It’s your birthday! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, there! I’m back with a birthday card for an ice cream loving friend today.

Elin Venge - Marigold and Ice Cream Truck and Mountains birthday card front straight

I stamped Marigold from Purple Onion Designs in Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, before masking and stamping the Ice Cream Truck and the Mountains using fadeout ink from Inkon3.

Elin Venge - Marigold and Ice Cream Truck and Mountains birthday card front

I’ll admit, this took a while to color. I always start with my background elements and finish with the main image in the scene. Believe it or not, but I actually added quite a bit of brown to those trees. I added darker greens under the wheels of the ice cream truck and under the bunny, and a little bit here and there in the rest of the scene as well, for a little bit of interest. Once the entire scene was colored in, I went in and added a few blades of grass in the foreground.

Elin Venge - Marigold and Ice Cream Truck and Mountains birthday card flatlay

I knew even before I started that I wanted the ice cream truck to be teal. Originally, I was going for a very light color, but it was looking a bit too blue, so I went in with some darker colors and made the whole truck darker, that did the trick. I went for a corally, peachy type color for the awning and the side panel, I really like peach tones with teal. Kind of weird, since I’m not generally a fan of complementary colors, but these work.

Elin Venge - Marigold and Ice Cream Truck and Mountains birthday card flatlay right

Once everything was colored, I did some fussy cutting around the bunny’s ear and used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 dies to die cut the entire panel. Except for the ear, of course. I adhered my panel onto an A2 card base, and I admit I love the little detail of the ear sticking out past the edge of the card. Of course it meant that I needed to make my own envelope, the ear would have gotten crumpled inside the envelope had I used an A2 envelope.

Elin Venge - Marigold and Ice Cream Truck and Mountains birthday card detail

I stamped one of the sentiments in the Everyday Blurbs stamp set using Distress Oxide ink in the color Peacock Feathers, before fussy cutting the speech bubble and mounting it on foam tape onto the card.

Purple Onion Designs Marigold Ice Cream Truck Mountains bursdag Lisabeth Copics

Lots and lots of Copics used for this one!

Happy birthday {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, there! I have a fairly simple birthday card to share today, featuring the Birthday Owls digital stamp from Rachelle Anne Miller. I thought these two owls holding a birthday banner were so adorable, and one of them even has a flower in her hair…. or… feathers, maybe, owls don’t really have hair, do they?

Rachelle Anne Miller Birthday Owls front rett

I colored the image with my Copics, before using a stitched border die from Lawn Fawn to create the pierced horizontal lines above and below the image.

Rachelle Anne Miller Birthday Owls front skrått

Onto a white card base, I adhered a panel of Sour Apple card stock from My Favorite Things, that I’d die cut using the Isty Bitsy Polka Dot backdrop die from Lawn Fawn. I thought the dots in the background would tie in nicely with the dots on the balloons in the image.

Rachelle Anne Miller Birthday Owls flatlay høyr

I mounted the colored panel onto the front of the card using lots of foam tape for dimension.

Rachelle Anne Miller Birthday Owls flatlay

I thought the card needed just a little bit extra, so I wrapped a piece of Aqua divine twine from Whisker Graphics around the top of my card and tied it in a bow.

Rachelle Anne Miller Birthday Owls Copics

Festive colors for this one, I absolutely loved coloring this image!

Birthday wishes {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, there! I have a wintery slimline birthday card to share today, featuring an adorable hedgehog from Purple Onion Designs.

Elin Venge - Timothy and Snow Day Hill birthday wishes

Timothy is part of the Sweetest Little Town collection released back in October, and I think he’s just the cutest little guy. I colored him up months ago, and my plan was to turn him into a gift tag. Plans change, and instead of a small gift tag, I went big with a slimline card instead, keeping the colors on the rest of the card subdued to really make him shine.

Elin Venge - Timothy and Snow Day Hill birthday wishes detail2

I stamped the Snow Day! Hill background onto a piece of X-Press It blending card using Stormy Sea ink from Papertrey Ink. The panel was wider than the stamp, so I repeated the very left part of the stamp to extend my background scene, also re-stamping the smaller cloud. I also selectively stamped and white heat embossed the word “birthday” from the Warming Winter Thoughts stamp set onto a piece of Stormy Sea cardstock to form part of my sentiment.

