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.
Hot pink and orange/yellow/gold. It’s not a Christmas color palette you see every day, and when I did the actual coloring, I wasn’t sold on this. I wasn’t sold when the card was done, either, but it’s grown on me, and I’m now in a place where I like it. That might change again, though, ask me tomorrow 😉
I printed the image on the bottom half of a quarter sheet of X-Press It blending card, did my coloring, then used the Basket Weave stencil from My Favorite Things to add a little bit of interest to the panel. Above the image, I used Puffy Heart and Rose Quartz inks from Altenew, underneath the image I used Scattered Straw Distress Ink. I trimmed off 1/4″ on each side and mounted it with foam tape onto a card base I created from Ripe Raspberry cardstock from My Favorite Things.
I added black glaze to the eyes for some shine and Glossy Accents to the lightbulbs, before stamping and white heat embossing a sentiment from the Holiday Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant onto a scrap piece of pink cardstock. I cut the sentiment down to a strip, added a few more layers behind it and added it to my card, before finishing off with a few gold jewels from the Fesitivities mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
The Glaze, Glossy Accents, sub sentiment and gems all work together to add interest to what is otherwise a very simple card.
The coloring is pretty simple too 🙂
I decided to use the macaron from the stamp set. There’s actually a large and a small one in the set. I used the large one, and I stacked seven on top of one another, so I could add lots of different colors to them. It’s an odd rainbow, but I think it works, and I kept the coloring very simple. I fussy cut my stack of macarons, leaving a thin white border and put it aside while I worked on the rest of my card.
I cut down a piece of patterned paper from the Ink Drops – Vivid paper pad from Craft Consortium. I chose this particular sheet because the colors I used for the macarons are well represented in the paper. I printed the sentiment directly onto the patterned paper and adhered it to a top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I die cut the largest frame in the Classic Rectangle Frames die set from My Favorite Things 9 times from white cardstock. I stacked them and adhered them to the card front, before adding sequins and gems to the well. The sequin mix I used is the Vanilla Kiss mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I adhered a few around my sentiment to keep them from falling to the bottom, then sealed my shaker well with a piece of acetate from Simon Says Stamp. I added one final white die cut frame on top of the acetate for a clean look and also adhered the stack of macarons to finish the card.
By creating thick walls for my well, the sequins, gems and pearls really have a lot of space to shake around. I made sure to place the large pearls and gems the right side up before I added the acetate, so they wouldn’t turn around on me. The smaller ones do, but as long as the big ones show their good side, I’m okay with that.
Very sherbety color palette for this one. Three colors for each macaron.
I colored Mae with Copics, opting for one of my go to summer color palettes. There’s something about pink, yellow and orange that just screams summer to me. Once colored, I fussy cut her, leaving a white border around the image. The white border makes her stand out against a colorful background, and with that hair, there’s no way I was cutting right up against the black lines in the image.
I created an A2 top fold card base from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and did some ink blending directly on the front. I first used the Watercolor Circle stencil from My Favorite Things and ink blended using Squeezed Lemonade and Mustard Seed Distress inks. I removed the circle stencil, added the Geometric mosaic stencil, also from MFT, and used Spiced Marmalade Distress ink for an orange pattern on top, extending out from the circle a bit. I didn’t think the orange was dark enough, so I went over it with Orange Peel ink from Simon Says Stamp and even added a little bit of Abandoned Coral Distress ink on top to amp up the contrast.
I mounted Mae on foam tape, before adding a couple of Kort & Godt sentiment stickers, which I also put foam tape on the back of.
I love dimension on my cards, and by popping up the image and the sentiments, they stand out a little against a fairly busy background.
To finish the card, I added a few pearls, hearts and gems from the Chrysanthemum mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I love her mixes, and use them on most of my cards, they add the perfect finishing touch.
Simple color palette.
There are five adorable penguins in this stamp set, and I chose two to color, with a vague idea for a card in the back of my mind as I was coloring. Once I’d colored both penguins and fussy cut them, I realized splitting them up and creating two cards would be better. For this card, I placed the Grid stencil from My Favorite Things at a bit of an angle directly on my top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. Using Sno Cone ink from My Favorite Things and a blender brush, I created a soft blend near the bottom of the card front, fading to white above and below.
The wishes die from Mama Elephant is probably my most used word die, I love it so much. I die cut it five times from Wild Cherry cardstock from My Favorite Things and stacked the die cuts for dimension. Onto the background I stamped a sub sentiment and the word Christmas from the 
The good thing about small(ish) images is that you don’t need heaps of colors. They’re also fairly quick to color.
I love hydrangeas, and this image was is one I just HAD to color. Even though I’m more confident with my Copics because I use them so much, I love the soft look and those edges lines you get with watercolor. I stamped the image on a piece of Fabriano Artistico Extra White watercolor paper using Obsidian ink from Altenew. This is a pigment ink, which makes it perfect for embossing. I sprinkled on clear embossing powder from Ranger and melted the powder.
