A big thank you

Hi, crafty friends! A few weeks ago, I spent a crafty session playing with the Bouquet turnabout stamp set from Concord & 9th. I tried a bunch of different color combos and turned a couple of my panels into cards. Today I’m sharing one of them.

I’ve been made aware that this beautiful peach is my signature color.  I kind of thought it would be blue, it’s my favorite color, after all, but I don’t make as many blue cards as I used to. Anyway, peach works with just about everything. It’s great with blue, it works really well with green and it’s also dynamite with pinks and yellows. It’s just a really good color. For this card I teamed it up with blue. More specifically, Capri and Bluebell from Concord & 9th, which were both in the new color release this spring. Capri is the most amazing color!!

The Bouquet turnabout set is a little different, as the turnabout itself is actually two separate stamps. There’s one turnabout for the stems and the greenery, and there’s another for the actual flowers. I inked up the greenery with Eucalyptus, Juniper, Parsley and Basil, turning for each color. For the florals, I used Nectar, Grapefruit, Bluebell and Capri, all from Concord & 9th. You’d think it would be messy with eight colors together on one card, but it worked really well.

I cut my panel down using the largest die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower and adhered it to an A2 card base I created from Grapefruit cardstock from Concord & 9th. I stamped one of the sentiments in the Bouquet turnabout stamp set using Nectar ink, die cut it with a circle die, then mounted it on a die cut circle from Grapefruit cardstock, which I then mounted in the center of the card.

I finished off the card with a few pearls, gems and sequins from the Melon mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Holy spritz! It’s your birthday! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! Have you seen the new release from Purple Onion Designs? Pei has outdone herself with the Sunshine & Daydreams collection, and today, I have a fun shaped card to share, featuring Bottoms Up!

Isn’t this image fun? I love that Tofu somehow fits in this wine glass. There was an image in last year’s summer collection with a similar vibe. That one had a corgi hanging on to a margarita glass. So fun!

For this card, I simply colored my image with Copics, placed a mask on top of my mage and did some ink blending with C9 inks and the Celebrate stencil set from Kristina Werner. I used purple voluntarily, can you believe it? The purple is Fig faded into Aster, the green is Clover faded into Surfside, and the blue is Capri blended into Bluebell. I can’t take credit for the color palette, though, it was one Jennifer McGuire shared in the C9 Winter Retreat back in January, when they revealed the new colors to the retreat attendees. I’ll take my color inspiration wherever I can get it, and this was a fun one to try. Capri has stolen my heart!

Back to the card. I removed the mask on the corkscrew before stamping the sentiment in Clover ink from Concord & 9th.

I wanted a little bit more interest in the background and decided to use paste, but before I put the paste on, I die cut my panel using the largest die in the A2 Oval Basics die set from Kristina Werner.

Once my panel was the finished size of the card, I placed the corkscrew mask back on, then used another stencil in the Celebrate stencil set from Kristina using Golden Hour Solar Paste from Simon Hurley. I made sure to cover the sentiment before adding the paste, so it wouldn’t end up where I didn’t want it. The paste adds texture and a little bit of shine in addition to breaking up all the white space in the background.

There you have it, a fun shaped card with Tofu in a glass and a color combo I never would have come up with on my own.

Last, but not least: the Copics I used. Fairly neutral palette for this one.

For a limited time, the entire Sunshine & Daydreams collection is available as a discounted bundle. The discount for the bundle is over 30 %, so if you love Pei’s work as much I do, it’s available until June 24th 2026.

hello friend! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! There’s a new release out today from Purple Onion Designs. The Sunshine & Daydreams collection is a beautiful summer collection illustrated by Pei. It consists of 12 images, and there’s also a sentiment set and a few individual sentiments available. These images are so awesome and as always, the images from Pei are a blast to work with.

For this card, I started by stamping the goose from the Swim buddies set (there’s also a pig in the same set) in Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things. I masked the goose before stamping the Beachscape background stamp using Classic Kraft ink from Papertrey Ink for a soft look.

I colored the panel with Copics, and I made sure to have the feet barely touch the water, making it look like the goose is testing the temperature of the water. Quite a timid one, this one, the exact opposite of the pig in the same set, which is so much fun!

