Witch better have my candy {Streamside Studios}

September 14, 2021October 1, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Witch way to the party? I’m sharing a treat holder today for Halloween. I try not to make too many Halloween cards, simply because I have no idea who I’d send them to. I do make the occasional Halloween project that isn’t a card, though.

This cute witch is part of the My Little Pet Ghost digi stamp set from Streamside Studios. There are lots of of other images in the set, but today, I only used the witch. I colored her and fussy cut her, before using foam squares to mount her onto my treat holder. These treat holders are super easy to make. Start with a piece of cardstock (or patterned paper if you want, if it’s heavyweight enough) that measures 3 1/8 x 10 1/2″. Score on the long side at 4 1/2 and 6″, and you have the outer part all done, ready to be decorated however you want. Score a 4 1/2 x 3 1/2″ panel 1″ from all four sides, cut, fold and glue along the flaps and glue it to the inside bottom of the outer part. Super simple.

I did ink blending on this one, using the Slimline Cloud Edges stencil from My Favorite Things and inks from Altenew in the colors Deep Iris, Lavender Fields and Soft Lilac. I used the House on the Horizon die from Simon Says Stamp and die cut that from True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink and adhered it directly onto my ink blended piece. Using a yellow Copic marker, I quickly colored in the windows and door of the house. I colored some white letter stickers from Papirdesign to match the orange on the girl, and adhered the letters next to her feet, before finishing off with a few ghosts from the Candy Corn mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I put a scrap piece of patterned paper on the inside back for a little extra visual interest, die cut holes through both layers and added a piece of ribbon and some twine to finish.

Simple, Halloweeny color palette.

Merry Christmouse {Lili of the Valley}

September 9, 2021September 8, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! I have a fun Christmas card to share today, featuring one of the brand new images from Lili of the Valley. It’s called Mouse with Bauble, and the best thing is that you can choose to purchase the digital stamp (which is what I’ve used) OR the photopolymer stamp. That’s right, Lili of the Valley is reintroducing physical stamps. Some of my oldest and most cherished rubber stamps are from Lili of the Valley, and I think it’s awesome that they’re going back to having physical product.

Enough blabbing. I printed the cute mouse onto a 1/4 sheet of X-Press It blending card, which is my favorite for Copic coloring. Using a stencil from My Favorite Things and Iceberg ink from Altenew, I did some very light ink blending around the image for a little bit of added interest before I started coloring.

Onto the “white” stripes on the bauble, I used my quickie glue pen from Sakura and sprinkled on Rock Candy Distress Glitter for a little bit of sparkle. You can kind of see it in this photo, but it’s more noticeable in real life.

I cut my panel down, added lots of foam tape to the back and added it to a top fold A2 note card that I created from Blueberry cardstock from My Favorite Things. Sadly, this is one of their discontinued colors, but I have a pack of this cardstock that I absolutely love, and this color is just beautiful. It’s dark blue, but not too dark, and it’s just the right tone of blue.

I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Blue Yonder ink from My Favorite Things. I don’t have ink in the discontinued Blueberry color, and I didn’t want to use too dark of a blue ink, so I triple stamped using the Blue Yonder instead. It matches the robe pretty well.

I added a few sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and the card was done. Super simple.

Super simple color palette, too.

Good friends are the best gift of Christmas

August 31, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! I’m sharing a Christmas card today, featuring the Dragon building a snowman image from Lee Holland. He still has his Ultimate Christmas bundle and Ultimate Dragon bundle at a whopping 60% discount with the code CHRISTMAS60, but the offer expires today, so you’d better be quick if you want to get them.

I colored in my image using the no line technique. Before printing, I made all the lines in the image light gray except for the eyes and eyebrows, which I kept black. This is a great trick to color no line without having to worry about drawing things back in with a black pen and potentially getting things wonky and weird. I’ve done that once, starting over isn’t fun, so I’ve learned to get around it.

