It's A Hot Chocolate Kind Of Day

 

Today's card was created for the latest Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge. I created my card by stamping the three mugs from Newton's Nook Designs Cup of Cocoa stamp set onto white Copic-friendly cardstock and colored them using my alcohol markers. I then die cut a scalloped edge panel using powder blue cardstock from Hobby Lobby and a Gina Marie Designs nesting scalloped edge rectangle die. I layered that directly onto my white card base. Using the square Window Trio 1 die from Waffle Flower, I cut a focal panel using white cardstock. Before adhering directly to the scalloped panel, I stamped snowflakes from Stampabilities Winter Wonderland stamp set using Stampin' UP's bashful blue ink. I then stamped the sentiment from the Cup of Cocoa stamp set using Gina K Designs black ink. I adhered the panel to the card, added some Nuvo Crystal Drops in white blizzard, some gel pen detail, and clear rhinestones from Recollections to the snowflakes. I love how adorably cute this card turned out! Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Hope you have an amazing day!

Thank You-Coffee And Cards With Celeste And Deb

 

Hello, and Happy New Year! This month Debra and I are creating winter themed cards. I love to send out thank you cards after the holidays, and I thought a snowflake themed thank you card would be perfect this year. Using my antistatic powder tool from EK Success, I prepped my navy cardstock. I stamped the sentiment from Winnie & Walter The Big, The Bold, and You stamp set using Versamark clear embossing ink. I heat embossed that using Recollections silver embossing ink. Then, using snowflake stamps from Stampendous's Large Snowflake, Stampabilities Winter Wonderland, and Crate Paper's Snow & Cocoa's stamp sets I created my snowflake scene. These all were embossed using the same silver embossing powder. Once everything was dry, I added some beautiful clear rhinestones from Recollections to the centers of each snowflake. This was a pretty easy card to create, so I mass produced them to send to my family. 

For my coffee, I opted for an International Delight Reese's iced coffee. This was my first time trying one of these types of canned iced coffees. It was pretty tasty! Now, be sure to stop by Debra's blog to see how she was inspired this month's theme. 

Season's Greetings

 

Today's card was created for the latest Inkspirational card challenge. I created my card by using a hex punch from Fiskars and patterned paper from The Paper Studio Vintage Christmas 6x6 collection. I created an A2 card base using some forest green cardstock from Hobby Lobby. I die cut a postage edge panel using a Spellbinders die. I cut down a smaller panel using scrap cardstock and adhered all of the "quilt" pieces. I adhered the whole panel to my card base. I then stamped the sentiment using Gina K Designs black ink and Recollections Christmas-Noel wood block stamp. I cut the panel down to a large sentiment strip and backed it with more forest green cardstock. I finished the card off by added some beautiful dark red gems to the berries using gem stickers from Honey Bee's Fresh Brewed collection. Thank you for stopping by my blog today!

Hello Sweet Friend

 
It's snowing pretty hard here in Southeast Missouri, and I am off work today. What a perfect day to sit in the house, sip coffee, and create cards, right? Today's card was created for the latest AAA Card challenge. I created my card by layering some pretty patterned papers from Studio Calico's Take Note 6x6 paper pad onto my white A2 card base. On a separate white cardstock panel, I stamped the Stampabilities Cherry Blossom Bird stamp using Memento tuxedo black ink and colored it using my Copic markers. I lightly water colored the background using Tim Holtz distress ink and then stamped the Unity Stamp Company's Small Details background stamp on the panel using Memento's London fog ink and 2nd generation stamping for a faint detail. I stamped the sentiment from Honey Bee's Sweet Sunflowers stamp set using Versafine onyx black ink. I cut the panel down using a Spellbinders rectangle postage edge die and adhered it to the card using thin foam tape. 

Hello My Friend-Send A Smile 4 Kids

 

Hello, and happy New Year! This month at Send A Smile 4 Kids we are celebrating friendship, with a focus on making new friends, but keeping the old. I wanted to break out an old stamp set that I've not used in ages that celebrates friendship. I started by stamping the adorable unicorns from The Greeting Farm Hello Unicorn and Magical Day stamp sets onto white Copic-friendly cardstock. I colored them with my alcohol markers and fussy cut them out. Using some teal cardstock from my stash and a stitched scalloped border nesting die from Gina Marie Designs, I created the scalloped panel. Using white cardstock and a cloud embossing folder from Darice, I created a cloudy sky background that I adhered to the scalloped panel. Using my alcohol markers, I created some interest and shadow the embossed clouds on the background. I stamped the sentiment from The Greeting Farm Hello Unicorn stamp set using Memento tuxedo black ink onto a white panel that I die cut using a stitched speech bubble border die from The Cat's Pajama's. I adhered that to the top of the cloud background panel and added more interest with my Copic marker. I popped the unicorns up on the panel using foam squares and finished the card off with some sparkling clear gems from Recollections and some white gel pen detail on the unicorns. 

