Hi, crafty friends. I have a clean and simple, yet dimensional card to share today, featuring the Peony Dragon 1 digi stamp from Lee Holland. This was one of the first of Lee’s images I colored up a couple of years ago, and this tiny dragon hugging these peonies is just sooo adorable.
I printed the image onto X-Press It blending card and colored it with my Copics, before trimming it down. I mounted it on foam tape to a top fold white card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
I felt the need to add a design element that would break the rigidity of the rectangular panels, and decided to add some twine going across. I wrapped Green Apple Divine Twine around the card front three times and tied a knot. The green goes well with the green in the image.
Onto a piece of Eiffel Tower cardstock from My Favorite Things, I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Mini messages stamp set from Mama Elephant, before using a 1″ circle punch from EK Success to create a quick circle from it. I added strategically placed pieces of foam tape on the back of it and adhered it directly onto the knot I had tied on the front of the card.
To finish off the card, I added sequins and gems from the Urban Chic mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. They’re kind of scattered in a trail going from the bottom left to the top right of the image.
The card is simple, but has lots of dimension, and that dragon hugging his peonies will always steal the show.
Mostly analogous color palette, with a little bit of pink and yellow (!) for the peonies.
This was a BIG image. It came into Photoshop as a full A4, and it’s kind of perfect for the front of a party invitation (which is what it’s actually intended for), but I wanted to create a regular size card from it. The tag tied to the a in Party actually says RSVP, but I erased that digitally before printing my image.
I was worried this would take a long time to color, but it wasn’t that bad, actually. I used a fairly limited color palette, I think that helped.
I colored the entire panel using my Copics, before using my scissors to cut around the edge. I usually use a trimmer or a steel ruler and a craft knife for this, but the frame has a fun, uneven line, and I wanted my cutting to be uneven too, so scissors were the way to go.
I adhered my panel onto a card base I created from Sorbet cardstock from Concord & 9th, stamped and white heat embossed part of a sentiment from the Bitty Birthday Wishes stamp set from My Favorite Things onto a strip of Sorbet cardstock and glued a few additional cardstock strips behind it for dimension before adhering it to the card.
To finish off I added a layer of Glossy Accents to the letters. I didn’t want to add any embellishments to this card, it had enough going on already with the busy scene, but a little bit of shine is never a bad idea.
See? Not that many Copics considering how busy this scene is.
I stamped 
I colored the entire panel with Copics, deciding to add a few clouds in the sky as well as some visible blades of grass near the trees.
I adhered my colored panel onto a top fold landscape A2 card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I stamped a sentiment from the 
To finish off the card I added a few pearls from Kort & Godt in three different sizes (2 mm, 2.5 mm, 3 mm). Adding the pearls was actually my niece’s idea. I tend to go for sequins myself, but I love pearls too and hadn’t used these in a while, so it was good to break them out.
The lack of dimension makes this a very thin, lightweight card compared to my normal cards, which means this won’t have any problems going through the mail.
Not a lot of colors given that the entire card front is colored.
I colored the dragon with my Copics and fussy cut him right up against the black lines of the image. I put him aside while I worked on the rest of the card.
Onto a top fold white A2 card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I ink blended Azurite, Ultramarine and Eastern Sky inks (all from Altenew) towards the top of the card, fading to white near the bottom. I splashed some water droplets on top for a cool effect. Dye inks are water based and react with water, so this works with most inks you probably have. The darker the color, the bigger the impact.
From Cement Gray cardstock from My Favorite Things, I die cut two layers of the skyscraper skyline in the Slim Film City die set from Mama Elephant and adhered them at the bottom of my card. Using the cloud die in the Slim Basics die set, also from Mama Elephant, I die cut the cloud shape three times from Stamper’s Select White cardstock, stacked them and adhered them to the top of the card.
Onto the card base, I stamped a sentiment from the 
I adhered the dragon partially on top of the clouds, using foam squares behind the parts hanging off the clouds for even dimension, and sprinkled a few gems and sequins from the Seashore mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards around the dragon and sentiment to finish the card.
Suuuuper simple color palette for this dragon.
I wanted to add a little bit of interest to my flowers and did some simple ink blending. I used Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade Distress inks for the yellow, Fresh Leaf ink from Altenew for the green and Vintage Timber from My Favorite Things for the brown. I also added additional diecuts to build dimension and interest to these flowers.
Onto a white card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I stamped a sentiment from the 
This is a very simple card, and in hindsight I kind of wish I’d used a different color for my card base, or even ink blended a gradient blue with on the card base, but the white makes the yellow pop and is very clean, which is usually my preference on simple cards.
Here you can see a little bit of the dimension on the card. I used white diecuts behind the the yellow ones (I don’t have a lot of that Buttercup cardstock and wanted to use as little of it as possible), which worked out great. The white almost disappears against the white of the background, making it look like the flowers are floating on the card, it’s such a cool effect!
