Hello {Purple Onion Designs}

June 11, 2021June 11, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I hope you’ve had a good week so far. Summer’s finally here, and I for one couldn’t be happier about it. More sunlight, warmer weather and looooong days (sunrise before 4 AM and sunset around 11 PM right now). When the weather gets warmer, we always see more planes in the air. Not commercial flights, but smaller planer and seaplanes (we’re on a fjord). I love this time of year and seeing all these cute (can planes be cute?) planes, and I thought this T-bird image from Purple Onion Designs was the perfect image to represent the season.

I used reds, yellows and oranges for my image, colors I definitely don’t use a lot, but I thought it would be a nice contrast to the ink blended cloud background and my gray skyscraper skyline. I stamped the T-Bird and the banner on one piece of X-Press It blending card, wanting the two images to look like one. I fussy cut them and stamped hello from the Journey sentiment set onto the banner, before mounting the plane and banner on 1/16″ foam tape. For the background I used the slimline cloud edges stencil from My Favorite Things along with Eastern Sky ink from Altenew which I ink blended onto a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock that I’d die cut using one of the dies from the Slimline Starter die set from My Favorite Things. I used the same die on a piece of Gravel Gray cardstock from MFT to get the nice faux stitched edge going all the way around my card and a die in the Slim Film City die set from Mama Elephant to create the skyline. Everything’s adhered onto a top fold slimline card base that I made out of Red Hot cardstock from My Favorite Things.

Doesn’t this bear look cute in his plane?? I stamped and white heat embossed some clouds onto vellum and adhered them using slivers of clear foam tape behind the white embossed lines. It would have been easier to glue them straight onto the card, but I like a bit of dimension, which is tricky with vellum, because pretty much everything shows through. The white embossed lines hide my foam tape pretty well.

Like I said initially, these warm colors aren’t the ones that I reach for the most, but I love how they pop against the ink blended clouds and skyline in the background.

Get happy! {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

June 9, 2021June 9, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, there! Today, I have a bright, sunshiny card to share featuring the We Go Together image from Mo Manning. I shared the colored image on Instagram a couple of months back, and for the card I wanted to feature the one color out of the four main ones (blue, teal, pinky peach and yellow) that I use the least. That’s definitely yellow, so I pulled out yellow cardstock, patterned paper, ink and enamel dots.

I cut the colored piece down more than I normally would to let quite a bit of the yellow patterned paper from Papirdesign show around my image, and mounted my die cut colored piece on foam tape in the center of the card. I adhered pieces of a mini paper doily from Doodlebug to opposite corners of my die cut piece for a little bit of added texture and interest.

Onto a scrap piece of X-Press It blending card I stamped a sentiment from the Journey sentiment set from Purple Onion Designs using Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink. I love how well the Distress Oxide inks stamp. I cut it down to a strip using the medium sized die in the fishtail flag frames die set from My Favorite Things, and added it to the card using foam tape and foam squares. To finish off I added three enamel dots from the Pocketful of Sunshine pack from Altenew.

Quite a few Copics on this one, I rarely feature four different colors in one piece.

Waving hello {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

June 7, 2021June 14, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! Today I have a sneak peek to share of one of the new images coming from Rachelle Anne Miller later this week. It’s a hot air balloon, and I actually saw one outside my craft room window a couple of weeks ago. They’re not too common around here.

I printed the image on X-Press It blending card, colored it with my Copics and die cut it into a panel using the largest of the dies from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things. I adhered it to a card base I made from Wild Wisteria card stock from My Favorite Things and went digging through my stash looking for the perfect sentiment.

The girl in the basket is definitely waving hello to the little bird on the outside, so I decided to use this sentiment from Purple Onion Designs. I white heat embossed it onto a separate piece of Wild Wisteria card stock, cut it down to a strip with a nice end using the medium size of the fishtail flag frames dies from My Favorite Things and adhered it to my card using 1 mm foam squares. I finished off the card with a few sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

Not a lot of Copics for this one, this image was quick and easy to color. The first thing I colored was actually the bird using those blues, but once the rest of the image was colored too, he really stood out, so I put some pinkish purple on top of the blue.

