Coffee Cafe in Celebration of the 300th Sketch for Freshly Made Sketches

I think my crafty mojo decided it needed an end of summer vacation.  I’ve got so many new goodies to play with in my stamp room, but unfortunately I’ve had no time or energy to speak of lately.  This always tends to happen when life gets hectic and I’ve found a few tips that help with getting my mojo back .  I’ll be sharing those tips at the end of this post, but my first tip is to attempt a simple project.  I find that picking a single stamp set that I haven’t used and pairing it with a sketch  is a great way to start.  For today’s card, I’m using the Coffee Cafe photopolymer bundle and the 300th sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

I’m not much of a coffee drinker.  I might partake in the occasional cappuccino, but that’s about it.  However, this stamp set is absolutely adorable and hard to resist.  I love the coordinating Coffee Break Designer Series Paper and there will even be an additional stamp set to coordinate with the dies coming in the Holiday catalog.  You’ll definitely want to add it to your wish list!

As you can see, the layout is very simple.  The card base is Crumb Cake card stock.  The layers of designer series paper measure 2″ x 4-3/4″ and 1-3/4″ x 3-1/2″.  I accented the card with a corrugated heart, a Garden Green enamel heart, and some linen thread.  The larger coffee cup was stamped in Early Espresso ink onto Crumb Cake (cup) and Early Espresso (lid), then die cut with the Big Shot.  If you are wondering about the smaller cups, they were simply die cut directly from one of the patterns in the Coffee Break Designer Series Paper.  You’ll find the complete list of supplies at the end of this post.

Tips for Getting Your Crafty Mojo Back

1. Clean your work area.  I know this one stinks!  However, I find that if I’m avoiding my craft room, it’s usually because I don’t want to tackle the mess.  It’s much easier to create when your work area is clear.
2. Don’t look at blogs, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. for ideas.  Sounds counter-intuitive, doesn’t it?  Besides it being a huge time trap, it can also be overwhelming and even demoralizing when you compare yourself to others.  This is why I suggest picking a suite of products and combining it with a sketch instead.
3. Use a project kit.  When I’ve really hit rock bottom, I’ll grab a kit.  It might be a Paper Pumpkin kit or a card kit from the catalog, but all the hard, creative work is done.  Sometimes, you just need to simply enjoy making something, anything before you can put forth effort to create on your own.
4. Grab a friend.  Crafting is always more fun with a buddy.  Earlier this summer, I met members of my downline at a coffee shop early on a Saturday morning.  We had a card swap and just enjoyed sharing ideas for an hour.  I know that everyone left inspired to create.  Why not send a card like the one I’ve shared above to your crafty friends and see who might like to spend some time getting inky?

I’d love to hear from you.  What do you do to get your creative juices flowing?  Leave me a comment below.

I should have at least one more post for you this week.  Don’t forget to check out the BOGO sale on Facebook.  There are still over 100 great stamp sets to choose from.

Thanks for stopping by!

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