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.

Happy birthday {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi, everyone!

Another Wednesday, and another card with a Mo Manning cutie.

For this card i used Jessie, an image I colored during Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day challenge back in March. I haven’t really done any coloring since the last challenge ended in early May, but I still have images to use and I’ve even made quite a few cards lately with no coloring whatsoever.

I used a stitched circle die from My Favorite Things to diecut the image, used a bigger die to cut from Sweet Blush cardstock from Papertrey Ink and glued the two circles together. I used an embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers to create texture to my background by running it through my Gemini Junior. I love that little machine.

I used foam squares without too much dimension on the back of my circles, added them to the center of my card and added a stamped Mathia design sentiment with more foam squares. I finished off the card with a few pink pearls from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

I really like the peachy pink combo I used for this one and colored many images around the same time using that same combo.

Thinking of you {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi,everyone! Another Wednesday, and another Mo Manning creation. This time I’ve colored up I forgot with my Copics.

This is another one that I’ve colored for Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge. I’m getting better at putting my colored images to use. I colored this one for day 13 of the challenge back in March, so this cute little elephant hasn’t had to wait too long.

I used the largest of the dies in a faux stitched rectangle die set from My Favorite Things to create my panel and glued it onto a scrap piece of patterned paper from Pion Design that I’d already cut to fit the size of my card. I added a cluster in the top right corner, I’ve got part of a Doodlebug doily, a couple of patterned paper banners (also diecut with dies from My Favorite Things) and a few enamel dots from My Mind’s Eye.

That light pink paper is from the same paper collection from Pion Design as the darker pink (Vintage Garden collection), and the green one with the dots is from Inkido. I stamped a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment using Autumn Rose ink from Papertrey Ink, and that finishes my card.

Lots of greys, greens and even blues for this one, even if the card mostly reads as pink. 3

Good luck… {Mo’s Dream Team}

… with new challenges! Another Wednesday, and another Mo Manning creation. I’m trying to be better at using all the different images I have from Mo’s Digital Pencil, and I’ve kind of started at the beginning of the alphabet when coloring up previously unused images. I colored up this one for Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge back in June 2018, so it’s about time Alice with Baby made it onto a card.

This isn’t exactly the easiest image to add to a card. I decided to stamp and heat emboss a couple of sentiments from a Huldra designstudio stamp set. The top one says Good luck… and the bottom one says “with new challenges”, which I thought was very fitting with the image. That red cardstock is Pure Poppy from Papertrey Ink, and I added foam tape behind both strips to create a little bit of dimension.

I added the colored image to the center of the card front and a strip of Kaisercraft patterned paper (P214 Periwinkle) on either side. I topped everything off with a few blue enamel dots from Papirdesign.

Baby card

Hi, everyone.

Last Tuesday, Lisabeth and I decided to get a little crafty the following day and participate in the sketch challenge over on the My Favorite Things blog, no matter what the sketch would look like. As always, I’m getting my creation in just under the wire. Turns out I wasn’t in a creative mood on Wednesday. Or Thursday, Friday, Saturday… you get the gist. It was only when I got home today that the ball really got rolling. I did sort of start yesterday, but I couldn’t for the life of me find the right color cardstock to use. I wound up using Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink on top of diecut pieces of Aqua Mist cardstock from Papertrey Ink to get a color that matched my little dragons, which I colored up for Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge way back in February 2018. These puppies have been laying around for a while.

I’d already fussy cut my dragons, but I used the Stitched Rectangles STAX sets (both sets, actually) to create my little frame, and glued them both straight onto my card base. I also diecut a scalloped eyelet circle using a CottageCutz die and mounted it on thin, black foam tape from Gina K. Designs for a little bit of dimension. I used the same foam tape on the back of my dragons and glued them to the circle. I created a stacked diecut sentiment using dies from Papirdesign and stamped a small sub sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Hawaiian Shores ink from Papertrey Ink. I embellished very simply with some sequins from Pretty Pink Posh, and that finishes my card.