Christmas greeting

April 7, 2021April 6, 2021 Elin2 Comments

Hi, there! You probably aren’t thinking of Christmas cards yet. We’re still in early April and Easter just ended, but I looooove making Christmas cards all year and have one to share today. Not very traditional with a sheepdog on the front, but I know just who to send this to.

I colored up Christmas Sheepdog (with hat) very quickly using my Copics. There’s also a version without the hat. I colored the fur uneven and streaky on purpose. I didn’t want to take the time to do real fur, but I also didn’t want it completely flat.

After die cutting my colored piece to a rectangle with faux stitching around the edge using a die from My Favorite Things, I adhered it directly to a top fold card base made out of Soft Stone card stock from Papertrey Ink. Initially, I wanted green, but none of my green card stock colors were a good match (green is tricky), and this grey from Papertrey Ink is beautiful!

I pulled out my usual cluster supplies – mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design, the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut and my Fishtail Flag Frames dies from My Favorite Things. They’re staples whenever I make embellishment clusters.

Rummaging through my drawer of Christmas patterned paper scraps, I found these lovely green ones from the Christmas in Norway collection from Pion Design, and used the dies to cut out a few pieces to go on my card. I also used a die from Papirdesign to die cut a pine branch, just to add something different to the mix.

I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto one of the banners, heat embossing it in white, before assembling my cluster and adding it to the card with foam squares to build up the layers. I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and the card was finished.

Very limited color palette for this one.

Hello my friend {Hobbykunst}

April 6, 2021April 3, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! I have a floral card to share today, featuring a gorgeous magnolia blossom from My Favorite Things.

mI stamped the flowers in fadeout ink from Inkon3, before coloring them in with Copics and fussy cutting up to the line.

I splattered some white liquid watercolor from Hero Arts onto a panel of Soft Stone card stock from Papertrey Ink, before adding the panel onto my card base using lots of foam tape. I put 1 mm foam squares behind the flowers and adhered them onto the gray panel.

I die cut Hello three times from white card stock and stacked the die cuts for dimension. The die is from a die set that came with my Gemini when I bought it two years ago, and this is the first time I used it. It has a swirl going down at the bottom of the H that connects to the o, but I chopped that off.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sub sentiment (from the Leaf Clusters stamp set from Altenew) onto Smokey Shadow card stock from Papertrey Ink, and added an additional two strips of card stock behind it for dimension, I wanted it flush with the die cut word above it.

I added sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s cards on or near the flowers and the sentiment, and my card was complete.

Just a few Copics for this one.

Birthday wishes {Purple Onion Designs}

April 4, 2021April 4, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have a wintery slimline birthday card to share today, featuring an adorable hedgehog from Purple Onion Designs.

Timothy is part of the Sweetest Little Town collection released back in October, and I think he’s just the cutest little guy. I colored him up months ago, and my plan was to turn him into a gift tag. Plans change, and instead of a small gift tag, I went big with a slimline card instead, keeping the colors on the rest of the card subdued to really make him shine.

I stamped the Snow Day! Hill background onto a piece of X-Press It blending card using Stormy Sea ink from Papertrey Ink. The panel was wider than the stamp, so I repeated the very left part of the stamp to extend my background scene, also re-stamping the smaller cloud. I also selectively stamped and white heat embossed the word “birthday” from the Warming Winter Thoughts stamp set onto a piece of Stormy Sea cardstock to form part of my sentiment.

I used the slim card basics die set from Mama Elephant to die cut the background. I added three layers of card stock behind the frame, inlaying the “window” pieces so they’re set back, before adding the hedgehog with foam tape on top of one of the windows.

I die cut the wishes die from Mama Elephant to create the rest of my sentiment. It’s four layers of Stormy Sea card stock, and another three layers of white card stock in the part of the word that spans across the windows.

A little princess {Lili of the Valley}

April 3, 2021April 2, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! I have a simple baby card to share today, featuring the adorable Baby Scales image from Lili of the Valley.

I colored the image with Copics and fussy cut it, leaving a thin white border. Normally, I’d cut right up to the stamped lines, but with the baby’s strands of hair sticking out from the top of its head, that wasn’t going to happen.

I ran a piece of Lilac Grace card stock from Papertrey Ink through my Gemini Jr. with the Linen & Canvas impression plate, also from Papertrey Ink, for a little bit of subtle texture in the background. I love this particular impression plate, but it’s the first time I’ve used this side of it, I usually use the other. I cropped the panel down significantly and added it with foam tape to my card base. I used 1 mm foam squares behind the image, and adhered that to the bottom left.

