Hi, crafty friends. It’s time for a little sunshine in the form of this Sending Sunshine image from Rachelle Anne Miller. We haven’t seen too much sunshine this summer, but thankfully, there’s still time.
I colored the image with my Copics, before using the Notebook Edge die from My Favorite Things to create a fun border at the bottom. I used a black glaze pen to add shine and dimension to their eyes, then went in with a Gelly Roll 05 once the black was dry. I fussy cut around the image, and the stems of the sunflowers actually dictated the width of this card, which only measures about 3 1/4 x 4 3/4″. If you include the flowers hanging off the edge, it’s a little wider than 4 1/4″, so I might need to put it in a larger envelope.
I used the Raised Sentiments 3D embossing folder from Altenew on a piece of Harbor cardstock from Concord & 9th to create a little interest in the background, cut it down and adhered it to a top fold white card base. I mounted my colored piece on top using foam tape, I’m a big fan of dimension on cards.
I die cut one of the dies from the Blooming Delight die set from Altenew from True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I cut five, put two together, and stacked the remaining three, so I had two somewhat dimensional die cuts. I die cut the shadow layer from Heavyweight Translucent Vellum from My Favorite Things, adhered the stack with 3 behind it and the stack with the 2 on top. This creates a nice shadow around the shadow die without the use of foam tape.
I white heat embossed a sentiment from the Pristine Peonies stamp set from Altenew, cut it down to a strip, added a few more strips behind it for dimension and adhered it below my die cut to complete the sentiment (the stamp actually says love you, my friend). I finished off the card with a few pearls and gems from the Ocean Breeze mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Fairly soft color palette for this one.
I stamped Mulligan and Bogey using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, before covering them with masks and stamping the 
When I color large scenes like this, I always start with the background. I colored the sky first, then the green. There’s a lot of green in this one, and even thought I used different green combos for different elements and tried a new combo for the majority of the green, most of it blends together in the end and looks pretty much like the same color.
On Bogey, I repeated the colors I used for the clouds on her outfit. Repeating colors creates a more cohesive design, and the end result isn’t rainbow vomit, which can easily happen if you don’t restrain yourself from using every color under the sun. I even used the pinks on a few details in Mulligan’s outfit, and colored the rest of his outfit blue. I chose a dark blue combo for his pants and hat, and used the lightest color in that combination as the darkest color for the lighter blue on his sweater and shoes. This way, the color isn’t the same across his entire outfit, but I’m not introducing a new color. It’s a great way to avoid rainbow vomit.
To finish off the card, I stamped a sentiment from 
See? Not a whole lot of colors, given this is a full A2 size panel that’s all covered with color.
Enough housekeeping. I colored this cute panda and the bamboo in the background onto X-Press It blending card using Copics, before stamping a small sentiment from the Mini Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Obsidian ink from Altenew.
I adhered my colored piece to a top fold white card base and used the Leafy Cover die from Mama Elephant to die cut a frame from Green Parakeet cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I strategically cut off a few leaves that did too good of a job of hiding my panda, before adhering the frame on top of the image.
I added a black glaze pen to his eyes and nose, before going in with a Gelly Roll 05 once the black was dry. I love the extra shine and dimension it adds to the image, even if it doesn’t show up in the photos. What does show up, however, is the embellishment mix. This is the Spring Leaves mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I purposefully underexposed my photo as I was taking the picture to avoid blowing out the light areas during editing. It’s a trick I learned today from Mona Tóth (@mona.toth on Instagram), and it blows my mind that willingly making the photos look dark as you shoot makes them that much better in the end – but it totally works!
I didn’t use too many Copics for this one.
I printed my image on X-Press It blending card and colored it with Copics. I chose a soft blue green for the balloon itself, and vibrant colors for the florals to make them pop. Using the largest die in the Blueprints 27 die set from My Favorite Things, I turned my image into a panel with a nice scalloped border with faux stitching, put lots of foam tape on the back and mounted it to a card base I covered with a quarter sheet of Wildberry cardstock from Concord & 9th.
I die cut hello from the Blooming Delight die set from Altenew four times from white cardstock and once from Wildberry cardstock, stacked all the layers together and adhered my sentiment, before finishing with a few opal gems from Spellbinders.
I die cut my golfer using a basic circle die and decided to use the colors in the image for the elements of my card. This is always a good idea if you want a cohesive design. I die cut a torn paper edge from Powder cardstock from Concord & 9th, before stamping a small background stamp repeatedly across the panel using Powder ink. The image has spatters on it, and I figured this would mimic that. The tone on tone stamping creates a little bit of interest to the blue cardstock without being too distracting. I adhered a strip of Wheat cardstock, also from C9, to the top of the blue panel to give it a more defined edge against the white card base, before adding a couple of layers of cardstock behind it for dimension. I adhered it to a top fold card base I dry embossed using the Angled Mosaic embossing folder from Altenew. This creates a bit of textures and adds interest without distracting.
I glued my circle onto the blue cardstock, lopped off the excess and adhered a stacked die cut word on top. I die cut three layers from white cardstock and one from Wheat cardstock. To finish off the card, I added a black sentiment sticker strip and a few black crystals in different sizes.
I colored the image with my Copics before cutting out a couple of quick masks for the deer and bunny. I ink blended a soft blue circle behind them, using the Watercolor Circle stencil from My Favorite Things and ink (Harbor ink from Concord and 9th) that was left on my light blue blender brush from my last project. Using a die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower, I cut my panel down, added four layers of cardstock behind it for dimension and put it aside while I worked on the rest of my card.
