You’re getting better and better {Lili of the Valley}

March 27, 2022March 27, 2022 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, crafty friends. I’m sharing with you a super simple birthday card today, featuring this dragon eating ice cream from Lili of the Valley. This was the card we gave my nephew for his birthday this week. The first birthday card I ever made was for him for his first birthday. It featured a green dragon which I actually drew myself and colored in using Pantone markers. This week he turned 14, and even though this dragon is a bit childlike, it still feels like a nod back to that first one. Plus, he’s eating ice cream, you can’t go wrong with ice cream, and my nephew loves ice cream, so it was kind of perfect.

I printed the dragon on a piece of X-Press It blending card and colored him with my Copics, before using the largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 die set from My Favorite Things. I covered my card base with a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2″ piece of patterned paper from Kaisercraft (Charmed from the Key to my Heart collection) to match the green. I cut the panel with the dragon at funky angles at the top and left side to create a convex quadrilateral that I mounted on foam tape in the top left corner of the card.

Using a scrap of patterned paper from the Fremtidsdrømmer collection from Papirdesign, I die cut Gratulerer using the Gratulerer med dagen 3 die set, also from Papirdesign. I die cut an additional 3 layers of white cardstock to glue behind it, but decided that even that wasn’t enough dimension, so I cut tiny slivers of clear foam tape from Rabbit Hole Designs to add to the back of the letters. That did the trick, and it looks like the die cut is floating. I stamped a sub sentiment from the A06 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto another piece of the same patterned paper using Jalapeño Popper ink from My Favorite Things, cut it down to a strip, added a couple of white cardstock strips behind it and more of the clear foam tape to make it float, before finishing off the card with a few enamel dots from the Pocketful of Sunshine pack from Altenew.

Fairly simple color palette, but I went through too many teal colors before I decided on the right one for the straws and the sprinkles.

Teeing off! {Lili of the Valley}

June 18, 2021June 16, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! I have a 50th birthday card to share today, featuring the Teeing Off image from Lili of the Valley that was released a few weeks ago.

The card was made on order for a golf-playing tinsmith whose favorite football team (European football) is Liverpool. I wanted to include as many of the elements as possible, and made a slimline card with patterned paper from Papirdesign, P13 and 7 Dots Studio.

I used lots of foam tape for dimension, and varying widths of the patterned paper layered and criss-crossed across the card. I used the Slimline Starter die set from My Favorite Things and also the Stitched Trad. Tag STAX dies to create the tags. The reinforcers are made with the Tag Builder Blueprints 6 die set, also from MFT.

Through one of the reinforced holes, I pulled a piece of Cherry twine from Whisker Graphics and dug through my stash to find a ball charm, perfect for a football fan. I wanted to include a little bit of metal because of his profession, and started by stapling the twine to the tag. I also fussy cut a few footballs from patterned paper from Papirdesign that I scattered across the front.

I fussy cut my golfer and added him to the front of the card using foam tape.

I created a circle with the recipient’s age and covered it with a thick layer of Glossy Accents. Glossy Accents takes a long time to dry, so I made this little piece before starting on the rest of the card and put it somewhere safe to dry for a few hours. Once it was time to put the card together, I’d completely forgotten about this little 1″ circle, and only found it after I’d handed the card over to the woman who ordered it. Thankfully, I was able to meet up with her the following day to add it to the card, but of course, all my photos were already taken, so I snapped this super quickly with my phone just to show what the card should have looked like all along.

I was asked to try to put the Liverpool team song somewhere on the card, and I figured that one of the insides had just enough space. The other inside has plenty of room for a personal message to the recipient.

On the back of the card I used more patterned paper, more fussy cut footballs and also a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS stamped in Memento Ladybug ink.

I also added my personal stamp to the back of the card, on a white football with splatters. Back in February, Create a Smile had a two week collaboration with Sommerabend where you could order personal stamps. I got this one and an address stamp. I’ve been creating cards for over 10 years, but never had a personal stamp until now, and I’m so happy with how they both turned out.

