Sunday, November 21, 2010

I { heart } tea!!

Today's blog post is a challenge duo!  I made a new paper die cut and was eager to use it on a handmade card.  I am happy to announce that my design fit in to *two* challenges!

I was inspired to draw a new paper die cut.  I was sitting quietly in the living room with my giant cup of tea.  I mean *giant*.  My husband and I get Mandarin take-out with a some regularity.  We use the canvas bags for our grocery bags.  Now and then, Mandarin sends a free gift.  We've gotten a couple of bowls that are perfect ice-cream bowls and a I have a trio of mugs.  BIG mugs.  I love them.  Who invented the tea cup?  That's much too small to hold enough beverage to warm your insides.  I think I could drink that in 2 gulps.  Give me a mug!

So, I decided to imitate the shape of my Mandarin mugs as a die cut.  (I embellished the handle just a tad.)  I wound up with this mug:

I decided to keep these cards monochromatic.  It's easy, yet effective.  I love how everything just goes with everything on a monochromatic card.  The pink paper is old.  Very old.  It's been in my stash for at least 3 years.  It's from the Die Cuts with a View "Luxury" stack of pearly patterned cardstock.  I'm so not a fan of pink and I only have nephews, so I have never been drawn to use it before now.  (Actually, looking at this card again, it might make for a nice breast cancer awareness card if I swap out the snowflake for a ribbon.... hmmmmm.)

The snowflake is a design by Boss Kut.  It's easily one of my favourite snowflake designs.  I used it here to qualify for the PaperPlay challenge, "Let it Snow".  The fact that the paper is some older stock of mine qualifies this card for the Etsy for Animals December 2010 challenge too, "Out with the Old".  Those challenge entries will be posted to the EFA Challenge Blog during December.  As part of my EFA entry, 15% of the sale of this card will go to the Southern Ontario Animal Rescue.

I decided to make a couple more.  One is in the same colour scheme and one is blue.  These cards are more generic: they work for "warm wishes" or as coffee/tea invites or even plain "thinking of you" type cards for the coffee or tea lover.  Here's the pink one.

The steam on these mugs is actually made from two manipulated "S's.  I chose a script-style font in my Boss Kut Gazelle's software.  I used a couple and layered them, rotated them and then pulled them all funny ways.  Here's the blue one.

On this one, I used paper quilling for the steam.  I like it, but I think I like the die cut steam better.  It fills the card more.  I could play with more quilling, but I didn't have long enough strips at the time.

I put hearts on these mugs - mostly for me because I {heart} tea!!  I could put other things, like the breast cancer ribbon.  What else?  Got any other ideas?

2 comments:

  1. What gorgeous cards! Thanks so much for sharing your talent at Paper Play this week for "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow"!
    Alicia xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. These look wonderful! I love the steam - it really makes them pop!

    I want to thank you so much for your comment on my post about the passing of my Dad. I really appreciate it.

    Hugs

    ReplyDelete

Thank-you for sharing your thoughts.