Hi, crafty friends. It seems I’m alternating between summer vibes and holiday cards these days, and I’m perfectly happy with that arrangement. Today’s card belongs in the former category, even though it doesn’t really feel like summer today. It’s 15 degrees, and even though the sun is trying its best, I think the cloud cover might end up winning. No reason to worry, though, because there’s not a single cloud in sight in my card today.
Meet Kalei. She’s from the Charmed by the Sea summer release from Purple Onion Designs, and I paired her with the Rip Curl wave from the same collection.
I colored the scene with Copics, cropped down the panel and white heat embossed a sentiment from the coordinating sentiment set using VersaMark ink and Super fine detail embossing powder from Ranger. I added a few white dots to the wave using a Sharpie and put the panel to the side while I worked on the rest of the card.
I thought the Stitched Ripple Backdrop die from Lawn Fawn would work perfectly for a subtle wave pattern in the background. It’s a landscape oriented die and I wanted a portrait oriented card, so I die cut it twice from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, before adding colored strips along the seam for a little bit of added interest. I colored the strips with a few of the Copics I used for my scene and used a die from the Blueprints 27 die set from My Favorite Things to turn them into strips of the same width.
I mounted my scene to the center of the card using foam tape, before embellishing with sequins and raindrops from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. The sequins are from her Ice Water mix.
The finished card is a simple looking one. I love adding dimension, the sequins and raindrops work perfectly with the colors and Kalei’s making the most of her summer. I hope you are too 🙂 And if you’re in the Southern hemisphere in the middle of winter right now, I feel your pain.
I tend to go overboard whenever I color skies or water.
I packed a lot of stamps into this one card, which is actually an A6 size card (4 5/8 x 6 1/4″). Whenever I create cards with new releases from Purple Onion Designs, I let the design of the card dictate the size of the card, whatever that turns out to be.
I colored the scene with my Copics. I’d managed to overfill a marker when I refilled it, creating a big drop of blue ink on my peach colored cabana when I went to color in the window. At that point the sky, fences and beach were all colored, I only had the critters left and didn’t want to start over, so I made the fences darker and made the cabana darker too. It’s still visible, but I wanted the focus to be on the critters enjoying their time at the beach. If it had happened on a main element of my card, I probably would have started over.
I used a white Sharpie to create foam from the waves coming in, and stamped a sentiment from the coordinating 
Fairly muted color palette for this one.
I stamped three of the little penguins using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, colored them all in using my Copics, then restamped using Obsidian ink from Altenew, which is a pigment ink that stamps extra crisp and extra dark to bring the details of the linework back in.
Onto a separate piece of cardstock, I stamped a sentiment from the Mini messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Hunter Green ink from Altenew.
Using the Circle Frames die from Avery Elle, I die cut the openings from Evergreen cardstock from Concord & 9th. I also die cut a few panels from white cardstock to layer behind the green, so my penguins would be recessed a little bit.
Using the Snowflake Confetti Fancy die from Hero Arts, I die cut a bunch of snowflakes from white cardstock (Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink, which I also used for my card base) that I adhered around my circle openings to draw the eyes in toward those cute penguins and the sentiment. Easy peasy card, right?
Quick and easy peasy to color too.
I colored the image with Copics, then used a craft knife to cut away the insides of the letters. I used a die from the Stitched borders die set from Lawn Fawn to create a defined edge on my colored panel and added a piece of acetate from Simon Says Stamp behind the letters. I’d made sure to keep the counters on the Rs intact when I did my cutting, so I could add them back in once the acetate was in place.
I used Cornflower cardstock from My Favorite Things to create the shaker well. I doubled up on foam tape and put sequins and confetti from the Icicle Sequin mix from Hero Arts in the well, then adhered the window on top.
I created a top fold A2 landscape card base using Cornflower cardstock once again. I stamped the Paint Splatter background stamp from My Favorite Things onto the card base using Fresh Snow hybrid ink from Papertrey Ink, and adhered my shaker panel on top. Easy peasy.
By doubling up on the foam tape, the sequins and confetti have lots of room to shake.
Super simple color palette for this one.
Meet 
I colored in the scene with Copics, stamped the sentiment using VersaMark ink and sprinkled on Super fine detail embossing powder from Ranger, before melting in it from the back for a smooth look. Did you know that you get smoother embossed results if you use the heat gun from the back of the paper instead of the front? It makes quite a bit of difference, actually. I urge you to try it if you haven’t already.
It looks like I wrote down the Copics I used for this card in a bit of a haste, because I see I’ve left out the blues, both for the water and the jetski. I made this card at the end of May, so I don’t really remember which ones I did use, but I believe it’s the B10 family (B18, 16, 14 and 12) for the water, and the B30 family (B39, 37 and 34) for the jetski.
