Hello there {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

July 14, 2021July 13, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi there! Today’s card actually features an image called Hi there. This is a very simple image, and I should have been able to color it super quickly, but coloring the mint green around the white of the paper to leave the flowers white took a while. It might have something to do with the fact that I was watching the semi-final, then the first two parts of the finale of MasterChef Australia while coloring, but I won’t mention that.

I used mostly light colors for my coloring on this card, and die cut the colored panel using a die from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 set from My Favorite Things and adhered it onto a top fold card base made from Mint Julep card stock from Papertrey Ink. It’s a pretty small card measuring in just shy of 4 Bar dimensions at 3 1/2 x 4 3/4″. I added my “typical Elin cluster” in the top right corner using scraps of paper doilies from Doodlebug Design and scraps of patterned paper from various companies (Maja Design, Papirdesign, Diecuts with a view and Making Memories are represented here) die cut using dies from My Favorite Things and XCut.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Basics stamp set from My Favorite Things onto Smokey Shadow card stock from Papertrey Ink, before using one of the Itty Bitty Strips dies from MFT to die cut it. I added it on top of my cluster with a little bit of dimension behind it, before finishing off with a few enamel dots from Altenew. I added an even smaller cluster using similar elements in the opposite corner.

Not a lot of Copics, that’s bound to happen with a pale color palette.

Missing you {hÄnglar & Wings}

June 26, 2021June 18, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi there! A few months ago I was asked to guest design for hÄnglar & Wings. I have a hard time saying no to guest design gigs no matter how busy I am, and today I’m sharing the first of two cards I made with the stamp set I chose. Part of me wanted to choose a Christmas set (I loooove creating Christmas cards), but I went completely opposite in the end and chose a stamp set with a couple of very summery girls called Bästa Vänner.

For this first card I decided to create a card that is very typical for me. Colored image, die cut panel with faux stitch edge and an embellishment cluster with a sentiment.

I colored the girl from the Bästa Vänner stamp set with my Copics, and used a die from My Favorite Things to turn it into a panel with the aforementioned faux stitch edge that I love so much. I adhered it to a card base I made out of Wild Wisteria card stock (sadly, a discontinued color) from My Favorite Things.

I love creating these embellishment clusters with die cut patterned paper scraps. I have a tub of these die cut scraps on my desk, sorted by color so I don’t have to go through the whole tub for each card. I typically choose two or three colors that go with the colors in my image and play with sizes and directions of my scraps until I come up with a design I’m happy with. It’s my favorite way to use up my patterned paper scraps. Back in the day I used a ton of patterned paper, and I still have lots left as I don’t use much of it anymore, but this method makes my scrap pile shrink ever so slightly with each cluster.

For this cluster I used paper from P13, Imaginisce, Scenic Route and Karen Foster. I put a mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design at the bottom and built up my cluster with a little bit of foam tape here and there for dimension. The sentiment comes from the Bästa Vänner stamp set, embossed in white on a die cut piece of the same color card stock that I used for my cardbase. To finish off the card, I added a few enamel dots from Altenew.

Not a whole heap of colors used for this one.

Happy birthday

June 16, 2021June 16, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi again! My second post for today, if you’re looking for some Mo Manning inspiration, you’ll find this morning’s post here. This one is a fairly clean and simple birthday card, featuring a cat from the Pawty Time stamp set from My Favorite Things.

I colored up this cute cat with my Copics back in September last year, so it’s definitely taken me a while to turn my colored piece into a card. I’d stamped the cat in My Favorite Things Extreme Black ink in the center of a 1/4 sheet of X-Press It blending card and colored it with Copics. I may have had plans for fussy cutting, but I took out one of my faux stitch rectangle dies from My Favorite Things and turned it into a rectangular panel instead.

I cut down a 6×6″ sheet of patterned paper from the Dots & Stripes Pastels paper pack from Sunny Studio and adhered it onto a top fold card base I made out of Summer Splash card stock from My Favorite Things. The colors match very nicely, and the polka dot paper goes really well with the dots on the balloon.

I adhered my colored panel in the center of the card using foam tape for a little bit of lift and dimension.

