With sympathy {Hobbykunst}

Hi. I’ve got a somewhat different card to share today, using this beautiful floral stamp from My Favorite Things.

I colored up these flowers for day 20 of the current round of Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day challenge. I wanted a challenge, and a friend told me to color grayscale flowers. I did as she asked and added a purple ink splatter backdrop with my Copics to get a little bit of color in there.

I used my largest faux stitch rectangle die from My Favorite Things and added my panel to a cardbase made from Winter Wisteria cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I stamped and white heat embossed an Inky Wings sentiment and added it to the center bottom half of the floral image.

My last finishing touches were a few sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh, and my card was done!

A little hello {Rachelle Anne Miller Studios}

Hi, everyone.

I colored up Balloon Ride for this round of the 30 day coloring challenge hosted by Kathy Racoosin, and I turned my image into a very simple card.

I diecut the panel with the image using the largest of the faux stitch rectangle dies from My Favorite Things. I glued it straight to a cardbase I created from Soft Stone cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I added half a Doodlebug Nini doily, some diecut scraps of patterned paper (Papirdesign and Basic Grey, btw) and a white heat embossed Inky Wings sentiment on Papertrey Ink Autumn Rose cardstock. A few raindrops from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and my card was finished.

Happy birthday! {Mo’s Dream Team}

Wednesdays mean Mo Manning goodness around here, and today happens to be Mo’s birthday. What’s better than a bright and cheerful birthday card?

I colored up Lula Fairy Doll for day 13 of the current round of Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge over on Instagram, and I thought I’d turn her into a quick birthday card. I had already used the largest of the dies from the Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things, so all I had to do was create a cardbase. Harvest Gold from Papertrey Ink was the perfect sunny yellow to complement the sunflower.

This type of card has become my signature card style. I haven’t however, used those Doodlebug mini doilies in a while, so it was good to pull out half of one (a little less than half, actually) for this card. I used the Fishtail Flag Frames dies from My Favorite Things to diecut a couple of banners from yellow scraps of patterned paper. The bottom one is from My Mind’s Eye, the top one from Papirdesign. I also diecut the sentiment strip after stamping and heat embossing a sentiment from an old Papertrey Ink stamp set on that piece of Hawaiian Shores cardstock, also from Papertrey Ink. I added to more layers of cardstock behind my sentiment to make it a little more dimensional.

The last little piece of business was adding some enamel dots. I hardly ever make cards without enamel dots or sequins, and I tend to always place them near the sentiment, it draws in the eyes. Nice little trick for’ya.

Wall hanging {Rachelle Anne Miller Studios}

Hi, everyone! I’ve made something a little bit different today. This Storytime image from Rachelle Anne Miller was the perfect one to color up for a wall hanging to go in a toddler’s room.
The image itself is almost square, so I had to come up with something to fill the space to make it fit in my frame. I chose a quote from a children’s book from 1953 that every Norwegian knows pretty much by heart. The English title is “Claus Climbermouse and the other animals in the Huckybucky forest”. Early on in the book, the fox, the porcupine and the owl all try eating the smaller animals, particularly the mice. The fox is pretty much always hungry because the mice keep getting away. At one point all the animals attend a meeting in the forest, held by the bear, where one of the mice suggests they pass a law that says that all the animals have to be friends, none of them can eat the others, and that the ones that are too lazy to find food themselves, aren’t allowed to steal food from others. The law is passed, even though the owl, porcupine and fox don’t entirely agree.

The fox is so hungry that he steals a ham from a farm nearby. The couple that owns the farm go fox hunting, but instead they catch the baby bear and take him back to the farm. They want to sell him to a circus. All the animals in the forest go looking for the little bear, and the fox actually winds up being the hero that saves him. There’s a big party in the woods after where they celebrate that everything turned out okay and that the big bear turns 50.
The quote is from Morten Woodmouse when they hold that meeting. “We could have a great life here in the forest if everyone could be friends and the big ones let the small ones be. The big animals could help the little ones, and the little ones could help the big ones, because there are a lot of things that small animals can do that the big ones can’t.”

