I remember one of the very first Stampin' Up! sets I bought (still have it) in 2001 - I probably made 100 cards with that set - and it was coffee themed, and had the most beautiful coffee bean border stamp. It was called What's Brewin', circa 1999.
If you don't like coffee - you're in my prayers. But if you DO like coffee, you know the strange, overwhelming joy even the word can set off in your lizard brain. It's as much a ritual as it is an amazing, life-giving beverage.
I actually feel equally strongly about tea. I've been drinking hot and cold tea since I was a wee tot. Cold tea - gallons of it - unsweetened, of course, you weirdos - is an actual necessity in our hot climate - and you rarely see a Texan without 32 ounces of iced tea clutched in their paw. But from a very early age, I loved black hot tea with milk, and still do. For some reason, in the summer, hot tea is not as "hot" or heavy as coffee. On my death row meal request list is definitely a London Fog - steamed milk, Earl Grey tea (probably my favorite black tea - this is my favorite brand), vanilla extract and a tiny bit of demerara sugar. I had one this morning, as a matter of fact, and walked through the park before the sun started to beat the will to live out of me. It's a divine drink, and one of the many reasons you should love Captain Picard. But I digress.
So all that to say - if someone makes a coffee or tea stamp - I'm buying it.
One of my favorite things to do with these beverage stamps is just to color the cups abstractly.
The newest Stampin' Up! coffee suite is divine, and I got to finally play with it a bit - just with some no-line watercolor. (I have been listening to the Book Thief this week while I paint.)
On this one, I wanted some twisted complementary colors, so I used Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors - Rose of Ultramarine, which gets some cool granulation between magenta and blue, Amazonite Genuine (in honor of my two favorite companies getting married this week), Quinacridone Gold and Neutral Tint. I put a little of each color in the shadow. I just made a card base of watercolor paper to stamp the image in Antique Linen on, and so there's no layering. Then I popped it in the MISTI to stamp the sentiment from the same suite.
But let's say it's Monday - or in this case Tuesday, which is my craziest day at work each week. And you've got software issues, cranky people or just a task list longer than a list of elected officials who have been jailed at some point in their careers....
That might call for something stronger than coffee, my friends!
My sweet friend Alma - the genius behind The Cat's Pajamas stamps, has a solution for you. It still involves a mug, but....
Hopefully those two cards take care of ANY beverage situation you might have working today. :)
If you need something to go with either beverage, I recommend my peanut butter banana bread, which won all my personal awards this week.
Please be sure and leave me a beverage themed comment for your chance to win the This Might Be Vodka stamp set - I liked it so much I ordered two so I could give one away! Leave me a comment with your favorite beverage or beverages, and I'll draw a winner on June 30th!
And stay tuned for two new online classes coming in the next few weeks!
Loveyameanitbye.
I love iced coconut chai (with coconut milk) from Argo Tea ... wish I could figure out how to replicate it at home.
ReplyDeleteI want to try that!
DeleteI love the scent of coffee, but have never cared for the taste. That being said, I too, must have every coffee themed set, for reasons unknown, other than I just love them!
ReplyDeleteLately, my beverage of choice after a hot, stress-filled work day is an "adult" root beer float:
Vanilla Ice cream
Buffalo Trace Bourbon Cream
Root Beer
SUPER refreshing and TASTY!
Thanks for all your inspiration and great blog posts...always love your your wit and comments! I love tea in all forms too... nothing like a cup of hot tea with honey especially to wind down in the evening. I'm not very fussy but lately I've been enjoying Twinnings mixed berry tea.
ReplyDeleteLove your shading, love the vodka stamp and love your commentary as always :)
ReplyDeleteIced tea!! With Stevia. No coffee. (Sorry) I have the old coffee set too!! It is amazing actually how many coffee stamps I have!! (Used to drink a LOT of vodka....!) Love your cards, as always!!!!
ReplyDeleteYour world might stop spinning for just a split second because I don't like coffee or tea. However, you can give me a Diet Dr. Pepper at almost any moment of the day, and I would be an obnoxiously happy camper. ;)
ReplyDeleteThat bunny peering over the cup is too cute! A cup of Earl Grey is my go-to!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite coffee is coffee ice cream. I want to love earl grey, hot... because I love jean luc... I think that is why I was first interested in my bald husband... but I really prefer Irish breakfast tea
ReplyDeleteOh. My. gosh. I love love these cards!
ReplyDeleteBoth cards are amazing! My latest drink is oragne soda, oragnge float rum and vanilla ice cream. My daily is usually different coffees or learning about different teas.
