Christmas hugs {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, everyone! I’ve got a quick Christmas card to share today, featuring Santa Boy from Rachelle Anne Miller.

I wanted my cluster with the sentiment to be more to the right than to the left, so I flipped my image in Photoshop to make the boy and the dog look to the right instead of the left, it fit my card better. It’s one of the great advantages of digital stamps.

Once I’d colored in my image, I used my favorite faux stitch rectangle die from My Favorite Things to turn my colored piece into a panel for the front of my card. I added about half a tiny paper doily from Doodlebug Design, and some die cut scraps of Maja Design patterned paper, before adding a green strip with a word (Christmas hug) from Papirdesign using foam tape.

I added another little piece of the green patterned paper from Maja Design towards the bottom of the left hand side and glued on a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, before adhering everything to a card base I made out of Soft Stone cardstock from Papertrey Ink. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, right?

I tried to limit the amount of Copics I used on the snow for this one. Only five (plus the blender) isn’t too shabby.

Merry Christmouse {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi, everyone. Another Wednesday has come around, and that means a Mo Manning creation around here. This time it’s a Christmas card featuring Merry Christmouse.

I used a very bright red for the hat and sweater on the mouse, and the only color that really goes with it, in my opinion, is gray. I found some red and gray die cut scraps from a couple of Maja Design collections (Fröjdefull Jul and Joyous Winterdays) and made a little mini cluster in the top right corner.

I started with a mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design, added a red fishtail flag frame die cut with a die from My Favorite Things, then a piece of a ticket die cut with a Docrafts die. I used some 1 mm foam squares for that. I added my sentiment at the end, which is from one of those strips at the bottom of the 12×12″ papers that you usually cut off. Maja Design has always had some kind of pattern on the back of theirs, which means that nothing needs to go to waste. This one was perfect in gray with a hint of red, and I used 1 mm foam squares to add it. I even doubled up on the foam on the left hand side of it.

I added some red enamel dots from Papirdesign to finish it off, and glued a leftover piece of the doily to the bottom left corner and an additional two dots. I added my panel to a top folding card base I made from Gravel Gray card stock from My Favorite Things.

This was a very simple image to color, so obviously I didn’t use a lot of colors.

Julehilsen {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi, everyone!

I colored up Winter Present for day 22 of Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day challenge on Instagram and made a simple Christmas card with it.

I used the largest of the faux stitch rectangle dies from My Favorite Things to create a nice edge for my panel. I mounted it to a cardbase I made from Soft Stone cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I dug through my scrap stash of Christmas themed patterned paper and got really lucky with part of a diecut ticket and some pine branches.

I made a little cluster starting with half a Doodlebug mini paper doily, then the partial ticket stub and the pine branches. I found a fitting sentiment on the bottom of a piece of patterned paper from Papirdesign, so I cut that bit out and added foam tape behind it. I finished the card with a few snowflake sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Christmas hug {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi, everyone!

I know it’s Easter, and normally I’d be at our family cabin in the mountains this time of year, soaking up sun, going skiing, drinking warm beverages and eating oranges and chocolate. This year is one for the ages, everything’s turned on its head. We’re not allowed to go to our cabin in the mountains, and I’m stuck in the city with no Easter spirit whatsoever. Hence, a Christmas card in April. The most natural thing in the world, right?

I colored up Fruitcake from Mo Manning during the last 30 day coloring challenge hosted by Kathy Racoosin, and I turned it into a very simple card using very few supplies. I diecut my panel using the largest of the stitched rectangle dies from My Favorite Things (the STAX 2 set) and glued it onto a top folding card base I made from Enchanted Evening cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I used a Docrafts die to create those tickets from scraps of patterned paper from Maja Design, popping them up on foam squares from Gina K designs to give them a little bit of dimension. I white heat embossed a sentiment from Ladybug & Friends on one of the tickets and tucked a diecut pine branch behind it. I finished by adding a few red enamel dots from Papirdesign, tying in the red details from the colored image.

As usual, I finish with the Copic colors I used to color my image.

Med jul i hjertet {Mo’s Dream Team}

Christmas is less than three weeks away, and I’m actually ahead of schedule Christmas card wise. I colored up Got the Wreath from Mo Manning during the 30 day coloring challenge and turned it into a quick, simple card with a few pieces of Maja Design patterned paper from the Joyous Winterdays collection.

I used the largest of the dies from the Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things to diecut the panel with my little guy, just for some subtle detail.

I covered the front of my card panel with a green piece of patterned paper and mounted my faux stitches colored panel with some low foam tape.