This time I’m keeping the focus on 
I used a lot of green for this card. Not too many markers, but I feel like most of the card is green. I actually had to refill all the greens I used for the fields and trees halfway through. They hadn’t been refilled in a couple of years, so it was about time, I use these greens a lot.
I needed a pop of color to counteract all the green and decided on a corally pink color combination that I used for the party hat and balloon. I dug through my colored cardstock looking for a match, and wound up with Fire Coral cardstock from My Favorite Things. I created a top fold A2 card base from it and adhered my colored panel onto it to the left side, it wasn’t wide enough to cover the entire card front.
In the fall of 2020 I was running seriously low on X-Press It blending card, which is the only cardstock I use for my Copic coloring. It was hard to get hold of back then, but I lucked out and got a pack from Amazon UK. It was A4, which kind of blew my mind a little bit. Up until that point, I didn’t even know A4 X-Press It existed, I’ve always bought letter size. A4 is less wide and taller than letter size, which means I only get two panels that cover an A2 card front from one sheet. I used one of the narrower pieces on this card, which left me with about 1/4″ extra width on the card base. I debated cutting it off, but I feel like the pink strip on the right provides a little bit of balance, the card would be very green without it.
Onto a separate piece of Fire Coral cardstock, I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Til mannen stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS, before die cutting it using a speech bubble die from Altenew. I popped it up on 1/16″ foam squares from Gina K for a tiny bit of dimension.
You’d think that with a close to full panel of coloring that I’d use a lot more colors than this, but the four greens near the left end of this graphic were all I used for the grass and the trees, which covers most of the card.
I colored in the image using Copics, before fussy cutting it, right up against the black lines of the image. I put the image aside while I worked on the rest of my card.
I actually worked directly on the card base for this one. Using the Big Balloon stencil from My Favorite Things, I ink blended two balloons using Distress inks – one using Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick and Abandoned Coral; the other using Mustard Seed and Squeezed Lemonade. And in the words of Laura Bassen – the magic’s in the overlap.
Once the balloons were done, I used the mask in the Big Balloon stencil set to mask off the balloons while I used the Slimline Cloud Edges stencil, also from MFT, to create the illusion of clouds in the distance. I used Eastern Sky ink near the top of the card, Iceberg ink towards the bottom, both are gorgeous colors from Altenew.
I free hand cut a grassy hill from Parsley cardstock from Concord & 9th and adhered it to the bottom of my card. I die cut the Happy Birthday die from My Favorite Things twice using white cardstock from Papertrey Ink (same cardstock as my card base) and adhered the two layers together for a tiny bit of dimension and adhered my layered die cut on top of the balloons.
To finish off the card, I drew in balloon strings using a 0.35 Copic Multiliner, popped the tortoise (I can’t bring myself to write the word “turtle” when this is clearly a tortoise) up using some 1/16″ foam squares and added sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things From Lucy’s Cards for a bit of sparkle and shine.
Simple color palette for this small image.
I colored up this image nearly a year ago, so it was about time I put it to good use on a card. Using the largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 set from My Favorite Things, I turned it into a panel with the faux stitch edge that I love to use on my cards. There’s something about faux stitching dies that make the cards look more finished. It’s a nice, subtle detail. I adhered the panel to a top fold card base I created from Blueberry cardstock from My Favorite Things.
From the same color cardstock, I die cut the sentiment using the Dagen er din die from Papirdesign. I stacked four die cuts for a dimensional look and added a few blue enamel dots from Papirdesign to finish off the card.
Blues and greens for the win for this one. I’ve always been a fan of analogous color combinations, they’re very harmonious.
I’ve made a slimline card this time, with images from a Stamptember collaboration set from Mama Elephant and Simon Says Stamp that I colored up in November 2020. These have been sitting on my desk for a while, and I always planned on creating this window design with them – Get Cracking on Christmas is the perfect opportunity to execute plans you’ve had for a while, but not had time for.
I colored up this fairy quite a while ago, and I even had a blue sky around her that I decided not to use. I fussy cut the image, leaving a trim around the edge (I didn’t want to contend with the whispy lines in her hair).
I created a white top fold card base using Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. It’s my all time favorite white cardstock. Using a geometric embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers, I created a bit of texture to the card front. It’s nice to have lots of white space while giving the background a little bit of interest, and embossing folders are a great way to ensure that.
I cut a piece of Winter Wisteria cardstock from Papertrey Ink at an angle and adhered it to the top of the card using foam tape.
I adhered my colored image, half on top of the purple cardstock using foam tape, the bottom half to the card base using foam tape. I let her foot hang off the edge of the card for a little bit of added interest.
To finish off the card, I die cut scraps of purple patterned paper from Papirdesign to adhere to the bottom right corner of the card. Onto one of the strips, I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Hilsninger stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS, before I added sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards for a little bit of embellishment.
Not a lot of colors for this one.
Papirmølla 