Hi, crafty friends! I’m so happy to be back in the craft room on a somewhat regular basis. The months of mid October through mid January were insane, and I had no crafty time whatsoever, but that’s changed now. I have a fun card to share today, featuring this Hugs image from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Julian Charlton. I love his Elliot & Marcel images, they’re quirky and cute and just perfect.
I chose to color Elliot in a very soft grey, and once fully colored, fussy cut the image leaving a thin white border. I put the image aside and started working on the rest of the card.
I felt a landscape design would work best for what I had in mind, and used the Geometric Landscape stencil from Altenew to create some interest in the background with blue inks, also from Altenew. I used the entire Lapis Lazuli color palette from Altenew for my blending, (Azurite, Ultramarine, Eastern Sky, Iceberg) which fades to white at the top.
Using the Sending You Hugs die from My Favorite Things, I die cut the letters to spell out HUG four times from white cardstock from Papertrey Ink, which happens to be the same cardstock I used for my cardbase. I love their white cardstock, it’s the best by far. I stacked the letters for dimension and stamped and white heat embossed a punny sentiment that comes with Elliot & Marcel. There are actually a few more sentiments in the set, and I added another one to the inside of the card. I didn’t have the right color cardstock, though, so I cheated and covered white cardstock with the Azurite color, which is the darkest of the four blues I used for the blending of the background. To create the sentiment strip, I went direct to paper, and used my heat tool to speed up the drying process of the ink so I could stamp and heat emboss on top. I added three additional strips of cardstock behind it to make it flush with the die cut letters, adhered it to the card and finished off with a few sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
I chimply love punny sentiments and couldn’t resist.
Very simple color palette for this one. This was fast to color.
I love these animal number images from Rachelle, and these ducks are sooo cute. Perfect for a birthday card, I think. I colored the image with my Copics, before temporarily adhering the Watercolor Wash Free Form stencil from My Favorite Things and ink blending with Harvest Gold ink from Papertrey Ink. I then stamped a sentiment from the A06 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Shadow Creek ink from Altenew.
I used the largest of the Wonky Stitched Rectangle STAX dies from My Favorite Things to create a quirky faux stitch interest around the edge and adhered my panel to a top fold card base I created from Meadow cardstock from Hero Arts.
To finish off the card I added a few raindrops from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, I thought they fit well with the water theme in the image.
Simple, yet bright color palette for this one 🙂
I colored the donut with my Copics and fussy cut it, leaving a thin white border around the edge. I printed a panel of several donuts in light gray for a bit of added interest in the background, popped up my panel onto a card base I created from Rustic Cream cardstock from Papertrey Ink, while I worked on the rest of the card.
Using the Parker alphabet die set from Memory Box, I die cut the letters to spell sweet from Grapesicle cardstock from My Favorite Things. I stacked six of each for a dimensional look.
I stamped and white heat embossed partial sentiments from the Itty Bitty Basics and Itty Bitty Gifting stamp sets from My Favorite Things to complete my sentiment, adhered it all to the card and finished with a few sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things From Lucy’s Cards.
Soft pastels were all I used for this one. It’s a little different for me.
Cue 
I’ve always been a fan of creating blue Christmas cards, but in the past couple of years, green has grown on me, and I think I made more green Christmas cards this year than blue ones. It helps that I’ve found a green Copic combo that I really like.
When all the coloring was done, I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the 
Lots of Copics for this one.
I used a white Gelly Roll 05 pen to create the white dots on the deer, and a die from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things to create the faux stitching on the edges of the panel. By not stamping the entire deer, it creates a dynamic effect of having it walk in from the edge of the card.
I stamped a sentiment from the 
The pink and blue green color combination is definitely not traditional for Christmas, but I kind of like it. What do you think, does it work?
Quite a few Copics for such a simple card.
I wanted to make a peaceful scene for this card. I stamped and masked 
I masked off the background too, before going in with my Copic airbrush system to create a soft winter sunset. I then peeled off the masks, colored the background, then everything else.
I left the red details till the end. I don’t want to run the risk of other colors picking up the red, so by leaving it to the end, I avoid that.
Looks like these reindeer are very patiently waiting for Santa. I wonder where he is? Actually, yesterday on my way to work, I saw a passenger on the bus with a long red Santa hat.