Meet 
Whenever I color scenes like this, I always start with the background elements. For this card, I started with the sky and sun, then colored the ocean, the sand and the palm trees, leaving the accessories and the mouse for last. These are the most colorful elements. I even opted to color the crab blue. I didn’t want it to be brown and not show up in the sand, so I decided a blue swimmer crab was a good fit for this scene. It stands out against the other elements in the foreground, but still works with the overall design, because there’s already lots of blue on the card with the ocean and sky. Three completely different blue combos, but they work together still. Also, the blue swimmer crab makes me want to move back to Australia, even though it’s winter in Australia at the moment, and soooo cold (at least winter’s cold in Adelaide, where I used to live)!
I’ve used the sunrise sunset background on more than half the cards I’ve made with this release, and I’ve tried to color it differently for each card. I love love love the versatility of this stamp, and never in a million years did I guess in advance that this would wind up being my favorite stamp of them all, but there you go. It’s just THAT good.
To finish off the card, I stamped a sentiment from the coordinating 
Lots of colors used for this one, and I realize I’ve even left out a few in my graphic. I used W3, W1 and W00 for the mouse, in addition to R21 and R000 for his cheek and ears.
This time I’m focusing on 
I colored the image with Copics, then used the largest die in the Blueprints 27 die set from My Favorite Things to turn it into a rectangle with faux stitching and a scalloped edge, just for something different from my usual faux stitch rectangles. I die cut another piece from white cardstock to put on the inside of the card.
Before adhering my panel, I sprinkled on Chunky White embossing enamel from Stampendous, and melted the granules from the back of the panel. I also used a black glaze pen from Sakura to create a tiny bit of dimension and shine to the penguin’s eyes. I adhered the panel directly to a top fold card base I created from After Midnight cardstock from My Favorite Things, which is a nice dark blue color.
From the same color cardstock, I die cut God jul four times using a die from Papirdesign. I stacked the layers and adhered it to the left of the image, before finishing off the card with a few hearts from the Festivities mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
This is a fairly flat card for me. Other than the sentiment and the white hearts, there’s nothing that adds a lot of dimension. I considered mounting the panel on foam tape, but in the end decided against it. The sentiment and the hearts still pop and add interest, as does the snow, which has a bit of texture to it.
I used mostly blue Copics for this card. Not really a surprise, huh?
This time, I made a birthday card. I stamped and masked 
I had the scene all figured out, but struggled with the colors for this one. I’m usually confident in my color choices, but had a hard time with this card. I didn’t want to repeat the color combinations I’d used for the cards I’d already made using stamps from this release, and the combo I tried just didn’t work with the bright aqua. The door, windows and the trim of the beach house all have so many layers of different colors, and the end result is a mottled, rusty look. The rusty look, while not what I was going for, is cool, and I leaned into it by coloring one of the birds in the same color, as well as Iris’ skirt.
The end result is more of a fall vibe than a summer feel, but some people still go to the beach late in the season, and little Iris looks like she’s running away, so that part at least feels appropriate.
To finish off the card I stamped a sentiment from the coordinating 
Fairly limited color palette, actually, considering how many colors I tried for the beach house trim.
I printed my image so it would fit a mini slimline card nicely, and didn’t feel like choosing colors, so I asked my color buddy Liz for suggestions. She really wanted to challenge me and said “red (not E), green (not BG) and gold”. She knows I don’t like red and green together, she knows I use the Es to create red on my Christmas cards and she knows I use BG colors or greys in combination with those Es. It’s kind of scary how well she knows what I like and use. I admit I was a little reluctant to try this at first, but I always run with her suggestions anyway, and I think it turned out okay (except for the huuuuge white dots on the green scarf).
Once I finished my coloring, I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Christmas greetings stamp set from Lili of the Valley, white heat embossed a few details in the image, then die cut it using partial die cutting and the largest die in the Slimline Double Stitched Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things. I added a couple of layers of white cardstock behind the colored panel and mounted it all to a card base I created from Amarena Cherry cardstock from My Favorite Things. The finished card measures 6 3/8 x 3 1/2″.
No Es. And even though I used BG99 in my green combo, it still reads green and not BG. BG99 is great to use for dark green.
I printed the image fairly large and chose a summery color palette of hot pink, apple green and bright yellow. I colored the image with Copics and used the largest die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower to turn it into a nice rectangular panel. I put the panel in my MISTI, and used the A06 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS to stamp sentiments on the plain candles. I used Jalapeño Popper ink from My Favorite Things for the green candles, Raspberry Fizz ink from Papertrey Ink for the pink candles and Spiced Marmalade distress ink from Ranger for the yellow candle, with a little bit of help from VersaMark to prevent the distress ink from beading up on the photopolymer.
Once all my stamping was done, I adhered the panel onto a black card base I created from True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I also die cut a panel to go on the inside from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink for a place to write my personal greeting. I used my black Glaze pen from Sakura to create a little bit of shine to the eyes and the nose of the bear, and added sequins from the Seashore and Iced Sherbet mixes from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards for a finishing touch.
Simple color palette for this one 🙂
Papirmølla 