Christmas Hug {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, crafty friends! I’m sharing a quick, very clean and simple card today featuring the Bird Tree from Mo’s Digital Pencil. I colored this image nearly three years ago right before it was released, but things have a habit of taking their sweet time making it onto finished cards. I’m trying to shrink my pile of colored images, but it’s a slow process.

This is a tall, narrow tree, so it’s perfect for a slimline card. Using the largest die in the Slimline Double Stitched Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things, I quickly turned it into a panel perfect for a slimline card. I adhered it to a cardbase I created from Blue Breeze cardstock from My Favorite Things.

I used a die from Papirdesign for my sentiment and die cut that in Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink before matting it with a small piece of that same blue cardstock that I used for the cardbase. I pulled out a matching slimline envelope and white heat embossed an image from the Santa Stationery stamp set from Papertrey Ink on the flap of the envelope. I love this stamp!! No graphic today for the Copics I used. I colored this three years ago, and there were no scribbled notes on the back of it, nor a post-it to tell me what colors I used.

New release from Purple Onion Designs

Hi, crafty friends! Today’s a massive day over at Purple Onion Designs, it’s release day for three brand new holiday/winter collections; one from Stacey Yacula and two from Shari Bresciani. I’ve made a lot of cards with these wonderful images, and I have even more colored and planned for future projects.

Shari’s images are funny, whimsical and quirky, and they make for very playful cards. For this card I colored up Darla the deer, as well as Feathers & Birdhouse (these two come together). After coloring, I masked off both Darla and the birdhouse before stamping the Pine Tree Farm from an older collection from Stacey Yacula using fadeout ink from Inkon3 for a soft, no line look. I then masked the trees and airbrushed a soft winter sunset.

Once my sunset was in place, I colored the trees. I usually like a bit of contrast in the coloring, but for this one I really restrained myself. It’s a background element, and I didn’t want it to take any attention away from the foreground with the new stamps, so I only used BG93 and BG90 for the green, and E71 and E70 for the tree trunks.

Using the Madison Avenue die set from Mama Elephant, I die cut a frame three times from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. To one of the cardstock pieces, I added Stick It adhesive before die cutting. I glued the three frames together, putting the one with the adhesive sheet at the top of the stack. I removed the backer sheet and sprinkled on Rock Candy distress glitter, before putting the backer sheet back over the top and burnished with a bone folder to make the glitter really stick to the adhesive and not fall off.

I trimmed down the scene slightly to make it fit inside my frame, and adhered both the scene and the stacked die cut frame onto a top fold card base I created from more of that Stamper’s Select White cardstock. It’s my favorite white cardstock, I still haven’t been able to find a good quality cardstock that’s whiter than this.

I fussy cut Feathers the bird leaving a small white trim and glued him down to the frame using liquid glue. His head’s sticking out into the scene, so I put a small piece of foam tape behind it. I also stamped a speech bubble from the Holiday Blurbs I stamp set using Wild Cherry ink from My Favorite Things, fussy cut and mounted it on foam tape to my scene. I added dots of black to the eyes of my critters using a Glaze pen, and added Glossy Accents to the deer’s nose, and my card was finished.

I did my best to limit the amount of Copics I used for this card. The five marker colors that come after the gap on the bottom row are the ones I used to airbrush the sky.

For a limited time (through November 12th), these collections can be purchased as bundles at a 30% discount from the regular price.

I’ll Be Home For The Holidays (Stacey Yacula) – 21 stamps & The Home For the Holidays Stamp Set – $128.00

Snow Much Fun (Shari Bresciani) – 19 stamps & the Snow Much Fun Sentiment Set – $90.00

It’s Snowing Cats & Dogs (Shari Bresciani) – 16 stamps & Furry Friends Sentiment Set – $82.00

There are two smaller bundles from the It’s Snowing Cats & Dogs collection for those who would just like either the dog or cat stamps:

It’s Snowing Dogs (Shari Bresciani) – 8 Dog stamps, Dog House & Christmas Tree – $46.00

It’s Snowing Cats  (Shari Bresciani) – 6 Cat stamps & Christmas Tree -$33.00

No peeking! {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, there! Quick post today, but I’m sharing a simple gift tag featuring a gnome from Mo’s Digital Pencil. I can’t find this specific gnome in Mo’s store right now, but if you type “gnome” in the search bar in the store, you’ll find lots of other gnomes.

