Hi, crafty friends! It’s FINALLY starting to feel like summer. For the past week or so, we’ve had sunny weather and temperatures above 25. HEAVEN! We even had around 300 lightning strikes in the greater metropolitan area early Sunday morning. The thunder actually woke me up. I love thunder, so I spent around 20 minutes listening intently before falling back asleep. With the warm weather comes time spent at lakes, in the fjord or at the beach, and today’s card certainly fits that summer theme, featuring a few cuties from the new Lakewood collection at Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Holly Mabutas.
I stamped the Floatie gang, added a mask, stamped the floating swim raft and the Boat House, all using Altenew Obsidian ink on Fabriano Artístico cold pressed watercolor paper.
I used my Mijello Mission Gold watercolors and brushes in varying sizes to color in my scene, cut it down and stamped a sentiment from the Happy Hello sentiment set using Blueberry ink from Concord & 9th. Cold pressed watercolor paper is fairly textured, so I stamped it a few times for a crisp impression.
I adhered the panel to a 5 3/4 x 5 1/2″ top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, before finishing off with a few Raindrops from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
I stamped the large floral image using Memento Espresso Truffle ink, which sits somewhere between brown and grey, it’s a nice color to use when you don’t want black. I then die cut the image, before I used the coloring stencils and fresh dye inks from Altenew to do the “coloring”. I used the North Shore set for the blues, Sun-kissed Delights for the yellows, Jade Dreams for the greens and Warm Gray for the gray (which I covered up with the green). I didn’t want the centers green, so I started out with grey, which got very flat and dull. I covered it with green, which then made it very dark, and still pretty flat, so in the end, I went over with lots of dots of a white Sharpie paint marker and a black glaze pen. It turned out okay in the end, but if I were to remake this card, I think I’d go in with a couple of greens anyway. Live and learn, I guess.
I created a large card base (5 x 6 1/4″) and ink blended Winter Lake ink onto the bottom for a nice, gradient effect. I used the Stippled Plaid press plate from Pinkfresh Studio to create some subtle interest in the background on a separate piece of paper. I inked up the plate with Icy Water ink, spritzed water on the back and front of the piece of white cardstock, then ran it through my die cutting machine with an embossing mat to create some deep texture. I then adhered this panel in the center of the card base using foam tape.
Behind my die cut floral, I stacked another 3 die cuts from white cardstock and adhered my stack to my card, letting equal amounts hang off the sides on the left and the right. I also die cut the Waterbrush Hello die from Altenew four times from white cardstock. I inked up the top layer with Arctic Mountain ink and adhered it to my flowers.
To finish off the design, I added some ombré glitter drops from Pinkfresh Studio in a visual triangle across the card.
I started with a panel of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink that I dry embossed. I then used a stencil set (the Butterfly Blooms set from Concord & 9th) to add the color. I used all inks from Concord & 9th: Powder for the background, Sprout and Parsley for the greens, Sunshine and Buttercup for the florals and Pink Lemonade and Honeysuckle for the pinks.
Once the panel was all inked, I adhered it to a white card base, created half circle notches at the top and bottom with a small circle die and thread some cotton thread through, which I tied off in a bow. I added pink sparkly gems to act as the bodies of the butterflies and finished off with a couple of black sentiment sticker strips that I mounted on foam tape. I love the softness of the background against the bold of the black. The black really draws your eye.
I fit a lot of images into this scene. 
I colored in my scene with Copics, opting for very vibrant colors for all the floating elements and the details on the boat house, while keeping the rest fairly muted. The lake is lighter the further back you get, and the sky is a bit moody off in the distance. I added a bit of black glaze pen to the eyes of the gang on the pier for a little bit of dimension and shine.
I stamped a sentiment from the 
I adhered the panel to a card base that measures 6 1/8″ x 4 1/4″. This is an irregular size for a card, but when I create scenes like this, I let the scene dictate the size of the card. I can always make a custom envelope to fit.
I used lots of Copics for this one.
I knew I had to color up this image as soon as I saw it. This is so adorable with the corgi hanging off the top of the glass. And so funny, and very typical of Pei’s illustration style. I love it!
I colored the image with Copics, fussy cut him, then added VersaMarker pen to the rim of the glass and used white puff embossing powder from Wow! to mimic a salt rim. The embossing also adds some fun texture to the glass. I also used a black glaze pen to add a little bit of shine and dimension to his eyes.