Elin Venge - Timothy and Snow Day Hill birthday wishes detail1

I used the slim card basics die set from Mama Elephant to die cut the background. I added three layers of card stock behind the frame, inlaying the “window” pieces so they’re set back, before adding the hedgehog with foam tape on top of one of the windows.

Purple Onion Designs Timothy Snow Day Hill die cut

I die cut the wishes die from Mama Elephant to create the rest of my sentiment. It’s four layers of Stormy Sea card stock, and another three layers of white card stock in the part of the word that spans across the windows.

Happy birthday {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi, there! I have a very simple birthday shaker card to share with you today, featuring one of the monsters from Mo Manning’s Cupcake Monster stamp set. You can get the set as one merged stamp with a big cupcake monster and seven small monsters surrounding it, or a separated version, which is what I’ve used for today’s card.

I colored my monster with Copics and did some serious fussy cutting. That monster is tiny, and it’s a miracle I didn’t chop off the flame at the top of the candle.

Mo Manning Cupcake Monster front skrått

I love the Stitched Happy Birthday rectangle die from Memory Box, but I don’t use it nearly enough. For this card, though, I pulled it out and die cut it seven times from white card stock. I removed the sentiment from six of them, gluing the frames together for dimension to create my shaker area.

Mo Manning Cupcake Monster flatlay

For the background, I wanted a color that would allow the sentiment to show and the monster to pop, so I chose a piece of patterned paper from the Bloom Street collection from Pink Paislee. The paper I chose has a watercolor look to the back of it, which was perfect to complement my little monster. I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangle dies from My Favorite Things and adhered it directly to my card base, placing the shaker frame in the center.

Mo Manning Cupcake Monster flatlay skrått

I filled the shaker with clear and iridescent crystals from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and added the top layer with the sentiment, that I’d already glued to a piece of acetate. The last thing was to add my little monster in the corner, and the card was complete.

Mo Manning Cupcake Monster Copics

Not a lot of colors used for this card, but that monster is tiny.

Time to celebrate {Hobbykunst}

Hi, everyone! I have a few cards to share today, all of them using just a few products. The Happy Birthday collection from P13 has some great images that are perfect for quick, easy birthday cards.

I’m starting with this bear, ready for a party! The papers in the P13 collections don’t have individual names, they just have numbers, and I fussy cut this bear from 05. I die cut a piece of 01 using a die from Papirdesign, tearing the edges for an uneven look and glued it straight onto my 4 bar top fold card base, before adding the bear with foam tape for dimension.

03 in this collection from P13 has wide, diagonal stripes in different colors. I cut it down to strips, and used them to emboss my sentiments to get the perfect color matches. The sentiment on this card is from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things. I added the sentiment strip using foam tape, and finished off the card with some sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

For my second card I covered the entire card front with the back of the 05 sheet. Most of the papers in this collection have lots of images on the front, and are more plain on the back, of course with colors that coordinate. The little mouse on a unicycle is from the 02 sheet, and again I used 03 to stamp my sentiment on. This sentiment is also from My Favorite Things, it’s from the Pawty Time stamp set.

I die cut a chevron pattern from white card stock using a die from Papirdesign and adhered it directly to my patterned paper card front, before popping up the image on foam tape, and the sentiment on even more foam tape. Again I added sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix to finish the card.

Card number 3. Now, I’m not sure whether this is a cat or a tiger, but whatever he is, he’s definitely ready to party. I fussy cut him from the 02 sheet, and I used the back of the same sheet to cover the card front. Once again, I popped the image on foam tape for dimension.

I used the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Bitty Bears stamp set again, and this time I used some clear gems from the Crystal Glass collection from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to embellish.

I made the last card for today very simple. I die cut the same hole pattern as I used for the first card, only this time in white card stock for a bit of textured interest in the background. The cat is from the 05 sheet, which I used a lot of for these cards.

I added the cat using foam tape, the sentiment using more foam tape and those white sequins once again. These cards were so much fun to create, and I’ve got more in upcoming posts.

