Can you believe it’s the third Thursday of the month already? The weeks fly by, and Christmas will be here before we know it. I have a slightly different project to share for Get Cracking on Christmas today, because I haven’t made a card this time. Every year, I keep getting better at getting Christmas cards done in time (yay me), but I always scramble last minute to make gift tags (not so much yay me). I have two to share today, featuring the Playful Penguins from Amanda Jayne Designs. I actually had two more colored, but they got lost on my desk last week and I can’t find them. Four would have been great, but two are better than none.
I had my penguins colored, fussy cut and ready to go. I rummaged through my Christmas themed patterned paper scraps and found a piece from Papirdesign and one from Maja Design that were just big enough to die cut a snowflake from. This snowflake is the Stitched Snowflake Frame from Lawn Fawn that came out last year. I added a white die cut circle to the back of the opening that the die creates and stamped a to/from stamp on the back.
I added the penguin using foam squares and also a white heat embossed sentiment strip. The sentiment is from the Jul stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad. I stamped and white heat embossed a bunch at once on a scrap piece of blue cardstock from Maja Design. I added my strip using foam squares and finished off the tag with a few sequins from the Igloo mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards and a bow I tied to the top using Divine Twine in the color Blueberry.
I used the same setup for the second tag, only switching out the sentiment and using pearls instead of sequins. They’re from the same mix from Lucy, though.
I love using 1 mm foam squares. It adds a little bit of raised dimension to something that is very simple, and the bow adds a little bit of texture.
Simple color palette for these two (and the other two penguins that are still lost somewhere in my craft room).
For my final card I’m focusing on the Birthday Wonderland stamp set, and I used both trees, the raccoon and the bear for my card, in addition to one of the sentiments.
I decided to go for a no line look in the background with the trees and used black lines for the two cute critters.
Once my image was stamped and colored I cut it down significantly and mounted it on foam tape to a top fold landscape card base I created from Enchanted Evening cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
There’s something about this bear that reminds me of Yogi. That might actually be the reason I colored his hat green. These two have such character, but the bear’s my favorite, just don’t tell the raccoon.
I used a white Sharpie with an extra fine tip for the dots of snow (is it snow?) on the trees.
Simple, subdued color palette for this card.
The card was made on order for a superintendent turning 60. I was told he likes wine, good food, sunny, warm weather and enjoying life and was given free reign to do as I pleased. 
I rarely use patterned papers on my cards anymore, and certainly not pieces this big, but I love the XXL Square Frames Frilly #10 die set from GoKreate, the dies in the set are perfect for creating shaped cards. I use two 12×12″ sheets of patterned paper to make one of these cards, and this time I used the Drivers License patterned paper from the Denim & Friends collection as well as the Tough but sweet sheet from the Denim & Girls collection, both from Maja Design. I can cut two of the larger shapes and two of the smaller shapes from one sheet, so the insides of the card are reverse.
I colored the image in colors that went with the patterned paper, adding a bit of red to catch the eye and writing the words on his t shirt with a black Copic friendly pen. I thought the pun would tick the “loves wine” box.
I used foam tape to add the smaller shape to the larger one, and also to add the die cut circle to the smaller shape. I stamped postmarks from various cities in the world using Memento Rich Cocoa ink to add a little bit of interest to the circle and the panel behind it. I figure if the guy loves warm, sunny weather, he probably also loves to travel, there’s not a whole lot of warm days in Oslo over the course of a year.
I added some metal embellishments from Tim Holtz in a bit of a cluster near the bottom left “corner”, as well as his age, die cut and put on a 1″ circle with an epoxy sticker on top for a bit of added dimension.
I hid a die cut tag behind my image. I used to do this all the time, and it’s a fun way to add a sentiment without having to find space for it on the front of the card. The sentiment is from the Til mannen stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS. The dies I used for the tag and reinforcer are old ones from Magnolia. I tied a bow from twill onto the tag, and some cutlery charms to the twill bow using natural twine from May Arts. I thought the cutlery was perfect for a food lover, I have so many treasures in my stash that I forget about until I go looking for something to use.
The inside of the card are pretty simple. The same patterned paper as the front, only with the reverse size. I used more of the postmark stamps from Marianne Design, as well as a sentiment from the Gratulerer stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS. There’s plenty of space for a personal message on the second circle, which only has the postmark stamps on the edges.
