Hi, crafty friends. I’m back with another card I created using images from the new A Little Christmas Magic! collection from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Stacey Yacula.
Whenever the design team members get a glimpse of the new collection, I start my planning process. I sketch out very rough card ideas using the stamps I’d like to work with, send my stamp wish list off to Michele, the owner of Purple Onion Designs, and then wait patiently for the stamps to arrive.
Whenever there’s a new collection I like to create scenes to show off as many of the cute images as possible (without overcrowding the card), and for this card I stamped Cider (elf bunny in gift box), masked him, stamped Tristan (penguin soldier) and Graham (bear soldier), masked them, stamped the Holiday Arch, masked that, and finally stamped the Nordic Road background stamp. For the background, I used second generation stamping with Memento Espresso Truffle ink, the rest of the images are stamped using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things.
I always start by coloring the sky, and for this collection, I wanted each of my cards to have a different sky. I tend to go for all blues, but winter sunsets are explosions of color, so I was very conscious of that when I created my card. Once the sky was done, I colored the snow, followed by the trees and that cute fence, before starting with the rest of the scene.
I colored the critters, then the arch and finally all the red. I always leave the red details to the very end. It eliminates the chance of smearing and getting red ink where you don’t want it when you go in with another color right next to it. I wrote Happy Holidays with a black 0.35 Copic pen before coloring, but once the red was colored, you could hardly see the lettering, so I went back over with a white 05 Gelly Roll pen, and the text is much more visible now. My Ps are a little further apart than I’d like, and they’re also leaning a tiny bit to the right, but it’s a homemade card, it’s not supposed to be perfect, right?
Whenever I create these scene cards with Purple Onion images, I always let the stamping and the scene itself dictate the size of the finished card. This one wound up at 5 1/4 x 5 1/4″, which seemed pretty perfect. I haven’t made a square card in a while, so this was fun.
I used an obscene amount of Copics for this card.
For this card, I chose 
I didn’t want a dark night sky for this card. I also didn’t want it to have a basic blue sky, because I wanted to add lots of snow, and it doesn’t really snow from clear skies. I opted for a soft blue violet combo that wasn’t too dark and that fit the snowy scene look I was after.
When everything was colored, I stamped a sentiment from 
I sprinkled on a generous amount of chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous, making sure no granules covered up the critters’ eyes or the sentiment, before melting the granules from the back of the panel. I then adhered it directly to a top fold white card base, and my card was complete.
Lots of Copics for this one.
I had my penguins colored, fussy cut and ready to go. I rummaged through my Christmas themed patterned paper scraps and found a piece from Papirdesign and one from Maja Design that were just big enough to die cut a snowflake from. This snowflake is the Stitched Snowflake Frame from Lawn Fawn that came out last year. I added a white die cut circle to the back of the opening that the die creates and stamped a to/from stamp on the back.
I added the penguin using foam squares and also a white heat embossed sentiment strip. The sentiment is from the Jul stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad. I stamped and white heat embossed a bunch at once on a scrap piece of blue cardstock from Maja Design. I added my strip using foam squares and finished off the tag with a few sequins from the Igloo mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards and a bow I tied to the top using Divine Twine in the color Blueberry.
I used the same setup for the second tag, only switching out the sentiment and using pearls instead of sequins. They’re from the same mix from Lucy, though.
I love using 1 mm foam squares. It adds a little bit of raised dimension to something that is very simple, and the bow adds a little bit of texture.
Simple color palette for these two (and the other two penguins that are still lost somewhere in my craft room).
For my final card I’m focusing on the Birthday Wonderland stamp set, and I used both trees, the raccoon and the bear for my card, in addition to one of the sentiments.
I decided to go for a no line look in the background with the trees and used black lines for the two cute critters.
Once my image was stamped and colored I cut it down significantly and mounted it on foam tape to a top fold landscape card base I created from Enchanted Evening cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
There’s something about this bear that reminds me of Yogi. That might actually be the reason I colored his hat green. These two have such character, but the bear’s my favorite, just don’t tell the raccoon.
I used a white Sharpie with an extra fine tip for the dots of snow (is it snow?) on the trees.
Simple, subdued color palette for this card.
The card was made on order for a superintendent turning 60. I was told he likes wine, good food, sunny, warm weather and enjoying life and was given free reign to do as I pleased. 
I rarely use patterned papers on my cards anymore, and certainly not pieces this big, but I love the XXL Square Frames Frilly #10 die set from GoKreate, the dies in the set are perfect for creating shaped cards. I use two 12×12″ sheets of patterned paper to make one of these cards, and this time I used the Drivers License patterned paper from the Denim & Friends collection as well as the Tough but sweet sheet from the Denim & Girls collection, both from Maja Design. I can cut two of the larger shapes and two of the smaller shapes from one sheet, so the insides of the card are reverse.
I colored the image in colors that went with the patterned paper, adding a bit of red to catch the eye and writing the words on his t shirt with a black Copic friendly pen. I thought the pun would tick the “loves wine” box.
I used foam tape to add the smaller shape to the larger one, and also to add the die cut circle to the smaller shape. I stamped postmarks from various cities in the world using Memento Rich Cocoa ink to add a little bit of interest to the circle and the panel behind it. I figure if the guy loves warm, sunny weather, he probably also loves to travel, there’s not a whole lot of warm days in Oslo over the course of a year.
I added some metal embellishments from Tim Holtz in a bit of a cluster near the bottom left “corner”, as well as his age, die cut and put on a 1″ circle with an epoxy sticker on top for a bit of added dimension.
I hid a die cut tag behind my image. I used to do this all the time, and it’s a fun way to add a sentiment without having to find space for it on the front of the card. The sentiment is from the Til mannen stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS. The dies I used for the tag and reinforcer are old ones from Magnolia. I tied a bow from twill onto the tag, and some cutlery charms to the twill bow using natural twine from May Arts. I thought the cutlery was perfect for a food lover, I have so many treasures in my stash that I forget about until I go looking for something to use.
The inside of the card are pretty simple. The same patterned paper as the front, only with the reverse size. I used more of the postmark stamps from Marianne Design, as well as a sentiment from the Gratulerer stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS. There’s plenty of space for a personal message on the second circle, which only has the postmark stamps on the edges.
The back of the card is also simple. Another sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS, this time it’s the B03 stamp set. I love their stamp sets and use them more than any other of my Norwegian sentiment stamps. They’re hard to get your hands on because the company is no longer in business, but they’re the best sentiments out there.
Simple color palette.
I thought this guy from the Smile and Wave stamp set was too cool not to use, so I colored him with my Copics and did some fussy cutting, leaving a white border around the edge. I wanted him to stand out and to make a super simple card.
I created a mask with some 2″ post-It tape by cutting a sloping hill with a craft knife. This is easy to do free hand, but you can use a curved die if you’d like.
I wanted this guy to really stand out against the background and decided to ink blend using distress inks. I used Abandoned Coral, Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed and Scattered Straw for the sky. The yellow and orange tones pick up the colors from his belly, beak and feet and really stand out against the blue of his hat. For the ground I used a little bit of Tumbled Glass Distress Ink near the horizon, fading into white near the bottom.
I sprinkled on Chunky White embossing enamel to the background, making sure no granules covered my stamped sentiment before melting the granules from the back. I mounted the panel onto the white top fold card base using foam tape for dimension.
I mounted the penguin onto foam tape and used some clear iridescent crystals from the Crystal Collection (Glass) from Little Thing from Lucy’s Cards to finish off this very simple card.
Simple color palette.
Papirmølla 