Hi, crafty friends. I’m back today with a simple card featuring Hot Air Balloon from Rachelle Anne Miller. I’ve used this image before, but this time, I flipped it. The little girl faces left in the original image, and one of the advantages of digital stamps is that it’s easy to create a mirrored image.
I printed my image on X-Press It blending card and colored it with Copics. I chose a soft blue green for the balloon itself, and vibrant colors for the florals to make them pop. Using the largest die in the Blueprints 27 die set from My Favorite Things, I turned my image into a panel with a nice scalloped border with faux stitching, put lots of foam tape on the back and mounted it to a card base I covered with a quarter sheet of Wildberry cardstock from Concord & 9th.
I die cut hello from the Blooming Delight die set from Altenew four times from white cardstock and once from Wildberry cardstock, stacked all the layers together and adhered my sentiment, before finishing with a few opal gems from Spellbinders.
Quite a few Copics for this one.
I die cut my golfer using a basic circle die and decided to use the colors in the image for the elements of my card. This is always a good idea if you want a cohesive design. I die cut a torn paper edge from Powder cardstock from Concord & 9th, before stamping a small background stamp repeatedly across the panel using Powder ink. The image has spatters on it, and I figured this would mimic that. The tone on tone stamping creates a little bit of interest to the blue cardstock without being too distracting. I adhered a strip of Wheat cardstock, also from C9, to the top of the blue panel to give it a more defined edge against the white card base, before adding a couple of layers of cardstock behind it for dimension. I adhered it to a top fold card base I dry embossed using the Angled Mosaic embossing folder from Altenew. This creates a bit of textures and adds interest without distracting.
I glued my circle onto the blue cardstock, lopped off the excess and adhered a stacked die cut word on top. I die cut three layers from white cardstock and one from Wheat cardstock. To finish off the card, I added a black sentiment sticker strip and a few black crystals in different sizes.
I colored the image with my Copics before cutting out a couple of quick masks for the deer and bunny. I ink blended a soft blue circle behind them, using the Watercolor Circle stencil from My Favorite Things and ink (Harbor ink from Concord and 9th) that was left on my light blue blender brush from my last project. Using a die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower, I cut my panel down, added four layers of cardstock behind it for dimension and put it aside while I worked on the rest of my card.
To a top fold white card base, I adhered a piece of patterned paper from the Watercolor Wash 6×6 paper pad from My Favorite Things and added my stacked panel in the center. Using a die from the Sweet Sentiments die set from Altenew, I die cut for you twice from white cardstock and once from the patterned paper. I stacked the die cuts and glued my sentiment right above the deer. The green patterned paper is very soft, but by stacking the die cuts, the sentiment still stands out a little. I added a bit of black Glaze pen to the eyes and finished off the card with pearls from the Fresh Mint mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Limited color palette for this one, it came together fairly quickly.
I colored up my image with Copics, before stamping on top of the black lines with Obsidian ink from Altenew to darken up the lines even further. I fussy cut the image, leaving a bit of white trim around the edges, then put it aside while I worked on the rest of my card. Using the Snow Drifts Cover-Up die from My Favorite Things, I die cut three segments of the die from three shades of blue cardstock (Cornflower, Lazy Day and Blue Breeze, all from My Favorite Things). Even though it’s a snow die, it totally works for waves, I think. I inked up the top of each die cut using matching inks (Cornflower and Lazy Day from MFT for the darkest and middle color cardstock, Harbor ink from Concord & 9th for the lightest). I added ink splatter to all three using Cornflower ink and also Concord & 9th White. I adhered them to a scrap of cardstock to make them work as one die cut instead of three separate ones.
I used the Ray of Light stencil from My Favorite Things to ink blend yellow ink onto a piece of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I used Harvest Gold ink from Papertrey Ink, and added a little bit of Sunshine ink from Simon Says Stamp near the top for a little more intensity. I then used what I had left on my ink blending brush to cover the entire thing, I didn’t want the background to be stark white, and this worked beautifully. I added ink splatter once again using the Sunshins ink, cut the panel down and stamped a sentiment from the 
I used a very limited color palette for this one.
I colored my raccoon with Copics, deciding to go with a triadic color combo of primary colors for his paints and accessories. I obviously used green for the grass, but the rest of this is all red, blue and yellow. I used the second largest die in the Watercolor Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things to give it a playful, loose look on the edges, then used the Say Anything stencil, also from My Favorite Things, to ink blend a speech bubble using Harvest Gold ink from Papertrey Ink.
