Happiness is… {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

June 2, 2021June 1, 2021 Elin2 Comments

…the art of making a bouquet of those flowers within reach. This Bob Goddard quote was the perfect phrase to put on today’s card featuring Billy Boy from Mo’s Digital Pencil. I think he looks pretty happy with the flowers in his hands. Not yet a bouquet, but I’m sure he can pick a few more.

I don’t know how I’ve done it, but this is actually the 100th card I’ve made in 2021. I usually reach 100 right before the new year starts, but this year is obviously different, we’re only at the start of June and I have plenty of cards left to create over the next seven months before the year is up.

I colored up Billy Boy about a week ago and shared the coloring on Instagram (@elinheve), so all I had left to do was turn it into a card. I went super simple by die cutting it with the largest of the dies in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX set from My Favorite Things and added it to a top fold card base made out of Tropical Teal cardstock, also from MFT.

I recently ordered a few of the new inks from My Favorite Things. My order arrived on Monday, and I tested them out on my sentiment. They’re kind of unique in that they’re dye inks, but the pad is squishy, and they’re super juicy. I stamped the Bob Goddard quote (stamp from Norsk Stempelblad AS) using Caribbean Sea (a teal leading towards green) first, and then stamped on top of that with Lazy Day, which is a blue ink. The two together create a color that’s pretty similar to Tropical Teal, which is what I was going for (the Tropical Teal ink was sold out when I placed my order, which is why I didn’t just use that). I’m not used to the squishy pads, but the ink stamped beautifully.

To finish off the card I added a few enamel dots near the sentiment. The teal ones are from the Cool Summer Night set from Altenew, the yellow from the Cambridge Court pack from My Mind’s Eye.

Last, but not least, some bright Copic colors to finish.

Happy birthday monsters {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

May 26, 2021May 24, 2021 Elin2 Comments

Hi, everyone! I’ve got a simple, colorful, dimensional birthday card to share today, featuring some adorable monsters from Mo Manning. They’re from the Cupcake Monster set. It exists as a merged version, and a separated version, which is what I used today. I didn’t even use the big monster, just the smaller ones.

There are 7 small monsters in this stamp set – perfect for a rainbow. I actually colored all 7, the last little (red) monster’s on the inside of the card, you’ll have to trust me on that 🙂 Once I was done coloring, I fussy cut them all, leaving a thin white border on the outside edge of each. I usually prefer cutting right up against the line, but these are so small, and those candles so thin, that there was just no way to do it.

I used the Simply hexagons die from Pinkfresh Studio to create some hexagons from Soft Stone cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I love this soft grey for a neutral on neutral look. I adhered the hexagons in the center of a white top fold card base using foam tape.

I put the monsters on 1 mm foam squares, cutting the squares into little slivers to put behind their feet and the candles. These monsters really are tiny, but I wanted the dimension, so I think it was still worth the extra effort.

I stamped and heat embossed a sentiment from the Over under easy stamp set from Papertrey Ink onto Smokey Shadow cardstock, also from Papertrey Ink. I love the cardstock colors from PTI, they’re my favorite!! I cut the sentiment down to two strips and adhered them at wonky angles with foam tape, before finishing off the card with a few sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

Lots of Copics for this one. That happens with rainbows 🙂

Surprise {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

May 5, 2021May 4, 2021 Elin4 Comments

Hi, there! I can’t believe it’s May and the last month of spring already. It doesn’t really feel like spring, though, it’s still really cold with snow in the forecast for today. What do I do when it’s cold? I escape by coloring summery images, like this I like you image from Mo’s Digital Pencil.

For someone who claims that her favorite color is blue, I haven’t really used a lot of blue lately. It might have something to do with the fact that I associate blue with Christmas, but it might also be that I’ve found myself a new favorite. A double favorite, even. I’ve used the combination of teal and peach on so many of my cards lately, I might have to put away those markers for a bit and try some other colors. 😉

I changed up my teal combo a little bit for this girl and even introduced a green in my combo, making her shirt super light in the highlight areas. I even tried a new combo for her hair, which matched surprisingly well with those yellow flowers she’s holding. Once I was done coloring, I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX dies from My Favorite Things to turn my colored piece into a panel with nice faux stitch edges.

On my desk I keep a tub of die cut paper scraps that I use for my embellishment clusters. I dug through it and found various pieces that I thought would fit this card well. They’re from a mix of companies: Maja Design, Studio Light, P13 and Sunny Studio. I love creating these clusters, they’re so fun to put together, and a great way to make use of scraps (not that my pile of scraps shrinks too much with each card). At the bottom is part of a mini paper doily from Doodlebug, and I added some enamel dots from the Warm and Cozy set from Altenew to finish.

I white heat embossed the sentiment from the Hilsninger stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS and die cut that using the smallest of the fishtail flag frames dies from My Favorite Things. After chopping off the overhang, I had a little piece of that doily left and the end of the sentiment banner, which I adhered in the bottom left corner of the card. I like not wasting my scraps, and this is a great way to use them.

Most of the pieces in my embellishment cluster are mounted on 1 mm foam squares for dimension. Foam without a ton of dimension is key for this, otherwise the card gets super thick from all the layers.

Quite a few Copics for such a simple image.

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.

Christmas time {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

April 21, 2021April 21, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, there! Another Wednesday’s come around, which means another Mo Manning creation. Today, I actually have a Christmas card to share. Christmas is only 8 months away, time will fly.

Mo Manning Winter Delivery front

I’m getting close to the end of the alphabet of my previously unused images from Mo Manning. I have close to 400 digital stamps from Mo, and it’s a pretty good feeling to have used nearly all of them. This is Winter Delivery, a cute hatted squirrel carrying a bag of acorns through the snow.

