Quilted Coffee Sleeves

Coffee Sleeves... I think I've made a billion of them. LOL.

I'm that lady who sees a friend reach for the cardboard ones and says, "oh no dear." and slides a pretty one onto their cup.

And it's not really entirely for environmental reasons - although that's a huge perk - it's because they are soft and beautiful.

Coffee is pretty much the greatest plant based item on the planet (yes, I'm suggesting it's better than chocolate) and I want to make it as pleasing as possible. 

So at home that means my favorite mug and out in the wild I need a pretty sleeve. Otherwise where's the artistry? The sense of occasion? The celebration?

But, My husband was NOT loving the sleeve I always put on his cup when we're out together.  This probably had something it do with the fact I'd made it a zillion years ago with this fabric pack:

He requested one that, "was more metal".  His words, not mine. So I made a trigonometry and skulls 'more metal' one. What do you think?

Front

 

Inside

If I was any sort of blogger I would have procured a coffee cup to show the sleeve properly but that would have cut into my crafting time and you know how I feel about that.

Plus my readers have GREAT imaginations.

 As this is a very old, long-standing sewing project I won't rehash the instructions. I do use Insul-Bright  instead of batting inside mine as it's terrific at keeping the heat in my cup.

And I've used this pattern as long as I can remember but you can also trace a cardboard sleeve and add a seam allowance.

Daily Drawing ChallengePart Two: Drawings 11-20

Here's the next set of drawings from the month of January.

Are you doing any challenges this month? Link me up, I'd love to hear about them.

Teal Tag Card

As is customary in Portland...

I put a bird on it ;-)

Daily Drawing Challenge: 31 Things to Draw at Creative Bug

My dear friend, Lori turned me on to Creative Bug and I can't say I've got a bigger kick out of a site in a long, long time.

I jumped right in on Lisa Condon's Daily Drawing Challenge: 31 Things to Draw and have been having quite a blast trying this whole drawing thing out. 

See, I don't draw. I collage. I paint. I don't do the thing with the pen on the white paper and the straight lines that when put together actually look like something we can all recognize. 

But they don't call it a challenge for nothing, right?

Here are my first ten. As you can see, there are varying amounts of success and I broke down and used my beloved Kuretake Fude Real Brush Pen, Clean Color, 48 Set on more than a few of them.

May I say, just going straight at it with pen is terrifying. I am very attached to using my pencil and eraser until it's 'just so' and then going OVER it with pen. This balls-out, just go for it attitude of line-drawers is really pretty bold. Hats off to you folks.

Published - Thank you Stampington

I was published - a whole lot, actually - in the winter issue of Somerset Gallery.

My shadowboxes were the lead article and took up six ( SIX!!!) pages! Quite flattering. 

They also did an artist spotlight featuring Great Dancers and another page with the memorial piece I made for my father in law.

Thanks so much, Stampington for paying me this lovely compliment.

Watercolor Present and Season's Givings Winner

I wanted to share a gift idea with you all. With watercolor being so popular right now, I thought this would make a sweet gift for a creative friend.

1. Cut watercolor paper to size. I chose standard A2 card size - 4.25 x 5.5

2. Paint the edges gold - I used Inka Gold.

3. Allow to dry.

Meanwhile, make a birthday card for the top. I used watercolor puddle flowers and added details with a Micron pen. 

Tie with a hand-dyed ribbon :)

~~~

Thanks everyone for all your fun answers to my questions.

There was 189 comments:

And the winner is Deeps!

Congratulations, Deeps. 

I'll get that gift card to you ASAP.

Warmly,

Nicole