Let it snow {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

September 17, 2021September 17, 2021 Elin2 Comments

Hi. Sharing a simple mini slimline today with a cute image from Rachelle Anne Miller. I love this Snowman Hug image, and I’ve used it previously for a wintery birthday card, but today, I’ve got a red and tealy blue Christmas card to share. If you use the code ELINVENGE in Rachelle’s store, you get a 10 % discount on your purchase.

I feel like I haven’t made my signature cluster cards in a while, so I decided to pull out patterned paper scraps and my Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut, an amazing die that cut nine different tickets in one pass, I love it. It’s an older die, but I always use it for my clusters.

I don’t often create red Christmas cards, but when I can pair that red with a tealy blue, a light blue or a gray, I can make red work. I printed and colored the image onto a 3 1/4 x 6 1/4″ panel of X-Press It blending card, before sprinkling on lots of chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous to make my scene extra snowy.

The patterned papers are all die cut from the 6×6″ Home for the Holidays paper stack from Maja Design. I love their patterns and their colors, and the colors in this stack are SO good, I couldn’t resist.

Mini slimline cards are fun to make. I really should make my envelopes as I go, but I’m not very consistent with that, I’m afraid, and will have lots of envelopes to create once we get a little closer to Christmas (we’ve got less than 100 days to go, by the way).

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Holiday stamp set from My Favorite Things onto a scrap piece of patterned paper from that stack from Maja Design, and die cut that with the coordinating Itty Bitty Strips die.

I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and the entire panel is adhered onto a card base I made from Wild Cherry cardstock from My Favorite Things. I love their cardstock!

As usual, I finish with my colors. Not a whole lot for this image.

Good friends are the best gift of Christmas

August 31, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! I’m sharing a Christmas card today, featuring the Dragon building a snowman image from Lee Holland. He still has his Ultimate Christmas bundle and Ultimate Dragon bundle at a whopping 60% discount with the code CHRISTMAS60, but the offer expires today, so you’d better be quick if you want to get them.

I colored in my image using the no line technique. Before printing, I made all the lines in the image light gray except for the eyes and eyebrows, which I kept black. This is a great trick to color no line without having to worry about drawing things back in with a black pen and potentially getting things wonky and weird. I’ve done that once, starting over isn’t fun, so I’ve learned to get around it.

I cut my colored piece down using a stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things. I covered the card base with patterned paper from the Forever Green collection paper pack from ModaScrap and mounted my colored panel onto that using lots of foam tape.

I cut a couple of strips of patterned paper from that same paper pack from ModaScrap and added them onto my colored panel. Using a green marker, I created a green colored cardstock piece to match my dragon, stamped my Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment onto it, heat embossed it and used a circle punch to get it to a perfect 1″ circle, before adding an epoxy sticker on top for a little shine and dimension.

To finish off my card I added a few enamel dots. The brown ones and the white are from Papirdesign, the green ones from Altenew.

Not a whole heap of colors for this one.

You’re the best! {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

August 11, 2021July 23, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi! I’m back with another creation using one of Mo’s adorable images. This is Best of the Bunch, and it’s one of many favorites I have from her.

I colored the image with my Copics and used the largest of the A2 Double Stitched Rectangles dies from My Favorite Things to turn my colored piece into a panel with the faux stitch edges I love so much.

I adhered my panel onto a top fold A2 card base I made from Blue Yonder cardstock from My Favorite Things. It’s such a pretty blue color, I love it.

I decided to add one of my signature clusters to this card. A scrap piece of a paper doily from Doodlebug Design lays the foundation for all the other bits on top. I keep a bin on my desk with lots of die cut patterned paper scraps that are perfect for clusters like this.

For this particular card, the scraps are from Papirdesign, Fancy Pants and Sunny Studio, and they’re all die cut using one of two die sets: the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut (one die which cuts out nine different tickets, it’s kind of awesome) and the Fishtail Flag Frames die set from My Favorite Things.

On top of the cluster I added a sentiment. I heat embossed a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Basics stamp set from My Favorite Things onto Blue Yonder cardstock, and die cut it using one of the dies in the Itty Bitty Strips die set. I added a few blue enamel dots from Papirdesign to finish, and my card was complete.

Lots of colors for this one.

Hello there {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

July 14, 2021July 13, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi there! Today’s card actually features an image called Hi there. This is a very simple image, and I should have been able to color it super quickly, but coloring the mint green around the white of the paper to leave the flowers white took a while. It might have something to do with the fact that I was watching the semi-final, then the first two parts of the finale of MasterChef Australia while coloring, but I won’t mention that.

I used mostly light colors for my coloring on this card, and die cut the colored panel using a die from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 set from My Favorite Things and adhered it onto a top fold card base made from Mint Julep card stock from Papertrey Ink. It’s a pretty small card measuring in just shy of 4 Bar dimensions at 3 1/2 x 4 3/4″. I added my “typical Elin cluster” in the top right corner using scraps of paper doilies from Doodlebug Design and scraps of patterned paper from various companies (Maja Design, Papirdesign, Diecuts with a view and Making Memories are represented here) die cut using dies from My Favorite Things and XCut.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Basics stamp set from My Favorite Things onto Smokey Shadow card stock from Papertrey Ink, before using one of the Itty Bitty Strips dies from MFT to die cut it. I added it on top of my cluster with a little bit of dimension behind it, before finishing off with a few enamel dots from Altenew. I added an even smaller cluster using similar elements in the opposite corner.

