Merry everything {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m still in a holiday card making mood, and today’s card features a cutie from Mo Manning. I couldn’t resist Sneaking a peek, she’s such a cute (and quick to color too, since she only has a head and mittens).

I had a plan for this one even before I started coloring. Things changed as I was creating, but I still love the end result. I colored the little girl and fussy cut her, leaving a thin white trim around the hat and no trim at all around her mittens. I used The Stitched Snowflake Frame die from Lawn Fawn to create my large snowflake frame. I die cut four from white cardstock that I stacked for dimension and one from Soft Stone cardstock from Papertrey Ink that I adhered behind the white ones, you can see the gray peeking out from the points on the snowflake. The die also cuts a circle inside the frame. It has the same faux stitching as the snowflake, but I wanted a plain circle for this and used a circle die to cut a circle that was slightly larger than the frame opening. Inside the circle, I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous and melted the granules from the back for a snowy look. I put foam tape on the back of the girl and added her to the opening in the frame.

Using the Stitched Snowflake Backdrop die from Lawn Fawn, I created some texture to a plain white panel. The die actually cuts a panel that covers an A2 card, but I wanted a bit of a border on mine and pulled out the A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX 2 die set from My Favorite Things to get it a little bit smaller. I adhered it to a panel of Cornflower cardstock from My Favorite Things, which I then adhered to a top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I adhered the snowflake frame at the top center of the card and created a stacked die cut merry using the Merry Script die from Mama Elephant. There are four white layers topped with one in Soft Stone. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Holiday messages stamp set from Mama Elephant onto a scrap of the blue card I used previously. I cut it down to a strip and added four small cardstock strips behind it for dimension, before I nestled it in with the die cut and finished off with a couple of pearls from the Glossy Porcelain mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

There’s quite a bit of dimension on this card. I love dimension!!

I tried to limit the amount of marker colors for this one. Did I succeed? Up to you 🙂

Merry Christmas {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends! I’m back today with another holiday card. I love creating holiday cards, and the recent releases from Lili of the Valley have left me with plenty of opportunities to play.

Today’s card is a super simple one. I colored up this bunny from the Christmas Friends stamps set, fussy cut around her leaving a white trim and put her aside while I worked on the rest of my card. Little tip: if you mask off the sentiment inside the balloon before stamping, you can make a wintry birthday card instead!

I used a die from the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower to cut a rectangle from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. You can easily cut this with a trimmer, but I had the die set basically at my fingertips and decided to use that. I then ink blended very softly from the top of the panel using Sno Cone ink from My Favorite Things. I wanted a super light background and this was perfect. I matted it on a piece of Autumn Rose cardstock from Papertrey Ink and mounted it to a top fold landscape A2 card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock, once again. It’s my favorite white cardstock, it’s whiter than anything else I’ve tried. I die cut the Silhouette Snow Trees from Mama Elephant from the same white cardstock, layering them up for dimension. I adhered the trees to my ink blended piece, then used foam tape to add the bunny on the side, before finishing off the card with sequins and confetti stars from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Very simple color palette for this one.

Today’s the last day of Designer Week at Lili of the Valley! This means you can save 20% on any item on www.liliofthevalley.co.uk by using the coupon code ELINVENGE20 – so Happy Shopping!  I hope you are inspired by all my LOTV makes!

Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year {Streamside Studios}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a fun shaker card to share today, featuring some tiny snowmen from the Snow Much Fun digi stamp set from Streamside Studios. These snowmen might be my favorite Streamside images to date, I love them!! There’s also a clear stamp set with these same snowmen, which you can find here.

I chose four of the snowmen in the set and scaled them to fit inside the windows on this Globies Grid Cover die from Mama Elephant. I colored them with Copics and fussy cut them leaving a thin white border.

I die cut the cover die from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, added acetate to the back and adhered my snowmen to the back of the acetate in a few of the windows. Onto a panel of Sno Cone cardstock from My Favorite Things, I did some very subtle ink blending at the bottom of each row of snowglobes, using Sno Cone ink, also from My Favorite Things. The ink blending adds a little gradient to each of the snowglobes. I stamped a sentiment from the Julehilsen stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Caribbean Sea ink from My Favorite Things.

