Hi, crafty friends! I have some exciting news to share today! The brand new holiday/winter release from Purple Onion Designs is available for purchase. There are three different collections to choose from. The first one is from Stacey Yacula. Her collections are always well thought out and go brilliant with older collections. The second one is from Pei, who joined the POD illustrator crew last year. I never tire of Tofu and his friends, and this time, there are some penguin pals to add to the cuteness. Last, but not least, we have the Winterwood collection, illustrated by Holly Mabutas, who’s a brand new illustrator at Purple Onion. I’m starting with a card created with images from the newcomer, but I have more up my sleeve, both from her and the others, so watch out for that.
I stamped and colored my critters (Steve & Scarlett, Benjamin, Doug and Scarlett’s Tree) onto X-Press It blending card. I added my signature peachy wintertime sky color in the background, but I actually took a couple of sunset photos as I was getting home from work this afternoon, so maybe I’ll change up my color combos soon.
I stamped a sentiment from the older Holiday Messages Sentiment set using Parsley and Avocado inks from Concord & 9th. I found it difficult to stamp in a color that matched the green in my coloring, but layering this combo worked well. I adhered the panel onto an A6 (4 5/8 6 1/4″) card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and my card was complete.
I used a lot of colors for this scene.
The entire Winterwood collection is available as a 30 % discounted bundle until Friday, November 14th 2024. There are 30 images in this collection, so there’s a lot to play with!!
I started by die cutting half circles into the sides of a panel of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, before running it through my die cutting machine with an old Sizzix embossing folder to create some texture. I adhered my panel to my card base and started working on the rest of the card.
I fussy cut the tree from MA1030, put lots of foam tape on the back and adhered it in the center of the card, making sure that the presents sort of lined up with the notches I’d created. I then pulled a piece of cotton string through the holes of a button that says Merry Christmas, wrapped the string around the card using the notches to keep it in place and tied a knot behind the button. Super simple, right?
This card was so easy to create. I rummaged through my scraps of patterned paper and found these from the Greetings from the North Pole collection from Pion Design, which happens to be a collection from 2016. I don’t buy patterned paper anymore, but I have loads of scraps from the days when I did. The two pieces on the left were actually already torn (and the top was already heat embossed with white Fran-táge. This is an embossing powder which has a little bit of gold in it, and the gold pops off the background. I adhered the dark piece directly to a top fold card base I created from Rustic White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and I popped the other one up on foam tape.
I die cut the shadow for God and the word jul from the same dark pattern, and I die cut a few extra of the words themselves in white for dimension, using Die 347 God jul from Kort & Godt. I also used Die 231 to create the little branch of leaves from patterned paper, and I mounted it on foam tape for a little bit of dimension, before gluing the God die cut on top. I added a few pearls to finish.
I used an embossing folder to create the texture on the background (Berries & boughs embossing folder from Concord & 9th). I cut a rectangle of a decent size to fit in the center of the card and stamped a sentiment from the M-467 stamp set from Kort & Godt using Evergreen ink from Concord & 9th.
I added a few layers of cardstock behind my white rectangle for dimension and used one of the dies from DIE 323 from Kort & Godt for my tree. I cut it from a scrap of patterned paper from the Happy Christmas collection from Maja Design, added some dimension on the back of it and adhered it above the sentiment. Super simple, right?
I started with the Snowfall Backdrop Landscape die from Lawn Fawn, which I die cut from white cardstock (Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink). I did a bit of ink blending with Fresh Dye inks from Altenew, using Arctic Mountain, Winter Lake and Icy Water inks going from top to bottom for a gradient effect.
I used the Snøkrystall ramme 2 die from Papirdesign to cut my border of trees and snowflakes. This die set actually has two borders – one that cuts out the trees and snowflakes I used here, and the other one does snowflakes and stars. I thought the trees went well with my snowfall backdrop, which is why I opted for that.
I trimmed down my snowfall backdrop, adhered it to a white cardbase and layered my die cut border on top, before adding a sentiment that I created with the Juleklem die from Kort & Godt. I cut two layers from the same white cardstock I’ve used throughout the card and one layer from an ink blended piece using the same inks that i used for the sky for a very clean look. This card is so simple, and you could easily mass produce this if you wanted to. I only make one offs, but it’s totally up to you.
I wanted to create a blue Christmas card. Blue’s my jam, and I had this idea as soon as I saw the release. I started with the Merry Trees stencil set, which is a set of two stencils that creates a line of trees. Each of the stencils has two “layers”, and if you layer all four you have the full line of trees in up to four colors. I used the Northern Shore family of Fresh dye inks from Altenew for my stenciling, it’s a great blue family of inks.
