Hi! Today I have a fun and festive, yet very simple card to share, featuring the Confetti Celebration stamp set from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Julian Charlton. I love Elliot and Marcel, they’re so fun and quirky. They’re also not super detailed in the linework, which gives me the opportunity to practice my watercoloring.
I bought a 36 tube set of Mijello Mission Gold watercolors last September, and they’ve been sitting in their palette scaring me, but I’ve recently started dabbling a little bit. Images like this with big open areas are great for practice, and this is my third proper watercolor piece. Yes, I’m keeping track, haha. The previous two attempts were both noline. One was a background, and the other a digital stamp. My printer ink doesn’t play well (or at all, really) with water, so I had to opt for the noline look to prevent visible bleeding. I dove right into the deep end, hoping I could pull it off.
I stamped the image onto Fabriano Artistico Extra White watercolor paper using VersaFine Onyx Black ink. I’ve created a birthday card with these two once before (blog post here). Back then, I used blue, green and yellow, so I wanted a different palette for today’s card. Pink, orange and yellow is a palette I really love, and with the pink watercolor wash on the background, as well as the Poppin’ Pink cardstock from My Favorite Things that I chose to create my card base from, I think this is a really fun card.
For my last card with this image, I used my Copic BV20 series for a purply gray elephant. This time, I went for a bluer version to get a nice contrast. I actually decided to mute my pink a little before painting with it. The Bright Opera color from Mijello is a super bright pink, and I added a tiny bit of Hooker’s Green to dull it a little, it was just too bright a pink straight from the palette for what I wanted.
Once I’d painted my scene, I went back over with a black pen to trace the lines of the image. I would have restamped if I could, but I stamped the image weeks before I painted it and removed the stamp from my MISTI in the meantime. Black pen to the rescue. I just wanted crisp black lines. I stamped a sentiment from the stamp set using VersaFine Onyx Black ink and heat embossed that using clear embossing powder.
I cut down my colored panel slightly and adhered it to an A7 top fold card base I created from two pieces of Poppin’ Pink cardstock from Papertrey Ink. To finish the card I adhered sequins, beads, confetti and other various little bits from the Sweet Shop mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I don’t usually put this many sequins on my cards and scatter them like this, but I wanted to really keep the party vibe from these two going across the entire card front.
In the stamp set, there are three fairies, a few ghosts, an adorable bat (yes, it’s adorable) and various accessories. Among them are different candies. I created a panel of these candies, and colored them in with my Copics using very Halloween-y colors. That was last year.
I wasn’t sure what to do with my colored background, but I didn’t want to cover too much of it, and opted for a very simple design. Using the largest die from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things, I turned my colored piece into a panel with a nice faux stitched edge. I love these faux stitch dies from MFT and use them for nearly every card I make. It adds such a wonderful detail. It’s all in the details, to paraphrase a famous German architect.
I adhered my die cut panel onto a card base I created from Royal Velvet cardstock from Papertrey Ink. It’s a deep purple that goes well with the coloring.
I created the remainder of my sentiment in Photoshop and printed it, cut it down to two strips and added them on top of the letters with an extra strip of black cardstock behind for a little added dimension and stability. I added three enamel dots from Papirdesign (yellow and orange) and Altenew (purple) to finish my card.
Not a lot of colors for this one, and yet they’re very Halloween-y.
I wanted a really dark, intense moon to illuminate and cast shadows in my scene. Once I’d placed all the different images where I wanted them in Photoshop, I drew a large circle to create the edges of my moon. I set the opacity very low, so I could use it as a guide when I did the actual coloring to get a perfect circle and not have any black lines around the edges.
My original plan when I colored this scene (which was actually last year) was to create a shaker card where the tombstone was the actual shaker recessed into the card, while everything else was popped up. Plans change, though, and when I sat down to actually make the card I decided to go for a very simple approach. I glued my colored panel onto a card base made from Sour Apple cardstock from My Favorite Things, and that was it. No embellishments, no nothing. Some people might call this a one layer card, but to me, a one layer card is one where everything is done on the card base. This is adhered to the card base, so I wouldn’t technically call it a one layer card. What do you think? One layer or not? What’s your definition of a one layer card?
Not a whole lot of Copics, given the fact that the entire front panel is colored in.
This cute image is called 
I actually turned this into a trifold card. I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 dies from My Favorite Things, as well as the Square Peek-a-Boo Window die to die cut from this panel of Lazy Day cardstock, also from My Favorite Things.
