Happy birthday {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m here today with a shaker card. A big one, it measures 5 1/2 x 7 1/2″. I wanted to use the surfboard from the Beach accessories stamp set from this year’s spring release from Purple Onion Designs, and I needed the space. I don’t usually make large cards, I tend to opt for a smaller format, but sometimes, it’s nice to have the extra space.

I stamped and colored the surfboard eight times, and fussy cut them all right up against the stamped lines. I put them aside while I worked on the rest of my card.

I used the Big Happy Birthday die from My Favorite Things to die cut into a 5×7″ piece of Soft Stone cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I put acetate behind it and added the counters of the letters back into place on top of the acetate, using the actual letters as placement guides, before doubling up on foam tape on the back of the cardstock for a deep shaker well.

On a piece of X-Press It blending card, I stamped the palm trees from the Slumber stamp from Purple Onion Designs. I used second generation stamping with Memento Espresso Truffle ink for a softer look. I masked the palm trees and ink blended a sunset using Distress inks in the colors Picked Raspberry, Abandoned Coral, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed and Scattered Straw, before coloring in the palm trees with Copics. I added sequins and gems from the Seashore mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, before gluing my shaker shut.

I added seven of my surfboards to the bottom of my panel and adhered it all to a top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I couldn’t fit all my surfboards on the front of the card, so I glued the last one to the inside next to a sentiment from the Seaside sentiment set from Purple Onion Designs that I stamped using Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide ink.

Lots of colors for this one.

God jul {Kort & Godt}

Hi, crafty friends. I have another Christmas card to share, this time using some goodies from Kort & Godt.

I shared a card a couple of weeks ago with a bullfinch. The stamp set has another bullfinch image, and I decided to put this one to good use too. This time I fussy cut around him, leaving a white trim around the edge. Onto a top fold card base I created from Rustic Cream cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I mounted a piece of patterned paper from Maja Design (Tomten kommer from the Gammaldags Jul collection). From the Christmas Flower sheet from the Wintertime in Swedish Lapland collection from Pion Design, I die cut a tag, added that in the center using foam tape and a bow at the top that I found in my stash.

I used a die to create the word jul. The die actually cuts the word juleklem, but I only needed jul for my card and cut the other part off. Using an alphabet die, I die cut the letters to spell god and glued them above jul to complete my sentiment. I added the bullfinch image using foam squares and also added a big gold pearl to the knot on the bow for a little bit of shine to finish my card.

Simple color palette, and it happens to be the same as the one I used for the previous bullfinch card.

Kort & Godt products used:

M-468

DIE-211

DIE 300

DIE 304

BE102

Gledelig jul {Streamside Studios}

Hi, crafty friends! I have a Christmas card to share today. To be honest, I’m still waiting for summer to arrive, I feel we were definitely cheated this year. We had a couple of weeks in June with good weather, but it’s been pretty dreary since. The sun is actually peeking out today, though, it’s a nice change from the rain.

Small images in stamp sets often get neglected, but they’re so fun to create backgrounds from, and that’s exactly what I’ve done with this candy cane image from the Merry Christmouse stamp set from Streamside Studios. I did simple coloring and cropped down the panel, before mounting it onto a top fold A2 card base.

Using a die from Kort & Godt, I created my sentiment from gold glitter cardstock, with three extra layers of white die cuts behind for dimension. The sentiment kind of got lost against my busy background, though. Vellum to the rescue. I cut a strip that was the perfect height for my sentiment and added some detail using a stitched border die from Lawn Fawn. I added my die cut letters on top, popped up the vellum panel and finished off with a few gold gems from Kort & Godt.

Super simple color palette today.

Your friendship means so much {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, crafty friends. There’s a surprise release out from Rachelle Anne Miller RIGHT NOW, and it’s this adorable Forest Adventure image.

I colored the image and fussy cut it right up against the black lines. When you do, you lose the cute little extra lines on the outside that is part of Rachelle’s signature, which is a bit of a shame, but for the card design I had planned, it was a necessary sacrifice. I could have kept a little white trim (and thus, the wispy lines) around the image, but I feel that would have made the image less of an integrated piece of the overall design, so I went with the close cut.

Onto the card base, I ink blended Icy Water and Winter Lake inks from Altenew to create a soft blue sky. I die cut the Winter Forest cover die from Mama Elephant from Heavyweight vellum from My Favorite Things and adhered it on top. Using the same die, I also die cut the background from a couple of colors of gray cardstock. I used Mushroom from Concord & 9th and Soft Stone from Papertrey Ink and adhered the little gray notches into the openings of my vellum trees. On parts of the lighter ones, I ink blended with Charcoal ink from Hero Arts for a little variation in my grays.

I adhered my little scene on top of the vellum trees. I glued it flat down on the edges and used 2 mm foam squares near the top of the image for some dimension. I used a black glaze pen to add some shine to their eyes, and added a white dot on top once the black was dry using a Gelly Roll 05.

