Hang in there {Purple Onion Designs}

May 20, 2021May 20, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have a very clean and simple card to share today, featuring some more stamps from the latest release from Stacey Yacula and Purple Onion Designs.

I thought the Hang in there sentiment from the Around the Town sentiment set (also new with this release) would be the perfect accompaniment to the clothes line. I could have kept my card even simpler by not adding anything else to it, but I wanted to create a little scene. I stamped Jane the fox waving hello at the very front and added in one of the stamps from the country flowers set to fill out my scene a little. They match the little sprigs at the bottom of the clothes line perfectly. I stamped the countryside horizon towards the top of my panel and colored everything with my Copics.

Once my entire scene was colored, I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles dies from My Favorite Things to turn it into a panel with a nice faux stitch egde and adhered it to a top fold white card base. I stamped the sentiment using Blueberry Sky ink from Papertrey Ink, die cutting it into a nice banner using one of the dies in the Fishtail Flag Frames die set from My Favorite Things. I adhered it to my card using foam tape and added some blue enamel dots from Papirdesign to finish.

I’ve colored a lot of scenery for the cards I’ve made with this release, and wanted to get a different green look for the grass and trees for this card compared to the others, which have all been fairly bright. This is a more subdued green, I kind of like it.

Best news ever! {Purple Onion Designs}

May 17, 2021May 17, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I’m sharing a shaker card today, featuring Alex the owl from Purple Onion Designs. He’s got good news to share!

I colored the image with Copics and set it aside while I worked on the rest of the card. On a piece of white card stock, I used the Linen & Canvas impression plate from Papertrey Ink to add texture to all that white space, before using the Selfie Square die and the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles dies from My Favorite Things to add the faux stitching around the edge and also to frame the window.

I added acetate in the window and put micro beads inside, before mounting it all on foam tape and adhering it to a top fold card base I made from New Leaf cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Around the Town sentiment set onto a scrap of New Leaf cardstock, which I die cut using the smallest of the Fishtail Flag Frames dies from My Favorite Things. I finished off the card with a few green enamel dots from Papirdesign.

The image is small and very simply colored, so I didn’t use a lot of Copics for this.

Hope your day is peachy keen! {Purple Onion Designs}

May 14, 2021May 13, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, everyone! I have a peachy keen card to share today, using a few of the stamps from the most recent release from Purple Onion Designs. You can still purchase the entire collection in a bundle at a 30 % discount, an offer that expires at midnight tonight EST.

My card is actually a tri-fold card. My original plan was a regular card with a window on the front and the remainder of the scene on the inside, but I really wanted to use William the owl for this card while still keeping it an A2 size, and there just wasn’t room for him, so I opted for a tri-fold design. I started by stamping and masking Alice the squirrel and the crate of apples from the fruit crates set, and then stamping the produce stand. I colored everything with my Copics, used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles dies from My Favorite Things to turn it into a nice panel and adhered it to the front of a sidefold A2 card card base. Using a craft knife, I cut the opening in the fruit stand through both layers of paper, making sure to be very careful around those garlics so I didn’t chop them off.

On a separate piece of X-Press It blending card, I stamped the remaining two fruit crates, masking the one with the lemons and adding Jane the fox behind it, stamping her so she’d be perfectly placed in the window on the front of the card when it’s closed. You can see the back of the window on the left in this photo. I used the same die from MFT to die cut this panel too, and added a sentiment from the Around the Town sentiment set above the cute fox. I adhered the panel on the back of another sidefold card and glued the two cards together to make my tri-fold.

William gets to steal the show on the middle inside of the card. The front is to his left (you can see the window there) and the panel with the fox and the two fruit crates on the back of the part you can see to his right. He might look a little mis-placed since he’s not tucked in a corner, but it’s with good reason. The panel on the right (which is the back of the one with the fox) has plenty of room for a personal message.

Here’s a bit of a close up. I prefer not to color with my Copics on regular card stock, so I stamped him on X-Press It, colored him with Copics, fussy cut him and glued him to the card base, using a think black pen to draw his feet back in and some gray colored pencils on the card base to ground him.

If you close the front of the card without folding the panel with the fox back where it belongs, it looks like William is the one standing behind the produce stand. This was my reason for placing him where I did, I wanted to have the option of keeping the card half open, so he’d appear in the window instead of Jane.

I used a ton of Copics for this card.

One for the books {Purple Onion Designs}

May 9, 2021May 1, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, everyone! I have another card to share featuring the new spring release from Purple Onion Designs. This card is very different. First of all, it’s a slimline card, which I don’t make too many of (on account of them being difficult to photograph). Secondly, I only used 6 Copic markers for the entire card. I’ve dabbled with grayscale images in the past, but always with a pop of color somewhere. This one is all about those grays. Oh, and those fabulous new images, of course.