I cut my colored piece down using a stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things. I covered the card base with patterned paper from the Forever Green collection paper pack from ModaScrap and mounted my colored panel onto that using lots of foam tape.

I cut a couple of strips of patterned paper from that same paper pack from ModaScrap and added them onto my colored panel. Using a green marker, I created a green colored cardstock piece to match my dragon, stamped my Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment onto it, heat embossed it and used a circle punch to get it to a perfect 1″ circle, before adding an epoxy sticker on top for a little shine and dimension.

To finish off my card I added a few enamel dots. The brown ones and the white are from Papirdesign, the green ones from Altenew.

Not a whole heap of colors for this one.

Happy Wedding {Purple Onion Designs}

July 29, 2021July 22, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! I have a card to share today with an image from Stacey Yacula and Purple Onion Designs that is a little bit different from the critters we’re used to seeing from Stacey.

I thought this Large Floral Wreath was so beautiful, and I wanted the focus to be on that. I decided to make my card super simple. Scratch that, I decided to make my card *look* super simple. Fussy cutting and putting tiny slivers of clear foam tape behind each of those leaves took a while.

I created a top fold white card base from Stampers Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink and added a smaller gray panel made from Soft Stone cardstock, also from Papertrey Ink. I popped the gray panel up using lots of foam tape.

I wanted an elegant sentiment, and most of the sentiments I have from Purple Onion Designs didn’t really fit, so I wound up using a sentiment from the Vintage Roses stamp set from Altenew, and stamped that using Gravel Gray ink from My Favorite Things.

I added lots of sequins from Pretty Pink Posh around the entire wreath on this one. It adds a little bit of interest to what is a very simple looking card.

Super simple use of Copics for this card.

Wishing you a happy day {Lili of the Valley}

July 19, 2021July 18, 2021 Elin2 Comments

Hi, there! I have a very simple card to share today, featuring the Camper Van image from Lili of the Valley. How cute are these bears having a picnic?

I printed the image onto X-Press It blending card and colored the whole thing in with my Copics. I trimmed it down a little and adhered it directly to a top fold card base I made from Cornflower Blue cardstock from My Favorite Things. It’s the blue cardstock I have that most closely resembles the darkest of the blue Copics I used on the image.

I wanted to keep the card pretty simple and not cover up too much of the image, so I decided to white heat emboss a sentiment from the Statement Flowers stamp set from Altenew onto a scrap piece of that same blue color cardstock. I added a few layers of cardstock behind it for dimension and put in in the bottom right corner of the card, with just enough space around it to add a few sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

The size of the card wound up being an odd one, it measures 5 1/4 x 3 5/8″. I probably could have cut down my colored piece in a way that would fit an A2 sized card better, but I don’t mind the odd size. As long as I can create an envelope that will fit, I’m good.

I feel that simplicity is the key when using full colored panels on my cards. By not adding a whole lot to it, there’s nothing to distract and the image gets most of the attention.

Here you can see the tiny bit of dimension behind the sentiment. Three additional layers of cardstock strips gives the sentiment a little bit of lift, and it also makes tucking sequins in behind the sentiment a little bit easier.

Quite a few Copics for this one.

Hello there {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

July 14, 2021July 13, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi there! Today’s card actually features an image called Hi there. This is a very simple image, and I should have been able to color it super quickly, but coloring the mint green around the white of the paper to leave the flowers white took a while. It might have something to do with the fact that I was watching the semi-final, then the first two parts of the finale of MasterChef Australia while coloring, but I won’t mention that.

I used mostly light colors for my coloring on this card, and die cut the colored panel using a die from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 set from My Favorite Things and adhered it onto a top fold card base made from Mint Julep card stock from Papertrey Ink. It’s a pretty small card measuring in just shy of 4 Bar dimensions at 3 1/2 x 4 3/4″. I added my “typical Elin cluster” in the top right corner using scraps of paper doilies from Doodlebug Design and scraps of patterned paper from various companies (Maja Design, Papirdesign, Diecuts with a view and Making Memories are represented here) die cut using dies from My Favorite Things and XCut.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Basics stamp set from My Favorite Things onto Smokey Shadow card stock from Papertrey Ink, before using one of the Itty Bitty Strips dies from MFT to die cut it. I added it on top of my cluster with a little bit of dimension behind it, before finishing off with a few enamel dots from Altenew. I added an even smaller cluster using similar elements in the opposite corner.

