Hello Sunshine, fancy a cuppa?!

Coffee is always a necessity for me and esp. so in these dark winter days. It's the fuel that helps me through the day. I've made a quirky fun mixed media card using stamps and supplies from my fave companies this year. 

The base is made with Distress Oxides, distress crayons and glimmer mist. 

Coffee cup, beans, splatter and "fancy a cuppa"  stamps from Viva Las VegaStamps!

The sentiment stamp "you and coffee are the best" and Hello Sunshine die cut from Stamplorations 

And the tuckered out person (= me pre-coffee in the morning ;) is Blackeyed from Stampotique Originals

Over at Coffee Loving Card maker's Blog there is a fun blog hop going which I am linking this project to. 

I'm also linking this to the Stamplorations Never Ending anything goes Challenge

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

SDC287 - Thankfulness

It's the second week of the Stampotique Designer's Challenge theme of Thankfulness and I have this fun and quirky thank you card to show you. It's definitely a fun one to send out to fellow coffee lovers :) The base is a piece of scrap paper on which I have made some coffee rings with actual coffee. Then added color with Distress Oxides vintage photo, antique linen, walnut stain and black soot. Stamped some texture with Kate's texture stamp and splattered some brass metallic distress stains over it with a brush.

The main image is Cocoa Bird which I colored in with promarkers on a piece of sticker paper. The sentiment is a die cut from Stamplorations which I got earlier this year along with a coffee cup die cut. I am glad I got them when I did because they don't seem to be available anymore. Anyhow, the little stem the bird is sitting on is the bottom part from the cup and I've cut them all out from the paper I left in my spray box. So many spatters and glitterly shines are on the words and stem.

We would love it if you would share your creations fitting the theme with us. Share your projects HERE (please read the rules before doing so) and you could be in the running to win some wonderful stampotique rubber stamps at the end of the month.

I would also like to enter this card in the Stamplorations Giving Thanks bloghop party

with gratitude that they are giving a chance to win items from your wishlist this month if you link it up with a project you made. 

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Back to work, but first... coffee!

Stickers illustrated by Nikki Smits

It's been a little quiet on my blog, as you might have noticed. That is because I took a much needed break from the virtual world and was on vacation in beautiful Sweden to visit my in-laws. I could have left some scheduled posts, but decided not to because I didn't want to worry about it... and it felt sooooo good not to worry about it :) I would highly recommend that to everyone, just to take a (little) online break. So I am getting back into the groove of things, taking it slow and steady with stuff to share on the blog. And I'm starting off by telling you a little about my time away.

This was my view and we walked in the forest almost daily... and I didn't want to leave it! See HERE for more pictures. Leaving was hard but it was good to come home to my Meesha cat, as she really missed us (and we her!)

While I was away, I did make some things with a huge stash of postage stamps found in a thrift store.

Made this journal for my MIL with French postage stamps.

The back has different portraits on it. 

My in laws have the most loveliest wooden desk, but I forgot to photograph it in its entirety. It was great to have a desk to work at while away. 

This is a small Muji notebook and made for the neighbor there. It's the size of a traveler's notebook.

The postage stamp art is inspired by my good friend Sue of TangleCrafts. She sells her gorgeous collage works HERE. BONUS her books are also fountain pen ink friendly :)

Fall came to greet us while we are there and in two more days, fall will arrive here too... according to the calendar. Cozy jumpers, scarves and beautiful autumn colored (falling) leaves... I feel like I am ready for it!

Sharing this over at Julia, for WOYWW this week - hope you all are doing well and are looking forward to embrace fall as well :) 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Art Journal: Remember, I'll love you more after coffee!

Today I wanted to share a fun page I created in my spiral pocket art journal. I incorporated a bunch of different elements and experimenting with a little scrapbook lay-out style. Most of the elements I used are combined from different projects out of my "lefTOVERS-scrap box".

The background is made with Distress Oxide, I still have so many left from my very first play session with them, and stamped on it Indigo Blu Ledger, Tim Holz Coffee Rings and splatters, Large VLVS! Coffee rings and Joy Crafts script stamp. All stamped with Java dye ink from Ranger. Then I sprayed some Kiwi perfect pearl mist over it. IRL it does shine a lot more.