In the top left corner of my colored panel, I decided to put my remaining elements. I like putting things close together instead of spreading them out, I think the cards look cleaner and less cluttered this way. I adhered a mini paper doily from Doodlebug in the corner, and used that as a base for my other elements.

I’ve had this happy wood veneer from Studio Calico for years, and decided that it was time to use it. Using liquid glue (Gina K. connect, which is the only liquid glue I like), I added it directly onto the paper doily, with just a little bit of the h hanging off the edge for added visual interest. I stamped and white heat embossed the word birthday from the Birthday Wishes stamp set from Mama Elephant onto piece of Gravel Gray cardstock from My Favorite Things and used one of the Itty Bitty Strips dies from MFT to die cut it. I added a few more layers of gray cardstock behind it for dimension, so the strip sits flush with the veneer. To finish off the card I added three enamel dots from the Sea Shore pack from Altenew.

Very limited color palette for this one.

A little hello {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

June 16, 2021June 15, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi there! I love lily of the valley, and as soon as I saw Lily Fairy from Mo Manning, I knew it was an image I needed. They’re at their peak right now, and they smell so divine. I’ve picket two bouquets, I just wish they lasted longer than a couple of days in a vase. Hopefully, my card will last longer than the actual flowers.

I colored up my image with Copics. I chose a very light, bright combo for the green. The leaves on a lily of the valley are much darker than this, but I really like this combo, and with the fairy hanging out between the leaves, I didn’t really care too much about realism anyway. I chose to color her dress pink for a pop of a different color, and you can actually get real lilies of the valley that are pink, so I thought it was the perfect fit.

After using a die from My Favorite Things to add the faux stitch lines around the edge of my colored panel, I added Frosted Lace Stickles from Ranger to her wings for a little bit of sparkle. I adhered my panel onto a top fold card base I made from Sour Apple card stock from My Favorite Things.

Embellishment clusters have become a signature of mine, and I have five things that I pretty much always use to create them:

White mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design.
The Fishtail Flag Frames die set from My Favorite Things.
The Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut.
Scraps of patterned paper.
Enamel dots or sequins.

I keep a tub on my desk with die cut patterned paper scraps where I’ve used the two die sets I mentioned. The other day I even took the time to sort through them and divide them by color, which will make it easier to pull the ones I need for future cards. For this one I used two additional dies: a hole pattern die from Papirdesign and a die from the Itty Bitty Strips die set from My Favorite Things for the sentiment.

The sentiment is from a stamp set from InkyWings, heat embossed in white onto Sour Apple cardstock from My Favorite Things. I’ve added 1 mm foam squares between some of the layers in my cluster for a little bit of dimension, and I even put a mini cluster in the opposite corner, using scraps from the bigger cluster. I really like using as much of my cardstock and patterned paper as I possibly can, and by doing it this way, very little goes to waste. The patterned paper I used for these clusters is a mix of 3ndypapir, P13 and Sunny Studio, and I found the perfect color of enamel dots from Papirdesign as a finishing touch.

Very limited color palette for this one.

Get happy! {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

June 9, 2021June 9, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, there! Today, I have a bright, sunshiny card to share featuring the We Go Together image from Mo Manning. I shared the colored image on Instagram a couple of months back, and for the card I wanted to feature the one color out of the four main ones (blue, teal, pinky peach and yellow) that I use the least. That’s definitely yellow, so I pulled out yellow cardstock, patterned paper, ink and enamel dots.

I cut the colored piece down more than I normally would to let quite a bit of the yellow patterned paper from Papirdesign show around my image, and mounted my die cut colored piece on foam tape in the center of the card. I adhered pieces of a mini paper doily from Doodlebug to opposite corners of my die cut piece for a little bit of added texture and interest.

Onto a scrap piece of X-Press It blending card I stamped a sentiment from the Journey sentiment set from Purple Onion Designs using Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink. I love how well the Distress Oxide inks stamp. I cut it down to a strip using the medium sized die in the fishtail flag frames die set from My Favorite Things, and added it to the card using foam tape and foam squares. To finish off I added three enamel dots from the Pocketful of Sunshine pack from Altenew.

Quite a few Copics on this one, I rarely feature four different colors in one piece.

