Hi, crafty friends. I’m back with another holiday card. This cold, wet weather we’ve been having this summer is perfect for creative sessions in the craft room, and I gravitate towards holiday cards for some reason. I shared this card over on Mo’s Dream Team blog yesterday, but thought I’d share here, too.
Little Elf Tippi is one of my favorites from Mo. I have lots of favorites from her images, I love her style so much. This one won me over as soon as I saw it, and I’ve made a card with it (this one) previously.
I had to go for my traditional Christmas colors for this one with blue, brown and grey, it’s such a good combo. I made all the lights the same color. I know some people prefer the differently colored lights, but as a Scandinavian minimalist, my color palette for Christmas is very toned down, including my Christmas lights, which are all white.
Once I’d colored my image, I used the largest die in the Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things to create a faux stitch border around my panel. I then took the Plaid builder stencil set from My Favorite Things and ink blended using Blue Yonder ink from My Favorite Things in the top right corner with the stencil with the wide stripes. On top of the stencil with the smaller stripes, I used Light & Fluffy Modeling Paste from The Crafter’s Workshop for a little bit of added dimension and interest to the background.
I adhered my panel to an A2 top fold card base I created from Enchanted Evening cardstock from Papertrey Ink. Using the scripty wishes die from Mama Elephant, I die cut three layers of white and one blue on top for a stacked look and adhered it on top of my stenciled background. I also stamped and white heat embossed a couple of sentiments from the Holiday messages stamp set from Mama Elephant to add to the wishes to make my sentiment complete. I cut them down to strips and added a few layers of cardstock behind each of them for dimension, before finishing off the card with a few sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, as well as Glossy Accents for the lightbulbs.
I love the glow and shine from the lightbulbs.
Fairly simple color palette for this one.
I started by stamping this bird on a piece of X-Press It blending card using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things. I colored the bird to look like a bullfinch using my Copics. In this little corner of the world, no bird says Christmas like a bullfinch. Once I finished my coloring, I stamped on top of my initial stamping, this time using Obsidian ink from Altenew to get really crisp lines. I love how crisp this ink is. It’s not compatible with Copics, so I need to stamp after my coloring’s complete, but that’s not a problem with a stamp positioning tool.
Onto a piece of Classic Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I stamped a few branches using Classic Kraft ink for a soft backdrop for my sentiment, which I stamped in Dark Chocolate ink, also from Papertrey Ink. I popped up the 3 1/2″ wide kraft panel in the center of a top fold white cardbase using foam tape, added foam tape behind my die cut image and placed it near the top center of the card, before finishing off with a gold heart for a little bit of embellishment.
Simple color palette for this image.
The cold weather’s been perfect for Christmas in July, though, and this 
I colored both the penguin and the letters with Copics and fussy cut them. I left a white border around the penguin, but cut the letters up to the black lines.
I created a circular card base from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and added a circle on top that I created from Sno Cone cardstock from My Favorite Things. I dry embossed the Magic Snow Cover die from Mama Elephant onto the colored cardstock for a little bit of added interest in the background, before mounting the penguin in the center of the card and adding the letters around him.
To finish off the card I added a few Snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to the letters. I tried using pearls first, but these worked better with the card. She’s stopped selling these clay sprinkles, so I kind of hoard the ones I have.
Super simple color combo for this guy.
Hot pink and orange/yellow/gold. It’s not a Christmas color palette you see every day, and when I did the actual coloring, I wasn’t sold on this. I wasn’t sold when the card was done, either, but it’s grown on me, and I’m now in a place where I like it. That might change again, though, ask me tomorrow 😉
I printed the image on the bottom half of a quarter sheet of X-Press It blending card, did my coloring, then used the Basket Weave stencil from My Favorite Things to add a little bit of interest to the panel. Above the image, I used Puffy Heart and Rose Quartz inks from Altenew, underneath the image I used Scattered Straw Distress Ink. I trimmed off 1/4″ on each side and mounted it with foam tape onto a card base I created from Ripe Raspberry cardstock from My Favorite Things.
I added black glaze to the eyes for some shine and Glossy Accents to the lightbulbs, before stamping and white heat embossing a sentiment from the Holiday Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant onto a scrap piece of pink cardstock. I cut the sentiment down to a strip, added a few more layers behind it and added it to my card, before finishing off with a few gold jewels from the Fesitivities mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
The Glaze, Glossy Accents, sub sentiment and gems all work together to add interest to what is otherwise a very simple card.
The coloring is pretty simple too 🙂
There are five adorable penguins in this stamp set, and I chose two to color, with a vague idea for a card in the back of my mind as I was coloring. Once I’d colored both penguins and fussy cut them, I realized splitting them up and creating two cards would be better. For this card, I placed the Grid stencil from My Favorite Things at a bit of an angle directly on my top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. Using Sno Cone ink from My Favorite Things and a blender brush, I created a soft blend near the bottom of the card front, fading to white above and below.
The wishes die from Mama Elephant is probably my most used word die, I love it so much. I die cut it five times from Wild Cherry cardstock from My Favorite Things and stacked the die cuts for dimension. Onto the background I stamped a sub sentiment and the word Christmas from the 
The good thing about small(ish) images is that you don’t need heaps of colors. They’re also fairly quick to color.