Then I built up the layers using die cuts, the coffee mug is from Stamplorations and one I cut from this project, some left over hearts from this project and used some left over papers from yesterday's project to stamp the sentiment on. Which is, as well as the bird, from Stampotique Originals.

I put in a little "remember" tag before the sentiment to make it a sentence. The bird is colored with letraset promarkers on sticker paper and fussy cut out. 

I grounded Cocoa Bird on some washi tape and tape a little bit on the right top corner for some balance. Gave the hearts some shimmer with a wink of stella marker and called it done. I really love this page as I imagined the bird being a parrot, echoing this to people who want to talk to me before I had my morning coffee :D

Entering this journal page in the following challenges: 

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Food and/or Drink 

Stamplorations never ending anything goes challenge

WCW130 - Feminine "anything goes" challenge  

We gals love our coffee and bling, right? :) 

Art Journal Journey - Poetry in Motion

I thought this would fit the theme as well, though I am SLOW-motion before my coffee, LOL!

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Splatter it

Thank you so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Mail Art Monday: Fancy a Cuppa?

Today I'm sharing a card for coffee lovers, made with VLVS! (the cup and saying) and the splats are from Marianne Design I think. The background is done with Tim Holtz Oxide ink walnut stain and stamped with as well. I also used Staz-on Timber brown. The cup is colored with tombow markers and I placed a lady next to it which is a cut out from a vintage magazine. Found some "atomic age" icon stamps and stamped those as well. created a border with washitape and a krink marker. Sealed it off with Modge Podge shimmering gold. Fun, simple and effective! 

Over the weekend I have played with the new Oxide ink colors (so fun and BRIGHT!) and got a fun project to share with you tomorrow :) 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by! 

Life is short. Drink Good Coffee!

Today I have a fun card to share with all Coffee lovers out there. As soon as I saw these stamp sets from STAMPlorations, I knew I had to have a few of them!! I went for the Anywhere there's coffee stamps and die set because of the above statement. So true!! Why waste your life drinking bad/mediocre coffee, right?! So last night I made a fun, quick and easy card with the Mug and coordinating die. The little hearts are made with the Candy Hearts die from Poppy Stamps, by the way.

I used the die cuts to cut out the mug and small hearts on patterned paper. Then I glued it down to a piece of coffee stained paper of which I had several lying about. Stamped in the Tim Holtz Coffee rings and splatter stamp all over and a bit inside the mug cut out. Stamped the mug and sentence with Staz On Jet black. Gave the mug a bit of shadows and accents with Tombow markers. Matted the piece on to black card stock and gave some gold and black/white accents with washi tape. For the hearts I used an inlaid layered die cut technique I saw Jennifer Mcguire doing in one of her video's. Mine definitely didn't turn out as dimensional as hers, but that's because I have only used 2-3 layers tops to get them a little raised. I also used my red wink of Stella glitter pen and glossy accents and let the hearts dry over night. They definitely do look a lot more like Candy Hearts IRL! Loved doing this technique even though it was a pain to get all the little hearts to line up and glued together! The result was worth it though!

Here is a close up of the coffee stamp sets I have bought at STAMPlorations. You can see all the phrases on the Anywhere there's coffee stamp set and I have also gotten a Coffee Petites stamp set (of which I used the round stitched die cut here) and those are so fun to use for ATC's! Can't wait to use those next!

I also wanted to share something fun the STAMPlorations blog is doing; a new release and wishlist party bloghop!

Shery and her team are celebrating their 4th anniversary with a wishlist part where, if you link up your stamplorations whishlist, like I have, you can win some prizes from it! The generosity is just beyond measure really with over 200$ worth of prizes to be won! I am loving the new words stamps and die cut sets!! And seeing they also have a Sale going on now, I couldn't help myself and ordered a few items from my wishlist anyway ;) By the way, no affiliation here what so ever, just a happy customer gladly helping out a small business (whom offer GREAT products!!)

I would also like to enter my card to these following challenges:

Cutploration challenge June - inspired by the red color and well you need Coffee with any cake, right? ;) 

June Cas Card Challenge - masculine colors

and the Never Ending Anything goes challenge

 Thanks for stopping by and have a great cuppa coffee today :)