Category: Clean and simple

You need more friends like me {Hobbykunst}

Elin2 Comments

Hi, everyone!

I colored up Victoria and Juliette’s Night Out from Stamping Bella for day 15 of the most recent round of Kathy Racoosin’s coloring challenge on Instagram, and the image has now made its way to a card.

I colored my image with Copics on X-Press It blending card and added Stardust Stickles from Ranger to the pink dress. The image is quite tall, so I decided to just trim the panel on either side a bit.

I put a piece of patterned paper from the Party Patterns paper pad from My Favorite Things on the card front, and mounted the image on foam tape. Lots of foam tape, I was not shy!

I stamped and white heat embossed a Mathia design sentiment (You need more friends like me) on True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink and mounted that with black foam tape from Gina K., before finishing off the card with a couple of sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

Merry… penguins? {Mo’s Dream Team}

Elin2 Comments

Hi, everyone!

Another Wednesday, and another Mo Manning creation around here. This time I’ve made a slimline card featuring the 3 Penguin Chicks stamp set, which is one of the newer ones, and those penguins are a must have, don’t you think? Slimline cards are tricky to photograph, and I need heaps of practice, but I did my best. After printing and die cutting my image, I went in with mostly gray Copics and colored in my little penguins. Pat has colored up the sample in the store, and while hers is light grey on the bodies of the penguins, I wanted to create a really textured look on mine, so these are a lot darker.

I used a little bit of color for their cheeks, the snowballs and also the sky around them, but that was it. I stamped a Norsk Stempelblad AS Christmas sentiment onto one of the snowballs using Papertrey Ink Blueberry Sky ink and glued my panel onto a card base of that same Blueberry Sky color. I finished my card by adding a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Like I said, I mostly used grays for this image. Here are most of the colors I used. I also used BG71, which is a color I’ve made myself.

Hooray, hooray, hooray!

ElinLeave a comment

Hi, everyone!

I have a fairly simple birthday card to share with you today, featuring this cutie pie from Tiddly Inks. I colored up this image for day 21 of Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge in April, so it was about time I turned it into a card (though to be honest, I have images that have been sitting colored and unused way longer than that).

I like printing (or stamping) my images close to one corner of a quarter sheet of X-Press It blending card. That way, I know I’ll have lots of white space to play with and for the final card to breathe, I don’t like cards that are too busy and “crowded”, if that makes sense. I die cut my panel using my favorite stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things, then actually went in with Memento Dandelion ink over my Geometric Landscape stencil from Altenew using a blender brush from Taylored Expressions. I rarely use yellow, and I rarely use stencils, but I wanted something other than my regular half mini doily behind my cluster of diecut scraps, and one of the hedgehogs is carrying a yellow heart, so I thought it was only fitting.

For the actual cluster I used scraps, which is a great way to use up all that oooold patterned paper (some of this is ten years old) I have laying around. These pieces are small, so it’s going to take me a while to use everything in my stash, but I’m working on it, one die cut at a time. I used the XCut Happy Days Ticket Stubs die for my cluster pieces. It’s one die that cuts nine different sized tickets in varying shapes, and I use it a lot on my cards. The papers are from (bottom layer to top layer) Imaginisce, Kaisercraft, and StudioLight. The little swirly line at the bottom of the cluster is a piece of paper from Fancy Pants, diecut using a die in the Tag Builder Blueprint 5 die set from My Favorite Things, the banner with the sentiment is from the same die set. The sentiment itself is from Norsk Stempelblad AS, stamped in Memento Bamboo Leaves ink. I thought it matched perfectly with the cardstock from My Favorite Things that I used as my card base. Those enamel dots from Papirdesign matched also.

Green is not a color I use often as my main color, but I’m trying to be better at using the entire rainbow and not just those gorgeous blues that I love so much. Even though blue IS the color of the year. Beautiful color for a crappy year, how’s that fair? 😉

Ho Ho Ho {Lili of the Valley}

Elin2 Comments

Hi, everyone!

