Hi, crafty friends. I’m sharing a non-traditional holiday card today. Well, the card itself isn’t extraordinary, but I’ve gone for a color palette that is different for me. Concord & 9th has a lot of great color resources on their website, and this color palette is their Cozy Christmas palette. Cayenne, Nectar, Eucalyptus, Rainforest, Grasshopper and Champagne are colors I wouldn’t naturally put together for Christmas (let’s face it – I’d go all blue or green with maybe white or kraft), but it kind of works.
I die cut the “map” from the Joyful Wreath die set into a panel of Nectar cardstock. This die doesn’t actually cut anything, but is a great placement guide when gluing all the leaves on top. I die cut the leaves from Eucalyptus, Rainforest, Grasshopper and Champagne cardstock and put a drop of liquid glue at the base of each, which made it possible to lift the leaves off the panel for an airy feel.
I die cut the top layer of the berries from Cayenne cardstock, opting for the darker Cranberry for the base. I glued them directly to the leaves, tucking parts behind some of the leaves. I went back and forth on the sentiment, trying a few different things before choosing this simple Kort & Godt sentiment to stamp in the center using Cayenne ink. I trimmed the Nectar panel slightly and adhered it all to a top fold white card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
I started by die cutting the branch four times from a piece of green patterned paper from the Key to my Heart Collection from Kaisercraft. I then painted unevenly with a VersaMarker and added White puff embossing powder from Wow! for a snowy effect on parts of the leaves. I then cut each of the branches up into little mini branches to create my wreath.
I splattered white reinker onto a panel of Wheat cardstock from Concord & 9th and adhered it to a top fold white card base. I added my mini sprigs of leaves in a wreath formation, popped up a sticker sentiment near the base of the wreath and added three red pearls to embellish. I also put little pieces of foam squares behind some of the leaves to make it more dimensional.
I colored the image with Copics, opting for the cool grays for the bench. I wasn’t planning on making it this dark originally, but when my C9 made a blob, dark was the only way to go. It still works, and I don’t think you can really see where the blob was. I used the largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 set from My Favorite Things to trim the panel down a little, then a large blending brush to add some soft blue to the background. I didn’t add any ink to the brush, I simply used whatever was left from a previous project.
I stamped a sentiment from the Småtekster stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS next to the bench using Tide Blue ink from Altenew. I added my colored piece to a panel of Buttercup cardstock from Concord & 9th, which I then adhered to a top fold white card base. I die cut the word hei twice from Green Parakeet cardstock from Papertrey Ink, stacked them and adhered my double die cut next to the boy on the bench before adding a few die cut clouds and some dew drops. Both the cloud dies and dew drops are from Concord & 9th.
I used quite a few colors for this very simple image.
I stamped the 
I used my Mijello Mission Gold watercolors and brushes in varying sizes to color in my scene, cut it down and stamped a sentiment from the 
I adhered the panel to a 5 3/4 x 5 1/2″ top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, before finishing off with a few Raindrops from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
I stamped the image with black ink onto X-Press It blending card and colored it with Copics.
I added a mask to my image, then used the Bokeh Elements stencil duo from Waffle Flower to softly ink blend additional bubbles in an ombré effect in the background. I used Sweet Pea, Grapefruit and Buttercup inks, all colors from Concord & 9th, making sure to add slightly more color on the smaller circles than the large ones, while still keeping it fairly light.
I stamped a sentiment from the 
I trimmed my panel down slightly and added it with of dimension to a top fold white card base that I ombré ink blended using the same three colors I used with the stencils. I did also add a dot of black Glaze pen to the eyes of the ducks for a finishing touch.
Simple color palette for this one.
I started with a panel of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink that I dry embossed. I then used a stencil set (the Butterfly Blooms set from Concord & 9th) to add the color. I used all inks from Concord & 9th: Powder for the background, Sprout and Parsley for the greens, Sunshine and Buttercup for the florals and Pink Lemonade and Honeysuckle for the pinks.
Once the panel was all inked, I adhered it to a white card base, created half circle notches at the top and bottom with a small circle die and thread some cotton thread through, which I tied off in a bow. I added pink sparkly gems to act as the bodies of the butterflies and finished off with a couple of black sentiment sticker strips that I mounted on foam tape. I love the softness of the background against the bold of the black. The black really draws your eye.