Not a lot of Copics, that’s bound to happen with a pale color palette.

Missing you {hÄnglar & Wings}

June 26, 2021June 18, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi there! A few months ago I was asked to guest design for hÄnglar & Wings. I have a hard time saying no to guest design gigs no matter how busy I am, and today I’m sharing the first of two cards I made with the stamp set I chose. Part of me wanted to choose a Christmas set (I loooove creating Christmas cards), but I went completely opposite in the end and chose a stamp set with a couple of very summery girls called Bästa Vänner.

For this first card I decided to create a card that is very typical for me. Colored image, die cut panel with faux stitch edge and an embellishment cluster with a sentiment.

I colored the girl from the Bästa Vänner stamp set with my Copics, and used a die from My Favorite Things to turn it into a panel with the aforementioned faux stitch edge that I love so much. I adhered it to a card base I made out of Wild Wisteria card stock (sadly, a discontinued color) from My Favorite Things.

I love creating these embellishment clusters with die cut patterned paper scraps. I have a tub of these die cut scraps on my desk, sorted by color so I don’t have to go through the whole tub for each card. I typically choose two or three colors that go with the colors in my image and play with sizes and directions of my scraps until I come up with a design I’m happy with. It’s my favorite way to use up my patterned paper scraps. Back in the day I used a ton of patterned paper, and I still have lots left as I don’t use much of it anymore, but this method makes my scrap pile shrink ever so slightly with each cluster.

For this cluster I used paper from P13, Imaginisce, Scenic Route and Karen Foster. I put a mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design at the bottom and built up my cluster with a little bit of foam tape here and there for dimension. The sentiment comes from the Bästa Vänner stamp set, embossed in white on a die cut piece of the same color card stock that I used for my cardbase. To finish off the card, I added a few enamel dots from Altenew.

Not a whole heap of colors used for this one.

A little hello {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

June 16, 2021June 15, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi there! I love lily of the valley, and as soon as I saw Lily Fairy from Mo Manning, I knew it was an image I needed. They’re at their peak right now, and they smell so divine. I’ve picket two bouquets, I just wish they lasted longer than a couple of days in a vase. Hopefully, my card will last longer than the actual flowers.

I colored up my image with Copics. I chose a very light, bright combo for the green. The leaves on a lily of the valley are much darker than this, but I really like this combo, and with the fairy hanging out between the leaves, I didn’t really care too much about realism anyway. I chose to color her dress pink for a pop of a different color, and you can actually get real lilies of the valley that are pink, so I thought it was the perfect fit.

After using a die from My Favorite Things to add the faux stitch lines around the edge of my colored panel, I added Frosted Lace Stickles from Ranger to her wings for a little bit of sparkle. I adhered my panel onto a top fold card base I made from Sour Apple card stock from My Favorite Things.

Embellishment clusters have become a signature of mine, and I have five things that I pretty much always use to create them:

White mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design.
The Fishtail Flag Frames die set from My Favorite Things.
The Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut.
Scraps of patterned paper.
Enamel dots or sequins.

I keep a tub on my desk with die cut patterned paper scraps where I’ve used the two die sets I mentioned. The other day I even took the time to sort through them and divide them by color, which will make it easier to pull the ones I need for future cards. For this one I used two additional dies: a hole pattern die from Papirdesign and a die from the Itty Bitty Strips die set from My Favorite Things for the sentiment.

The sentiment is from a stamp set from InkyWings, heat embossed in white onto Sour Apple cardstock from My Favorite Things. I’ve added 1 mm foam squares between some of the layers in my cluster for a little bit of dimension, and I even put a mini cluster in the opposite corner, using scraps from the bigger cluster. I really like using as much of my cardstock and patterned paper as I possibly can, and by doing it this way, very little goes to waste. The patterned paper I used for these clusters is a mix of 3ndypapir, P13 and Sunny Studio, and I found the perfect color of enamel dots from Papirdesign as a finishing touch.

Very limited color palette for this one.

Surprise {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

May 5, 2021May 4, 2021 Elin4 Comments

Hi, there! I can’t believe it’s May and the last month of spring already. It doesn’t really feel like spring, though, it’s still really cold with snow in the forecast for today. What do I do when it’s cold? I escape by coloring summery images, like this I like you image from Mo’s Digital Pencil.

For someone who claims that her favorite color is blue, I haven’t really used a lot of blue lately. It might have something to do with the fact that I associate blue with Christmas, but it might also be that I’ve found myself a new favorite. A double favorite, even. I’ve used the combination of teal and peach on so many of my cards lately, I might have to put away those markers for a bit and try some other colors. 😉

I changed up my teal combo a little bit for this girl and even introduced a green in my combo, making her shirt super light in the highlight areas. I even tried a new combo for her hair, which matched surprisingly well with those yellow flowers she’s holding. Once I was done coloring, I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX dies from My Favorite Things to turn my colored piece into a panel with nice faux stitch edges.

