Cocoa and Friendship

Happy Thanksgiving week!  Here in the U.S. we're busy getting ready for a holiday.  It's been unseasonably warm where I live, so I'm having trouble believing we're coming up on the end of November so quickly.  Christmas (my very favorite time of the year) is just around the corner!

Today's card is a quick and easy winter card.  I collect coffee and hot chocolate stamps (and snowman stamps...do you see a wintry pattern emerging here?), so hot drinks appear quite often on my cards during this time of year.  One of my favorite ways to embellish a stamped cup of hot chocolate is with puffy white Liquid Applique.  This is such a fun (and easy) way to add a bit of fluffy whipped cream!

Here's my card:

I stamped my mug in Rich Cocoa on some light brownish card stock (it was in my stash and I have no idea what the color name is).  I added the steam in Close to Cocoa.  The steam is from a different set.  I love to mix and match my stamp sets to make them more versatile. 

I stamped my sentiment in Rich Cocoa, then die cut it and inked the edges with Rich Cocoa.  I used a dewdrop-sized pad this time because the smaller size makes it so much easier to ink the edges on a small label.  I added some baker's twine to my panel and then attached my sentiment piece with Stampin' Dimensionals over the twine.  I adhered the panel to a dark brown card base (also from my stash) and applied Liquid Applique.  I allowed it to dry, then used my heat tool to puff it up.  I decided it needed just a bit more so I added more Liquid Applique over it and puffed it up with the heat tool again.  I love that you can add layers and continue building the "foam" if you want to.  I thought it needed a little something else, so I added a red striped straw over the foam.  Unfortunately a bit of the red got on the foam (those new SU ink pads are JUICY!), so once again I added some more Liquid Applique and heat set it.  See how great this stuff is for covering up mistakes and creating dimension?

I am leaving this card as a "friendship" card by not adding any other sentiment, but I could easily change it to a missing you, thank you, love you, thinking of you, etc. card just by adding a sentiment to the inside. 

Thanks for visiting! 

Products Used:
 

Stamps (mug and sentiment): Close to My Heart

Stamps (steam and straw): Like it a Latte (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa (Tsukineko); Close to Cocoa, Real Red (Stampin' Up!)

Tools and Accessories: White Liquid Applique (Marvy); Baker's Twine (unknown); Nestabilities Labels One (Spellbinders); Big Shot (Sizzix); Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

Coffee Break Friends

Happy Monday!  I hope you had an enjoyable weekend.  It was a busy and productive one at my house.  I always feel better about the upcoming week if I've managed to get a few things checked off my to-do list over the weekend.  It was also nice to just spend some time together as a family.  We ate lots of chili and carved a pumpkin and went to a Halloween party...the perfect way to spend a few chilly days in Autumn, if you ask me!

And while my family slept, I spent a few hours in my craft room to work on completing a few challenges.  The first card I made was for this week's CAS(E) This Sketch Challenge, which uses the following sketch:

 

I combined this sketch with the Operation Write Home Midweek Throwdown.  The current Midweek Throwdown challenge theme is "Celebrate Friendship", so I used both challenges to create this card:

 

 

This card combines two of my favorite themes: friendship and coffee! (Side note: I collect coffee stamps, so you'll see those quite often on my blog.  I also collect snowmen stamps, so I make a lot of winter cards!) 

 

Since this card will be donated to Operation Write Home, I wanted to keep the colors neutral enough that it could be sent or received by a man or a woman.  I made a card base from brown card stock and cut a panel of red card stock to run the length of the card. I stamped my coffee cup in Memento Espresso Truffle, then masked the cup to add the frothy milk. I applied Liquid Applique, then set the tag aside to dry. You're *supposed* to let the liquid applique dry overnight, but I never have that much patience!  After it seemed dry enough to me (an hour or two), I used my heat gun to make it puff up.  I love the texture it adds!  Because frothy milk isn't stark-white, I applied some metallic rub-ons with my fingers to change the color a bit.  Because I wanted the brown card stock to show through the vellum on my tag, I laid my tag on the back side of the red panel, traced around it and then cut out the area with my craft knife. I adhered the panel to my card base, then attached the tag to the card base using mini glue dots. I stamped my sentiment on white card stock in Memento Espresso Truffle and inked the edges of the white piece with the same color, then adhered it to the card. 

 

This old stamp set is just so much fun to use!  White Liquid Applique works perfectly for creating the frothy milk (which can also become a dollop of whipped cream for hot cocoa if you just change the sentiment). 

 

I noticed that in this photo, the red panel looks slightly skewed. It is perfectly straight on the card (I know this because I measured it...my darned astigmatism makes lining things up difficult so I rely on my trusty ruler!). I either need a better camera or I need to brush up on my photography skills!

 

Looking at this card today (when it's not the middle of the night!) I think I would like this a bit more if I had embossed the red panel to add a bit of texture.  I can definitely see several uses for the sketch and am looking forward to trying it with other images and sentiments.

 

I'll be back tomorrow to tackle another challenge or two.  I hope those of you who are hunkered down for Hurricane Sandy are staying safe and dry!  My thoughts and prayers are with all who are in the storm's path. 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Products Used:

Ink: Memento Espresso Truffle (Tsukineko)

Stamps: Espress Yourself (Stampin' Up!)

Other: Liquid Applique (Marvy); Golden White Metallic Rub-On (Craf-T Products), heat tool, vellum tag