Happiness is… {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

June 2, 2021June 1, 2021 Elin2 Comments

…the art of making a bouquet of those flowers within reach. This Bob Goddard quote was the perfect phrase to put on today’s card featuring Billy Boy from Mo’s Digital Pencil. I think he looks pretty happy with the flowers in his hands. Not yet a bouquet, but I’m sure he can pick a few more.

I don’t know how I’ve done it, but this is actually the 100th card I’ve made in 2021. I usually reach 100 right before the new year starts, but this year is obviously different, we’re only at the start of June and I have plenty of cards left to create over the next seven months before the year is up.

I colored up Billy Boy about a week ago and shared the coloring on Instagram (@elinheve), so all I had left to do was turn it into a card. I went super simple by die cutting it with the largest of the dies in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX set from My Favorite Things and added it to a top fold card base made out of Tropical Teal cardstock, also from MFT.

I recently ordered a few of the new inks from My Favorite Things. My order arrived on Monday, and I tested them out on my sentiment. They’re kind of unique in that they’re dye inks, but the pad is squishy, and they’re super juicy. I stamped the Bob Goddard quote (stamp from Norsk Stempelblad AS) using Caribbean Sea (a teal leading towards green) first, and then stamped on top of that with Lazy Day, which is a blue ink. The two together create a color that’s pretty similar to Tropical Teal, which is what I was going for (the Tropical Teal ink was sold out when I placed my order, which is why I didn’t just use that). I’m not used to the squishy pads, but the ink stamped beautifully.

To finish off the card I added a few enamel dots near the sentiment. The teal ones are from the Cool Summer Night set from Altenew, the yellow from the Cambridge Court pack from My Mind’s Eye.

Last, but not least, some bright Copic colors to finish.

Hello {Streamside Studios}

May 31, 2021May 30, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Good morning! It’s the start of a new week, and if this green color doesn’t wake you up, nothing will. It’s bright!! It feels like summer’s finally on its way, and I spent a good chunk of yesterday hiking. Everything is so bright green now after what feels like the coldest, rainiest spring ever.

I put together this little scene with an owl, a tire swing and a tree, all from the Woodland Friends digital stamp set from Streamside Studios. I did some simple Copic coloring and used a die from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things to turn it into a nice panel with faux stitching around the edge. I love these stitched rectangle dies, I use them so much!

I mounted the colored piece onto a card base made from Limelight cardstock from My Favorite Things. It’s a very bright green. I die cut some leaves from the Leafy Cover die from Mama Elephant and mounted those near the bottom left corner using some 1 mm foam squares.

On top of the die cut leaves I added a die cut “hallo” (hello in Norwegian) consisting of 3 white layers with the Limelight green on top, and a white shadow. I mounted this on foam squares, too, so this has a lot of dimension.

A side view to show more of all the layers. I added some sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards for a little bit of an extra detail near the die cuts.

Last, but not least, the Copics I used to color my image.

Have a wonderful day {Purple Onion Designs}

May 29, 2021May 29, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there. I have a tri-fold window card to share today, featuring some cuties from the latest release from Purple Onion Designs.

For the front of the card, I colored Junie and fussy cut her, mounting her on foam tape in the bottom right corner of the card, right in front of a circle window I created. I wanted a card base other than white for this card, and chose Hawaiian Shores from Papertrey Ink, which is a beautiful teal color. I used the largest of my A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX dies from My Favorite Things to die cut a white panel to go on top. I stamped one of the sentiments from the Around the Town sentiment set using Hawaiian Shores ink to match the card base.

A bit of a side angle. You can see the flower shop on the inside of the card a little bit better, and even that there is another layer of card behind there, which folds down.

This flower shop is a fairly large stamp, and it juuuust fit the panel I was working on. Before I started coloring, I left the stamp in my MISTI, so I could go back in once the coloring was complete and stamp and heat emboss the letters in the sign. You don’t want to color with Copics on a heat embossed image, it will ruin your marker nibs, but by doing the embossing last, you avoid that problem altogether. This panel flips down, revealing plenty of room for a personal message.