On my desk I keep a tub of die cut paper scraps that I use for my embellishment clusters. I dug through it and found various pieces that I thought would fit this card well. They’re from a mix of companies: Maja Design, Studio Light, P13 and Sunny Studio. I love creating these clusters, they’re so fun to put together, and a great way to make use of scraps (not that my pile of scraps shrinks too much with each card). At the bottom is part of a mini paper doily from Doodlebug, and I added some enamel dots from the Warm and Cozy set from Altenew to finish.

I white heat embossed the sentiment from the Hilsninger stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS and die cut that using the smallest of the fishtail flag frames dies from My Favorite Things. After chopping off the overhang, I had a little piece of that doily left and the end of the sentiment banner, which I adhered in the bottom left corner of the card. I like not wasting my scraps, and this is a great way to use them.

Most of the pieces in my embellishment cluster are mounted on 1 mm foam squares for dimension. Foam without a ton of dimension is key for this, otherwise the card gets super thick from all the layers.

Quite a few Copics for such a simple image.

Christmas time {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

April 21, 2021April 21, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, there! Another Wednesday’s come around, which means another Mo Manning creation. Today, I actually have a Christmas card to share. Christmas is only 8 months away, time will fly.

Mo Manning Winter Delivery front

I’m getting close to the end of the alphabet of my previously unused images from Mo Manning. I have close to 400 digital stamps from Mo, and it’s a pretty good feeling to have used nearly all of them. This is Winter Delivery, a cute hatted squirrel carrying a bag of acorns through the snow.

Mo Manning Winter Delivery flatllay venstre

I colored the image with my Copics, before taking out my most used cluster dies and scraps of patterned Christmas paper from Maja Design (and that sentiment strip from Papirdesign) to create a tiny cluster in the top right corner. I used part of a Doodlebug doily at the bottom, a branch die cut with a Papirdesign die, as well as tickets die cut using the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut (Docrafts) and the Fishtail Flag Frames dies from My Favorite Things. I used another favorite MFT die to die cut the panel with the squirrel, before adding it directly to a side fold landscape card base made out of Soft Stone card stock from Papertrey Ink. I rarely make side fold cards, but I had a piece of card stock already cut to 4 1/4 x 11″, and it made more sense to fold that down the middle rather than pulling out a new sheet to make a top fold card.

Mo Manning Winter Delivery Copics

Simple color palette today.

Christmas greeting

April 7, 2021April 6, 2021 Elin2 Comments

Hi, there! You probably aren’t thinking of Christmas cards yet. We’re still in early April and Easter just ended, but I looooove making Christmas cards all year and have one to share today. Not very traditional with a sheepdog on the front, but I know just who to send this to.

I colored up Christmas Sheepdog (with hat) very quickly using my Copics. There’s also a version without the hat. I colored the fur uneven and streaky on purpose. I didn’t want to take the time to do real fur, but I also didn’t want it completely flat.

After die cutting my colored piece to a rectangle with faux stitching around the edge using a die from My Favorite Things, I adhered it directly to a top fold card base made out of Soft Stone card stock from Papertrey Ink. Initially, I wanted green, but none of my green card stock colors were a good match (green is tricky), and this grey from Papertrey Ink is beautiful!

I pulled out my usual cluster supplies – mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design, the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut and my Fishtail Flag Frames dies from My Favorite Things. They’re staples whenever I make embellishment clusters.

Rummaging through my drawer of Christmas patterned paper scraps, I found these lovely green ones from the Christmas in Norway collection from Pion Design, and used the dies to cut out a few pieces to go on my card. I also used a die from Papirdesign to die cut a pine branch, just to add something different to the mix.

I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto one of the banners, heat embossing it in white, before assembling my cluster and adding it to the card with foam squares to build up the layers. I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and the card was finished.

Very limited color palette for this one.

A little princess {Lili of the Valley}

April 3, 2021April 2, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! I have a simple baby card to share today, featuring the adorable Baby Scales image from Lili of the Valley.

I colored the image with Copics and fussy cut it, leaving a thin white border. Normally, I’d cut right up to the stamped lines, but with the baby’s strands of hair sticking out from the top of its head, that wasn’t going to happen.

I ran a piece of Lilac Grace card stock from Papertrey Ink through my Gemini Jr. with the Linen & Canvas impression plate, also from Papertrey Ink, for a little bit of subtle texture in the background. I love this particular impression plate, but it’s the first time I’ve used this side of it, I usually use the other. I cropped the panel down significantly and added it with foam tape to my card base. I used 1 mm foam squares behind the image, and adhered that to the bottom left.

I used a stamp from Norsk Stempelblad AS with Altenew Amethyst ink to create my sentiment strip. I found a scrap corner of a mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design that I adhered directly to my textured panel, before mounting the sentiment strip on top with more of those 1 mm foam squares, finishing off with a few enamel dots from Papirdesign.

Not a whole lot of Copics used for this image, it IS simple, after all. I also used V97, which is a color I’ve made myself.