Fill the season with joy {Lili of the Valley}

Hi! I’m sharing another red Christmas card today. I’ve been sharing a lot of red Christmas cards recently, I’m hoping to go back to normal colors soon 😉 I created a shaker card, focusing on the Snow Folk image from the Christmas 2021 release from Lili of the Valley. This digi set actually comes with two images. There’s one with a frame and a few additional stars and extra greenery and this pared back version that I used.

I printed the image on a 4 1/4 x 4 1/4″ piece of X-Press It blending card and colored in my scene using Copics. I don’t always color the sky behind my images, but for this one I knew I wanted to create a framed shaker card, and I colored the sky with a single marker, making sure it was nice and juicy before starting.

Using a couple of dies in a set of nesting squares from Lifestyle Crafts, I created a frame to go around my image. I taped the two squares together, so I could run them through my die cutting machine several times and be sure that the size of the frame would be the same with each pass through the machine. I die cut 8 of these frames, I wanted a very dimensional shaker card. I stacked 7 of them, glued them to my colored piece, added lots of sequins from the Icicle sequin mix from Hero Arts and glued the last die cut frame on top.

That’s when I ran into trouble. I wasn’t able to glue the frame onto the acetate so that it lined up with the others. I’d adhered it with score tape, so there was no way to remove it without ruining it. My solution was to die cut a new, larger frame with a slightly smaller window. I went one die larger for the outside and one die smaller for the inside for this frame, and adhered it directly onto the ones that were already there. It was a happy accident, because I’m really happy with the chunkier frame.

I added the shaker to a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2″ card base I created from Wild Cherry cardstock from My Favorite Things, before stamping and white heat embossing a se23ntiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS to a separate piece of the same color cardstock, which I then die cut using a die from the Gemini Extra Deep Loving Tags die set from Crafter’s Companion. I adhered it directly to the inside top right corner of my shaker frame, and my card was finished.

Not a whole lot of colors for this card, in spite of all those stripes on the snowmen’s accessories.

Sweet Christmas wishes {Streamside Studios}

Hi! I colored this Merry Mallows image from Streamside Studios back in November last year for Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge. Sometimes, I turn my colored images into finished cards pretty quickly, other times, it takes a while. Today’s card is one of the latter.

I printed my image with gray lines so I could do no line coloring. Whenever I do this, I like keeping facial features black or a dark brown, so I don’t have to free hand draw them back in once I’m done coloring. It’s a neat little trick.

I die cut my colored panel using the largest die in the A2 Double Stitched Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things and adhered it directly onto a cardbase I created from Amarena Cherry cardstock, also from My Favorite Things.

I die cut the word wishes five times from my red cardstock using a die from Mama Elephant. I stacked the words for a dimensional look and also stamped and white heat embossed the words Sweet and Christmas onto separate pieces of the same color cardstock. The stamped words are from two separate sentiments from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things. I love using pieces of sentiments from stamp sets to create new sentiments, it makes them more versatile.

I felt like I had to add a little something to this, so I pulled out my White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards and added them in a visual triangle on my card. This mix is one of my favorites, it’s right up there with the Sparkling clear mix from Pretty Pink Posh.

Let it snow {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi. Sharing a simple mini slimline today with a cute image from Rachelle Anne Miller. I love this Snowman Hug image, and I’ve used it previously for a wintery birthday card, but today, I’ve got a red and tealy blue Christmas card to share. If you use the code ELINVENGE in Rachelle’s store, you get a 10 % discount on your purchase.

I feel like I haven’t made my signature cluster cards in a while, so I decided to pull out patterned paper scraps and my Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut, an amazing die that cut nine different tickets in one pass, I love it. It’s an older die, but I always use it for my clusters.

I don’t often create red Christmas cards, but when I can pair that red with a tealy blue, a light blue or a gray, I can make red work. I printed and colored the image onto a 3 1/4 x 6 1/4″ panel of X-Press It blending card, before sprinkling on lots of chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous to make my scene extra snowy.

The patterned papers are all die cut from the 6×6″ Home for the Holidays paper stack from Maja Design. I love their patterns and their colors, and the colors in this stack are SO good, I couldn’t resist.

Mini slimline cards are fun to make. I really should make my envelopes as I go, but I’m not very consistent with that, I’m afraid, and will have lots of envelopes to create once we get a little closer to Christmas (we’ve got less than 100 days to go, by the way).

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Holiday stamp set from My Favorite Things onto a scrap piece of patterned paper from that stack from Maja Design, and die cut that with the coordinating Itty Bitty Strips die.

I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and the entire panel is adhered onto a card base I made from Wild Cherry cardstock from My Favorite Things. I love their cardstock!

As usual, I finish with my colors. Not a whole lot for this image.

Yellow Christmas {Lili of the Valley}

Hi. I’m sharing something a little bit different today. It’s a Christmas card, and it’s one with lots of yellow, which isn’t really a color most people associate with Christmas. It also has three badgers on it, which is not your typical Christmas critter, either. We’re used to seeing cute penguins and reindeer, badgers are new and different and fun!!

