Coffee To Go!

Today I have my last card for this month's Creative Cafe Kit from The Rubber Cafe.  
I used the Coffee Break Add-On set and paper pieced the to go cup.

I also used one of the sentiments in the set and the coffee bean image to stamp a light background behind the cup and sentiment tag.

Supply List:
Creative Cafe Kit - Tea for Two (Coffee Break Add-On set; Cardstock - Brown, Swiss Dot Green & mustard; Patter Paper; Gems

Ink - Rich Cocoa Memento; Distress Ink (Antique Linen)
Twine - May Arts

Time for a Coffee Break!

Hi There!  I'm here today with a fun card using the latest Creative Cafe Kit from The Rubber Cafe.  Each month the Creative Cafe Kits come with fabulously fun embellishments.  This month there were some wooden tags, coffee scented embossing powder and gorgeous white lace, among many other wonderful things.

Step #1: I decided to use the stack of tea cups for my focal point on this card from the Tea for Two set that comes with the February kit.  I inked it up with Rich Cocoa Memento Luxe ink and then stamped it on the wooden tag.

Step #2: I heat embossed the image with the Coffee Scented embossing powder that came with the kit.  Then I colored my image with alcohol ink markers.

** Tip: Use a light touch, the ink will bleed on the wood embellishment.

Step #3: The kit came with this gorgeous lace trim, but white didn't really match the colors of my card, so I colored it with my alcohol ink marker to match.

Step #4: I trimmed a few pieces of pattern paper for my card and roughed up the edges with the blade of some old scissors for a shabby look.

Step #5: The Creative Cafe Kit also comes with some beautiful Bazzill Swiss Dotted cardstock.  To go along with the shabby look, I used some Walnut Stain Distress Ink and sponged is across the top of the raised dots.  Then I used the Antique Linen ink on the edges of the card.

Step #6: Now it's time to assemble the prepared elements from Steps 1-5.

Step #7: I added a pretty bow using the dark red seam binding from the kit and then attached the tag to the card.  I also stamped the sentiment from the Coffee Break Add-On stamp set to the bottom of the card.  I inked it with Memento Luxe Ink (Rich Cocoa) and heat embossed it with the Coffee Scented Embossing Powder.

Step #8: As a final touch, I added some scraps of pattern paper and more embossed sentiments and images to the inside of the card as a fun little surprise.

Enjoy your Creative Cafe Kit this month!

It's TONS of fun!

Supply List:
Creative Cafe Kit - Tea for Two (Tea for Two stamp set; Coffee Break Add-On set; Cardstock (Brown & Swiss Dot Green); Patter Paper; Coffee Scented Embossing Powder; Wooden Tag; Lace Trim; Seam Binding

Ink - Rich Cocoa Memento Luxe; Distress Ink (Walnut Stain & Antique Linen)

Rainbow in the Clouds...

Today I have a quick card to share using the Crafter's Companion Sentimentals set called Memories are Made.  I also used the Embossalicious Clouds Folder for the tag and then rubbed some teal ink on it up to show the cloud pattern.  On the scallop border, I added some texture with the Petite Dots Embossalicious Folder.

Thanks for buzzing by today...

Hope Blooms...

This is the last week to play along on the Clean & Simple Challenge over on the Crafter's Companion Challenge Blog.  I used the Silhouette Wildflowers stamp set and the sentiment is from the Sentimentals Stamp set called Memories are Made.  All are stamped with Memento Ink (Rose Bud, Bamboo Leaves, Tuxedo Black).    The Embossalicious folder is called Butterfly Swirl Corner.

Thanks for buzzing by today!

Exciting Announcement!

Did you see the BIG NEWS yesterday?  I am thrilled beyond words to announce that I've been invited to be on the Taylored Expressions Baker's Dozen Design Team starting in March!   ACK!!!  Seriously... ME!!!  I am completely and totally SHOCKED and excited for this amazing opportunity.

Even though my term hasn't officially started, I decided to make a card to celebrate!  LOL!  I ordered some very fun goodies as soon as I was invited and this gorgeous Oops A Daisy stamp set was one of the first things in my shopping cart.   I inked it up with Memento Inks (Pear Tart, Tangelo, Potter's Clay, and Rich Cocoa).

For my top border, I used the Small Scallop Border and added a Designer Mini Tag under the button & twine. 

I'm currently working on projects for the March Release & can't wait to share everything with you starting Monday, March 3rd!

Scrap It! Tea For Two Tutorial

Hi crafty friends!  Here today to share another card and tutorial using the new Creative Cafe Kit for this month called Tea for Two for The Rubber Cafe.  Today I'm sharing lots of ways to use up scraps of pattern paper.

