Brewing Something Crafty

Whoo-hoo Dare 2B Artzy friends! What could be better than the sheer mention of Spring? A HOP in celebration of Coffee and Spring and all things crafty, that’s what! I’m super excited to be here today to share another Dare 2B Artzy card. This one is for the Coffee Loving Paper Crafters Spring Coffee HOP. Dare 2B Artzy is a Super Sponsor of this HOP for the first time ever and everyone on the Dare 2B Artzy team has been having so much fun with it!

I’m so excited about this HOP. I’m a coffee monster! That is to say, I love my coffee and I’m a monster without it – ask my hubby! LOL! You’ve gotta start the day off on the right foot and that always includes coffee – hot or iced, espresso or macchiato, latte or just a down home cuppa’ joe. It’s the juice to fuel your brain for work (meh!) or crafting (yay!). Disclaimer: Coffee was consumed during the making of this card – for inspiration!

My card for today’s hop uses the adorable Perfect Blend stamp set and matching D40 Coffee Cup Die as well as a sentiment from the Hug in a Mug stamp set. These stamps and die are new for 2017 and I am loving them. The sentiments are so darling and absolutely perfect for any kind of coffee related card you could ever create.

To create my card today I started off wanting to make a java bean background.  I used the little coffee beans from both the Perfect Blend and the Hug in a Mug set and stamped them randomly onto some kraft cardstock with some Versamark ink and then heat embossed them with a couple of different shades of brown embossing powder. I continued stamping and embossing until I was satisfied with the quantity of beans.

Next, I used a scalloped frame die and die cut the kraft cardstock to give it a little border all the way around.

I knew I wanted to incorporate the gorgeous salmon colored paper from the Dare 2B Artzy In Bloom paper pack, but I didn’t just want the image to be used on the coffee mug. I wanted something bold.

To create a bold spring look I decided to use a new bold alphabet die set that I’d just received. I cut 4 layers of white cardstock with the letters to spell coffee and then I cut one more layer using the Dare 2B Artzy In Bloom paper. I glued the layers together for each letter with the top layer being the In Bloom paper. This gave each letter a 3 dimensional look that I really liked. You could create the same effect using craft foam sheets but cardstock works just as well with the layers. With each letter glued together, I set them aside to dry.

I stamped the coffee cup from the perfect blend onto some white cardstock and then again onto some of the Blooms Paper from Dare 2B Artzy.  I colored the cup using some bright yellow-greens from my Copic markers using YG01, YG03 and YG05 and then created a subtle shadow on the white lid using some B000. Once it was colored, I used the matching die to cut out the cup.

For the coffee wrap, I fussy cut the wrap from the cup that I’d stamped onto the Bloom Paper. Once cut, I used a black marker to color the edge of the paper. Then I glued it in place on top of the coffee mug so that it would have a lovely floral wrap. Starbucks should make some fancy floral wraps for their coffee – it would really dress them up.

I created several layers to add to my card from some light green, light blue and copper colored cardstock. For each layer I used various scalloped dies to create the chevron borders and the scalloped borders around each layer.  On the light blue layer, I stamped the sentiment Breakfast Poured from the Hug in a Mug stamp set and heat embossed it with some brown metallic embossing powder.

Before I could assemble the layers of my card, I first had to glue the die cut coffee letters in place. I wanted to make sure and get them onto the base in a straight line. To do this I used a grid paper pad and laid my coffee bean background onto the grid and arranged it so that it was aligned with the grid. I used a roll of thin Washi tape to tape down the bottom edge so that the tape was aligned with the grid and then folded the ends of tape around to the back.   This allowed me to butt the letters up against  the edge of the Washi tape and get the spacing between the letters right. Once my placement was perfect, I worked my way from the outside letters C & E and glued them in place first before moving on to the O & E and so on until all the letters were glued down. I let the letters dry a little bit and then carefully peeled off the Washi tape from the bottom edge. The Washi tape worked wonders for aligning a straight edge.

I adhered down all of my layers using glue runner and some foam tape for added dimension. For my top layer I added the little coffee cup with some dimensional foam next to the sentiment.

My final touch was to add a few sparkly brown embellished dots to the card front. I thought they kind of look like drops of coffee.

Hopefully you’re having a fabulous Wednesday and you’re taking some time out to enjoy and maybe even sharing your own coffee inspiration for the Spring Coffee Loving Paper Crafters HOP.

Reminder that Dare 2B Artzy is offering a special HOP Discount of 10% during the HOP so you can stock up on all of your favorite dies and papers from Dare 2B Artzy. You can find all of the your favorite coffee (and tea) stamp sets from Dare 2B Artzy by clicking this link below:

Coffee & Tea Lovers Stamps

Also, Dare 2B Artzy is offering $20 in store credit to one random winner, chosen at the end of the hop week!  Winners will be announced on Sunday, April 2nd on the Coffee Loving Card Makers Blog!! There’s a ton of prizes so be sure to play along and submit your Spring Coffee cards for a chance to win.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope your breakfast today was a warm hug in a mug!

Hugs

Tonya