Aloha, all!
Finally today I'm feeling a bit more like doing some craft work. For the last several days I've really had a bit of a struggle feeling like doing anything but just sitting, reading, and sipping tea. But today I'm back into the groove a bit. In fact, as I was setting today's project up for its photo opp, my darling husband came into the craft room and said he was glad to see me being perkier. We both laughed when I showed him the card and the sentiment at the top! I was about to say, "Isn't that a hoot!?" but that's a greeting on another card.
Today's card is for the weekly Divas Coffee Break Design Team, of which I am currently a Design Team member. It really is different dealing with a challenge that I'm obligated to take on (because of my commitment to the Divas Team!) than seeing a challenge somewhere on the Internet and maybe or maybe not showing off what I come up with. So I thought about this design quite a bit. I had already decided on this Stamp Set, Morning Cup, in fact just because of the line, "Perk Up!" I needed that! And, as I usually have a cup of tea in the afternoon when I'm in the Craft Room, I focused on the tea cup images on the stamp set. Once I got going, though, the coffee pot and mugs jumped out of the box and onto my stamp pads (can you just see that!?)
For the most part when I'm dealing with a line art stamp that has a large open area, I like to use Stampin' Up! Designer Series Papers rather that just coloring it in. I also wanted to start getting into my stash of In Color Poly-Stitched Ribbon which has been languishing in a bottom drawer for over a month. Once I picked out the Peach Parfait Ribbon, it wasn't hard to find the Baja Breeze sheets in the Elegant Soiree Designer Series Paper. After that, everything pretty much all came together. The Polka Dot Paper at the top of the card is also from the Elegant Soiree set of papers. I needed a little bit of something extra to go with the saying in the top element, so I chose some Marina Mist Brads as an accent. They're not right on top of the Baja Breeze paper, so it didn't bother me too much that they weren't a perfect match. (In fact, if I hadn't mentioned it, do you think you would have noticed?)
When I decided I needed a bit of a dark color to set things off, with this card's theme it was only seconds before Early Espresso came to mind. I can see that the next time I have to go into town, there will be a stop at the local branch of some famous coffee shop!
I hope that you'll decided that this is a design challenge that you might want to try! To help you out, I'm posting the measurements that I used for my card. Make your card, post it somewhere on the Internet (Split Coast Stampers is a nice spot that everyone can link to), and then post your link on the Divas site!
And even if you just make a card for yourself using this layout – or any layout! – have fun with it!