I added White puff embossing powder from Wow! for a seafoam look near the bottom of my panel and stamped a sentiment from the much older Sweet Summer sentiment set using Memento Rich Cocoa ink. I wanted to add a sentiment from the new sentiment set, but my panel was too small for all of them. This older one was the perfect size for this smaller 4 Bar card size.

To finish off the card, I added a few sequins, gems and pearls from the Melon embellishment mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

This Tropic color combination from Concord & 9th was my inspiration for this card.

For a limited time, the entire Sunshine & Daydreams collection is available as a discounted bundle. The discount for the bundle is over 30 %, so if you love Pei’s work as much I do, it’s available until June 24th 2026.

 

Floral birthday card

Hi, crafty friends! A little known fact about me is that I love coloring florals. I don’t do it often, as it’s very time consuming, but every once in a while, I do take the time to do it, and for this card, I did just that.

The floral stamp’s an old Stamptember collaboration stamp with Studio Katia called Flower Bunch. Studio Katia is no longer in business, I believe, but that doesn’t mean this image is any less gorgeous. I stamped it with Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things onto X-Press It blending card, colored it with Copics and fussy cut the whole thing.

I created a card base from Rustic White cardstock from Papertrey Ink and added some interest to the background with the Garden Lattice Base and Garden Lattice Top dies, both from Honey Bee. I cut two of each, stacked them and adhered them to my card base, gluing the fussy cut image down in the bottom left corner.

I die cut the Gratulerer 6 die (PD17240) from Papirdesign from Summer Sunrise cardstock from Papertrey Ink and backed it with a couple of additional ones die cut from Harvest Gold cardstock, also from PTI. I stamped and white heat embossed a sub sentiment from the A06 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto a scrap of True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink, trimmed it down to a strip and backed it with additional strips for dimension. I’m pretty sure I used some glitter spray at the end of my coloring, because the image on this card really sparkles. It’s not in my notes, though. To finish off I scattered a few sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

I even embellished my envelope. I used the By the numbers die set from Papertrey Ink for the big numbers, then white heat embossed another sentiment from the A06 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS, this time onto Autumn Rose cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I love how you can get so many variations of pink with just five markers.

To the happy couple

Hi, crafty friends. Wedding season is right around the corner, and I have a wedding card to share today with a bit of a fun fold.

This is a super simple fun fold, you basically fold the front of a regular sidefold card at the halfway point, so it doubles up on itself, which then becomes the front. For this one I started with three panels of Pale Peony cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I inked up the Leafy Lattice press plate from Pinkfresh Studio with white pigment ink from Concord & 9th to impress and ink up a very subtle pattern on all panels. I created a card base from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink that measures 5 x 6 1/4″ when it’s folded. I scored and folded the front at 2 1/2″. I put one of my panels on the inside of the card, put one on the back of the card and cut the last one in two to put on the front, making sure the pattern lined up with the inside.

This is what the card looks like on display. I die cut a couple of images from a sheet from Kort & Godt (MA1001) using a die in the Stitched Circle STAX die set from My Favorite Things. This paper is kind of thin, so I backed it with a plain white cardstock circle behind. I glued one circle to the front, making sure to put glue on the left side only. I die cut the leafy circle die from Kort & Godt (die 345) from Heavyweight Translucent vellum from MFT and added that on top of my circle image, adhering it only in a few spots. I used the Kjære brudepar die set (PD18406) from Papirdesign for the word, stacking a few white ones, adding the shadow die cut from vellum, then another few white die cuts topped with a glitter one, die cut from pink glitter cardstock from Kort & Godt, before finishing off with a few champagne glitter drops from Pinkfresh Studio.

The circle image on the inside is a little bit smaller than the one on the front, and is hidden when the card is closed. . I added some wedding themed sentiment sticker strips from Kort & Godt (ST1018) and a few more glitter drops to embellish. This circle actually opens to reveal a place to write a sentiment, there’s a score line you can see on the left here.

Another circle hides behind, and there’s enough room for a personal message without it showing too well when the card is open on display.

