Hi! I’m back today with a fun card featuring a flower wreath from one of the stamp sets Lili of the Valley came out with in their spring release. This is one of the stamps in the Magical Florals stamp set.
I stamped the wreath on a piece of Rustic Cream cardstock from Papertrey Ink, before coloring with pencils. Yes, you read that right, I broke out my Prismacolors and did pencil coloring. I don’t use my pencils very often. Copics are my “go to” coloring medium, but every now and then, I shake things up.
I fussy cut around the finished piece, leaving a white border along the edge and cutting the open part at the top right as if my colored panel was a circle. I didn’t want to cut away the interior, and this seemed faster, easier and better. I created a 4 1/4″ square card base and used the Caleidoscope embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp to create a little bit of texture in the background, before mounting the wreath on foam tape.
I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Mini Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant onto a piece of Cornflower cardstock from My Favorite Things, before using a nested circle die to turn it into a circle. I put a few foam squares behind it and adhered it to a part of the wreath where it wouldn’t cover up too many of the flowers.
To finish the card, I added a generous amount of Papirdesign pearls for some shine.
Whenever the design team members get a glimpse of the new collection, I start my planning process. I sketch out very rough card ideas using the stamps I’d like to work with, send my stamp wish list off to Michele, the owner of Purple Onion Designs, and then wait patiently for the stamps to arrive.
Whenever there’s a new collection I like to create scenes to show off as many of the cute images as possible (without overcrowding the card), and for this card I stamped 
I always start by coloring the sky, and for this collection, I wanted each of my cards to have a different sky. I tend to go for all blues, but winter sunsets are explosions of color, so I was very conscious of that when I created my card. Once the sky was done, I colored the snow, followed by the trees and that cute fence, before starting with the rest of the scene.
I colored the critters, then the arch and finally all the red. I always leave the red details to the very end. It eliminates the chance of smearing and getting red ink where you don’t want it when you go in with another color right next to it. I wrote Happy Holidays with a black 0.35 Copic pen before coloring, but once the red was colored, you could hardly see the lettering, so I went back over with a white 05 Gelly Roll pen, and the text is much more visible now. My Ps are a little further apart than I’d like, and they’re also leaning a tiny bit to the right, but it’s a homemade card, it’s not supposed to be perfect, right?
Whenever I create these scene cards with Purple Onion images, I always let the stamping and the scene itself dictate the size of the finished card. This one wound up at 5 1/4 x 5 1/4″, which seemed pretty perfect. I haven’t made a square card in a while, so this was fun.
I used an obscene amount of Copics for this card.
I created a 4 1/2 x 4 1/2″ card base from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink and used an impression plate, also from PTI, to create subtle texture to the base. I put a few extra layers of cardstock behind my image and adhered it in the center of the card. I die cut the word believe using an older die from Simon Says Stamp four times from white cardstock and glued them together for a stacked, dimensional look in the sky above the bear. I finished off with a sentiment from Mama Elephant that I white heat embossed onto a strip of Autumn Rose cardstock from Papertrey Ink and embellished with a couple of Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.
Super simple color palette. I don’t usually do reds or pinks for my holiday cards, but this muted pink combo has become a favorite of mine.
This 
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!
This card was created for a little girl whose christening was this past Sunday. I think the 
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.
Meet 
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 
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.
I have this throw pillow on my couch that jump started my inspiration. It’s got a nice geometric look, but it’s not too colorful (I prefer a neutral interior to a super busy colorful one, I put all my color into my cards), and the best thing is those blue triangles (it’s a darker blue in real life than in the photo, I need to compensate for bad winter lighting these days). I love blue (as evidenced by the blue throw pillow behind it, the blanket on the left that has lots of blue in it and the light blue walls in the background)!
My first card uses the exact same pattern as the one that’s on the pillow, but in other colors. I used the After Midnight color from My Favorite Things, Tickled Pink and Grout Gray, also from My Favorite Things, along with Berry Sorbet and Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink for the vibrant pink and white, respectively.
I popped my panel of triangles onto a 4 3/4″ square card base using lots of foam tape. On a die cut circle I stamped and gold heat embossed a sentiment from the 
Being told “you are great” is something we all could use at times, right?
My next card features basically the same pattern, but I changed up the colors and extended the pattern to make it a rectangle. I wish I hadn’t cut the top part off, or cut even more off to make the pattern end in a full size or half size rectangle instead of what I ended up with, but it’s the sacrifice I made to make my card an A2 size with 1/4″ border around the triangles.
The card stock colors I chose for this card are Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, Lemon Tart, True Black, and Rustic White, all from Papertrey Ink, as well as Blue Breeze from My Favorite Things. The Rustic White is more of a grungy white (is that a thing? It’s not bright white) with dark speckles here and there, it’s really cool. I used the Sweet Hello die from 
Below the die cut hello, I added a sub sentiment from the 
For my last card I decided to go rainbow. No chunky 1/4″ frame, I wanted the colorful triangles to go all the way to the edge in this one. The card measures about 4 1/4 x 5 1/4 (I learned from last card and didn’t want any weird looking shapes). The card stock colors (except for the white, which is Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink) are all from My Favorite Things. They are, from top to bottom, Blue Yonder, After Midnight, Field Day, Limelight, Pineapple, Orange Zest, Red Hot, Razzle Berry, Grape Jelly and Wild Wisteria.
I didn’t want to cover up too much of the background, so I took out my Impact Alphabet die set from My Favorite Things and die cut the letters H and I six times from white card stock. I stacked two of each letter, added two layers of vellum on top, then the remaining four layers of the letters on top for a dimensional look. By having a couple of layers of the letters behind the vellum, it makes the vellum float. I added a few raindrops from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards for a finishing touch.
This one is definitely less dimensional than the other two cards, but the colors and the stacked sentiment still make it pop.
There you have it – 3 same but different cards using one fabulous geometric builder die. Obviously you could create triangles on your own without the die, but the die makes it so much easier and more accurate than I could ever hope to do on my own. And I’m super detail oriented and a bit of a perfectionist, so I’d definitely use the die!
I love no line coloring, and this guy with the candy cane was so much fun to color up. I added snow flurries to the background with a gelly roll pen when I did my coloring, and once I’d die cut my colored piece I wanted even more snow, so I sprinkled on embossing enamel, as well, and melted that.
I even added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards once my card was assembled. I love this look of snow on Christmas cards.
The sentiment is from the Scripty Xmas stamp set from Mama Elephant, stamped in Lady Bug ink from Memento. I added my panel onto a 4 1/4 x 4 1/4″ top folding card base I made from Electric Red card stock from My Favorite Things.
I used a square die from Lifestyle Crafts to die cut my elf down to the size I wanted, in this case 4″.
I then stamped a sentiment from the Scripty Xmas stamp set from Mama Elephant using Enchanted Evening ink from Papertrey Ink, before gluing my panel to a 4 1/4″ square card base made from Dark Indigo cardstock, also from Papertrey Ink. I finished off my card by gluing on some stars from a sequin mix from Hero Arts. They’re iridescent, which I’m normally not a big fan of, but it worked on this card.
I love the ease of clear stamps, but rubber stamps like this one have much finer lines, and they stamp beautifully every single time, I love that. I also love blue for Christmas, but that’s hardly a secret 😉
I colored up this image for day 27 of Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge back in May. Yes, I colored a winter scene in May… BUT I wanted to feature as many different companies as possible during the coloring challenge, and the only ones I have from Kinda Cute are winter ones. I love making Christmas cards, so I really didn’t mind.
I had initially planned on making an A2 landscape card, but it just wasn’t working, there was no natural place to put the sentiment. After I’d added the iridescent glitter paste over a Simon Says Stamp falling snow stencil and glued my panel to my cardbase, I chopped off 1-1/4″ on the right hand side of the card and then carefully went in with a craft knife to cut off an additional 1/16″ from my top layer. It works if you use a fresh blade and cut multiple times using very light pressure.
I stamped and white heat embossed a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment onto more of that same Dark Indigo cardstock from Papertrey Ink that I used for my card front, before using a speech bubble die from Altenew to die cut. I mounted my speech bubble using some foam tape, and my card was finished.
Papirmølla 