die cutting machine with a new embossing folder that came with a UK crafting magazine. I used my scissors to cut around the waves to trim them down to the size I wanted. Next, I lightly ran a mini cube of Salty Ocean distress ink over my panel to add some colour variation. I masked off the edges of my card panel and blended some CP inks (Tiara, Bellini, It's a boy) to create my sky, and added some water droplets. I popped up my sweet penguin using a small action wobbler, for some interactive fun.

For my sentiment, I stacked two die cuts and adhered them using liquid glue. Since Create a Smile is a German company (owned by Christine Drogt), it offers several stamp sets and dies in German. Fortunately for me, 'hallo' has the same meaning in both German and Dutch, so it's perfect for cards I wish to send to my Dutch relatives and friends. The 'hallo' die set also has a solid die, and the set is also available in an English version.

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by! I do hope you will check out the current challenge and maybe take a peek in the shop while you're there. Happy crafting!

I'm also linking up my card at:

Pixie's Snippets Playground - #351 Using up those snippets!

(I used a scrap of blue card for my sea and 

a snippet of white card for my sentiment)

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

Colour Crazy - #16 Anything goes with colouring