Merry Christmas {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m back today with another card featuring the new stamp sets from Lili of the Valley, which are now available on Etsy.

I can’t resist a good penguin, and the Snow Cute stamp set has many of them, I love this little guy with reindeer antlers. I colored him with Copics and fussy cut right up against the stamped lines and put him aside while I worked on the rest of my card.

Last fall, I made a bunch of snowy backgrounds using an old Falling Snow stencil from Simon Says Stamp, some modeling paste from The Crafters Workshop and Rock Candy Distress Glitter for some sparkle. If you sprinkle on the glitter while the paste is still wet, it will adhere nicely. I didn’t use all my backgrounds last year, and dug this one out of a drawer in my craft room. The cardstock is Rustic Cream from Papertrey Ink, which is a nice cream color. It’s got the right amount of color to let the falling snow show without being too distracting. It also has these little flecks of darker color here and there, giving it a rustic feel, it’s really nice.

I adhered my snowy background to a top fold card base I created from Amarena Cherry cardstock from My Favorite Things, before die cutting the word MERRY (Stacked Merry die from My Favorite Things) four times from Classic Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink, which I stacked and then adhered to the snowy background using liquid glue.

I put foam tape behind the penguin and added him to the card, before using one of the words from the Christmas Greetings stamp set to complete my sentiment. This greetings stamp set has every sentiment you could possibly want for the holiday season. It includes 26 small sentiments, 6 large words with a handwritten look (Christmas, Hugs, Merry, Snow, Wishes, Winter) and 14 smaller words to create all kinds of Christmas greetings. I’ve been on the lookout for a good sentiment stamp set for Christmas, and this set has everything, I don’t need to look any further.

I used a black glaze pen to add shine and dimension to the penguin’s eyes. Once the black was dry, I added a dot of white Gelly Roll 05 over the top.

These penguins are quick and easy to color and don’t require a whole lot of markers.

Hope your b-day’s totally gnarly! {Streamside Studios}

Hi, crafty friends! I’m back today with a super clean and simple card, featuring the brand new Beach mice (digi) stamp set from Streamside Studios. I just couldn’t resist this surfing mouse and the punny sentiment that goes with it.

I printed the image in the center of a quarter piece of A4 X-Press It blending card, before coloring it with my Copics. I’ve never colored waves like this before, so I felt like I was in deep water.

I’ve found, however, that the best thing to do is to just jump in. It’s just paper and ink, and not the end of the world if it’s not perfect.

I used blues, teals and even a little bit of green to create my waves. I’d already colored the surfboard using teal colors, but once I was finished with the waves, you couldn’t really tell them apart, so I went back in with dark blues on top of the teal of the surfboard instead. The blue stands out much more against the background, and I’m never mad when I have to use blue 😉

I trimmed my panel down, adhered it to a top fold card base I created from After Midnight cardstock from My Favorite Things and printed a punny sentiment that I put an additional four layers of cardstock behind for dimension, before finishing off with a few raindrops from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. Super simple.

That little bit of dimension is everything on a simple card like this. Oh, and the raindrops too, I thought they fit well with the aquatic theme.

Lots and lots of blues for this!

Friends like you are hard to find {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a card to share today that isn’t holiday related. I know I’ve made a lot of Christmas cards lately (I love making them), but I’m shaking things up today with this adorable new Owl Find You! image from Rachelle Anne Miller.

As usual, I colored the image with Copics. I didn’t use very dark colors for this one, because I wanted the coloring to look soft. I purposely colored the owl in colors that wouldn’t stand out. By using the same colors that I used for the tree, they’re somewhat hidden and go well with the sentiment, which was my plan.

I created a top fold A2 card base from Jalapeño Popper cardstock from My Favorite Things, cut down my colored panel to 3 5/8 x 4 7/8″ and mounted it on foam tape in the center of my card.

From the same color cardstock, I used the Connected alphabet die set from My Favorite Things to die cut the letters to spell the word FRIENDS. I die cut each of the letters three times and stacked them for a dimensional look. Using Jalapeño Popper ink from My Favorite Things, I stamped the rest of the sentiment using the Bella Letters stamp set from Mama Elephant onto a strip of white cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I took my time stamping, I wanted this to look pretty straight, and if you’ve ever stamped a sentiment with individual letter stamps, you know that you just can’t rush it.

I added an additional two layers of white cardstock strips behind my stamped sentiment. I added my dimensional white strip onto a slightly wider green strip, before adhering it directly to the colored image, before finishing up the card with some sparkly sequins from the Seaglass mix from Simon Says Stamp.

Lots of dimension going on here. Dimension is life, after all 🙂 I added a tiny dot of black to their eyes with a Glaze pen to make them pop.

Very simple color palette for this one.

