Hi, crafty friends. We’ve reached the end of the month, and I’m rounding out Christmas in July with a circle card. July’s been so cold, we might as well have had Christmas this month. I know they say there’s been a heat wave in the Northern hemisphere this month, but that heat wave certainly didn’t reach Northern Europe. It’s been cold and wet.
The cold weather’s been perfect for Christmas in July, though, and this cutie from the latest Lili of the Valley release is definitely ready for even colder weather (even if I’m not. I’m never ready).
I colored both the penguin and the letters with Copics and fussy cut them. I left a white border around the penguin, but cut the letters up to the black lines.
I created a circular card base from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and added a circle on top that I created from Sno Cone cardstock from My Favorite Things. I dry embossed the Magic Snow Cover die from Mama Elephant onto the colored cardstock for a little bit of added interest in the background, before mounting the penguin in the center of the card and adding the letters around him.
To finish off the card I added a few Snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to the letters. I tried using pearls first, but these worked better with the card. She’s stopped selling these clay sprinkles, so I kind of hoard the ones I have.
Super simple color combo for this guy.
Hot pink and orange/yellow/gold. It’s not a Christmas color palette you see every day, and when I did the actual coloring, I wasn’t sold on this. I wasn’t sold when the card was done, either, but it’s grown on me, and I’m now in a place where I like it. That might change again, though, ask me tomorrow 😉
I printed the image on the bottom half of a quarter sheet of X-Press It blending card, did my coloring, then used the Basket Weave stencil from My Favorite Things to add a little bit of interest to the panel. Above the image, I used Puffy Heart and Rose Quartz inks from Altenew, underneath the image I used Scattered Straw Distress Ink. I trimmed off 1/4″ on each side and mounted it with foam tape onto a card base I created from Ripe Raspberry cardstock from My Favorite Things.
I added black glaze to the eyes for some shine and Glossy Accents to the lightbulbs, before stamping and white heat embossing a sentiment from the Holiday Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant onto a scrap piece of pink cardstock. I cut the sentiment down to a strip, added a few more layers behind it and added it to my card, before finishing off with a few gold jewels from the Fesitivities mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
The Glaze, Glossy Accents, sub sentiment and gems all work together to add interest to what is otherwise a very simple card.
The coloring is pretty simple too 🙂
I decided to use the macaron from the stamp set. There’s actually a large and a small one in the set. I used the large one, and I stacked seven on top of one another, so I could add lots of different colors to them. It’s an odd rainbow, but I think it works, and I kept the coloring very simple. I fussy cut my stack of macarons, leaving a thin white border and put it aside while I worked on the rest of my card.
I cut down a piece of patterned paper from the Ink Drops – Vivid paper pad from Craft Consortium. I chose this particular sheet because the colors I used for the macarons are well represented in the paper. I printed the sentiment directly onto the patterned paper and adhered it to a top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I die cut the largest frame in the Classic Rectangle Frames die set from My Favorite Things 9 times from white cardstock. I stacked them and adhered them to the card front, before adding sequins and gems to the well. The sequin mix I used is the Vanilla Kiss mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I adhered a few around my sentiment to keep them from falling to the bottom, then sealed my shaker well with a piece of acetate from Simon Says Stamp. I added one final white die cut frame on top of the acetate for a clean look and also adhered the stack of macarons to finish the card.
By creating thick walls for my well, the sequins, gems and pearls really have a lot of space to shake around. I made sure to place the large pearls and gems the right side up before I added the acetate, so they wouldn’t turn around on me. The smaller ones do, but as long as the big ones show their good side, I’m okay with that.
Very sherbety color palette for this one. Three colors for each macaron.
I colored Mae with Copics, opting for one of my go to summer color palettes. There’s something about pink, yellow and orange that just screams summer to me. Once colored, I fussy cut her, leaving a white border around the image. The white border makes her stand out against a colorful background, and with that hair, there’s no way I was cutting right up against the black lines in the image.
I created an A2 top fold card base from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and did some ink blending directly on the front. I first used the Watercolor Circle stencil from My Favorite Things and ink blended using Squeezed Lemonade and Mustard Seed Distress inks. I removed the circle stencil, added the Geometric mosaic stencil, also from MFT, and used Spiced Marmalade Distress ink for an orange pattern on top, extending out from the circle a bit. I didn’t think the orange was dark enough, so I went over it with Orange Peel ink from Simon Says Stamp and even added a little bit of Abandoned Coral Distress ink on top to amp up the contrast.
I mounted Mae on foam tape, before adding a couple of Kort & Godt sentiment stickers, which I also put foam tape on the back of.
I love dimension on my cards, and by popping up the image and the sentiments, they stand out a little against a fairly busy background.
To finish the card, I added a few pearls, hearts and gems from the Chrysanthemum mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I love her mixes, and use them on most of my cards, they add the perfect finishing touch.
Simple color palette.
There are five adorable penguins in this stamp set, and I chose two to color, with a vague idea for a card in the back of my mind as I was coloring. Once I’d colored both penguins and fussy cut them, I realized splitting them up and creating two cards would be better. For this card, I placed the Grid stencil from My Favorite Things at a bit of an angle directly on my top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. Using Sno Cone ink from My Favorite Things and a blender brush, I created a soft blend near the bottom of the card front, fading to white above and below.
