Anyone who knows me knows that I’m terrible at sticking to schedules. Seriously awful. And every year I tell myself to get started on Christmas cards early and make them throughout the year to avoid being swamped come November. Every year I’m swamped in November because I fail to make them throughout the year. I’m off to a good start this year though, I’m starting with this Candy Cane Bear from Mo Manning in the form of a shaker card (I’m not going to mention that I started off great last year, too, before I fractured my shoulder and didn’t create anything for months).
I printed my bear onto X-Press It blending card (the best paper for Copic coloring) and colored it with Copics. Normally, I probably would have made his hat blue, but I wanted a dark blue background, so I needed a color that would pop against it. Anyone who knows me would also know that I’m not a fan of red for Christmas cards, but in 2019 I made quite a few Christmas cards with red in them anyway, and I guess I’m starting the new year with it, too. Not to worry, though, I’ll get back to my regular blue eventually, it IS the color of the year, after all.
I diecut a front panel with faux stitching around the edges and a nice big window in the top center. I stamped a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment using Papertrey Ink Scarlet Jewel Ink, added acetate behind my window and glued it to the front of my card using two layers of craft foam to really make those sequins and other few elements inside the window shake!
I love the dimension you get on such a simple card by doubling up the foam, it makes a big difference, and everything inside the window moves more freely.
I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so I made sure all the sequins were turned the right way before I glued my shaker shut. I used a combination of two different mixes from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. Most of the elements are from the Igloo mix, but I also added some from the Crystal Collection – Glass. I never know how much to put into my shakers and usually end up with way too much or not enough, but I think I added a perfect amount on this card. First time for everything, right?
Not a whole lot of colors on this image. I also used R52, which is a color I’ve made myself.
Noen som husker 
Som på det forrige kortet har jeg brukt et hvitt ark med folierte gullprikker. Jeg syns den diskrete effekten er veldig fin, og det at prikkene er litt vilkårlig i arket gjør at det ikke blir altfor strukturert og strengt selv om jeg har mange rette linjer.
Julestjernen har jeg satt på 3D-puter, det samme har jeg gjort med teksten, som er et stempel fra Papirdesign. Gullfargen fra prikkene i arket og embossingen på blomstene har jeg plukket opp ved å bruke en stripe av 
Siden kortbasen min er såpass mørk ville jeg sette på et eget panel på kortets innside til å skrive personlig hilsen på. Det ga meg en ypperlig anledning til å stemple blomsten på nytt, bare for å pynte litt opp. Maskerte blomsten og stemplet bladene også. Man trenger ikke engang å fargelegge, selve stempelet er pynt nok i seg selv.
Her er fargene jeg brukte på blomsten min. Når man skal embosse og bruke Copics er det viktig at man stempler som normalt og fargelegger først, så stempler på nytt og embosser. Du vil ikke fargelegge etter at du har embosset, det kan nemlig skade tuppen på tusjen. Ved å fargelegge først og embosse etterpå unngår du hele problematikken.
It’s Mo day (aka Wednesday). One of the last things I did in 2019 was to clear away all the jars of flowers from the desk in my craft room (I had about 50 of them). I figured I don’t really use flowers all that much on my cards anymore, so I didn’t need them to be easily accessible and take up space on my desk. I put them in a cabinet right below the ceiling, I was able to cram all of them into one single cabinet. The last card I made in 2019 had flowers on it. We’re barely two weeks into the new year, and I’ve made another one with flowers. For both cards I had to climb on a ladder and pull out a bunch of jars to get to the flowers I wanted. Maybe removing those jars wasn’t such a good idea after all?
