Hi, everyone! I know you’re thinking it’s too soon, Christmas is still four months away, but I like getting my Christmas cards started early, so I’m not swamped when November comes around and there’s enough to get done as it is.
Today, I’ve got snowmen for you. I colored up these snowmen from Mama Elephant for Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge… in June last year. I wasn’t able to do all 30 days of that round of the challenge because of a shoulder fracture, but I got a few days in before I had to throw in the towel. Blue Christmas cards are my weakness, so I colored in all the accessories for the snowmen in the stamp set using blues and browns.
I fussy cut my snowmen and made myself a little sketch, to make the actual cardmaking process easier. I find sketches help make me more productive. I used the Tag Builder Blueprint 5 die set from My Favorite Things to create my frames, and layered 3 diecuts together on each of the four frames to make them more dimensional. I kept the interior pieces to use with the remaining snowmen for an additional two cards. I dry embossed my cardbase using the Falling Snow stencil from Simon Says Stamp. It’s not easy for the camera to pick up in photos, but there’s a subtle bit of texture to the background.
I glued a panel of Enchanted Evening cardstock from Papertrey Ink straight onto the card front using doublesided tape, and stamped my sentiment repeatedly next to it using Enchanted Evening ink, also from Papertrey Ink. The stamp itself is from Norsk Stempelblad AS. I glued my frames down onto the blue background in a wonky, whimsical arrangement, mounted my little snowmen inside each frame using 1 mm foam squares and embellished very simply with snowflake sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
I feel like every other day is Wednesday, and today’s another one. Time just goes by so incredibly quickly, it’s hard to keep up and keep track of the weekdays. I colored up 
I haven’t made one of my cluster cards in quite some time, but I really enjoy the process of putting these clusters together, so I decided to do it for this card. It’s a great way to use some patterned paper scraps, and one of these patterned papers is actually from 2007! It’s from Autumn Leaves. Remember them? I think it’s been a while since they ceased to exist. Now, when you go to autumleaves.com, you get to a site for assisted living communities for those with dementia. It’s a Texas based company, and definitely not a maker of pretty patterned paper. The other papers I’ve used are also what we’d call old in the card making world, the yellow one is from My Mind’s Eye and was released in 2011, and the remaining two were both released in 2013, they’re from Maja Design and Inkido, respectively.
I use a couple of different dies to make these clusters, I make the banners using the Fishtail Flag Frames set from My Favorite Things, and I use the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from Xcut for all those tickets. It’s one die that cuts nine different tickets, and I love that I get that many from one run through my diecutting machine. I mounted some of my diecut pieces on 1 mm foam tape, and glued others down using just double sided tape. Behind the whole thing I put half a mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design. I used the other half for the card I posted yesterday. On top I added a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS stamped in Ocean Tides ink from Papertrey Ink. I mounted that on foam squares, and tripled up the foam squares on the left side of the banner. Finished off with a few pink dots from Papirdesign.
I leave you with the colors I used for the adorable little girl. Not too many today.
“Elin goes overboard with coloring” is a common theme around here, and I used 50 Copic colors to create this little scene. I wanted to keep the focus on the colorful image, so I used a stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things to diecut my panel and mounted it on Smokey Shadow cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I added a couple of pieces of a mini doily from Doodlebug to opposite corners to soften the look a little bit, before popping up a sentiment from the stamp set onto black foam tape from Gina K.
All I did for embellishments was add a couple of sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh, and my card was complete.
These are 49 of the 50 Copics I used to color my image. I also used BG71, which is a color I’ve made myself.
I colored up this 
I ran a white cardstock panel through my Gemini Jr with an embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers to create some texture in the background. I mounted it on foam tape and centered it on my card front, before adding my colored image with some 1 mm foam squares for even more dimension.
I white heat embossed a sentiment from the same stamp set onto True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink, mounted that on more foam tape and added some sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh for a finishing touch.
I wanted most of the focus on the cute little parade, so I kept the rest pretty simple. I made a cardbase from Hibiscus Burst cardstock from Papertrey Ink. It matches the pinks in my image perfectly. I used a die from Kort & Godt to diecut the main sentiment from four layers of the same color cardstock, layering them for a dimensional effect.
I white heat embossed a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment (time for balloons and soda) onto Stormy Sea cardstock (also from Papertrey Ink). I stacked four layers on this one too, making the sub sentiment flush with the diecut word.
I added a couple of matte gold sequins from the Mint Gold sequins mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards as a finishing touch. They sort of match the cymbals the tiny squirrel is holding, and also the drumsticks. Simple, bright and cheerful. If this birthday card doesn’t put a smile on someone’s face, I don’t know what will.
I leave you with the colors I used for this image. Not really a whole lot for this one.
I’m doing my best to make my pile of patterned paper scraps shrink and not grow. My biggest problem with that is that most of my cards are fairly simple without a lot of patterned paper, and my scrap pile feels endless. Still I keep chipping away at it, hoping it’ll be visibly smaller one of these days. For this card I used an old green scrap from Pion Design and a yellow one from Papirdesign. I diecut both, the green using the largest of the stitched rectangle dies from My Favorite Things, and the yellow one using a super old Quickutz die.
I also diecut the image using a smaller stitched rectangle die from MFT, and popped the panel up on foam tape centered on my card. I used some 1 mm foam squares to adhere my circle diecut with a stamped sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS.
I finished off the card by scattering veneer stars from Studio Calico at a diagonal across.
These are the colors I used to color the image. I also used B40, which is a color I’ve made myself.
The 
I wanted something in the background, but nothing too distracting. White on white is such a classic look, and I diecut both the Layered Snowflake cover dies from Altenew (there’s 
I fussy cut around my colored image and mounted it on foam tape. This image is quite large, and even though there’s a lot of detail in the image, it’s very easy to fussy cut. I mounted it on a bit of an angle, making the leaves stick out from both sides of the card. I also white heat embossed a sentiment from the same stamps set on black cardstock and added that to my design.
My last finishing touch was a few sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. Some of them tucked, in true Laura Bassen style, and I even used my scissors on one.
I colored up 
I used the largest of the faux stitch rectangle dies from My Favorite Things to create a nice edge for my panel. I mounted it to a cardbase I made from Soft Stone cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
I dug through my scrap stash of Christmas themed patterned paper and got really lucky with part of a diecut ticket and some pine branches.
I made a little cluster starting with half a Doodlebug mini paper doily, then the partial ticket stub and the pine branches. I found a fitting sentiment on the bottom of a piece of patterned paper from Papirdesign, so I cut that bit out and added foam tape behind it. I finished the card with a few snowflake sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
I diecut the panel with the image using the largest of the faux stitch rectangle dies from My Favorite Things. I glued it straight to a cardbase I created from Soft Stone cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
I added half a Doodlebug Nini doily, some diecut scraps of patterned paper (Papirdesign and Basic Grey, btw) and a white heat embossed Inky Wings sentiment on Papertrey Ink Autumn Rose cardstock. A few raindrops from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and my card was finished.
Papirmølla 