Coffee Loving Papercrafters

We’re so excited to introduce one of our November Guest Designers, Crystal Minkler!

Hello! My name is Crystal O. Minkler. I’m happily married to my husband of 20 years. We have 4 wonderful children together that we homeschool. I was introduced to stamping about 20 years ago by my Mother in Law. She took me to my first workshop and I was hooked. I’ve recently delved into Mixed Media and have really worked on my coloring skills the last couple of years with Copic markers and watercoloring. My passion and love for paper crafting and card making is my outlet for stress and craziness that comes when you manage a home and homeschool… I often say that it’s my sanity. Of course, my love of coffee and that boost of caffeine each day helps a bit too!

I am beyond excited to be a Guest Designer for Coffee Loving Cardmakers for the month of November! OMG! This is one happy… and overly caffeinated lady!!

The next best thing to a good cup of coffee is a good friend!

I just had to ink up this sweet set that I got during the STAMPtember event at Simon Says Stamp.  I stamped these fun gals with Memento tuxedo black ink on a 5-1/4 x 4″ piece of white card stock. I did a mix of paper piecing and Copic coloring.

For the paper piecing I stamped the images on different pieces of patterned paper from the Echo Park Fall is in the Air 6 x 6 paper pad. I fussy cut the pieces and set them aside. I then colored in the images with the following Copic markers: E0000, E000, E00, E07, E08, E09, E31, E34, E40, E55, E57, E74, W00, W1, W3, C00, C1, C3, C5, R14, R20, R29, B0000, B000, BG000, BG13, BG32, Y28, YR15, YR16, YR27, YR68.

Once the images and the background were colored in, I adhered the patterned paper pieces and then set it aside. I grabbed another piece of white card stock that I ran through my Big Shot with the Stampin Up Woodland embossing folder. I then ran that through the Big Shot again with an oval die to cut out my ‘frame’. I adhered the framed woodland piece to the image and then mat the entire piece on black card stock measuring 5-3/8 x 4-1/8″. I then adhered that piece to a kraft card base.

The sentiment for this AI Pumpkin Spice set is rather large so I went searching through my stash to find a smaller sentiment that wouldn’t cover up the focal image. I came across the Altenew Latte set and thought this was the perfect sentiment! I stamped it with black ink and die cut it with a banner die. I then trimmed it off on one edge. I thought it needed a little contrast of color so it would pop off the card so I also die cut a black banner. I adhered the pieces together and then adhered them to the card. My final touch was a bow… oh my goodness, this bow took some work! I tied and retied and then tied it again…. but I finally got a bow that I liked. I adhered the bow to the card with some pop dots. I just love how this card turned out… I sure hope you do too!

Thank you friends for checking out my blog post!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs!

For more inspiration, please check out Crystal’s blog and Instagram!