I colored the gnome with Copics, before die cutting it using a die in the Classic Snow Globe die set from My Favorite Things. I die cut the base from patterned paper from Maja Design, and matted everything on a circle die cut I created from another scrap of Maja Design paper. Using a couple of different stamp sets from Norsk Stempelblad AS, I stamped the sentiments using Jalapeño Popper ink from My Favorite Things.

On the back I stamped another Norsk Stempelblad AS stamp using Jalapeño Popper ink onto another die cut circle I created from Maja Design patterned paper. I used three different Christmas collections from Maja Design for this small gift tag. I love their older patterned paper collections. The colors often match between collections, which makes mixing them a breeze.

 

 

Celebrate {Streamside Studios}

Hi, crafty friends! I’m sharing a simple birthday card today, featuring an adorable mouse from the Berry Sweet Mice digi stamp set from Streamside Studios.

In this stamp set there are five mice in different poses, there’s a giant piece of cake, a few accessories and some sentiments. I decided to focus on the mouse with the birthday candle for my card today. I usually color larger images, but these small ones from Streamside Studios are perfect for playing with different layouts for my cards.

I colored the mouse very simply with my Copics, and did some fussy cutting, leaving a white border around the image. I usually prefer cutting right up to the lines, but with the tail and the wick on the candle being thin, single lines, that wasn’t going to happen.

I created a top fold landscape cardbase from Ripe Raspberry cardstock from My Favorite Things and used the Crystal Distortion embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp on a piece of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink to create a textured background for all my elements to sit on.

I die cut the Celebrate die from My Favorite Things four times from the same Ripe Raspberry cardstock that I used for the cardbase, and stacked them for a dimensional look. I stamped a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Birthday set from My Favorite Things using Smokey Shadow ink from Papertrey Ink onto a piece of Cement Gray cardstock from My Favorite Things and trimmed it down to a strip that I glued to my die cut word.

I popped up the mouse using foam tape, and added sequins from the Sparkling Clear sequin mix from Pretty Pink Posh to finish my card. Super simple.

Not a lot of Copics for this tiny image.

Winter wishes on your birthday {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! I’m back today with another card I created for Purple Onion Designs. This time it’s a wintery birthday card featuring Nora & Butter. I love these two, and they can be used for Christmas, for Valentine’s Day, so many great uses for this super adorable image.

I wasn’t sure initially what colors to use on this, so I asked a friend for suggestions. Liz is my go to “color buddy”; if I don’t know what colors to choose for a project, she chooses the colors for me. It works the other way too, it’s a wonderful symbiosis.

She suggested purple. She knows I don’t color a lot with purple. It’s not that I don’t like purple, I think purple’s pretty, it’s just soooo hard to photograph well, so I tend to avoid it for that reason. This time I didn’t, though. I listened to her and chose a V combo with my Copics I thought worked well.

Once my coloring was complete, I die cut the Stitched Snowflake Circle Frame from Memory Box five times from white cardstock. I wanted to make a shaker card, and I find that stacking layers works better than foam tape. I eventually ditched my shaker idea, but still kept my stacked die cut window for a dimensional frame. I did layering of cardstock to the outside of the frame too, making the entire white front panel flush. I added more stitching detail using the largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things and adhered all my layers onto a card base I created from Winter Wisteria cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

For my sentiment I die cut the wishes die from Mama Elephant twice from the same purple cardstock I used for my base, before stamping a sentiment from the Warming Winter Thoughts sentiment set from Purple Onion Designs. I used a combination of Lavender Fields ink from Altenew and Winter Wisteria ink from Papertrey Ink for my stamped sentiment, before I cut it down to manageable strips to add to my card. No embellishments on this card, I thought the snowflake frame and die cut sentiment were enough.