These badgers are the Christmas Badgers from the Christmas 2021 release from Lili of the Valley. Aren’t they fun carrying that tree? And with their scarves and that hat? Come on, how cute is that? I was unsure of what colors to use for this, so I asked my “twin”. Liz Vefall is the one person I always ask if I can’t decide on colors or card designs. She likes challenging me and suggests things that are a little out there. I LOVE that. I love the challenge. For this card, I didn’t know what color to use for the scarves. I’ve colored so many Christmas images recently, and felt I’ve used up the entire Christmas color palette. She suggested yellow and I just went with it. Who says you can’t use yellow for Christmas? Fun, unexpected and.. FUN!! I printed the image towards the top of a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2″ panel of X-Press It blending card and colored it in, making sure to go all the way to the edge for the sky and the snow.

I adhered my colored panel to a top fold card I made from Bright Buttercup cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I added a strip of that same cardstock below my image and left tons of white space. I printed a sentiment from the Embossed Christmas sentiments set from Lili of the Valley and mounted on top of my image using foam tape. I love this stamp set. It has 52 different Christmas sentiments. Most of them are in English, but there are some that say “Merry Christmas” in various languages. I, of course, used the Norwegian one for my card. I think I know who I’ll send this to; a person who appreciates the whimsy fun look and yellow! I added Glossy Accents to the star and a little black glaze pen to their noses for some shine, and that’s it for this card.

Simple color palette, of course with a pop of yellow in there.

Have a magical Christmas {Mo’s Digital pencil}

Hi! Sharing a super simple Christmas card today, featuring the Boughs for the Wreath image from Mo’s Digital Pencil.

I colored in the image using my Copics, adding footprints on the ground with my markers. Using the new Watercolor Wash Free Form die from My Favorite Things, I die cut a hole from the center of a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 panel of Classic Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink. My Favorite Things released a stencil with this design back in July, and it’s awesome. Now there’s a die to match. I added two more layers of white behind my kraft panel to give it a little bit of dimension. I love how the little kid is looking back through the opening.

I stamped and heat embossed a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Holiday set from My Favorite Things onto Scarlet Jewel cardstock from Papertrey Ink and die cut my sentiment using the coordinating Itty Bitty Strips die set. MFT has a stamp set called Itty Bitty Basics, which I love. Great sentiments in a font that will never go out of style, and it makes me so happy that they now have a Christmas one too – I love making Christmas cards. I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish off my design.

Simple color palette. I always use lots of blues, purples and blue greens for the snow.

Witch better have my candy {Streamside Studios}

Witch way to the party? I’m sharing a treat holder today for Halloween. I try not to make too many Halloween cards, simply because I have no idea who I’d send them to. I do make the occasional Halloween project that isn’t a card, though.

This cute witch is part of the My Little Pet Ghost digi stamp set from Streamside Studios. There are lots of of other images in the set, but today, I only used the witch. I colored her and fussy cut her, before using foam squares to mount her onto my treat holder. These treat holders are super easy to make. Start with a piece of cardstock (or patterned paper if you want, if it’s heavyweight enough) that measures 3 1/8 x 10 1/2″. Score on the long side at 4 1/2 and 6″, and you have the outer part all done, ready to be decorated however you want. Score a 4 1/2 x 3 1/2″ panel 1″ from all four sides, cut, fold and glue along the flaps and glue it to the inside bottom of the outer part. Super simple.

I did ink blending on this one, using the Slimline Cloud Edges stencil from My Favorite Things and inks from Altenew in the colors Deep Iris, Lavender Fields and Soft Lilac. I used the House on the Horizon die from Simon Says Stamp and die cut that from True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink and adhered it directly onto my ink blended piece. Using a yellow Copic marker, I quickly colored in the windows and door of the house. I colored some white letter stickers from Papirdesign to match the orange on the girl, and adhered the letters next to her feet, before finishing off with a few ghosts from the Candy Corn mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I put a scrap piece of patterned paper on the inside back for a little extra visual interest, die cut holes through both layers and added a piece of ribbon and some twine to finish.

Simple, Halloweeny color palette.

Merry & Bright {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi. I’m sharing a sneak peek today. The new release from Rachelle Anne Miller is right around the corner, and this month, there’s a Christmas Penguin Scene Creator set. In the set there are three single penguins, one penguin decorating a tree, a couple of separate trees, a sheet of ice and lots of small elements that coordinate and work well with the larger ones. I’ve used one of the single penguins as well as the one decorating the tree today for the focus of my card.

I put the penguins on a sheet of ice, made the ice no line and scattered baubles and stars around the ice to create a fun scene.

I colored in my scene using Copics, die cut my panel using a double stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things and decided to add a few little details for shine and texture. I added Rock Candy distress glitter to the stars, a dot of black glaze pen in each eye for a little bit of dimension and shine, and I also glued on some additional stars to the tree. The stars are from the Icicle sequin mix from Hero Arts.

