Coffee Loving Papercrafters

Welcome back to another edition of Coffee Buzz.  Today, I’m sharing some industry news (coffee/tea) and a scenic forest card.  I know Spring is just around the corner but I’ve been so inspired by many of my friends who live in regions of the country where the mountains rule and on any given day, it’s either snowing or flowers are blooming…… or both!

I’m diving into the galaxy/aurora borealis theme for my sky which was created by misting several different inks in layers, October Afternoon Twilight Sprinkles, Ranger distress spray in Seedless Preserves and sponged Hero Arts Ombre inks.  To get my Aurora Borealis colors, I dabbed some white pigment ink, then dabbed Ranger Maroon distress ink, Spellbinders Celebration purple and Marvy Sunset Blend ink over the white.  Basically, a hodge podge of colors.  The stars are achieved by dipping a wet toothbrush into white Decoart multi-surface satin paint and “spraying” by rubbing my thumb across the wet paint laden toothbrush.  You’ll need to make sure that your sky is completely dry before you attempt to spray paint.  Be sure you place your card in a large box to splatter, so you don’t make of a mess of your area.

The stamps that I’m using today are Lawn Fawn Love You ‘Smore and Sweet Stamp Shop Cuppa Coffee.  I’ve colored the images with my Zig Clean Color brushes on watercolor paper which I’ve found to be the most effective way to use Zigs and a water brush to blend.  How do you like my “flaming” sentiment?  I used my Misti to stamp the flame stamp, masking each flame so they would connect.  After I colored the flames, I then use the accompanying Lawn Fawn dies and only ran the tips of the flames through my Cuttlebug die cutting machine.  I really love the effect and how it turned out.  My fine-tipped Fiskars scissors finished off the tweaking of my flames, in between cuts.  As for my hillside, I used Stamplorations Snow Stitched dies to cut my DCWV Garden Charm paper and my hand painted cardstock in lavender and green.

Now, on to industry news….. have you heard the latest from McDonald’s?  Starting in April, they’re slashing prices again to attract bargain customers.  I’ll admit.  I’m one of those bargain customers.  I actually really like their coffee.  As an added bonus, there’s a McDonald’s just 1 mile from where I work.  You can read the article here, but basically, any sized soft drink will be $1.00 (our local store is already doing this) and McCafe specialty drinks priced $2.69-$4.00 will be slashed to $2.00 for a limited time.  Personally, I don’t much care for their McCafe specialty drinks.  They are way too sweet for me.  Even when I ask for less sweet, it’s still too sweet.  I’ll stick to my favorite coffee shop for the specialty drinks.  But for those who love their McCafe, you should be very happy with the price.

Something else I read recently, and I’m just throwing this in for good measure, is that tea is quickly becoming the favored drink amongst young people.  And guess which country consumes the most coffee?  Any idea?  The Netherlands!  I’m sure my friends in the Netherlands could testify to this being the case.  Thanks so much for hanging around and visiting with me today.

Don’t forget the upcoming Spring Blog Hop is just around the corner, so get ready!  See you at the Hop!

Terri