Good idea or not, this was the card I made. I colored up Mo’s 
I partially die cut my image with some of the bubble hanging out, and glued it to my card using lots of foam tape. I haven’t used my frame dies from GoKreate in a while, so I thought I’d break them out for this one. I usually make my card from the third largest die in the set (the XXL Square Frilly Frames #10 set), but I want to see how far into 2020 I can get with using just scraps, and the third largest die in the set requires a full sheet of paper to die cut two pieces (front and back of the card). The next size down was the perfect size for this scrap of Maja Design patterned paper, and it was also a good size for the green patterned paper from Papirdesign that I used behind my image and on the insides of the card.
Speaking of insides – I diecut an eyelet circle with a Cottage Cutz die, stamped a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment using Memento Sweet Plum ink and again used lots of foam tape. I even diecut a scrap strip of another purple piece of Maja Design patterned paper to go across.
The second inside has plenty of space for a personal message, and I diecut another eyelet circle from patterned paper and added a couple of diecut numbers from Scrapmagasinet to my circle. I thought this card would be the perfect birthday card for my niece, she turns 10 in June!!
I used the same design on the back, but used a green strip instead of a purple one. Another NSB sentiment, once again stamped in Memento Sweet Plum ink, and once again glued on with lots of foam tape.
There’s quite a bit of dimension in this card, and with that great image as the focal point, I think this will be perfect for my niece!
Lots and lots of Copics used for this one, but there are 15 colors in the heart bubble alone.
Jeg stemplet blomsterstempler fra Larger Than Life-settet til Papertrey Ink rett på kortbasen med rosafargene som er i Rose Petal-settet med stempelputer fra Altenew (fargene Cosmic Berry, Purple Wine, Puffy Heart og Rose Quartz).
Jeg stanset ut et hvitt panel med juksesøm ved hjelp av en die fra My Favorite Things, og stanset ut et vindu fra dette panelet, også med en die fra My Favorite Things. Til slutt stemplet jeg en tekst fra Huldra designstudio med en av fargene jeg brukte på blomstene mine, limte hele panelet på kortets front med 3D-teip og kortet var ferdig. Enkelt, ikke sant?
I’ve got 
I quickly found out that the closest Copic color to that specific Pantone color is B99. How perfect is that, the B90s are my favorite blues in all the land. I colored my image and glued it to my card base with lots of foam tape. All I did embellishment wise was add a couple of those little diecut banners (they’re so wide you can hardly see the V shape) and enamel dots from Papirdesign. The white heat embossed sentiment is from Norsk Stempelblad AS.
I love anything and everything blue – expect to be bombarded with lots of blue this year!
For en som stort sett lager veldig enkle kort er dette noe litt utenom normalen. Tro det eller ei, men bare selve shakerboksen tok et par timer å lage.
Jeg er i utgangspunktet ingen fan av rødt til jul, men jeg er glad i utfordringer. Ikke er jeg glad i gull heller, så man skulle tro at julearkene til Prima, som både hadde rødt og gull, ikke var noe for meg, men jeg er også sta, så jeg får til å bruke det meste likevel. Jeg valgte arket 
Jeg brukte en 
Bak shakerboksen har jeg enda et mønsterark, her ville jeg ha noe i kontrast til det røde, så da falt valget på 
Her er omtrent alt på kortet limt på med dimensjon, så kortet er ganske tykt, selv om det kun er forsiden som er pyntet.
What’s more summery than peachy colors, flowers and butterflies? I colored up 
I’ve sort of gone back to my roots with this card. Layers (though not many), colored Bazzill card base, Pion Design patterned papers, flowers and those little clear acrylic branches are all things I used to use a lot, but rarely use any more. It’s fun to shake things up every once in a while, especially after making so many clean and simple Christmas cards.
I don’t know what colors I used to color up my image, it’s been about eight months, after all. I may have written it down somewhere, but if I did, I don’t know where. I’m usually good at writing things down in a book, but I’m also known for some serious Post-it notes usage. I’m not sure where the Post-it went. Or even if there ever was a Post-it for this particular color combination on this particular image. What I do know is that it’s not in my book.
