Free Template: January Virtual Crop Coffee Cup Album

Hi, everyone!

I hope you're all having a great 2011 so far! I just wanted to write and let you know that Saturday is our January 2011 "Virtual Crop". The crop will be held on my UStream channel from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and from 9:00 p.m. to Midnight on Saturday, January 8, 2011. All times are Eastern USA {GMT/UTC-5}.

Since it is the first crop of the year, I wanted to do something extra special with all of you and I have found an absolutely delightful mini album project to create together with you!



The very talented Wilna Furstenberg has graciously granted me permission to create her super adorable "Cupcakes & Coffee" Coffee Cup mini album live on the air with you. Her beautiful, printable, watercolor templates are available to download absolutely free from Wilna's Digital Shop at Two Peas In A Bucket. Wilna also has several variations of the coffee cup album available in her shop if you prefer one of them.

Looks cool! What do I need to do before Saturday to be able to participate?

You'll need to go to Two Peas In A Bucket and download the free template. If you don't have an account at Two Peas, you'll need to create one before you can download the tutorial.

Once you've downloaded the file, you'll want to print the instructions and the template PNG files. I used my photo printer to print the PNG files on cold press watercolor paper. I could have printed them on white cardstock, but I wanted the additional texture that the watercolor paper gives. My printer has a watercolor setting, so it worked great!



Once you've got your templates printed, you'll want to cut everything out. Basically, I cut away anything black. That gave me my photo frames and my coffee cup edges.





My photo printer printed the negative space of the PNG black as shown above, but my laser printer printed the negative space of the PNG white. You will either cut away the white parts or the black parts depending on how your computer/printer "sees" the file.

Once you're done cutting everything out, you'll need to print some photos. These are the photo sizes I used:

1 ~ 2.25"x3.5"
1 ~ 3" circle {or 3"x3" square}
3 ~ 3"x4" vertical
2 ~ 2"x2"
1 ~ 2.75"x3"
1 ~ 2.75"x3.5"
1 ~ 2"x2.5"

I printed all my photos with a 1/8" white frame. Some of these photos are going behind elements on the page so the frame doesn't matter, but I didn't want to keep track of which photos needed frames and which didn't, so I printed them all the same.

For this album, I chose pictures of my sister and me. They're from a variety of different years and events, but I mostly wanted to just show the two of us together having fun. I've made the album once to create this sample & I'll be making another copy during the virtual crop. That way my sister and I will each have a copy of this cute little book!



At some point before Saturday, you're also going to need to get your hands on a Starbucks cup. If you want to put the actual cup on the front cover like I did, you'll need a "Tall" cup. If you want to create the cover from the cup like Wilna did, you'll need a "Venti" cup. If you're not a coffee drinker, Starbucks also serves tea and hot cocoa. :D Or you can just make your own cover from chipboard.

I hope to see you there! I think it will be so fun to all be working on the same project together!

~Kathryn :D

P.S. There is also UStream today from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Today is actually a special day because I am going to attempt to make two cards! Can you believe it!? No!? That's okay ~ neither can I! For the full scoop, join me on my UStream Channel at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon!

P.P.S. I uploaded a video of the completed coffee cup mini over on my YouTube Channel for you to see how it looks. You can follow this link to view the video over on YouTube, or watch below: Coffee Cup Mini.



P.P.P.S. Actually, I have nothing else to say. I just wanted to add another post script.