Hi, crafty friends. Christmas is in exactly one month. I’ve got so many Christmas cards made, I’ve lost count. And I still keep making more, there’s just too many good stamps out there that can’t be ignored. Today’s card features some images from the Merriest Little City release from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Stacey Yacula.
Meet Lark & Parker. Oh, and Boots, too! A nice hot beverage on a park bench to wind down from the hustle and bustle of the season seems perfect to me. I stamped the park background behind them and colored a very bright winter sunset.
Once my scene was all colored in, I used a stamp from the Merriest City Sentiment set for a sentiment at the bottom, using Hawaiian Shores and Stormy Sea inks from Papertrey Ink to perfectly match the sentiment with the coloring of the scarves and the bag.
Lots and lots and lots of Copics for this one. The first eight in this graphic are for the sky alone.
I die cut the reindeer from several colors of colored cardstock. I used Cocoa Nibs from Papertrey Ink for the antlers, Amarena Cherry from My Favorite Things for the red nose, Milk Chocolate from My Favorite Things for eyes and the remaining noses, as well as Kraft from Bazzill. I would have preferred Classic Kraft from Papertrey Ink, as it’s a heavier weight cardstock, but I’ve run out, and the Bazzill kraft worked just fine.
I mounted a white panel onto my top fold landscape card base and adhered the reindeer in a line. A couple of them have additional layers of cardstock behind them for a tiny bit of dimension, Rudolf has lots of layers behind him, as well as shine to his nose. I added a very thick coat of Glossy Accents, and I also added black Glaze to his eyes for shine and dimension. I stamped GOD JUL using Milk Chocolate ink from My Favorite Things.
I had an extra reindeer that I decided to add to the inside of the card, you can see his ear peeking out in this photo.
I colored my snowman with Copics, added black Glaze to his eyes, then a white dot using a Gelly Roll 05 once the black was dry. I also used the white to add the white dots to his hat. I fussy cut my snowman, leaving a thin white trim around him, before putting him to the side to work on the rest of my card. I covered my card base with patterned paper from Maja Design. This frosty blue paper is from the Vintage Frost Basics collection from 2013, the sheet’s called 13th of December. I used the Notebook Edge die from My Favorite Things to create a fun border on a piece of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I used Light & Fluffy Modeling Paste from The Crafter’s Workshop to create snow through the Falling Snow stencil from Simon Says Stamp. While the paste was still wet, I sprinkled on Rock Candy distress glitter for an even frostier effect, and mounted my white panel with foam tape to my card front.
I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the 
Simple color palette for this one. Lots of blues.
I colored the image with Copics, and after a couple of cards recently with very muted, vintage colors, I went super bright with this one. I love penguins done with BGs instead of grays, it’s like they’re happier, somehow.
I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from Huldra Designstudio directly onto my card base, which I made from Oceanside cardstock from Concord and 9th.
Above and below the colored panel, I added strips of patterned paper from the Party Patterns paper pad from My Favorite Things, before mounting it all on foam tape for dimension. I finished off the card with enamel dots. The bright green ones are from Papirdesign, the teal and yellow ones from the Cool Summer Nights and Pocketful of Sunshine packs from Altenew. The Papirdesign ones have more dimension to them than the ones from Altenew, which creates a little more variety.
By using an untraditional color palette and a non holiday sentiment (winter hug), this image can be used for more than just Christmas. I’m thinking this would make a great wintery birthday card.
Fun colors used for this one!
I colored my image with Copics and used a fancy border die from Papirdesign (Snøkrystall ramme 2) to create trees and snowflakes along the edge. I wanted to do something different, and actually created a card base from vellum. I have heavyweight translucent vellum from My Favorite Things, and it’s a very thick, sturdy vellum that can handle being a card base.
I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous both on my colored piece and on the vellum base, before adhering the two together. I decided to create a white panel with the same die cut border for the inside of the card, as the vellum is very slick and not well suited for writing a personal message.
I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the B05 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad onto Autumn Rose cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I used the Wax Seals die set from Waffle Flower to turn it into a faux seal and mounted it onto my card using foam tape.
The vellum and die cut border create unexpected elements, the embossing enamel creates texture and you get a little bit of dimension with the sentiment seal. They all contribute and make this simple card a special one.
Not a whole lot of Copics for this, and a fairly muted color palette.
I tend to choose fairly bright color combos, but this time, I wanted to shake things up with a more vintage vibe and used a very different color palette.
I colored the wreath, then fussy cut right up against the black stamped lines in the image. I added foam tape to the back and mounted it to a top fold A2 card base i created from Rustic Cream cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
I die cut the sentiment from Classic Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink using a die from Papirdesign. I stacked three die cuts for a little dimension and adhered the letters at a bit of an angle inside the heart wreath, before finishing off with a few faceted pearls from Kort & Godt.
The foam tape on the back of the wreath makes it look like it’s floating above the card front.
Vintage color scheme!
Isn’t he cute holding his little lantern? I went very untraditional with my aqua/purple combo, but I think it works. Onto a top fold landscape A2 card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I stamped the Hand-Lettered Holiday background stamp from Simon Says Stamp using VersaMark ink. I then brushed Perfect Pearls powder on top for a shiny, but subtle effect. I stamped the snowflakes from the Wreath & Mulled Wine stamp set from Ciao Bella on top using Sno Cone ink from My Favorite Things.
I die cut a white tag using a die from the Stitched Trad. Tag STAX die set from My Favorite Things and stamped the word Hugs from the
As usual, I use way more colors than I anticipate going in.
This penguin is from the 
I adhered the light blue panel to a top fold card base I created from Cornflower cardstock from My Favorite Things, and die cut a scallop border using the Stitched Rectangle Scallop Edge Frames die set from My Favorite Things. I cut the frame apart and added one strip to the top and one to the bottom of my light blue panel. I used the Merry Script die from Mama Elephant to die cut three layers from white cardstock and one layer from X-Press It blending card that I colored pink with Copics. I stamped the word everything from the Holiday Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant onto white cardstock using Cornflower ink from My Favorite Things, added a few layers of cardstock behind it for dimension and embellished with a few pink sequins from the She’s So Lovely mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. The penguin was easy to add with a little bit of foam tape.
I didn’t use too many colors for the penguin itself, but the gingerbread house required quite a few markers.
I die cut a tree nine times from three different shades of green patterned paper. The two lighter ones are both from Maja Design, while the dark one’s from Kaisercraft. This die is pretty small and perfect for scraps. There’s also a die in the sets that cuts the trunk, but I decided not to use that for this card.
I sprinkled on Chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous to each of the trees and melted the granules from the back to make snowy trees. I then used three different thicknesses of foam tape behind the trees for varying dimension.
I stamped and white heat embossed the sentiment onto a black cardstock strip (True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink), added a couple of more layers of cardstock behind it for dimension and glued it on top of two of my trees.
I stamped my critters using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, added a mask and stamped the trees in the background using Stormy Sky ink from Papertrey Ink. It’s a nice grayish green that goes really well with the colors I used for the coloring of the trees. I created my signature winter sunset behind it all, and did my best to create depth in the background by varying the intensity of the coloring of the trees. Once everything was colored, I stamped the critters again, this time using Obsidian ink from Altenew for a crisp, black outline.
At the bottom, I stamped a sentiment from the 
I used lots of Copics for this one. Lots!!
Papirmølla 