A little thief {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi, everyone! I’m back with a birthday card, this time featuring Cupcake Thief from Mo Manning. It’s a fun image, and once again I’ve gone for sherbet-y summer colors to counteract the doom and gloom outside (it’s snowing).

I colored my image onto X-Press It blending card using my Copics, before using the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX dies from My Favorite Things to turn it into a nice panel with faux stitching around the edge. I adhered it onto a card base I made from Coral Crush card stock from My Favorite Things. Sadly, the color’s discontinued, but they have loads of other gorgeous card stock colors at My Favorite Things.

I added a small cluster of scraps to the top left of my card. About half a mini doily from Doodlebug Design is at the bottom, followed by die cut pieces of patterned paper from Sunny Studio and a sentiment banner on top. I white heat embossed a sentiment from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things onto a banner of Peach Bellini card stock, also a discontinued MFT color.

My embellishments tend to be sequins or enamel dots centered around the sentiment on my cards. For this one, I added another two sequins in the bottom right corner, just to do something different than my standard three sequins. These sequins are from the Heaven Sent mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

I used quite a few colors for this one. For the frosting on the pink cupcake, I also used R87, which is a color I’ve created myself.

Hurra {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, everyone! As you may know, I’m a huge fan of no line coloring. I’m an even bigger fan of no line coloring when it comes to coloring snow. There’s something about the lack of lines that makes the snow look softer and more real. Not that a fox and bear building a snowman is very realistic.

For today’s card I really wanted to include both Rupert the fox and Wilson the bear, both from the Snow Day! collection illustrated by Stacey Yacula for Purple Onion Designs. I wanted a portrait oriented card, and putting the two side by side made the image too wide for a standard A2 size card, so I decided to go bigger and create a 5 x 7″ card instead. I don’t usually make cards this size. As much as I love white space, I often find it difficult to find the right balance with a larger card. I think it worked out on this one, though.

I stamped the bear using fadeout ink from Inkon3 and masked him, before stamping the fox in the same ink. While I still had the stamps in my MISTI, I stamped their eyes, mouths and noses using Memento Espresso Truffle ink. This saved me from having to draw the details back in after my coloring, which could have potentially ruined the entire scene. I used my Copics to color everything, and trimmed the panel down slightly. I used one of the greens from the image on the edges of a 5×7″ piece of X-Press It blending card to make the card front match the image, as I didn’t have any card stock in the right shade of green. For the die cut HURRA (die from Kort & Godt), I scribbled one of the green Copics onto a scrap piece of X-Press It before die cutting. I added another three white die cuts behind it for dimension, and used foam tape on the back of the colored panel to give it a little lift up from the card base.

As usual, I used lots of colors for the snow (everything in this graphic before E44), but that’s just how I roll.

You’re even cuter on your birthday {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, everyone! I’m one of the lucky ones to get to play with one of the new Rachelle Anne Miller stamps coming in the February release from My Favorite Things. Tomorrow (10 AM EST), this cute girl and the coordinating die are available for purchase over at the MFT store, so I thought I’d share my card today.

I don’t often purchase coordinating dies for stamp sets, but boy, they make it easy to add dimension. Once I’d colored up the little girl with the balloon, I die cut her and four additional pieces from white card stock to add dimension behind her. Way more sturdy than foam tape.

I wanted to use lots of other goodies from MFT on this card, so I used the cloud stencil with a very light blue ink (Iceberg from Altenew) to create a barely there puffy cloudy sky behind her. It’s really soft, but shows up better in real life than in photos. I used a couple of elements from the Scene Builder stamp set and stamped those near the bottom using Fadeout ink from Inkon3 for a little bit of no line coloring. I die cut the largest of the Stitched Rectangle Scallop Edge Frames four times from Peach Bellini card stock and glued them together for dimension.

I added clear Wink of Stella glitter and a thick layer of Glossy Accents on the balloon, before stamping and white heat embossing one of the sentiments in the Birthday Cutie stamp set onto Berry Sorbet card stock from Papertrey Ink. I die cut the sentiment using one of the Fishtail Flag Frames dies from MFT, and found some scraps in my stash that I’d already die cut using dies from the same set. I use that die set a lot. I added three green enamel dots from the Tropical Forest set from Altenew and my card was finished. I paired the card with a Persimmon envelope, also from MFT. I love their envelopes!