Here you can see the card open from a different angle.

This wound up being a very soft looking card, between all the pink, white and vellum.

I love love love the added texture and crisp inking you get with a press plate. It’s the best thing ever.

The back of the card. Another die cut circle, another vellum circle with the leaves and a couple more of the sentiment sticker strips. I hope you try this fun fold if you haven’t already. It’s easy, but still something different than store bought.

Happy summer! {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. Today’s card was a very enjoyable one to make, I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun putting a card together! I’ve used two new digi sets from Lili of the Valley, and I had an absolute blast creating this!!

As I mentioned, I created this card using two collections: Cute Creatures 1 and Cute Creatures 2. You can also get a bundle with both at a discount. There are 93 cute creatures in one set, so if you buy both you get a total of 186! These are easy to color, and they’ve thought of every animal under the sun. There are snakes, butterflies, monkeys, reindeer, hedgehogs, hyenas, bears, penguins, toucans, dinosaurs, frogs, cows and loads more – basically everything. I didn’t want to go the obvious route and choose the penguins (there are 3 penguins across the two sets), so I opted for other critters that live in and around the sea. I went through both sets, added all the sea creatures into a photoshop file and shrunk them all down to about 40% size. I wanted them tiny, and they’re originally about 2″, so a decent size and easy to color. The size I made, which was about 3/4″ was a bit finicky to color and to fussy cut, but I really enjoyed the process.

Once I had all my sea creatures colored and fussy cut, I put them aside and worked on the rest of the card. I die cut the Stamp Border from Gummiapan five times from Powder cardstock from Concord & 9th. The die cuts five postage stamps in a border, but I cut off one, making it a strip of four. I put two layers of white scraps behind each of the individual postage to give it a floating look. I also cut down small cardstock squares two layers thick to put behind my critters, also giving them a bit of dimension, but not as much as foam tape would add.

Once I knew how I wanted my strips of sea postage arranged, I stamped a sentiment from the Småtekster stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Capri ink from Concord & 9th directly on my card base, which I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I made a side fold card this time that is 1/2″ larger in both directions than the standard A2 card. I adhered my postage stamps, added some dew drops from Concord & 9th that kind of look like bubbles and decided to make their eyes shine. I used a black glaze pen, then went over with one small dot of an extra fine white Sharpie once the black was dry. I don’t think I’ve ever used 20 images on one card before, but this was SO. MUCH. FUN!!

Live every hour like it’s happy hour {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Pei’s illustrations for Purple Onion Designs, and today’s card features Tofu floating in a pool. Tofu’s Flamingo Floatie is one of the images from last year’s Spring is in the air collection from Pei.

I stamped and colored my image with Copics on X-Press It blending card, before using a die in the A2 Double Stitched Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things to create faux stitching around the perimeter of my panel.

I masked off my image, before using Powder, Harbor and Sea Glass inks from Concord & 9th to ink blend the background through the Perfect Pool Water stencil from My Favorite Things. I flipped and rotated the stencil to create my pool water.

While I still had my mask in place, I stamped a sentiment from the Good Libations stamp set from Purple Onion using Oceanside ink from Concord & 9th. With the masking, you can still read the sentiment perfectly, but it looks like it’s behind Tofu’s tail, which I think adds a fun detail on what is really a simple card.

I adhered my panel to a card base I created from Oceanside cardstock from Concord & 9th, added a layer of Glossy Accents to Tofu’s glasses and finished off with a mix of sequins and gems from the Ice Water embellishment mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Very limited color palette for this one.

Gratulerer

Hi, crafty friends! Today’s the 17th of May, which is kind of a big deal in Norway. It’s our constitution day. It’s an all day event, with huge children’s parades in every nook and cranny of the country, followed by all the hot dogs and ice cream you can handle. We’ve been a country for close to a thousand years, but the constitution was signed on May 17 1814, so quite a while later. Today’s card is a very red, white and blue one, fitting with our flag. It could also double as a birthday card, actually, the sentiment works for both.