The wishes die from Mama Elephant is probably my most used word die, I love it so much. I die cut it five times from Wild Cherry cardstock from My Favorite Things and stacked the die cuts for dimension. Onto the background I stamped a sub sentiment and the word Christmas from the 
The good thing about small(ish) images is that you don’t need heaps of colors. They’re also fairly quick to color.
Meet 
I colored the scene with Copics, cropped down the panel and white heat embossed a sentiment from the coordinating sentiment set using VersaMark ink and Super fine detail embossing powder from Ranger. I added a few white dots to the wave using a Sharpie and put the panel to the side while I worked on the rest of the card.
I thought the Stitched Ripple Backdrop die from Lawn Fawn would work perfectly for a subtle wave pattern in the background. It’s a landscape oriented die and I wanted a portrait oriented card, so I die cut it twice from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, before adding colored strips along the seam for a little bit of added interest. I colored the strips with a few of the Copics I used for my scene and used a die from the Blueprints 27 die set from My Favorite Things to turn them into strips of the same width.
I mounted my scene to the center of the card using foam tape, before embellishing with sequins and raindrops from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. The sequins are from her Ice Water mix.
The finished card is a simple looking one. I love adding dimension, the sequins and raindrops work perfectly with the colors and Kalei’s making the most of her summer. I hope you are too 🙂 And if you’re in the Southern hemisphere in the middle of winter right now, I feel your pain.
I tend to go overboard whenever I color skies or water.
These mitten dies from Kort & Godt are perfect for gift tags. There are three dies in the set: the cuff, a base layer and a top layer. I only used the cuff on one of these, but used the base layer and top layer for all of them.
I used scraps of patterned paper from Maja Design for all three of the mittens, stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment on one of them and added a gold gem stone to the center of each of the snowflakes. I also pulled some string through a hole I made at the top left corner and added a couple of bells to each.
On the back I stamped to and from using ink colors that matched the mittens. I used Dark Chocolate ink from Papertrey Ink for the brown mitten, Scarlet Jewel ink (also from PTI) for the red mittens.
I packed a lot of stamps into this one card, which is actually an A6 size card (4 5/8 x 6 1/4″). Whenever I create cards with new releases from Purple Onion Designs, I let the design of the card dictate the size of the card, whatever that turns out to be.
I colored the scene with my Copics. I’d managed to overfill a marker when I refilled it, creating a big drop of blue ink on my peach colored cabana when I went to color in the window. At that point the sky, fences and beach were all colored, I only had the critters left and didn’t want to start over, so I made the fences darker and made the cabana darker too. It’s still visible, but I wanted the focus to be on the critters enjoying their time at the beach. If it had happened on a main element of my card, I probably would have started over.
I used a white Sharpie to create foam from the waves coming in, and stamped a sentiment from the coordinating 
Fairly muted color palette for this one.
I love hydrangeas, and this image was is one I just HAD to color. Even though I’m more confident with my Copics because I use them so much, I love the soft look and those edges lines you get with watercolor. I stamped the image on a piece of Fabriano Artistico Extra White watercolor paper using Obsidian ink from Altenew. This is a pigment ink, which makes it perfect for embossing. I sprinkled on clear embossing powder from Ranger and melted the powder.
I grabbed a couple of paint brushes and my Mijello Mission Gold watercolor set and mixed pinks and purples for my flowers, and a bunch of different greens for the stems and leaves. I’m no expert watercolorist (if you want to watch an expert watercolor, head over to Debby Hughes’ 
This stamp set actually comes with a couple of additional leaves and petals and dies to cut them out, but there’s no die for this large image. Fussy cutting it was easy enough, though. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the stamp set onto a piece of True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I dry embossed a piece of patterned paper from the Watercolor Wishes 6×6 inch paper pack from Lawn Fawn using the Geometric Landscape stencil from Altenew. I wanted a little bit of texture to create interest in the background without distracting from the main image, and this did the trick.
I added a few more layers of cardstock behind my black strip for dimension, popped the flower up on foam tape and finished off the card with a few faceted pearls. Or are they gems? No matter what they are, they’re gorgeous, and I have a feeling I’ll use up the entire pack of these in no time, I love them so much.
I colored the image with Copics, then used a craft knife to cut away the insides of the letters. I used a die from the Stitched borders die set from Lawn Fawn to create a defined edge on my colored panel and added a piece of acetate from Simon Says Stamp behind the letters. I’d made sure to keep the counters on the Rs intact when I did my cutting, so I could add them back in once the acetate was in place.
I used Cornflower cardstock from My Favorite Things to create the shaker well. I doubled up on foam tape and put sequins and confetti from the Icicle Sequin mix from Hero Arts in the well, then adhered the window on top.
I created a top fold A2 landscape card base using Cornflower cardstock once again. I stamped the Paint Splatter background stamp from My Favorite Things onto the card base using Fresh Snow hybrid ink from Papertrey Ink, and adhered my shaker panel on top. Easy peasy.
By doubling up on the foam tape, the sequins and confetti have lots of room to shake.
Super simple color palette for this one.
Papirmølla 