la la la laaaa!
Am I in a Christmas mood? Not really, but it might seem that way. Falalalala was next up on my alphabetic list of Mo Manning images I haven’t yet used, and it needed to go on a Christmas card. Another one done for this year, which admittedly feels pretty good.
I colored my image with Copics as usual. In a split complementary version this time. I’m not a fan of red (not even for Christmas), but when I can use it as an accent color along with blue greens and yellow greens, I feel it works better. I fussy cut my image right up to the black line and glued it to the front of my card.
I diecut a panel of Spring Rain cardstock from Papertrey Ink using the Snowfall Backdrop die from Lawn Fawn and ink blended over the top. I used Chipped Sapphire Distress ink, Faded Jeans Distress ink, Stormy Sky distress ink and Spring Rain dye ink working my way from top to bottom, dark to light. I glued the piece straight onto my white cardbase.
I used the Country Landscape die from Memory Box to diecut the background hills from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I used the same die to diecut the windows using Harvest Gold cardstock, also from PTI, and inlaid them. I popped the entire panel on low foam tape for a little bit of dimension. I then diecut my panel with the sentiment already printed using a die from the Stitched Hillside Borders die set from Lawn Fawn. I’m a huge fan of faux stitch dies, but since the Memory Box die doesn’t have the faux stitching, I didn’t want it on my top panel either, so I used the die upside down and glued this snow bank on with low foam tape. To ground my image I used snow paint just below it as snow, and sprinkled rock candy distress glitter on top while the snow paint was still wet.
I changed up the sentiment a little. There’s an exclamation mark at the end, but I wanted that to be on the inside, so I added three dots instead and printed the same sentiment on the inside with the three dots in the beginning and the exclamation mark at the end.
I was a little hesitant about using my blue background at first, because I didn’t think the image stood out enough against the blue. When I created the snow banks, the whole thing transformed, and I’m glad I stuck with the blue.
Not a lot of markers for this one.
Her har jeg stemplet og maskert en muffins, stemplet skilpadden, stemplet konfetti på bakgrunnen og hatt det gøy med tusjene. Jeg startet med skilpadden og muffinsen, før jeg fargela bakken i grått. Så var det himmelen sin tur. Jeg ville ha en slags ombreeffekt, så jeg startet øverst med den mørkeste blå av de jeg hadde valgt ut og fortsatte nedover med lysere og lysere blåfarger før jeg til slutt fikk en sømløs overgang mellom det blå og det grå. Til slutt var det grei skuring å fargelegge konfettien.
Jeg stanset ut panelet med den største dieen i Stitched Rectangles STAX set 2, den gir 1/16″ ramme rundt når man limer panelet på et A2-kort. Jeg brukte Fishtail Flag Frames-settet til å stanse ut bannere i koordinerende farger kartong fra Papertrey Ink (Harvest Gold, Orange Zest og Raspberry Fizz). Jeg stemplet og embosset tekst på det rosa banneret, limte det oransje rett på hovedpanelet og de andre to med 3D-puter i ulike høyder før jeg pyntet med paljetter fra Little Things from Lucy’s Cards i farger som matchet (paljettene er fra Candy Corn- og Sweet Shop-blandingene). Bannerdiesene fra MFT jeg har brukt stanser også ut ramme rundt selve banneret, og jeg har brukt rammen fra den rosa og satt på inni kortet og stemplet en av de andre tekstene inni rammen på kortets innside i rosa, man ser litt av det til høyre her.
Det er gøy å lage kort kun med favoritting!!!
I printed my image on a piece of X-Press It cut down to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2″. I colored my image with my Copics and used the largest of the stitched rectangle dies from My Favorite Things to cut it slightly smaller.
I’m also doing my best this year to use scraps of patterned paper. I have a basket of scraps that I’ve cut down to card front sizes, and I realized pink is the color I have the most of, which was the reason for my color choice today. I found a pink scrap in the basket that I wanted to use, colored my image in matching colors and took a bit of a dive into my smaller scraps to find pieces to use for my cluster. The circle with the sentiment is actually cut from the center of the patterned paper I used on the front of this card, which is a scrap from the Vintage Summer Basics collection from Maja Design. The diecut banners are from the Sofiero collection, the colors were perfect for this card.
I used part of a Doodlebug mini paper doily in the top right corner as a base for my small cluster. I had a tiny bit left over and glued in the opposite corner. I embellished very simply with a couple of hearts from the Rosy Glow mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards and sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix, also from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I added an epoxy pebble to the sentiment circle for a little bit of extra dimension and interest.
