More Inspiration with the Coffee. Craft. Repeat! card kit!

Happy Wednesday! I'm here with another card that I created using the January Flavor of the Month card kit ~ Coffee. Craft. Repeat! Oh... I just love this kit!

I used the Crazy for Coffee papers by Your Next Stamp from Collection One to create all my layers. I also used some dark brown card stock in my stash and the white card stock included in the kit. I had fun die cutting the coffee cup with several different papers and putting it back together like a puzzle. I was left with enough pieces to make another card too! How fun is that?!

I stamped the sentiment using the Chocolate Brown ink pad included in the kit and trimmed it down and then mat it on the same dark brown card stock in my stash. I added a beautiful pink bow... now, I'm proud of this one!! I struggle with bows... and this one turned out pretty nice and it only took three tries! HAHA! I adhered all of my pieces and popped up the sentiment and the scalloped circle with the coffee cup. I also decided to add a few enamel dots from Collection One. I think this one turned out really nice! I hope it inspires you to get inky and make some fabulous cards with your January card kit! As I'm writing this blog post, there are still some Double Dip card kits left... you can purchase your kit... here!

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

January Flavor of the Month Blog Hop ~ Coffee, Craft, Repeat!!

Coffee, Craft, Repeat!

Calling all caffeine and crafting lovers! This month's card kit is packed full of caffeine goodness! I know you are just going to love all this fabulous inspiration by our Design Team this month! Hop on along and we will inspire you with coffee and crafting!

Be sure to enter our Rafflecopter for a chance to win a full kit. If you like what you see, head on over to the Flavor of the Month page to subscribe or order your kit! These will go fast!!!!

I am so excited about the January FOTM card kit!! OMG! It's my all-time favorite, hands down! How could it not be... one word, COFFEE!! Love it!

My first card is from Collection One using Sketch #3. This is a very simple card with a few layers. I stamped the image using the Chocolate Brown ink pad included in the Banana Split level. I added a touch of pink in the center of the coffee to highlight the heart shape. My last little touch was the 3D Coffee sticker.

My second card is from Collection Two using Sketch #4. How cute is this stamp?! She was so much fun to color... I just love it! I had some fun paper piecing this one with the Cream & Sugar papers from Doodlebug Designs... Oh, I love these papers! I stamped the sentiment in black and added a few sequins to finish off the sketch. Here's a list of the Copic markers I used ~ Skin - E0000, E00, E53, RV0000; Hair/Hair Rollers - E21, E23, E25, RV0000, RV04, RV06; Coffee Cup - E34, E51, E57, BG10, BG45, N0, N1, 0; Pajamas/Slippers - RV04, RV06, RV11, N0, N1; Ground - N0, N1, N3.

My third card is from Collection Three using Sketch #2. The sketch for this one made for a pretty simple card. I kept the layers very simple and added a strip of grosgrain ribbon. The sentiment I stamped with the Chocolate Brown ink included in the Banana Split level. I then fussy cut it and added a bit of white twine. I popped it up using a few glue dots. I also stamped the coffee cup using the Chocolate Brown ink. I colored it in a bit with Copic markers and then die cut it out and matted it on a die cut scalloped circle. I adhered a few sequins and called this one done. I'm not usually a soft pastel color kind of gal, but I think this turned out pretty cute.

My final card is from Collection Four using Sketch #1. As soon as I saw the High Five papers for this collection, I just knew I had to use this funky green and blue paper. I love the design in it! I adhered all my layers to a white card base. I stamped the fun coffee cup from Avery Elle's Cool Beans stamp set using Memento tuxedo black ink and then colored in the lid using a couple Copic markers {B00, B02}. I paper pieced the sleeve with the same paper and adhered it to the cup. I stamped the sentiment underneath and popped up the whole panel on the card. I added a paper flower with a little sequin center. I think it's cute and I just love the sentiment for this one!

