Like Wildflowers; You Must Allow Yourself To Grow (with Coffee!)

Hello everyone.  So, here it is, Tuesday night and I am trying to figure out what card to make for tomorrow.  I want it to be about coffee since the Spring | Summer 2018 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop is still going strong (850 entries so far).  But I get distracted when I am stressing myself out so I jumped on Pinterest to see if something inspired me.  The first image I saw was this quote about wildflowers growing....

...and, lately, I have felt like this wildflower - trying to grow here in Brasil where I never thought I would.  And that sparked my idea to use flowers in a coffee cup!!!  I know...a strange path but I will not argue with fate!  LOL

I pulled out two sets - Coffee Cup Clear by Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps and Wildflower Set 465 by Rubbernecker Stamps, which, sadly, is no longer being made, but other flowers stamps will work just as nicely.  

I started with an A2 base of white cardstock.  I then cut a strip of decorative paper 1.25" x 5.5" (from Barista by BasicGrey), which I adhered to the left side. 

Then I cut a 1/2" strip of textured cardstock (American Crafts), which I adhered right next to the decorative paper.

I then cut a piece of white cardstock, 3" x 5.5" and a piece of scrap, and, using my Misti, I stamped the flowers on the long piece and the coffee cup on the scrap piece.

Next, I colored the images using BIC markers, adhered a piece of fun foam behind the flower cardstock and adhered this to the card front.  I fussy cut the coffee cup and placed that over the flowers using foam tape.  

Then I stamped, cut, layered and adhered the sentiment to the card front along with some small crystals inside each flower.  Done!!

I love how this came out.  Feel free to leave me a comment below!!  And, I hope your day blooms with happiness!!!  Until next time - 

Hugs from Brasil - 

Michael

Simple Warhol (ish) Coffee Note Cards With Uplifting Messages

Hello everyone and Happy Tuesday?  This post was supposed to go live yesterday but the day got away from me.  For Day 5 of the Spring | Summer 2018 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop I wanted to share these simple "coffee-themed" Warhol(ish) note cards that I made for someone in town that owns a small cafe.  She told me she wanted 4 small note cards, with a coffee theme, and a simple motivational type of message on each card.  And she wanted them in English.
  

And this is what I came up with.

I started with 4" square cards as my base.  Using this Coffee and Donut digital paper, I printed 4 designs and adhered one design to each card front.  I cut 4 pieces of white cardstock using my Stitched Squares set by Gina Marie Designs.  On each of the pieces I stamped the coffee cup from Coffee 1 by Anthony's Paper Craft in different distress ink colors - Peacock Feathers, Spiced Marmalade, Picked Raspberry, and Ground Espresso.  I tried my best to match the paper design to each distress ink color.

I adhered each of the coffee cups to a piece of mirrored cardstock, as close to their color as possible.  Then I adhered that to the card front with foam tape- to give them some height.  

The final task was to find motivational phrases - which I found using Tim Holtz's Small Talk Stickers from his idea-ology line!  My friend came over and we picked out 4 that I adhered to the card fronts.  Two were on the mirrored cardstock and the other two went right on the card front!  Done!!

I really love how these came out.  The cups in the different colors on the bright papers....perfect!!  I'd love to know what you think.  Please leave me a comment below.  Thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog and, until next time - 

Hugs from Brasil - 

Michael  

If You Give A Crafter A Cookie Challenge 94 With Cats and Dogs!!

Happy Memorial Day everyone!!  At least to those in the USA.  My dad was in the Navy when he was a youngster and I think it is very important to remember all those that fought, died, and are still fighting for freedom - not only for the USA but for other countries around the globe.  

So...THANK YOU!!!  

I made today's card for the If You Give A Crafter A Cookie Challenge Blog.  Their current challenge, No. 94, is all about cats and dogs.  Here is the inspiration for this challenge - 

I decided to use a new stamp set from Your Next Stamp called Photo Booth along with its matching die called Photo Booth Polaroid.  I cut the die 3 times using textured white cardstock, stamped one of the phrases on each of them, then I stamped 3 of the cat/dog images on plain white cardstock with black ink, placed the die over each of the images and cut them out.  (I ended up only using 2 for the card).

Then I colored in two of the images using a few Copic markers. 

For my card base, I adhered a piece of brown textured cardstock to my white card front.  To the front of that, I printed out one of the designs from a digi paper I had previously purchased on Etsy called Puppy Love, cut it with a stitched rectangle die, layered it on a piece of brown fun foam, which I then adhered to the brown cardstock.   Phew!!  

I distressed the Polaroid frame and adhered the bottom frame with one of the images first, 

then I adhered the top Polaroid frame and the other image.

That's it!  Done!!  I just love these images!!  Of course I also have 7 dogs and 3 cats so how can I not love them?  LOL.   I  hope you enjoyed this card.  Please let me know by leaving a comment below!!  And, until next time - 

Hugs from Brasil - 

Michael

Sunday Coffee with Deb and Celeste and a Card and Stickers!