I flipped the front over, added foam tape to the back of my windows and sealed the globe with the sentiment shut so no shaker bits would be in that particular window. I added a sprinkling of Distress Mica Flakes to each of the remaining 11 windows and carefully placed my ink stamped and ink blended panel onto the exposed adhesive to close my shaker wells.

I adhered my front to a top fold card base I created from Sno Cone cardstock from My Favorite Things. To finish the card, I die cut the bases for the snow globes from white cardstock and added a little bit of subtle shading on the edges with a T0 Copic marker, as well as the colorless blender.

These snowmen are super tiny, it’s a miracle I used so many colors. I may have gotten carried away with the red in particular. Five colors for these tiny areas is probably way too many, but there you go.

Happy holidays {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m back with another card with an adorable image from the recent Lili of the Valley release. This time I’ve used the penguin in the Christmas Mugs stamp set. There’s also a Santa, snowman and reindeer in the stamp set, but I couldn’t not choose the penguin.

I colored my penguin mug with Copics and fussy cut the image right up against the black stamped lines. This image doesn’t have a whole lot of the whispy, perpendicular lines that are so characteristic of Lili of the Valley images, which was the reason I opted not to include a white trim around the edges. There are 3 or 4 lines at the top of his head that I had to cut off, but I was okay with that. I stamped some snowflakes onto a card base using Spring Rain ink from Papertrey Ink. The snowflakes are from an old Tim Holtz stamp set. I mounted the mug on foam tape near the bottom right of the card.

I die cut a few snowflakes using a couple of die sets from Memory Box. The one at the top, that is partially hidden behind the penguin and speech bubble is from the Stitched Let It Snow Circle Frame die set. The die set comes with a stitched snowflake circle frame and three individual snowflake dies. The snowflakes with the stitching detail are from the Twilight Snowflakes die set. I added some blue diamonds from Kort & Godt to the mug, as well as a heart from the Festivities mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I stamped a couple of sentiments from the Holiday messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Lazy Days ink from My Favorite Things and die cut them into speech bubbles using the Say Anything die set from My Favorite Things. I stacked a couple of additional white die cuts behind the speech bubbles for dimension.

Simple color palette for this one, and I realize now that I forgot to jot down the blue Copics I used for this, but I believe they are B93, B91 and B90, which is a color I’ve made myself.

This week is Designer Week at Lili of the Valley! This means you can save 20% on any item on www.liliofthevalley.co.uk by using the coupon code ELINVENGE20 – so Happy Shopping! The offer lasts from October 10th until October 17th. I hope you are inspired by all my LOTV makes!

Christmas Hugs {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a super fun card to share with you today, featuring lots of cute critters from Lili of the Valley.

I did a lot of masking for this card, using two stamp sets from the recent release. I’ve got the Penguins and Reindeer stamp set, as well as the Festive Mice and Bears stamp set, mixing the two together and turning my critters into somewhat of a tree shape.

I colored them all with Copics, added black glaze to their eyes for shine, then a dot of white Gelly Roll 05 once the black was dry. I fussy cut my “tree”, added foam tape to the back and mounted it on a card base I created from Blue Breeze cardstock from My Favorite Things.

I used the Stitched Snowflake Backdrop die from Lawn Fawn to create some texture on the card base. This card measures 5 x 7 1/4″, so I had to get creative with the die, because it’s a standard A2 size die. I love the subtle texture in the background.

I used a die from Kort & Godt to create my sentiment (Christmas hug in Norwegian). I stacked four die cuts from white cardstock and adhered the top of the word to the bottom of my critter tree. I used Starry Sky ombré glitter drops from Pinkfresh Studio to finish off. I love the sparkle and shine to these.