Christmas wishes {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. Earlier this week, the new Christmas collection from Lili of the Valley was launched on Create and Craft TV in the UK. Six stamp sets were released and my cards were shown on TV, that’s so freaky. You can watch the replay here – and I would because it was a fun show. And a funny show, the hostess couldn’t even finish her sentences because the products sold out so quickly.

This card features the same stamp from the Snow Cute stamp set that I used on the previous card I made with stamps from this release (it’s this one). For today’s card, I isolated the penguin in the stamp, fussy cut him and put him in a polaroid frame.

I created my card base from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and I wanted a blue gradient near the bottom, fading into white at the top. I pulled out a couple of blender brushes, the Lapis Lazuli inks (Azurite, Ultramarine, Eastern Sky and Iceberg) from Altenew and started blending from the darkest at the bottom to the lightest at the top.

Once I was happy with my blending, I die cut a bunch of snowflakes. I used an old die from Marianne Design (CR1335) which cuts plenty of snowflakes, as well as the Snowflake Confetti Fancy Die from Hero Arts. This is actually a cover plate, but as the name suggests, it creates confetti in the shape of snowflakes. I put the positive die cut back into the packaging to use for another card and glued the snowflakes to my background. The stark white of the snowflakes was a little too white for the sentiment I was putting on top to stand out, so I went back over with more blue ink once the snowflakes were adhered. This toned them down a bit, just enough for my die cut word to stand out.

Speaking of die cut word, I used this wishes die from Mama Elephant and die cut three layers of white cardstock, which I glued together for dimension. For the polaroid frame, I used the Precious Polaroids die set from My Favorite Things and die cut three of those as well.

I adhered the polaroid frame and the die cut word to the card front, popped the little penguin into the opening of the polaroid using some foam tape and completed the sentiment with a stamped word from the new sentiment set from Lili of the Valley, cut down to a strip and adhered with a couple of additional strips of cardstock behind it. Because dimension is life!

I hope you check out the new release from Lili of the Valley, there are so many great images and sentiments in these sets, the possibilities are endless!

Christmas greetings {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, crafty friends! I’m definitely in a holiday card making mood these days. Between Christmas in July for Get Cracking on Christmas, the upcoming Christmas release from Lili of the Valley and this adorable image, it’s impossible not to be.

This is Got the Wreath from Mo Manning. For some reason this is named “with wreath” in the Dropbox folder where I keep my Mo Manning stamps and that’s kind of how this image was chosen. I was to create a card with an image that started with a W. Rules set by a 3 year old. The very same 3 year old chose red, orange and light pink for a color combo. I really didn’t know what to do, but I like a challenge, and created this card. Very untraditional in its color scheme, but I kind of dig it.

After coloring the image with Copics, I used the largest of the dies from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 set from My Favorite Things to turn it into a panel. I adhered it to a top fold card base I created from Hibiscus Burst cardstock from Papertrey Ink, before gluing on a scrap piece of doily from Doodlebug Design in the upper right corner. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Julehilsen stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto a die cut piece of patterned paper from Bo Bunny. I added another die cut piece of patterned paper (this dotted pink is from Sunny Studio) and stapled the two pieces together before mounting them to the card using foam tape. I put another scrap of the pink in the opposite corner of the card and finished off with a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Colors for this crazy combo. Evidently I forgot to include the greens, but they are BG99, G99, YG67, YG63 and YG61.

Snow cute {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends! There’s a brand new release from Lili of the Valley right around the corner, and it’s a good one. It’s a beautiful Christmas collection of six different photopolymer stamp sets. There are penguins, polar bears, reindeer, a santa, some gnomes, snowflakes and a separate sentiment set. You know I can’t resist a cute penguin, and I thought I’d share a peek today.

This cute image with the penguin, reindeer and bear peeking up from behind something stole my heart. It’s from the Snow Cute set, which includes another one of these peeking images and six individual penguins. I colored a winter sunset behind them before coloring the critters, used a black Glaze pen to make their eyes extra black and shiny and also put a dash of Glossy Accents to Rudolph’s nose. Once the layer of Glaze was dry, I added white dots using a 05 Gelly Roll pen.

I fussy cut the image at the bottom and added my narrow panel to a white cardstock panel. At the bottom of the panel I stamped the word Christmas from the sentiment set using Ocean Tides ink from Papertrey Ink. I adhered the white panel to a top fold landscape card base I created from Ocean Tides cardstock, also from Papertrey Ink.

I white heat embossed a sub sentiment from the sentiment set onto Ocean Tides cardstock, cut it down to a strip and adhered it to the card with a few extra layers of cardstock behind it for dimension.

I decided to keep the card very simple and added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish.

The sprinkles add a little bit of dimension to the card. So does the sub sentiment. In this photo you can even see that Rudolph’s nose sticks out a little because of the Glossy Accents.

I used a lot of Copic colors for this image.