I die cut the Winter Forest cover die one final time, this time from white cardstock. I cut away the trees, but kept the frame and slope near the bottom and stamped a sentiment from the Together stamp set from Purple Onion Designs using Gravel Gray ink from My Favorite Things.

This image is so sweet and can be used for a variety of occasions. Rachelle’s images always have such a cosy vibe, and this one fits perfectly with all the other images she’s illustrated.

I see I’ve forgotten to add the greens I used in my Copic graphic. They were YG17, YG03, YG01 and G40.

Happy birthday shaker {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m back with a super simple card, featuring Mimi from Purple Onion Designs. She was part of this year’s spring release, and she’s just adorable with the umbrella drink in her hand.

I stamped Mimi using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, colored her with Copics and stamped on top using Obsidian ink from Altenew, which is a super crisp pigment ink that doesn’t play well with alcohol markers, but is perfect for stamping at the end after the coloring’s done. I fussy cut her leaving a white trim, and put her to the side while I worked on the rest of the card.

I chose one of the green papers in the Watercolor Wash 6×6″ paper pad from My Favorite Things to cover the front of a landscape oriented top fold A2 card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I cut down a white piece of cardstock and created texture using the Crystal Distortion embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp, before mounting the panel in the center of the card front using lots of foam tape.

I then used the Stitched Happy Birthday Rectangle die from Memory Box to die cut once from the green patterned paper I’d already used and 10 or 11 times (I lost count) from white cardstock to create a shaker well. I cut the words out of the white frames, stacked them, added acetate to the back of my layered frame and adhered it in the center of the card. I then filled the shaker well with the Candy mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. This mix has pearls, little flower shapes, sequins without holes, some hearts and raindrops. I topped it with another piece of acetate, then adhered the patterned paper die cut on top.

By creating the well from so many layers of cardstock, my little embellishment mix has a lot of room to shake around. A few of the pieces in there are quite large, and I didn’t want any of them getting stuck.

I added Mimi to the side of the frame. I put three layers of foam tape behind her for dimension, so she’d be level with the frame. This card has a lot of dimension, it’s almost 1/2″ at its thickest.

Simple color palette for Mimi, she’s pretty quick to color.

Merry wishes {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m still creating holiday cards, I still have no idea how many I’ve made this year, but I do know that this snowmen stamp set from the latest Lili of the Valley release is a must have.

I’ve actually created a tri-fold card this time. There are several images in this stamp set that lend themselves very well to this kind of off the edge design. I colored my snowman with Copics, before adhering him towards the right edge of a half sheet (8 x 5 1/2″) of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I fussy cut to the right of him, leaving a white trim and used a steel ruler and a craft knife on the left to create a vertical edge. Adhering him to the white cardstock did two things: 1 – it added strength, and 2 – it covered up the back of my coloring for a clean look when the card is open.

This is the card closed. I created this by gluing 2 side fold A2 card bases together; the half with the snowman with the fold on the left and the other one with the fold on the right.

I used the Snowflake Confetti fancy die from Hero Arts to die cut from Gina K Masking Magic to create a stencil to ink blend through. I used Iceberg ink from Altenew to create subtle blue snowflakes in the background on the front of the card to the left of the snowman and also on the other flap.

I adhered an 1/8″ gold glitter cardstock strip from Kort & Godt for the snowman to hold on to for a defining edge and used the Stacked Merry die from My Favorite Things to die cut 6 times for a stacked look. 5 layers from white cardstock, the top layer from a piece of X-Press It blending card that I colored to match the green on the snowman. I stacked the six layers and adhered them in the center of the left front panel, stamped and white heat embossed a sub sentiment from the Christmas Greetings stamp set from Lili of the Valley, before adhering it on top of the stem of the Y with a few additional layers of cardstock behind it for dimension and strength.

I embellished with a combination of gold pearls around the sentiment and tiny confetti stars all across the background. Both are from the Vanilla Kiss mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I also added a bit of black glaze pen to the eyes of the snowman. It adds a tiny bit of dimension and some shine. Once dry, I went over with a dot of white, using a Gelly Roll 05.

On the inside flap, behind the snowman, I stamped another sentiment from the Christmas Greetings stamp set from Lili of the Valley, this time using Jalapeño Popper ink from My Favorite Things.

Simple color palette for this one. Lots of colors for the snow, though, I can’t seem to help it.

Merry wishes from our home to yours {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m back with another holiday card. This cold, wet weather we’ve been having this summer is perfect for creative sessions in the craft room, and I gravitate towards holiday cards for some reason. I shared this card over on Mo’s Dream Team blog yesterday, but thought I’d share here, too.

Little Elf Tippi is one of my favorites from Mo. I have lots of favorites from her images, I love her style so much. This one won me over as soon as I saw it, and I’ve made a card with it (this one) previously.

