Out of Our Comfort Zone

Greetings!  As a coffee lover, I've been wanting one of the popular coffee cup dies that our out, such as the one that Tim Holtz released.  However, on a teacher's budget, with all my girls' university expenses, and the fact that I'm running out of die storage space, I couldn't bring myself to purchase one.  Therefore, I decided that the Tim Holtz "12 Tags of 2015 - June" challenge and the current Tag Tuesday "Out of Our Comfort Zone" challenge provided me with a great opportunity to design my own coffee cup templates.  I also got myself out of my comfort zone by using tools other than the ones suggested by Tim.

© Arnoldo L. Romero

This is what I did to make my tag.  Since all the parts of a disposable coffee cup are symmetrical, I folded cardstock in half and drew half of the design.  First, I worked on the cup.  After I cut it out and unfolded it, I adjusted the sides until I was pleased with my design.  I used my cup design as a guide to ensure that my other pieces fit appropriately.  Once I had my templates done, I traced them onto the materials I wanted to use and cut them out.  To make my tag, I followed most of Tim Holtz's other instructions, except for a couple of other adjustments.  For example, I used a different color combination for the background and used Tim's stripes embossing folder as a stamp instead of his stencil.  I also used an Amy Tangerine embroidery kit to do my stitching.

© Arnoldo L. Romero

Anyway, I had a blast working on my tag.  Not only did it give me a sense of accomplishment to design my own coffee cup, but I was also able to give it a little bit of originality by using different materials.  Blessings!