Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Hop: Your Friendship Warms My Heart card

Hello, hello!

Due to all that’s been going on this year, I was sad to miss the Spring Coffee Lovers Hop for the first time in over 5 years. Now, the Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Hop is in full swing and things are still crazy, but at least I can get to crafting once in a while.

As I was recovering from a procedure on my legs, I had to take short daily walks. Since it’s still blazing hot here in Florida, I chose to do my walking in stores… DANGEROUS!! Lol!! I came across some wonderful royal purple ultra soft and snuggly pjs, robe, blankie and shoes – all on sale – that I would have loved to have if I lived where it gets cold. The few winter things I have haven’t been used in the past few years as it doesn’t even get cold for a few days like it used to down here. (I see a bunch of you sticking your tongues out at me right now!) But I immediately thought of a dear friend up North who is very sensitive to the cold, so I decided to send them to her along with a Ghirardelli chocolates, cocoa and brownie treats and Laura Childs’ latest tea shop mystery to snuggle up and enjoy on a couple of cold winter days.

Hence the need for a darling little cocoa card and this one fit the bill perfectly. Some day I’ll tackle using Copics in creams for fur, but I didn’t have the time, so stuck with standard brown…

Supplies:

• Lil’ Inker Designs Cocoa Bear
• Spellbinders Card Creator A2 Divine Eloquence
• Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink
• Copic Markers: C1, 3; E11, 33, 79; R20, 22; RV17; V04, 09
• Pebbles Inc Pearlescent Chalks Jewel Tones
• Gelly Roll Glaze pen
• Park Lane Paperie 110# cardstock for base
• Core’dinations 65# cardstock purple and white
• Scrapbooking made simple adhesives

Unfortunately, this will be my only entry in the Coffee Lovers Hop this time. Perhaps next spring I’ll be back to crafting more. Enjoy the rest of the hop!

-D.Ann

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Lil Inker Designs Pawesome Kitty With Frap Interactive Thank You Card for Barista

This was supposed to be my grand finale card for tomorrow, but I was afraid I might not have time to post it, so it’s going up today. : ) Yes, there’s only just over a day left of the Spring Coffee Lovers Bloghop!

I’ve been showing my cards from the hop to my barista who is a sweetheart and always goes above and beyond with my green tea fraps, so I thought I’d make her a special little interactive thank you card:

I just LOVE this adorable Lil’ Inker Designs Kitty Hugger! (And that cool Starbucks holographic Miami Gift Card!)  The frap is just sitting there unattached and can be removed to read the Thank You note on the back. The kitty stands up by cutting a second one and gluing the heads together. (The arms and tail of the back one were removed so they wouldn’t be seen (making a scary mutant cat) and the parts that would be visible were colored in.)

I had a learning curve with coloring it tho… I was happy with how natural looking the paw pads I added turned out – until I folded them over and THEN remembered Copics bleed through. Akk! Usually it’s not a problem as I’ll be attaching what I color to something else, covering the back side. Well, just don’t think too much about how a kitty could be hugging something AND have his paw pads showing or you’ll get a brain cramp from the contortions. Lol!

There was a serendipitous moment, too… when my cutting pads are very well used, they tend to impress the markings on the back of what I’m cutting. Not usually a problem, but when I folded the arm over, I found that it added some cool fur-like texture!!

If you look closely at the pic above, you can see the ‘shelf’ I built on his left foot. I just added two pieces of cardstock straight across the ‘ankle’ and that gives the frap a shelf to rest on which, along with the bent paw, holds it in place until ready to be removed.

I wish you could see the frap in real life… It’s amazing! I colored the green tea part first, then added the Nuvo Fresh Snowfall Glitter accents and it looks nice and frosty! The whipped cream was done with a Viva Decor Perlen Pen and the straw was attached. Once dry, I die cut a piece of clear plastic from the packaging of one of my dies, lined it with Scor-tape and put it on top for a true plastic cup look.

The kitty does stand alone, but he can also sit on the gift card… one cool Miami cat!       That gives me an idea: he could be used later as a bookmark, too!

Since they were 25% off today (with Target’s Cartwheel app), I went over to get a frap, and hopefully get a pic of my barista with her gift,  but she was off today, so I just came home with a yummy pick-me-up for myself. (Nonfat milk and raspberry syrup instead of classic – yum!) I always get mine without whipped cream, but the card just looks cuter with it, don’tcha think?!

