Hi, crafty friends. I’m sharing a crafty card today. The recent release from Rachelle Anne Miller featured critters engaged in various crafty activities, and I love this Painting with Raccoon image that I used for today’s card.
I colored my raccoon with Copics, deciding to go with a triadic color combo of primary colors for his paints and accessories. I obviously used green for the grass, but the rest of this is all red, blue and yellow. I used the second largest die in the Watercolor Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things to give it a playful, loose look on the edges, then used the Say Anything stencil, also from My Favorite Things, to ink blend a speech bubble using Harvest Gold ink from Papertrey Ink.
In the speech bubble, I stamped a couple of sentiments from the Mini Messages & More stamp set from My Favorite Things, using Obsidian ink from Altenew. I took the various ink splatter stamps in the same stamp set and stamped in various colors across my panel, to amp up the crafty feel of the card. I used Watermelon, Harbor and Dove inks from Concord & 9th, as well as more of the Papertrey Ink Harvest Gold color that I used for the ink blending. Onto a card base I created from Cement Gray cardstock from My Favorite Things, I added some strips of cardstock to break the lines in my design. I used Watermelon cardstock from Concord & 9th, Blue Breeze from My Favorite Things and Harvest Gold from Papertrey Ink. I added my panel in the center using foam tape, and finished off with a few sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I actually also used a black glaze pen to create shine and a tiny bit of dimension to the eyes. On the raccoon, I also used a dot of white Gelly Roll 05 to each of the eyes once the black was dry.
I used a fairly small amount of Copics for this one.
I stamped and masked 
Once all my coloring was complete, I stamped on top of my critters, this time using Obsidian ink from Altenew. This is a very crisp pigment ink, and it makes the critters really stand out, but it’s not Copic friendly, so all the coloring needs to be complete when doing this. To finish off, I stamped a sentiment from 
Lots of Copics for this one.
I started by ink smooshing Harbor ink from Concord & 9th onto a panel of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. This ink color is very interesting when you get it wet, it shatters into a sky blue and a very purply blue, making it look like I used more than just the one color of ink. The butterflies look painted, so I thought the ink smooshed background was a natural choice.
I fussy cut the butterflies and bent the wings backwards. I glued the bodies directly to the card front and put foam squares on the back of the wings to give them a little lift (since taking these photos, I’ve adhered the body of the big butterfly directly to the card front, but it’s kind of floating here). I used a hug die (die 244 Klem) to die cut twice from white cardstock and once from Wheat cardstock from Concord & 9th. I stacked them together, but I felt like there wasn’t enough dimension, so I added foam squares to the back of the layered die cut and adhered it to the card. This gives it more lift and a floating effect that you can’t achieve by stacking die cuts alone. I finished off the card with a visual triangle of pearls that match the butterflies and the inked background.
I printed my image on a quarter sheet of X-Press It blending card and colored it in. I stamped the word friend from the Mini Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Obsidian ink from Altenew. The sentiment actually says hello friend across two lines, but I masked off the top row so I’d have friend isolated. I adhered my panel to a top fold card base and used a black glaze pen to add some shine and a tiny bit of dimension to the eyes of the bunnies, the girl and the cute little bird.
Onto a scrap piece of X-Press It, I scribbled RV34 across a section large enough to die cut from. The Sweet Sentiments die set from Altenew is such a great one, I love that these dies create small words that don’t take up too much real estate on a card. I backed my colored die cut with two white ones for a little bit of dimension and added it at somewhat of an angle right above the stamped part of the sentiment. This also served to cover up a booboo. Somehow, I was able to spill a tiny little drop of juice from a peach (note to self – don’t eat in the craft room), and the sentiment covers it nicely. I finished off the card with a triangle formation of sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Simple, subtle color palette for this one.
This card started out with me playing with the cotton thread from Kort & Godt. I wanted to something with it besides tying it in bows, and crocheting came to mind. I crocheted three flowers in different colors, and that was my starting point. I created a subtle background using the Watercolor Stripes stencil from Altenew with VersaMark ink, Sticky embossing powder and Distress Glitter in the Rock Candy color. This gives a soft tone on tone sparkle on the white cardstock and doesn’t distract too much from the flowers. I thread the flowers through to the back of the panel, used some tape to hold the thread down on the back and mounted it using foam tape onto a top fold white card base.
I die cut the leaf circle die twice; once from vellum (I used Heavyweight translucent vellum from My Favorite Things), and once from Sprout cardstock from Concord & 9th. I offset them a bit, and used small amounts of liquid glue to adhere them to the card. I also die cut Konfirmant a few times from pink cardstock and adhered them together for a stacked, dimensional look. Once I added my die cut to the card, however, it got lost, so I die cut a layer from black cardstock from Papertrey Ink and glued that on top. That did the trick. I used a sentiment sticker to complete the sentiment and added some faceted pearls as a finishing touch.
