Hi, everyone! I’ve got some very exciting news to share. I’m a guest designer for Purple Onion Designs!!! I had to pinch myself when Michele reached out asking me if I wanted to create cards for this new holiday release with images illustrated by Stacey Yacula. As you may know, I’m a massive fan of Stacey’s style, and holiday cards are my absolute favorite to make, it was a match made in heaven! I jumped on the chance, and I’m having so so SO much fun! This is my first card with images from the new release, and there are more to come with awesome, super cute stamps!!
When I first got the stamps, the first thing I did was create masks for each and every single one of them. Time consuming, sure, but so worth it to be able to create scenes like this. For this card, I started by stamping the Sweet Snow Friends stamp (snowman, penguin and bunny) and adding the mask before stamping the Cozy Holiday Home stamp and adding the mask for that one. I usually color my background skies with my Copics, but for this one, I chose to ink blend, and the masks made it super easy. I used Altenew Iceberg ink and Distress Ink in the color Tumbled Glass for my sky.
I colored the scene using Copics, making sure to use muted, soft colors for the background and brighter colors and more detailed coloring for the snowman and his friends. That penguin chick had me, I love him!! I stamped a sentiment from the Holiday messages stamp set on top of the snow in Stormy Sea ink from Papertrey Ink. That particular green color matches the BG90s from Copic so incredibly well.
I cut my colored piece down a little and was going to add it to a 5×7″ card base, but realized I’d cut too much off the height, so I had to shrink the card front accordingly. The finished card measures 5 x 6 1/2″. A bit of an unusual size, I guess, but I think it works. I added a piece of green patterned paper from Papirdesign to my white side folding card base and mounted my colored piece with plenty of foam tape. Normally I’d use Stormy Sea card stock for my base, but I didn’t have a piece big enough, and that patterned paper (without much of a pattern) was a great match.
Lots of colors for this one, but I used the ones before T7 on the snow alone… No wonder it’s a lot.
I colored up the cute 
I die cut the tag an additional two times, once in a red patterned paper that I glued on the back of my colored piece, and once in a green patterned paper that I offset and glued on the back for a little interest. I stamped the standard To/From (this particular stamp is from Norsk Stempelblad AS) on the green patterned paper using Olive Twist ink from Papertrey Ink.
Underneath the kitten I stamped ho ho ho from the Scripty Xmas stamp set from Mama Elephant, using that same Olive Twist color ink. I added a bit of red lacey ribbon to the hole on the top of the tag, tied a bow around it using a very fine thread that I think is meant for warping looms, it used to be my grandmother’s. I added a little bell charm to the bow, I thought it was a nice finishing touch.
Not a whole lot of colors used for this one, but the image isn’t very big either.
I felt like I really needed to add a photo of the kitten in the tree. She was very content up there.
I used the slimline starter die from My Favorite Things to die cut a panel of Blue Breeze cardstock for my card front. I stamped the 
I didn’t want to add my colored pieces directly to the blue underneath. I decided to add a mat behind each of the images, and I cut them down to be slightly larger than the images themselves. We’re talking super thin frames, I think they wound up being about 1/32″ all around. They might be small, but it was enough that I didn’t have room for a sentiment between my images, so I cut apart the Ho ho ho sentiment from the 
Once I’d colored the image with Copics, I used the largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX Set 2 from My Favorite Things to die cut a landscape oriented panel that would fit perfectly on my card base with a 1/16″ border around. I like the 1/16″ little frame, AND it’s the same width as the distance from the faux stitching to the cut line. I like having them the same. Little details like that matter, to paraphrase a famous German architect (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who coined the term “God is in the details”).
I created a top fold card from Stormy Sea cardstock from Papertrey Ink. It’s a color that matches the BG90 family from Copic really really REALLY well. I need to order more, I only have half a sheet left of this color. I used the same color cardstock to diecut the word wishes using a die from Mama Elephant that was free with purchase if you spent a certain amount during their birthday extravaganza back in September. Normally I’d diecut the word several times in the color I wanted, but since I was running super low on this particular grayish green, I used a few layers of white diecut words, and only one layer of the colored cardstock on top. I stamped and white heat embossed the word “holiday” from the Iconic Ornament stamp set from Mama Elephant, also free with purchase over a certain amount on the Mama Elephant site back in September. I added a few more layers of cardstock behind it for dimension and glued it to my sky using Gina K liquid glue, which I also used for the die cut word.
I decided not to add any additional elements. No embellishments, no nothing, I didn’t want to distract too much from that adorable image.
Not a lot of Copics for this one, and 14 of these were used for the snow and polar bear.
I used a very bright red for the hat and sweater on the mouse, and the only color that really goes with it, in my opinion, is gray. I found some red and gray die cut scraps from a couple of Maja Design collections (Fröjdefull Jul and Joyous Winterdays) and made a little mini cluster in the top right corner.