I felt like I hadn’t hit the brief in terms of the tinsmith part, so I decided to die cut the letters of his name in foil sheet and add to the front of the envelope. I put a couple of layers of plain card stock die cuts behind each foiled letter for dimension, and used an old hammer from Tim Holtz to add a little texture to the letters. A few footballs on either side of his name to complete the look.

Not a whole lot of Copics required for an image that mostly reads as red and white.

Super simple baby cards

June 6, 2021June 6, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! I have two super simple baby cards to share today, featuring images from Art Impressions. These babies were so quick and easy to color.

The first card features this Little Monster stamp set. I stamped with Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things and colored the baby with my Copics, then placed the piece of X-Press It blending card back in my MISTI and stamped again using VersaFine Onyx Black ink. I used the second largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 set to die cut the panel and mounted it with foam tape onto a card base I made out of Milk Chocolate card stock from My Favorite Things (side note: all these years I’ve thought that Set 2 had slightly larger dies than Set 1, and I found out today that set 1 is the larger of the two).

I stamped the sentiment in the stamp set using Dark Chocolate ink from Papertrey Ink onto Classic Kraft card stock, also from Papertrey Ink. I used one of the fishtail flag frames dies from My Favorite Things to turn it into a strip with a nice finished end. I mounted it on 1 mm foam squares and finished off with some green enamel dots from Papirdesign. I die cut a panel of Classic Kraft cardstock and adhered it to the inside, for a nice space to write a personal message to the recipient.

Card number 2 features the Little Man stamp set from Art Impressions. Like I did with the first card, I stamped and colored the image, before stamping it again to get the crisp black lines. I mounted it with foam tape onto a card base I made from Classic Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink. Onto the cardstock I stamped the Paint Splatter background stamp from My Favorite Things using Papertrey Ink Fresh Snow hybrid ink for a little bit of added interest to the background.

I added a strip of Milk Chocolate cardstock from My Favorite Things to the front of the card before I adhered my colored panel, to ground it a little and to add another dark element other than the circle with the sentiment. The sentiment itself is from the stamp set with the cute baby, heat embossed in white using super fine detail embossing powder from Ranger and added to the colored panel using 1 mm foam squares. I finished off the card with some enamel dots from Papirdesign.

Same color schemes on both cards, similar stamps, both simple cards, yet slightly different. And I’d normally add the Copics I used to color my images, but I colored them last July for Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge, and I don’t remember what the colors are.

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.

Are you sure you’re a year older? {Mo’s Dream Team}

April 28, 2021April 25, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! It’s Wednesday again, and you know what that means. Time for another Mo Manning creation around here. This time, I’ve kind of gone back to my roots, but not really. It’s a layered card, which used to be the norm for me, but the image is fussy cut, which most certainly has never been my signature.

I received an order for a 50th birthday card for an electrician. The card needed to be “messy”, which is kind of difficult for me. My usual style is pared back and very simple, I just don’t have enough elements on my cards to be able to make a mess of any kind. Thus going back to my roots of using lots of patterned paper. I colored up Mr. Fixit in my favorite colors and fussy cut him.

I had to go looking for inspiration online. The last “old style” card I made was in June of last year, which means I’m rusty. I found a card I liked and used it as a guide to create this one, which is actually an A7 card (5×7″). I dug through my patterned papers, both 12×12″ sheets and scraps, and found a few from Papirdesign, Maja Design and a small scrap from My Mind’s Eye that I used to die cut the gears and numbers. I arranged all the elements on my card, some using foam tape and others adhered straight down, and wound up with this. I used old dies from Sizzix for the gears, forcing me to pull my BigShot out of retirement for a few minutes. Those dies are too thick for my Gemini Jr., which is the machine I use for nearly all my die cutting. The last time I used my BigShot was over two years ago, so there’s a reason it’s retired in the closet. I added a piece of Snip Art chipboard and a film strip piece from Tim Holtz for a little bit of added interest and something that wasn’t just made of paper.