I used a stamp from Norsk Stempelblad AS with Altenew Amethyst ink to create my sentiment strip. I found a scrap corner of a mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design that I adhered directly to my textured panel, before mounting the sentiment strip on top with more of those 1 mm foam squares, finishing off with a few enamel dots from Papirdesign.

Not a whole lot of Copics used for this image, it IS simple, after all. I also used V97, which is a color I’ve made myself.

You crack me up! {Streamside Studios}

April 2, 2021April 2, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have a fun, super simple card to share today, featuring the Hatching Chicks stamp set from Streamside Studios.

I colored in the eggs with my Copics, before fussy cutting them. I forgot to create a graphic of the colors I used, but it was B04, B02, B01 and B000 for the blue and YR16, Y17 and Y00 for the yellow.

I used one of the stencils in the Simple Patterns Trio set from Cathy Zielske (Simon Says Stamp) on a panel of Stamper’s Select White card stock from Papertrey Ink using an ink blending brush from Taylored Expressions along with Altenew Ink in Limeade and Fresh Leaf. I wanted a bit of a gradient in the green going up the panel, so I used the darkest of the two at the bottom of the panel with a medium firm application, and the lighter color with a lighter application towards the top. I cut off 1/4″ off each side and mounted the panel to my card base using foam tape.

I added the eggs with 1 mm foam squares and drew the legs back in on the chicken sticking his legs out on the left hand side.

By adding the sentiment inside one of the eggs, I eliminated the need to find a place for it elsewhere.

Easter treat

April 1, 2021April 1, 2021 Elin2 Comments

Hi, there! I’ve got an Easter card to share today, with a little bit of a treat inside.

I actually made this card last year, for an Easter card swap. Easter cards aren’t really a thing in Norway, but because of lockdown last year, I figured what the heck. Easter to me is ten glorious days spent in the mountains. Skiing and playing in the snow all day, card and board games at night. Reading crime novels (a uniquely Norwegian Easter tradition), eating oranges and chocolate; it all belongs. Obviously there was no trip to the mountains last year, and I knew that it wouldn’t really feel like Easter for me at all, but I wanted to try to make someone else feel like it was still Easter.

I colored up this bunny from Lee Holland using the no line technique, and made an oval frame around him using a die set from Neat & Tangled. Using the same die with some patterned paper from Sunny Studio, I created a window for my oval frame to sit in. I also used a faux stitch rectangle die from My Favorite Things to get the nice detail on the edge that I love so much.

I stamped a sentiment from Papirdesign onto a piece of yellow cardstock from Papertrey Ink using Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink, and die cut it using another die from that same set of dies from Neat & Tangled as the ovals. I added the die cut banner on foam tape and adhered a few sequins from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to draw attention to the sentiment.

The inside of the card is where the magic is. It hides chocolate! Not just any chocolate, either, this is as official of an Easter chocolate as you get in Norway. This particular chocolate is a symbol of Norwegian culture. The average Norwegian eats 9 Kvikk Lunsj bars a year, 3 of them at Easter. You don’t mess with a Norwegian and his/her kvikk lunsj! 😉 I blurred and smudged the personal message in this photo. I don’t have a Copic color palette to share for this card, it’s been a year since I made it, after all.

Happy birthday {Mo’s Dream Team}

March 31, 2021March 31, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have a very simple birthday shaker card to share with you today, featuring one of the monsters from Mo Manning’s Cupcake Monster stamp set. You can get the set as one merged stamp with a big cupcake monster and seven small monsters surrounding it, or a separated version, which is what I’ve used for today’s card.

I colored my monster with Copics and did some serious fussy cutting. That monster is tiny, and it’s a miracle I didn’t chop off the flame at the top of the candle.

I love the Stitched Happy Birthday rectangle die from Memory Box, but I don’t use it nearly enough. For this card, though, I pulled it out and die cut it seven times from white card stock. I removed the sentiment from six of them, gluing the frames together for dimension to create my shaker area.

For the background, I wanted a color that would allow the sentiment to show and the monster to pop, so I chose a piece of patterned paper from the Bloom Street collection from Pink Paislee. The paper I chose has a watercolor look to the back of it, which was perfect to complement my little monster. I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangle dies from My Favorite Things and adhered it directly to my card base, placing the shaker frame in the center.

I filled the shaker with clear and iridescent crystals from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and added the top layer with the sentiment, that I’d already glued to a piece of acetate. The last thing was to add my little monster in the corner, and the card was complete.

Not a lot of colors used for this card, but that monster is tiny.