Mo Manning Winter Delivery flatllay venstre

I colored the image with my Copics, before taking out my most used cluster dies and scraps of patterned Christmas paper from Maja Design (and that sentiment strip from Papirdesign) to create a tiny cluster in the top right corner. I used part of a Doodlebug doily at the bottom, a branch die cut with a Papirdesign die, as well as tickets die cut using the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut (Docrafts) and the Fishtail Flag Frames dies from My Favorite Things. I used another favorite MFT die to die cut the panel with the squirrel, before adding it directly to a side fold landscape card base made out of Soft Stone card stock from Papertrey Ink. I rarely make side fold cards, but I had a piece of card stock already cut to 4 1/4 x 11″, and it made more sense to fold that down the middle rather than pulling out a new sheet to make a top fold card.

Mo Manning Winter Delivery Copics

Simple color palette today.

Christmas greeting

April 7, 2021April 6, 2021 Elin2 Comments

Hi, there! You probably aren’t thinking of Christmas cards yet. We’re still in early April and Easter just ended, but I looooove making Christmas cards all year and have one to share today. Not very traditional with a sheepdog on the front, but I know just who to send this to.

I colored up Christmas Sheepdog (with hat) very quickly using my Copics. There’s also a version without the hat. I colored the fur uneven and streaky on purpose. I didn’t want to take the time to do real fur, but I also didn’t want it completely flat.

After die cutting my colored piece to a rectangle with faux stitching around the edge using a die from My Favorite Things, I adhered it directly to a top fold card base made out of Soft Stone card stock from Papertrey Ink. Initially, I wanted green, but none of my green card stock colors were a good match (green is tricky), and this grey from Papertrey Ink is beautiful!

I pulled out my usual cluster supplies – mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design, the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut and my Fishtail Flag Frames dies from My Favorite Things. They’re staples whenever I make embellishment clusters.

Rummaging through my drawer of Christmas patterned paper scraps, I found these lovely green ones from the Christmas in Norway collection from Pion Design, and used the dies to cut out a few pieces to go on my card. I also used a die from Papirdesign to die cut a pine branch, just to add something different to the mix.

I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto one of the banners, heat embossing it in white, before assembling my cluster and adding it to the card with foam squares to build up the layers. I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and the card was finished.

Very limited color palette for this one.

Happy birthday {Mo’s Dream Team}

March 31, 2021March 31, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have a very simple birthday shaker card to share with you today, featuring one of the monsters from Mo Manning’s Cupcake Monster stamp set. You can get the set as one merged stamp with a big cupcake monster and seven small monsters surrounding it, or a separated version, which is what I’ve used for today’s card.

I colored my monster with Copics and did some serious fussy cutting. That monster is tiny, and it’s a miracle I didn’t chop off the flame at the top of the candle.

I love the Stitched Happy Birthday rectangle die from Memory Box, but I don’t use it nearly enough. For this card, though, I pulled it out and die cut it seven times from white card stock. I removed the sentiment from six of them, gluing the frames together for dimension to create my shaker area.

For the background, I wanted a color that would allow the sentiment to show and the monster to pop, so I chose a piece of patterned paper from the Bloom Street collection from Pink Paislee. The paper I chose has a watercolor look to the back of it, which was perfect to complement my little monster. I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangle dies from My Favorite Things and adhered it directly to my card base, placing the shaker frame in the center.

I filled the shaker with clear and iridescent crystals from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and added the top layer with the sentiment, that I’d already glued to a piece of acetate. The last thing was to add my little monster in the corner, and the card was complete.

Not a lot of colors used for this card, but that monster is tiny.

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).

A little bit of joy {Mo’s Dream Team}

March 17, 2021March 16, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, everyone! Happy hump day and Merry Christmas? Christmas may be 9 months away, but you can bet those 9 months will fly by fast, so I’m sharing a Christmas card today, featuring Sing Joy from Mo Manning. Getting so close to the end of the alphabet of my previously unused Mo digis. This is another one I can’t believe I haven’t colored up before, it’s so cute with that cat singing along.

I colored the image with my Copics, cut the panel down quite a bit and put lots of foam tape on the back. I dug through my patterned paper Christmas scraps and found a blue piece from Papirdesign that was large enough to cover the card front, as well as a couple of smaller pieces from Maja Design.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment, before die cutting it with the mid size fishtail flag frame die from My Favorite Things. I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and my card was all done. Super simple, and one more card in the Christmas 2021 box. Feels good to have the pile grow!

Nothing too fancy in my coloring today. The combo I used for the cat happens to be nearly identical to the one I used for the girl’s hair, I just omitted the darkest one.

A little thief {Mo’s Dream Team}

March 10, 2021March 10, 2021 Elin4 Comments

Hi, everyone! I’m back with a birthday card, this time featuring Cupcake Thief from Mo Manning. It’s a fun image, and once again I’ve gone for sherbet-y summer colors to counteract the doom and gloom outside (it’s snowing).

I colored my image onto X-Press It blending card using my Copics, before using the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX dies from My Favorite Things to turn it into a nice panel with faux stitching around the edge. I adhered it onto a card base I made from Coral Crush card stock from My Favorite Things. Sadly, the color’s discontinued, but they have loads of other gorgeous card stock colors at My Favorite Things.

I added a small cluster of scraps to the top left of my card. About half a mini doily from Doodlebug Design is at the bottom, followed by die cut pieces of patterned paper from Sunny Studio and a sentiment banner on top. I white heat embossed a sentiment from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things onto a banner of Peach Bellini card stock, also a discontinued MFT color.

My embellishments tend to be sequins or enamel dots centered around the sentiment on my cards. For this one, I added another two sequins in the bottom right corner, just to do something different than my standard three sequins. These sequins are from the Heaven Sent mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.