I decided that 
I don’t really know how I ever survived without the stitched rectangles sets from My Favorite Things. I use the largest in the 2 set for pretty much every card I make. It creates a nice 1/16″ border around my panel, which, to me, is the perfect width. I used another MFT die for the sentiment banner. It’s from the Fishtail Flag Frames set, another set I use a great deal. MFT has some very versatile dies! For the actual sentiment (which is a digital sentiment that comes with the image) to be the right color I put a scrap piece of the orange cardstock into my scanner, opened the scanned image in Photoshop, used the eyedropper tool to choose that color, and changed the color of the sentiment before printing.
I’ve set myself a challenge to see how far I can get this year by only using scraps of patterned paper and not digging into new ones. Design team contributions for Hobbykunst get to be exempt from my little experiment, but I think I can make it pretty far with just scraps. It helps that I tend to make cards like this, that don’t require big chunks of patterned paper. The orange one with the dots is from a pack of digital patterned papers by Cathy Zielske that I bought years ago, and the other one is actually from a Halloween collection from Papirdesign. I diecut them both with a die from Xcut that diecuts lots of tickets from one die. I put a chipboard piece from Snip Art on top of my tickets, and a sentiment banner straight on top of that. By using the chipboard, I get dimension without having to resort to foam tape, which is always a plus.
I felt like I needed a little bit towards the bottom, too, so I added another small ticket, another uncolored piece of Snip Art chipboard and half a colored gear, as well as a blue enamel dot from Papirdesign. It’s amazing how much you can fit into such a small space if you just stack it.
I have found that my blues look better if I skip B93 and jump straight from B95 to B91. Have you made a similar discovery? I’d love to hear about it.
I colored my image before diecutting it with the largest of the dies in a stitched rectangle set from My Favorite Things.
I love the little sentiment that comes with the image. I printed it, along with my image, from Photoshop, making sure that the color would be close my blue Copics. The color of the sentiment is actually B99, which I didn’t end up using to color my little guy.
Lots of little details in this image, requiring the use of lots of colors!
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m terrible at sticking to schedules. Seriously awful. And every year I tell myself to get started on Christmas cards early and make them throughout the year to avoid being swamped come November. Every year I’m swamped in November because I fail to make them throughout the year. I’m off to a good start this year though, I’m starting with this 
I printed my bear onto X-Press It blending card (the best paper for Copic coloring) and colored it with Copics. Normally, I probably would have made his hat blue, but I wanted a dark blue background, so I needed a color that would pop against it. Anyone who knows me would also know that I’m not a fan of red for Christmas cards, but in 2019 I made quite a few Christmas cards with red in them anyway, and I guess I’m starting the new year with it, too. Not to worry, though, I’ll get back to my regular blue eventually, it IS the color of the year, after all.
I diecut a front panel with faux stitching around the edges and a nice big window in the top center. I stamped a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment using Papertrey Ink Scarlet Jewel Ink, added acetate behind my window and glued it to the front of my card using two layers of craft foam to really make those sequins and other few elements inside the window shake!
I love the dimension you get on such a simple card by doubling up the foam, it makes a big difference, and everything inside the window moves more freely.
I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so I made sure all the sequins were turned the right way before I glued my shaker shut. I used a combination of two different mixes from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. Most of the elements are from the 
Not a whole lot of colors on this image. I also used R52, which is a color I’ve made myself.
Noen som husker 
Som på det forrige kortet har jeg brukt et hvitt ark med folierte gullprikker. Jeg syns den diskrete effekten er veldig fin, og det at prikkene er litt vilkårlig i arket gjør at det ikke blir altfor strukturert og strengt selv om jeg har mange rette linjer.
Julestjernen har jeg satt på 3D-puter, det samme har jeg gjort med teksten, som er et stempel fra Papirdesign. Gullfargen fra prikkene i arket og embossingen på blomstene har jeg plukket opp ved å bruke en stripe av 
Siden kortbasen min er såpass mørk ville jeg sette på et eget panel på kortets innside til å skrive personlig hilsen på. Det ga meg en ypperlig anledning til å stemple blomsten på nytt, bare for å pynte litt opp. Maskerte blomsten og stemplet bladene også. Man trenger ikke engang å fargelegge, selve stempelet er pynt nok i seg selv.
Her er fargene jeg brukte på blomsten min. Når man skal embosse og bruke Copics er det viktig at man stempler som normalt og fargelegger først, så stempler på nytt og embosser. Du vil ikke fargelegge etter at du har embosset, det kan nemlig skade tuppen på tusjen. Ved å fargelegge først og embosse etterpå unngår du hele problematikken.