Everything on my card (except for the Memento ink, markers and punches) is included in the Tea for Two kit ~ all of the cardstock, pattern paper, Tea for Two Stamp set, seam binding.  The coffee cup is from the Coffee Break set which is the Add-On set for this kit.

Step #1: I trimmed a piece of cardstock 1 1/2" x 3 1/4".  Then I trimmed 7 pieces of pattern paper ~ 2 at 1/4" and 5 at 1/2" width.  I covered the cardstock with adhesive and then layered the patterns on top.

* Tip ~ vary the widths and colors for some variety.  Also make sure they first piece is straight and then just add the layers below it.

Step #2:  Turn the piece over and trim the ends with a paper cutter or scissors.

Step #3: Trim a piece of brown cardstock with a scallop edge punch and add it to the edge of the pattern paper border.  Trim a piece of cream cardstock to 4 3/4" x 3 1/4"; round the top left corner with a corner rounder tool and attach the pattern paper border to the right edge.

Step #4: Next I stamped the tea pot image with Rich Cocoa Memento Ink and the coffee cup images on scraps of pattern paper and trimmed them with scissors and a craft knife.

* Tip: When you have small items to paper piece (like the handle of the coffee cup below), it's easier to just cut it off and color it with a marker.

Step #5: Before attaching the pattern cup to the cardstock, I stamped another cup and colored the handle... after all, it is Tea for TWO!

Step 6: I used some markers to make the tea brown, make the handles and rim of the cup darker gold and brick red to spots on tea post so the image wasn't so flat.

Step #6: I added some yellow/gold seam binding to the card and stamped the sentiment with Peanut Brittle Memento Luxe Ink.

Step #7: For the final step, I attached the artwork to the card with 3D Foam Adhesive.

And there you have some easy ways to use up your bits and pieces of pretty pattern paper.

Supply List:
The Rubber Cafe - Creative Cafe Kit (Tea for Two kit); Coffee Break Add-On set; Cardstock; Pattern Paper; Seam Binding
Ink - Rich Cocoa Memento Ink; Peanut Brittle Memento Luxe Ink.
Adhesive - 3D Foam Adhesive

My Type!

Once again, I pulled out some NEW stamps designed by my sweet friends from Lizzie Anne Designs ~ Tricia & Meridith!  I used the Objects of Love stamp set and colored them with my Spectrum Noir Markers (TB1, TB2).   You can see their entire release at Simon Says Stamps.

Thanks for buzzing by today!

Angelica & Adam... Sneak Peeks from Crafter's Companion

Today the designers are beginning to show sneak peeks of the new Angelica & Adam collection coming soon to Crafter's Companion.  These super sweet images are so much fun and they will be available for sale next week.  My sneak peek uses the new set called Bunches of Joy.  I used one of my favorite embossing folders Embossalicious Folder - Lattice for the background.

Spectrum Noir Markers ~ BT1, BT2, BT4, LV1, LV2, GB4, GB6, CT1, CT3, CT4, CG3, CG4, CR1, CR2, CR5, CR6, CR11, PP5, TN2, FS2, FS3

New from Lizzie Anne Designs!

Last week I got some happy mail from Simon Says Stamps!  NEW stamps designed by my sweet friends from Lizzie Anne Designs ~ Tricia & Meridith!So excited they are designing images again.

I used the Objects of Love stamp set and colored them with my Spectrum Noir Markers!  You can see their entire release at Simon Says Stamps.

TRC Love Fest

Happy Valentine's Day!

A little "fun fact" about me...
Valentine's Day is one of my very favorite
card making holidays!

The Rubber Cafe Team put together a fun little Love Fest today

over on the TRC Blog so go take a quick peek!

I know you'll enjoy all of the eye-candy!

Don't forget to check out the other designers projects today & leave some love along the way!

The Rubber Cafe - Creative Cafe Kit (Stamp sets - You've Stolen My Heart; Cardstock; Ribbon, Heart Gems)
Ink - Memento (Tuxedo Black)

My Favorite Valentine Projects ...

Today I thought I would show you a few of my favorite 

Valentine projects that I've shared the last few years!  Enjoy!

{Your Fortune is Full of Love ~ Lizzie Anne Designs}

{Love Potion #9 ~ Our Craft Lounge}

{Chalked Up Valentines ~ Taylored Expressions}

i {love you} tag ~ Crafter's Companion

{Fold Out Valentine ~ The Rubber Cafe}

Hope you enjoyed my Blast from the Past!

New Embossing Folders from Crafter's Companion

Oh My!  I am very late in posting today!!!  I usually have my blog post ready the day before; however, time got away from me yesterday and I didn't get a project made.  So... I whipped up this card this morning to share with you.  I'm pretty happy with the results too!