To a top fold white card base, I adhered a piece of patterned paper from the Watercolor Wash 6×6 paper pad from My Favorite Things and added my stacked panel in the center. Using a die from the Sweet Sentiments die set from Altenew, I die cut for you twice from white cardstock and once from the patterned paper. I stacked the die cuts and glued my sentiment right above the deer. The green patterned paper is very soft, but by stacking the die cuts, the sentiment still stands out a little. I added a bit of black Glaze pen to the eyes and finished off the card with pearls from the Fresh Mint mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Limited color palette for this one, it came together fairly quickly.
I colored up my image with Copics, before stamping on top of the black lines with Obsidian ink from Altenew to darken up the lines even further. I fussy cut the image, leaving a bit of white trim around the edges, then put it aside while I worked on the rest of my card. Using the Snow Drifts Cover-Up die from My Favorite Things, I die cut three segments of the die from three shades of blue cardstock (Cornflower, Lazy Day and Blue Breeze, all from My Favorite Things). Even though it’s a snow die, it totally works for waves, I think. I inked up the top of each die cut using matching inks (Cornflower and Lazy Day from MFT for the darkest and middle color cardstock, Harbor ink from Concord & 9th for the lightest). I added ink splatter to all three using Cornflower ink and also Concord & 9th White. I adhered them to a scrap of cardstock to make them work as one die cut instead of three separate ones.
I used the Ray of Light stencil from My Favorite Things to ink blend yellow ink onto a piece of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I used Harvest Gold ink from Papertrey Ink, and added a little bit of Sunshine ink from Simon Says Stamp near the top for a little more intensity. I then used what I had left on my ink blending brush to cover the entire thing, I didn’t want the background to be stark white, and this worked beautifully. I added ink splatter once again using the Sunshins ink, cut the panel down and stamped a sentiment from the 
I used a very limited color palette for this one.
I used the panda peeking out from behind a fence or a wall or whatever you’d like it to be, as well as the bamboo. I used the bamboo multiple times to create a “wall” of bamboo behind my panda. I created mirrored versions so they wouldn’t all look the same, and I made sure to make them different heights. I erased the bottom of the bamboo so they’d end at the horizontal lines going out from the paws of the panda. Once I printed my image, I used a 0.35 Copic multiliner to extend the horizontal lines, making it look like a wall. I colored in my image, making sure to use a couple of green combos for the bamboo leaves for a little bit of variety.
I used the largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX Set 2 die set from My Favorite Things to create a nice faux stitch border around the edge, before adhering it to a black card base I created from True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink. With my pink wall, I felt like I had to make a baby card, but I didn’t want to, so I opted for the black. I used the Sweet Sentiments die set from Altenew to die cut my thanks word. I stacked three black die cuts for dimension and die cut the shadow from Stamper’s Select White cardstock, also from Papertrey Ink. I rarely use shadow dies, but I knew I was going to white heat emboss the rest of the sentiment, so I figured it would work. I also tend to pop up my sentiments, but actually adhered this one flat down onto the card. It still has dimension because of the stacking. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Bitty Thanks & Gratitude stamp set from My Favorite Things, cut it down to a strip and adhered it on top of my stacked die cut. I put an extra strip behind it for a little bit of strength. I also added a black glaze pen to the eyes and nose, before going in with a white Gelly Roll 05 on top once the black was dry. This adds some shine to my little panda. I decided not to add any embellishments to this card, which is really rare for me.
Not a ton of colors used for this one. I used E81 and the blender with the tip to tip technique to color the “white” fur.
I colored my raccoon with Copics, deciding to go with a triadic color combo of primary colors for his paints and accessories. I obviously used green for the grass, but the rest of this is all red, blue and yellow. I used the second largest die in the Watercolor Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things to give it a playful, loose look on the edges, then used the Say Anything stencil, also from My Favorite Things, to ink blend a speech bubble using Harvest Gold ink from Papertrey Ink.
In the speech bubble, I stamped a couple of sentiments from the Mini Messages & More stamp set from My Favorite Things, using Obsidian ink from Altenew. I took the various ink splatter stamps in the same stamp set and stamped in various colors across my panel, to amp up the crafty feel of the card. I used Watermelon, Harbor and Dove inks from Concord & 9th, as well as more of the Papertrey Ink Harvest Gold color that I used for the ink blending. Onto a card base I created from Cement Gray cardstock from My Favorite Things, I added some strips of cardstock to break the lines in my design. I used Watermelon cardstock from Concord & 9th, Blue Breeze from My Favorite Things and Harvest Gold from Papertrey Ink. I added my panel in the center using foam tape, and finished off with a few sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I actually also used a black glaze pen to create shine and a tiny bit of dimension to the eyes. On the raccoon, I also used a dot of white Gelly Roll 05 to each of the eyes once the black was dry.
I used a fairly small amount of Copics for this one.
I stamped and masked 
Once all my coloring was complete, I stamped on top of my critters, this time using Obsidian ink from Altenew. This is a very crisp pigment ink, and it makes the critters really stand out, but it’s not Copic friendly, so all the coloring needs to be complete when doing this. To finish off, I stamped a sentiment from 
Lots of Copics for this one.
Papirmølla 