I was super happy with how it turned out. What do you think? Good for a wall in a toddler’s room?

Happy birthday {Lili of the Valley release}

I’ve got another card to share featuring the wonderful new penguins released at Lili of the Valley earlier today.

I created a scene from a penguin party using Photoshop. These files are in png format, making it very easy. Looks like a surprise party to me. On this card, I used 7 of the 9 penguin images in the set, and also a couple of party hats for the penguins in front holding the birthday banner.

I had so much fun coloring this one, and I actually used three different gray Copic families for the different penguins. The only ones I didn’t use were the cool grays. The card itself measures 8 1/2 x 3 1/2″, and I made it very simple by just gluing on my little penguin party scene to a cardbase that I created from some Smokey Shadow cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

Really bright pops of color, I’m hoping you can’t help but smile when you see this one. Ten penguins in one card, that’s a whole lot of happy and a good way to kick off the weekend.

These are just some of the penguin images in this set. You’ll find all the birthday penguins in the Lili of the Valley Etsy shop here.

You make life fun! {Lili of the Valley release}

Lili of the Valley has a new release out today, and I was lucky enough to play with it a couple of days ago. There are penguins. Lots of penguins. You guys know how much I love penguins. I had a hard time deciding which ones to use, there are so many good ones. There’s a slew of birthday penguins and a whole bunch of others, as well. Not only that, but they’re also releasing inky backgrounds. All kinds of shapes and colors. There’s pastels, brights, basically the entire rainbow, whole washes for backgrounds, splatters, stripes and every little inky thing your heart could want. I love the look of inky backgrounds, but 1 – I don’t like getting my fingers inky, and 2 – I prefer my whites to match. Watercolor paper and X-Press It don’t go well together. This is the perfect solution. You can print on any paper you want and get that unique watercolor look without getting your fingers inky or warping your paper, it’s brilliant!

For this card I chose a tealy green/blue watercolor splash background and a penguin with a camera in his hand. I knew I had to use this one as soon as I saw it, and an idea formed in my mind as to how my card would look in the end. The files are in png format, so they’re good quality and very easy to use together. I simply added my penguin to the splash background in Photoshop and printed. It couldn’t be easier. I love that I now have a watercolor look, but the paper is bright white, smooth and perfect for Copic coloring.

I diecut my panel with a faux stitch rectangle die from My Favorite Things, and glued it to a cardbase made from Tropical Teal cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I used a polaroid die, also from My Favorite Things, to diecut the frame four times out of that same Tropical Teal color and once from the same white cardstock I used for the rest (X-Press It blending card, btw). I stacked them all on top of each other for dimension. “Dimension is life”, as Laura Bassen always says. She’s my cardmaking hero.

A side look at that frame. You can see the colored cardstock from the sides, which gives such a fun look to a panel that is predominantly white.

I finished off my card with a white heat embossed Inky Wings sentiment on black cardstock. I also popped that up, because dimension really IS life. A few blue enamel dots from Papirdesign to get a tiny more blue in there to embellish.

There are two bundle packs with penguins. One has birthday penguins, and the other one is all other occasions, which is the pack I used for this card.

There were also five different packs of watercolor backgrounds released. I used the Watercolour Splashes collection for this one. It comes in sooo many different colors, and it’s awesome!! There’s also the Watercolour Backgrounds pack, the Watercolour Pastels pack, the Watercolour Brights pack and the Watercolour Stripes collection.

Season’s Greetings {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi, everyone!

It might seem a little early for those holiday cards, but I never make multiples, and this is only my tenth this year, so I need to get cracking!