I’ve got a super simple Christmas card to share with you today, featuring the Penguins Ho Ho Ho digital stamp from Lili of the Valley. This is such a fun stamp, and the size and orientation make it perfect for a portrait A2 sized card.

I colored my image using Copics. I don’t often use red on my Christmas cards, and I never pair it with green, but I love the look of red and gray or red and teal. For this one I went with both gray and teal, and I did my best to make the leaves in the image as “un-green” as I could by choosing the BG90s to color those in. A great little trick to coloring with red is to color in all the other colors first. That way you don’t run the risk of transferring red ink onto the other sections of your image if you accidentally color over the line into the red.

I diecut my colored panel using the largest of the faux stitch dies I have from My Favorite Things (I’ve used the Stitched Rectangles STAX Set 2) and glued it onto a cardbase of Tropical Teal cardstock, also from My Favorite Things. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Sweet Holiday Penguins stamp set from My Favorite Things, diecut that using the Fishtail Flag Frames die set from MFT and mounted it onto my card with 1 mm foam squares for a tiny bit of dimension.

Here are all the Copics I used. The Es are all used to create my red color. I find that the actual reds (the Rs) in the Copic range are either too orange or too pink for my liking when it comes to Christmas reds, so I always use the Es for my base before going in with a couple of Rs at the end to make the color pop.

Merry Christmas

Elin2 Comments

Hi, everyone! I know you’re thinking it’s too soon, Christmas is still four months away, but I like getting my Christmas cards started early, so I’m not swamped when November comes around and there’s enough to get done as it is.

Today, I’ve got snowmen for you. I colored up these snowmen from Mama Elephant for Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge… in June last year. I wasn’t able to do all 30 days of that round of the challenge because of a shoulder fracture, but I got a few days in before I had to throw in the towel. Blue Christmas cards are my weakness, so I colored in all the accessories for the snowmen in the stamp set using blues and browns.

I fussy cut my snowmen and made myself a little sketch, to make the actual cardmaking process easier. I find sketches help make me more productive. I used the Tag Builder Blueprint 5 die set from My Favorite Things to create my frames, and layered 3 diecuts together on each of the four frames to make them more dimensional. I kept the interior pieces to use with the remaining snowmen for an additional two cards. I dry embossed my cardbase using the Falling Snow stencil from Simon Says Stamp. It’s not easy for the camera to pick up in photos, but there’s a subtle bit of texture to the background.

I glued a panel of Enchanted Evening cardstock from Papertrey Ink straight onto the card front using doublesided tape, and stamped my sentiment repeatedly next to it using Enchanted Evening ink, also from Papertrey Ink. The stamp itself is from Norsk Stempelblad AS. I glued my frames down onto the blue background in a wonky, whimsical arrangement, mounted my little snowmen inside each frame using 1 mm foam squares and embellished very simply with snowflake sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Hope your birthday is on POINT! {Streamside Studios}

ElinLeave a comment

Hi, everyone!

I’ve got a clean and simple card to share today, featuring some very colorful pots of cacti from Streamside Studios.

“Elin goes overboard with coloring” is a common theme around here, and I used 50 Copic colors to create this little scene. I wanted to keep the focus on the colorful image, so I used a stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things to diecut my panel and mounted it on Smokey Shadow cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I added a couple of pieces of a mini doily from Doodlebug to opposite corners to soften the look a little bit, before popping up a sentiment from the stamp set onto black foam tape from Gina K.

All I did for embellishments was add a couple of sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh, and my card was complete.

These are 49 of the 50 Copics I used to color my image. I also used BG71, which is a color I’ve made myself.

It’s Pawty Time! {Hobbykunst}

ElinLeave a comment

Hi, everyone!

How about a clean and simple birthday card?

I colored up this cute dog and present from My Favorite Things a few days ago, and used a color palette that’s very unusual for me. I decided to keep focusing on the green and glued a piece of patterned paper from the Party Patterns paper pad (also from MFT) straight to my cardbase.

