Paper Sweeties Challenge - July 2017 Anything Goes!

Welcome to the July 2017 Paper Sweeties Anything Goes Challenge!  This is our inspiration photo and here is how it inspired me:

You know I love shakers and I ESPECIALLY love easy to put together shakers!  This is one of those...

I started with a white piece of cardstock the size I wanted my shaker to be.  I took out my watercolors and with a tiny brush, splattered some red and blue watercolors around.  Once it was dry, I used the stars from the Be Happy Sweet Cuts to die cut some star shapes ... (well of course I kept the stars that popped out for future use!) in a random pattern on my splattered paper.  Then to fill in some spots where I couldn't fit any more stars and still leave room for my popup tape around the edges, I took out a tiny longer handled star punch I have.  I was able to get to the center of my paper by placing the punch through some of the stars.  Then I added my acetate to the inside of the top piece; placed popup tape around the edges; filled the center of my base with red, white and blue Paper Sweeties sequins and placed my top over it... done!

Love the way it came out!

So as not to cover up my sequins at the bottom I added a little party to the top of my card using the Celebrate sentiment from I Love Summer and embossed it onto a stitched banner from the Sweet Borders Sweet Cuts and added a little bit of extra color and texture with my red gingham cut using another of the Sweet Borders dies... threw a few more sequins around and that pretty white plastic piece that's been sitting on my table forever... rejected from a previous project... was perfect for this one... I think it kind of looks like a flower and kind of looks like a rosette.. whatever.. it was perfect! 

That's that!  So easy!  Now be sure to check out what the rest of the Design Team has cooked up for you today:

Debbie Marcinkiewicz – Paper Sweeties

Julie Tucker-Wolek
Karen Letchworth

Kathy Schweinfurth

Larissa Heskett
Lilian Forsyth  
Lisa Bzibziak (You Are Here!)
Lori Turner

Mackie Robertson

Maria Patrick

Michele Henderson
Michelle Bala
Mynn Kitchen 
Nancy Salkeld
And Welcome to our July guest designer: Esther Asbury

Sure hope you play along with us this month!  You could win a $25 gift certificate to the Paper Sweeties Shop!

Be Happy Sweet Cuts Dies - Paper Sweeties	I Love Summer - Paper Sweeties	Sweet Cuts Sweet Borders - Paper Sweeties	Paper Sweeties - Strawberry Sequins	Blueberry Sequins - Paper Sweeties
Sugar Sprinkles Seqins - Paper Sweeties

Farewell to the Summer 2017 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Well... I knew it was coming...but it's still hard... this is my last card for the Coffee Hop this time around..

So... this is not a usual color combo for me, but I took my inspiration from that doily... I've had a stitched circle sitting on my table for quite some time now... I got a Hero Arts Ombre ink pad and one day I thought I'd be fancy and swipe it on this circle and once I did it I realized it wasn't at all right for the project I was working on so there it sat... until this morning!

The circle wasn't working so I took out one of my doily dies and cut it out of that circle and it was perfect... Then I cut a cup from my favorite cup and steam die.

I got this stamp set from my LSS, The Paper Collage... the owner Pam Migdalia has her own line of stamps called Stampindamour .. the aloe plant and sentiment are from the set called Cactus Cuties.

And because I can't leave well enough alone, I used some more Paper Sweeties dies and some vellum flowers I got at Hobby Lobby to create this little cluster at the top of the card.  Sprinkled a few pretty sequins from Paper Sweeties and done... and coffee hop done..

Thanks so much to those of you who have stopped by throughout the hop and sure hope you don't become a stranger!  I'm still hopping through and hoping to see every single project so if I haven't been by to see you I should soon!

Please be sure to come by tomorrow for a new Paper Sweeties Monthly Challenge!  So long for now!

Coffee Hop Day 8 - I'll Take Coffee With My Sunshine

So... once again it's here... the last day, Day 8 of the Summer 2017 Coffee Lovers Bloghop... I can never believe how fast the week goes.  Today I'm sharing a quick and easy card with you that maybe doesn't look so quick and easy... 

Isn't this so pretty??  Before you get too excited... I can't take too much credit for anything here... the image and sentiment were from a 12x12 page of coffee images from Art Play Paintables... they are printed on what feels like watercolor paper and they are pretty awesome... I chose the sunshine one because... well... it's the Summer Hop and I do love the Sunshine (I better living in Southwest Arizona!)  I got my sheet at my local scrapbook store.

