Hi! I have another entry to share for the Superstar contest over at My Favorite Things. This time, it’s a card for the Clean and Simple Genius category. I keep saying I don’t really like red for Christmas, but for someone who doesn’t, I’ve made a lot of red Christmas cards this year.
I blame the cardinal. I really wanted to create something of a scene with this bird flying to trees in the distance to add the star to the top, and I couldn’t really choose any other color for him.
Onto a piece of X-Press It cardstock, I stamped the hillside in a grayish green ink, before using the Sending Christmas Joy die to partially cut from it. I only wanted the word joy to be cut from the white panel, so I made sure not to cut the words above by not having the cutting plates cover the top two words of the die as I ran everything through my die cutting machine. I did this twice, stacking the two layers together, trimming off a little on each side before adhering it to a cardbase I created from Wild Cherry cardstock. I added the center of the o back in, and really love how the cardbase is showing through the opening of the die cut letters.
I die cut my little colored cardinal with the Christmas Cheer die set that coordinates with the Christmas Cheer stamp set, added two more die cut layers behind him for stability and a little bit of dimension and adhered him to the front of the card.
I stamped part of a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Holiday stamp set with Wild Cherry Ink and used the Itty Bitty Strips dies to turn them into strips. I added two more layers behind each of them so they’d be flush with my cardinal and adhered them to the card.
Here you can see the tiny bit of dimension you get by stacking die cuts and also the recessed JOY.
I’d like to say that I didn’t use a lot of colors for this, and I really didn’t, but that bird isn’t very big. Maybe 7 markers to color red was overkill? Maybe 4 greens for that tiny scarf was? I tend to go overboard with my colors, but that is one cute bird in the end. Even if he IS red 😉
I printed my image with gray lines so I could do no line coloring. Whenever I do this, I like keeping facial features black or a dark brown, so I don’t have to free hand draw them back in once I’m done coloring. It’s a neat little trick.
I die cut my colored panel using the largest die in the A2 Double Stitched Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things and adhered it directly onto a cardbase I created from Amarena Cherry cardstock, also from My Favorite Things.
I die cut the word wishes five times from my red cardstock using a die from Mama Elephant. I stacked the words for a dimensional look and also stamped and white heat embossed the words Sweet and Christmas onto separate pieces of the same color cardstock. The stamped words are from two separate sentiments from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things. I love using pieces of sentiments from stamp sets to create new sentiments, it makes them more versatile.
I felt like I had to add a little something to this, so I pulled out my White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards and added them in a visual triangle on my card. This mix is one of my favorites, it’s right up there with the Sparkling clear mix from Pretty Pink Posh.
These badgers are the 
I adhered my colored panel to a top fold card I made from Bright Buttercup cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I added a strip of that same cardstock below my image and left tons of white space. I printed a sentiment from the 
Simple color palette, of course with a pop of yellow in there.
I colored in the image using my Copics, adding footprints on the ground with my markers. Using the new Watercolor Wash Free Form die from My Favorite Things, I die cut a hole from the center of a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 panel of Classic Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink. My Favorite Things released a stencil with this design back in July, and it’s awesome. Now there’s a die to match. I added two more layers of white behind my kraft panel to give it a little bit of dimension. I love how the little kid is looking back through the opening.
I stamped and heat embossed a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Holiday set from My Favorite Things onto Scarlet Jewel cardstock from Papertrey Ink and die cut my sentiment using the coordinating Itty Bitty Strips die set. MFT has a stamp set called Itty Bitty Basics, which I love. Great sentiments in a font that will never go out of style, and it makes me so happy that they now have a Christmas one too – I love making Christmas cards. I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish off my design.
Simple color palette. I always use lots of blues, purples and blue greens for the snow.
I put the penguins on a sheet of ice, made the ice no line and scattered baubles and stars around the ice to create a fun scene.
I colored in my scene using Copics, die cut my panel using a double stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things and decided to add a few little details for shine and texture. I added Rock Candy distress glitter to the stars, a dot of black glaze pen in each eye for a little bit of dimension and shine, and I also glued on some additional stars to the tree. The stars are from the Icicle sequin mix from Hero Arts.
I printed one of the sentiments in the scene creator set onto a piece of Aqua Sky cardstock from Concord & 9th, and die cut that using a die from My Favorite Things. I used the same die to die cut from some Grapefruit cardstock, another beautiful Concord & 9th color, and one that matches perfectly with the baubles I colored.
Near the sentiment, I added sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and that finishes my card.
I used lots of Copics for the ocean, the sheet of ice and the sky, not that many for everything else.
