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Coffee Lovers Bloghop Spring/Summer 2021 Day #8
This is likely my last card for this bloghop. When I first take out my “Coffee Theme” storage box from the closet for this bloghop, it crosses my mind that I have no ideas for cards. By the end of the week though, I am out of time but never out of ideas. Funny how that goes. I am a firm believer that if you just stamp something or paint a background or die cut something, ideas will flow. What first comes out may not be the Mona Lisa, but what flow from that might just be.
This card is made with an image from Rabbit Hole Designs, that I have used in previous hops. This time though I paired it with some new products that I just love. The hexagons are from Hero Arts Infinity Hexagons. The yummy patterned paper is from Tell the Bees Special Edition by Craft Consortium. Finally, I love it when I dig in my older stash and come up with something like the sparkly hexagon shaped enamel dots. Perfect.

I got Happy Mail
It was a great day in the mailbox yesterday, as I finally received my April Kit from Hero Arts.
I feel like I am very late to the party, but set about making some cards with the kit. The theme is/was Australia and it has some wonderful stamps and dies to support this. These cards were all made with an add-on stamp and die set from the Heroscapes line. I love the realistic look of the beach and ocean.
Spring Card Camp 2 Day 20
Well, how about that? I have been through 40 days and 40 nights of cardmaking classes between Spring Card Camp 1 and Spring Card Camp 2. Somedays I feel like I should have used those 40 days and 40 nights to build the modern equivalent of an ark………………….maybe like a giant dog cone that fits on the top my head and goes down to my toes. Then maybe I could walk around wherever I want without fear of the scourge raining down on me.
Today’s tutorial was about paper weaving. I was afraid that it was going to be time-consuming and I wouldn’t like the result when it was all over. Luckily, I was wrong on both counts. It didn’t take that long and only one colour choice change, I was done.
Both cards turned out well. Take a look:
Coffee Lovers Bloghop Day 1
I have been making a large number of blog posts lately. First there was the Spring Card Camp that lasted 20 days. This was followed by the unexpected Spring Card Camp 2 which is still in progress and will also last for 20 days. On top of this I have been busy making card samples for the Scrapbook store that I work for. Now today, is the first day of the Coffee Lovers Spring Summer Bloghop. This bloghop has been very good to me. I have been lucky enough to win a prize every year but one.
The only real rule of this bloghop is that every card be new………no backlinking allowed. I decided to use an up to the minute and very topical patterned paper to show that this card is not back linked.
Although I can honestly say that I detest the symbol on this patterned paper, Photoplay has made it palatable with the happy bright colours.
Spring Card Camp 2 Day 11
Today’s video was presented by Julie Ebersole. The theme of the video was “no coloring” (colouring if you are Canadian like me). I like colouring images, but realise it is time-consuming for sure.
I managed to “kill two birds with one stone” as I wanted to use this Picket Fence stamp set called Peony Bouquet because it was still sitting in my “new” drawer and because I could use it as a sample card at the store where I work and because it fits today’s theme very well. So ok, that is “three birds with one stone” but you get my drift.
Spring Card Camp 2 Day 9
I knew there was going to be trouble today. The theme of the tutorial by Daniel West was to let your imagination wander and envision your stamps/dies/stencils in a totally different way. This is precisely what I like to do with my supplies, but it is this very methodology that turns what should be a 10-minute card into a 4-hour card. The funny thing was that even though I like to do this re-imagining of stamps and dies, I drew a complete blank at first. When I finally thought of something, I said to myself…………don’t do it……………..it is too stupid and “out there”. So of course, I set about doing exactly that. I don’t know if the card “works” but I think there is an “E” for effort in there somewhere.
I will show you first the two dies that I started out with. Take a moment to guess what I transformed them into.
Now you can see the finished product. So ok, I know it is a stretch……………..Glass Catfish in an aquarium. It is my imagination and so I can do what I want with it. The one outstanding problem with this project is that I put so much clear glaze over the fish (Pico Embellisher), that it is unlikely to dry any time today. That is ok though as my newly acquired Spring Card Camp friend Sue Ellen says…………..drying time doesn’t count when determining how long a card takes to make.
I took about 10 pictures trying to get one that sort of reflected the transparent glisten of the fish. This was the best of the lot, taken in bright sunshine while the card was sitting on my partner’s jeep tire. I know I need to get some proper photography backgrounds
Spring Card Camp 2 Day 7
Today’s video was presented by Caly Person and was about using vellum. In one of her samples, she used a jungle border. I had a different jungle border from Hero Arts that is one of my favourites and so I decided to do a jungle card too. My card is really a mixed media card as I used stamps, diecuts, Copic markers, coloured pencils with gamsol, and ink blending to complete the card. I liked the resulting card but if I had the time to do it over again, I would use the vellum a bit differently to make it appear more prominently. I am totally reformed, however, and vow not to take longer than 4 hours to make a card, and so I declared it done and here it is.
Spring Card Camp Day 4 Card 2
Here is the extra card resulting from using the image cut out to form a window on the card from the previous post. On this card, I used a 3D embossing folder from Sizzix called Tropical Leaves. It teamed up very well with the Hero Arts kit used on this card.
Take a look:
Spring Card Camp Day 3
Today’s lesson was led by Yana Smakula. I follow her posts either on her own blog or with Spellbinders so I am familiar with her style. This card session was absolutely perfect for me. I had purchased the Hero Arts background stamp Ocean Waves Bold Print precisely because it reminded me of the patches of different coloured fields in the prairie of Saskatchewan, but I had not yet made a card depicting this. The lesson was to cut up the image into various pieces in a variety of colours and then abstractly piece them back together. Making two cards at once used up the various colours of stamped cardstock while creating two distinctly different cards. As I had the exact stamp sets that Yana used and because they suited my background stamp, I decided to use them on my cards as well. Finally, since texture seemed to be the name of the game here, I used Blanco Transfer gel, Thermoweb Flock and a laminator to make fuzzy little clouds for the sky.
I have to say that I am very happy with how these cards turned out. I like both the multicoloured and the black silhouette image cards equally well. They might just end up on my all-time favourites list.
Miss Your Face
Today I am showcasing a card that I will be teaching at Pueblo El Mirage Resort next Monday. I recently ordered a card kit from My Favorite Things for the first time. The theme of the kit is Message in a bottle and it is uber cute. The word “uber” is top of mind with me right now, as we “Ubered” our way back and forth from our BnB to Creativation. LOL I think I could really become accustomed to having my own driver. It was uber convenient for sure. Ok back to the card.
It is a great kit but the components are also available separately. It has a stencil to create the background waves. It has the dies to cut out the shape of the bottle and its’ cork top. It has a stamp set of messages to go in the bottle and even three flag dies to cut out three messages at a time. All I had to add from my stash was a few seaweeds from a Hero Arts Kit I have, sequins from Lucie’s Little things, iridescent bubbles from Studio Katia and Sand from Brutus Monroe and ink. So ok, that is quite a bit from my stash, but I love the result.