The back of the card is also simple. Another sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS, this time it’s the B03 stamp set. I love their stamp sets and use them more than any other of my Norwegian sentiment stamps. They’re hard to get your hands on because the company is no longer in business, but they’re the best sentiments out there.
Simple color palette.
I thought this guy from the Smile and Wave stamp set was too cool not to use, so I colored him with my Copics and did some fussy cutting, leaving a white border around the edge. I wanted him to stand out and to make a super simple card.
I created a mask with some 2″ post-It tape by cutting a sloping hill with a craft knife. This is easy to do free hand, but you can use a curved die if you’d like.
I wanted this guy to really stand out against the background and decided to ink blend using distress inks. I used Abandoned Coral, Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed and Scattered Straw for the sky. The yellow and orange tones pick up the colors from his belly, beak and feet and really stand out against the blue of his hat. For the ground I used a little bit of Tumbled Glass Distress Ink near the horizon, fading into white near the bottom.
I sprinkled on Chunky White embossing enamel to the background, making sure no granules covered my stamped sentiment before melting the granules from the back. I mounted the panel onto the white top fold card base using foam tape for dimension.
I mounted the penguin onto foam tape and used some clear iridescent crystals from the Crystal Collection (Glass) from Little Thing from Lucy’s Cards to finish off this very simple card.
Simple color palette.
I love teal for Christmas cards. I actually love teal for anything, but it’s the perfect color to pair with the dreaded traditional red. I’m not a fan of complementary colors, so red and green don’t really work for me, but red and teal totally do. As does red and light blue, or red and grey, but that’s pretty much my entire list for what goes with red at Christmas. I’m weird, I know.
Once my coloring was done I used the Notebook Edge die from My Favorite Things to die cut from the left hand side of the panel. Below the image, I stamped a sentiment from the Holiday Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Hawaiian Shores Ink from Papertrey Ink.
I thought about adding some sort of embellishment to the card, but in the end, I decided to keep it simple.
Not a whole heap of Copics used for this one.
I thought the ghost stamps in the 
I colored the ghosts with Copics, and used a yellow and a grey marker to color the windows. Most of the rooms have the lights on, but by coloring two windows grey, it gives the illusion that the lights aren’t on in those particular rooms. I also used the grey to add a silhouette of a person in one of the lit rooms, upping the creep factor a tiny bit.
I masked off the ghosts and the house before I ink blended the nighttime sky. I used Eiffel Tower ink from My Favorite Things as well as Distress Inks in the colors Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans and Stormy Sky. Evidently, I’d used the paper I laid down to do my ink blending on to catch overspray from another project I added shimmer to, so the sky has a subtle shimmer to it when you tilt the card in the light. Completely unintentional, but not the worst thing in the world. My ink pads are now a little shimmery too, but it’s not too bad.
I decided to also add an acetate ghost outside the top window of the haunted house. The ghost is from the Candy Corn mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
I added my panel to a piece of white cardstock, and then adhered everything to a card base I created from Orange Zest cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
Very simple color palette for this one.
Halloween isn’t really a big thing in Norway, but this image was so cute I just couldn’t resist. I colored up the ground, pumpkins and leaves before asking my “twin” Liz for a color suggestion for the actual dragon, thinking in my mind “please don’t say purple”. What did she choose? It was inevitable, I knew she’d say purple, she even said which purples to use. I actually think he’s cute in purple, and I don’t think I’ve colored one of Lee’s dragons purple before, so I guess it was about time.
Once I finished coloring, I embraced the purple, stamping the Boo! sentiment from the Itty Bitty Boos stamp set from My Favorite Things using Deep Iris ink from Altenew. I then die cut the largest frame in the Scallop Frames die set from Pretty Pink Posh from Amethyst Allure cardstock from Papertrey Ink, adding two additional white die cuts behind it for dimension.
The outside dimensions of the die cut frame are 4 x 5″, so I cut 1/4″ off the height of my card base, making it 4 1/4 x 5 1/4″ instead of the normal A2 size to get an even white border on the outside of it.
The sentiment is tiny, and to draw the eye to it I decided to add a couple of gems. These are from the Meraki Sparkle Red Illusion jar. They’re color changing glass rhinestones, and this color was perfect for this card.