I ran a white cardstock panel through my Gemini Jr with an embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers to create some texture in the background. I mounted it on foam tape and centered it on my card front, before adding my colored image with some 1 mm foam squares for even more dimension.

I white heat embossed a sentiment from the same stamp set onto True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink, mounted that on more foam tape and added some sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh for a finishing touch.

Time for balloons and soda {Rachelle Anne Miller Studios}

ElinLeave a comment

Hi, everyone!

I’ve got a cute birthday card to share today, featuring the adorable Animal Parade image from Rachelle Anne Miller. I simply had to have it, it was way too cute to pass up. I went with a color combination of brown, grayish green and a bright, in your face pink. That pink really stands out against the other, more subdued colors.

I wanted most of the focus on the cute little parade, so I kept the rest pretty simple. I made a cardbase from Hibiscus Burst cardstock from Papertrey Ink. It matches the pinks in my image perfectly. I used a die from Kort & Godt to diecut the main sentiment from four layers of the same color cardstock, layering them for a dimensional effect.

I white heat embossed a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment (time for balloons and soda) onto Stormy Sea cardstock (also from Papertrey Ink). I stacked four layers on this one too, making the sub sentiment flush with the diecut word.

I added a couple of matte gold sequins from the Mint Gold sequins mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards as a finishing touch. They sort of match the cymbals the tiny squirrel is holding, and also the drumsticks. Simple, bright and cheerful. If this birthday card doesn’t put a smile on someone’s face, I don’t know what will.

I leave you with the colors I used for this image. Not really a whole lot for this one.

Birthday hugs {Mo’s Dream Team}

ElinLeave a comment

Hi, everyone!

Another Wednesday, and after a three week summer vacation, I just started back at work in the beginning of the week. I wanted to keep sleeping when that alarm rang on Monday, it was hard getting out of bed. Oh, well, I’m hoping it gets easier. On a lighter note, I have a toddler birthday card to share today, featuring Wee One from Mo’s Digital Pencil. I colored up this cute little guy (or girl, the image is very gender neutral) for day 23 of the most recent 30 day coloring challenge hosted by Kathy Racoosin, and I decided to turn it into a very simple card.

I’m doing my best to make my pile of patterned paper scraps shrink and not grow. My biggest problem with that is that most of my cards are fairly simple without a lot of patterned paper, and my scrap pile feels endless. Still I keep chipping away at it, hoping it’ll be visibly smaller one of these days. For this card I used an old green scrap from Pion Design and a yellow one from Papirdesign. I diecut both, the green using the largest of the stitched rectangle dies from My Favorite Things, and the yellow one using a super old Quickutz die.

I also diecut the image using a smaller stitched rectangle die from MFT, and popped the panel up on foam tape centered on my card. I used some 1 mm foam squares to adhere my circle diecut with a stamped sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS.

I finished off the card by scattering veneer stars from Studio Calico at a diagonal across.

These are the colors I used to color the image. I also used B40, which is a color I’ve made myself.

Wishing you a happy day {Hobbykunst}

ElinLeave a comment

Hi, everyone!

I’ve got some florals coming your way today.

The Statement Flowers from Altenew really do make a statement, and during the last round of Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge, I decided to stamp and color them using the no line technique. I inked up the stamp using fadeout ink from Inkon3 and colored with my Copics. I used my lightest BVs for the flowers.

I wanted something in the background, but nothing too distracting. White on white is such a classic look, and I diecut both the Layered Snowflake cover dies from Altenew (there’s an A die and a B die), stacked them on top of each other and glued them to my cardbase.

I fussy cut around my colored image and mounted it on foam tape. This image is quite large, and even though there’s a lot of detail in the image, it’s very easy to fussy cut. I mounted it on a bit of an angle, making the leaves stick out from both sides of the card. I also white heat embossed a sentiment from the same stamps set on black cardstock and added that to my design.

My last finishing touch was a few sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. Some of them tucked, in true Laura Bassen style, and I even used my scissors on one.