It’s Mo day (aka Wednesday). One of the last things I did in 2019 was to clear away all the jars of flowers from the desk in my craft room (I had about 50 of them). I figured I don’t really use flowers all that much on my cards anymore, so I didn’t need them to be easily accessible and take up space on my desk. I put them in a cabinet right below the ceiling, I was able to cram all of them into one single cabinet. The last card I made in 2019 had flowers on it. We’re barely two weeks into the new year, and I’ve made another one with flowers. For both cards I had to climb on a ladder and pull out a bunch of jars to get to the flowers I wanted. Maybe removing those jars wasn’t such a good idea after all?
Good idea or not, this was the card I made. I colored up Mo’s 
I partially die cut my image with some of the bubble hanging out, and glued it to my card using lots of foam tape. I haven’t used my frame dies from GoKreate in a while, so I thought I’d break them out for this one. I usually make my card from the third largest die in the set (the XXL Square Frilly Frames #10 set), but I want to see how far into 2020 I can get with using just scraps, and the third largest die in the set requires a full sheet of paper to die cut two pieces (front and back of the card). The next size down was the perfect size for this scrap of Maja Design patterned paper, and it was also a good size for the green patterned paper from Papirdesign that I used behind my image and on the insides of the card.
Speaking of insides – I diecut an eyelet circle with a Cottage Cutz die, stamped a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment using Memento Sweet Plum ink and again used lots of foam tape. I even diecut a scrap strip of another purple piece of Maja Design patterned paper to go across.
The second inside has plenty of space for a personal message, and I diecut another eyelet circle from patterned paper and added a couple of diecut numbers from Scrapmagasinet to my circle. I thought this card would be the perfect birthday card for my niece, she turns 10 in June!!
I used the same design on the back, but used a green strip instead of a purple one. Another NSB sentiment, once again stamped in Memento Sweet Plum ink, and once again glued on with lots of foam tape.
There’s quite a bit of dimension in this card, and with that great image as the focal point, I think this will be perfect for my niece!
Lots and lots of Copics used for this one, but there are 15 colors in the heart bubble alone.
I’ve got 
I quickly found out that the closest Copic color to that specific Pantone color is B99. How perfect is that, the B90s are my favorite blues in all the land. I colored my image and glued it to my card base with lots of foam tape. All I did embellishment wise was add a couple of those little diecut banners (they’re so wide you can hardly see the V shape) and enamel dots from Papirdesign. The white heat embossed sentiment is from Norsk Stempelblad AS.
I love anything and everything blue – expect to be bombarded with lots of blue this year!
What’s more summery than peachy colors, flowers and butterflies? I colored up 
I’ve sort of gone back to my roots with this card. Layers (though not many), colored Bazzill card base, Pion Design patterned papers, flowers and those little clear acrylic branches are all things I used to use a lot, but rarely use any more. It’s fun to shake things up every once in a while, especially after making so many clean and simple Christmas cards.
I don’t know what colors I used to color up my image, it’s been about eight months, after all. I may have written it down somewhere, but if I did, I don’t know where. I’m usually good at writing things down in a book, but I’m also known for some serious Post-it notes usage. I’m not sure where the Post-it went. Or even if there ever was a Post-it for this particular color combination on this particular image. What I do know is that it’s not in my book.
I glued all my cardstock and patterned paper panels down using double sided tape. For the diecut image, I used foam tape, and lots of it. I was not shy. A roll of foam tape lasts forever, so I like to cover the entire back for even dimension with no sag. I think I bought ten rolls a couple of years ago. I’ve given one away and am halfway through my second roll, so I still have seven sitting in a cabinet in my craft room.
I used a hot glue gun to attach my flowers and those acrylic branches. I have a low temp hot glue gun that I love for things like this. It dries instantly and stays put. For the butterflies and the pearl in the center of the largest flower, I used connect glue from Gina K. It’s the best liquid glue out there, those butterflies aren’t going anywhere!
I used the same design on the insides and on the back of my card. There’s no dimension to the circles on the inside of the card, but I used foam tape on the back circle as well. A sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS stamped in a combination of VersaMark and two different colors of Distress Ink (Worn Lipstick and Abandoned Coral). Normally, I’m not a fan of distress ink used with clear stamps, they tend to bead up on the surface of the stamp, and the result you get isn’t the best. I didn’t have a peachy ink pad, however, and if you use VersaMark on the stamp and then distress ink right on top of that, you can reduce the beading and get a better stamping. Not perfect, but better than distress ink on its own. And much better than having to compromise and use black or brown or another color that wouldn’t go as well with the rest of the card.
Papirmølla 