I glued all my cardstock and patterned paper panels down using double sided tape. For the diecut image, I used foam tape, and lots of it. I was not shy. A roll of foam tape lasts forever, so I like to cover the entire back for even dimension with no sag. I think I bought ten rolls a couple of years ago. I’ve given one away and am halfway through my second roll, so I still have seven sitting in a cabinet in my craft room.
I used a hot glue gun to attach my flowers and those acrylic branches. I have a low temp hot glue gun that I love for things like this. It dries instantly and stays put. For the butterflies and the pearl in the center of the largest flower, I used connect glue from Gina K. It’s the best liquid glue out there, those butterflies aren’t going anywhere!
I used the same design on the insides and on the back of my card. There’s no dimension to the circles on the inside of the card, but I used foam tape on the back circle as well. A sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS stamped in a combination of VersaMark and two different colors of Distress Ink (Worn Lipstick and Abandoned Coral). Normally, I’m not a fan of distress ink used with clear stamps, they tend to bead up on the surface of the stamp, and the result you get isn’t the best. I didn’t have a peachy ink pad, however, and if you use VersaMark on the stamp and then distress ink right on top of that, you can reduce the beading and get a better stamping. Not perfect, but better than distress ink on its own. And much better than having to compromise and use black or brown or another color that wouldn’t go as well with the rest of the card.
I’m still working through my Christmas images with no line coloring, and I adore this one, she’s so cute balancing those baubles!! Baubles are fun to color too, so all in all, this was a joy to make.
I ran out of my favorite white cardstock while working on my Christmas cards, so I had to get creative with card bases and patterned paper before I got a new shipment! For this one I used Olive cardstock from Simon Says Stamp, it matches perfectly with the greens in the patterned paper from Maja Design and my coloring.
I diecut the panel with my little elf using the larges of the faux stitch rectangle dies from My Favorite Things and glued it straight to a piece of Maja Design patterned paper the same size as my card base. I added a piece of a Doodlebug Design mini doily and a couple of banners made from patterned paper scraps. I diecut both banners with dies from the Fishtail Flag Frames set from My Favorite Things, stamped a Huldra designstudio sentiment on one of them and white heat embossed it. As a last finishing touch, I added a few crystal to draw the eye to the sentiment.
The banner with the sentiment is mounted with 1 mm foam tape, everything else is glued flat, making this a card that will have no trouble going through the mail.
I managed to include BG90 twice in my little Copic chart, maybe I shouldn’t make my charts when it’s way past bed time??
Jeg brukte 
Siden man kun bruker 9″ av bredden på arket er det greit å velge seg ut en bit som gjør seg fin både på for- og bakside av posen. Disse hjortebukkene gjør seg veldig fint på baksiden (og litt siden) av posen, man trenger ikke mer pynt enn det.
Da gjenstår kun å ønske god jul fra meg. Håper du går en fin julefeiring i møte!
I love coloring Mo’s images using the no line technique, and this one was no exception. I don’t remember what my initial plan was, but I printed the image in the top left corner of a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2″ panel, something I pretty much always do with my images. This time I struggled to come up with a card design that worked, so I wound up chopping off everything below the stocking, so I could use it along with pieces of patterned paper on the front of my card.
I try using scraps for my cards, and the plaid patterned paper scrap from Maja Design was exactly 4 1/8″ long. I placed it carefully in the largest of the faux stitch rectangle dies from My Favorite Things for a nicely finished edge, and did the same for all the other pieces of paper, creating a seamless seam along all the edges.
I stamped a sentiment from the B04 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Papertrey Ink Scarlet Jewel ink and added a couple of Papirdesign enamel dots as a finishing touch.
I mailed my card along with a small Christmas present for my secret Santa contribution at Copic Norge. I used another Norsk Stempelblad AS stamp set to stamp GOD JUL on the gift tag. Very simple.
You’d think I’d use very few colors on such a small image, but no 😉 Considering 7 of these are for the skin alone, it’s no wonder I always use lots of markers!
Papirmølla 