I colored the image with Copics, then used a craft knife to cut away the insides of the letters. I used a die from the Stitched borders die set from Lawn Fawn to create a defined edge on my colored panel and added a piece of acetate from Simon Says Stamp behind the letters. I’d made sure to keep the counters on the Rs intact when I did my cutting, so I could add them back in once the acetate was in place.
I used Cornflower cardstock from My Favorite Things to create the shaker well. I doubled up on foam tape and put sequins and confetti from the Icicle Sequin mix from Hero Arts in the well, then adhered the window on top.
I created a top fold A2 landscape card base using Cornflower cardstock once again. I stamped the Paint Splatter background stamp from My Favorite Things onto the card base using Fresh Snow hybrid ink from Papertrey Ink, and adhered my shaker panel on top. Easy peasy.
By doubling up on the foam tape, the sequins and confetti have lots of room to shake.
Super simple color palette for this one.
This time I’m focusing on 
I colored the image with Copics, then used the largest die in the Blueprints 27 die set from My Favorite Things to turn it into a rectangle with faux stitching and a scalloped edge, just for something different from my usual faux stitch rectangles. I die cut another piece from white cardstock to put on the inside of the card.
Before adhering my panel, I sprinkled on Chunky White embossing enamel from Stampendous, and melted the granules from the back of the panel. I also used a black glaze pen from Sakura to create a tiny bit of dimension and shine to the penguin’s eyes. I adhered the panel directly to a top fold card base I created from After Midnight cardstock from My Favorite Things, which is a nice dark blue color.
From the same color cardstock, I die cut God jul four times using a die from Papirdesign. I stacked the layers and adhered it to the left of the image, before finishing off the card with a few hearts from the Festivities mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
This is a fairly flat card for me. Other than the sentiment and the white hearts, there’s nothing that adds a lot of dimension. I considered mounting the panel on foam tape, but in the end decided against it. The sentiment and the hearts still pop and add interest, as does the snow, which has a bit of texture to it.
I used mostly blue Copics for this card. Not really a surprise, huh?
I printed my image so it would fit a mini slimline card nicely, and didn’t feel like choosing colors, so I asked my color buddy Liz for suggestions. She really wanted to challenge me and said “red (not E), green (not BG) and gold”. She knows I don’t like red and green together, she knows I use the Es to create red on my Christmas cards and she knows I use BG colors or greys in combination with those Es. It’s kind of scary how well she knows what I like and use. I admit I was a little reluctant to try this at first, but I always run with her suggestions anyway, and I think it turned out okay (except for the huuuuge white dots on the green scarf).
Once I finished my coloring, I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Christmas greetings stamp set from Lili of the Valley, white heat embossed a few details in the image, then die cut it using partial die cutting and the largest die in the Slimline Double Stitched Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things. I added a couple of layers of white cardstock behind the colored panel and mounted it all to a card base I created from Amarena Cherry cardstock from My Favorite Things. The finished card measures 6 3/8 x 3 1/2″.
No Es. And even though I used BG99 in my green combo, it still reads green and not BG. BG99 is great to use for dark green.
I started with a quarter sheet of Stamper’s Select White cardstock, the Wintry Forest stencil set from Pinkfresh Studio and the Northern Shore color family from Altenew. The stencil set has 6 different stencils that you layer to create a gorgeous wintry forest. I started with stencil number 1 (the Pinkfresh Studio stencils are numbered, which makes it really easy) and Polar Bear ink, which is the lightest of the four colors in the Northern Shore color family. I then moved on to stencil number 2, but didn’t change the color. Since I had to stretch my four colors and use them on five stencils (the last stencil adds snow on the trees), I kept the lightest one for this second layer and ink blended with a heavier hand, which makes the color appear darker. I used stencil number 3 with Icy Water ink, which is the next shade, then stencil number 4 with Winter Lake ink, and finally stencil number 5 with Arctic Mountain ink, which is the darkest color in this set of four gorgeous blues.
On top of the ink blending, I stamped a snow flurry background stamp from Kort & Godt (M-428) using Fresh Snow hybrid ink from Papertrey Ink, which added lots of white snowy dots to my background. I then used a die in the DIE240 set from Kort & Godt to die cut the banner directly from my background. I put it to the side, placed the last stencil on my background and spread a layer of Light & Fluffy modeling paste from The Crafter’s Workshop through the stencil, before sprinkling on Rock Candy Distress Glitter and let that dry. Onto my banner, I stamped a sentiment from the M-467 stamp set from Kort & Godt using Arctic Mountain ink. I ink blended a little bit of Winter Lake ink to the edges to make it stand out a little bit more, added a stack of white die cuts behind it for dimension and adhered a couple of faceted iridescent pearls (ST178) to finish off the card.
This 
I colored my image with Copics, stamped a sentiment from Mathia Design using Ocean Tides ink from Papertrey Ink, before die cutting a bunch of white snowflakes from the same cardstock (X-Press It blending card) that I use to color on, so my whites would match. I used the Snowflake Confetti fancy die from Hero Arts, along with the CR1335 die from Marianne Design to die cut all my snowflakes. Both these dies cut lots of snowflakes at once, and the snowflakes are fairly small, making them ideal for a background like this. I adhered lots of snowflakes above the penguin’s head, then used a rectangle die from Waffle Flower to die cut my panel. I mounted it on foam tape onto a card base I created from Ocean Tides cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and my card was complete. Another Christmas card done for 2023.
Fairly minimalist color palette. I also used B90 and BG71, which are colors I’ve created myself.
Papirmølla 