ReplyDeleteMy usual tea drink is a London Fog. So steamy and delicious. Lately I have been favoring a Chai Tea Latte - or (as I ordered it early one morning last week while still half asleep) a Tai Chi Latte.
ReplyDeleteHA!!!
DeleteCoffee in any form. And please no talking until the first cup is down. Earl Grey for tea. I especially enjoy it iced in the summer.
ReplyDeleteI worship dark, strong coffee! New Orleans French Roast right now is giving me the will to live. My drink(s) of choice outside my house are either a dirty vanilla chai or caramel macchiato.
ReplyDeleteLove both cards but the sentiment on the mug is way too funny! Everyone needs a mug like that! LOL
ReplyDeleteI LOVE a Iced Cap from Tim Horton's on a hot day! Its a Canadian thing. If you are ever in Canada just ask for one at any Tim Horton's, you won't be disappointed! Trust me on this!
When I was a kid I tried Earl Grey tea several times because I wanted to be cool like Captain Picard (my husband finds it ridiculously funny that I thought Captain Picard was so cool. Weirdo.) and as it turns out, Earl Grey is one of the few types of black tea I just don't care for. Give me a giant cuppa Ceylon Orange Pekoe or Assam and a baked good of some sort, and I am a happy camper. :)
ReplyDeleteCoffee - a gift from the gods, hot with half and half, iced with vanilla extract and sugar, made into ice cream and eaten slowly with a small spoon. Grinding the beans and brewing a fresh pot means I will make it through another day. Love these cards.
ReplyDeleteI too must have every stamp set with a coffee or tea image although I am not a coffee drinker much to my husbands dismay. Tea all the way for me. My current personal favorite is This one hot or iced!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Republic-Tea-Blackberry-Black-Gourmet/dp/B0024SDYLI/ref=sr_1_5_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1498051720&sr=8-5&keywords=republic%2Bof%2Bteas&th=1
Your cards are equal parts gorgeous and hilarious! I have many favorite beverages, but our house cocktail is a Dark and Stormy, and I panic mildly if we run out of any of the ingredients.
ReplyDeleteI love your coffee card! Thanks for the London Fog recipe! I need a replacement for Starbuck's Chai Tea but can't find one. I'll give this a try although I don't know what demera sugar is. Did you see the article in the Huffington Post about how many bug parts coffee drinkers eat per year? It's 136,080!!! More protein!
ReplyDeleteKeeping it simple - COFFEE
ReplyDeleteOne of these days I have to try warm milk in hot tea. but, I drink all my tea "black/straight" no sugars if its hot or cold. and that's "normal" for us so, the first time we traveled to VA (which they think they are in the "south" and hubs ordered iced tea... you should have seen his face when he sipped that first bit of it...
ReplyDeleteI bet you could have stood a spoon in it. and I still laugh at him to this day for doing that because, I knew better.
Ah, coffee is my drug of choice and I love how you colored both of these cards so much!
My favorite is from "St.Arbucks" - nice hot mocha with 5 shots....it'll keep ya on your feet.
ReplyDeleteIf it's caffeine, I'll take it! But my favorite is Green Tea, which is high in antioxidants (hey, every bit helps):) Thanks for your inspiration!
ReplyDeleteThese are perfectly wonderful, Lydia! I love the colors you've used - and that bunny...that bunny.
ReplyDeleteI have two very old Stampin' Up! sets that are coffee themed - I think I may have snagged them off eBay aeons ago. I have a couple of favorites, one is Starbucks passion tango tea - I am a "trenta no water no classic" girl so it is really tart and gives a ton of flavor without the sugar thing. Another favorite I discovered while deployed in Iraq in 2004 - it is a lime tea by Heath and Heather. It is based out of England and again, it has a little zing to it which makes it refreshing. But, I would have to say that a cup of hot oolong is truly tasty. And a spoonful of honey works wonders if you are feeling under the weather. As always , love your inspiration
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh - I have a trenta (iced) unsweet Passion tea nearly every morning!
DeleteI think I like the ritual of coffee as much as drinking it. Only took it up in my 40s so I could justify having a cool Keurig. Anyway, traveling full-time now and since space is limited in the motorhome, I buy locally roasted coffees as a souvenir. Love the stamps and your cards and your blog while I'm at it.
ReplyDeleteI admit to not liking coffee, but do love tea both hot and cold. I drink it plain and right now am drinking Do Ghazal Tea from Ceylon Tea that was a gift from a friend. Oh, and I love coffee related stamps! :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's kismet - or karma - or whatever; it's about coffee!! My post today uses the Coffee Break Suite :) You probably heard my squeals of delight when I first saw this bundle -all the way to Texas from Canada! Now, that bunny...vodka or wine, my other 2 vices. Shhhh...it's our secret ;)
ReplyDeleteI do LOVE coffee, but when it's hot I like homemade cold lemonade. Cold water, a squeeze of lemon and a few drops of stevia. It's all good!
