Make a wish {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. Today I’m sharing a birthday card, featuring this cute Cupcake Doggie from Lili of the Valley.

I colored the image with my Copics and used a die from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things to turn my colored piece into a panel with the nice faux stitching I love so much.

Onto a piece of Pure Poppy cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I stamped the Number Jumble background stamp from MFT with Pure Poppy ink from Papertrey Ink for a tone on tone look. It just adds a little interest to the background without being too distracting. I mounted my colored piece on top using foam tape.

I stamped a sentiment from the Mini Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Summer Splash ink from MFT and diecut that using a circle die with faux stitching, also from MFT. I adhered it to a 1″ circle I created from Summer Splash cardstock from My Favorite Things and adhered the circle to the card using a thin foam tape to finish my card.

I created an envelope to match from some really old patterned paper from My Mind’s Eye that I had in my stash.

Christening {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, crafty friends. Today I’m sharing a card made for a little girl whose christening was actually back in November.

This Christening image from Mo Manning is one that I’ve used in the past as well, and I used a bunch of scraps of patterned paper as well as some really old dies and flowers to create this card. More than anything, I love it when my pile of scraps shrinks. It doesn’t happen very quickly, because I rarely use this much patterned paper on a card, but boy, does it feel good.

I used 3 different collections of patterned paper from Maja Design for this card. One of the benefits of using their papers is that their collections usually match pretty well. Vintage Basics Summer, Vintage Baby and Sofiero are the collections I used for this card, and they all match. I used older dies from Lifestyle Crafts, Cottage Cutz, Scrapmagasinet, Marianne Design and Spellbinders, as well as flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and Papirdesign.

The insides of the card have a very similar layout, and so does the back. Onto a white circular panel, I stamped a christening stamp from North Star Design using Soft Granite ink from Hero Arts.

The card was too thick to fit inside a regular envelope, so I created a box envelope using a punch board from We R Memory Keepers. Onto a diecut eyelet circle I stamped a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment and adhered it to the box envelope.

This image is so quick to color and doesn’t require a ton of markers. Easy peasy!

Sending all the hugs your way {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, crafty friends! Rachelle Anne Miller has a new release out today, and I couldn’t pass up this Starry Night Bears image. I love the two bears looking up at the night sky, and the scene is so wonderfully framed, Rachelle knocked it out of the park with this one. If you use the code ELINVENGE at her store, you get 10 % off.

I wanted the focus to be on the image and kept the rest of the card pretty simple. I stamped a sentiment from the Hugs Make Everything Better stamp set from My Favorite Things directly below my image using Smokey Shadow ink from Papertrey Ink. I wanted something a little bit softer than black, but I did stamp it twice, so maybe I should have used black after all. Close to the sentiment and close to the top of the scene I used one of the Stitched Borders dies from Lawn Fawn to create a decorative edge. I love faux stitching details on my cards, and this diagonal one is a fun change from the ones I normally use.

Onto a panel of Lemon Tart cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I stamped the All Lined Up Diagonally Background stamp from My Favorite Things using Harvest Gold ink from Papertrey Ink, which is a tiny bit darker than the Lemon Tart. It adds subtle tone on tone interest to the background without distracting from the focal point of the image. I adhered the panel directly to a white top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink and added my image towards the top of the card using foam tape for dimension.

Simple color palette today. I also used BV27 for the sky, which is a color I’ve made myself.

Easy peasy criss cross card {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, crafty friends. Today I’m sharing a card that’s a little bit different. It’s a criss cross card. I’ve made a few of them in the past, but it’s been a while, and they’re kind of fun to make.

This card was created for a little girl whose christening was this past Sunday. I think the Baby and Bunny image from Mo Manning is super adorable, and it’s an easy one to color up fairly quickly too. I chose some purplish patterned papers from Papirdesign and Maja Design and colored the image with Copics that matched.

I die cut the image using a circle die from Lifestyle Crafts and matted it with kraft cardstock. I also printed the name and date on a piece of white cardstock that I also matted with kraft. I put a doily from Helz Cuppelditch behind my image and added flowers using a hot glue gun. I took out the yellow centers of two of the flowers and replaced them with Lavender pearls from Kaisercraft.

On the inside tag I added a circle diecut made from white cardstock for a space to write a personal message. I used the Labels Trio die set from Spellbinders to create two “handles” from kraft cardstock. I tied a bow and attached a charm to one of them for a little added interest.

On the back of the card I stamped a sentiment from North Star Design using Amethyst ink from Altenew.