This week is Designer Week at Lili of the Valley! This means you can save 20% on any item on www.liliofthevalley.co.uk by using the coupon code ELINVENGE20 – so Happy Shopping! The offer lasts from October 10th until October 17th. I hope you are inspired by all my LOTV makes!

Christmas wishes {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m back today with a simple Christmas card made with the Snow folk stamp set that just came out from Lili of the Valley.

I colored my snowman and fussy cut him leaving a white trim.

Using the Snowfall Backdrop Landscape die from Lawn Fawn, I created a snowy background for my snowman from Sno Cone cardstock from My Favorite Things. I cut the panel down significantly and adhered it to a top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I die cut the Wishes script die from Mama Elephant four times from white cardstock and stacked them for dimension. I love this die, it’s probably my most used word die of all time! Onto a strip of Amarena Cherry cardstock from My Favorite Things, I white heat embossed the word Christmas from the Itty Bitty Holiday stamp set from My Favorite Things and paired it with the die cut word to complete my sentiment.

I mounted the snowman on foam tape for dimension, he fits perfectly next to the sentiment. To finish the card I added a few sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Even though the background is adhered directly to the card base, I love all the dimension in the other elements. And here’s a little secret: I actually like the pops of red. Just don’t tell anyone 😉

Lots of Copics used for such a small image.

This week is Designer Week at Lili of the Valley! This means you can save 20% on any item on www.liliofthevalley.co.uk by using the coupon code ELINVENGE20 – so Happy Shopping! The offer lasts from October 10th until October 17th. I hope you are inspired by all my LOTV makes!

Season’s greetings {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m back today with another card featuring a super cute reindeer from the Folksy Gnomes stamp set from the latest Lili of the Valley release. I know there are a lot of people that are into gnomes. I’m not one of them, but I couldn’t resist this adorable reindeer.

I colored up the reindeer with my Copics and fussy cut him leaving a white trim around the edges. I added Glossy Accents to his nose for shine and put him aside while I worked on the rest of my card.

I used the Snowflake Confetti Fancy die from Hero Arts to make an impression into a white piece of cardstock. By dry embossing with the die, I add a bit of interest to the background without it being distracting.

I used partial die cutting with the Stitched Rectangle Scallop Edge Frames die set from My Favorite Things to create my scalloped borders on either side of the dry embossed white cardstock. I used patterned paper from Maja Design for this. The design is called Ornaments and comes from the Happy Christmas collection from 2021. I don’t use a lot of patterned paper on my cards, but I really like this green pattern with some sprigs, leaves and hearts in a darker green, along with some white dots scattered around like snow. The patterned paper from Maja Design has always been my favorite. It’s double sided and very thick. It’s so thick you can even use it for a card base.

I used the Snowflakes and Ornament die set from Hero Arts to create the ornament for my reindeer to sit in. I die cut the ornament die itself from the same patterned paper that I used for my scalloped borders. I then temporarily taped the two dies in the set together, so I could create an ornament with snowflakes. I cut a few from white cardstock and one from silver glitter cardstock from Kort & Godt, stacking them for dimension. I tied a bow to the top of the ornament using May Arts natural twine and added a few pearls from the Glossy Porcelain mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards on top of the knot for additional shine.

I added Rudolph with his shiny nose to the center of my ornament. I also stamped a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Holiday stamp set from My Favorite Things using Shadow Creek ink from Altenew onto a scrap piece of the patterned paper I’ve used throughout. I added a few strips of white cardstock behind it for dimension and adhered it below the ornament, centered on my white, dry embossed piece.

This card wound up very simple looking, but it’s still kind of technique heavy. Partial die cutting, dry embossing with a die and layered die cuts. All the layers make it a very thick card, and it’s not the most mail friendly card I’ve ever made – I love dimension!

For an image this simple, I sure used a lot of colors!!

Season’s Greetings {RAM Stamps}

Hi, crafty friends. This month’s release from Rachelle Anne Miller is a fun one. It’s a Christmas release, but not just any old Christmas release, it’s Australian themed!! I love creating cards with Aussie critters, and as usual, if there’s a koala, I tend to go with that first. Unless there’s a penguin (also very Australian, even though most people might not know it). There was no penguin, so I chose the Sweet Koala Christmas image.

