Hi, crafty friends. I have a simple holiday card to share today, featuring Kayla with gingerbread from Mo’s Digital Pencil. This is such an adorable image!
I printed the image onto X-Press It blending card and colored it with Copics. I went with a grayish green/muted pink combo, which is one I often use for holiday cards. I’m not a fan of bright red and green together, but this works for me. Once colored, I used a die from the Wonky Stitched Rectangle STAX set from My Favorite Things for a fun faux stitch look on the edges. I adhered my panel to a top fold card base I created from Autumn Rose cardstock from Papertrey Ink, which is a nice match with my pink coloring.
I stamped the word Gledelig from the Jul stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS using VersaMark ink, and then heat embossed it using Super fine detail embossing powder from Ranger. I used a die from the Itty Bitty Strips die set from My Favorite Things to turn it into a banner, and I cut it short with a craft knife. I used the Gledelig jul die set from Kort & Godt to create a banner that spells JUL. I used Stormy Sea cardstock from Papertrey Ink and added three layers for strength and dimension. I adhered my Gledelig strip on top with a couple of additional layers of cardstock behind it for dimension and finished off the card with sequins and confetti from the Starry Sky mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
I used a fairly simple color combo, but it’s still a lot of Copics, I never can seem to rein it in.
As usual, I colored the image with Copics, cut my panel down a little on the sides and added Glossy Accents to all the ornaments. This time, I decided to use the 
My signature clean and simple cluster cards have been few and far between this year, and I thought a mini cluster would work well for this card. I started with a scrap of a mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design that I adhered to my colored panel with liquid glue. I die cut a couple of additional pieces using the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut. This is one die that cuts nine different tickets, and it’s one I use a lot. I cut one from the light blue gingham patterned paper, and the other one from a scrap piece of patterned paper from Kaisercraft. I put them both on foam squares for dimension. The sentiment is from the Itty Bitty Holiday stamp set from My Favorite Things, stamped and white heat embossed on a piece of Autumn Rose cardstock from Papertrey Ink, which I then die cut into a strip with flag ends using a die from the Itty Bitty Strips die set from My Favorite Things. I finished off with a few sequins from the Ice Water mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
A very simple color palette for this card. I started out with blue ornaments, but once I printed the patterned paper, I realized they needed to have a green tinge and went over the blue with BG32 and G00.
I almost gave up on this background. One of my markers went sticky. It had recently been refilled, so I knew it wasn’t because of lack of ink (which is usually the culprit when my markers go sticky). I had to investigate, and as soon as I cleaned the marker cap, I knew why. It had a big crack. I keep spare marker caps on hand, so I replaced the cap, changed the brush nib (the chisel nib was fine) and added a few more drops of ink to the marker. It’s an old marker, so I’m hoping I was able to salvage it. I don’t want to have to get a new one, I know the new ones aren’t as good.
I wanted a very light background to make Lavender & Thyme stand out, and while I’m happy with the window display, I think I would have liked it better if the exterior wasn’t this dark. Lesson learned for next time, I guess.
I’m happy with how Lavender & Thyme turned out, though. I wanted a bit of a vintage vibe with the colors and may have gone overboard with Thyme’s jacket. I wasn’t happy with the red I used initially, there just wasn’t enough contrast between the jacket and her mitten. I went back over the jacket with a couple of other colors and I’m much happier with this.
I stamped a sentiment from the 
I used ink from Papertrey Ink for the department store, as well. I used Classic Kraft ink, which I knew would work well with the sepia coloring I had planned. I even used a Sepia colored Copic multiliner to darken the letters in the sign. The Copic multiliner pens have very fine tips, and it was the perfect tool for the job.
I only used seven colors for the entire background, but way more colors for the critters in front for this card.
Meet 
Once my scene was all colored in, I used a stamp from the 
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.
Papirmølla 