Very muted color palette for this one, but wintery cards tend to be somewhat muted.

Merry Christmas {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi! Today I’m sharing a Christmas card in a somewhat untraditional color scheme. Bright green and brown are not colors that come to mind when I hear the word Christmas. Let’s face it, I think of blue, white, silver and a touch of brown, but this combo felt fresh and unexpected, so I went with it.

I love Flannel the raccoon. This is such an awesome image, and it’s great for gift tags, as well. It doesn’t even have to be holiday related, he would also be great for a tag on a birthday present to someone born in the winter months.

I stamped Flannel using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things onto X-Press It blending card. It’s my favorite cardstock for coloring. It’s super bright white and the Copics blend very well on it. It’s no surprise, though, the paper is made especially for Copic use.

I die cut the panel using the largest of the dies in the Wonky Stitched Rectangles STAX set from My Favorite Things, which is one of the many things I purchased with the $250 gift card I won in this year’s Superstar contest. I love my MFT faux stitch dies, and this wonky one is a fun change from my regular faux stitched rectangles. I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous and melted the granules from the back of the cardstock, before adhering it to an A2 card base I created from Green Parakeet cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

Using the Very Merry and Bright die from My Favorite Things, I die cut the letters for the word Merry five times from the same green cardstock that I used for the card base. I glued them together for a stacked, dimensional look and adhered them to my colored panel using liquid glue. Onto a small strip of Cocoa Bean cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I stamped and white heat embossed part of a sentiment from the Holiday Messages Sentiment set, added two layers of brown cardstock behind it and glued it onto my die cut letters to complete the sentiment.

To finish off the card I added a few Snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards for a little bit of extra interest and dimension. I love these tiny clay snowflakes, I use them all the time.

Simple color palette. That bright green really is fun!

Have a sweet Halloween {Streamside Studios}

Hi! I don’t usually make Halloween cards, but last year I colored up these candies from the Halloween Fairy Fun stamp set from Streamside Studios, and I figured it was about time I created something from my colored panel. That something turned out to be a card. Maybe I’ll actually send this to someone.

In the stamp set, there are three fairies, a few ghosts, an adorable bat (yes, it’s adorable) and various accessories. Among them are different candies. I created a panel of these candies, and colored them in with my Copics using very Halloween-y colors. That was last year.

I wasn’t sure what to do with my colored background, but I didn’t want to cover too much of it, and opted for a very simple design. Using the largest die from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things, I turned my colored piece into a panel with a nice faux stitched edge. I love these faux stitch dies from MFT and use them for nearly every card I make. It adds such a wonderful detail. It’s all in the details, to paraphrase a famous German architect.

I adhered my die cut panel onto a card base I created from Royal Velvet cardstock from Papertrey Ink. It’s a deep purple that goes well with the coloring.

Using the Impact alphabet die set from My Favorite Things, I die cut the letters to spell SWEET four times from black cardstock and once from X-Press It blending card that I’d colored with Copics to create an ombré effect that would match the coloring of the candies. I stacked the die cut letters to create dimension and adhered them to my card.

I created the remainder of my sentiment in Photoshop and printed it, cut it down to two strips and added them on top of the letters with an extra strip of black cardstock behind for a little added dimension and stability. I added three enamel dots from Papirdesign (yellow and orange) and Altenew (purple) to finish my card.

Not a lot of colors for this one, and yet they’re very Halloween-y.

Merry Christmas {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi! I’m back today with a Christmas card that is much more my speed than many of the ones I’ve been sharing lately. The reason? It’s blue!!! Nothing beats a blue Christmas card. Except maybe one that’s white on white, but those are notoriously difficult to photograph.

