Happy birthday

June 16, 2021June 16, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi again! My second post for today, if you’re looking for some Mo Manning inspiration, you’ll find this morning’s post here. This one is a fairly clean and simple birthday card, featuring a cat from the Pawty Time stamp set from My Favorite Things.

I colored up this cute cat with my Copics back in September last year, so it’s definitely taken me a while to turn my colored piece into a card. I’d stamped the cat in My Favorite Things Extreme Black ink in the center of a 1/4 sheet of X-Press It blending card and colored it with Copics. I may have had plans for fussy cutting, but I took out one of my faux stitch rectangle dies from My Favorite Things and turned it into a rectangular panel instead.

I cut down a 6×6″ sheet of patterned paper from the Dots & Stripes Pastels paper pack from Sunny Studio and adhered it onto a top fold card base I made out of Summer Splash card stock from My Favorite Things. The colors match very nicely, and the polka dot paper goes really well with the dots on the balloon.

I adhered my colored panel in the center of the card using foam tape for a little bit of lift and dimension.

In the top left corner of my colored panel, I decided to put my remaining elements. I like putting things close together instead of spreading them out, I think the cards look cleaner and less cluttered this way. I adhered a mini paper doily from Doodlebug in the corner, and used that as a base for my other elements.

I’ve had this happy wood veneer from Studio Calico for years, and decided that it was time to use it. Using liquid glue (Gina K. connect, which is the only liquid glue I like), I added it directly onto the paper doily, with just a little bit of the h hanging off the edge for added visual interest. I stamped and white heat embossed the word birthday from the Birthday Wishes stamp set from Mama Elephant onto piece of Gravel Gray cardstock from My Favorite Things and used one of the Itty Bitty Strips dies from MFT to die cut it. I added a few more layers of gray cardstock behind it for dimension, so the strip sits flush with the veneer. To finish off the card I added three enamel dots from the Sea Shore pack from Altenew.

Very limited color palette for this one.

A little hello {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

June 16, 2021June 15, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi there! I love lily of the valley, and as soon as I saw Lily Fairy from Mo Manning, I knew it was an image I needed. They’re at their peak right now, and they smell so divine. I’ve picket two bouquets, I just wish they lasted longer than a couple of days in a vase. Hopefully, my card will last longer than the actual flowers.

I colored up my image with Copics. I chose a very light, bright combo for the green. The leaves on a lily of the valley are much darker than this, but I really like this combo, and with the fairy hanging out between the leaves, I didn’t really care too much about realism anyway. I chose to color her dress pink for a pop of a different color, and you can actually get real lilies of the valley that are pink, so I thought it was the perfect fit.

After using a die from My Favorite Things to add the faux stitch lines around the edge of my colored panel, I added Frosted Lace Stickles from Ranger to her wings for a little bit of sparkle. I adhered my panel onto a top fold card base I made from Sour Apple card stock from My Favorite Things.

Embellishment clusters have become a signature of mine, and I have five things that I pretty much always use to create them:

White mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design.
The Fishtail Flag Frames die set from My Favorite Things.
The Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut.
Scraps of patterned paper.
Enamel dots or sequins.

I keep a tub on my desk with die cut patterned paper scraps where I’ve used the two die sets I mentioned. The other day I even took the time to sort through them and divide them by color, which will make it easier to pull the ones I need for future cards. For this one I used two additional dies: a hole pattern die from Papirdesign and a die from the Itty Bitty Strips die set from My Favorite Things for the sentiment.

The sentiment is from a stamp set from InkyWings, heat embossed in white onto Sour Apple cardstock from My Favorite Things. I’ve added 1 mm foam squares between some of the layers in my cluster for a little bit of dimension, and I even put a mini cluster in the opposite corner, using scraps from the bigger cluster. I really like using as much of my cardstock and patterned paper as I possibly can, and by doing it this way, very little goes to waste. The patterned paper I used for these clusters is a mix of 3ndypapir, P13 and Sunny Studio, and I found the perfect color of enamel dots from Papirdesign as a finishing touch.

Very limited color palette for this one.

Make a Wish {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

June 14, 2021June 14, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, and happy Monday. I’m starting the week with this very simple mini slimline card, featuring “Make a Wish” from Rachelle Anne Miller, which happens to be an image from the most recent release.

I colored the image with my Copics and used partial die cutting with a faux stitch rectangle die from My Favorite Things to turn it into a panel that would fit a mini slimline well.

I adhered my panel onto a card base made out of Something Blue cardstock from My Favorite Things, and finished the card with a few sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. Super simple.

Not a whole heap of colors for this one.

Hello {Purple Onion Designs}

June 11, 2021June 11, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I hope you’ve had a good week so far. Summer’s finally here, and I for one couldn’t be happier about it. More sunlight, warmer weather and looooong days (sunrise before 4 AM and sunset around 11 PM right now). When the weather gets warmer, we always see more planes in the air. Not commercial flights, but smaller planer and seaplanes (we’re on a fjord). I love this time of year and seeing all these cute (can planes be cute?) planes, and I thought this T-bird image from Purple Onion Designs was the perfect image to represent the season.