I used the brand new Distress Spatter Embossing Folder from the new 8-folder Sheena Douglass Collection at Crafter's Companion.  You'll love these new folders.  And... also brand new at Crafter's Companion... KRAFT CARDSTOCK!  I am beyond thrilled with that!  I ran my rust colored cardstock through my eBosser twice with the Distress Spatter folder (moving the cardstock after the first time).  I wanted more texture on the piece.

For my card today, I used some images from Stamp-It Australia (A Map & Travel Script) and a sentiment from the Sentimentals Collection - Imagine.  I inked them up in Nautical Blue Memento Ink and the background is in Toffee Crunch.   I also used Antique Linen Distress Ink for the edges of my pieces and I rubbed the ink pad on top of the embossed cardstock.  The pattern paper is new from My Minds Eye - Come Away with Me (6"x6" paper pad).

Have a great day and thanks for buzzing by!

New from Sheena Douglass... Curly Swirly Embossing

Later this afternoon at Crafter's Companion, Sheena Douglass is releasing eight beautiful new 5" x 7" Embossing Folders.  The one I'm showing here today is called Curly Swirly and I love it because it is so versatile.  I selected a piece of Luxury Centura Pearl cardstock and embossed it with the Curly Swirly Embossing Folder and used it as the background of my card.

For the butterfly, I used the Sheena set called Flying Colors and inked it up with Memento Luxe inks (Pear Tart, Bahama Blue, and Danube Blue).  Then I added some clear embossing powder and heat embossed it.  Once it was trimmed out with scissors, I sprayed the butterfly with Fireworks Sprays in Pear Tart and Summer Sky to make it sparkle and fill in the white space.

The sentiment is from the Imagine set from the Everyday Sentiments Collection and the burlap print around the edge is from the Ageing Beautifully stamp set and is stamped with VersaMark Frost Ink.

Check out the Crafter's Companion Facebook page this afternoon for all of the details on this release.

Scrapbooking Marching Band... FINALLY!

This past weekend I went on a Scrapbooking getaway and I'm thrilled to show you the first 5 layouts of my daughter's Marching Band book.  She is junior and completed her 3rd season last November.  With just one year left, I think we were both getting a bit nervous that I'd never get it going.  BUT... I was able to get 20 pages done over the weekend ~ 5 full page layouts and 15 Fast-Scrap page (like Project Life layouts) completed.

I selected various shades of green cardstock along with black and white.  Then I used the Base Camp and Quarter Note Cricut cartridges along with lots of stamps and dies from Technique Tuesday and Simple Stories.  So here we are...

The cover page shows Megan's formal pictures from her first 3 years with a space all ready for her Senior band photo (boo hoo)...

Next is the VERY LARGE (11x17) group photo.  I was very nervous to cut it down the center, but I made sure I didn't cut any faces and I found a great double page page protector that will display the pages right next to each other!

Next is a 5" x 7" photo of her freshman year.  The Concord scrapbook paper is from Scrapin' Sports and More and was ordered by a local scrapbook store.  They special order all of the local schools.

Here is the flute section...

And my final layout of the day is a pocket page with all of the newspaper articles for the season.  The logo in the scallop circle is the logo for their show that year... OH MY! What a year it was!!!

I love the simplicity of these pages and the added details to each page.  I'm looking forward to working on more pages later this week.

CAS Challenge...

Hello Hello!  Today I'm sharing a card I made for this month's Crafter's Companion Challenge which is keeping it Clean & Simple (CAS).  I used a Sheena Douglass Stamp set called French 50's Cafe for the plant and the Everyday Sentimentals set called Love is All You Need for the sentiment.  I stamped the image with Memento Luxe Tuxedo Black ink and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  Then I added a touch of red to the leaves using my DR3 Spectrum Noir Marker & I used EB3 to the branches.

Come play along with us on the CAS Challenge.  Don't have any Crafter's Companion stamps?  That's ok... you can download this FREE Digital Image for your card to enter the challenge.

Coffee, Tea and ... a little Subway Art!

Hi There!  I'm here today with some fun cards from the brand new Creative Cafe Kit called Tea for Two.

Except for the Memento Inks and a few small pieces of twine, everything else is included in the Creative Cafe Kit.  The stamp set that comes with the set is called Tea for Two & the Add-On set is called Coffee Break.  This kit includes fabulous Carte Bella pattern paper called Traditions, 4 colors of seam binding, lace, coffee scented embossing powder, wooden tags and chipboard pieces.  You'll see a little bit of everything as I share my cards this month.