I knew I had to color up this image as soon as I saw it. This is so adorable with the corgi hanging off the top of the glass. And so funny, and very typical of Pei’s illustration style. I love it!
I colored the image with Copics, fussy cut him, then added VersaMarker pen to the rim of the glass and used white puff embossing powder from Wow! to mimic a salt rim. The embossing also adds some fun texture to the glass. I also used a black glaze pen to add a little bit of shine and dimension to his eyes.
I ink blended Parsley and Starfruit inks from Concord & 9th onto a white cardstock panel for an ombré effect, then used the Geometric embossing folder from WRMK to create some subtle dimension. I added the panel to a card base I’d covered with Parsley cardstock from Concord & 9th, before mounting the image using foam tape.
In this release there are also a few sentiment sets, and this one from the 
Simple color palette for this one. This was so fun to color!!!
I started with a panel of white cardstock. I put down the first stencil, which is for the background, and used Harbor and Powder inks. The second stencil does the stems and leaves, and I used Sprout with a bit of Parsley at the base for those. For the large part of the flowers, I used Ballet Slipper and for the fourth and final stencil, which is for the smaller part of the flower, I used Honeysuckle. I also used the small circle burst stamp in the stamp set to add a little more detail. I stuck to Honeysuckle ink, and I just love the way these flowers turned out.
I used the cover die to create a frame from white cardstock that I glued on top of my ink blending. I mounted sentiment sticker strips from Kort & Godt using foam tape and adhered the sentiment in the top third of the card. I rarely add my sentiments to the top right, but I think it works. I finished off very simple with a few iridescent dew drops from Pinkfresh Studio.
The Blended petals set from Concord & 9th is a very versatile one with a large flower image that you can color up any way you’d like. There are even coordinating stencils that let you add color very easily, which is what I used for my card. As much as I love coloring, stencils make everything go so much faster!
I stamped the image in black ink, let it dry and used the coordinating stencils to color it in using Creamsicle, Sweet Pea, Wildberry, Sprout, Tidepool and Peacock inks, all Concord & 9th colors. I then used the coordinating die to cut out the image, adding a couple of blank die cuts behind it for dimension.
I used the Twist Pattern press plate from Pinkfresh Studio along with some Pistachio Fresh Dye ink from Altenew to create a subtle pattern in the background. I die cut it using the coordinating die and added two more die cuts behind it before adhering it to the front of a top fold card I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, which is the same white cardstock I used for everything except the sentiment.
Speaking of the sentiment – I used the Sweet Sentiments die set from Altenew. The top layer is from white mirror cardstock from Kort & Godt, the black is black mirror cardstock from Kort & Godt, and then I put three additional die cuts of the shadow die behind for dimension. I finished off the card very simply with Iridescent Dew Drops from Pinkfresh Studio.
I actually decided to watercolor this one with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. I prefer using a paintbrush with water with these, but there’s also a blender that you can use. Marcel is small, but I still used three different browns and a pink for him (064 Oatmeal, 607 Milk Tea, 068 Deep Brown and 200 S. Almond Pink). For Elliot and the die cut letters I used 312 Overcast Sky only. I did use a little pink for the bow on his tail, but for the actual elephant, it was just the one blue. I love the movement you get with watercolor, it’s something you can’t really achieve with Copics.
I fussy cut my image, leaving a thin white border. Using the Impact Alphabet die set from My Favorite Things, I die cut the letters to spell out STOR (big) four times from white cardstock and once from Black cardstock from Concord & 9th. I used the Parker lowercase alphabet die set from Memory Box to die cut the letters for klem (hug), again four layers of white, this time topped by a layer of the watercolor paper.
I stacked my layers, and sandwiched the image between the white and black letters for the large word. I created a black mat on the card front, covered that with a piece of green patterned paper from the Watercolor Wash 6×6″ paper pad from My Favorite Things and mounted the letters and image in the center. I adhered the klem letters directly on top of the larger letters and added a sub sentiment sticker strip from Kort & Godt below it. I popped it up a bit to level it with the black letters, before finishing off with a few dew drops from the Spring Leaves embellishment mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Papirmølla 