I had so much fun playing with this awesome kit! I hope you've enjoyed the cards I shared! Now it's time to check out all the other fabulous creations from the Design Team.

~ Blog Hop Line Up ~

Scrapping for Less

Crystal O. Minkler <--- you're here

up next ---> Teresa Russell

Tanya Hahn

Jessica Wilson

Katie Williams

Stacy Tiedemann

Tina Smith

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

January FOTM Sneak Peek ~ Any Friend of Coffee

Hello! I'm sharing a sneak peek for the January Flavor of the Month card kit! It's fabulous!! Seriously!

I started off by stamping the image and coloring it in with Copic markers. I fussy cut her out and set her aside. I die cut a cross-stitched rectangle that I adhered to a white card base. I added the strip of paper to the bottom portion of the card.

I stamped the sentiment and adhered the the image. I added this sweet donut clip... so cute! I love this... and I am so in love with the January Flavor of the Month card kit! It's amazing!!

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Get Kids Crafty ~ January Blog Hop ~ Valentine's Day

The kids and I are at it again! It's time for another Get Kids Crafty hop and the theme this month is Valentine's Day. We decided it would be fun to make Daddy a little something for Valentine's Day.
We started by stamping and coloring our images (we used the misti to stamp the images - I forgot to take pictures. Oopsy!) from Lawn Fawn's Love Letters stamp set.

And then we pulled out the Cuddlebug to die cut our images. The kids got a kick out of cranking the plates through. We used a touch of washi tape to hold the dies down.

We started to assemble our pieces. We had die cut some mailbox pieces from Lawn Fawn's Happy Mail dies so here the kids are gluing the mailbox pieces together.

We set those aside and started assembling our card. We had die cut some Grassy Hillside Border pieces (also from Lawn Fawn) that we adhered to the bottom of our card front. We then decided we wanted to color the sky, which turned out to be harder since the grass was there... but we made it work. We did learn a lesson about planning out our scene or project before gluing.

Once our skies were colored we adhered our mailboxes to the card. We put an acrylic block on the mailbox to weigh it down a bit so it would dry flat.

I missed a few picture taking moments... oopsy again... we traced the kids hands on some construction paper and then cut them out. We adhered those to these little kraft paper bags and added some die cut hearts. We punched out a couple holes and added some black twine... because black is Daddy's favorite color. Our cute little krafty paper bags became our envelope of sorts. We plan to add a couple treats to Daddy's gift.

Here the bags are beside each other... how cute is that?! I think the kids did a great job (with a bit of help from Mom). 

Get Kids Crafty is hosting its first quarterly giveaway (open to US and International followers)!! All you have to do to participate is showcase your children's projects on social media using the hashtag #getkidscrafty. 

Images must be shared publicly on Facebook and/or Instagram to be eligible, pictures of your child's work (not your children) are required. Bonus points if you are in the Get Kids Crafty Facebook group and share in the group! Please share by February 14th, and the winner will be announced in the February Get Kids Crafty Blog Hop!



~ Hop List ~

Jeanette with Acute Stamper

Marcia Caradinta with The Frolicking Fairy

Sara with Phineas and Mae

Megan with Mad Crafters Tea Party

Hannah with Fanciful Spaces

Crystal O. Minkler <--- you're here

Annalisa with Faith Dream Create

Evie Does It


Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.
~ Crystal & the kiddos

Our Story ~ A Cute Bookmark

Hello! Today, I am sharing another fun project using the My Favorite Things Our Story stamp set and some Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Winter paper. 

I had some extra images already stamped and I still had my Christmas papers out on my desk so naturally, I had to make another project with this cute little image. This time I decided to make a bookmark. I cut the papers to fit on a white piece of card stock that I could run through my Big Shot with a bookmark die. I set that aside and started looking through my stash of papers and found the cute polka dot papers that worked perfectly with the grays and blues in the plaid paper.