Over the last several months, I've made a few cards using the Subway Art technique and lately I've had many requests to show how I do this on my cards.  I thought the latest Creative Cafe Kit would be the perfect time to do it because there are so many fabulous images in both stamp sets.  Here are the finished projects so you can visualize the final results as I show you step-by-step how I came up with my cards.  

I'll start with the Coffee Card (above right) which shows how I decided on my layout of stamps and tips for paper piecing images.  You can click on the photo below to enlarge it.

Photo #1: Trim a cream card panel 4 3/4" x 3 1/2" and select ink colors.  I chose Memento Ink ~ Rich Cocoa, Peanut Brittle, Toffee Crunch, Rhubarb Stalk and Potter's Clay.

Once my supplies were chosen, I started with the larger images in the set and started laying them out on my card panel to see how they would fit.  TIP: When stamping the images, don't use the same colors right next to each other.

Photo #2:  I started my card with the sentiment in the top left corner and then added other larger images around the card.

Photo #3: I decided that the To Go Cup & the coffee cup images really needed some extra texture, so I stamped the images on a few scraps of pattern paper from the kit and cut them out.

{click photo to enlarge}

Photo #4: After cutting out the images from the pattern paper, I added color with markers around the stamped outline and then popped up the image with 3D Foam Adhesive.  TIP: If you add an outline of the same color as your pattern paper, once the image is popped up with foam adhesive, the image won't just have a stamped edge under it & will give it a finished look.

Photo #5: The finished piece all ready to be added to a card.

As a final touch, I added some of the burnt red seam binding from the kit around the card front and tied it with a bow.

Once the bow was complete, I took one of the chipboard coffee cups from the kit and colored it with a goldish yellow marker.  Then I stamped the small trio of coffee beans on the cup and tied it with twine to the bow.   Simple as that ~ there's my Coffee Subway Art!

Next up... My Tea Subway Art Card.  This step-by-step shows a little bit more in depth how I decided on the placement of each image.  You can click on the photo below to enlarge it.

Photo #1: Trim a cream card panel 3 1/2" x 4 3/4".  I started with the largest image in the Tea for Two stamp set ~ the tea pot and stamped it in the lower right corner.  TIP: When stamping the images, don't use the same colors right next to each other.

Photo #2:  I selected my remaining ink colors.  Again I used Memento Inks ~ Rich Cocoa, Peanut Brittle, Rhubarb Stalk, Bamboo Leaves and Teal Zeal.

Photo #3: I added the stacked coffee cups from the Coffee Break set.  I colored the image after I finished stamping the card so I would have a better idea of which colors needed to be highlighted.

Photo #4: Added the "You, Me and a cup of Tea" sentiment in Bamboo Leaves Memento Ink.

Photo #5: Added the "Tea for Two" sentiment in Rhubarb Stalk Memento Ink and the solid tea cup in Peanut Brittle Memento Ink.  TIP: Don't forget to change directions when stamping.  It's more interesting to look at if you stamp images and sentiments sideways.

Photo #6: Add the "Tea Perk Up!" sentiment in Teal Zeal Memento Ink.

Photo #7: Add the heart tea cup in Rhubarb Stalk Memento Ink and the tea bag in Rich Cocoa Ink.

{click photo to enlarge} 

Photo #8: I added the solid spoon image as a filler in Peanut Brittle, Bamboo Leaves and Rich Cocoa Memento Inks.  TIP:  Save the small images for last to fill in little the blank spots.

Photo #9: I stamped the Tea Pot image on a scrap of pattern paper and trimmed it with my scissors and craft knife (for the inside of the handle).

Photo #10: Using coordinating markers, I colored the stack of cups, the large tea bag and the tea bag on the heart on the little tea bag on the tea cup.

Here are both finished pieces before attaching them to card bases.

I added my finish Subway Art to a brown card panel and then attached it to my card base.  I added some of the gold seam binding and made a half bow.

As my final touch, I attached a chipboard spoon (which I colored with a green marker) with some twine.

I hope you've found my tutorial on creating Subway Art helpful.  You can do this with any images and/or sentiment stamps ~ just have fun and take it a step at a time!

Supply List:
Creative Cafe Kit: The Rubber Cafe February 2014 Kit - Tea for Two; Cardstock; Pattern Paper; Seam Binding, Chipboard cup and spoon.
Memento Inks (listed above)
3D Foam Adhesive

The Alaska Project: Skagway part 2...

Today I'm sharing part 2 of our day in Skagway. We took the train from the city 20 miles north to the Canada. We boarded a motor coach and then stopped at the Yukon Suspension Bridge ~ super cool!

and of course we made friends with the resident Golden Retriever!

the final stop was a lesson in Panning for Gold!

I'll be back next week with more Alaskan Adventures!