These stamps (and the other four sets in this release) will be launched on Create and Craft at 12 noon (UK time) on Tuesday 2nd August – You can watch in the UK on Sky 683, Freeview 85 or watch online anywhere at https://createandcraft.com/. You can even watch later online if you miss it! They will launch on the Lili of the Valley website a week later on Tuesday 9th August – as polymer stamps only – so if you want them you need to get them as A5 stamp sets.

Get Cracking on Christmas – July

Hi, crafty friends. We’ve reached the third Thursday of the month, which means it’s time to get cracking on Christmas. This is a series Jenn Shurkus created a few years back. The intention is to use the supplies you bought the last holiday season and didn’t get around to using AND to make you less stressed come November, because you’ve already got a bunch of holiday cards made. I enjoy making Christmas cards all year, so Get Cracking on Christmas is PERFECT for me.

For today’s card, I no line colored this selfie with the penguin and snowman from the Selfies with Santa stamp set, designed by Stacey Yacula for My Favorite Things. I love this stamp set and went with a pink to yellow winter sunset in the background, and a grayish green and brownish orange for the rest. Somehow it works. Onto a card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I stamped snowflakes from the Flurry of Love stamp set from My Favorite Things using Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink. I didn’t have an ink in the same tone as my coloring, but the yellow works.

I mounted my the selfie at an angle using foam tape, die cut the Merry Script die from Mama Elephant several times from Ocean Tides cardstock from Papertrey Ink and stacked them together for dimension. I stamped and white heat embossed the word CHRISTMAS from the Itty Bitty Holiday stamp set from My Favorite Things, and adhered that below the die cut word with 6 additional strips of cardstock behind it for dimension. To finish off the card I adhered a few sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Lots of colors for this one.

Let it snow {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, crafty friends. It’s been a while, but I have a simple Christmas card to share today, featuring Season’s Greetings from Mo’s Digital Pencil. This is an older image of hers, but I love the playfulness of the girl hanging on to the candy cane and couldn’t resist.

I printed the image on a piece of X-Press It blending card, extending the candy cane so it would run along the entire left side of my card front. The line style of the image is somewhat sketchy, which means you can’t really mess up creating an additional couple of lines. I colored the image with Copics and sprinkled on lots of chunky white embossing enamel, before melting the granules from the back of the cardstock.

I wanted a big sentiment for this card, and chose the Let It Snow die from Lawn Fawn to create it. I cut once from Hawaiian Shores cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and three times from white cardstock, also from PTI, to create a chipboard like element that adds dimension to my card. I finished off with a few snowflake sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Simple color palette. I would never pair red with green for a Christmas card (I’m not a fan of complementary colors), but red and teal works sooo well.

Happiness is being one year older {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m back today with a card featuring the adorable Party Parade image from Lili of the Valley.

This image is the perfect fit for a mini slimline card. I colored it with my Copics, before using a die from the Slimline Starter die set from My Favorite Things to partially die cut my panel twice to get it down to the perfect size.

I adhered the colored piece onto a mini slimline card base I created from Sour Apple cardstock from My Favorite Things.

Onto the balloon, I stamped a sentiment from the Bursdag inch stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad using VersaFine Onyx Black ink.

I adhered some sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards here and there on the scene to embellish a little.

I really wanted the image to be the focal point of this card, and with this festive gang of party goers, I think it is.

Simple, analogous color palette for this card.

Hello friend {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, crafty friends! I have one of my “clean and simple cluster” cards to share today, featuring Tweetie from Mo Manning. I think this image is so sweet, and not only is it the perfect friendship image, it’s also perfect for the summer season.

I colored the image with Copics and die cut the panel using the largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 die set from My Favorite Things, before adhering it to a card base I created from Sour Apple cardstock, also from My Favorite Things.

On my cluster cards, I usually choose two to three colors from the image to create scraps from. This time I chose green and yellow with a little bit of gray. Neutrals are always a good thing to add. I keep die cut scraps in stamp storage pockets on my desk, sorted by color. Whenever I want to create a cluster, I choose the storage pockets with the colors I want, dump the contents on my desk and start PLAYING.

For this card I wound up using scraps from 3ndypapir, Karen Foster, Sunny Studio, P13, Magnolia and Papirdesign. By limiting the size and colors of my clusters, the design stays harmonious and you can’t tell that I’ve used patterned paper from 6 different companies. I adhere some directly to the layer below, some using foam squares. As a base, I used half a doily from Doodlebug Design that I had in a drawer. I love these tiny paper doilies, they’re perfect for this.

Using VersaFine Onyx Black ink, I stamped a sentiment from the Sweet Summer Sentiment Set from Purple Onion Designs onto a strip of patterned paper from Papirdesign. I finished off the card by adding a few enamel dots from the Pocketful of Sunshine pack of enamel dots from Altenew.

These cluster cards are so fun to make. They make my piles of scraps shrink EVER so slightly, but anything’s better than nothing, and I love the dimension they add to the card.

I used quite a few colors for this one.