A Cup of Tea with Mary Fish

Although summer is still in full force, I have been crazy about hot tea lately. I recently completed and shared a watercolor project that centers around tea cups. I made a pouch card to store a tea bag and a honey stick. I even hosted a workshop centered around all things tea. For today’s project, I didn’t stray from this most current theme.
For my second stint as Mary Fish’s guest stamper (I am so honored to offer another project that will be featured by the Queen of Stampin’ Up!), I wanted to make a card that is memorable for its simplicity, but I also wanted to make sure it had a real “wow” component. Here’s my finished project:

One Saturday morning, I prepared a hot cup of tea and went to my stamping room to figure out what project I would complete next. I looked at my stamping supplies. I looked at my fresh, hot tea. I looked at my stamping supplies. I looked at the discarded teabag. I looked at my stamping supplies. I looked at…well, you get the picture. Once the tea bag from my tea had cooled (but was still moist), I tapped it all over a piece of Very Vanilla card stock (the primary background of this card). The resulting tea stain looked horrible! What a bad idea! The paper warped into a curled-up mess, and the tea stain was ugly. Once it dried, though, the remaining stain had a gorgeous marbled effect. The paper straightened out a bit and was again easy to work with. I trimmed it, smoothed the corners and slapped it on some card stock with some Sticky Strip. Here’s a closeup of the background paper:

Tips, Tricks and Reminders:

  • There are no limits to those punches and framelits. The sentiment “Tea for two…” fits nicely in the Apothecary Accents Framelits die. One stamp, one die cut. Done. I outlined the die cut sentiment with an Early Espresso cut of the same framelit and a sideways turned framelit from the same set. I played with a bunch of punched out images before I landed on this combination. Glad I played around.
  • Don’t be afraid to limit your color choices. I love the warm, rich colors of this card – Soft Suede, Early Espresso and Very Vanilla. That’s pretty much it. No need to always add pops of other colors. For this project, I just let the card speak for itself.
  • Play with card shapes and sizes. For years, I only made standard-sized cards. Why would you ever make something different? As of late, I have really played with the shapes and sizes because I know I can make the coordinating envelope. Switch things up! Throw yourself a curve ball.

Stamp sets: Tea Shoppe Inks: Early Espresso Papers: Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla Accessories: 1/4″ Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Apothecary Accents Framelits, Scallop Square Bigz Clear, 3/16″ Corner punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Brian

25 Comments

  1. There you go, Up Cycling your tea bag! Very “green” Nice job I’m glad you didn’t heave it in the trash before the Very Vanilla had dried! The end result card with these fabulous layers is fantastic!

  2. Hello Brian: I think this is a fantastic way to use those tea bags. I love tea but I never thought of using the bags this way but now, I will look at them in a totally different way. The end result is fantastic. Mary Fish is my SU demonstrator and I’m so glad you were her guest stamper today.
    Thanks for sharing this with us.
    Maria.

    t

    • Thank you, Maria! It’s always nice to hear from new voices. I hope you will come back to my blog on occasion (or daily, or hourly). 🙂 Mary is the absolute best, so you are in good hands with her!

  3. Great job, Brian! I am always pleased to meet a fellow male crafter! I am now a follower!

    • Thanks, Richard! Great to meet you. I now have three male demos in my downline, so I am building my own little male stampers compound. 🙂 nice to have you along for the ride!

  4. I’ll be over for a cuppa 🙂 Such a classy elegant look to your card!

  5. Beautiful card as usual!!!

  6. Great card, Brian. I love the simplicity of it. I’m fairly new to Stampin’Up! and having my first card class on Tuesday. I’m pleased to say, I have a gentleman attending who never stamped before.

    • Bernadette, Best of luck with your workshop! Let me know how it goes. 🙂 If you can get the guy to the workshop, then you can get the guy to love stamping.

  7. I saw your card on Mary Fish’s blog—loved it! Jumped to your blog for more and have spent the last hour thoroughly enjoying your creativity and style! You have inspired me to create with the things I have collected…not to mention organizing (and therefore using) sponges and sponge daubers! Thank you for an inspired morning…..gotta go make some tea and explore some more! : )

  8. I love your card and I’m going to give this a try! I’m a huge hot tea drinker so when you come to SC I’ll make us a pot!

    • Sounds wonderful, Dawn! Will you be in Chatanooga for Regionals? Passing through Atlanta? You should come by my place on your way back (Sunday) for our Pals drop-in. You can see my tea cabinet. 🙂

  9. Really, really nice card. Says it all and I love the colors.

  10. Simple & super card Brian–I love using monotones & just happen to be taking my BFF to tea for her birthday & this is perfect! Thanks so much–again!

  11. thanks so much, brian, for being my pals guest stamper this week. your tea-stained card and idea were a big hit (no surprises there)!

    • Mary, no need to thank me. The thanks is all from me to you. It’s always do nice to have my work seen by a larger group. So nice of you to share some of your audience with me.

  12. Love it Brian! I am going to have to try it when I have my next cup of tea. Wait! I make iced tea all the time. When it is done brewing I can use one of my tea bags! yes! Thanks for the idea. It is a beautiful card.

  13. Definitely wanted to wait a day and see the responses to your amazing card and tea technique! It was as popular as I had expected. Also loved reading the comments left on Mary’s blog as well. I did not think about your style being so similar to Mary’s, but that does appear to be the case… you just have a masculine approach to the clean and stunning (very few embellishments) whereas Mary has a distinctive feminine (although not fussy) style that includes limited but lovely embellishments. No wonder her blog followers appreciate your creative blog posts! Thanks for your inspiration and daily humor!!!!! 🙂

Leave a Reply to Brian Cancel reply