Time for a bike ride {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a springtime card to share today. Can you tell I’m sick of this cold, wet, snowy, rainy weather? This is Anna from Purple Onion Designs, riding her bike in the country side with a stone wall separating her from fields of green.

I love how happy this mouse looks riding that bike. Stacey Yacula has a way of creating characters that really come to life, I’m such a big fan of her style.

I stamped Anna, added a mask, then stamped the stone wall. Both were stamped with Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, which is a Copic friendly ink. I then used second generation stamping with the country side background, this time with Memento Espresso Truffle ink for a somewhat softer look.

I colored in my scene using Copics, then stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Around the Town sentiment set.

I used a white Gelly Roll 05 to create the white dot “flowers” in the background and added my panel to a top folding white card base I created. The finished card measures 6 x 4″.

This is a very mail friendly card. No embellishments, it’s almost one layer and sooo simple.

Quite a few Copics, but that usually happens with these full scene cards I create with Purple Onion stamps.

May all your wishes come true! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m here today sharing a 4 bar card. I love creating cards of all sizes, and this is a fun one, I enjoy the smaller format.

This is Wishing from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Stacey Yacula. It’s one of the larger stamps from Purple Onion, and it’s actually the first Purple Onion stamp I ever colored up, which means it holds a special place in my heart. I wanted a soft look and stamped the image in Fadeout ink from Inkon3 before coloring.

I love no line coloring, and no line is perfect for an image like this, which has just enough detail to make it interesting, but it’s still large enough to get soft gradient in colors and not too fiddly.

Once I finished my coloring, I added my panel to a 4 bar card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I created some texture to the dandelion fluff by using my Quickie glue pen and sprinkling on Rock Candy Distress glitter.

I adhered scraps of a Doodlebug mini paper doily to opposite corners of the card to add to the soft, delicate look I was aiming for. Using Sour Apple ink from My Favorite Things, I stamped a sentiment from the A Beautiful Day sentiment set from Purple Onion Designs onto Sprout cardstock from Concord & 9th, cut it down to a strip and mounted it on foam tape and adhered it to the top right corner of the card, before finishing off with a trio of crystals from Papirdesign.

Very soft color palette.

Have an ice day! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! I’m back today with a larger card, featuring a couple of critters and a background stamp from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Shari Bresciani.

Meet Parker and Walter. These critters from Shari have so much character, they’re so quirky and fun. A whack a mole type card would be fun with lots of holes on the ice and Walter sticking out of one of them. Whack a walrus?

I stamped and masked both Parker and Walter before using the Snow much fun background stamp to create the scene around them. For the background section of the background stamp, I used Fadeout ink from Inkon3, and Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things for the foreground.

I didn’t want to mess up the card too much with my sentiment, so I decided to add a subtle one from the Snow Much Fun sentiment set, using Aqua Mist ink from Papertrey Ink. I think it goes well with the ice.

I cut the panel down to 6×4″ and mounted it in the center of an A7 card base using foam tape. And that’s it. Super simple.

Not so simple; the coloring. A lot of Copics went into creating this card. It’s become the norm for me when creating these full scene cards using Purple Onion images.

By the way, there’s a March madness sale going on at Purple Onion Designs right now. Select stamps are 50% off, no coupon needed, sale price will be reflected in your cart. Sale ends March 10, 2023. Some of my favorite stamps are in the March madness category – just sayin’. 😉

HERD you needed a hug {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! I’m so happy to be back in the craft room on a somewhat regular basis. The months of mid October through mid January were insane, and I had no crafty time whatsoever, but that’s changed now. I have a fun card to share today, featuring this Hugs image from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Julian Charlton. I love his Elliot & Marcel images, they’re quirky and cute and just perfect.

I chose to color Elliot in a very soft grey, and once fully colored, fussy cut the image leaving a thin white border. I put the image aside and started working on the rest of the card.

I felt a landscape design would work best for what I had in mind, and used the Geometric Landscape stencil from Altenew to create some interest in the background with blue inks, also from Altenew. I used the entire Lapis Lazuli color palette from Altenew for my blending, (Azurite, Ultramarine, Eastern Sky, Iceberg) which fades to white at the top.

