Water Color Coffee Card - Day 3 FallCLH

Water coloring is so relaxing and the theme for this coffee inspired card for Day 3 of the Fall Coffee Lovers Bloghop.

I used an adorable House Mouse stamp called Feeling Rosy.  I stamped the large mug first, created a mask for it and then stamped the mouse in the teacup.  The small tea bag tag in the House Mouse stamp is "hidden" behind the coffee mug to keep this card in the coffee theme motif.

I could not find embellishments in my stash to match this image after creating it...so improvisation was called for! The leaves were embossed using Zing Brown Sugar, water colored with the same colors used on the mugs and fussy cut.

Link up your creation for a chance to win fun paper crafting prizes HERE by October 2nd and please leave me some comment love! 

*Giveaway!*  Before you leave, you can enter for a chance to win a goodie bag from AMLC! Entering is easy, please provide your email in the pink box at the top of the left column. Don't worry, no spam! Newsletters will be intermittent (less than once a month) and I will email the winner October 4th! Good Luck!

Entering this card into: Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - No Designer Paper 
Spellbinding Stamps by Nikki Burnette - Challenge #1 Embellishments 10/9

Supplies used:

• House Mouse Stamp Feeling Rosy
• Sargent's Water color Pencils set. Light Yellow and Light Orange colors used.
• Zing Embossing Powder in Brown Sugar
• StazOn Saddle Brown Ink
• Large coffee stamp (brand not marked unfortunately)
• Maya Design leaf stamps
• Stampin Up Paper Pumpkin September 2015 Fall stamp set
• Recollection card stock 110 lb

Love Notes Postcard Project by Jennifer Belthoff

The Summer round is over, but still wanted to share a wonderful project started by Jennifer Belthoff called Love Notes Postcard Project.  It encourages you to send a postcard, card or letter in the mail to a new friend you will be paired up with. The only cost was a postcard and stamp! (Plus papercrafting supplies I had on hand.) 

The goal: Mail a postcard to your new snail mail partner once a week for 3 weeks in a row sending some positive inspiration. I wanted to share my 3 notes and prompts in case anyone needs a little inspiration of their own! The next round will start on September 25th, 2015!

My first summer-themed postcard. I used watermelon2stamp set from The Stamps of Life. 
My message:
       "On the road to travel you will find... lots of people busy with the daily grind. Most are much to hurried to see, how truly beautiful the small things can be. So take the time to spread a little kindness each day, and may the ripples come back to you in a glorious way!"

For postcard number 2, I broke out some of my favorite House Mouse stamps! The front sentiment says "Happiness is a cup of coffee shared with a friend!" 
What does the back say?"
      Choose today to... 

• Stop procrastinating and finish what you start.
• Believe in yourself. If you don't, who will?
• Drive the extra mile to make someone smile.
• Count yourself lucky. There are so many with so much less.

Instead of a postcard for the 3rd and final love note, I decided to mail a card I had made for a previous design team project. Original blog post here. This quote is from a Graphic 45 paper pad and reads "A cup of tea warms the soul like a good friend." 

On the inside was a quote on hope:
     "Hope is the thing with feathers,
     That perches in the soul
     And sings the tune without the words
     And never stops - at all."
~ Emily Dickinson

Supplies used:

• Recollections 110lb card stock from Michaels
• Tim Holtz Distress Inks
• Prismacolor Pencils
• Your favorite stamp set. (I used The Stamps of Life, House Mouse and Melonheadz Floral Combo digital stamps.)
• Love and patience

All photos taken by AMLC and addresses covered for privacy reasons.

House Mouse Mother's Day Cards!

I saw this wonderful sentiment on a plaque (sorry I do not remember where) but I had to re-create it onto cards!  The phrase says "we" so it is from both my husband and I.  These are two House Mouse stamps I've recently added to my collection titled "Donut Bliss" and "Feeling Rosy".

The mouse stamp in the cup had a little tea bag hanging out of it on the left side.  To hide this, I cut a mask out of card stock to cover the donut while stamping the tea cup.  Voila!  More use to stretch these adorable stamps to cover coffee and cocoa lovers too!

 

 

The sentiment on the inside says, "but please don't make us prove it!"

A close up of the donut.  I used a sparkle glitter writer to first apply glitter to the "frosting".  After that coat was dry, a layer of Ranger's Glossy Accents was applied thickly on top.

Since my husband does not enjoy coffee like I do, I changed the cards for our mothers' to say "cocoa" instead.  These would be adorable as gifts whether they were about coffee, cocoa or tea! :)

 

Supplies used:

• House Mouse stamps "Donut Bliss" and "Feeling Rosy"
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• Sparkle Glitter Writter
• Simply Art 36 Watercolors
• Small Water Brush
• Recollections Gold Embossing Powder
• StazOn Jet Black Ink
• Lawn Fawn "Harold's ABC's" stamp set
• Heidi Swapp stamp set
• Embellishments from The Paper Studio
• 110lb Recollections White card stock
• Strathmore 90lb watercolor paper
• Foam tape

More spring butterflies and cute mice!

Border Dies were the topic in day 6 of OnlineCardClasses.com.  As I'm a new paper crafting "addict", I have yet to purchase border dies.  I did, however, find one in a Spellbinder set called Damask Accents.  Following inspiration by Debby Hughes, I was able to create a beautiful background using this border die!

Granted it is not the exact same inlaid background technique she had used, but I wanted to work with what supplies I have. Plus I just received an order from Simon Says Stamp and my Misti is still on the way...can't scare my husband too much with all the boxes coming in lol!

 

Saved the small inner pieces of this border die to use as confetti. They looked like little flower petals to me! :)

Alphabet Dies were the topic of day 7.  I finally invested in a great font alphabet set by Lawn Fawn in polymer for stamping, so I honestly hadn't even thought of alphabet dies.  Kathy Racoosin inspired me with her beautiful technique of what she calls "hidden letters." Here is where my first script word die came into play!

It was gorgeous outside today, so at 10am I stamped this adorable House Mouse image and sat outside to watercolor it.  Basking in the sun helped dry the piece quickly as well!  Die cutting this word without loosing the small inner pieces was the challenge, but managed to pull this off. I still have a big smile on my face. This was a lot of work, but I adore the final product!

Supplies used: 

• Spellbinders die set Damask Accents
• House Mouse stamp "In the rain"
• Core'dinations card stock (Joann's)
• Recollections card stock (Michaels) 
• Spellbinders die set Butterfly Two
• Embellishments
• Glossy Accents
• Foam tape by Orientaltrading.com
• Simply Art 36 Watercolors
• Jet Black Staz On waterproof ink
• Lawn Fawn Alphabet stamp set Harold's ABC's
• Paper Smooches Thanks word 2 die
• Distress Ink (Spun Sugar and Lilac)