I started with a mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design, added a red fishtail flag frame die cut with a die from My Favorite Things, then a piece of a ticket die cut with a Docrafts die. I used some 1 mm foam squares for that. I added my sentiment at the end, which is from one of those strips at the bottom of the 12×12″ papers that you usually cut off. Maja Design has always had some kind of pattern on the back of theirs, which means that nothing needs to go to waste. This one was perfect in gray with a hint of red, and I used 1 mm foam squares to add it. I even doubled up on the foam on the left hand side of it.
I added some red enamel dots from Papirdesign to finish it off, and glued a leftover piece of the doily to the bottom left corner and an additional two dots. I added my panel to a top folding card base I made from Gravel Gray card stock from My Favorite Things.
This was a very simple image to color, so obviously I didn’t use a lot of colors.
I love no line coloring, and this guy with the candy cane was so much fun to color up. I added snow flurries to the background with a gelly roll pen when I did my coloring, and once I’d die cut my colored piece I wanted even more snow, so I sprinkled on embossing enamel, as well, and melted that.
I even added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards once my card was assembled. I love this look of snow on Christmas cards.
The sentiment is from the Scripty Xmas stamp set from Mama Elephant, stamped in Lady Bug ink from Memento. I added my panel onto a 4 1/4 x 4 1/4″ top folding card base I made from Electric Red card stock from My Favorite Things.
I started by coloring my little snowman and his friend using my Copics. I went with a bit of a split complementary color scheme on this one. I’m no fan of complementary colors, but split complementary are infinitely better, and blue green (which I used for the snow on the snowman), purple and orange are split complementary colors. I didn’t want a bright orange, though, so I went more coral, and I love how it turned out.
I used a faux stitch rectangle die from My Favorite Things to turn my colored piece into a nice panel. I love these dies, they add such a finished look. I sprinkled on a moderate amount of chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous and melted the powder. I love the snowy look this gives.
I mounted my die cut piece onto a card base made from Lavender Fields cardstock from My Favorite Things using plenty of foam tape. This color perfectly matched the purple in my image, something I always try to accomplish in my cards for a nice, cohesive design. I die cut and stacked four Hurra from Melon Berry cardstock from Papertrey Ink using a Kort & Godt die. I love stacking die cuts, it adds a super nice look of dimension. I also white heat embossed a sub sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto more of that Lavender Fields cardstock, and stacked that, as well, making it flush with the die cut word.
I added a couple of sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and my card was complete. I cut a little bit off the largest one with my scissors to make it look like it’s tucked behind that sentiment strip.
Last, but not least, the Copic markers I used to color my image. I also used B40 and BG71, which are colors I’ve made myself.
I used a square die from Lifestyle Crafts to die cut my elf down to the size I wanted, in this case 4″.
I then stamped a sentiment from the Scripty Xmas stamp set from Mama Elephant using Enchanted Evening ink from Papertrey Ink, before gluing my panel to a 4 1/4″ square card base made from Dark Indigo cardstock, also from Papertrey Ink. I finished off my card by gluing on some stars from a sequin mix from Hero Arts. They’re iridescent, which I’m normally not a big fan of, but it worked on this card.
I love the ease of clear stamps, but rubber stamps like this one have much finer lines, and they stamp beautifully every single time, I love that. I also love blue for Christmas, but that’s hardly a secret 😉
I couldn’t have kept this card any simpler. I used the largest of the A2 stitched rectangle dies from My Favorite Things to die cut the image and glued it to a white card base. That’s it, I didn’t add a sentiment or any embellishments.
The story is about a little girl, barefoot and cold, out in the streets on New Year’s Eve trying to sell matches. Afraid to go home thinking her father will beat her for not selling any matches, she huddles in between two houses and lights the matches to warm herself.
In the flames of the matches, she sees wonderful imagery; food, warmth, happy families. But the images all disappear as soon as the flame dies. When she sees her late grandmother, she begs her to take her to Heaven. In an attempt to keep the visions of her grandmother, she keeps lighting the matches, until there’s only one left. When the flame of that one goes out, too, her grandmother takes her hand and they fly to Heaven.
The next morning, the little girl is found frozen to death on the street, her cheeks red and with a smile on her lips. Everyone thinks it’s a tragedy, but no one understands the joy she felt right before she died.
A few Copic colors to finish off today’s story time. I also used BV27, which is a color I’ve made myself.
I colored up this image for day 27 of Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge back in May. Yes, I colored a winter scene in May… BUT I wanted to feature as many different companies as possible during the coloring challenge, and the only ones I have from Kinda Cute are winter ones. I love making Christmas cards, so I really didn’t mind.
I had initially planned on making an A2 landscape card, but it just wasn’t working, there was no natural place to put the sentiment. After I’d added the iridescent glitter paste over a Simon Says Stamp falling snow stencil and glued my panel to my cardbase, I chopped off 1-1/4″ on the right hand side of the card and then carefully went in with a craft knife to cut off an additional 1/16″ from my top layer. It works if you use a fresh blade and cut multiple times using very light pressure.
I stamped and white heat embossed a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment onto more of that same Dark Indigo cardstock from Papertrey Ink that I used for my card front, before using a speech bubble die from Altenew to die cut. I mounted my speech bubble using some foam tape, and my card was finished.
Papirmølla 