I grabbed a couple of paint brushes and my Mijello Mission Gold watercolor set and mixed pinks and purples for my flowers, and a bunch of different greens for the stems and leaves. I’m no expert watercolorist (if you want to watch an expert watercolor, head over to Debby Hughes’ 
This stamp set actually comes with a couple of additional leaves and petals and dies to cut them out, but there’s no die for this large image. Fussy cutting it was easy enough, though. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the stamp set onto a piece of True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I dry embossed a piece of patterned paper from the Watercolor Wishes 6×6 inch paper pack from Lawn Fawn using the Geometric Landscape stencil from Altenew. I wanted a little bit of texture to create interest in the background without distracting from the main image, and this did the trick.
I added a few more layers of cardstock behind my black strip for dimension, popped the flower up on foam tape and finished off the card with a few faceted pearls. Or are they gems? No matter what they are, they’re gorgeous, and I have a feeling I’ll use up the entire pack of these in no time, I love them so much.
I colored the image with Copics, then used a craft knife to cut away the insides of the letters. I used a die from the Stitched borders die set from Lawn Fawn to create a defined edge on my colored panel and added a piece of acetate from Simon Says Stamp behind the letters. I’d made sure to keep the counters on the Rs intact when I did my cutting, so I could add them back in once the acetate was in place.
I used Cornflower cardstock from My Favorite Things to create the shaker well. I doubled up on foam tape and put sequins and confetti from the Icicle Sequin mix from Hero Arts in the well, then adhered the window on top.
I created a top fold A2 landscape card base using Cornflower cardstock once again. I stamped the Paint Splatter background stamp from My Favorite Things onto the card base using Fresh Snow hybrid ink from Papertrey Ink, and adhered my shaker panel on top. Easy peasy.
By doubling up on the foam tape, the sequins and confetti have lots of room to shake.
Super simple color palette for this one.
Meet 
Whenever I color scenes like this, I always start with the background elements. For this card, I started with the sky and sun, then colored the ocean, the sand and the palm trees, leaving the accessories and the mouse for last. These are the most colorful elements. I even opted to color the crab blue. I didn’t want it to be brown and not show up in the sand, so I decided a blue swimmer crab was a good fit for this scene. It stands out against the other elements in the foreground, but still works with the overall design, because there’s already lots of blue on the card with the ocean and sky. Three completely different blue combos, but they work together still. Also, the blue swimmer crab makes me want to move back to Australia, even though it’s winter in Australia at the moment, and soooo cold (at least winter’s cold in Adelaide, where I used to live)!
I’ve used the sunrise sunset background on more than half the cards I’ve made with this release, and I’ve tried to color it differently for each card. I love love love the versatility of this stamp, and never in a million years did I guess in advance that this would wind up being my favorite stamp of them all, but there you go. It’s just THAT good.
To finish off the card, I stamped a sentiment from the coordinating 
Lots of colors used for this one, and I realize I’ve even left out a few in my graphic. I used W3, W1 and W00 for the mouse, in addition to R21 and R000 for his cheek and ears.
This time I’m focusing on 
I colored the image with Copics, then used the largest die in the Blueprints 27 die set from My Favorite Things to turn it into a rectangle with faux stitching and a scalloped edge, just for something different from my usual faux stitch rectangles. I die cut another piece from white cardstock to put on the inside of the card.
Before adhering my panel, I sprinkled on Chunky White embossing enamel from Stampendous, and melted the granules from the back of the panel. I also used a black glaze pen from Sakura to create a tiny bit of dimension and shine to the penguin’s eyes. I adhered the panel directly to a top fold card base I created from After Midnight cardstock from My Favorite Things, which is a nice dark blue color.
From the same color cardstock, I die cut God jul four times using a die from Papirdesign. I stacked the layers and adhered it to the left of the image, before finishing off the card with a few hearts from the Festivities mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
This is a fairly flat card for me. Other than the sentiment and the white hearts, there’s nothing that adds a lot of dimension. I considered mounting the panel on foam tape, but in the end decided against it. The sentiment and the hearts still pop and add interest, as does the snow, which has a bit of texture to it.
I used mostly blue Copics for this card. Not really a surprise, huh?
This time, I made a birthday card. I stamped and masked 
I had the scene all figured out, but struggled with the colors for this one. I’m usually confident in my color choices, but had a hard time with this card. I didn’t want to repeat the color combinations I’d used for the cards I’d already made using stamps from this release, and the combo I tried just didn’t work with the bright aqua. The door, windows and the trim of the beach house all have so many layers of different colors, and the end result is a mottled, rusty look. The rusty look, while not what I was going for, is cool, and I leaned into it by coloring one of the birds in the same color, as well as Iris’ skirt.
The end result is more of a fall vibe than a summer feel, but some people still go to the beach late in the season, and little Iris looks like she’s running away, so that part at least feels appropriate.
To finish off the card I stamped a sentiment from the coordinating 
Fairly limited color palette, actually, considering how many colors I tried for the beach house trim.
Papirmølla 