The koala sitting on the pile of presents comes with a matching sweet sentiment (pun intended), but I chose not to use the sentiment for this card and decided to erase it from the image in Photoshop before printing.

I went with a fairly traditional (at least to me) color combo. Light blue is one of very few colors I feel works well with red, and I even colored the stars blue to avoid adding more colors to this than necessary in order to keep the design clean. I die cut my panel using the largest die in the Watercolor Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things, added foam tape to the back and adhered it to a top fold card base I created from Periwinkle cardstock from Hero Arts.

Onto a scrap piece of Periwinkle cardstock, I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Christmas Wishes stamp set from My Favorite Things, before using the coordinating die to cut it out. I added two more die cuts behind it for dimension and adhered it to my card, before finishing off with sequins and star confetti from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

The popped up panel, and the dimension to the sentiment add a little bit of extra interest to an otherwise fairly clean and simple card. I wanted the image to shine, which is why I kept the sentiment a fairly light color.

I feel like I restrained myself when coloring. I only used four colors for the red, as opposed to my usual six. I kind of went overboard with the green, though. Those holly leaves really didn’t need three colors, they’re tiny.

Hope your birthday is sweeter than honey! {Streamside Studios}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a very clean and simple birthday card to share with you today featuring the Cupcake Critters – Bear digi stamp set from Streamside Studios. This is a cute set with a few different bears, some flowers, a couple of bees and a big cupcake. I chose to focus on one of the bears.

I colored the bear with Copics and fussy cut right up against the black stamped lines, I added shine and dimension to his eyes with a black Glaze pen, followed by a white dot using a Gelly Roll 05. I put the bear aside while I worked on the rest of my card. I printed a sentiment from the stamp set on a piece of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink that I’d cut down to fit the front of my card with a little bit of a border. I then took the single line die from the Hexagon Pops die set from My Favorite Things to cut a row of hexagons below the sentiment, before lining up the die a second time for a second row of hexagons.

I added foam tape to the back of my die cut piece and adhered it to a top fold card base I created from Summer Sunrise cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I popped the bear on foam tape and added some sequins from the Meadow mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish. Super simple, right?

Simple color palette, too!

Merry Christmas {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends! Today’s an exciting day, because it’s time for this year’s second Christmas launch from Lili of the Valley. There are 5 stamp sets and in it, there’s mice, bears, Santas, gnomes, reindeer, snowpeople – basically something for everyone. These sets will all be released tonight on Create and Craft TV at 8 pm UK time. Some simple math will let you know what time that is in your corner of the world. I’ve made quite a few cards with this release, and I’m hoping some of them will appear on my screen as I watch tonight. It’s available online, so you can watch anywhere in the world.

This card features a snowman from the Snowfolk stamp set. It’s no secret that I love snowmen, and I colored this guy with my Copics before fussy cutting him, leaving a white border around him to keep the little perpendicular lines that are instantly recognizable as a Lili of the Valley signature.

Onto a top fold white card base, I stamped a snow flurry stamp repeatedly using Spring Rain ink from Papertrey Ink. The snow stamp is from the Flurry of Love stamp set from My Favorite Things. I then created a notch on each side of the card front using a small circle die.

I stamped a sentiment from the Scripty Xmas stamp set from Mama Elephant on top of my blue snowflakes using Autumn Rose ink from Papertrey Ink, wrapped Aqua divine twine from Whisker Graphics around the card and tied it in a bow on the front. The half circle notches help to anchor it, so it won’t slide down the front.

I mounted my snowman on foam tape and adhered him to my card. He fits perfectly on the right hand side, and the outline nestles in so well with the stamped sentiment. The foam tape also helps hold down the twine.

To finish the card I added a few blue pearls from the Ocean Breeze mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. They add a little shine and also create another blue element to tie everything together.

As always, I’ve used lots of colors for the snow, I just can’t help myself.