Supplies used:

• Lil’ Inker Designs Kitty Hugger stamp and die set
• Lil Inker Designs Coffee Talk stamp and die sets
• Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink
• Copic Markers: C1, 3, 5; E02; R20; RV02; YG61, 63
• Tonic Studios Nuvo Glitter Accents: Fresh Snowfall
• Viva Decor Perlen Pen – Ice White
• Sookwang 2.5″ Scor-tape adhesive
• Aleene’s Clear Gel Tacky Blue
• Coredinations white and red cardstock
• Misc. plastic packaging

I’m playing along with the following challenges… click on any one of them for more information on how you can join the fun…

• Spring Coffee Lovers Bloghop (both the card and the gift box)
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes
• Cropstop Linky Party #26: Anything Goes (Aleene’s, Core’dinations, Memento, Scor-tape, Tonic and Viva Decor,

It’s been a fun week. Thanks to everyone who was kind enough to stop by and leave some bloggie love!! I really appreciate you all!!

~D.Ann

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Edited to add: Went the next day and my sweet barista was pleased with her little gift!

Thank you, Angie!

The Smallest Things Can Make Your Day: Green Tea Frap, Sunrise & Sundials

Goood morning sweet coffee, tea and cocoa loving fiends… I mean friends! : ) Since some of you are experiencing nasty winter weather, I thought I’d send you a bit of balmy Florida 74 degree sunshine to warm you up and brighten your morning. Now you know why I still consider a Frappuccino a winter card!

 

At our southeast Florida beach, you will mostly find small white and cream colored shells… tellins, arks, clams, broken cockles, and occasionally coral bits and cat’s paws. Not the plethora you find over at Sanibel, but just a few hither, thither and yon. Today, instead of drinking my green tea Frappuccino (In case you’re wondering why it’s brown, it’s made with raspberry syrup, YUM!) while comfortably sitting in my car with the windows down and enjoying the sunrise, like usual, I actually got my feet in the sand now that it’s cooled down enough to walk on it without scorching them. I just went down to the went down to the tide line for a couple of minutes to take this picture of the card on some coral rocks with the ocean and sunrise in the background and I happened to look down and found my first sundial ever in decades (not saying how many!) of beach combing! What a pleasant surprise!!

Ahhh…. a green tea frap, a glorious sunrise and a rare shell… Yep, sometimes it’s truly small things in life that can make your day a whole lot better!!

The sundial is in the left corner, closest to the purple and beside the amazing neon yellow little shell. What gorgeous creations!

I CASE’d this CAS card from Unity Stamp Company’s quick tip video by Angeline Choo, which you can see at this link that you can copy and past because if I link it, it puts the video in my post and blocks half my post. Some day I’ll get this!Meanwhile, here’s the link:(www.facebook.com/unitystampco/videos/1093341690700443/?theater)

In case you were wondering, the acronyms are for: Clean And Simple (CAS)and CASE, which means Copy And Share Everything, including credit for the person whose card you copied.

I knew it was going to be a frappy day when I finished coloring my card and pulled off the new-to-me 3M Micropore tape that was a gift to me for DIY washi tape. I thought I’d use it to mask the inking and get some inked tape to boot. It didn’t take the distress ink too well and it ripped the top layer of the cardstock. YIKES!

Fortunately there are fixes for minor disasters such as this, like covering it up with just a pinch of lace!  I daresay that at a first glance you didn’t notice the tear, although now if you go back and enlarge it, you can still see it’s still there, but at least anchored at the top under the lace. I’m sure my friend who often brings me my favorite frap for a treat won’t mind the little imperfection. Life goes on.

Materials used:

• Core’dinations white cardstock
• Lil’ Inker Designs Coffee Talk stamp set
• Memento Tuxedo Black and Rose Bud dye inks
• Inkadinkado Stamping Mask paper
• 3M Micropore tape
• Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Festive Berries, Picked Raspberry, Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord
• Tombow mono permanent adhesive
• Misc. lace

I’m playing along in the following hops and challenges:

• Coffee Lovers 2015 Winter Blog Hop: http://wp.me/p5K3PQ-4w
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Just a Pinch (of lace)  http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/?p=3303
• Marker Pop! Challenge #84: Anything Goes  http://blog.markerpop.com/2015/12/14/markerpop-challenge-84-anything-goes/

Edited to add: Thank you, Lil’ Inker Designs for featuring this card in your You Made It Monday blog feature! (HERE)

Wishing you a warm (at least in your cup!) and sunny day!