I used the Bouquet turnabout stamp set from Concord & 9th to create my focal point. This turnabout set has two separate images that you turn. The greenery is one stamp, the florals another. I used Sprout, Parsley, Basil and Evergreen inks for the greenery, and Bluebell, Capri, Poppy and Cranberry for the florals, all C9 colors. I’m loving the new 2026 colors from Concord & 9th, Capri is dynamite, it’s so awesome!! I cut my bouquet out using the coordinating die set and put the piece aside while I worked on the rest of the card.

I wanted a subtle background, and opted for the Stippled Plaid press plate from Pinkfresh Studio. I love this press plate, it’s probably the one press plate I use the most. I inked it up very carefully with Bluebell ink and ran it through my system with plain white cardstock to match the white cardstock I used for my floral bouquet stamping. I then cut the panel down significantly, added a mat from Poppy cardstock and mounted it on a top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, which is the white cardstock I’ve used for everything on this card.

I popped up my bouquet using more foam tape and knew I wanted a die cut sentiment. Gratulerer med dagen is what you say when greeting someone on May 17th, it literally translates to “Congratulations on the day”. It’s the exact same sentiment we use to wish someone a happy birthday. I used the Gratulerer 6 die set from Papirdesign for the main part of my sentiment. I die cut four layers from white cardstock, one layer from Gold Shine cardstock from My Favorite Things and the shadow layer from Heavyweight vellum, also from MFT. I backed the gold one with one white, adhered it to the vellum and put the three remaining white ones behind the vellum, to give it a bit of dimension.

On a piece of Capri cardstock, I stamped a sentiment (have a fantastic celebration) from the A06 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS with VersaMark ink, sprinkled on Super fine detail embossing powder from Ranger and heat set it from the back. I always do my heat embossing from the back, it gives a much smoother result than working from the front.  I finished off the card with a few enamel dots from Concord & 9th in Capri, Bluebell and Poppy.

Gratulerer med dagen!

Hipp hurra {Kort & Godt}

Hi, crafty friends. Some cards come together quickly, and this was one. I love creating all kinds of cards, but I probably make more holiday and birthday cards than any other.

This one is sooo simple. Directly on the card base, I ink blended Blueberry Sky and Harvest Gold inks from Papertrey Ink over the Smart Mask Diagonal High Low stencil from My Favorite Things. This created the perfect spot for a sentiment, and the hurra  part of the Hipp hurra die from Kort & Godt was the perfect size for the opening.

I die cut four layers from Tropical Teal cardstock from Papertrey Ink for both words, stacked them and added Frostbite Astro Paste from Simon Hurley on top for a fun, textured effect.

I mounted the panda from Kort & Godt with foam tape, adhered the hurra word in the opening and the hipp on top of both the panda and the other word.

To embellish, I simply added some faceted pearls from Kort & Godt in a visual triangle around the panda and sentiment. I love these, they’re kind of different from regular pearls, but not quite gems either.

Kort & Godt products used:

ST1007 (panda)

Die 245 – Hipp hurra

ST178 (pearls)

Hello summer {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! This year’s summer collection from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Pei, is right around the corner. While we wait, I have a fun tag to share featuring the Sweet Bunny from last summer’s collection. I paired it with the Field background stamp from Holly Mabutas’ Lakewood collection from Purple Onion Designs, also from last year.

I stamped and masked my bunny, stamped the field background, then colored in my scene with Copics. I didn’t want an “all green” background, so I colored the bush and the tree with pink markers, I’m pretending they’re blooming. The fruit trees are in full bloom at the moment, so it was an easy decision. Once my coloring was complete, I used the largest die in the Stitched Traditional Tag STAX die set from My Favorite Things. This tag set doesn’t create holes in the tags, so I made my own and used a reinforcer from the Fold-up Tags die set, also from My Favorite Things, to give the hole a finished look. I stamped Hello from the Outliners sentiment set and summer from the Happy hello sentiment set, both in Parsley ink from Concord & 9th. I then slid a piece of ribbon through the hole and tied it using Cherry divine twine from Whisker Graphics with a strawberry charm attached. I used a black glaze pen for the eyes, and while this doesn’t usually show up very well in photos, in this one you can sort of see a reflection from the camera flash in one of the eyes, at least.

Very soft color palette for this one.