Happy birthday {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a fun birthday card to share today, featuring the Happy Birthday Creator – Numbers stamp set from Rachelle Anne Miller.

The set includes the numbers from 0 to 9, as well as accent images. I created a background from the numbers, and added flowers, a bird and a few other things.

I chose a very limited amount of Copic markers and colored the number in. I didn’t do any blending, this is all flat color. I added a little bit of shadow to the numbers and colored the flowers and small critters in the same colors, which is why the bird is light green and the bee is red and pink instead of the traditional yellow and black.

I adhered my panel directly to a card base. I also stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Bitty Birthday Wishes stamp set from My Favorite Things onto True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I added some dimension behind the sentiment strip, adhered it to the card and finished off with sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

The little bit of lift behind the sentiment makes it stand out even more. It also helps that it’s black. I paired the card with an envelope from Altenew. The Pink Diamond color matches the light pink in my coloring.

Very very simple color palette for this one.

I hope you have a great day {Amanda Jayne Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a sweet, simple card to share today featuring this bear in pot of lilies image from Amanda Jayne Designs.

I colored the image and fussy cut, leaving a bit of a white trim around the edge, before putting it aside while I worked on the rest of my card. Onto a top fold white card base, I ink blended Scattered Straw Distress ink in a gradient from the bottom, fading into white. I wanted a little more oomph and went in just at the bottom with Mustard Seed, which is a little bit darker. I used the Sweet hello die from My Favorite Things to die cut hello four times from white cardstock, which I stacked for dimension.

Onto a piece of Berry Sorbet cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Pristine Peonies stamp set from Altenew. I cut it down to a strip, added a few additional strips behind it and started assembling my card. I put foam tape on the back of the image and adhered it so a little bit of it hangs off the edge, adhered my stacked hello die cut partly on top of the pot, partly directly on the card base, and then the sentiment strip on top of the die cut. I like when it’s all connected like this, it makes for a more cohesive design than if I were to add the sentiment strip below the hello. To finish off, I added a few sequins here and there from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Simple color palette for this one.

I adore you. The end. {Papiria}

Hi, crafty friends. I’ve played with colors and texture on today’s card. It’s fun to play.

This time, I landed on Honeysuckle, Sprout and Tidepool, which are all colors from Concord & 9th. I started by die cutting hexagons from my three colors using the Simply Hexagons die from Pinkfresh Studio.

Onto the Sprout hexagons, I stamped leaves from the Leaf Clusters stamp set from Altenew using Sprout ink. On the Tidepool hexagons, I ink blended for a gradient look using Tidepool ink before dry embossing with an old stencil from Memory Box (Texture Dot Grid) for some added texture. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment onto one of the pink hexagons and left the other one plain. I glued additional hexagons behind each and even added foam tape behind the sentiment one for even more dimension. Dimension is life, after all.

After adhering everything to my card base, I cropped the card down slightly. It matched my design better, so this card is 4 x 5 3/8″. I added opal gem stones from Spellbinders near the sentiment to draw the eye in.

The dimension makes it look like these hexagons are floating on the front of the card, and the pink one with the sentiment is floating a bit more than the rest.

Have a monster fun birthday {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a fun birthday card to share today featuring some cute monsters. These monsters are from the Cupcake Monster set from Mo’s Digital Pencil. The set has a big cupcake monster and seven small monsters, and I chose three of the smaller ones for this card.

I colored the monsters on X-Press It blending card using my Copics, then fussy cut them all, before putting them aside while I worked on the rest of my card.

Onto a top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I ink blended a section left of center using Volcano Lake ink from Altenew, then added splatter with some watered down Caribbean Sea ink from My Favorite Things. It adds a little bit of interest to what is a pretty plain background.

I used the Photo Booth Strip die from My Favorite Things to create my little frame. The die leaves a thicker border at the bottom, but I snipped off the bottom bit to make the border even on all sides. I die cut it twice for strength, then decided to add Crystal Clear Double Thick foam tape from The Rabbit Hole Designs on the back. This creates a lot of dimension, and it also gives an airy effect that you don’t achieve by stacking die cuts (which was my original plan). I added my frame at an angle on top of the ink blending, then put the monsters on the frame.

I white heat embossed a sentiment from Huldra Designstudio onto a piece of True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I fussy cut around it and used the same foam tape on the back of this to pop it up, before finishing off the card with a few enamel dots from the Sea Shore mix from Altenew, which matches my blended background perfectly. So does the envelope I used, which is also Volcano Lake from Altenew.

Fun color palette for this one.

Varme tanker {Kort & Godt}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m sharing a one layer sympathy card today, featuring a stamp set from Kort & Godt.

I started by ink blending directly on the card base. I used the Window Panes stencil from My Favorite Things, and Scattered Straw and Mustard Seed Distress inks.

I stamped the image and sentiment using Obsidian ink from Altenew and did some very light pencil coloring using my Prismacolor Premier pencils. I used Goldenrod (1034), Yellow Ochre (942) and Cream (914) for the yellow, and Olivegreen (911) and Limepeel (1005) for the green. I decided not to add embellishments, so this is truly a one layer card, as everything is done on the card base itself.

Kort & Godt products used:

M480 (stamp set)

Bunny Hugs {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a sweet card to share with you today, featuring this cute Two Little Bunnies image from Lili of the Valley. This is a digital stamp, but there’s also a clear stamp version in the recently released Spring Sweeties stamp set.