Last, but not least, the Copics I used. Lots of different grey families in this one.

Mr. Fixit {Purple Onion Designs}

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I’ve got a simple card with some dimension and fussy cutting to share today, featuring a couple of stamps from the latest release from Stacey Yacula and Purple Onion Designs.

I started by stamping Milton the bear and the ivy cottage in Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, coloring in both images with my Copics. I fussy cut both right up to the stamped lines, and used a die from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 set from MFT to do some partial die cutting of the cottage. I wanted the foreground to have that nice stitched edge, but not cut off the tree – partial die cutting is great for that.

On a piece of white cardstock, I used the cloud stencil from My Favorite Things to ink blend some puffy clouds with Iceberg ink from Altenew. I die cut this panel with that same die that I used for the ivy cottage, adhered it directly onto a white top fold card base, and mounted the ivy cottage onto that using 1 mm foam squares. I added Milton on top with more 1 mm foam squares, stamped a sentiment from the Around the Town sentiment set using Soft Granite ink from Hero Arts, and added the sentiment towards the top of the card using foam tape. I adhered a few sequins from the white orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish my card. I need to create a slightly bigger envelope than usual for this card. The tree hanging out from the edge means it won’t fit in a standard envelope for A2 cards.

Not a whole lot of Copics for this one. Lots of green, though.

You deserve flowers {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

May 23, 2021May 24, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have a super simple card to share today, featuring the Little Fairy image from Rachelle Anne Miller.

I colored my image with Copics and die cut it using a die from My Favorite Things and adhered it to a top fold card base I made from Bright Buttercup cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

Using VersaMark ink, I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto a scrap piece of Raspberry Fizz cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I turned it into a strip using one of the dies in the Fishtail Flag Frames die set from My Favorite Things, mounted it on foam tape and adhered it to the card.

I finished off the card with some white sequins from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

As usual, a graphic of the Copics I used.

Hang in there {Purple Onion Designs}

May 20, 2021May 20, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have a very clean and simple card to share today, featuring some more stamps from the latest release from Stacey Yacula and Purple Onion Designs.

I thought the Hang in there sentiment from the Around the Town sentiment set (also new with this release) would be the perfect accompaniment to the clothes line. I could have kept my card even simpler by not adding anything else to it, but I wanted to create a little scene. I stamped Jane the fox waving hello at the very front and added in one of the stamps from the country flowers set to fill out my scene a little. They match the little sprigs at the bottom of the clothes line perfectly. I stamped the countryside horizon towards the top of my panel and colored everything with my Copics.

Once my entire scene was colored, I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles dies from My Favorite Things to turn it into a panel with a nice faux stitch egde and adhered it to a top fold white card base. I stamped the sentiment using Blueberry Sky ink from Papertrey Ink, die cutting it into a nice banner using one of the dies in the Fishtail Flag Frames die set from My Favorite Things. I adhered it to my card using foam tape and added some blue enamel dots from Papirdesign to finish.

I’ve colored a lot of scenery for the cards I’ve made with this release, and wanted to get a different green look for the grass and trees for this card compared to the others, which have all been fairly bright. This is a more subdued green, I kind of like it.

Best news ever! {Purple Onion Designs}

May 17, 2021May 17, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I’m sharing a shaker card today, featuring Alex the owl from Purple Onion Designs. He’s got good news to share!

I colored the image with Copics and set it aside while I worked on the rest of the card. On a piece of white card stock, I used the Linen & Canvas impression plate from Papertrey Ink to add texture to all that white space, before using the Selfie Square die and the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles dies from My Favorite Things to add the faux stitching around the edge and also to frame the window.

I added acetate in the window and put micro beads inside, before mounting it all on foam tape and adhering it to a top fold card base I made from New Leaf cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Around the Town sentiment set onto a scrap of New Leaf cardstock, which I die cut using the smallest of the Fishtail Flag Frames dies from My Favorite Things. I finished off the card with a few green enamel dots from Papirdesign.