In the top left corner I made a very typical Elin cluster. I started with a Doodlebug Design mini doily for some softness, and made sure I didn’t glue it down completely. The little lift you get by not glueing it down is just enough. I diecut a few branches from that green patterned paper with a couple of CraftEmotions dies, a few banners with a die set from My Favorite Things and stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS that I white heat embossed. I finished with a few raindrops from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Mostly green and white, with a little hint of red. I’m not a huge fan of red for Christmas, but the combo of this deep brown based red and this grayish, blueish green works for me.

Cluster Christmas {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi. Another Wednesday, and another Mo Manning creation.

Giggling Snowman is my all time favorite snowman, a fact you’re probably aware of if you’ve seen me speak of him before. He’s got such personality, and he’s super easy and fast to color. Of course I had to make his hat and scarf blue, another favorite of mine!

I printed him out in soft gray lines to be able to color him up and get the lines disappearing, I love the soft look on no line coloring, espesially on snow. I glued my panel of X-Press It onto my top fold card base and added a very dimensional cluster of diecut patterned paper scraps from Maja Design. I stamped and white heat embossed a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment on that top ticket stub, and embellished very sparsely with some Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

I like making clusters like this, and it’s such a great way to use those tiny scraps, I’m sure we all have them. I rarely make my clusters this dimensional, but it’s kind of fun to see all the layers and view it from different angles.

I didn’t use a lot of Copic colors for this one, it is a pretty simple image, after all. I hope you give clusters a try, they’re fun to make. And let’s not forget about that adorable snowman! Hope you have a nice day!

The first of many {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi everyone!

Towards the end of 2018, I decided that 2019 would be the year for at least three Christmas cards each month, in an effort to not have to rush making the last few in November. I plan to make some gift tags each month, too, so I’m hoping to keep it up and share Christmas projects all year. I’m starting with this one. I’ve made a card that is very me, clean and simple with a colored image and a cluster.

I’ve colored up Got the Wreath with my trusty Copics in reds and grays. I’m not normally a fan of red, but I’m happy when I can make it a deep, brownish red and pair it with gray. That works in my world. Red and green, not so much. I had to color the wreath with greens, though, and I don’t think there’s too much of it, so it kind of works and the green doesn’t compete with the red for all the attention, which is sometimes an issue when using complementary colors.

I diecut some scraps of Maja Design patterned paper from different Christmas collections and added them in a cluster in the top right corner. I’ve got Fröjdefull Jul, Home for the Holidays, and red monochromes from the Joyous Winterdays collection all in a neat little cluster, diecut with dies from Docrafts, Craft Emotions, and My Favorite Things.

I white heat embossed a Norsk Stempelblad AS heart on one of the diecut pieces, and that’s my card for today.

I’ll try to be better at including the colors I’ve used, so here they are.

Fill Christmas with joy {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi, everyone! I hope you’re having a great Christmas. Today’s another Wednesday, the last one in 2018, in fact. I’ve got my last Christmas card for 2018 to share with you today, using Mo’s beautiful Sharing a Song image.

I printed my image with a low opacity setting in Photoshop and did no line coloring with my Copics. I added chunky white embossing enamel for that wintery, snowy feel.

The card itself is made by diecutting Maja Design patterned papers from last year’s Christmas collection, using a set of dies from GoKreate. The sentiment from Norsk Stempeblad AS is heat embossed, and I added tiny little cones I’ve picked myself.

The insde has the same patterned papers, another Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment stamped in Papertrey Ink Enchanted Evening ink, as well as some heat embossed Huldra designstudio snowflakes, and a Crafty Moly veneer snowflake that I also heat embossed.

I did the same thing for the back of the card. Sentiment, heat embossed snowflakes and veneer snowflakes for that extra little bit of dimension.

God jul {Mo’s Dream Team}

Another Wednesday, another Mo day. Today I’ve got a Christmas card to share with you. Is modern vintage a style? I think it looks kind of vintage, yet modern, but I’ll let you decide. I chose Winter Present, colored her up with Copics and turned her into a fairly clean and simple card.

I chose muted colors with lots of grays in them, diecut my colored panel with a stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things and sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous which I heat embossed. It gives the look of falling snow, which I really love for Christmas cards. No pattern, completely random, which really is how snow falls in real life.

I added my panel to my card base using dimensional adhesive without too much dimension. The card base is Classic Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I stamped a pinstripe stamp from Altenew across it in Scarlet Jewel ink, also from Papertrey Ink.

I tend to add little embellishment clusters on my simple cards, and this one is no different. Part of a mini doily from Doodlebug, some patterned paper diecut with a Docrafts die, a ticket with a white heat embossed sentiment from Papirdesign, and diecut pine branches from patterned paper. I added three Papirdesign crystals as a finishing touch.