 I stamped the image on the polka dot paper and fussy cut it out. I paper pieced it to the image that I had colored in with copic markers {Skin ~ E50, E51, E53; Hair ~ E07, E08, E09; Book ~ E34, E37, E39; Chair legs ~ E57; Pajamas ~ BG10, BG32} and set it aside. 

I then colored in the lamp {YR23,YR24, Y00, Y06, E55, E57}, the stack of books {YG61, YG63, BG10, BG32, YR23, Y000, Y06, E55, E57} and the kitty {0, N0, N2, RV11}. I fussy cut the images out and adhered them all to the bookmark. I stamped the sentiment with VersaMark ink and heat embossed ultra fine black embossing powder. I added a couple different ribbons that I tied off with some natural twine. I just adore this sweet little image! I hope you like it too!

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Our Story ~ Framed Art for my Daughter

Hello! Today, I have another project using up some of those Christmas papers. I don't know about you, but I seriously went overboard with all the Christmas papers. I have quite an abundance still leftover so I thought it would be great to use some of the papers up doing projects not necessarily for Christmas.

I had started out making this as a card front, but at some point I decided it would be super cute if I framed it and put it up in my daughters room. It looks just like her cuddled up with a few books reading by the fireplace... maybe with hot cocoa instead of coffee though. 

I started out by making my walls using some scraps from the Doodlebug Milk & Cookies papers. The floor was made using some scraps I had in my stash... I'm not sure what brand it's from. I adhered these pieces on a 6 x 4" piece of white card stock. I have a bunch of die cut pieces leftover in my Doodlebug Odds & Ends Milk & Cookies and the fireplace came from that... only I didn't use the whole piece because it was just too big and it had stockings hanging from the mantel so I cut out the inner part of the fireplace and adhered it to my 'brick' wall. Now came the fun part, stamping all the images from the My Favorite Things Our Story stamp set. I stamped them all on white card stock using Memento Tuxedo black ink because I knew I would be coloring them with my copic markers. I also stamped a bunch of images onto leftover papers from the Milk & Cookies paper pack so that I could paper piece some of the furniture. I used the colors from the the papers to color the books and the little girls pajamas and cup. I decided to fussy cut all the images because I didn't want the white edge around the images, but I think this would still be cute if you used the coordinating dies and cut the images out that way. I adhered all the images onto the scene and once it was dry I added it to this simple black frame. I think it turned out so cute! I hope my daughter likes it too.

The Copic Markers I used: Skin ~ E50, E51, E53; Hair/End Table/Chair Legs/Shelf ~ E55, E57; Book ~ E34, E37, E39; Pajamas ~ RV0000, RV11, RV21; Dog ~ N0, N1, N7; Cat ~ YR0000, YR15, YR24, YR27, YR68; Plant ~ YR0000, YR15, YG61, YG63; Cup ~ BG10, BG32; Book Stack/Books on Shelf ~ variation of all the colors listed above.

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Sealed With a Kiss Valentine

Hello! Today I'm sharing a cute Valentine's card idea using up some of my leftover Christmas papers. 

I just had to use these cute stitchy heart papers from the October Flavor of the Month kit that I still have in my stash and there just happens to still be one Single Scoop October FOM kit available... here. Don't fret, if you missed out on that kit or if you'd just rather get the Lawn Fawn Knit Picky papers, they are also available... here.

I paired up those cute papers with the Lawn Fawn Sealed With a Kiss stamp set {also available in the store... here} for a quick and simple Valentine's card that I think turned out pretty cute. To start, I cut the papers and had a pretty good idea of where they would fit on the card so I went ahead and stamped the little seals and the sentiment on the card with Memento Tuxedo black ink. I colored in the seals using copic markers {N0, N1, N2, N3, N4, RV11} and then I colored the ground also using copic markers {B0000 and B00}. I adhered the papers to the top of the white card front and then die cut it out using the Large Cross-Stitched Rectangle Stackables die. I then popped up the card front with foam tape adhering it to a white card base. I added the twine as an afterthought so I was thinking I would share how I did that.

