Hi, crafty friends. My love for penguins is not a secret, so whenever there’s a penguin to color, I’m all over it. This penguin is from the Polar Christmas stamp set from Lili of the Valley, and I paired it with a mountain background that comes in the same set.
I colored my cutie with Copics and made sure to color enough on the sky and the ground beneath him so I could die cut my panel with a circle die. I used a black glaze pen to get some shine into his eyes, and once the black was dry, I added a dot of white Gelly Roll 05. I die cut a white ornament using the Snowflakes and Ornament die set from Hero Arts, and glued my colored panel on top, before working on the rest of the card.
For my background, I used the Magic Snow Cover die from Mama Elephant to die cut from Powder cardstock from Concord & 9th. I adhered that to a top fold white card base and glued my ornament in the center with a couple of layers of cardstock behind it for a little bit of dimension. I die cut a sentiment from white cardstock using the Jolly Holiday Greetings die set from Concord & 9th. I die cut the back from Champagne cardstock, also from Concord & 9th and added the complete sentiment to my card with a little dimension behind it, before finishing off with a die cut bow in the same cardstock color, die cut using the Gift Bows die set from Kristina Werner.
Simple palette for this one.
I printed the image onto X-Press It blending card and colored it with my Copics, creating a soft winter sunset behind the cute penguins. From white cardstock (Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink), I die cut a frame using the Winter Wonderland window die from Lawn Fawn and adhered it to my colored piece.
I used the Magic Snow Cover die from Mama Elephant to create texture and interest to a piece of Cornflower cardstock from My Favorite Things, which I adhered to my top fold card base. I added some dimension behind my winter wonderland window and adhered it in the center of the card. I stamped a sentiment from the Holiday messages stamp set from Mama Elephant onto Nectar cardstock from Concord & 9th using Grapefruit ink, also from Concord & 9th, cut it down to a strip and added it to my frame with a couple of extra layers of cardstock behind it for dimension, before finishing off with sequins from the Ivory Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
I used a fairly limited color palette for this card. I also used B20, which is a color I’ve created myself.
I love coloring this image in noline versions. I usually print with his eyes and eyebrows in a dark brown and the rest of him in a super light grey. I kept the snow on the ground around him this time, and cut away the part of the panel that above my imagined horizon line. I created stars in the sky by using solar paste from Simon Hurley (in the golden hour color) through the Falling stars stencil from Simon Says Stamp onto the front of an A2 card base I created from After midnight cardstock from My Favorite Things.
Once the stars were dry, I adhered my panel with my snowman, adding die cut trees a little bit below the horizon line. I created the trees by coloring a scrap piece of X-Press It using the same green markers I used for the image, before die cutting them using the Silhouette Snow Trees die set from Mama Elephant. I finished off the trees with some liquid glue and Rock Candy distress glitter for a sparkly, snowy look. For a sentiment I die cut the words holly jolly from the Jolly Holiday greeting die set from Concord & 9th five times from white cardstock and adhered them all together for a stacked, dimensional look and completed the greetings with some small words from the Holiday messages stamp set from Mama Elephant that I stamped in Obsidian ink from Altenew onto pieces of cardstock I colored with the lightest of the green markers I used for the snowman and the trees.
Fairly simple color palette for this one, although I don’t think I’ll ever have a limited color palette for snow, I always choose a lot of colors to create snow.
I originally planned on creating a regular portrait oriented A2 card with this image, but I had this idea of another igloo in the distance, and it kind of evolved from there. I don’t usually create my own backgrounds for cards (I like background stamps that do all the work for me), but I had a blast with this one. Keeping the colors to a minimum certainly helped. I only used five Copics for the entire background.
Once the background and the actual stamped image were both colored in, I stamped a sentiment from the 
Limited color palette for such a large card.
Meet 
Once everything was colored in, I stamped Santa’s Silhouette using Obsidian ink from Altenew. This is a pigment ink, which doesn’t really play well with Copics, so it’s best to use it once the coloring’s complete. I then stamped a sentiment from the Home for the Holidays sentiment set using Jalapeño Popper ink from My Favorite Things, before I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous, which I melted from the back for a textured snow look. I adhered my panel to a top fold card base and my card was complete.
I used a lot of Copics for this scene. A lot.
I stamped and colored my critters (
I stamped a sentiment from the older 
I used a lot of colors for this scene.
I rummaged through my scraps of patterned paper and found these from Maja Design. Their patterned papers coordinate really well, even across collections years apart. In fact, I’ve used three different collections on this card. The Happy Christmas collection from 2021, the Vintage Winter collection from 2011 and the Gammaldags Jul collection, which is even older, but I’m not sure what year it’s from (it was before they started printing the year on the strips at the bottom of their patterned papers). I used Die 240 from Kort & Godt to cut the patterned paper. This ia a die set with these fish tail banners of different sizes. I then arranged them how I wanted them and die cut them all at once using a stitched rectangle die (Die 182 from Kort & Godt) to give them all that faux stitch line at the top. I used the same rectangle die to cut a piece of white cardstock which I adhered to my card base with another layer behind it for a tiny bit of dimension.
I mounted the banners in layers using foam tape, and die cut the sentiment from gold glitter cardstock. I stacked a few white ones behind it for dimension (I think I used four layers in addition to the gold glitter cardstock) and also die cut the shadow from white. I added dimension behind it and adhered it on top of the banners to finish the card.
I started by die cutting half circles into the sides of a panel of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, before running it through my die cutting machine with an old Sizzix embossing folder to create some texture. I adhered my panel to my card base and started working on the rest of the card.
I fussy cut the tree from MA1030, put lots of foam tape on the back and adhered it in the center of the card, making sure that the presents sort of lined up with the notches I’d created. I then pulled a piece of cotton string through the holes of a button that says Merry Christmas, wrapped the string around the card using the notches to keep it in place and tied a knot behind the button. Super simple, right?
I colored the image with Copics and fussy cut it. It’s an easy one to fussy cut, so that helps. I die cut a frame from the Mega Snowflake Cover die set from Mama Elephant three times from white cardstock, stacked them and adhered the stack to a card base I created from Blue Breeze cardstock from My Favorite Things, before mounting the image with foam squares.
I used one of the dies in the Jolly Holiday Greetings die set from Concord & 9th to die cut a few times from white cardstock and stacked those as well. I adhered the stacked die cut to my card base. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Holiday stamp set from My Favorite Things onto Amarena Cherry cardstock from My Favorite Things, cut the sentiment apart and used part of it to complete the sentiment on the card, before finishing off with a few pearls from the Glossy Porcelain mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Simple color palette.
This die set is massive, there are 18 dies to cut out everything I’ve used on this card. Included in the die set is also a large die that leaves a faux stitch outline of this arrangement. I didn’t use that for this card, but I’ve used all the other dies in the set.
I used the outline die in the die set to cut my card base from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I folded half a sheet (4 1/4 x 11″) and did partial die cutting, so the top of the die wouldn’t cut. I then adhered a white panel I cut with the same die and then arranged my florals on top. I glued some pieces flat down and added others with diemension behind them.
I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Festive Blooms stamp set onto Juniper cardstock, die cut it into a banner and added a couple of white die cuts behind it for strength and dimension, before popping it up on foam tape in the center of the card.
Papirmølla 