On the inside, I adhered left over pieces of the gears, just to use it all, and stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Dark Indigo ink from Papertrey Ink. There’s plenty of room on the right for a personal message, this is a side fold card (another anomaly from me, I prefer top fold).

On the back of the card, I repeated a lot of the elements that I used on the front. The tag dies I used are from My Favorite Things, and I used my recently acquired personal stamp from Create a Smile on one of the die cut tags, stamped in Dark Indigo ink.

Not a lot of Copics used for this one, I mostly stuck to blues.

Hey, you! {Mo’s Dream Team}

March 24, 2021March 24, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, everyone! New card from me today, and it’s one that features the best color of all – BLUE!!

I colored up the boy version of Stock’s Up from Mo Manning (you can find the girl version here), using mostly the Copic B10 series, but adding a couple of colors from other blending groups to get it dark enough in the shadowed areas. I die cut my colored piece down to a faux stitch panel using the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX dies from My Favorite Things. In honesty, it’s probably my most used die of all time, I love that die!

Near the top right corner, I randomly stamped part of an old background stamp from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous. I thought the small text on the stamp would pair well with the newspaper in the image and stamped pieces of it at an angle with Memento Espresso Truffle ink. I didn’t even put the stamp in my Misti or on an acrylic block, I bunched it in my hand and stamped, giving it less of a rigid feel, since the stamping is uneven. I added my colored and stamped panel onto a card base made from Blueberry card stock from My Favorite Things, and a small cluster on top of my stamping.

I die cut some patterned paper scraps with a couple of dies from XCut and My Favorite Things to create my cluster. The blue piece is from Papirdesign, the other two from the Happy Birthday collection from P13. I stamped a sentiment from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things onto the orange banner using Hero Arts Soft Granite ink. I finished off with three enamel dots from Papirdesign and added Glossy Accents to the boy’s glasses.

Not a huge amount of colors. For the soles of his slippers I actually used the two lightest colors that I used for his hair (E31 and 30).

Hurra {Purple Onion Designs}

February 20, 2021February 20, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, everyone! As you may know, I’m a huge fan of no line coloring. I’m an even bigger fan of no line coloring when it comes to coloring snow. There’s something about the lack of lines that makes the snow look softer and more real. Not that a fox and bear building a snowman is very realistic.

For today’s card I really wanted to include both Rupert the fox and Wilson the bear, both from the Snow Day! collection illustrated by Stacey Yacula for Purple Onion Designs. I wanted a portrait oriented card, and putting the two side by side made the image too wide for a standard A2 size card, so I decided to go bigger and create a 5 x 7″ card instead. I don’t usually make cards this size. As much as I love white space, I often find it difficult to find the right balance with a larger card. I think it worked out on this one, though.

I stamped the bear using fadeout ink from Inkon3 and masked him, before stamping the fox in the same ink. While I still had the stamps in my MISTI, I stamped their eyes, mouths and noses using Memento Espresso Truffle ink. This saved me from having to draw the details back in after my coloring, which could have potentially ruined the entire scene. I used my Copics to color everything, and trimmed the panel down slightly. I used one of the greens from the image on the edges of a 5×7″ piece of X-Press It blending card to make the card front match the image, as I didn’t have any card stock in the right shade of green. For the die cut HURRA (die from Kort & Godt), I scribbled one of the green Copics onto a scrap piece of X-Press It before die cutting. I added another three white die cuts behind it for dimension, and used foam tape on the back of the colored panel to give it a little lift up from the card base.

As usual, I used lots of colors for the snow (everything in this graphic before E44), but that’s just how I roll.

Hurra, hurra, hurra {Mo’s Dream Team}

February 10, 2021February 8, 2021 Elin2 Comments

Hi, everyone! I’m back today with another card featuring a cutie from Mo Manning. This is Sheriff, and I turned him into a birthday card. The design of this card, and the super bright colors are a bit unusual for me, but I’m trying to use more of my supplies, and also use them differently than I have in the past. I also don’t normally put this many enamel dots on my cards. 7 is a LOT, I usually go for 2 or 3.