I had this strip of watercolor paper left over from a project so I punched a little hole in one end to turn it into a paper needle of sorts.  

The watercolor paper is a heavier weight so it stays pretty straight while running it under the layer of card stock.

It's just long enough to reach the end of my A2 card so I can grab it and pull it through.

Now all that's left is making a little bow.

And there you have a little tutorial on adding twine, thread, or ribbons after you've added a layer. I also have another 'needle' that I made using left over acetate that has a point on one end. I use that one for tighter areas that may be a bit more tricky to get through. I sure hope that this little tutorial was a help. I'd love to hear if you have a similar 'tool' in your crafty space or maybe you have an even better little 'tool'... let me know in the comments.

 Anywho, I think this card mixing a little Christmas with Valentine's turned out pretty cute!

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

~ Friends of Unity January Blog Hop ~

Woohoo! It's time for another Friends of Unity Blog Hop! Our theme for this month is Winter... no Christmas. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for a break from the Christmas cards. I do have some ideas still for cards, but those will have to wait. In the meantime, though, I do love Winter and I thought it would be fun to do a light - mostly white card.

My sweet husband gave me this beautiful coffee mug for my birthday and inspiration for my card hit instantly. In fact, it completely replaced my original plan... so I'll be tucking that idea in my inspiration cap for another time. 

I started with a 5-1/2 x 4-1/4" piece of white card stock that I stamped the Woodland Owl with Memento tuxedo black ink - making sure to keep him to the left side. I stamped him again on a post it note and fussy cut him out for a mask to protect my image. Once the mask was on, I used a few different stamps from a few different kits ~ I Am Who I Am, Never, Hug, and Flower of the Fall. I stamped them using Tumbled Glass, Tea Dye, and Pumice Stone. I really liked the coffee ring-like image to the right of the owl on the mug but I didn't have a stamp that was big enough so... I smooshed some Pumice Stone distress ink on an acrylic block, spritzed it a bit with water, and inked up the bottom of my new owl mug! It was perfect!! I removed the mask and colored the owl using a blender pen. I smooshed the same colors I used for the background, plus Walnut Stain, Antique Linen, and Vintage Photo, onto a large acrylic block and I dabbed the blender pen into the different colors coloring the image until I was happy with the result. I was careful not to go over the areas too much since I didn't use watercolor paper.

 I added a few touches of white gel pen to the dots around the owl. I inked up the sentiment from Winter Blessings using Black Soot distress oxide ink and heat embossed it with Hero Arts Ultra Fine clear embossing powder. 

I die cut the entire panel using My Favorite Things Blueprints 31 and then ran it through my Big Shot with the Papertrey Ink Linen Impression plate. The impression plate gave the panel a bit of texture that you feel on the mug. The picture above shows a bit of the texture from the impression plate. I popped up the panel using dimensionals and just adhered it to a white card base.

I also liked the other wintry sentiment in the Winter Blessings kit, so I inked that up with Black Soot distress oxide ink and heat embossed it also with ultra fine clear embossing powder. I've always loved the idea of finishing a card by stamping the inside. Most of the time, I don't because of time constraints or whatnot, but this time I wanted to be sure to bring the wintry feel to the inside of the card. I stamped the Woodland Owl using Tumbled Glass distress ink... I did stamp off the image once on scrap paper so the image would be lighter. 

I showed my husband this card and he said, "That looks like the mug I got you." I told him I loved it so much it inspired my card. I think he got a kick out of that.

~ Let's Hop ~

Crystal O. Minkler <--- you're here

up next ---> Amber Trubiak

Eileen Mathys

Dawn Fields

Wynne Grob

Robyn Jordan

Jeanie Hays

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Hope to see you next month for our third hop!
~ Crystal