Brewing Creativity | Celebrating Coffee, Tea, and Cocoa

Hello! Today, I am exploring the hot beverage theme–coffee, tea, and cocoa (hot chocolate)–on handmade cards. Beyond visual appeal, the theme embodies comfort, connection, and contemplation.

I am always on the lookout for new stamp and die sets with this theme, and a quick glance at several online retailers tells me that products featuring coffee, tea, and cocoa remain extremely popular. In fact, there are several challenge blogs focused on the coffee theme. Over the years, I have collected both stamp and die sets relating to coffee, tea, and coffee. Occasionally, I have bought coordinating sets where the sentiments coordinated with the mug or cup die set. More often, I have mixed and matched from my collection.

Throughout this post, I’ll be using cards from my blog archive as examples. Click on the card image to be taken to the original post. While the specific products used on these cards may no longer be available, the focus is on how the theme is represented on the card with a variety of holidays and occasions included. Note: As I updated information and links on the original posts, I also checked to see which retailers carried the older sets. Frantic Stamper, offering fantastic customer service, has a number of the older and retired items in stock.

Many of my hot beverage cards have been created for Christmas and winter featuring mugs of cocoa. Cocoa mugs often have festive and whimsical designs such as snowflakes. As a child, I drank cocoa in a Santa mug, brought out at Christmas.

You can use the same die to cut a mirror version of a mug for die sets that contain only one mug. Additionally, I have mixed and matched elements from similarly sized sets to decorate the mugs. In the card below, I used a Penny Black mug set with additional elements from a CottageCutz set. Like the card above, this one features a subway-style background that also serves as the sentiment.

The sizes of cup and mug dies vary considerably. The Elizabeth Craft Designs Warm Winter Mug set includes one of the largest mugs I have found.

Depicting a seasonal hot beverage in a holiday-themed, to-go cup blends the idea of tradition (the annual Starbucks holiday cup design) and indulgence.

Reinforce the appeal of a hot beverage in cold weather by including a hat and mittens with the cup on a friendship card.

A pair of to-go cups and coordinating sentiment creates an invitation to a coffee date.

A kitchen countertop scene showing a classic coffee maker and cups, paired with a punny sentiment, makes for a timeless friendship card.

Spotlight the coffee making equipment, as in the card below that shows a Keurig machine paired with a punny sentiment.

Create a friendship card depicting friends getting together in a cafe for coffee.

Send holiday greetings on a card showing a camper café, like something straight from a Hallmark movie.

An anthropomorphized to-go coffee cup in a snowbank makes for a whimsical Valentine.

Snowflakes are included in the abstract scene below to show the appeal of a hot pot of tea in the winter months.

Tea is often associated with comfort, as in the card below, which shows a teapot with hearts coming out like steam, paired with a message of support.

Many card designs show cup (and mug) dies stacked, as in the seasonless friendship card below, which also includes an anthropomorphized cup.

Are you drawn to this theme? If so, what are some of your favorite products with this theme? Do you have products on your “to buy” list with this theme?

As I went through my blog archive for this post, I noticed that I often choose red cardstock for the coffee- and cocoa-themed cards, largely because I am most likely to craft the hot beverage theme during the winter and often include red on wintertime cards. I also noticed that I have never created a card featuring cold beverages, such as Frappuccinos or iced tea. I haven’t decided whether that is something I will craft in the future or not, probably because we are moving into the winter season.