Trifold Christmas card {Purple Onion Designs}

March 29, 2021March 29, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, everyone! I’ve got a Christmas card to share today. I know it’s Easter time, but there’s a line of lyrics in a Norwegian Christmas song that says Christmas lasts till Easter, and I’m sticking to it. The next line in the song states that it’s not true, but that’s beside the point 😉

This started out as an idea of a fairly simple card with a window on the front so you could see inside, but evolved fairly quickly into a trifold card. A heavy one at that, even though it looks simple, there are a lot of layers, and the card actually weighs in at 28 g.

I started by coloring the polar bear (Icicle) and fussy cutting him, leaving a thin white border around him. I’m not good at leaving a white trim when I fussy cut (my scissors naturally gravitate towards the stamped lines), but I get around that by drawing an outline about 1 mm outside the stamped line with a mechanical pencil, and then cut along that.

I love the snowflake circle die from Hero Arts and have used it many times before. I die cut a window into the center of the front of my card base, and at first thought that would be it. Once it morphed into a trifold, though, it was so back heavy that I needed an additional two die cut windows on top of the card base for some strength and stability. I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles from My Favorite Things to create a nice finished edge to the top layer.

For the inside panel that you can see from the front, I stamped the Frozen Pond using fadeout ink from Inkon3 and colored in the entire panel, before using the same stitched rectangle die that I used for the front for a nice finished edge. This entire panel flips down, leaving lots of space on the inside for a personal message.

I stamped a sentiment from the Holiday Messages Sentiment set straight onto my card using Ocean Tides ink from Papertrey Ink, before adding the polar bear with 1 mm foam squares.

In this photo it’s pretty evident that the three layers of panels with die cut windows add a nice bit of dimension, as well as stability to what would otherwise be a pretty floppy card front, since the window is so big. I use 110 lb white card stock (Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink), which is a nice, sturdy card stock, but with that big of a window, the only thing that will work is using several layers.

I added white pearls from Kort & Godt to the center of the snowflakes. 3 mm pearls for the largest snowflakes, 2.5 mm pearls for all the others.

Lots and lots of Copics for this one. I used 20 markers to color just the bear, 10 for his fur alone, which is a little bit crazy.

Hey, you! {Mo’s Dream Team}

March 24, 2021March 24, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, everyone! New card from me today, and it’s one that features the best color of all – BLUE!!

I colored up the boy version of Stock’s Up from Mo Manning (you can find the girl version here), using mostly the Copic B10 series, but adding a couple of colors from other blending groups to get it dark enough in the shadowed areas. I die cut my colored piece down to a faux stitch panel using the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX dies from My Favorite Things. In honesty, it’s probably my most used die of all time, I love that die!

Near the top right corner, I randomly stamped part of an old background stamp from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous. I thought the small text on the stamp would pair well with the newspaper in the image and stamped pieces of it at an angle with Memento Espresso Truffle ink. I didn’t even put the stamp in my Misti or on an acrylic block, I bunched it in my hand and stamped, giving it less of a rigid feel, since the stamping is uneven. I added my colored and stamped panel onto a card base made from Blueberry card stock from My Favorite Things, and a small cluster on top of my stamping.

I die cut some patterned paper scraps with a couple of dies from XCut and My Favorite Things to create my cluster. The blue piece is from Papirdesign, the other two from the Happy Birthday collection from P13. I stamped a sentiment from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things onto the orange banner using Hero Arts Soft Granite ink. I finished off with three enamel dots from Papirdesign and added Glossy Accents to the boy’s glasses.

Not a huge amount of colors. For the soles of his slippers I actually used the two lightest colors that I used for his hair (E31 and 30).

A little hello {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

March 22, 2021March 22, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, everyone. I’m starting the new week with a new card, featuring the Flower Garden digital stamp from Rachelle Anne Miller.

As usual, I printed the image on X-Press It blending card and colored it in using my Copics. Once done coloring, I took the second largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things to turn it into a panel with nice faux stitching along the edges. I mounted it with foam tape onto my card base.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from InkyWings onto a tiny scrap of Raspberry Fizz card stock from Papertrey Ink. It was so small I barely even cut it smaller before adhering it to my card using Gina K foam tape, which isn’t as thick as the foam tape I used for my colored piece. I added some gems and sequins from the Iced Sherbet mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and my card was finished.

Colors. Not a lot, but some, with an added confession. I made a very similar card to this about six months back, and I’ve used the exact same colors on this one, except for one. Being a little lazy this time, I didn’t want to redo the entire graphic because of one single marker, so this graphic is one I’ve used before. The only color in there that I didn’t use for this card was E13, simply because I forgot.