Using the Sending You Hugs die from My Favorite Things, I die cut the letters to spell out HUG four times from white cardstock from Papertrey Ink, which happens to be the same cardstock I used for my cardbase. I love their white cardstock, it’s the best by far. I stacked the letters for dimension and stamped and white heat embossed a punny sentiment that comes with Elliot & Marcel. There are actually a few more sentiments in the set, and I added another one to the inside of the card. I didn’t have the right color cardstock, though, so I cheated and covered white cardstock with the Azurite color, which is the darkest of the four blues I used for the blending of the background. To create the sentiment strip, I went direct to paper, and used my heat tool to speed up the drying process of the ink so I could stamp and heat emboss on top. I added three additional strips of cardstock behind it to make it flush with the die cut letters, adhered it to the card and finished off with a few sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

I chimply love punny sentiments and couldn’t resist.

Very simple color palette for this one. This was fast to color.

You’re always on my nice list {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. Winter solstice was yesterday, which means that the days in the Northern hemisphere will gradually get longer from now on. I’m all for longer days, less than 6 hours of daylight each day is depressing, and I long for summer days that seem to have no end. The snow does help make it brighter, but the last couple of days have been foggy and rainy, and the snow has turned to deadly ice as a result. Santa’s little helpers don’t seem to care about that, and with only two days left until Christmas, it’s time to decide who’s naughty or nice.

Cue Chippey and Ralphie from the latest Stacey Yacula release from Purple Onion Designs (A Little Christmas Magic!). They’re making their list, and checking it twice in the Toy Workshop. I made sure to use second generation stamping for the Toy Workshop to make the critters in the foreground stand out. I also used a couple of images from the Holiday Toy Set and turned the North Pole Sign into a poster on the wall, stamping it in Fadeout ink from Inkon3 for a no line look.

I’ve always been a fan of creating blue Christmas cards, but in the past couple of years, green has grown on me, and I think I made more green Christmas cards this year than blue ones. It helps that I’ve found a green Copic combo that I really like.

When all the coloring was done, I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Santa Sentiment Set, also from this year’s holiday release. I used super fine detail embossing powder from Ranger for my embossing, it always embosses well.

Lots of Copics for this one.

Oh deer, it’s that time of year!

Hi, crafty friends! I’m back with another card featuring the A Little Christmas Magic! collection from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Stacey Yacula.

This time I’ve teamed up Prancer and Bluster in front of the Holiday Arch and the North Pole sign. I’ve done my best with the cards I’ve made using this release to change up the sky between cards. This time I went for an overcast look, and it’s all a very soft blue green color.

I used a white Gelly Roll 05 pen to create the white dots on the deer, and a die from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things to create the faux stitching on the edges of the panel. By not stamping the entire deer, it creates a dynamic effect of having it walk in from the edge of the card.

I stamped a sentiment from the Santa Sentiment set using Autumn Rose ink from Papertrey Ink and adhered the panel to a card base I created using cardstock in the same color.

I created a sparkly snowy effect here and there by using my Quickie glue pen from Sakura and sprinkling on Rock Candy Distress Glitter from Ranger.

The pink and blue green color combination is definitely not traditional for Christmas, but I kind of like it. What do you think, does it work?

Quite a few Copics for such a simple card.

I’ve got some good news, the Purple Onion Designs holiday sale has been extended and doesn’t end until midnight tomorrow. Extra time to get stamps at 25% off, just sayin’ 😉

Waiting for Santa {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! I’m back with another card featuring images from the latest A Little Christmas Magic! release from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Stacey Yacula.

I wanted to make a peaceful scene for this card. I stamped and masked Dasher and Dancer, as well as Santa’s Sack, Santa’s Sleigh and the Destination Sign, before using second generation stamping with Memento Espresso Truffle ink for the Nordic road background.

I masked off the background too, before going in with my Copic airbrush system to create a soft winter sunset. I then peeled off the masks, colored the background, then everything else.

I left the red details till the end. I don’t want to run the risk of other colors picking up the red, so by leaving it to the end, I avoid that.

Looks like these reindeer are very patiently waiting for Santa. I wonder where he is? Actually, yesterday on my way to work, I saw a passenger on the bus with a long red Santa hat.

