I’m often finding inspiration for my cards from many places such as clothes, nature, magazines, book covers, manchester and crockery… The inspiratiopn for the following cards comes from a very special mug – my Stamping Mug!

Julie gave me my very first “Stamping Mug“  quite some time ago as a random act of kindness right at the beginning of our Stampin’ Up! addictions, um, I mean, hobbies… and I fell in love with the design immediately! She knows me so well! I love the swirls and filligree images! It’s just “so me!!!”

Please note: **Coffee Mug must be full of coffee to reap maximum benefit from stampin’ session!!**

Can you imagine my surprise when I saw that the set “Friends 24-7″ from the NEW Stampin’ Up! Idea Book & Catalogue had a filligree image that is an almost perfect match for my mug? I’ve been wanting to make a card based on the mug for so long… and now I could!

This is for you Ju!!!!

Here are three cards that I made last night (within about one hour), and they were fairly simple and quick to make.

TIP: I’m finding that I’m often making three to four cards of the same general design in one sitting to make better use of my time – this is a handy tip if you’re short of spare time! You’ve already cut an A4 piece of paper in half to make one card, so why not make a second card at the same time with the other half? I simply double this and make four at a time. You’ve already got the inks, accessories and coloured cardstock out, so make use of it!

Images © Stampin’ Up! 1990-2009

I think they look quite nice together.  Tee hee, I’ve also taken my colour inspiration from the cover art to the Twilight series – LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Twilight!!!!

Images © Stampin’ Up! 1990-2009

Images © Stampin’ Up! 1990-2009

Images © Stampin’ Up! 1990-2009

I’m not sure if you can see the detail on the Real Red cardstock – I’ve stamped it with the background stamp ‘En Francais’ in Real Red ink and sponged the edges in Real Red ink too.  I used  black textured cardstock as I felt that it needed a little extra something as  plain black cardstock would have been quite plain otherwise. I’ve used basic black 1/4″ grosgrain ribbon and Silver HodgePodge Hardware for the finishing touches! The saying stamps are from Baroque Motifs and Three Little Words.

I hope you enjoy!