What's Brewin'?

Hello everyone! I apologize for not posting sooner than this. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been experiencing shoulder pain...turns out that I have shoulder tendinitis, bursitis and arthritis. I've hit the Trifecta of shoulder pain! Well, I'm in physical therapy a few times a week, and taking anti-inflammatories and plan to get a cortisone shot early next week. So, that's what I've been up to, all this time...nursing a bum shoulder.

Okay enough of that droll stuff! I was missing participating in the Clear Dollar Stamps Weekend Color Challenge over on Paper Craft Planet, and decided, shoulder pain or not...I was going to play. The Weekend Color Challenge is being hosted by fellow Clear Dollar Stamps Design Team member, Monique Hawrelluck and she has chosen these colors for the challenge: Real Red, Bashful Blue, Chocolate Brown and White as an optional neutral. I decided that those colors shouted "kitchen theme"! I guess, because my kitchen is light blue, white and red -- but no chocolate brown in my kitchen, just chocolate occasionally. LOL

For this card, I decided to use the Clear Dollar Stamps set "Kitchen Clutter" which was released on March 1st. This stamp set has such cute kitchen utensils and objects and I love inking it up. I used the coffee pot for the card, so I wanted to create a warm, cozy, kitchen-y background. Initially, I wasn't sure if I was liking the colors for this particular concept, but as I progressed with the card, I thought that it all came together quite well. I have to apologize for the crummy photo, as I finished the card around 9:30 pm and the daylight was gone, so I may retake the photo and repost tomorrow, if I have time. IRL, the card colors, especially the coffee pot coloring looks sooo much better! Okay, here's the deets:

Stamps Used: Clear Dollar Stamps "Kitchen Clutter" & "Monkey Madness" (heart)
Cardstock: Colormates, Dark Autumn Red, Medium Belgium Blue, & Deep Coffee Brown Cardstock, Paper Trey White Cardstock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
Markers: Copic Sketch Markers BG000 Pale Aqua, BG15 Pale Aqua, B14 Light Blue, B32 Pale Blue, R29 Lipstick Red, R59 Cardinal, E34 Orientale, E25 Caribe Cocoa, E27 Africano, E29 Burnt Umber
Tools & Accesssories: Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Nestabilities Regular and Pinking Round Dies, Marvy Jumbo Round Punch, Martha Stewart Border Punch, Marvy Corner Rounder Punch, Paper Piercing Tool, Scor-Pal, Adhesives, Scotch Pop-Up Foam Squares, Stampin' Up! Dimensionals, Zots, Thread, JudiKins Diamond Glaze, American Crafts Grosgrain Polka Dotted Ribbon, La Mode Heart Button
Techniques: Basic Stamping, Background Stamping, Paper Piercing, Copic Coloring & Blending, Dry Embossing, Scoring

Directions:
I cut a piece of Paper Trey White Cardstock to 4.5" x 11" and then using my Cuttlebug and the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, dry embossed the lower third of the card front. he upper two-thirds of the card was scored in a lattice design, using a Scor-Pal. Using a Marvy Corner Rounder Punch, I created the lower bottom curved corners. I background stamped in alternating "diamonds" on the scored lattice background, using the heart from the Clear Dollar Stamps' "Monkey Madness" stamp set and Stampin' Up! Real Red Ink. I cut a strip of ColorMates Deep Coffee Brown Cardstock to 4.25" wide x 2" high, and another strip out of Colormates Medium Belgium Blue to 4.25" wide x 1.75" high. Using a Martha Stewart Border Punch, I created the eyelet bottom on the blue horizontal strip. Using a Scor-Pal again, I scored two horizontal lines across the top of the blue horizontal strip. I glued the brown and blue horizontal strips together and the overtop the card front as shown in the photo.

The main stamped image was created in the following manner. I stamped the coffee pot twice onto Paper Trey White Cardstock, coloring and blending with Copic Sketch Markers, identically. I cut out one of the stamped, colored coffee pots by hand. The other stamped, colored coffee pot was cut out using Nestabilities Regular Round Die and then using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, I stamped the sentiment above and below the coffee pot. I cut a blue round mat with a Marvy Jumbo Round Punch, and then I cut the red pinked, round mat using the Nestabilities Round Pinking Die. I popped up the cut out coffee pot overtop the other stamped, colored coffee pot using Stampin' Up! Dimensionals. I glued the white stamped, circular image to the blue and red mats, popping the layered mats up overtop the card front using Scotch Pop-Up Foam Squares for super dimension. To embellish, I sewed a La Mode Heart Button with white thread to the lower right bottom corner of the card front, and added an American Crafts Grosgrain Polka Dotted Ribbon across the blue, scalloped horizontal strip.

I probably won't be posting another card to share with you until the end of next week, BUT! I will have several new sneak peeks from Clear Dollar Stamps sets, to share with you beginning on Wednesday, March 30th. If you haven't played the Weekend Color Challenge hosted by Clear Dollar Stamps, you still have time to play this weekend! The color challenge is held from tonight through Sunday evening, 'til around 9:00 pm EST.