Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- "Thirst Quencher"

The theme of this month's Karen Burniston Designer Challenge is "Thirst Quencher."  The new Tea & Coffee Pop-Up was the perfect choice.  I was really happy when I saw a tea cup in the new release.  It seems that the world drinks coffee, but I'm a tea drinker.

I made a birthday card for my challenge card.  The front is pretty straight-forward with a congratulations wish for the recipient.  I did add a small teacup up in the corner from the Tea & Coffee Borders set.  The mat layers are shiny gold.  The "IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY" sentiment was computer-generated.

But the inside has a little play-on-words for the sentiment, using the Mini Alphabet set.  I decided to "fancy-up" the teacup with some gilding.  I sponged on some gold ink for the design and drew in the gold lines with a pen.  The cup handle and the spoon are gold cardstock.  

I had tried to use vellum for the steam behind the cup, but it didn't show up well, so I used a white cardstock of a different shade than the cup for some contrast.