Not a lot of Copics, that’s bound to happen with a pale color palette.

Let’s Pretend… {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

June 30, 2021June 27, 2021 Elin2 Comments

… it’s still your birthday! I don’t know about you, but I’m notorious about not getting those cards in the mail. I know the birthday’s coming way in advance, and I make the card and everything’s ready to go… and then everything stops. The card doesn’t leave the premises when it should. If any of this is familiar to you, this card may be your jam. I had to color up this Belated Birthday Sloth from Mo Manning as soon as I saw it, it was just too funny and on the nose not to.

It’s a very simple image, and I decided to color it up using one of my favorite color combinations. I kept my two main colors going on the rest of the card as well.

I stamped the Thick and Thin background stamp from My Favorite Things onto a 3 3/4 x 5″ piece of Sour Apple card stock using Sour Apple ink. The cardstock and ink are also from MFT. The ink is the new MFT formulation of their dye inks. The pad itself is squishy, which I don’t associate with dye inks at all, but they stamp very very well and super crisp! I used a rectangle die to die cut a window from the panel and used the remaining frame for my card. The sides of the frame were just wide enough for my foam tape to fit behind, without me having to trim it down.

Onto a piece of Summer Splash card stock, also from My Favorite Things, I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment I thought went perfect with my belated birthday sloth. The sentiment is from the Balloon Bouquet stamp set from My Favorite Things. I used partial die cutting to turn my sentiment into a banner with flag ends using the Fishtail Flag Frames die set, also from MFT. I love my MFT products! I added that to my card using more foam tape and some foam squares.

The card was super simple, and I felt like adding a little bit more to it, so I dug out the pack of Cool Summer Nights enamel dots from Altenew and added a few in a visual triangle on my card. Just an extra pop of that teal color against all that green.

This card came together so easily, but I like all the dimension and particularly the colors. And the sloth, let’s not forget him, he’s the star of the show!!

Not a lot of colors for this one. A simple image and simple color palette will do that. 🙂

Bear hugs {Lili of the Valley}

June 28, 2021June 27, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! I have a simple card to share today, featuring Jenny floral border, which is an image from Lili of the Valley. I printed the image with a low opacity setting to get the no line look and colored in my image with Copics, drawing the facial features back in with a black pen.

I don’t often color fur like this. It’s very relaxing to do and a very forgiving technique, but it’s a time consuming one, layering up all those fine lines isn’t done in five minutes, or fifteen, for that matter, so I don’t usually take the time to do it, but this cute little bear was begging for it.

Using the watercolor stripes stencil from Altenew, I dry embossed a piece of Soft Stone card stock from Papertrey Ink. I’ve had a love affair with the Papertrey Ink card stock for close to a decade now; it’s my favorite, and this particular grey color is so soft and perfect! I mounted it onto a top fold white card base (made out of Stamper’s Select White card stock, another one from PTI) using lots of foam tape, leaving a 1/4″ border around the edge. Using even more foam tape, I mounted my fussy cut colored piece in the center of the grey card stock for even more dimension.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto a scrap piece of Berry Sorbet card stock from Papertrey Ink and turned it into a small banner with one of the dies in the Itty Bitty Strips die set from My Favorite Things. This particular pink card stock is another favorite of mine, and I only have tiny scraps left, I need to stock up! I mounted the banner onto my colored piece using 1 mm foam squares.