I used reds, yellows and oranges for my image, colors I definitely don’t use a lot, but I thought it would be a nice contrast to the ink blended cloud background and my gray skyscraper skyline. I stamped the T-Bird and the banner on one piece of X-Press It blending card, wanting the two images to look like one. I fussy cut them and stamped hello from the Journey sentiment set onto the banner, before mounting the plane and banner on 1/16″ foam tape. For the background I used the slimline cloud edges stencil from My Favorite Things along with Eastern Sky ink from Altenew which I ink blended onto a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock that I’d die cut using one of the dies from the Slimline Starter die set from My Favorite Things. I used the same die on a piece of Gravel Gray cardstock from MFT to get the nice faux stitched edge going all the way around my card and a die in the Slim Film City die set from Mama Elephant to create the skyline. Everything’s adhered onto a top fold slimline card base that I made out of Red Hot cardstock from My Favorite Things.

Doesn’t this bear look cute in his plane?? I stamped and white heat embossed some clouds onto vellum and adhered them using slivers of clear foam tape behind the white embossed lines. It would have been easier to glue them straight onto the card, but I like a bit of dimension, which is tricky with vellum, because pretty much everything shows through. The white embossed lines hide my foam tape pretty well.

Like I said initially, these warm colors aren’t the ones that I reach for the most, but I love how they pop against the ink blended clouds and skyline in the background.

Get happy! {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

June 9, 2021June 9, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, there! Today, I have a bright, sunshiny card to share featuring the We Go Together image from Mo Manning. I shared the colored image on Instagram a couple of months back, and for the card I wanted to feature the one color out of the four main ones (blue, teal, pinky peach and yellow) that I use the least. That’s definitely yellow, so I pulled out yellow cardstock, patterned paper, ink and enamel dots.

I cut the colored piece down more than I normally would to let quite a bit of the yellow patterned paper from Papirdesign show around my image, and mounted my die cut colored piece on foam tape in the center of the card. I adhered pieces of a mini paper doily from Doodlebug to opposite corners of my die cut piece for a little bit of added texture and interest.

Onto a scrap piece of X-Press It blending card I stamped a sentiment from the Journey sentiment set from Purple Onion Designs using Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink. I love how well the Distress Oxide inks stamp. I cut it down to a strip using the medium sized die in the fishtail flag frames die set from My Favorite Things, and added it to the card using foam tape and foam squares. To finish off I added three enamel dots from the Pocketful of Sunshine pack from Altenew.

Quite a few Copics on this one, I rarely feature four different colors in one piece.

Waving hello {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

June 7, 2021June 14, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! Today I have a sneak peek to share of one of the new images coming from Rachelle Anne Miller later this week. It’s a hot air balloon, and I actually saw one outside my craft room window a couple of weeks ago. They’re not too common around here.

I printed the image on X-Press It blending card, colored it with my Copics and die cut it into a panel using the largest of the dies from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things. I adhered it to a card base I made from Wild Wisteria card stock from My Favorite Things and went digging through my stash looking for the perfect sentiment.

The girl in the basket is definitely waving hello to the little bird on the outside, so I decided to use this sentiment from Purple Onion Designs. I white heat embossed it onto a separate piece of Wild Wisteria card stock, cut it down to a strip with a nice end using the medium size of the fishtail flag frames dies from My Favorite Things and adhered it to my card using 1 mm foam squares. I finished off the card with a few sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

Not a lot of Copics for this one, this image was quick and easy to color. The first thing I colored was actually the bird using those blues, but once the rest of the image was colored too, he really stood out, so I put some pinkish purple on top of the blue.

Super simple baby cards

June 6, 2021June 6, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! I have two super simple baby cards to share today, featuring images from Art Impressions. These babies were so quick and easy to color.

The first card features this Little Monster stamp set. I stamped with Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things and colored the baby with my Copics, then placed the piece of X-Press It blending card back in my MISTI and stamped again using VersaFine Onyx Black ink. I used the second largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 set to die cut the panel and mounted it with foam tape onto a card base I made out of Milk Chocolate card stock from My Favorite Things (side note: all these years I’ve thought that Set 2 had slightly larger dies than Set 1, and I found out today that set 1 is the larger of the two).

I stamped the sentiment in the stamp set using Dark Chocolate ink from Papertrey Ink onto Classic Kraft card stock, also from Papertrey Ink. I used one of the fishtail flag frames dies from My Favorite Things to turn it into a strip with a nice finished end. I mounted it on 1 mm foam squares and finished off with some green enamel dots from Papirdesign. I die cut a panel of Classic Kraft cardstock and adhered it to the inside, for a nice space to write a personal message to the recipient.