I stamped and masked George the raccoon on a piece of X-Press It blending card that I’d already die cut using the slimline starter die set from My Favorite Things. I stamped Room with a view so George is standing firmly on the balcony, then stamped the book store (minus the roof of the book store) below it and then the balcony railing directly over top of the raccoon once I’d removed the mask.

I colored the entire panel with my 6 chosen Copics, adhered the panel onto a card base I made from Stamper’s Select White card stock from Papertrey Ink.

Deciding to keep the grayscale going on the inside of the card, I stamped one of the sentiments in the “Around the Town” sentiment set using VersaMark ink on a piece of Steel Gray card stock from My Favorite Things, and heat embossed it in white, before adhering the sentiment to the inside of the card. Super simple.

The Ns and Ts are my favorite Copic grays. For this card, I went with the Ns.

Thanks a bunch {Purple Onion Designs}

May 4, 2021May 1, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have another card to share today featuring new goodies from the latest release over at Purple Onion Designs.

Isn’t this bunny with her bouquet of flowers adorable? Look at that sweet smile. I love Stacey Yacula’s illustration style, she really brings her characters to life. This is Junie. I colored her with my Copics and decided to fussy cut her.

I pulled out a piece of patterned paper from the Dots & Stripes Pastels pack from Sunny Studio and cut it down to a strip, using one of the Stitched Borders dies from Lawn Fawn on both sides for a nice finished look. I die cut a white card stock circle using a die from My Favorite Things, and mounted it on foam tape.

I stamped and white heat embossed one of the sentiments in the “Around the Town” sentiment set on a piece of Melon Berry card stock and mounted it on foam tape, before adding my bunny with some 1 mm foam squares on top of the white circle.

I finished my card by adding some Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear sequins in a visual triangle around the circle and bunny.

Small image equals a limited color palette.

Paint the town {Purple Onion Designs}

May 1, 2021May 1, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, there. I have a card to share featuring stamps from the brand new “A Happy Little Place” collection from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by the one and only Stacey Yacula.

As soon as I saw Polly the hedgehog with her cans of paint, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. She needed to paint a rainbow. I don’t really free hand draw much on my cards, but arches aren’t too daunting.

I stamped Polly and her paint cans using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, before masking the paint cans and stamping some country flowers behind them. Using a mechanical pencil, I drew in faint lines for the rainbow, before masking the section that needed to be in front of the countryside scene on the horizon, and then stamping that in fadeout ink from Inkon3 for a no line look in the background. I wanted the focus to be on the hedgehog and rainbow.

I colored in the entire scene with my Copics. To be honest I probably spent more time on the rainbow than anything else. I only have five arches, but it was tricky enough to try to color five (the bands are very thin) without the curves getting too jagged, I don’t even want to think about how hard it would have been with seven.

At the end of the rainbow, I created a dripping edge with a puddle of paint on the grass. Isn’t Polly cute holding that paint can and brush?

I stamped a sentiment from the “Around the town” sentiment set onto my colored piece using VersaFine Onyx Black ink, holding my breath as I did so. I didn’t want to mess up my panel and have to start over at this point.

I used the largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things to turn my colored piece into a finished panel, making sure the ink in the sentiment was dry before running it through my Gemini Jr. I added my panel onto a white card base with a top fold, and my card was complete.

Lots and lots of Copics. That happens with rainbows 🙂

Have a blooming good day! {Purple Onion Designs}

April 30, 2021April 30, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! Today’s the day! The brand new spring release from Stacey Yacula and Purple Onion Designs, A Happy Little Place, is here! I’ve had a blast creating cards with this collection, and the first card I’m sharing happens to be a mini slimline one.

I decided to stamp Anna on the left hand side of my panel, before masking her and stamping the stone wall behind her and then finally country side towards the top of the panel. I colored the entire panel, adding in a dirt road and a little bit of grass at the bottom.

I stamped a sentiment from the Around the Town sentiment set in VersaMark and white heat embossed it, before using an 05 gelly roll pen to add little white dots in the grass to look like flowers in the background. I adhered my 6 x 3 1/2″ panel onto a top fold card base that measures 6 1/4 x 3 3/4″, and my card was done.

She looks so happy riding that bike!!

The Copics I used. Not really a lot, considering the entire panel is colored in.

You’ll find the entire “A Happy Little Place” collection as well as the sentiment set at a bundled price for the next two weeks. That’s a 30 % discount off the regular prices. A pretty good deal if you ask me.

It’s your birthday! {Purple Onion Designs}

April 12, 2021April 12, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I’m back with a birthday card for an ice cream loving friend today.