If you look at the various photos in this post, you’ll see that these rhinestones appear to have different colors depending on how the light hits them, it’s a really cool effect. In this photo, you can also see the dimension added by using stacked die cuts.
Fairly simple color palette for this card. It was a pretty quick image to color too!
I colored the penguins with Copics and fussy cut them all, leaving a white border around the edge. I used the Fold-Up Tags from My Favorite Things to die cut four tags from the Hvite juleblomster patterned paper from the Gledelig Jul collection from Papirdesign before I adhered each penguin to each of the tags using 1 mm foam squares.
I stamped and white heat embossed several sentiments from the Jul stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto Classic Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I also die cut reinforcements for the tags from the same cardstock, and some tiny snowflakes from white cardstock (also from PTI) using the Snowflake Confetti Fancy die from Hero Arts. I mounted the sentiment strips on foam squares, adhered the snowflakes using liquid glue and added a 2 mm white pearl from Kort & Godt to the center of each of the snowflakes. I used natural twine from May Arts through the reinforcements and threaded two gold bells to each piece of twine before securing the twine to the tags.
On the back of the tags I stamped to/from labels from the B06 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Dark Chocolate Ink from Papertrey Ink. I stamped the labels before adding the reinforcements. In hindsight, I wish I’d kept the stamps in my MISTI and restamped after the reinforcements were glued on, so the label would be continuous on the back, but I didn’t think of it as I was creating. I’ll try to remember for my next batch of tags.
Simple color palette for these simple tags.
Three same, but different gift tags using all the gingerbread people in the stamp set. I created the tags themselves using dies (two of them are actual tag dies, I used the topper from the ornament die set to create a topper for the heart to create a tag from that too). I used the Itty Bitty Gifting stamps and the Itty Bitty Strips dies, both from My Favorite Things, for all my to/from strips.
I used Classic Kraft and Stamper’s Select White cardstock for most of my die cutting, both from Papertrey Ink. For the ornament I also used a piece of silver cardstock from Rayher. I did all my Copic coloring on 120 lb white cardstock from Simon Says Stamp. This isn’t the cardstock I normally use with my Copics, but it’s great for one layer cards and elements that you can see the back of, because the markers don’t bleed through. Getting smooth color blends with Copics is trickier on this cardstock than my beloved X-Press It blending card, but the thickness saves me from having to fussy cut each of those gingerbread twice to cover up any bleed through. It’s worth the trade off, I think.
For the yellow one, I used the Snøfnugg, stor die from Papirdesign to create the snowflake tag. I added Nuvo Jewel Drops in the Key Lime color to the green buttons on the belly, and used a couple of pearls from the Igloo mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards for a little bit of embellishment. I put a piece of Divine Twine in the Lemon color through the hole at the top, making it easy to add to a gift.
For the pink one I used the Hjerte 3 die from Papirdesign to create the tag (and the Julekule die to create the hole at the top). The sequins are from the same Igloo mix that I used for the yellow, and I also added Jewel Drops in the color Key Lime to the buttons on her belly. The twine is Divine Twine in the Cotton Candy color.
And finally the green one. I used the Julekule die set from Papirdesign to create the actual tag, Nuvo Jewel Drops in the Limoncello color for the star on his sweater, and green dots from Papirdesign to embellish. The twine is Divine Twine in the color Green Apple.
Very simple color palette for these.
I used the large flower from the Lovely hello stamp set for this card. This image is huge, and it covers most of an A2 card front. I colored the image with Copics and then fussy cut the whole thing. This image isn’t very detailed on the edges, so it was easy enough to fussy cut.
I mounted my fussy cut image to a card base I created from Rustic Cream cardstock from Papertrey Ink using the Double Thick Crystal Clear Foam Tape from the Rabbit Hole Designs. This tape is super thick and super sticky, and it adds a ton of dimension.
I used part of a sentiment from the same stamp set. It actually says Hello lovely, but I wanted the hello. I also fussy cut this, leaving a thin border around the black letters. There’s a coordinating die to go with this sentiment, but I don’t have it and don’t actually mind fussy cutting.
I popped up the sentiment with foam tape and added sequins here and there using the Rosy Glow mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish the card.
This card has it all – dimension, shine and a gorgeous flower. What more could you possibly want?
I used very few Copics for this image, actually.
Papirmølla 