I didn’t want to mess up the sky with a sentiment, and the bottom part of the card is too full for one. I might put one inside, but to finish the card, I merely adhered my scene onto a top fold card base I created from Stormy Sea cardstock from Papertrey Ink. The finished card measures 6 x 5 3/8″, which is a bit of an odd size, but I prefer making my card size fit the scene and not the other way around when I create these full scene cards with Purple Onion images.
Not a whole lot of Copics for this one, actually.
I love creating these scenes with Stacey’s images. It’s a time consuming process, as I create masks for each critter and fussy cut them, but the end result is always worth it.
I stamped Winter and Balsam using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things before covering both of them with masks. I then did second generation stamping of Santa’s workshop using Memento Rich Cocoa ink, using first generation for the signage only. I like the softer look of the brown lettering in the background. I stamped the silhouette of Santa’s sleigh using VersaFine Onyx Black ink AFTER I’d colored in the entire scene. This is an ink that stamps very black and very crisp, but it’s a pigment ink and doesn’t play well with Copics, so it’s best to leave it to the end. I stamped the sentiment using Blueberry Sky ink from Papertrey Ink.
I also went back over the “cast iron” of the OPEN sign using a 0.3 cool gray multiliner from Copic and added white dots on the penguin’s hat and scarf using my white Gelly Roll 05.
I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous, melted the granules from the back of the paper and adhered my finished scene onto a 5 3/4 x 4 1/2″ white card base, making this card slightly larger than the regular A2 size card.
Lots of Copics used for this one.
There are some awesome stamps in the 
This image is 
I have a tall pine tree outside my craft room window. In it, there’s a huge nest that magpies built a few years back. One morning last week, I heard the magpies making more sound than usual. When I looked outside, there was a squirrel that had taken over the nest. It was adding one twig after another to the nest, I guess it had evicted the magpies. After quite some time, one of the magpies tried to get back in, but was chased away by the squirrel. I must admit I was delighted, I’d much rather have a squirrel outside my window than magpies. The squirrel is much cuter, and it’s a lot quieter too.
Back to the card. Once I finished the coloring, I stamped the word Christmas from the Christmas Greeting stamp set that Lili of the Valley released earlier this year using Jalapeño Popper ink from My Favorite Things.
I then die cut the panel using the second larges die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 die set from My Favorite Things and adhered it directly to a card base I created from Jalapeño Popper cardstock, also from My Favorite Things. On a scrap piece of cardstock the same color, I stamped and white heat embossed the words cosy and wishes to complete my sentiment. I put a couple of additional layers of green cardstock behind each word for a little bit of added dimension.
I added a few sequins from the White Orchid Sequin Mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish off this very simple card. A little bit of shine is never a bad idea on a simple card.
You’d think an image this simple would have less Copics used, but I tend to go overboard on snow. This time I also went overboard on the fur, even though it might not look like it.
For my final card I’m focusing on the Birthday Wonderland stamp set, and I used both trees, the raccoon and the bear for my card, in addition to one of the sentiments.
I decided to go for a no line look in the background with the trees and used black lines for the two cute critters.
Once my image was stamped and colored I cut it down significantly and mounted it on foam tape to a top fold landscape card base I created from Enchanted Evening cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
There’s something about this bear that reminds me of Yogi. That might actually be the reason I colored his hat green. These two have such character, but the bear’s my favorite, just don’t tell the raccoon.
I used a white Sharpie with an extra fine tip for the dots of snow (is it snow?) on the trees.
Simple, subdued color palette for this card.
I thought this guy from the Smile and Wave stamp set was too cool not to use, so I colored him with my Copics and did some fussy cutting, leaving a white border around the edge. I wanted him to stand out and to make a super simple card.
I created a mask with some 2″ post-It tape by cutting a sloping hill with a craft knife. This is easy to do free hand, but you can use a curved die if you’d like.
I wanted this guy to really stand out against the background and decided to ink blend using distress inks. I used Abandoned Coral, Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed and Scattered Straw for the sky. The yellow and orange tones pick up the colors from his belly, beak and feet and really stand out against the blue of his hat. For the ground I used a little bit of Tumbled Glass Distress Ink near the horizon, fading into white near the bottom.
I sprinkled on Chunky White embossing enamel to the background, making sure no granules covered my stamped sentiment before melting the granules from the back. I mounted the panel onto the white top fold card base using foam tape for dimension.
I mounted the penguin onto foam tape and used some clear iridescent crystals from the Crystal Collection (Glass) from Little Thing from Lucy’s Cards to finish off this very simple card.
Simple color palette.
Papirmølla 