**** Edited to add:

Thank you for the honor of being featured in Lil’ Inkers Designs You Made it Monday! ****

-D.Ann

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Your Friendship Warms My Heart Card & Drinking Chocolate

Good evening and welcome back! I have been waiting weeks for just the right time to try an experiment and this evening was perfect. Who remembers Chantico drinking chocolate that Starbucks had a couple of years ago?! I was SO sad to see it go!! It reminded me of a drinking chocolate some friends from Spain brought that I’d fallen in love with. I have never come so close to duplicating that taste of practically drinking a chocolate bar until Chantico. Sigh.

A few weeks ago, in the blazing heat, my aunt was visiting and treated us to ice cream at Kilwins over by the beach. While browsing the shop, I found a bag of Kilwins Shredded Peruvian Chocolate for Drinking. I was ecstatic!! I was even more thrilled when my Aunt surprised me with a bag as a gift!! I’ve been waiting until it cooled down enough to try it and see if it really was similar to that wonderful drinking chocolate I remembered, and…. woo-hoo!!! If you’re a chocolate lover, especially a dark chocolate lover, I highly recommend you give it a try. I DID add extra sugar to cut the bitterness, but it’s still AMAZING!!

I’ve got to hurry and finish this post so I can get back to my chocolate.

Nope… I had to finish my chocolate first. Now I’m back to finish the post. Priorities!! : )

I think this card was a self portrait of me just a couple of seconds ago. lol!

Materials used:

• Lil’ Inker Designs Cocoa Bear
• Spellbinders Card Creator A2 Divine Eloquence
• Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink
• Copic Markers: B24, 29; C1, 3; E11, 33, 79; R20, 22; Y13, 15
• Ranger Inkssentials Glossy Accents
• Pebbles Inc Pearlescent Chalks Jewel Tones
• Queen & Co. Pearls
• DCWV card
• Misc. cardstock, adhesive

I’m playing along in the following hops and challenges:

• Coffee Lovers 2015 Winter Blog Hop: http://wp.me/p5K3PQ-4w
• And, since he’s a jolly little bear, this fits this week’s Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/?p=3301

Thank you all for your encouraging (and entertaining) comments from the hop. I read them all and really appreciate them! Have a wonderful evening and I hope to see you again tomorrow.

-D.Ann

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‘Thanks SLOW much!’ Snail-mail card

What’s with the popcorn on this fun Snail-mail card using those adorable snails from Lil’ Inker Designs? (who, by the way is having their Montthly Meetup Challenge )

Well, The Daily Marker has a Pop-Up challenge going on, and it’s all about lines.

I’ve added silver linings to my embossed clouds, extended the rays of the sun and added and emphasized the lines on the snail shells to make them look a bit more realistic.

These snails are so cute, I’m sure they’ll be popping up on more cards in the near future!

Materials used:

• Lil’ Inker Designs – Snailed It! Stamp set and dies
• Stampin’ Up dye inks – Creamy Caramel & So Saffron
• Copic Markers – E31, E33, E37, YR24
• Gelly Roll pen – white
• Versamark ink
• Ranger Perfect Medium pen
• JoAnn CraftEssentials Embossing Powder – Clear
• Inkadinkado Embossing Powder – Linen White
• Hampton Arts Embossing Powders – Copper, Gold, Metallic Gold, Silver, Yellow
• Recollections Detail Embossing Powder – Ebony
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L Crafty Power tape,E-Z Runner for vellum (used under ‘moss’ ribbon) & DODZ small
• Misc. ‘moss’ ribbon, citrus colored flowers ribbon, and cardstock

I’m entering this card in the following challenges. I’ll add the links in case you want to play along, too…

• The Daily Marker Pop-Up Challenge http://www.thedailymarker.com/2015/08/day-1-pop-up-wvideo/ Or you can do like I did and enter via Instagram – see the instructions on her blog.
• Lil’ Inker Designs August Monthly Meet-up Challenge – Anything Goes!  http://shoplilinker.blogspot.com/2015/08/august-monthly-meetup-challenge-and.html 

• Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday – Die-cuts!  http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/blog/work-it-wednesday-july-2015/
•  Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – Citrus (Citrus colored flowers ribbon) http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/?p=2962

Just remember: Slow and steady wins the race! (or was that for turtles?!) Have a fun day!

-D.Ann

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