I colored up the image with my Copics. Nothing unusual about that, but these blues are brighter than the ones I normally use. The colored panel was too narrow to fill the width of a regular card, so I decided to put a frame around it. I used one of the wood frame nested dies from Hero Arts to create my frame from Classic Kraft card stock from Papertrey Ink, and built up layers by adding a few more frames behind the top one. I created a card bas from Lush Lagoon card stock from Papertrey Ink, and used the By the numbers impression, also from PTI, to create a debossed look to the card base. There’s quite a bit of blue showing outside the frame, so I wanted a little bit of texture there.

Using Limelight card stock from My Favorite Things, I die cut the number (from the By the numbers die set from Papertrey Ink) four times and stacked them for a dimensional look. I adhered the number to the frame using liquid glue, and glued a white heat embossed black sentiment strip on top, with two more layers of black card stock behind that, for even more dimension.

I added a bunch of green enamel dots from Papirdesign, and rummaged through my old patterned paper for one I could make an envelope from. I struck gold with this green one from Pion Design from 2010. I don’t use a lot of patterned paper anymore (at least not big pieces), but I can’t exactly throw it away, either, so I figure it’s perfect to create envelopes from. This way, they get used!

Super bright colors. Well, except for all the browns. I actually used five colors for his sheriff’s badge before I ended up with a color I liked.

You rule {Hobbykunst}

January 26, 2021January 25, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, everyone! I’ve got a fairly simple card to share today, featuring a skateboard boy from hÄnglar & Wings.

I colored the skater boy using Copics, then fussy cut him right up against the black stamped lines.

I don’t often use green as my main color in my cards, but on boy cards, I think it’s one of the best colors out there, even better than blue. And coming from me, that’s saying a lot. For this one, I used the Geometric Landscape stencil from Altenew, along with five different colors of Altenew ink for my background; Bamboo, Parrot, Grass Field, Shadow Creek and Evergreen. I smooshed the Grass Field onto an acrylic block and added some water to it, before using a paint brush to create green paint splatter in the background. I also pulled out my Black Marble ink spray from Ranger (Dylusions) and did the same with that.

I mounted my ink blended background to a white card base using lots of foam tape, before adding the skater boy on top using some 1 mm foam squares. I stamped and white heat embossed “you rule” from the same stamp set onto True Black card stock from Papertrey Ink and added a couple of more black card stock strips behind it for dimension. To finish off the card I added three black dots from Papirdesign.

Blues, greens, gray and a little bit of skin and hair.

Wishing you an amazing day {Mo’s Dream Team}

January 13, 2021January 11, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, everyone! Another Wednesday in the middle of winter, and I have a wintery birthday card to share today, featuring Miles in Winter from Mo Manning. I went with a combo of cool Copic colors and even used the E80s, which I hardly ever use. I cut my colored piece down using a faux stitch rectangle die from My Favorite Things.

I used some old scraps of patterned paper to create this card. On my desk I have a container of scraps of patterned paper that I’ve cut down to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2″, making them very convenient to use. The paper I used to cover the entire front of the white card base is from My Mind’s Eye (it’s the same sheet as the one I used for the sentiment banner), the one with the white lines running through it is from Autumn Leaves, from their Manhattan line, which happens to be from 2007. I definitely have some old papers in my stash. The lightest piece is from Kaisercraft. I decided to add dark blue enamel dots from Papirdesign to break a little from the monochromatic patterned paper I had going, and also to reintroduce the blue from the image, even though I really like the grayish teal of the jacket and the patterned paper scraps.

I stamped the sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS using VersaFine Onyx Black ink and die cut it using one of the fishtail flag frames dies from My Favorite Things.

Quick and easy coloring of this one without too many colors. As usual when I color snow, quite a few of the colors were used for the snow alone. I also used BG71 on the jacket, which is a color I’ve made myself.