Perfect Blend for Casethissketch

Hi Everyone.  Happy Tuesday.

I managed to play with some of my new goodies this weekend.   I fell in love with the new Perfect Blend stamp set and the new DSP stacks in the 2013-2014 catalog.   This sketch from Casethissketch was the ideal layout for my first card.

The minute I saw the sketch I had an idea come into my head.  It's so rare that happens these days as I seem to be so distracted, but this layout really was the inspiration I needed.

Here's my card:

I couldn't help myself….. I had to pair this with Early Espresso card stock and the new Early Espresso polka dot paper from the Designer Series Paper Stack.  (loving the new patterns in that!)

I stamped the coffee mug onto Watercolor paper with Stazon and colored it with by Blending Pen and some Early Espresso ink.    If you look closely at the "label" around the cup, you can see that I tried to create a vertical striation, similar to the pattern that you would get on one of those cardboard holders.   I also took out my Crystal Effects and covered the lid with CE to make it feel like plastic.  It took a little while to dry, but the end result is worth it.  I tried to take a photo, but it didn't come out too well… but here it is anyway.

I stamped the sentiment onto Natural Ivory card stock and distressed it with some Early Espresso ink and a spong dauber.  I needed to take the "brightness" off the card stock and this was a good way to do it.  All that was left was to find a way to attach my sentiment to the coffee cup – a little bulldog clip was all it took.     The final finishing touch was the Early Espresso Baker's twine wrapped around the card base.  I adhered the cup and the sentiment to the card base using Stampin' Dimensionals to give it a little bit of a lift and added some Crystal Effects to the bulldog clip (where it clips onto the paper at the back of the sentiment) to try to make sure it stayed in place.

On a personal note

Our garden is starting to take shape.  It's going to be another year or so until the planting that goes in next month takes hold and we can't wait a) for it to get in the ground and b) for it to show fruit – literally!   One of the things that we did was to add a gazebo to our patio.   We haven't really been able to use the patio much because of a) it's so hot in the sun and b) THE MOSQUITOES!   This is a wetland area after all!

We found this great gazebo over Memorial Day weekend and it took about 6 hours for Lou and I to erect it.  It would have gone much faster if there had been 4 of us.. it's pretty interesting trying to hold up 4 sides to tie them all together when there is only two of you and one of you needs a ladder!   :-)  But, we managed it and we finally cleared the rain away enough for us to use it.

Here's a picture of what the patio used to look like:

And here's what it looks like now…..notice we painted the concrete; we moved the comfy chairs up onto the deck; the prairie plantings are coming in around the deck…..

Isn't that cool… it has curtains for shade and it has inner curtains for mosquito proofing it!   It's 10 x 12, so plenty of big enough to take our 6 seater table and have plenty of space around it.   We also purchased two planters which we will be filling with plants this weekend.  Now… if you look carefully through the gazebo and out into the wetland…. we had a few dinner guests whilst we enjoyed our dinner

Sorry about the chair cushion in the bottom left corner!   But, if you look carefully you will see Fred and Ethel (the Mallards), four turkeys and the deer!  Actually, technically there was another visitor, too as the deer had a female brownheaded cowbird on her back (picking off ticks is my guess!)

We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner

In case you are wondering…. heirloom lettuce leaves with parmesan crisps, fresh asparagus with a little olive oil and a smattering of fresh parmesan, baby potatoes baked in the oven with rosemary and kalmata olives and (at the back of the potatoes) quorn cutlets.    We had a little wine to toast our "new" space.

As always, thank you for stopping by my little neck of the stamping blogosphere.  Warm hugs and prayers to those of you who need a little lift tonight

Hugs

Jaydee