Card number 2 features the Little Man stamp set from Art Impressions. Like I did with the first card, I stamped and colored the image, before stamping it again to get the crisp black lines. I mounted it with foam tape onto a card base I made from Classic Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink. Onto the cardstock I stamped the Paint Splatter background stamp from My Favorite Things using Papertrey Ink Fresh Snow hybrid ink for a little bit of added interest to the background.

I added a strip of Milk Chocolate cardstock from My Favorite Things to the front of the card before I adhered my colored panel, to ground it a little and to add another dark element other than the circle with the sentiment. The sentiment itself is from the stamp set with the cute baby, heat embossed in white using super fine detail embossing powder from Ranger and added to the colored panel using 1 mm foam squares. I finished off the card with some enamel dots from Papirdesign.

Same color schemes on both cards, similar stamps, both simple cards, yet slightly different. And I’d normally add the Copics I used to color my images, but I colored them last July for Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge, and I don’t remember what the colors are.

Happiness is… {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

June 2, 2021June 1, 2021 Elin2 Comments

…the art of making a bouquet of those flowers within reach. This Bob Goddard quote was the perfect phrase to put on today’s card featuring Billy Boy from Mo’s Digital Pencil. I think he looks pretty happy with the flowers in his hands. Not yet a bouquet, but I’m sure he can pick a few more.

I don’t know how I’ve done it, but this is actually the 100th card I’ve made in 2021. I usually reach 100 right before the new year starts, but this year is obviously different, we’re only at the start of June and I have plenty of cards left to create over the next seven months before the year is up.

I colored up Billy Boy about a week ago and shared the coloring on Instagram (@elinheve), so all I had left to do was turn it into a card. I went super simple by die cutting it with the largest of the dies in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX set from My Favorite Things and added it to a top fold card base made out of Tropical Teal cardstock, also from MFT.

I recently ordered a few of the new inks from My Favorite Things. My order arrived on Monday, and I tested them out on my sentiment. They’re kind of unique in that they’re dye inks, but the pad is squishy, and they’re super juicy. I stamped the Bob Goddard quote (stamp from Norsk Stempelblad AS) using Caribbean Sea (a teal leading towards green) first, and then stamped on top of that with Lazy Day, which is a blue ink. The two together create a color that’s pretty similar to Tropical Teal, which is what I was going for (the Tropical Teal ink was sold out when I placed my order, which is why I didn’t just use that). I’m not used to the squishy pads, but the ink stamped beautifully.

To finish off the card I added a few enamel dots near the sentiment. The teal ones are from the Cool Summer Night set from Altenew, the yellow from the Cambridge Court pack from My Mind’s Eye.

Last, but not least, some bright Copic colors to finish.

Hello {Streamside Studios}

May 31, 2021May 30, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Good morning! It’s the start of a new week, and if this green color doesn’t wake you up, nothing will. It’s bright!! It feels like summer’s finally on its way, and I spent a good chunk of yesterday hiking. Everything is so bright green now after what feels like the coldest, rainiest spring ever.

I put together this little scene with an owl, a tire swing and a tree, all from the Woodland Friends digital stamp set from Streamside Studios. I did some simple Copic coloring and used a die from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things to turn it into a nice panel with faux stitching around the edge. I love these stitched rectangle dies, I use them so much!

I mounted the colored piece onto a card base made from Limelight cardstock from My Favorite Things. It’s a very bright green. I die cut some leaves from the Leafy Cover die from Mama Elephant and mounted those near the bottom left corner using some 1 mm foam squares.

On top of the die cut leaves I added a die cut “hallo” (hello in Norwegian) consisting of 3 white layers with the Limelight green on top, and a white shadow. I mounted this on foam squares, too, so this has a lot of dimension.

A side view to show more of all the layers. I added some sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards for a little bit of an extra detail near the die cuts.

Last, but not least, the Copics I used to color my image.

Merry Christmas from me to you {Lili of the Valley}

May 28, 2021May 28, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! You may think I’ve lost my mind making Christmas cards in May, but I actually enjoy making them all year. It saves me from having to scramble last minute in November to get them all done. It’s also been really wet and cold here lately, so it’s felt like we’re closer to Christmas than to summer. It’s sunny today, though, and tomorrow, the temperature’s supposed to creep over 20! Feels like spring is finally on its way now that it’s actually almost over.

I colored Winter Fun with my Copics, trimmed off a little on the sides and adhered my panel onto a top fold white card base.

I don’t normally use red on my Christmas card, but when I can pair it with blue or grey, I can tolerate it. The coloring on this card is pretty busy (it’s all those stripes), so I needed my sentiment to stand out. I used a god jul die from Papirdesign, and in the sleeve with the die were 7 white die cuts that were apparently scrapped from a previous project. I glued them together for a stacked look, die cutting one more to put on top from Electric Red card stock from My Favorite Things. Sadly, they’ve discontinued this color. I’m super picky about my reds, and this one is nice and rich and dark. I heat embossed a sub sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto a strip of more of that red card stock, and mounted it on foam tape below my die cut. To finish off the card and add a little more dimension and interest, I sprinkled some snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards here and there. I love these little clay snowflakes.