When you open the card, the rest of the image is revealed, and that cute snowman isn’t alone. He has a little friend giving him a present. Below the image I stamped a sentiment from the Holiday Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Lazy Day ink from My Favorite Things. This panel is also die cut using that die from the Stitched Rectangles STAX set from MFT. I love these faux stitch rectangle dies, they’re my most used dies by far. I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous and heated the panel from the back to melt the granules before adhering it to my card. This opens up to reveal ample space to write a personal message to the recipient.
I colored up these 
I’m usually good at using scraps of patterned paper and rarely use a brand new sheet. Today was the day, though. I thought this patterned paper from the I wish collection from Maja Design went really well with my coloring, and I didn’t have a single scrap of this particular paper. Using the same die that I used on the white panel, I die cut my patterned paper before cutting up my die cut into pieces I could use on my card. I added two layers of cardstock behind both pieces and glued them to my card. I now have a continuous stitched border, even though some of it is my colored panel and some is patterned paper. I love little details like that. I die cut three of the god jul die from Papirdesign from red cardstock and glued them together for a stacked look. I glued my die cut to the center of the wide patterned paper before adding a sub sentiment. The sub sentiment is from Norsk Stempelblad AS, white heat embossed on the same color red cardstock and cut down to a strip, with two additional pieces of cardstock behind it to make it flush with the die cut. I added three snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to the patterned paper, and my card was finished.
Not a whole lot of colors for this one. Soft colors too (except for the darkest green, I wanted a little bit of contrast there), which is rare for me.
I actually colored this in May last year. I keep my colored image in stamp storage sleeves from Tim Holtz. They’re super sturdy and you can put a lot of colored images in one pocket. They come five in a pack, which is perfect for me, that way I can dedicate each sleeve to one design team, since I’m currently on five design teams. Sometimes, I just want to color without having to turn it into a card right away, and sometimes I just want to make a card, but don’t feel like coloring, or simply don’t have time to do both. Compartmental crafting for the win.
I mounted my colored panel using foam tape and adhered it to the center of the card. I felt like it was missing something and needed a little bit extra. Mini paper doilies from Doodlebug Design to the rescue. I love these mini doilies, I use them often. And you don’t need the whole doily, either, I just used two small pieces for this card, and there are 75 doilies in one pack, they last forever. Onto a piece of Blue Breeze cardstock from MFT I stamped a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment using Blueberry Sky ink from Papertrey Ink. I cut it down to a 1″ circle using a circle punch from EK Success, added it to my card using foam tape and finished the card with a few pink enamel dots from Papirdesign.
This cute vampire is from the My Little Pet Ghost stamp set. There’s also a witch in the same set that I used for a similar treat bag, which you can read all about in 
I colored this vampire on the same day that I colored the witch, and I used the exact same colors.
I colored the image with my Copics, die cut her using the largest of the A2 Double Stitched Rectangle STAX dies from My Favorite Things and sprinkled on a generous amount of chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous, which I then melted.
I adhered my panel onto a top fold cardbase I created from Cranberry cardstock from Concord & 9th, before adding a piece of a mini paper doily from Doodlebug and a sentiment from My Favorite Things that I white heat embossed onto a separate piece of the Cranberry cardstock, with three additional layers behind for a little dimension. I added a few Snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and my card was complete. Super simple.
As usual, I finish with the Copics I used for my image.
I drew some sheets of ice with a pencil after I’d stamped my penguins, and made an ocean scene. The stamp with the two penguins holding the party banner is too wide for a regular portrait A2 card, and I wanted to include some more penguins in my scene as well. Slimline to the rescue. I thought it’d be fun to have the penguins on two separate icebergs instead of just the one.
I started by coloring the sky, then the ocean. This was probably what took the longest, it’s a big ocean, and while it’s not difficult to color, it takes time to build up layers. Next up were the icebergs, then the penguins, then finally all their accessories. I love Stacey Yacula’s style, it lends itself to create very textured critters, so that’s what I opted for.
When the entire scene was colored in I white heat embossed a sentiment from one of the stamp sets I used onto black cardstock and put two additional pieces behind it for a little dimension. I also heat embossed the word PARTY from the same stamp set. The letters are sized and spaced perfectly to fit across that bunting. It’s perfect. I mounted my colored panel onto a black cardbase to frame my cute penguins. Very simple.
Lots and lots of Copics for this one. I used a lot for the ocean, the icebergs and the penguins, and that little rainbow of accessories make up the rest of this very colorful palette.
Papirmølla 