Using the Merry Trees die set, I took the big MERRY die and die cut it straight out of my ink blended trees. I also die cut an additional four layers of using After Midnight cardstock from My Favorite Things. I cut off a little on each side of the white panel, adhered it to a card base in that same dark blue color and puzzle pieced the letters back in. The fact that they’re stacked with a dark color makes the word easier to read than if I’d used white to stack.
I white heat embossed a couple of sentiments from the Merry Greetings builder stamp set onto After midnight cardstock and cut them down to sentiment strips using the Merry Greetings builder die set. I usually use a steel ruler and craft knife to create my sentiment strips, but there’s something about the roundness of the edge that you get by using a die. I added a few more strips of cardstock behind each of the sentiment strips for dimension and placed them above and below the die cut MERRY to complete the sentiment.
I decided not to use any embellishments on this card. Sometimes I feel like the colors and cardstock do all the work for me, and I love how this one turned out.
I used the igloo with the peeking penguin and only added one small penguin for this simple card. I didn’t even use the entire igloo, I like the look of the design coming in from the side like this. I colored the image with Copics and used a die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower to turn it into a nice panel and adhered it to a top fold card base I created from Peacock cardstock from Concord & 9th.
Using the Hooray Script die from Mama Elephant, I cut three die cut layers from Watermelon cardstock from Concord & 9th, which I stacked for a little bit of dimension. I white heat embossed a sentiment from the Birthday messages stamp set from Mama Elephant on a strip of Peacock cardstock. I added a few more layers of cardstock behind it and adhered it below the die cut part of the greeting, before finishing off the card with a few sequins from the Ice Water mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Mostly BGs for this card. I love my BGs.
I had a dry embossed white panel in my stash I thought I’d put to good use (I used the Snowflake Confetti fancy die from Hero Arts with an embossing mat to create this texture).
I die cut a scribbled circle and a couple of layers of a poinsettia from Ocean Tides cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I used the same color cardstock to create my card base and mounted my white panel at an angle to create a dynamic design.
I adhered the circle with a tiny bit of glue where my leaves would cover it, making the rest of the circle float above the rest.
I cut apart the poinsettia petals to use as leaves and inked over them with Eucalyptus and Rainforest inks from Concord & 9th. I adhered the large ones with a bit of foam behind each leaf for dimension, but glued the smaller ones straight down at the base of the leaves.
Using liquid glue, I added three large berries to the center of my leaf arrangement before finishing off with a sticker, which I put slivers of foam on the back of for even more lift. I like that it kind of floats above the rest.
I printed the image on a piece of X-Press It blending card, colored it with my Copics and used a die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower to trim the rectangle down a bit. You could also use a trimmer for this. Into the panel, I die cut the words god jul using dies from Kort & Godt. The two words are actually from separate die sets, but work perfectly together like this.
I adhered my panel to a top fold card base I created from Autumn Rose cardstock from Papertrey Ink, paper pieced the counters back into place, sprinkled on Chunky White embossing enamel from Stampendous and heated the granules from the back. I should have done this before adhering my panel to the card base to spend less time with the heat gun (melting the powder through two layers of cardstock takes significantly longer than doing it through just the one layer), but I honestly forgot about it. It does work through two layers, it’s just a matter of patience.
Once my snow was in place, I die cut four layers of each of the words from black cardstock. I stacked them, added the colored one on top and puzzle pieced them in where they belonged, before adding a few Snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish the card.
Pink and dirty green. This is about as close as I (willingly) get to using red and green together on a card.
I started by ink smooshing Harbor ink from Concord & 9th onto a panel of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. This ink color is very interesting when you get it wet, it shatters into a sky blue and a very purply blue, making it look like I used more than just the one color of ink. The butterflies look painted, so I thought the ink smooshed background was a natural choice.
I fussy cut the butterflies and bent the wings backwards. I glued the bodies directly to the card front and put foam squares on the back of the wings to give them a little lift (since taking these photos, I’ve adhered the body of the big butterfly directly to the card front, but it’s kind of floating here). I used a hug die (die 244 Klem) to die cut twice from white cardstock and once from Wheat cardstock from Concord & 9th. I stacked them together, but I felt like there wasn’t enough dimension, so I added foam squares to the back of the layered die cut and adhered it to the card. This gives it more lift and a floating effect that you can’t achieve by stacking die cuts alone. I finished off the card with a visual triangle of pearls that match the butterflies and the inked background.
Papirmølla 