Coffee is My Spirit Animal

Hi friends! Today I'm popping in with another sample card I made for one of the Splitcoaststampers Dare to Get Dirty Challenges. 

I've been trying to dig through my stamps and pull out ones I've purchased that haven't seen ink lately. My dig this crafty day came up with some coffee sets fabulous sets from Ellen Hutson. While I was on vacation last month I watched a few videos on different techniques to dye your papers with coffee and tea. One person made instant coffee, put it in a spray bottle and sprayed it on her papers.  I liked the idea, since it didn't require reams of paper or hours of drying.

So, first things first, I'm going to tell you that instant coffee smells terrible! I'm apparently a coffee snob, and haven't had instant coffee before. I only have it on hand for a mocha cake recipe my Mom makes that is amazing. I didn't drink this Folger's "coffee" concoction, but I really wanted the smell to stop! My craft room smelled for hours. LOL

I started with distress watercolor paper, since I knew I was going to be adding a lot of liquid. I threw down some salt crystals to do a resist, then sprayed the paper with the coffee.  I dried, then repeated. Next I pulled the spray nozzle off the bottle and splattered more coffee on the background.  Then I went in with a layer of teal watercolor, adding just some puddles and drying. Lots of spraying and drying until I was happy with the finished look.  

When this was done, I pulled out the Breve Note set (this one is currently half off)  and used the images to stamp a background in Fallen Leaves Versafine Clair Ink.  I then stenciled with a Paint Splatters stencil with ground espresso and sponged the edges of the panel.

Next I stamped the coffee cup and the sentiment from Latte Love and embossed.  I watercolored with the same color of teal and the instant coffee, then cut the image with the coordinating Latte Love Dies.  I then stamped the little kitty image, watercolored with coffee, adding some stripes and a patch around his eye.  I fussy cut him and attached him to the coffee cup.  To finish off, I decided where I wanted the cup, then embossed the heart steam image in white above that position.  I gave it a little shadowing with a Copic marker, then layered everything together to finish off the card.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulous weekend! It's the last weekend before school for us, so we've got plans for fun!

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