Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop 2021

 Hello there!! Its been a beautiful day today, lots of sunshine and not much wind, just enough to get the washing dry. A stark contrast to yesterday where there wasn't a breath of wind (was quite eerie, it was so still) and very dark and cold. Dave was tempted to light the fire but I told him to put another layer on instead. We usually don't start lighting the fire until mid to end of April, if we start now we will run out of wood. The joys of Autumn....

I'm one of those strange people who doesn't drink coffee or tea.....or water (makes me feel sick), however I always get excited when the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop comes around. With all the incredible coffee and tea related products that are produced now, the projects are amazing and there are oh so many to see!

Funky Fossil Designs are one of the Super Sponsors of the hop and are giving away a $25 GBP gift voucher to their store. I wanted to create a coffee card using their products and came up with an idea to use some of my favourite images:

I've used these mushrooms and toadstool images so much its a wonder they still stamp! I really enjoyed putting this all together and I'm gradually getting more confident adding my own little details with a pen.

I started by stamping the mushrooms/toadstools from the 'Bee's Knees' and 'Whimsy Town' stamp sets with Gina K Amalgam Black ink on white CS, colouring with my Altenew Artist Markers and fussy cutting out. I did the same with the snail from the 'Snail Mail' set and the cup from 'Sew Lovely'.

For the background I blended Distress Ink 'Twisted Citron' over the card front using the 'Slimline Landscape' stencil. I left a gap along the bottom and blended Waffle Flower 'Coffee Loves Milk' for the pathway. To create pebbles I dotted the path with brown Altenew Markers. 

Once I worked out where the images would sit I decided to ground them a bit by blending some 'Mowed Lawn' Distress Ink using one of my new Altenew Detail Blending Brushes. It was fantastic for adding a little bit instead of scrunching up a blending pad. I also used a dark green marker to make some little grass blades. Before adding the images with foam tape, I blended some 'Salty Ocean' Distress Ink for the sky, leaving it 'unblended' in spots to add some interest. To finish off I popped the sentiment (from the 'Snail Mail' set) on foam tape.

Starting to get dark, even though its only 7.30pm. We only have daylight saving until April 3rd so making the most of it to water my garden. We haven't had any rain for weeks, hoping now the weather is getting colder the rain clouds will return....

Take care

Shona