I separated the image into two, so I could create staggered postage stamps on my final card. I colored the images with Copics, and used the Postage Collage die from Waffle Flower to turn them into postage stamps. I also die cut a third postage stamp and stamped the sentiment in the center of it using Obsidian ink from Altenew. The sentiment itself is from the Easter Bunnies stamp set from Simon Hurley. Once I knew the sentiment was dry, I masked off the edges of the postage stamp and ink blended the center rectangle using Grapefruit ink from Concord & 9th.

I cut down a sheet of Powder cardstock from Concord & 9th to fit the front of an A2 card, and used the Linen & Canvas impression plate from Papertrey Ink to add some subtle texture to the background. I adhered it to a white top fold card base and arranged my postage stamps, adding various thicknesses of dimension behind each for some interest, before finishing off with a few pearls from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

I realize now that I’m missing a few colors in this graphic. I used RV42, R11 and YR000 for the peachy pink.

Celebrate {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, crafty friends. Today is the first Friday of the month, which means it’s RAM Stamps release day. This month’s release is a birthday creator set. If you’re not familiar with the creator sets, they contain lots of different images that you can put together to create different scenes. There are so many options, the sky’s the limit for these. I chose to use this Balloon stamp only for this card, but do know there are lots of other images to choose from in this release.

I printed the image fairly small, I wanted it to fit the width of a portrait style A2 sized card. I colored the image with my Copics, going in somewhat of a rainbow order.

I covered the front of a card base with a piece of pink patterned paper with hearts. I don’t know where this patterned paper is from, it came in a mystery box from Simon Says Stamp a few years ago. I think it might be Doodlebug, based on some of the other patterns in the pack, but I’m not sure.

Above and below my colored piece, I added thin strips of Gold Shine cardstock from My Favorite Things, before mounting it all on foam tape near the top of the card.

I used the Sweet Sentiments die set from Altenew to  die cut the word celebrate. I die cut four out of white cardstock and one from the gold shine cardstock I used for the strips. I stacked them all together for dimension, and adhered the sentiment onto the balloon strings, before finishing off the card with a few sequins from the Heaven Sent mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Happy color palette.

P.S. I apologize for the stray hair in the background on the flatlay photos, I didn’t notice it until I wrote this post. #keepingitreal

Bee happy {Streamside Studios}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a sweet bee card to share today, featuring the bees in the Spring Squishies digi stamp set from Streamside Studios.

I colored the bees with my Copics, fussy cut them and put them aside while I worked on the rest of the card. Using the Simply hexagons cover die from Pinkfresh Studio, I die cut hexagons from a subtle dotted patterned paper from Waffle Flower, and I added two white die cuts behind each for dimension, before adhering them to the card.

I die cut the letters to spell bee from Berry Sorbet cardstock from Papertrey. ink using the Parker alphabet die set from Memory Box. I stacked four of each letter for dimension and added them to the card in a wonky fashion to introduce a little playfulness to the card. I stamped and white heat embossed HAPPY on a strip of Mushroom cardstock from Concord & 9th, added a few extra strips behind it for dimension. I added the bees using foam squares for a little bit of lift and finished off the card with a few gems and a heart from the Strawberry Champagne mix from Streamside Studios.

Very simple color palette for this one.

Thanks a million {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m sharing a simple card today, featuring Flowers from Tofu from the most recent release from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Pei.

I colored Tofu with Copics and fussy cut him leaving a thin white border. Onto my card base I stamped the Touch of Texture background stamp from My Favorite Things in VersaMark ink, sprinkled on Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder from JudiKins and heat embossed for a subtle texture on the white card base.

I wanted an angled panel near the bottom of my card, so I stamped a sentiment from the Bitty Thanks & Gratitude stamp set from My Favorite Things, using Sour Apple ink on Sour Apple cardstock, both from My Favorite Things. I glued a piece of patterned paper below it and mounted it to my card base. I wish I remember where this patterned paper was from, but it came in a mystery box from Simon Says Stamp and there was no label on the packaging, so I don’t know. I put my little cat on foam tape and finished off with a few sequins from the Waterfall mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

I love these bright, happy colors together.

Hug to you from me {Kort & Godt}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a super simple, yet a little artsy card to share today, featuring a couple of stamps and some string from Kort & Godt.

I started by stamping and heat embossing the sentiment directly on the card base, which I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I stamped in Obsidian ink from Altenew and used clear embossing powder from Ranger. This is my preferred way to get a black embossing, as black embossing powder is tricky to work with. Once the sentiment was in place, I used the Watercolor Stripes stencil from Altenew and masked off the stripe that showed the sentiment through the opening. I ink blended using Avocado, Cobblestone, Briar Rose and Carnation inks from Concord & 9th, as well as Pink Crystal Fresh dye ink from Altenew.

I wanted some black splatters on my card and used a size 4 paint brush with My Favorite Things Extreme Black reinker to get those black spots. I may have gone a little overboard, but I still like it. I stamped and heat embossed onto vellum a leaf image from the same stamp set as the sentiment, fussy cut it and colored the leaves from the back using my YG25 Copic marker. The vellum is heavyweight translucent vellum from My Favorite Things. I adhered the vellum piece to my card and finished off with a pink bow.

Kort & Godt products used:

M475 (stamp set)

TR-108 (pink string)