Hello everyone!  I hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday and that everyone in the U.S.A. is enjoying their 3-day (or 4-day) holiday weekend.  Today is Day 3 of the Spring| Summer 2018 Coffee Loving Papercrafts Blog Hop and I am spending it having coffee with my friends Deb and Celeste.  Today's coffee is an amazing chocolate with mint Brasilian coffee in my favorite pig mug! 

When Deb asked me to join them for today's hop I got a bit worried because I realized I didn't have any coffee related stickers.  I know...bizarre.  But then, later that day, the mail arrived, and in it was an envelope from Deb.  She had sent me a card she made - along with a little glassine envelope filled with little coffee to go cups.  Talk about saving the day!

I decided to use these little guys for today's card by turning them into stickers.  The cups were designed by Nola Chandler and can be found on her stamp set called Coffee Set Valentine by IO Stamps.

I started with a card base of Kraft cardstock, the edges of which I distressed with Vintage Photo distress ink, to which I adhered a piece of - what I think is cool collage/book print decorative paper - that I die cut with a stitched rectangle die and also distressed with Vintage Photo distress ink. {phew, that is one long sentence!}

I also took 5 of the coffee cutouts that Deb sent me and I colored them in with some BIC markers {Sunset Orange, Key Lime, Fandango Pink, Lemon Bliss, and Blue Skies Blue}.

To make them into stickers I pulled out my trusty (but dusty) Xyron 1.5" create-a-sticker machine, ran each of my little coffee cups through it, and then adhered them to the card front.

The last things I did was to run my Clear Wink of Stella over each of the cups to give them some shimmer and then I adhered {another} sticker - that says "hello", which I found in the Clear Stickers set from Sn@p! Simple Stories.  Done!

I hope you enjoyed this super easy card to make! Please feel free to leave me a comment below and I really hope you that you will "hop" on over to Deb's blog {HERE} and then to Celeste's blog {HERE}. 

As always, thanks for stopping by my blog and, until next time - 

Hugs from Brasil - 

Michael

OCD - Obsessive Coffee Disorder with Coffee Lovers

Happy Friday everyone!  I'm excited because today starts the week-long "Spring + Summer Coffee Lovers Bloghop" over at Coffee Loving Cardmakers.  Being a coffee loving papercrafter I have a bunch of coffee stamps and papers and I hope to get a card made each day for the week.  There are a lot of prizes to be won so I hope you will join me and check it out.

For the first day, I am doing a sort of mini blog hop between myself and my friend Mike of Dezines By EM.  Mike lives in California and is not only part of the Anthony Paper Craft's Design Team but he also makes some awesome SVG files.  And we both decided to do a project using the new Coffee 1 stamp by Anthony's Paper Craft.  He made a gift card holder and the link is all the way at the end of this post!  

I made two cards - both using the same idea but with different images.  I started with a piece of A2 Kraft cardstock for the bases.  I then adhered a piece of light brown textured cardstock to one card front and dark textured cardstock to the other card front.  Both are from the Neutrals Pack by American Crafts.  

Next, I cut a piece from each of the brown cardstocks using the Oval Burst Background die (Gina Marie Designs) - keep the inside pieces for another project.  

Then I adhered just the center of each of them to the card front using the light on the dark card front and vice versa.  I glue down the rest as I am placing each of the pieces into the card, which I show later on.

Next, I used the Oval Burst Background die again on 9 sheets from the Crazy for Coffee paper pad by Your Next Stamp.  This might seem excessive but you actually get at least 4-5 cards with this technique using all the pieces from each of the patterns and since the papers are printed on one side only, you are not losing the other side.  

What I love about this paper pad is that one of the patterns is made in both blue and pink giving you the option of making the card more masculine or feminine depending on who you plan to give a card.

Next, using pieces from the patterns you cut, fill in the card fronts by adhering the pieces.  It's like a puzzle.  What I like to do is adhere a piece from one pattern on one side and then adhere another piece from the same pattern but on the opposite side of the card front.  

Then I take two more pieces from the next design and adhere them on the card but on opposite sides.

Continue doing this until the whole card front has been filled in.

Next, I glue down the rest of the Oval Burst Background by using Multi Medium Matte with the thin tipped applicator.  I work in sections applying some of the glue between the pieces of cardstock and around the edges.

And then slowly glue the areas down.

Lastly, for one of the cards, I stamped the phrase "OCD Obsessive Coffee Disorder" from the Coffee 1 by Anthony's Paper Craft on a piece of white cardstock.  Then I die cut it with a die from Stitched Circle Layers by Memory Box and the next size up from a piece of the dark brown cardstock.  I adhered the dark brown circle to the card front in the center and then I adhered the phrase using foam tape. 

For the other card front, I stamped the coffee cup, also from Coffee 1 by Anthony's Paper Craft, and colored it with watercolor pencils.  Because I used the blue triangles from the paper pad I colored the cup in blue also.  Then I die cut it with a square stitched die and layered it on a piece of the dark brown cardstock.  

And that's it!  I know...a bit over the top but I love all these coffee images and colors on the card front.  I hope you do too.  Feel free to leave me a comment below!  

Don't forget to check out Mike's blog post HERE.  He made an awesome gift card holder using the same images! 

I'll be back tomorrow with another coffee-related card.  Until then - 

Hugs from Brasil - 

Michael