This was a fun way to use the cotton thread, and I still have heaps more!
I knew I wanted a large sentiment for this card, so I printed the bee pretty much top center of a quarter sheet of X-Press It blending card, which is my preferred cardstock for Copic coloring. I’ve been using it since 2012, and in my mind, there’s no better cardstock for Copics, so it’s pretty much all I use. I colored the image with my Copics and cut off a little bit on each side of the panel before adhering it to a top fold card base I created from Summer Splash cardstock from My Favorite Things.
I die cut HAPPY from the Big Happy Holidays die from Mama Elephant three times from Sour Apple cardstock from My Favorite Things, stacked them for a dimensional look and adhered the stacked die cut right beneath the bee’s feet. Using the Parker alphabet die set from Memory Box, I die cut the letters to spell bee-day, using an exclamation point that I trimmed down a little to create a hyphen. This word is actually multi-colored. That was not my intention, but I wasn’t happy with the color I chose initially, which was Bright Buttercup from Papertrey Ink. It’s a great color, but it wasn’t the right yellow to match my colored bee. On top of three die cuts of that, I added a layer of Honey Nut cardstock, also from Papertrey Ink. It matched my bee, but it was a little too brown for my taste, and my card felt sad. I didn’t want a sad birthday card, so I topped it with a layer of Summer Splash cardstock from My Favorite Things, which is what I used for the card base. I was much happier with this, and it matches the wings nicely.
To finish off the card I added a few sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. Here you can also see the multi-colored letters in the word bee-day, which adds another layer of interest to this fairly simple card.
Simple color palette for this one.
I created a fun water scene with 
I stamped a sentiment from the coordinating 
Considering I colored the entire card front on this card, I don’t think I used too many markers.
I colored the image with Copics, fussy cut right up against the black lines and put the image aside while I worked on the rest of my card. I used the second largest die in the Watercolor Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things to cut my white panel down with a fun border. I also used a small circle die to cut a hole behind where I wanted the image to go, as this is a pendulum card. The watermelon rocks back and forth when you tilt the card, which adds a fun element to an otherwise simple design. I stamped part of the sentiment from the 
I used a strip of acetate with a washer at one end to create my pendulum mechanism. On the other end of the acetate strip, I added a button. I lined up my acetate piece on the back of my white die cut panel so the button would go through the hole and adhered the image to the button using liquid glue. I put foam tape on the back of the panel, making sure to leave enough open space for the pendulum to swing freely, then adhered everything to a top fold note card I created from Fire Coral cardstock from My Favorite Things, which is the same color cardstock that I used for the die cut letters. To finish off the card, I added sequins from the Waterfall mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, making sure to place the top ones so Flappy wouldn’t catch when he rocks. Of course, you can’t see him rock in still photos, but if you head to my post on 
Simple color palette for this one.
I started by choosing an image to be the focal point of my card. I ink smooshed Gravel Gray and Eiffel Tower inks from My Favorite Things onto the background to mimic the background in the photo. This adds a little bit of interest to the background without being too distracting. I also used the Kaleidoscope embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp on the card base for added texture.
I placed the image at an angle in the bottom left corner of the card and cut off the excess hanging off the side and the bottom. I decided to mount it on foam tape for a little more interest, then used pre printed stickers to add my sentiments. I love these things, they make adding sentiments soooo easy. I put foam squares on the back of these for even more lift off the card base – dimension is life, after all. I used black gems to frame the sentiments as a finishing touch.
Dimension really is life!
I die cut the word konfirmant and the individual letters for the recipient’s name in white cardstock and adhered them to a black envelope. The black and white ties in with the card nicely.
I stamped one of the images in the stamp set using black ink and used the coordinating layering stencils to color it in. It’s no secret I’m a fan of Copic coloring, but this was soooo much faster, and maybe it’s okay to cheat a little once in a while. I used the Dried Petals set of inks for the pink in the flowers and the Forest Trail set for the green. For the yellow I used Sunflower and Buttercup inks from Concord & 9th, as I don’t have yellow inks from Altenew.
I created a card base from Sno Cone cardstock from My Favorite Things and used the Angled Mosaic 3D embossing folder from Altenew to add some texture and interest. I mounted my flowers in the bottom center using foam tape, then added a black sentiment sticker strip from Kort & Godt with a couple of layers of cardstock behind it for a little bit of lift, before finishing off the card with Sparkle & Shine ombré glitter drops from Pinkfresh Studio.
Papirmølla 