Lots of colors for this one! I was going for a peachy pink jacket and leggings, but it was too close to the pink I’d used for the rest of her, so I added some yellows on top. I also decided to go for a brighter green on the grass than her little stuffie.

Happy birthday {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, everyone! I’ve got another wintery birthday card to share today, featuring this adorable mouse Holly from Purple Onion Designs. Isn’t she the cutest? My favorite part is actually her socks, such a genius idea from Stacey to put socks on her feet. It’s all in the details.

My sister’s birthday’s in a few weeks, and I thought this was the perfect card for her. She used to have the nickname “musa” (the mouse) when we were kids. Our cousin, a few months younger, was also quite a bit bigger, earning her the nickname “rotta” (the rat). Of the two, I think my sister got the better nickname.

This card was a bit of an evolution, and is not what I’d call my typical style After I’d colored the image, I had the idea to use this Framed Greetings Cover-Up die from My Favorite Things, but when it was time to actually create the card, I was out of ideas. I die cut the cover frame from Blueberry card stock from My Favorite Things, and was still stuck. Finding the Winter Days Confetti mix from Pretty Pink Posh in my stash led me to the shaker card idea, which, in turn, led me to the Summer Splash card base to match the confetti. An idea was born.

I die cut the frame five more times, cutting away the interior pieces and stacking the frames to form the walls of my shaker. The frame is quite thin, so I didn’t trust myself enough with a ruler and a craft knife to create five identical frames. Die cutting seemed safer and quicker. I’ve kept all the pieces and am planning on using them in the future for a card or two.

Once everything was cut, I was stuck again. I was originally going to make this a portrait oriented card, they’re definitely my “go to”, but I struggled with finding a sentiment. I realized that if I rotated my card to be a landscape card, the “Happy birthday” letters from the Slimline Scallop Frame die set from Simon Says Stamp would fit the width of the card perfectly. I die cut two layers from white card stock, and one layer from X-Press It that I’d colored with the same colors I used for the ears of the mouse. The pink pops against the teal and blue in the background.

There’s quite a bit of dimension in this. Card base, five layers of walls for the shaker, a piece of acetate, die cut cover frame on top, then three layers of letters. Dimension is life!

Limited color palette with such a small image.

Hurra, hurra, hurra {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi, everyone! I’m back today with another card featuring a cutie from Mo Manning. This is Sheriff, and I turned him into a birthday card. The design of this card, and the super bright colors are a bit unusual for me, but I’m trying to use more of my supplies, and also use them differently than I have in the past. I also don’t normally put this many enamel dots on my cards. 7 is a LOT, I usually go for 2 or 3.

I colored up the image with my Copics. Nothing unusual about that, but these blues are brighter than the ones I normally use. The colored panel was too narrow to fill the width of a regular card, so I decided to put a frame around it. I used one of the wood frame nested dies from Hero Arts to create my frame from Classic Kraft card stock from Papertrey Ink, and built up layers by adding a few more frames behind the top one. I created a card bas from Lush Lagoon card stock from Papertrey Ink, and used the By the numbers impression, also from PTI, to create a debossed look to the card base. There’s quite a bit of blue showing outside the frame, so I wanted a little bit of texture there.

Using Limelight card stock from My Favorite Things, I die cut the number (from the By the numbers die set from Papertrey Ink) four times and stacked them for a dimensional look. I adhered the number to the frame using liquid glue, and glued a white heat embossed black sentiment strip on top, with two more layers of black card stock behind that, for even more dimension.

I added a bunch of green enamel dots from Papirdesign, and rummaged through my old patterned paper for one I could make an envelope from. I struck gold with this green one from Pion Design from 2010. I don’t use a lot of patterned paper anymore (at least not big pieces), but I can’t exactly throw it away, either, so I figure it’s perfect to create envelopes from. This way, they get used!

Super bright colors. Well, except for all the browns. I actually used five colors for his sheriff’s badge before I ended up with a color I liked.