And the papers... those beautiful papers... are from Polka Doodles and I got mine at LDRS Creative... my card design is very simple because I didn't want to cover up the paper, but I thought the colors went perfectly with my watercolored image.

I did use my Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils and a tiny paint brush to color it in... I added the lines for the grassy hills because it was plain allowing you to do whatever you want.  You could use watercolors, pencils, or probably water based markers to color these in, but because of the paper I don't think Copics would play well....

You know I love my layers so although I didn't do much, I did cut a couple flowers out of what was left over from the 6x6 sheet and popped them up on the corners so a little bit of them came over the image...and of course a few sequins!  And there's my all time favorite bottom layer cut with the Craftin Desert Divas Crazy Stitched Frame dies...

So there it is... pretty simple!  And I have 8 more prints to use... not for this week though... 

So... the end is near, tonight the Coffee Hop is over.  You still have time to play along.. I'm hoping to make one more, but we'll see... I'm gonna miss you... hope you'll come back!

Coffee Hop Day 7 - A Latte Birthday Wishes

For Day 7 I'm sharing a card using the awesome CTMH No Worries paper pack.  I made a birthday card for my son.  His birthday is on the third so this morning I'm packaging up some coffee, a Starbucks Arizona mug (he's on Fishers Island in NY until October working) and some yummy snacks.  Of course then I'll send him some money, but I like him to have something tangible and we both love coffee.

I love this coffee cup stamp from Precious Remembrance.  It's a great size and it's a cool image, but blank so I can do whatever I want with it... like stamp it onto this awesome beachy paper so I can paperpiece my cup.

I also used some of my coffee painted paper for the smaller circle (double stitched from MFT) and my banner (from CDD).

I used quite a few items from the No Worries matching Complements like this kraft heart, the arrow and the striped piece and kraft piece I stamped my sentiment on below.

Don't forget there is one more day to participate in the Three Amigos Blog Hop Challenge to create something using the No Worries papers or the colors/inspiration from the photo of the paper pack.  You can find that here!  And I'm playing along with the Color My Heart Color Dare challenge to use the colors in No Worries and you can play along with both too!  Come and play with us!

I am so loving using coffee on my projects.... It makes such beautiful colors!

Thanks for stopping again!  One more day of the hop to go... I do have at least one card for you tomorrow... possibly two, but we'll see what tomorrow brings.  I'm seriously contemplating taking Coffee Hop week off for the next one...lol!  No joke!

Have a great day!  Stay caffeinated my friend!

Coffee Hop Day 7 (Almost) - Coffee Anytime!

It's Day 7 (almost) of the Summer 2017 Coffee Lovers BlogHop!  I was going to wait until tomorrow or Friday to post this, but this one is for the Outlawz Progressive Challenge and I have to figure out how to link it up so I figured I'd better start now...lol!

So the idea for the Progressive Challenge for those that don't know, is you get a free digi image to create with and as long as you make and link something up during that month, you'll get sent the next one for the next month and so on!

I created this night scene by using distress inks on the sky after masking off a circle where my moon would go.  I used a couple blues and a purple.  I left the area around the moon light because I wanted the light from my moon to be radiating out....I'm imagining she's stepped out on the veranda after a wonderful summer party to have a cup of coffee before she heads home.

Isn't she beautiful... she's called My Fair Lady and she's from sponsor SheepSkiDesigns...and I'm also playing along with the SheepSkiDesigns monthly challenge on their blog (Girlz Rule) and on Facebook (Anything Goes)

I added some dots with Nuvo drops but when they dried, even though I used the white it was a little translucent for my taste so I took out a tiny paint brush and some white acrylic paint and dotted some of that around.  I also added a few lines for shooting stars... flicks really.

That cup is from a set from Create A Smile and was the perfect size for her... I used my little hearts from the Paper Sweeties Over the Rainbow Sweet Cuts and cut the steam out of vellum.

Coffee IS always a good idea... tried to keep the rest of the card fairly simple, but you know me... a pretty sentiment, some pretty vellum flowers and sequins...

So thanks so much for stopping!  I have two projects today and you can check the other one out here!

Come back tomorrow for the (sniff, sniff) last day of the Coffee Hop....

And then there's this!

Coffee Hop Day 6 - You Make Me A Better Person

Welcome to Day 6 of the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop!  Today I'm using the custom stamp set that Regina over at The Cutting Cafe Shop made for me...

You can see a pic of the whole set at the end of this post... it's not just about coffee... and I can't wait to create more cards using it...

The papers I used are from the Echo Park Happy Summer papers that you can buy in the Cutting Cafe Shop and the ribbon is the beautiful crinkly seam binding from Paper Sweeties.