I try very hard not to have favorites, but I can’t help it. Giggling Snowman from Mo Manning gets me every time. I colored him up in nolines for day 1 of the current 30 day coloring challenge from Kathy Racoosin, and I turned him into a deceptively simple shaker card. I messed up big time when making this card. Several times. But I didn’t give up, I’m too stubborn. Way too stubborn. In the end it turned out almost the way I wanted it to, at it shakes like crazy, which I really wanted. I spent a considerable chunk of time turning every sequin, jewel and diamond the right way, but the shaker itself is so deep that the two largest sizes of sequins are the only ones that stayed that way. Live and learn, right? My biggest struggle with making shaker cards is usually that I either fill up the shaker too much or not enough. This time I was able to get the perfect amount. I’m celebrating the small victories!

I used the largest of the Stitched Rectangles STAX dies from My Favorite Things to create the front of the shaker, then the oval dies from the Card Front Designs die set from Neat & Tangled to create the actual window and the frame around it. I doubled up on my foam tape, and used acetate from Hot off the Press to create my window. I used the Urban Chic mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards for my filling.

This really shakes, those sequins have a lot of room to move freely. I stamped an InkyWings sentiment using Ocean Tides ink from Papertrey Ink (which matches the Ocean Tides cardstock SO well) on a scrap piece of X-Press It (I wanted the white to match the white in the image) and mounted it on 1mm foam squares onto the front of my card, and it was finished.

Never underestimate the power of chocolate {Mo’s Dream Team}

Another Wednesday means another Mo Manning project around here, I’m not in vacation mode quite yet. I purchased a sentiment set earlier this week with a chocolate, tea and coffee theme, so I simply had to color up Chocolate Smile and turn it into a card. I haven’t used this image in a while, but I really love coloring it, so it felt good to pull it out for this one.

I colored my image with my Copics, and added a scraped knee, some chocolate stains around the mouth and on the clothing and decided to create mismatched socks. That happens when kids dress themselves, right?

I turned my image into a rectangular panel with faux stitching using one of my favorite dies – the largest in the Stitched Rectangles STAX Set 2 from My Favorite Things. It creates a 1/16″ border if you glue the panel to an A2 cardbase, which is the perfect width if you ask me. Speaking of cardbases, this one is made from Ocean Tides cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I stamped an InkyWings sentiment using Dark Chocolate Ink from Papertrey Ink and added a couple of raindrops from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to frame my sentiment.

I’m not the best at remembering to add envelopes for my cards, but these scraps of patterned paper from Pion Design were the perfect colors to make an envelope from. I used the A2 V flap envelope dies from Simon Says Stamp to create my envelope.

Christmas in July {Mo’s Dream Team}

Another Wednesday, which means it’s Mo Manning time, and it also happens to be July already. What happened to June? It really flew by faster than ever. I actually have a Christmas card to share today, nothing is as natural as Christmas in July, right?

I’ve featured Gingerbread Man! on this card. It happens to be a free digital image, and I’ve flipped it, repeated it and rotated it all across a background before using four different brown Copics (E27, 25, 23 and 21) in addition to T2 to color all of them. Some are more burnt than others, I didn’t want a uniform look.

Once my panel of gingerbread men was finished, I glued it straight to a cardbase made from Dark Chocolate cardstock from Papertrey Ink before adding a diecut sentiment heart with foam tape. I used Pure Poppy cardstock (also Papertrey Ink) and a Papirdesign die.

I scattered a few Papirdesign enamel dots for my finishing touch.

Enjoy {Mo’s Dream Team}

Another Wednesday, and another Mo Manning Cutie. This time I used Honey, and teamed up my image with a simple heat embossed sentiment and some hexagons.

I started by coloring up the cute little bear with my Copics. I haven’t used my markers in quite some time, so I felt a little rusty going in, but I took my time and it came together in the end.

I used a background die from Papertrey Ink to create my hexagons and stacked them five layers thick in three separate clusters on my card. I made the cardbase from Summer Sunrise cardstock (also from Papertrey Ink) just to shake things up a little bit, and glued some leftover hexagons on the inside.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from Mathia Design onto Hawaiian Shores cardstock from Papertrey Ink before gluing my sentiment strips to the card using foam squares and liquid glue. I finished it off with a few sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh, and my card was done.