I did something a little different for this card. Exactly one year ago, with helpful advice and a gentle nudge from 
I stamped the 
I used a die from Waffle Flower to cut my panel down to a rectangle that would fit my card, which also helped flatten it out a bit, it was a little bit warped. I sprinkled on Chunky White embossing enamel from Stampendous and melted the granules from the back, before mounting the panel on foam tape and adhering it to the front of my top fold landscape A2 card.
Using My Favorite Things Extreme Black ink, I stamped the 
I die cut the words let it snow three times from white cardstock using a die from Mama Elephant, stacked them for a dimensional sentiment and adhered it to my scene to finish the card.
The Copics I used for the cute critters and snowman.
Enough blabbing. I printed the cute mouse onto a 1/4 sheet of X-Press It blending card, which is my favorite for Copic coloring. Using a stencil from My Favorite Things and Iceberg ink from Altenew, I did some very light ink blending around the image for a little bit of added interest before I started coloring.
Onto the “white” stripes on the bauble, I used my quickie glue pen from Sakura and sprinkled on Rock Candy Distress Glitter for a little bit of sparkle. You can kind of see it in this photo, but it’s more noticeable in real life.
I cut my panel down, added lots of foam tape to the back and added it to a top fold A2 note card that I created from Blueberry cardstock from My Favorite Things. Sadly, this is one of their discontinued colors, but I have a pack of this cardstock that I absolutely love, and this color is just beautiful. It’s dark blue, but not too dark, and it’s just the right tone of blue.
I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Blue Yonder ink from My Favorite Things. I don’t have ink in the discontinued Blueberry color, and I didn’t want to use too dark of a blue ink, so I triple stamped using the Blue Yonder instead. It matches the robe pretty well.
I added a few sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and the card was done. Super simple.
Super simple color palette, too.
This card took me an hour and a half to make from start to finish, including coloring and the stacked die cuts. That’s so fast for me, I don’t know what happened.
I printed the image center on a 1/4 sheet of X-Press It blending card before coloring with Copics. I didn’t use many colors, and it was pretty quick to come together.
Using the largest of the dies in the A2 Double Stitched Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things, I turned my colored piece into a panel with a nice faux stitch edge and adhered it to a cardbase I created from Blueberry cardstock from My Favorite Things.
I stacked five God jul die cuts and adhered the layered die cuts to the wreath. The die I used is from Papirdesign. It’s actually a heart with the letters inside, I just skipped the heart and used the letters by themselves. I adhered tiny white snowflakes on the wreath, and I used a die from Hero Arts to die cut those. I stacked these too, but only two layers. And that’s the whole card, super simple.
Not a lot of Copics for this one either. It really was super simple.
I colored in my image using the no line technique. Before printing, I made all the lines in the image light gray except for the eyes and eyebrows, which I kept black. This is a great trick to color no line without having to worry about drawing things back in with a black pen and potentially getting things wonky and weird. I’ve done that once, starting over isn’t fun, so I’ve learned to get around it.
I cut my colored piece down using a stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things. I covered the card base with patterned paper from the Forever Green collection paper pack from ModaScrap and mounted my colored panel onto that using lots of foam tape.
I cut a couple of strips of patterned paper from that same paper pack from ModaScrap and added them onto my colored panel. Using a green marker, I created a green colored cardstock piece to match my dragon, stamped my Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment onto it, heat embossed it and used a circle punch to get it to a perfect 1″ circle, before adding an epoxy sticker on top for a little shine and dimension.
To finish off my card I added a few enamel dots. The brown ones and the white are from Papirdesign, the green ones from Altenew.
Not a whole heap of colors for this one.
I opted for some no line coloring this time, keeping his eyes and eyebrows a dark brown before printing. I used my favorite blues and fussy cut him once he was all colored up.
Directly onto the cardbase I ink blended Distress Ink in the colors Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade and Scattered Straw to create an intense winter time sunset and create some contrast between the cool colors of the snowman and the background. I misted it generously with a sparkle shimmer spray which catches the light nicely when you tilt it, but it doesn’t really show up in my photos (except for a couple of bigger drops). I wanted to ink blend directly onto the cardbase because I knew I was putting lots of layers of die cut cardstock on top, and I didn’t want the card to be too front heavy.
Speaking of die cut cardstock. I used the Winter Forest Cover die from Mama Elephant to die cut three layers of white cardstock and glued them together for dimension, before adhering the stacked die cuts to the card base.
I stamped a sentiment from last year’s Stamptember collaboration set from Mama Elephant and Simon Says Stamp using Lazy Day ink from My Favorite Things. I love this blue color!!
I fussy cut my snowman and adhered him using 1 mm foam squares, before finishing off the card with a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Very few colors used for this one. B93 and 91 are used both for the snow and for the scarf and hat.
Papirmølla 