In the speech bubble, I stamped a couple of sentiments from the Mini Messages & More stamp set from My Favorite Things, using Obsidian ink from Altenew. I took the various ink splatter stamps in the same stamp set and stamped in various colors across my panel, to amp up the crafty feel of the card. I used Watermelon, Harbor and Dove inks from Concord & 9th, as well as more of the Papertrey Ink Harvest Gold color that I used for the ink blending. Onto a card base I created from Cement Gray cardstock from My Favorite Things, I added some strips of cardstock to break the lines in my design. I used Watermelon cardstock from Concord & 9th, Blue Breeze from My Favorite Things and Harvest Gold from Papertrey Ink. I added my panel in the center using foam tape, and finished off with a few sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I actually also used a black glaze pen to create shine and a tiny bit of dimension to the eyes. On the raccoon, I also used a dot of white Gelly Roll 05 to each of the eyes once the black was dry.
I used a fairly small amount of Copics for this one.
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.
I printed my image on a quarter sheet of X-Press It blending card and colored it in. I stamped the word friend from the Mini Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Obsidian ink from Altenew. The sentiment actually says hello friend across two lines, but I masked off the top row so I’d have friend isolated. I adhered my panel to a top fold card base and used a black glaze pen to add some shine and a tiny bit of dimension to the eyes of the bunnies, the girl and the cute little bird.
Onto a scrap piece of X-Press It, I scribbled RV34 across a section large enough to die cut from. The Sweet Sentiments die set from Altenew is such a great one, I love that these dies create small words that don’t take up too much real estate on a card. I backed my colored die cut with two white ones for a little bit of dimension and added it at somewhat of an angle right above the stamped part of the sentiment. This also served to cover up a booboo. Somehow, I was able to spill a tiny little drop of juice from a peach (note to self – don’t eat in the craft room), and the sentiment covers it nicely. I finished off the card with a triangle formation of sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Simple, subtle color palette for this one.
The RAM Stamps digital images always come in sets of two, where one has black lines and the other has grey lines to make it easier to print images for no line coloring. I wanted to change things up for this card and decided to pair the two versions. I layered them in Photoshop (the black lined one on top) and erased the background in the black lined version, only keeping the lines for the duck, the fairy and the large flower. I kept the no line version intact and printed my image. This way, I had dark lines for the focal point and soft grey for the remaining scene. I love the look of this.
I colored the part of the image that had the black lines using Copics, keeping the rest uncolored. I stamped a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Gifting stamp set from My Favorite Things directly on the panel using Obsidian ink from Altenew, then added a hugs word above, created using the Sweet Sentiments die set, also from Altenew. I die cut a few from white and one from a piece I’d colored with one of the Copics I used for the image. I still had the sentiment stamp mounted in my Misti, so I could stamp on top of the die cut for a continuous sentiment. I cut my panel down slightly and adhered it to a panel of Wildberry cardstock from Concord and 9th, adhered it all to a white card base and finished off the card with a few sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
The image is simple, but I still went overboard with the coloring for this. It happens.
The weather’s finally improving, and things grow greener and greener with every passing day, so I thought a floral background would be perfect for this card. I die cut masking paper using the Lenten Rose mini slimline die from Crafty Meraki. I had to do quite a bit of puzzle piecing of the masking paper to ink up the different sections in different colors, but I think the end result is worth it. The colors I used are all from Concord & 9th, they are Wildberry, Sweet Pea, Sunflower and Harbor.
I colored the image and fussy cut, leaving a bit of a white trim around the edge, before putting it aside while I worked on the rest of my card. Onto a top fold white card base, I ink blended Scattered Straw Distress ink in a gradient from the bottom, fading into white. I wanted a little more oomph and went in just at the bottom with Mustard Seed, which is a little bit darker. I used the Sweet hello die from My Favorite Things to die cut hello four times from white cardstock, which I stacked for dimension.
Onto a piece of Berry Sorbet cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Pristine Peonies stamp set from Altenew. I cut it down to a strip, added a few additional strips behind it and started assembling my card. I put foam tape on the back of the image and adhered it so a little bit of it hangs off the edge, adhered my stacked hello die cut partly on top of the pot, partly directly on the card base, and then the sentiment strip on top of the die cut. I like when it’s all connected like this, it makes for a more cohesive design than if I were to add the sentiment strip below the hello. To finish off, I added a few sequins here and there from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Simple color palette for this one.
Papirmølla 