I added sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh to finish off my card. Three groupings forming a visual embellishment triangle. I usually only place my embellishments near the sentiment to draw the eye to the sentiment, but for this one I staggered them elsewhere too. I love that these sequins come in a bag with four different sizes. I have other sequins I love too (the mixes from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards are awesome), but I still believe these are my favorites. If I could only buy one type of sequins for the rest of forever, these are the ones I’d choose.

I’m sending sparkling, dimensional, flowery bear hugs your way!

Missing you {hÄnglar & Wings}

June 26, 2021June 18, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi there! A few months ago I was asked to guest design for hÄnglar & Wings. I have a hard time saying no to guest design gigs no matter how busy I am, and today I’m sharing the first of two cards I made with the stamp set I chose. Part of me wanted to choose a Christmas set (I loooove creating Christmas cards), but I went completely opposite in the end and chose a stamp set with a couple of very summery girls called Bästa Vänner.

For this first card I decided to create a card that is very typical for me. Colored image, die cut panel with faux stitch edge and an embellishment cluster with a sentiment.

I colored the girl from the Bästa Vänner stamp set with my Copics, and used a die from My Favorite Things to turn it into a panel with the aforementioned faux stitch edge that I love so much. I adhered it to a card base I made out of Wild Wisteria card stock (sadly, a discontinued color) from My Favorite Things.

I love creating these embellishment clusters with die cut patterned paper scraps. I have a tub of these die cut scraps on my desk, sorted by color so I don’t have to go through the whole tub for each card. I typically choose two or three colors that go with the colors in my image and play with sizes and directions of my scraps until I come up with a design I’m happy with. It’s my favorite way to use up my patterned paper scraps. Back in the day I used a ton of patterned paper, and I still have lots left as I don’t use much of it anymore, but this method makes my scrap pile shrink ever so slightly with each cluster.

For this cluster I used paper from P13, Imaginisce, Scenic Route and Karen Foster. I put a mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design at the bottom and built up my cluster with a little bit of foam tape here and there for dimension. The sentiment comes from the Bästa Vänner stamp set, embossed in white on a die cut piece of the same color card stock that I used for my cardbase. To finish off the card, I added a few enamel dots from Altenew.

Not a whole heap of colors used for this one.

Happy birthday

June 16, 2021June 16, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi again! My second post for today, if you’re looking for some Mo Manning inspiration, you’ll find this morning’s post here. This one is a fairly clean and simple birthday card, featuring a cat from the Pawty Time stamp set from My Favorite Things.

I colored up this cute cat with my Copics back in September last year, so it’s definitely taken me a while to turn my colored piece into a card. I’d stamped the cat in My Favorite Things Extreme Black ink in the center of a 1/4 sheet of X-Press It blending card and colored it with Copics. I may have had plans for fussy cutting, but I took out one of my faux stitch rectangle dies from My Favorite Things and turned it into a rectangular panel instead.

I cut down a 6×6″ sheet of patterned paper from the Dots & Stripes Pastels paper pack from Sunny Studio and adhered it onto a top fold card base I made out of Summer Splash card stock from My Favorite Things. The colors match very nicely, and the polka dot paper goes really well with the dots on the balloon.

I adhered my colored panel in the center of the card using foam tape for a little bit of lift and dimension.

In the top left corner of my colored panel, I decided to put my remaining elements. I like putting things close together instead of spreading them out, I think the cards look cleaner and less cluttered this way. I adhered a mini paper doily from Doodlebug in the corner, and used that as a base for my other elements.

I’ve had this happy wood veneer from Studio Calico for years, and decided that it was time to use it. Using liquid glue (Gina K. connect, which is the only liquid glue I like), I added it directly onto the paper doily, with just a little bit of the h hanging off the edge for added visual interest. I stamped and white heat embossed the word birthday from the Birthday Wishes stamp set from Mama Elephant onto piece of Gravel Gray cardstock from My Favorite Things and used one of the Itty Bitty Strips dies from MFT to die cut it. I added a few more layers of gray cardstock behind it for dimension, so the strip sits flush with the veneer. To finish off the card I added three enamel dots from the Sea Shore pack from Altenew.