I had to go for my traditional Christmas colors for this one with blue, brown and grey, it’s such a good combo. I made all the lights the same color. I know some people prefer the differently colored lights, but as a Scandinavian minimalist, my color palette for Christmas is very toned down, including my Christmas lights, which are all white.

Once I’d colored my image, I used the largest die in the Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things to create a faux stitch border around my panel. I then took the Plaid builder stencil set from My Favorite Things and ink blended using Blue Yonder ink from My Favorite Things in the top right corner with the stencil with the wide stripes. On top of the stencil with the smaller stripes, I used Light & Fluffy Modeling Paste from The Crafter’s Workshop for a little bit of added dimension and interest to the background.

I adhered my panel to an A2 top fold card base I created from Enchanted Evening cardstock from Papertrey Ink. Using the scripty wishes die from Mama Elephant, I die cut three layers of white and one blue on top for a stacked look and adhered it on top of my stenciled background. I also stamped and white heat embossed a couple of sentiments from the Holiday messages stamp set from Mama Elephant to add to the wishes to make my sentiment complete. I cut them down to strips and added a few layers of cardstock behind each of them for dimension, before finishing off the card with a few sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, as well as Glossy Accents for the lightbulbs.

I love the glow and shine from the lightbulbs.

Fairly simple color palette for this one.

Make a wish

Hi, crafty friends. I’m back today with a card I made just for fun. With six different design teams, I don’t have a lot of time to make cards that aren’t design team related, but when the July release dropped from My Favorite Things, I couldn’t resist these sloths. It also didn’t hurt that I was able to take advantage of the MFT birthday sale.

I colored up these two sloths from the Hang Out and Celebrate stamp set. I stamped using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, which is a hybrid ink safe to use with alcohol markers. I colored the sloths with Copics, then re-stamped over the black lines, this time using Obsidian ink from Altenew. This is a pigment ink that is super crisp, but it’s not compatible with Copics, so I need to stamp with an alcohol friendly ink first, do my coloring, then stamp on top with the pigment ink. Once the ink was dry I used the coordinating dies to cut out these cute sloths.

I created an A2 top fold card base from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink and decided to do a little ink blending near the top right. Using the Watercolor Circle stencil from My Favorite Things (which was also new in the July release), I ink blended Eastern Sky and Iceberg inks from Altenew to create a soft sky. I eventually realized it needed to be darker for my clouds to show up over top, so I also went in with Ultramarine, which is one shade darker than Eastern Sky. These three blues are all in the same color family from Altenew.

With the circle mask still in place, I added the Tiny Clouds stencil from My Favorite Things on top, and used Fresh Snow hybrid ink from Papertrey Ink to create soft clouds on top of the blue I’d already ink blended.

At the bottom center of the card, I stamped a sentiment from the stamp set with the sloths, this time using Caribbean Sea ink from My Favorite Things. I also stamped “Make a” from the older Birthday Chicks stamp set and adhered die cut letters between my stamping to complete the sentiment. I die cut the word with from the Wish Big Today die that also came out in the July release from My Favorite Things (it was such a good release). I used Sour Apple cardstock, and at the base of the letters I ink blended using Sour Apple ink, and a little bit of Jalapeño Popper ink for extra oomph. I put three additional die cuts behind each letter and adhered them to my card.

Time for the sloths. I die cut three additional layers of cardstock to go behind each of my die cut sloths, and glued them directly to the card base. I cut off a portion of the balloon on the back layers, so I could overlap the colored one with the other sloth. I added a dot of black glaze pen to the eyes of the sloth that’s awake, and Glossy Accents to the balloon for a bit of shine.

To finish off the card I used some sequins from the Waterfall mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I packed a lot into this card, and the sentiment wound up taking much more space than I’d sketched out in advance, but I still like it. This is the part where I usually show a graphic of the Copics I used, but I simply can’t locate the post-It I used to write them down.

God jul {Kort & Godt}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a super clean and simple, yet dimensional, Christmas card to share today, featuring some products from Kort & Godt.

I started by stamping this bird on a piece of X-Press It blending card using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things. I colored the bird to look like a bullfinch using my Copics. In this little corner of the world, no bird says Christmas like a bullfinch. Once I finished my coloring, I stamped on top of my initial stamping, this time using Obsidian ink from Altenew to get really crisp lines. I love how crisp this ink is. It’s not compatible with Copics, so I need to stamp after my coloring’s complete, but that’s not a problem with a stamp positioning tool.

Onto a piece of Classic Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I stamped a few branches using Classic Kraft ink for a soft backdrop for my sentiment, which I stamped in Dark Chocolate ink, also from Papertrey Ink. I popped up the 3 1/2″ wide kraft panel in the center of a top fold white cardbase using foam tape, added foam tape behind my die cut image and placed it near the top center of the card, before finishing off with a gold heart for a little bit of embellishment.

Simple color palette for this image.

Kort & Godt products used:

M-468

M-442

ST149