Slow Down For Coffee and a Good Book

Hi again everyone! This week I have a card using one of my favorite products to play with lately - the Lawn Fawn scalloped pop up box die. I know it's been out for a minute, but I only got it within the last few months... and only gathered up the courage to try it out recently! 😂I may or may not have a slight fear of three-dimensional cards due to a complete lack of spacial awareness on my part 😜. I combined quiet a few companies' products for this card, which is something I love to do. It can sometimes be challenging to make the various styles cohesive, but I love it! This card is an entry into the current Lawn Fawnatics Challenge 35, Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

The theme of this card is to slow down and take a minute (or a few hours 😛) out of your day to sit down with a nice book and a good cup of coffee. Or tea, which is usually the case for me. (I type as I literally sit here sipping a latte. 😩) I'm a huge fan of reading. Books were my main companion for most of my childhood, and I'm always reading at least one, but usually around two to three books at a time. Something that makes my heart soar is that my husband was a self-proclaimed reading hater when we first met, and I've turned him into such an avid reader, he devours about a book a week, if not more! So when the Mama Elephant "book worm" stamp set came out a while ago, I had my heart set on it.

My local stamping store has a great selection of Mama Elephant products, and I usually treat myself by going there once a week, if for nothing other than to browse and make myself happy. Every time I went, I looked for this set, and it was never there. But lo and behold, two days ago I had a really difficult doctor's appointment that my husband knew I would need cheering up after, so he took me to the stamping store and they finally had "book worm" in stock!!! It was such serendipity. I was thrilled. I had no idea what to make with it at the time, though 😂.

It seems like there are a fair amount of coffee and tea themed stamp releases coming out lately, but I haven't gotten any of them. I love to participate in challenges, and a lot of them were doing food/drink themes, so I had to "get crafty," pardon the expression 😏. I found the most perfect patterned paper at Hobby Lobby, and I had some book-patterned paper left over from one month's Simon kit. I want to say the paper may be Pinkfresh? It's only barely visible in photos, but I cut the box and structural supports out of some dot-embossed kraft card stock from Bazzil that I got in a random grab bag months ago. I then covered the "inside" panels with the coffee cup paper, and covered the "outside" panels with the book paper. I used both book stacks, and three little reading animals from "book worm", and as the pièce de résistance the sloth in a coffee cup from Art Impressions' "sloth-some" set. I also used the "slow down, enjoy your day" sentiment from the "sloth-some" set.

For some reason I agonized over the medium to color these with. I was really low energy and strength, so I usually go to Copics for that. But I knew they would bleed and the backs would be visible on this particular project. I eventually settled on my Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils, which is funny because in my opinion they require the most physical effort of my usual coloring mediums. 😂I tried to pick up colors from the coffee patterned paper, and kept the animals relatively neutral since I knew there would be a lot going on. I had to fussy cut everything, because even though I was lucky enough to snag the "book worm" stamp set, (which the lady at the store told me they can not keep in stock) they didn't have the coordinating dies. 😞However! I persevered, then glued those little bad boys on with my favorite Tombow Mono liquid glue

to make a scene. In the good way. 😉 Finally, I heat embossed the "slow down, enjoy your day" sentiment in white on black card stock. That seems to be my trademark sentiment application these days, but I can't help it! It's so versatile, and I just like the clean, modern look.

That's it for this little book-y, caffeine-y box of goodness! I'd like to know what your "easiest" and "most effort" coloring mediums are. Tell me in the comments! And if you'd like to know when there's a new post on Handmade by Inez, subscribe via email using the sidebar. Thanks so much for reading, and happy crafting!