Hi, crafty friends. I’m sharing a simple birthday card today, with a cutie pie bee from Amanda Jayne Designs. This is bee with balloon. I wanted to have this card ready for world bee day, but we’re way past that now. It’s still a cute birthday card, though, right?
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 love the super sized sentiment dies from My Favorite Things. They have several in this style, and they’re great for all sorts of techniques. Today I used the negative of the Big Birthday Wishes die, cut into X-Press It blending card. I normally use this paper for coloring only, but I wanted the white background to match the white trim on my die cut bears, which are colored on the same paper. I added foam tape to the back of my negative die cut for dimension, making sure to keep the counters so I could put them back in. I added a strip of solid colored cardstock from Concord & 9th behind each of the lines in the die cut. I used Honeysuckle at the bottom, Clementine in the center and Buttercup for the top. I then adhered everything to a card base I created from Blue Breeze cardstock from My Favorite Things.
I stamped the bears from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things and colored them in with Copics and used the coordinating dies to cut them out. I added three white die cuts behind each of the bears for dimension and placed them on the card. I didn’t want to cover up too much of the letters, so I made sure to create a wide border around the die cut words. I also wanted a chunky border around the white, so this card is quite large and measures about 5 1/4 x 6 1/2″.
At first, I wasn’t sure how to add dimension behind the small counters, especially on the triangle in the A, because it’s very very small, but I wound up putting foam tape behind some X-Press It, then die cut the letters I needed once more to get counters with dimension. It worked really well, so I’ll remember this trick in case I need to do something similar in the future.
Yellows, oranges and pinks, just like the strips of cardstock behind the letters.
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.
The Flåklypa universe has had a big resurgence in the past 10-15 years or so. Additional movies have come out based on the original and there’s a bit of merchandise available. I have a few calendars, and for this card, I used a calendar page with Reodor looking at his latest machine, wrench and technical drawing in hand. I sampled the color on his shirt to create a colored cardstock to match, and die cut the letters for the name Reodor using the In Stitches Alphabet die set from My Favorite Things. I die cut a few layers from white and the top layer from my custom colored cardstock and added them below the image.
For the shaker portion of the card, I used the Outline Numbers and Solid Numbers die sets from My Favorite Things. I die cut the outline from the image as well as a few from white cardstock, and used the solid number die for the acetate. I used microbeads for shaker filler and colored the top layer with a layer of a very pale grey Copic marker to make it stand out a little against the background. The card was very well received, and my parents have actually framed it and put it on display in their dining room.
I started by drawing the balloons for my background with a 0.3 mm mechanical pencil. I erased most of the pencil lines before coloring, as Copic will trap pencil, making it impossible to erase after coloring. I wanted a no line look for these, and the half erased lines were enough for me to see where to add my Copics. Balloons are actually pretty easy to draw, it’s basically an upside down egg. If you don’t want to draw yourself, there are lots of balloon stencils on the market that you can use as a guide, or even a die cut balloon that you trace. I colored in my balloons, two of each color, added the panel to a top fold 4 bar card base I created from white cardstock and drew in balloon strings using a 0.35 Copic multiliner.
For a sentiment, I die cut the Hipp hurra die from Kort & Godt five times and stacked them for a dimensional look. I cut four from white cardstock and one from gold shine cardstock and topped the stack with that. I added some gems from the ST210 pack of gems to finish.
I mostly used three colors for the gradient on each of the balloons, but the yellow balloons have four.
Once I had enough images to cover a background, I printed it onto X-Press It blending card and chose a few Copics to color in the images. I went with flat color for most of these, only adding dimension in the coloring of the balloons.
I cut my panel down and mounted it onto a top fold card base I created from Vintage Cream cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I die cut the sentiment using the Happy Birthday Brush Script die set from Simon Says Stamp, using Heavyweight Translucent Vellum from My Favorite Things for the shadow layer and black glitter cardstock from Kort & Godt for the words themselves, backed with a few layers of plain black cardstock (True Black from Papertrey Ink) for dimension. Behind the vellum, I die cut the word dies from a few layers of white cardstock to make the vellum “float” above the images.
I adhered the greeting in the top center of the card and added enamel dots from the Forest Trail pack of enamel dots from Altenew to finish. I paired the card with a Sour Apple envelope from My Favorite Things.
Just a few Copics for this one.
I printed the image on X-Press It blending card and colored it with my Copics. I pulled out my RV90 series, which I used to use a lot ages ago, but haven’t really used much in recent years.
Once my coloring was complete, I decided to cut off quite a bit on the right hand side of the panel, which meant doing some fussy cutting around the flowers. I don’t mind fussy cutting, and cutting on the border like this makes for a more dynamic design. Along the right hand side of a top fold card base, I adhered a scrap strip of patterned paper from the Vintage Romance collection from Maja Design, then popped my colored panel on the left.
I die cut the Gratulerer 6 die from Papirdesign a few times. I die cut the shadow layer in white, then a few stacked of the word, before finishing off with a colored one. I actually colored this one with Copics on the scrap I cut off the panel. This is a neat trick if you want your colors to match, but don’t have the right cardstock color. I stamped a sentiment from the A06 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Briar Rose ink from Concord & 9th, cut it down to a strip and adhered it below the die cut, adding a few strips of cardstock behind it for dimension. I finished off the card with a few enamel does from the Shades of Purple pack from Altenew.
Using patterned paper from Craft Consortium along with a stamp, die and a few sentiment sticker strips from Kort & Godt, I created an envelope to match.
I actually didn’t use too many Copics for this one. I see I’ve left out the colors I used for the sky, but I’m betting I chose B0000, BG90 and the blender for that.
I chose a very limited amount of Copic markers and colored the number in. I didn’t do any blending, this is all flat color. I added a little bit of shadow to the numbers and colored the flowers and small critters in the same colors, which is why the bird is light green and the bee is red and pink instead of the traditional yellow and black.
I adhered my panel directly to a card base. I also stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Bitty Birthday Wishes stamp set from My Favorite Things onto True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I added some dimension behind the sentiment strip, adhered it to the card and finished off with sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
The little bit of lift behind the sentiment makes it stand out even more. It also helps that it’s black. I paired the card with an envelope from Altenew. The Pink Diamond color matches the light pink in my coloring.
Very very simple color palette for this one.
I colored the monsters on X-Press It blending card using my Copics, then fussy cut them all, before putting them aside while I worked on the rest of my card.
Onto a top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I ink blended a section left of center using Volcano Lake ink from Altenew, then added splatter with some watered down Caribbean Sea ink from My Favorite Things. It adds a little bit of interest to what is a pretty plain background.
I used the Photo Booth Strip die from My Favorite Things to create my little frame. The die leaves a thicker border at the bottom, but I snipped off the bottom bit to make the border even on all sides. I die cut it twice for strength, then decided to add Crystal Clear Double Thick foam tape from The Rabbit Hole Designs on the back. This creates a lot of dimension, and it also gives an airy effect that you don’t achieve by stacking die cuts (which was my original plan). I added my frame at an angle on top of the ink blending, then put the monsters on the frame.
I white heat embossed a sentiment from Huldra Designstudio onto a piece of True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I fussy cut around it and used the same foam tape on the back of this to pop it up, before finishing off the card with a few enamel dots from the Sea Shore mix from Altenew, which matches my blended background perfectly. So does the envelope I used, which is also Volcano Lake from Altenew.
Fun color palette for this one.
Papirmølla 