I didn’t want to mess up the sky with a sentiment, and the bottom part of the card is too full for one. I might put one inside, but to finish the card, I merely adhered my scene onto a top fold card base I created from Stormy Sea cardstock from Papertrey Ink. The finished card measures 6 x 5 3/8″, which is a bit of an odd size, but I prefer making my card size fit the scene and not the other way around when I create these full scene cards with Purple Onion images.

Not a whole lot of Copics for this one, actually.

I’d The annual Purple Onion Designs holiday sale ends tomorrow at midnight EST. That means there’s less than 48 hours to grab rubber stamps at 25% off (some exclusions apply).

Have a very merry Christmas! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. It’s been a while since my last post. Things have been crazy busy this past month, and I’ve had zero time in my craft room, and not even time to write blog posts for cards that were finished before things went bananas. The annual holiday sale from Purple Onion Designs is a great way to come out of hibernation, though.

Winter and Balsam from the latest Christmas release from Stacey Yacula are exchanging gifts. They both look pretty happy to be out in the snow in front of Santa’s workshop. I snuck in the Santa silhouette in the sky and stamped a sentiment from the Santa Sentiments set in the snow.

I love creating these scenes with Stacey’s images. It’s a time consuming process, as I create masks for each critter and fussy cut them, but the end result is always worth it.

I stamped Winter and Balsam using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things before covering both of them with masks. I then did second generation stamping of Santa’s workshop using Memento Rich Cocoa ink, using first generation for the signage only. I like the softer look of the brown lettering in the background. I stamped the silhouette of Santa’s sleigh using VersaFine Onyx Black ink AFTER I’d colored in the entire scene. This is an ink that stamps very black and very crisp, but it’s a pigment ink and doesn’t play well with Copics, so it’s best to leave it to the end. I stamped the sentiment using Blueberry Sky ink from Papertrey Ink.

I also went back over the “cast iron” of the OPEN sign using a 0.3 cool gray multiliner from Copic and added white dots on the penguin’s hat and scarf using my white Gelly Roll 05.

I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous, melted the granules from the back of the paper and adhered my finished scene onto a 5 3/4 x 4 1/2″ white card base, making this card slightly larger than the regular A2 size card.

Lots of Copics used for this one.

There are some awesome stamps in the Black Friday – Cyber Monday deals category over at the Purple Onion Designs store, a few of my very favorites even. Take advantage of this massive sale while you can.

Happy holidays {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m back with another card I created using images from the new A Little Christmas Magic! collection from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Stacey Yacula.

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 Cider (elf bunny in gift box), masked him, stamped Tristan (penguin soldier) and Graham (bear soldier), masked them, stamped the Holiday Arch, masked that, and finally stamped the Nordic Road background stamp. For the background, I used second generation stamping with Memento Espresso Truffle ink, the rest of the images are stamped using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things.

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.

A Little Christmas Magic! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! I have something very exciting to share today. It’s a card with the brand new release from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Stacey Yacula. This new collection is titled A Little Christmas Magic!, and it’s all about the hustle and bustle on the North Pole, with various adorable critters in Stacey’s signature style.

For this card, I chose Comet (elf bunny with pocket watch) and Zippity (elf bird carrying gift) to be the focus of the card. Zippity’s rushing last minute, and Comet is making sure everything gets done in time. In the background I stamped Santa’s Workshop, which is another great stamp in this release.

I didn’t want a dark night sky for this card. I also didn’t want it to have a basic blue sky, because I wanted to add lots of snow, and it doesn’t really snow from clear skies. I opted for a soft blue violet combo that wasn’t too dark and that fit the snowy scene look I was after.

When everything was colored, I stamped a sentiment from Santa Sentiments using Blue Yonder ink from My Favorite Things. This sentiment set is also new, and there are some really good ones in the set, I love the mix of the clean font with the handwritten style, and the blue ink isn’t very distracting from the scene, but still visible enough.

I sprinkled on a generous amount of chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous, making sure no granules covered up the critters’ eyes or the sentiment, before melting the granules from the back of the panel. I then adhered it directly to a top fold white card base, and my card was complete.

Lots of Copics for this one.