my cup of coffee

sometimes, I can stare at a sketch for a long time and then suddenly, 'click' - the light bulb comes on and I know exactly what I want to see on the card

this happened with this week's CAS(E) this Sketch #73, which was paired together with Runway Inspired Challenge #58 (love the dramatic combination of red against black)

for this card, I thought the CTS sketch of the semi-circle was perfect to depict a checkered-tablecloth with cups of coffee on the table... 

the coffee cups and latte glass stamps are from Hero Arts - Need Caffeine stamp set whilst the checked gingham stamp is from Impression Obsession - Cover-a-Card Gingham

have a nice 'brekkie' day

this week's Apr 13-19 Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge is a Picture Perfect challenge 

based on this inspirational photo

To re-create those whacky banners of colours, I decided to use all the cute little stamps from Paper Smooches - Wake Up stamp set - the 'sausages', 'bacon rashers', 'cups' were perfect and with a little masking work, I had my criss-crossing banners. After colouring, the glitter on the 'bacon rashers'  and liquid pearl dots on the 'cups' provided that extra zing.

The red-checked 'tablecloth' pattern below was stamped using Impression Obsession (IO) - Cover-A-Card Gingham background, and grounded my little red toaster.

PS Note (21 Apr 2014): Am giddy with delight that this card was selected as the PSS February Picture Perfect PRO winner!

and featured on the Paper Smooches blog on April 27!

Fishy Hello

Fishy Hello, a photo by eatzycath on Flickr.

The theme for this week's Paper Smooches Sparks - Trend Watch Challenge is OCEAN! Such a great theme with lots of possibilities and I get to use my itsy bitsy little fish stamps!

Instead of portraying a huge big ocean, I decided to fit part of the 'ocean' into a little bell jar with a cheery hello from some friendly fishes.

* the bell jar stamp comes from Paper Smooches - Crystal Clear stamp set which comes with matching die-cuts

* I stamped first on white cardstock and die cut the same out - stamped a second time on white card stock and die cut only the lid (which was then colored with silver and glitter blue pens, before affixing onto the base stamped image with foam tape) - finally I die-cut the inner part of the jar from blue vellum paper, which was then affixed to the base stamped image

* the two fishes were stamped using Paper Smooches - Birthday Buddies stamp set, colored and fussy-cut, affixed onto blue vellum portion with foam tape

* the gingham checked 'tablecloth' is actually a triangle cut from a stamped paper using IO - Impression Obsession Cover-a-Card cling background stamp (Gingham)

* affix 'tablecloth' onto bottom part of the card, then affix the jar with foam tape

* the 'Hello There' sentiment was stamped onto the white base card-stock, which was followed by the stamping of the 'talk bubble' in dark blue ink - 'talk bubble' stamp comes from Paper Smooches - He Said, She Said stamp set