I printed one of the sentiments in the scene creator set onto a piece of Aqua Sky cardstock from Concord & 9th, and die cut that using a die from My Favorite Things. I used the same die to die cut from some Grapefruit cardstock, another beautiful Concord & 9th color, and one that matches perfectly with the baubles I colored.

Near the sentiment, I added sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and that finishes my card.

I used lots of Copics for the ocean, the sheet of ice and the sky, not that many for everything else.

Let it snow {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi! I’m sharing a fairly simple card today, using two images from Purple Onion Designs.

I did something a little different for this card. Exactly one year ago, with helpful advice and a gentle nudge from Debby Hughes, I bought a 36 tube watercolor set. Watercolor’s always scared me, but at the same time I’ve really wanted to try it, because it gives an effect you just can’t achieve using Copics. I decided to finally pull them out and try them on this card.

I stamped the Pine Tree Farm onto a 5×7″ sheet of Fabriano Artistico Extra White watercolor paper using Fadeout ink from Inkon3 and used my Mijello Mission Gold watercolors to color the sky, the ground and the trees. It took a while to get the dimension and depth I wanted in those trees, but I’m kind of stoked with my first attempt at watercolor, it wasn’t as scary as I thought it’d be.

I used a die from Waffle Flower to cut my panel down to a rectangle that would fit my card, which also helped flatten it out a bit, it was a little bit warped. I sprinkled on Chunky White embossing enamel from Stampendous and melted the granules from the back, before mounting the panel on foam tape and adhering it to the front of my top fold landscape A2 card.

Using My Favorite Things Extreme Black ink, I stamped the Sweet Snow Friends image onto a piece of X-Press It blending card and colored the image with Copics, before fussy cutting it and giving it that same chunky white embossing enamel treatment as the background. I added lots of 1 mm foam squares to the back, and added the cute little critters to my watercolor background.

I die cut the words let it snow three times from white cardstock using a die from Mama Elephant, stacked them for a dimensional sentiment and adhered it to my scene to finish the card.

The Copics I used for the cute critters and snowman.

Merry Christmouse {Lili of the Valley}

Hi! I have a fun Christmas card to share today, featuring one of the brand new images from Lili of the Valley. It’s called Mouse with Bauble, and the best thing is that you can choose to purchase the digital stamp (which is what I’ve used) OR the photopolymer stamp. That’s right, Lili of the Valley is reintroducing physical stamps. Some of my oldest and most cherished rubber stamps are from Lili of the Valley, and I think it’s awesome that they’re going back to having physical product.

Enough blabbing. I printed the cute mouse onto a 1/4 sheet of X-Press It blending card, which is my favorite for Copic coloring. Using a stencil from My Favorite Things and Iceberg ink from Altenew, I did some very light ink blending around the image for a little bit of added interest before I started coloring.

Onto the “white” stripes on the bauble, I used my quickie glue pen from Sakura and sprinkled on Rock Candy Distress Glitter for a little bit of sparkle. You can kind of see it in this photo, but it’s more noticeable in real life.

I cut my panel down, added lots of foam tape to the back and added it to a top fold A2 note card that I created from Blueberry cardstock from My Favorite Things. Sadly, this is one of their discontinued colors, but I have a pack of this cardstock that I absolutely love, and this color is just beautiful. It’s dark blue, but not too dark, and it’s just the right tone of blue.

I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Blue Yonder ink from My Favorite Things. I don’t have ink in the discontinued Blueberry color, and I didn’t want to use too dark of a blue ink, so I triple stamped using the Blue Yonder instead. It matches the robe pretty well.

I added a few sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and the card was done. Super simple.

Super simple color palette, too.

Merry Christmas {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

I’m sharing a super simple Christmas card today, featuring Door with a Wreath from Mo’s Digital Pencil. This is one of her older images, and it’s in the retiring section of the store, so if you want the image for yourself (or one of the maaaany others she has in the retiring category), you’d better hurry, because they’re about to be gone.

This card took me an hour and a half to make from start to finish, including coloring and the stacked die cuts. That’s so fast for me, I don’t know what happened.

I printed the image center on a 1/4 sheet of X-Press It blending card before coloring with Copics. I didn’t use many colors, and it was pretty quick to come together.

Using the largest of the dies in the A2 Double Stitched Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things, I turned my colored piece into a panel with a nice faux stitch edge and adhered it to a cardbase I created from Blueberry cardstock from My Favorite Things.

I stacked five God jul die cuts and adhered the layered die cuts to the wreath. The die I used is from Papirdesign. It’s actually a heart with the letters inside, I just skipped the heart and used the letters by themselves. I adhered tiny white snowflakes on the wreath, and I used a die from Hero Arts to die cut those. I stacked these too, but only two layers. And that’s the whole card, super simple.

Not a lot of Copics for this one either. It really was super simple.