Two for Tea!

It's now November, and the anticipation of the cold and snow ahead has me feeling a bit snarky - luckily it's time for the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers to begin a new challenge! 

T is for Tea! Despite (or hey, we're snarky, so perhaps because of) most stampers professing their love for coffee on card after card, I do believe the majority of the sisters prefer tea - including me! I have a nice big mug of it in front of me as I sit typing this. Besides, something needs to fill the time before cocktails. ;) 

My first card has no snark at all. Instead, it celebrates the perfect union of tea and books. 

That, younger readers, is a library book sign-out card in the background. Back in the Palaeozoic era (pre-computers), a library patron would take a book to the check-out desk, write his or her or their name on the card, and the librarian would stamp the date the book would be due on a slip attached to the same pocket where the card had previously been residing. At least I think that's how it went - it was a long time ago. :D 

Before the library card was added, I stamped and embossed the tea cup and covered it with a heart-shaped mask. I then used Versamark to stencil my stars before blending a night sky with distress inks - the Versamark alone creates a more subtle resist than if I had heat-embossed the stars. Taking the mask off, I stamped and embossed the sentiment. The tea cup was floating a little bit too much like a strangely shaped UFO, so I grounded it with a pale grey Copic. 

Since we're talking tea, I made a second card! Still no snark, but at least it's punny: 

Snarky sister Jo had shown the rest of us a photo of this in our group: 

Since I have an R2D2 stamp, how could I resist? I think there is just enough shading on my droids to qualify for Day 2 of Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge. For the tea cups, I inked in blue, then *kissed* the stamp with an uninked heart stamp to lift some colour and add a design to each cup. The sentiment is added with an alphabet set.  

Whether you prefer tea or coffee, grab a beverage and head over to the challenge blog, where my sisters and our Queen of Snark and guest designer Laura all have creations to inspire you. 

Supplies: (late nights) Neenah white & Recollections black cardstock, Pinkfresh Studio Late Nights & Papertrey Ink Library Card stamps, Versamark, Versafine onyx black, Memento Luxe love letter, PTI fine linen & tumbled glass, broken china & faded denim distress ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Simon Says Stamp falling stars stencil, Winnie & Walter Katharine cutaways & QuicKuts heart dies, Copic marker; (R2Tea2) Neenah white, Recollections black & (?) blue cardstock, The Ink Road Droid Please & Lawn Fawn My Cup of Tea & Claire's ABCs stamps, Simon Says Stamp & Brilliance Mediterranean blue ink, Copic markers, foam tape