A Little Latte Love

Hello Friends,  It's time for me to get creating cards for the shut-ins for the month of April.  Instead of making mostly one or two designs, this month it's going to be a hodge podge of different ideas.  Today I worked on five cards for the men.  Didn't want to do frilly flowers for them, so the Latte Love set said I needed to send them some coffee cards.  I started with one idea, and that morphed into using a different DSP and some extra small changes.  So, among the five cards, I don't think there are two quite alike.  Sometimes I just can't help myself from tweaking a little here and there as I go.  Do you have that problem too?  Anyway, here are the five cards I ended up with...

I stuck with mostly Misty Moonlight and Boho Blue for the overall cards.  The background layering papers are from the Poetic Expressions Designer Series Paper.  And the bundle used on each card was Latte Love.  That's the bare bones of what was used, but I'll share with you a little more in-depth as we go on.

East card has a base that measures 8 1/2" x 5 1/2".  This is scored and folded in half.  The first card uses Misty Moonlight for its base color.  The Victorian style print background is cut to measure 5 1/4" x 4".  It's attached to the card base by using adhesive.

My idea was to make it look like the cups are sitting on a table waiting for someone to sit down and join me in a cup of coffee or tea.  I used the Basic Borders die set to cut a pretty edge on the "tablecloth".  I used approximately a 1 1/4" - 1 1/2" strip wide and about 4 1/4" long.  The die was kept right near the bottom edge so it didn't cut off too much.  

After cutting the edge to make the tablecloth, I decided it needed a tiny print to look more like a tablecloth.  I couldn't find a stamp that would work here, but I remembered the Wrapped in Texture Embossing Folders from the winter mini catalog.  I added Boho Blue ink to the raised design, then laid the open embossing folder onto the "tablecloth" to give it the print.  I liked how this added another bit of interest to the Boho Blue DSP print.

The small coffee cup dies were used to die-cut both Misty Moonlight and Boho Blue cups.  There is a tiny die that cuts two "liquids" inside the cups.  These were cut from Early Espresso cardstock.  Then using a tiny bit of "green glue", the coffee was added to each of the cups.  

The sentiment is from the same set, and it was stamped on a 1" wide strip of Basic White using Misty Moonlight ink.  The sentiment is attached with Dimensionals.  Each coffee cup was attached with one Dimensional in the center.  I decided not to use any bling on this card.  Nothing seemed to really make the card stand out, so I went with it plain.

This is not the first design for the card, but I liked where it ended.  Keep reading for another take on this idea.

This card has a few changes.  The card base is Boho Blue.  The DSP print here is much lighter with a mix of Mossy Meadow and Boho Blue in the design.  Both of the cups were cut from Misty Moonlight cardstock.  

I didn't like the "tablecloth" print together with this DSP print.  I tried a couple other designs, but I just didn't like them, so I left it plain white.  After looking at it awhile, I decided to add a little Mossy Meadow ink brushed on the top edge using the Blending Brushes.  It's very light, but it helps define the edge in person.

The sentiment was still stamped with Misty Moonlight, but the backing layer is Boho Blue cardstock.

On a couple of the cards, a small layer of Vellum was added under the center of the design to soften the blue print so the cups showed up better.

Ok, that's five cards down from the 23 that I need to make.  I'll be going through my stash of floral cards that I love making and hopefully find most of the cards I'll be needing.  We'll see how that goes.

Quick reminder that the sale on some of the retiring items starts on April 9th.  That's coming up soon.  Have you decided on your list yet?  Are you anxious and excited to see the new Annual Catalog?  It's coming soon.  If you don't have yours by the end of April, please let me know and I'll get one out to you.

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon