We wish you a merry Christmas! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! Another day, another holiday card. This time it’s a big one, it measures 5 1/2 x 7 1/4″. I tend not to worry about card sizes when I create scenes with Purple Onion images, and for this card, this size just worked.

This scene is created entirely with images from last years holiday collection from Stacey Yacula. Hannah & Finn, City Christmas Tree, Gift Car and City Skyline Background are all from The Merriest Little City collection and I used a combination of no line coloring and black stamped line coloring. Hannah & Finn and the tree are stamped in black, the others in paler inks for a softer looking background.

I colored the entire scene with Copics, stamped the sentiment from the Holiday Time Sentiment Set using Harbor ink from Concord & 9th, before sprinkling on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous, which I melted from the back of the panel. Once that was done, I adhered it to a card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I used lots of Copics for this, and all the different gray families, actually.

This is a gentle reminder that he annual holiday sale is underway at Purple Onion Designs. Everything (with some exclusions) is at 25 % off. The sale ends on Sunday, so there’s still time to fill up your cart with goodies!

Det snør, det snør, tiddelibom {Rachelle Anne Miller}

Hi, crafty friends. The sentiment on this card probably won’t make much sense to you unless you’re Norwegian, but it’s the first line of a Winnie the Pooh song about snow (I found a voice recording of it here if you want to listen). Now, Winnie the Pooh isn’t in this card, but I have some cute Polar Bears from Rachelle Anne Miller. I love this image, and realized once my coloring was done that I had printed a no line version on the back of the panel. I probably intended to use that, as I prefer no line for “white” things. Oh well, I wasn’t starting over, and I’ve colored these polar bears in a no line version previously, so maybe having black lines this time wasn’t such a bad idea after all?

I took a quick look at the colors I’ve focused on recently to try to choose something different and opted for this blue green combo. I colored the image with Copics and added a horizon in the distance with a few trees scattered about.

I made sure not to add to many trees so there would be room for the sentiment, which I stamped in Oceanside ink from Concord & 9th. The sentiment itself is from the Snøstorm stamp set from byCino. I die cut my panel using the lartest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX 1 set from My Favorite Things, before I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous. I made sure that none of the granules covered the sentiment or the eyes of the polar bears before melting the powder from the back.

I adhered my panel to a card base I’d covered with a quarter sheet of Oceanside cardstock from Concord & 9th. This is actually a side fold card. I usually make top fold cards, but I didn’t have any landscape oriented card bases on hand and didn’t feel like breaking open a new pack of cardstock. Long live lazy crafting, right?

Very cool color palette for this one.

Merry Christmas {Papiria}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a very clean and simple card to share today that I created for the Papiria blog. Lots of white space and a simple color palette of white and blue – my favorite color combo for Christmas!

I started with a panel of white cardstock (Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink) that I cut down slightly from a quarter sheet. I used a couple of dies from Papirdesign to do a dry emboss on my cardstock. I covered a white top fold card base with a quarter sheet of Harbor cardstock from Concord & 9th and layered my white dry embossed panel on top.

I die cut the banner pieces in the Joyful Season die set from Concord & 9th from Harbor and Powder cardstock, before stamping a sentiment from the Merry Greetings builder stamp set from Kristina Werner onto the banner pieces using Harbor ink. I assembled the banner and added a few layers of cardstock behind it for dimension. I die cut a tree and a snowflake from the same dies that I used for my dry emboss background, both from Powder cardstock. I stacked two of each and glued them on top of its actual position in the embossed background, before finishing off with Opal gems from Spellbinders. Very simple.

’tis the Season to be Jolly {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! I have some exciting news to share today! The brand new holiday/winter release from Purple Onion Designs is available for purchase. There are three different collections to choose from. The first one is from Stacey Yacula. Her collections are always well thought out and go brilliant with older collections. The second one is from Pei, who joined the POD illustrator crew last year. I never tire of Tofu and his friends, and this time, there are some penguin pals to add to the cuteness. Last, but not least, we have the Winterwood collection, illustrated by Holly Mabutas, who’s a brand new illustrator at Purple Onion. I’m starting with a card created with images from the newcomer, but I have more up my sleeve, both from her and the others, so watch out for that.

I stamped and colored my critters (Steve & Scarlett, Benjamin, Doug and Scarlett’s Tree) onto X-Press It blending card. I added my signature peachy wintertime sky color in the background, but I actually took a couple of sunset photos as I was getting home from work this afternoon, so maybe I’ll change up my color combos soon.

I stamped a sentiment from the older Holiday Messages Sentiment set using Parsley and Avocado inks from Concord & 9th. I found it difficult to stamp in a color that matched the green in my coloring, but layering this combo worked well. I adhered the panel onto an A6 (4 5/8  6 1/4″) card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and my card was complete.

I used a lot of colors for this scene.

The entire Winterwood collection is available as a 30 % discounted bundle until Friday, November 14th 2024. There are 30 images in this collection, so there’s a lot to play with!!

God jul {Kort & Godt}

Hi, crafty friends. We’re exactly two months away from Christmas Eve, and I have a simple holiday card to share today that I created for the Kort & Godt gallery blog.

I started by die cutting half circles into the sides of a panel of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, before running it through my die cutting machine with an old Sizzix embossing folder to create some texture. I adhered my panel to my card base and started working on the rest of the card.

I fussy cut the tree from MA1030, put lots of foam tape on the back and adhered it in the center of the card, making sure that the presents sort of lined up with the notches I’d created. I then pulled a piece of cotton string through the holes of a button that says Merry Christmas, wrapped the string around the card using the notches to keep it in place and tied a knot behind the button. Super simple, right?

Kort & Godt products used:

MA1030 (image sheet with tree)

KN569 (button)

TR-110 (brown cotton string)

God jul {Kort & Godt}

Hi, crafty friends! I’m back today with a simple Christmas card I created for the Kort & Godt gallery blog.

This card was so easy to create. I rummaged through my scraps of patterned paper and found these from the Greetings from the North Pole collection from Pion Design, which happens to be a collection from 2016. I don’t buy patterned paper anymore, but I have loads of scraps from the days when I did. The two pieces on the left were actually already torn (and the top was already heat embossed with white Fran-táge. This is an embossing powder which has a little bit of gold in it, and the gold pops off the background. I adhered the dark piece directly to a top fold card base I created from Rustic White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and I popped the other one up on foam tape.

I die cut the shadow for God and the word jul from the same dark pattern, and I die cut a few extra of the words themselves in white for dimension, using Die 347 God jul from Kort & Godt. I also used Die 231 to create the little branch of leaves from patterned paper, and I mounted it on foam tape for a little bit of dimension, before gluing the God die cut on top. I added a few pearls to finish.

Gledelig jul {Kort & Godt}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m sharing a super duper simple card today that I created for the Kort og Godt gallery blog. This is another one of those that would be easy to mass produce. You could change up the colors, the embossed background and also the die cut in the center.

I used an embossing folder to create the texture on the background (Berries & boughs embossing folder from Concord & 9th). I cut a rectangle of a decent size to fit in the center of the card and stamped a sentiment from the M-467 stamp set from Kort & Godt using Evergreen ink from Concord & 9th.

I added a few layers of cardstock behind my white rectangle for dimension and used one of the dies from DIE 323 from Kort & Godt for my tree. I cut it from a scrap of patterned paper from the Happy Christmas collection from Maja Design, added some dimension on the back of it and adhered it above the sentiment. Super simple, right?

Juleklem {Papiria}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m back with a card I actually shared a few weeks ago on the Papiria blog. It’s a very clean and simple one, using only white cardstock, a few dies and some blue ink.

I started with the Snowfall Backdrop Landscape die from Lawn Fawn, which I die cut from white cardstock (Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink). I did a bit of ink blending with Fresh Dye inks from Altenew, using Arctic Mountain, Winter Lake and Icy Water inks going from top to bottom for a gradient effect.

I used the Snøkrystall ramme 2 die from Papirdesign to cut my border of trees and snowflakes. This die set actually has two borders – one that cuts out the trees and snowflakes I used here, and the other one does snowflakes and stars. I thought the trees went well with my snowfall backdrop, which is why I opted for that.

I trimmed down my snowfall backdrop, adhered it to a white cardbase and layered my die cut border on top, before adding a sentiment that I created with the Juleklem die from Kort & Godt. I cut two layers from the same white cardstock I’ve used throughout the card and one layer from an ink blended piece using the same inks that i used for the sky for a very clean look. This card is so simple, and you could easily mass produce this if you wanted to. I only make one offs, but it’s totally up to you.

Merry & bright {Papiria}

Hi, crafty friends. Can you believe we’re in October already? I don’t know where the time’s gone, but I do know that if you haven’t started your holiday cards yet, you might want to think about it soon. Enter Kristina Werner. She’s now launched her own line of products, and they’re SO good. Her September release sold out pretty much on the first day, and it’s no wonder, it’s THAT good. I was lucky enough to grab the things I wanted before they sold out, though, and the products are now back in stock.

I wanted to create a blue Christmas card. Blue’s my jam, and I had this idea as soon as I saw the release. I started with the Merry Trees stencil set, which is a set of two stencils that creates a line of trees. Each of the stencils has two “layers”, and if you layer all four you have the full line of trees in up to four colors. I used the Northern Shore family of Fresh dye inks from Altenew for my stenciling, it’s a great blue family of inks.

Using the Merry Trees die set, I took the big MERRY die and die cut it straight out of my ink blended trees. I also die cut an additional four layers of using After Midnight cardstock from My Favorite Things. I cut off a little on each side of the white panel, adhered it to a card base in that same dark blue color and puzzle pieced the letters back in. The fact that they’re stacked with a dark color makes the word easier to read than if I’d used white to stack.

I white heat embossed a couple of sentiments from the Merry Greetings builder stamp set onto After midnight cardstock and cut them down to sentiment strips using the Merry Greetings builder die set. I usually use a steel ruler and craft knife to create my sentiment strips, but there’s something about the roundness of the edge that you get by using a die. I added a few more strips of cardstock behind each of the sentiment strips for dimension and placed them above and below the die cut MERRY to complete the sentiment.

I decided not to use any embellishments on this card. Sometimes I feel like the colors and cardstock do all the work for me, and I love how this one turned out.

Hooray {Rachelle Anne Miller}

Hi, crafty friends. It’s time to celebrate, because there’s a brand new release from Rachelle Anne Miller today. It’s Penguin Party! This scene creator set consists of an igloo with a party clad penguin peeking outside as well as five other penguins, a present, some stars and a couple of sentiments. This set has me so excited – I love anything even remotely penguin related, and this is right up my alley.

I used the igloo with the peeking penguin and only added one small penguin for this simple card. I didn’t even use the entire igloo, I like the look of the design coming in from the side like this. I colored the image with Copics and used a die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower to turn it into a nice panel and adhered it to a top fold card base I created from Peacock cardstock from Concord & 9th.

Using the Hooray Script die from Mama Elephant, I cut three die cut layers from Watermelon cardstock from Concord & 9th, which I stacked for a little bit of dimension. I white heat embossed a sentiment from the Birthday messages stamp set from Mama Elephant on a strip of Peacock cardstock. I added a few more layers of cardstock behind it and adhered it below the die cut part of the greeting, before finishing off the card with a few sequins from the Ice Water mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Mostly BGs for this card. I love my BGs.