This cute image is called Snowman’s Gift, and it’s from the upcoming release from Rachelle Anne Miller, which will be available later this week (Thursday). I love coloring snowmen, and there’s more to this snowman than the tiny bit you can see through this window on the front of the card.

I actually turned this into a trifold card. I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 dies from My Favorite Things, as well as the Square Peek-a-Boo Window die to die cut from this panel of Lazy Day cardstock, also from My Favorite Things.

I heat embossed a sentiment from the Scripty Xmas set from Mama Elephant beneath the window and scattered white snowflakes here and there. The snowflakes are die cut using the Snowflake Confetti Fancy die from Hero Arts.

When you open the card, the rest of the image is revealed, and that cute snowman isn’t alone. He has a little friend giving him a present. Below the image I stamped a sentiment from the Holiday Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Lazy Day ink from My Favorite Things. This panel is also die cut using that die from the Stitched Rectangles STAX set from MFT. I love these faux stitch rectangle dies, they’re my most used dies by far. I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous and heated the panel from the back to melt the granules before adhering it to my card. This opens up to reveal ample space to write a personal message to the recipient.

Merry Christmas to the entire family {Lili of the Valley}

Hi! I’m back today with another red Christmas card. For someone who claims not to like red cards for Christmas, I’ve sure made a lot of them this year. I might need an intervention.

I colored up these Christmas Kids from Lili of the Valley with my Copics, and used the largest die from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX dies from My Favorite Things to turn it into a panel with nice faux stitching around the edge. I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous, before heating the panel from the back to melt the granules. I adhered my panel to a top fold card base I made from Red Hot cardstock from My Favorite Things.

I’m usually good at using scraps of patterned paper and rarely use a brand new sheet. Today was the day, though. I thought this patterned paper from the I wish collection from Maja Design went really well with my coloring, and I didn’t have a single scrap of this particular paper. Using the same die that I used on the white panel, I die cut my patterned paper before cutting up my die cut into pieces I could use on my card. I added two layers of cardstock behind both pieces and glued them to my card. I now have a continuous stitched border, even though some of it is my colored panel and some is patterned paper. I love little details like that. I die cut three of the god jul die from Papirdesign from red cardstock and glued them together for a stacked look. I glued my die cut to the center of the wide patterned paper before adding a sub sentiment. The sub sentiment is from Norsk Stempelblad AS, white heat embossed on the same color red cardstock and cut down to a strip, with two additional pieces of cardstock behind it to make it flush with the die cut. I added three snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to the patterned paper, and my card was finished.

Not a whole lot of colors for this one. Soft colors too (except for the darkest green, I wanted a little bit of contrast there), which is rare for me.

Bøø {Streamside Studios}

Hi! We’ve got a fun spook-tacular Instagram hop happening today for Streamside Studios, but I thought I’d share my project here as well.

This cute vampire is from the My Little Pet Ghost stamp set. There’s also a witch in the same set that I used for a similar treat bag, which you can read all about in this blog post. For today’s treat bag, I colored the vampire with Copics, fussy cut him and added him onto my treat bag using 1 mm foam squares for a tiny bit of dimension. On the treat bag itself, I used a mini layering stencil from Tim Holtz along with Eiffel Tower ink from My Favorite Things to create the brick pattern on the front. On the inside, I glued a piece of patterned paper from My Favorite Things to get a little more orange in there. I colored some white letter stickers from Papirdesign with Copics (E08, YR07 and Y38 for an ombré look) and adhered the letters next to my little vampire. I created a hole near the top with the smallest die in the Labels Trio set from Spellbinders, added some orange ribbon and tied a bow around it using Black Licorice Divine Twine from Whisker Graphics.

I colored this vampire on the same day that I colored the witch, and I used the exact same colors.