The card isn’t very big, it only measures 5×5″, but it’s quite dimensional and doesn’t fit in a regular envelope, so I decided it was best to create a box envelope.

I rummaged through my 12×12″ cardstock and found a color that matched pretty well, and used my Envelope Punch Board from We R Memory Keepers to create the box. I added another Helz Cuppelditch doily for cohesion, as well as more of the patterned paper that I die cut using the Impact alphabet die set from My Favorite Things.

Not a whole lot of Copics used for this.

Be merry {Purple Onion Designs}

Christmas is less than a month away, and I admit I haven’t bought all my presents yet. I have, however, been good at creating Christmas cards all year. I think Christmas cards are the most fun cards to make, even in Spring, and as a result, I have plenty done and never have to scramble last minute to create them.

Today I’m sharing a simple one, featuring Shirley and Sharon, this owl and smaller bird with a snowflake garland between them. This image doesn’t need to be used for Christmas either, it would be great for a wintery birthday card.

I stamped the image with Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things onto X-Press It blending card, colored the image with Copics and fussy cut, leaving a thin, white border. I prefer cutting right up against the stamped lines when I fussy cut, but with the snowflake garland, that just wasn’t an option.

I used an oval die from Spellbinders to cut a window into a white cardstock panel. I then used the Snowflake Oval Frame embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp to create a little bit of texture to my plain white cardstock. This embossing folder has an oval in the center that doesn’t emboss (where you can stamp a sentiment), but I wanted a window for my card and cut out an oval before using the embossing folder.

I created a card base from Spring Rain cardstock from Papertrey Ink and stamped part of a sentiment from the Home For The Holidays sentiment set using Spring Rain ink in the exact spot I wanted. The sentiment actually says Eat, drink and be merry!, but by using just the last part, it fit my card better.

I put lots of foam tape on the back of the white cardstock with the dry embossed snowflakes and adhered that to my card, and then added foam tape behind my colored image and placed it in the center of the card.

Simple color palette for this card.

Live like there’s snow tomorrow {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m sharing a slimline Christmas card today, featuring Hazel and Snow-capped Christmas Tree from the new It’s Snowing Cats and Dogs collection illustrated by Shari Bresciani for Purple Onion Designs. I love this cat looking up with the fishbone in her hand, and if you pair her with this tree, it kind of looks like she wants to replace the star on top with her fishbone, which is just too funny.

I colored the cat, tree and ground with my Copics, before deciding that I really wanted a dark, intense night sky. I stamped and fussy cut masks for both images, then did some free hand cutting of a snowbank at the back, before I went in with my Copic airbrush system and some dark blue colors to quickly create the sky.

I used the largest of the dies from the Slimline Double Stitched Rectangle STAX set from My Favorite Things to cut down the panel to fit on the front of my card, and stamped a sentiment from the Snow-capped sentiment set from the Snow Much Fun collection (also new, illustrated by Shari Bresciani) using Blue Yonder ink from My Favorite Things.

I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous, making sure no granules covered the sentiment or Hazel’s eye before melting the granules from the back of the panel. I adhered my snowy scene to a card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and my card was complete. I didn’t want to add anything else to it.

For such a simple scene I sure used quite a few colors. The ones that come after the jump in this graphic are the ones I used to airbrush the sky.

Sending you holiday hugs {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. We’re getting closer and closer to Christmas, and I think I’ve made more Christmas cards than I need this year (such a luxury to not have to scramble last minute), but I thought I’d sneak in another one anyway. This one features the Penguin Friends image from Lili of the Valley. You know I can’t resist penguins!

I colored up my penguins with Copics, using a combo of red and teal for their hats and scarves. I’m not a fan of complementary colors, and I do my best to avoid using green with red, but teals, blues and greys all work well.

I didn’t really have a card idea in mind when I printed my image, but I printed it towards the bottom of a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2″ piece of X-Press It blending card. Once I sat down with my colored panel to actually create the card, an idea formed straight away. It doesn’t always happen like that, but I’m grateful every time it does. I created a card base from Summer Splash cardstock from My Favorite Things, cut down my panel to 4 x 5 1/4″ and adhered it to the card base.

Using a snowflake border die from Papirdesign, I die cut a snowflake border above their heads. I used the same X-Press It blending card for this as I wanted the whites to match. I die cut an additional two pieces, and glued them together for a stacked look. The die is actually meant for slimline cards, but it worked really well for this.