I stamped Marigold from Purple Onion Designs in Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, before masking and stamping the Ice Cream Truck and the Mountains using fadeout ink from Inkon3.

I’ll admit, this took a while to color. I always start with my background elements and finish with the main image in the scene. Believe it or not, but I actually added quite a bit of brown to those trees. I added darker greens under the wheels of the ice cream truck and under the bunny, and a little bit here and there in the rest of the scene as well, for a little bit of interest. Once the entire scene was colored in, I went in and added a few blades of grass in the foreground.

I knew even before I started that I wanted the ice cream truck to be teal. Originally, I was going for a very light color, but it was looking a bit too blue, so I went in with some darker colors and made the whole truck darker, that did the trick. I went for a corally, peachy type color for the awning and the side panel, I really like peach tones with teal. Kind of weird, since I’m not generally a fan of complementary colors, but these work.

Once everything was colored, I did some fussy cutting around the bunny’s ear and used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 dies to die cut the entire panel. Except for the ear, of course. I adhered my panel onto an A2 card base, and I admit I love the little detail of the ear sticking out past the edge of the card. Of course it meant that I needed to make my own envelope, the ear would have gotten crumpled inside the envelope had I used an A2 envelope.

I stamped one of the sentiments in the Everyday Blurbs stamp set using Distress Oxide ink in the color Peacock Feathers, before fussy cutting the speech bubble and mounting it on foam tape onto the card.

Lots and lots of Copics used for this one!

Birthday wishes {Purple Onion Designs}

April 4, 2021April 4, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have a wintery slimline birthday card to share today, featuring an adorable hedgehog from Purple Onion Designs.

Timothy is part of the Sweetest Little Town collection released back in October, and I think he’s just the cutest little guy. I colored him up months ago, and my plan was to turn him into a gift tag. Plans change, and instead of a small gift tag, I went big with a slimline card instead, keeping the colors on the rest of the card subdued to really make him shine.

I stamped the Snow Day! Hill background onto a piece of X-Press It blending card using Stormy Sea ink from Papertrey Ink. The panel was wider than the stamp, so I repeated the very left part of the stamp to extend my background scene, also re-stamping the smaller cloud. I also selectively stamped and white heat embossed the word “birthday” from the Warming Winter Thoughts stamp set onto a piece of Stormy Sea cardstock to form part of my sentiment.

I used the slim card basics die set from Mama Elephant to die cut the background. I added three layers of card stock behind the frame, inlaying the “window” pieces so they’re set back, before adding the hedgehog with foam tape on top of one of the windows.

I die cut the wishes die from Mama Elephant to create the rest of my sentiment. It’s four layers of Stormy Sea card stock, and another three layers of white card stock in the part of the word that spans across the windows.

Trifold Christmas card {Purple Onion Designs}

March 29, 2021March 29, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, everyone! I’ve got a Christmas card to share today. I know it’s Easter time, but there’s a line of lyrics in a Norwegian Christmas song that says Christmas lasts till Easter, and I’m sticking to it. The next line in the song states that it’s not true, but that’s beside the point 😉

This started out as an idea of a fairly simple card with a window on the front so you could see inside, but evolved fairly quickly into a trifold card. A heavy one at that, even though it looks simple, there are a lot of layers, and the card actually weighs in at 28 g.

I started by coloring the polar bear (Icicle) and fussy cutting him, leaving a thin white border around him. I’m not good at leaving a white trim when I fussy cut (my scissors naturally gravitate towards the stamped lines), but I get around that by drawing an outline about 1 mm outside the stamped line with a mechanical pencil, and then cut along that.

I love the snowflake circle die from Hero Arts and have used it many times before. I die cut a window into the center of the front of my card base, and at first thought that would be it. Once it morphed into a trifold, though, it was so back heavy that I needed an additional two die cut windows on top of the card base for some strength and stability. I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles from My Favorite Things to create a nice finished edge to the top layer.

For the inside panel that you can see from the front, I stamped the Frozen Pond using fadeout ink from Inkon3 and colored in the entire panel, before using the same stitched rectangle die that I used for the front for a nice finished edge. This entire panel flips down, leaving lots of space on the inside for a personal message.

I stamped a sentiment from the Holiday Messages Sentiment set straight onto my card using Ocean Tides ink from Papertrey Ink, before adding the polar bear with 1 mm foam squares.

In this photo it’s pretty evident that the three layers of panels with die cut windows add a nice bit of dimension, as well as stability to what would otherwise be a pretty floppy card front, since the window is so big. I use 110 lb white card stock (Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink), which is a nice, sturdy card stock, but with that big of a window, the only thing that will work is using several layers.