A Kept Life: Tupelo Designs

Happy Friday! I hope you're having a good day and counting down to the weekend! I've been busy all morning making soup! I always thought that was an easy meal to make until I started cooking myself. Seriously lots of chopping and peeling... but now that its simmering away I have a little quiet time to make make make!

I'm posting for Tupelo Designs LLC today. They're my favorite craft store! And if you've been thinking of purchasing something I sure hope you check them out before the end of the month because it's their birthday.. and they have some gifts for YOU!

You get a free desk calendar ($15 value) and a free Ranger mini ink blending tool ($3 value) with every order. You get a free stamp ($15 value) with every order over $20.17. Fre gifts with purchase will ship separately in late January.

They're also having a Valentines day sale (up to 40% off). Click on Valentines under the shop menu at the store.

Today I'm sharing two cards made with the Concord & 9th Let's Chat Stamp Set. It took me a bit to find the perfect color "coffee" for my cup, and probably even a little longer to figure out how to get that creamy heart to stand out and get the attention it deserves.

I stamped the coffee in Memento Rich Cocoa and then dusted the whole thing with anti static powder. then I embossed it with Wow Vanilla White. I think I'm going to invest in the Ultra White embossing powder because this had a bit of a yellow tinge to it.

So what was so hard about the creamy heart? Originally I tried stamping the coffee with a white pigment ink. This looked "ok" but didn't make a big impression.. it looked faded.

This card has a background of pattern paper from American Crafts called Shimelle Starshine. My second card has a striped watercolor background. First I painted wide stripes using Ranger Spun Sugar Distress Ink, and thin stripes (applied after the light pink stripes were dry) of Worn Lipstick.

I cut the panel with Avery Elle's Wonky Stitches - I love the little detail they add to the edges, and that the panel is perfectly trimmed for the cover of an A2 (4.25 x 5.5") size card.

I wanted the spoonful of sugar to look a little messy.. like some of it had dropped on the table so I applied glossy accents to the spoon and the background before applying some chunky iridescent glitter.

I painted the stripes with a water brush. Check out this three pack in the store here. It's a 3 pack of full size water brushes from Royal Langnickel and they're only $7.00!!

I stamped the sentiment directly on the watercolor paper (I used Tim Holtz ) it's super white, and thick so I didn't need to tape it down when I painted the stripes.