ReplyDeleteI'm a black coffee and whiskey girl. Need to add not at the same time. Coffee daily and whiskey on occasion. I really like the new coffee suite but have so many coffee sets. After reading this I'm thinking so what! And I might have to have the set afterall.
ReplyDeleteLove the vodka one too!
I am right there with you, Lydia, coffee (chocolate, to be exact) is my favorite morning drink. I have it every morning even in the summer when it is hot. I drink tea in the afternoon sometimes. That coffee stamp and sentiment is pretty cool, and I know several friends that I could create a card for with that mug of vodka!
ReplyDeleteI'm a hot tea with cream girl, too (my favorite is chai)! But I need a teeny bit of sweetner in my iced tea (my family makes their iced tea too strong for my liking!). I "learned" to like coffee, but the only way I drink it is iced with a flavored creamer and something like stevia or splenda. I love your cards and I would love to have a mug like the one with the bunny! I may have to make me one!!!
ReplyDeleteLove Love Love your posts! They're Fantabulistic and always make me giggle! And giggles are good!!!
ReplyDeleteI always love your projects and bonus points for coffee themed ones! Love my coffee, have to have it every morning. I'm patiently waiting for my SU Coffee Cafe set and thanks for the reminder, need to ink up that vodka set.
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you Lydia! Vodka and coffe are my favs. Not together though, coffee is one thing I don't put vodka in. (Amaretto and rumchatta, yes, but I digress too!). I've been itching to get that stampin up set! Love your posts, you always make me lol! "You had me at merlot!"
ReplyDeleteI love to look at coffee themed cards and this one most certainly is a winner. Your Vodka card cracked me up. Just what I needed today. Your watercoloring is beautiful! I am a french press coffee girl with cream and just a hint of sugar. I love UNsweetened iced tea. Here in GA you can ask for UNsweet tea but be careful of that first sip because many times the servers don't hear the UN part of the word. My friend Janine (Jay_Bee @SCS) brought us Reviving English Breakfast Tea when she visited. I find now that it's summer, I choose it over the morning coffee my girl makes. It's very smooth. :) And NOW it's time to go make some tea!!!!! Have a great day!
ReplyDeleteI am a coffee drinker in the morning (2 cups) but sweetened iced tea in the summer. After all, I am from VA. Ha! Love the mug stamp. I have friends who would think that is a hoot!
ReplyDeleteOn a hot hot day, a very tall gin and tonic hits the spot. I'm still laughing for the vodka bunny. I have several friends I can hear laughing when they open that card. Hope I win !,
ReplyDeleteMy poison of choice is always a diet coke, but I do love the way Jasmin Tea soothes my soul in the afternoons. I drink it at work and whenever some one asks me what I'm drinking, I say: "Could be tea, could be Tequila! You'll never know!"
ReplyDeleteLove the cards
Don't hurt me, but I've never liked black tea or iced tea!! But I must make a darn good glass of iced-tea because when I was a kid my dad ALWAYS asked me (of 6 kids) to make his glass of tea for him! Sun tea, of course, having grown up in AZ!
ReplyDeleteNow coffee, on the other hand, I like my coffee creamy but have to be dairy free for now for health reasons. So I came across unsweetened vanilla cashew milk and unsweetened chocolate almond milk to make my morning coffee my necessity!
But VODKA on the third hand, is the bomb! I love that stamp!!!!!
I like my coffee hot and sweet(splenda) with milk. I like my tea hot and sweet (splenda) and with lemon or iced(there must be ice in it), sweet(splenda) and with lemon! I drink more tea(hot) than coffee and lots of iced tea! Many years ago when we moved from NC to DE, we went to a restaurant that had iced tea( in season )on their menu! They are no longer around, understandably! LOL!
ReplyDeleteCoffee smells wonderful, but I do not like the taste. Give me a Pepsi, or iced tea. Ginger green iced tea is my favorite! Guess it will be a long long time before, if ever, a stamp set will be created for Pepsi!
ReplyDeleteI love your work, and your humor!
Oh my! Such adorable cards!
ReplyDeleteI'm italian and like every morning I love start my days with a good coffee! Its smell is amazing! I like so much a good cappuccino or a "caffè macchiato" and in the summertime I can live only drinking iced coffee!!!
Most days it is iced tea .but I love a good vodka tonic!
ReplyDeleteJenni