Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

It's the start of the Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop today and I'm playing along with a card as the store is one of the Super Sponsors again so there is a £25 store voucher up for grabs - head on over to the start of the Blog Hop and find out how to win!

Plus we have a spot prize - everyone who leaves a comment on my blog post by noon (GMT) on Friday 8th will be put in a prize draw and one randomly selected commenter will win an Echo Park Coffee Cup Enamel Pin badge.

I've gone with a wintry theme to my card - sending a warm hug in a mug full of cocoa and topped with cream and marshmallows.   I had tonnes of fun making my hugging hands card!

 To create the hug I used the fab Holiday Hugs die set from Waffle Flower crafts and cut two sets of arms from both white card stock and some patterned paper the Holly Jolly pad from Simple Stories.   I used the mitten dies that come in the same set to create some felt mittens for that added chilly winter feeling.  If you find felt hard to glue, then try backing it with sitck-it before die cutting it sticks perfectly then and the backing helps get a clear die cut too!   I crossed the hands over and then measured them against more white card so I could create the right width pack panel so the hands could be holding a mug  (22cm wide x 11 cm tall)  I used a couple of distress oxide inks to blend the background and added more of the patterned paper down the center so it looked like the yoke on a coat and added some decorative dots to act as buttons.

For the all important mug of chocolate I turned to the MFT Hot Cocoa Dies and set about building my mug in layers so I could make the hand hold it.   If you want to recreate it then you need to die cut two mugs with the handle facing the same way (you can put it in either hand just make sure whichever you pick you cut two of the same) from coloured cardstock;  two sets of whipped cream, one set of mini marshmallows, one oval and one heart from white cardstock.  Take one mug and glue the oval coloured to look like cocoa in place.  Colour the mini marshmallows - I went with pink for contrast.  Take one set of whipped cream and add some shading with grey markers.   Take a craft knife and cut 3 tiny slits into the whipped cream and slot the marshmallows in - you can just glue them on top if you don't want to do the slits but it makes them look more realistic if they look like they are sinking into the cream, add a little glue behind each where they sit on top of the cream and then glue the cream onto the cocoa.   Take the second whipped cream and glue it behind - this covers the slits.   Colour the heart and add it to the mug - I added glossy accents for some shine too.  Now you need to cut the bottom of the handle away from the mug so you can slot the mug over the mitten - see the image here which shows the mug and mitten from behind.

Add a little glue on top of the felt mitten to hold the mug in place then flip over and glue the second mug behind - this hides the cut handle but also makes it neat and tidy as the back is seen when you open the card.

I added some of the steam curls to the back and used parts of an MFT Christmas sentiment to create a more generic sentiment so it could be for any wintry occasion.  I just took my scissors to the Warm Holiday Wishes stamp to make it into 3 separate words - don't worry about scissor surgery on stamps - you don't damage them as long as you cut carefully with sharp scissors and its easy to put them back together on an acrylic block so you can use them the way they were intended too - this way they just become more versatile.  I double stamped it first in oxide (peacock feathers) and then on top with versafine clair (warm breeze) to get a shadow effect.

I hope you've enjoyed my project and are having fun hopping around all the blogs with some suitable steamy liquid in your mugs whilst you browse.   Happy Hopping!

Tara