I used the Sending You Hugs die from My Favorite Things to die cut my sentiment twice from Summer Splash cardstock. I used the negative piece of the die cut for placement, and layered my letters together for a little bit of dimension. On a piece of Amarena Cherry cardstock from My Favorite Things, I stamped and white heat embossed the word holiday from the Itty Bitty Holiday stamp set, also from MFT. I cut it down to a thin strip, added another layer of Amarena Cherry cardstock behind it for a bit of dimension and stability, and glued my little strip to the H in hugs, before finishing off the card with a couple of sequins from the Sparkling Clear mix from Pretty Pink Posh.

I could have gone crazy with tons of colors for the accessories on these cute penguins, but I limited my color palette by keeping the coloring simple.

I haven’t joined any challenges in a while, but I really like the challenges from MFT, and this week’s sketch is a fun one. I hope most of the elements and placements from the sketch are recognizable in this card, so I thought I’d join the challenge.

Have the happiest of holidays! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m sharing a simple card today, and it’s even close to a one layer card. Some people might say it qualifies, but as long as I put a layer of cardstock on top of the card base, I don’t consider it a one layer card myself.

Meet Melvin. He’s a tiny, adorable snowman from the latest release from Purple Onion Designs illustrated by Stacey Yacula. The collection’s named I’ll Be Home for the Holidays and features lots of cute wintery holiday images in Stacey’s signature style. The Holiday House background I’ve paired him with is also from this same collection.

I stamped my images using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, and colored in the scene using my Copics.

After trimming down the panel, I stamped a sentiment from the Home For The Holidays sentiment set using Blue Yonder ink from My Favorite Things. I then sprinkled on Chunky White embossing enamel from Stampendous, making sure no granules covered the sentiment before I melted the powder from the back of the panel.

I adhered my colored panel onto a square card base I created from Blue Yonder cardstock from My Favorite Things. When I first started making cards, they were all square; 6×6″ is the standard size for handmade cards in Norway, and I admit it’s a fun size to go back to. This isn’t actually fully square, it measures 5 7/8 x 5 1/2″, but it’s the size that best fit my scene, so I went with it.

There’s something cozy and serene about this entire scene, and I really like how it turned out.

Very muted color palette for this one. I see now that I forgot to add the green, but I believe they were BG99, G46, 43, YG61 and G20.

Christmas wishes {Lili of the Valley}

Hi! I’m sharing a wintry Christmas card today featuring this Wrapped Up Warm image from Lili of the Valley. I opted for an unusual color combination of blue and bright pink, which I thought was fun.

I cut down my panel of X-Press It blending card significantly when my coloring was done, and mounted it on foam tape onto the cardbase, which I’d covered with a scrap piece of patterned paper from the Hjem til jul collection from Papirdesign.

I added a small cluster towards the top right corner of the card, using a mini doily from Doodlebug, as well as some die cut scraps of patterned paper from Maja Design and Sunny Studio. I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Dark Chocolate ink from Papertrey Ink onto Classic Kraft cardstock, also from Papertrey Ink. The dies I used in my cluster are a combination of My Favorite Things (Fishtail Flag Frames and Itty Bitty Strips) and X-Cut (Happy Days Ticket Stubs). I also used the Hero Arts Snowflake Confetti fancy die to die cut snowflakes that I scattered across the card, and I put a white pearl from Kort & Godt in the center of each snowflake to finish the card.

This color combination of blue and bright pink sure was fun, and these are brighter blues than the ones I normally use. I also used a ton of colors for the snow in this little scene. I just can’t help myself.

Gledelig jul {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, there! I’m sharing a mini slimline Christmas card today, featuring some cute birds from Rachelle Anne Miller. This image is aptly named Holiday Birds, and will be available for purchase later this week.

I printed the image on a piece of X-Press It blending card and colored my birds with Copics in colors that match the Cool Collab paper pad from My Favorite Things, because I really wanted to use it. Red and teal is a color combo I really like, and this paper pad has lots of it. Once my coloring was complete I did some partial die cutting using the largest die in the Slimline Double Stitched Rectangle STAX die set, also from My Favorite Things. It gave me a nice double stitched edge around my colored image.

I adhered my panel to a card base I covered with one of the papers in the pad, which gave me a nice frame. I also die cut the word gledelig from another piece of paper in the pad, with three white die cuts behind for dimension. I stamped the word jul (stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS) below it using a combination of Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide ink and Caribbean Sea ink from My Favorite Things to get the perfect color. To finish off the card I added a few heart droplets from the Crystal Collection Glass mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Simple color palette for this one.