But this one is about coffee...  I saw a similar sentiment before... the cool thing about my set is I have a few things to choose from ... coffee, tea, pizza, donuts..... just to name a few... and the sentiments are in a couple different fonts.. so mix and match and fun!

The background layer and the fancy stitched label are from Craftin Desert Divas and so are those pretty sequins and the flourish came from one of my very old CTMH stamp sets.

I searched for some royalty free images online too for my set.... the cup was one I found... I love that it's plain so I can decorate it however I want.  And of course I used my favorite little hearts from Paper Sweeties as steam.

And I was lucky to find these buttons in my stash that were just the right colors...

And here is my set!  I love it... what would you do differently?  No... you don't have to tell me... you can tell Regina and get your own the way you want it...lol!

Thanks for stopping and please come back again soon!

Coffee Lover's Hop Day 5 - Brentwood Is My Favorite

Day 5 - Already??  I've got some more Brentwood for you today!  This time it's a cup with Brentwood holding a cup with Brentwood... 

I LOVE this digi!  Can you tell?  This one is available in the shop right now for only $1.99!  All digis are on sale!  You can find a whole bunch of coffee digis right here!  This time I used the Coffee Cup Shaped Card cutting file from The Cutting Cafe as my card base...

I surrounded Brentwood with some beautiful vellum flowers that I got at Michael's to kind of mirror the pink daisy that's surrounding Brentwood on the cup he's holding... and just so you know... I'm assuming that flower Brentwood is also holding a cup with Brentwood on it... you just can't see it...

I had a really hard time with the sentiment... I wanted to use this one from Paper Smooches (because Brentwood is my favorite... and this mug is his favorite... and I'm sure I'll be giving it to one of my favorite people), but I didn't think I had room for it without covering up my guy... and then it struck me!  Vellum... and cut it out and it was perfect!!

So thanks for stopping by yet again!  Come back for more coffee.. you can sign up for email notifications in the sidebar if you'd like!  Let me know you were here and I'll visit you back if I can find you!

Atlantic Hearts Sketch 218 Meets Coffee Lovers - Day 4

Welcome to this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch!  This week is also the Summer 2017 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and I'm playing along with this card for Day 4.

Well, you really can't get any more coffee than this!  I started by smooshing, splashing, and splattering coffee on some watercolor paper.  Once that was dry, I used the coffee beans from the Paper Sweeties But First, Coffee stamp set, stamped in Versamark and embossed in gold.  Then I used some watercolor to color in the beans.

This sentiment is from the Coffee, Yes Please stamp set and the cup is from You Warm My Heart.

I love these sweet flowers from the Hello Spring stamp set and I took the opportunity to scatter around a few of my favorite gold sequins!

So thanks for stopping!  I had so much fun creating this background that I think I'll make some more to have on hand... and they're right... it does smell pretty darn good too!

Be sure to check out this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge!  This feels like a sketch I could use over and over and never tire of it!  And while you're at it... create something coffee, tea or hot cocoa and summer (you know, flowers yes, snowflakes no) and play along over there too!  Lots of prizes and many sponsors giving away free digis!

Coffee Lovers Blog Hop Day 3 1/2 - Pug In A Mug

Back one more time today with a post for the Coffee Lover's Bloghop, Summer 2017 Edition!  This time around, I'm using a Sweet Stamp Shop stamp set I just got in the mail...

If you've been coming around here for a while, you may remember that I got this cool Coffee washi tape from The Sweet Stamp Shop a while ago and covered a 12x12 sheet of kraft cardstock with it.  I used it on a card and saved the rest for future use... I was so happy I had it all ready to go today!  And the washi is on sale and in the clearance section right now and you can find it here! 

And this cute pug and sentiment??  He was also in the clearance section on a very adorable set called Pug Life which is also on sale in the clearance section and you can get it here!    It's so cute because there are a variety of expressions to choose from and a few bodies and lots of cute sentiments.  The mug is from the Sweet Stamp Shop Coffee Town set and that little sun is a die from Craftin Desert Divas. 

I built this sentiment using a Coffee die from Your Next Stamp, the Hug In A Mug sentiment from MFT and I used one of the little Pug words from the Pug Life stamp set...I mean... I LOVE my coffee, but I wouldn't complain if you brought me a pug in a mug.. 

It made me giggle anyway... hope it had the same effect on you!  Hope you'll play along with the Coffee Lovers Hop!  I'll be back tomorrow with some Atlantic Hearts/Paper Sweeties/Coffee goodness!