For the Love of Everything Warm and Cozy

Bring COFFEE!

TUTORIALSTENCIL

1/26/20243 min read

Would you like to experiment with a design like this? You'll find a supply list below, including a link to the stencil I used from A Colorful Life Designs. Follow the link and use discount code ChrisFan10 to save 10% on your entire order! (Master Creator Bundles are excluded as they already have a 20% discount built in.)

I had a crazy idea of how I might use this stencil … it took some perseverance, but I got there in the end.

Let’s get started:

Card Base: 5.5 x 8.5, scored and folded at 4.25

Burgundy Border:5.5 x 4

Card Face: 5.5 x 3 7/8

Black Cardstock

Card Face:

I attached the stencil to the card face with Mint Tape. (I was using the entire 6 x 6 stencil for this, and my grip mat is 8 x 6 - the paper was too wide to allow the mat to grab hold effectively)
I applied a soft brown ink over the surface with a regular blending brush.
I went back with a #1 shading brush (Waffle Flower) and used the same ink to darken the colour on the bellies and tails of the birds.
I drew the scarves and ear muffs on with a .4 microliner, and coloured them with alcohol markers.
I traced around each bird with a .1 microliner.
I added eyes to the birds with the larger microliner.
I cut the card face down to the final size that I wanted to use. (I used the entire stencil in case I messed up the drawing/colouring on one side or the other. If that had happened I would simply have sacrificed that side of the card front when I trimmed it down.)
I put the card face into my stamp positioner and added the sentiment in the upper left as shown. (I took care to avoid the dark colours of the scarves and earmuffs as they would have obscured the sentiment.)

Other:

I die-cut two of the black “coffee” sentiments and glued them together.
I painted a small piece of black cardstock with Wink of Stella, pressed my Versamark embossing pad on top and added clear embossing powder, setting it with my heat gun.
I cut another “coffee” out of this, and glued it on top of the other two.
I stamped the coffee cups with burgundy ink, and fussy cut them. (I experimented with several colours to see which would be strong enough against the background.)

Assembly:

I glued the burgundy border layer to the card base, and the card face on top of that.
I glued the coffee cups in place on the card face and drew fine black lines under them.
I glued the “Coffee” in place under the cups.

Final Thoughts

It took three tries to get a card face that I could use …. Once I finally did I was ridiculously pleased with myself, lol. I am no artist, so even something as basic as drawing/colouring scarves and ear muffs felt very ambitious to me.

In the end, I’m happy with the card!

Supplies: (and links where possible)

I have listed which products I have used, and where they may be purchased. It's a huge marketplace and in most instances, there are multiple sources and many alternatives to choose from.

Stencil: A Bunch of Birds, A Colorful Life Designs

Stamps: Coffee Therapy, Gina K, Scrap n’ Stamp

Die: Coffee, Your Next Stamp

Versafine Black Onyx: Scrapbook.com

Other Ink: Stampin’ Up!

Blending Brushes: Stampin’ Up!

Detail Shading Brush #1, Waffle Flower, Scrapbook.com

Memento Ink: Stampin’ Up!

Alcohol Markers:

Stampin’ Blends: Stampin’ Up!

Copics: Wallacks

Mint Tape:Scrapbook.com