My Favorite-Coffee And Cards With Celeste And Deb

 

As many of my followers know, Debra Davison of Meticulosity and I have been doing a monthly collaboration called Coffee and Cards for many years now. What you may not know is she and I started this as a temporary one-month collaboration back in October 2016 (original post can be found here) that morphed into a permanent monthly installment. Debra and I became online friends through our mutual love of coffee and card making in 2014. I later found out that she is a nurse. I'm a medical assistant, so it was a pleasant surprise to discover that we both work in the same line of work. 

This month we decided to end this year's collaboration, not by featuring our own cards, but rather a favorite of the other's work from the year 2024. I had a really tough time choosing just one, because I have been a fan of her work for over a decade! She really is a very creative person and has a much different take on card making than I do. She loves coloring and has a very keen eye for layouts. And though it was extremely tough to choose just one card, I opted for the fun cat Christmas card above from September 2024 (original post here). It reminds me of Deb and her white cat, Pixie! I love that she took a non-Christmas Penny Black stamp and created such a cute and clever holiday card with it! I love the image, the coloring, and the fun patterned papers she paired with it. Such a sweet and clever card. Well done, Debra!! Here's to another fun year of Coffee and Card collaborations and, hopefully, another decade of crafty friendship!

For my coffee this month, I couldn't resist the hot gingerbread latte from my local Ziggi's coffee shop! It really hit the spot while I was out fighting the hoards to finish up my Christmas shopping. Be sure to stop by Debra's blog and see what favorite card of mine she chose. Thank you for stopping by my blog. I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a safe, prosperous New Year!

Oh, So Merry-Send A Smile 4 Kids

 

Hello, happy December! This month at Send A Smile 4 Kids we are creating winter cards. Nothing says winter to me like snow...or snowmen! I found inspiration for this adorable card on Pinterest, and just had to give it a try. I started by layering pretty red snowflake paper from My Mind's Eye Sweater Weather paper pad onto black cardstock and mounted it onto my white A2 card base. Using a stitched circle die from My Favorite Things, I created a circle out of simple white cardstock. I cut down to 2/3 of its size. I added the scarf by cutting down more patterned paper from the same paper pad into rectangles. I adhered them to card using more foam tape. The eyes were created with a small EK Success 1/4" circle punch using black cardstock, and the nose was created with a Spellbinders triangle die and orange cardstock. The entire snowman was adhered to the card using thin foam tape. The sentiment was stamped onto black cardstock using Pawsome Stamps Puffy Holiday Greetings stamp set and Ranger detail white embossing powder. I fussy cut the sentiment out and adhered it with foam tape as well. I finished off the card by adding some black gems around the image for a bit more interest. Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Be sure to head over to the Send A Smile 4 Kids blog and see how everyone else was inspired this month!

Have A Sweet Holiday-Coffee and Cards with Celeste and Deb

 

This month Debra and I are using this fun holiday photo as our inspiration. I created my holiday card by layering some plaid patterned paper from the American Crafts Hot Cocoa 6x6 paper pad onto my A2 card base. I die cut a focal panel using white cardstock and a Gina Marie Designs scalloped edge rectangle die. I layered another piece of patterned paper from the same paper pad at the bottom of the focal panel to look like a tablecloth. I die cut the focal elements using Momenta's Christmas Mug die set and a mix of cardstock and more papers from the same paper pad. I adhered them onto the focal panel using liquid glue. I stamped the sentiment from Avocado Arts Gingerbread Goodness stamp set at the right upper corner. To finish off the card, I did some shading on the whipped cream using a Copic marker and added a few shimmery red heart sequins around the sentiment. 

While I was crafting, I opted to sip on a delicious mug of Barissimo's Tiramisu coffee. It's positively delicious! Now, be sure to stop by Debra's blog and see how she was inspired this month by our inspiration photo! 

Fall For Autumn Leaves

 

My card today was created for the latest Color Throwdown card challenge. I started by embossing a panel of kraft cardstock using the Lisa Horton Knitted embossing folder and mounted the panel directly onto my white A2 card base. I die cut a white panel using a stitched scallop edge rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs, and stamped the focal image from Newton's Nook Designs Falling For You stamp set. I popped that panel up off of the card using thin foam tape. I stamped the pumpkin image twice and several of the leaves. I colored them using my alcohol markers and then adhered them to the panel. Such a cute and easy card! Thank you for stopping by my blog today. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Joy

 

Hello, happy Sunday! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Today's card was created for the latest Just Us Girls card challenge. I created this card by layering some basic black cardstock onto my white A2 card base. Then, using piece of patterned paper from The Paper Studio's Vintage Christmas 6x6 paper pack, I created a frame that I popped up off of the card base using thin foam tape. I then die cut the word Joy using Echo Park's Santa Claus Lane Wreath Of Joy die and red and green cardstocks. I adhered all of the elements to the card, and finished it all off with red gem stickers from Honey Bee Stamps Harvest Festival sticker pack and white gel pen details. Thank you for stopping today, and if you like my card, be sure to leave a comment. I appreciate and read them all!