I ink blended Parsley and Starfruit inks from Concord & 9th onto a white cardstock panel for an ombré effect, then used the Geometric embossing folder from WRMK to create some subtle dimension. I added the panel to a card base I’d covered with Parsley cardstock from Concord & 9th, before mounting the image using foam tape.
In this release there are also a few sentiment sets, and this one from the 
Simple color palette for this one. This was so fun to color!!!
The Blended petals set from Concord & 9th is a very versatile one with a large flower image that you can color up any way you’d like. There are even coordinating stencils that let you add color very easily, which is what I used for my card. As much as I love coloring, stencils make everything go so much faster!
I stamped the image in black ink, let it dry and used the coordinating stencils to color it in using Creamsicle, Sweet Pea, Wildberry, Sprout, Tidepool and Peacock inks, all Concord & 9th colors. I then used the coordinating die to cut out the image, adding a couple of blank die cuts behind it for dimension.
I used the Twist Pattern press plate from Pinkfresh Studio along with some Pistachio Fresh Dye ink from Altenew to create a subtle pattern in the background. I die cut it using the coordinating die and added two more die cuts behind it before adhering it to the front of a top fold card I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, which is the same white cardstock I used for everything except the sentiment.
Speaking of the sentiment – I used the Sweet Sentiments die set from Altenew. The top layer is from white mirror cardstock from Kort & Godt, the black is black mirror cardstock from Kort & Godt, and then I put three additional die cuts of the shadow die behind for dimension. I finished off the card very simply with Iridescent Dew Drops from Pinkfresh Studio.
I actually decided to watercolor this one with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. I prefer using a paintbrush with water with these, but there’s also a blender that you can use. Marcel is small, but I still used three different browns and a pink for him (064 Oatmeal, 607 Milk Tea, 068 Deep Brown and 200 S. Almond Pink). For Elliot and the die cut letters I used 312 Overcast Sky only. I did use a little pink for the bow on his tail, but for the actual elephant, it was just the one blue. I love the movement you get with watercolor, it’s something you can’t really achieve with Copics.
I fussy cut my image, leaving a thin white border. Using the Impact Alphabet die set from My Favorite Things, I die cut the letters to spell out STOR (big) four times from white cardstock and once from Black cardstock from Concord & 9th. I used the Parker lowercase alphabet die set from Memory Box to die cut the letters for klem (hug), again four layers of white, this time topped by a layer of the watercolor paper.
I stacked my layers, and sandwiched the image between the white and black letters for the large word. I created a black mat on the card front, covered that with a piece of green patterned paper from the Watercolor Wash 6×6″ paper pad from My Favorite Things and mounted the letters and image in the center. I adhered the klem letters directly on top of the larger letters and added a sub sentiment sticker strip from Kort & Godt below it. I popped it up a bit to level it with the black letters, before finishing off with a few dew drops from the Spring Leaves embellishment mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
I used the Twist pattern press plate from Pinkfresh Studio with Nectar ink from Concord & 9th on a piece of Nectar cardstock from Concord & 9th to create a subtle background. I adhered the panel to a top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
I mounted the tag in the center using foam tape and added a bow with white cotton thread from Kort & Godt. I adhered a couple of sentiment sticker strips with foam tape.
To finish off the card I adhered a few faceted pearls. This card is so simple, and the soft colors really are perfect for spring.
I added some tufts of grass to my coloring. The markers make it super easy because of their actual brush.
Once all my coloring was dry, I stamped a sentiment from the 
I started by running a panel of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink through my die cutting machine with the Kaleidoscope embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp for a subtle, textured background. I love white space on my cards, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be flat.
Next, I did some stripping. Cardstock stripping, that is. I cut a few colors of cardstock into different width strips. The colors I used are (top to bottom – all Concord & 9th cardstock): Ballet Slipper, Carnation, Sweet Pea, Buttercup and Clementine. I added the strips to a scrap of cardstock to keep them all together and mounted them at an angle using foam tape.
I die cut the word klem (hug) three times from white cardstock and stacked them for dimension. I usually stack four, but I was using a scrap to die cut from and there was only room for three with the piece I used. Three layers work too!
I love how this word die creates a space for a sub sentiment strip. You can put pretty much anything on the bottom of the last part of the die cut and still see the whole word. For this one I used a sentiment sticker strip and adhered a couple of layers of cardstock strips behind it for even more dimension, so it pops off the die cut a little. To finish off the card, I added a few gold heart, I thought they matched the sub sentiment (you have a heart of gold) nicely.
Papirmølla 