Hi, crafty friends! I’m sharing a sweet holiday card today, made with images from the Whispering Pines collection from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated beautifully by Stacey Yacula.
I started by stamping Murphy (squirrel), put a mask on top, then Frosty & Sweet Pea, put another mask on top, then the little deer from the Doe & Hart set, placed a third mask and stamped the Little Pines at the very back. I did all the stamping with Extreme Black in from My Favorite Things onto X-Press It blending card, which is what I pretty much always use for Copic coloring.
Once I removed the masks, I could color in my scene. I always start with the background elements before coloring in the focal point. I wanted a very wintery card, so I kept the trees pretty much white, only adding a little bit of the blues I used for the rest of the snow to make them look less flat.
I stamped a sentiment from the Classic Holiday Trio stamp set using Grapefruit ink from Concord & 9th, which perfectly matches the peach tones in my coloring.
I cut my panel down to 4 1/2 x 5 3/8″, which gave me an even 1/16″ border around the edge when I adhered it to my A2 card base. I love a think border like this. I also love a very chunky border, usually when I mount my panels with foam tape. To me, it seems silly to add foam tape to a panel that goes close to the edge of the card, but with a wide border, it really makes an impact. I finished off the card by drawing in the Big Dipper stars using an extra fine point Sharpie paint marker.
Not a whole lot of markers used for this one, actually. Although I see that I missed the colors I used (BV29, 25, 23) for the sky in this graphic.
I haven’t done any coloring since December, so I felt rusty. Thankfully, these images from Lili of the Valley are easy ones for jumping back in! Once my coloring was complete, I fussy cut him, leaving a thin white border around the edge. I didn’t want to cut away the “fuzzies” that are so typical of LOTV images, so by leaving a white border, I could preserve the look. I used an embossing folder (Quilted embossing folder from Concord & 9th) to create some interest in the background without being too distracting.
I cut down a few colors of cardstock from Concord & 9th to 3/16″ wide strips and glued them together on a scrap piece of white cardstock. The colors I used are Oceanside, Aqua Sky, Buttercup, Grapefruit and Honeysuckle. I mounted my stripped up panel at an angle, put a few foam squares behind the monkey and added him on top. I die cut hugs (Quilted die set from C9) three times from white cardstock, stacked them and adhered them on top of my strips next to the monkey. I then stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Gifting stamp set from My Favorite Things onto a black piece of cardstock from Concord & 9th. I added a couple of layers of black cardstock behind for strength and dimension and adhered it on top of the die cut word, before finishing off with a few sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Simple color combo this time.
Speaking of the card, I tend to go for spring/summer themed card and color palettes when we’re in the dead of winter. I want summer so badly, it’s not even funny. Last summer was cold and dreary, the summer before that all rained away. Can we get a proper summer this year? Please? Anyway, I used a floral image from a cut out sheet and paired it with a new die from Kort & Godt. New products help with mojo! This die cuts a circle sentiment, and what I didn’t realize before I actually used it was that it cuts an inside circle, too. It makes the die more versatile than if this were one large sentiment circular panel, but I wanted to use the flowers, so I puzzle pieced the two back together, added another circle panel on the back for a little bit of strength and a place to adhere the thin frame to.
I ran a quarter sheet of Ballet Slipper cardstock from Concord & 9th through my die cutting machine using an embossing folder, which gave this fun dimensional background. I mounted the die cut image in the center, cut down a couple of sentiment sticker strips and mounted those as well, before finishing off the card with a few faceted pearls.
I love Stacey’s images, they all work so well together to tell stories. I colored my scene with Copics and cut my panel down ever so slightly.
I stamped a sentiment from the 
Even with a fairly limited color palette on the card, I used quite a few Copics.
i colored the scene with Copics, before using a die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower to trim down my panel. I stamped a sentiment from the 
I used the Snowflake Oval Frame embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp to create some texture on a panel of white cardstock which I adhered directly to a top fold card base, before mounting the panel on foam tape to finish the card. Super simple, right?
A lot of Copics for this one.
I started by die cutting the sentiment. I cut the shadow layer from True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink and the top layer from gold glitter cardstock from Kort & Godt. I love their glitter cardstock, it’s so smooth and nothing rubs off. I used the largest die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower on a piece of Eucalyptus cardstock from Concord & 9th, before using the faux stitch die in the Festive Blooms die set from Concord & 9th to dry emboss the panel, which I then adhered to my black card base. I love that there’s a tiny little black border.
I die cut leaves and sprigs from the Festive Blooms die set and the Joyful Season die set (also from Concord & 9th) to frame my sentiment. I used Sprout and Juniper cardstocks from Concord & 9th for the leaves and sprigs, and a little bit of Rustic White cardstock from Papertrey Ink for the berries. I curled up the ends of the leaves, added foam tape on the back of the berries and adhered it all to flank my popped up sentiment. There you have it, a Christmas card with what I believe to be a very modern palette.
This is one of those super simple cards. I stamped the image using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things and masked it before stamping the 
I stamped a sentiment from the 
I stuck to a pretty limited color palette, I feel, but there’s still a lot of markers.
I used a large pennant die (
I took some white cotton thread (
I suggest you put this image in your cart, it’s so awesome. I colored it with my Copics, adding an actual no line horizon behind my critters to complete the wintry scene, before using a die from the Nesting Postage Stamps infinity die set from Hero Arts to turn it into a huge postage stamp. I then used the 
I created a top fold card base from Pure Poppy cardstock from Papertrey Ink, mounted my large postage stamp using lots of foam tape and adhered a few Snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish.
I actually used red markers for red this time, with a little bit of B14 where I wanted it to be darker than R29 can create on its own. I usually use earth tones for red, this was a fun change.
I took a quick look at the colors I’ve focused on recently to try to choose something different and opted for this blue green combo. I colored the image with Copics and added a horizon in the distance with a few trees scattered about.
I made sure not to add to many trees so there would be room for the sentiment, which I stamped in Oceanside ink from Concord & 9th. The sentiment itself is from the Snøstorm stamp set from byCino. I die cut my panel using the lartest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX 1 set from My Favorite Things, before I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous. I made sure that none of the granules covered the sentiment or the eyes of the polar bears before melting the powder from the back.
I adhered my panel to a card base I’d covered with a quarter sheet of Oceanside cardstock from Concord & 9th. This is actually a side fold card. I usually make top fold cards, but I didn’t have any landscape oriented card bases on hand and didn’t feel like breaking open a new pack of cardstock. Long live lazy crafting, right?
Very cool color palette for this one.
Papirmølla 