Surprise {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

May 5, 2021May 4, 2021 Elin4 Comments

Hi, there! I can’t believe it’s May and the last month of spring already. It doesn’t really feel like spring, though, it’s still really cold with snow in the forecast for today. What do I do when it’s cold? I escape by coloring summery images, like this I like you image from Mo’s Digital Pencil.

For someone who claims that her favorite color is blue, I haven’t really used a lot of blue lately. It might have something to do with the fact that I associate blue with Christmas, but it might also be that I’ve found myself a new favorite. A double favorite, even. I’ve used the combination of teal and peach on so many of my cards lately, I might have to put away those markers for a bit and try some other colors. 😉

I changed up my teal combo a little bit for this girl and even introduced a green in my combo, making her shirt super light in the highlight areas. I even tried a new combo for her hair, which matched surprisingly well with those yellow flowers she’s holding. Once I was done coloring, I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX dies from My Favorite Things to turn my colored piece into a panel with nice faux stitch edges.

On my desk I keep a tub of die cut paper scraps that I use for my embellishment clusters. I dug through it and found various pieces that I thought would fit this card well. They’re from a mix of companies: Maja Design, Studio Light, P13 and Sunny Studio. I love creating these clusters, they’re so fun to put together, and a great way to make use of scraps (not that my pile of scraps shrinks too much with each card). At the bottom is part of a mini paper doily from Doodlebug, and I added some enamel dots from the Warm and Cozy set from Altenew to finish.

I white heat embossed the sentiment from the Hilsninger stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS and die cut that using the smallest of the fishtail flag frames dies from My Favorite Things. After chopping off the overhang, I had a little piece of that doily left and the end of the sentiment banner, which I adhered in the bottom left corner of the card. I like not wasting my scraps, and this is a great way to use them.

Most of the pieces in my embellishment cluster are mounted on 1 mm foam squares for dimension. Foam without a ton of dimension is key for this, otherwise the card gets super thick from all the layers.

Quite a few Copics for such a simple image.

Christmas time {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

April 21, 2021April 21, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, there! Another Wednesday’s come around, which means another Mo Manning creation. Today, I actually have a Christmas card to share. Christmas is only 8 months away, time will fly.

Mo Manning Winter Delivery front

I’m getting close to the end of the alphabet of my previously unused images from Mo Manning. I have close to 400 digital stamps from Mo, and it’s a pretty good feeling to have used nearly all of them. This is Winter Delivery, a cute hatted squirrel carrying a bag of acorns through the snow.

Mo Manning Winter Delivery flatllay venstre

I colored the image with my Copics, before taking out my most used cluster dies and scraps of patterned Christmas paper from Maja Design (and that sentiment strip from Papirdesign) to create a tiny cluster in the top right corner. I used part of a Doodlebug doily at the bottom, a branch die cut with a Papirdesign die, as well as tickets die cut using the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut (Docrafts) and the Fishtail Flag Frames dies from My Favorite Things. I used another favorite MFT die to die cut the panel with the squirrel, before adding it directly to a side fold landscape card base made out of Soft Stone card stock from Papertrey Ink. I rarely make side fold cards, but I had a piece of card stock already cut to 4 1/4 x 11″, and it made more sense to fold that down the middle rather than pulling out a new sheet to make a top fold card.

Mo Manning Winter Delivery Copics

Simple color palette today.

I adore you {Lili of the Valley}

April 9, 2021April 11, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have a simple card with a fun technique to share today, featuring the pencil sketch version of Grace Beauty from Lili of the Valley. I love the pencil sketch versions of these images, and I’ve done some faux watercoloring for this one.

I printed the image onto Fabriano Artistico Extra White watercolor paper and did some Copic coloring. Yes, this is done with Copics, but not with the markers. Copic markers and watercolor paper are a bad match, the paper will ruin the nibs. I thought these sketchy images would be perfect with watercolor, but my printer and watercolor aren’t a good match either. That, and my watercolors still scare me. What never scares me are my Copics, so I filled a little bit of Copic blender solution into a water brush (one that I’ve designated for use with Copics) and used that as my paint brush, picking up drops of refill in various colors from a smooth, slick surface.

It’s not as precise as regular Copic coloring, but it’s a pretty fast, forgiving technique, and it’s a lot of fun to get more uses out of the markers (and the refills). It ticks all the boxes for me. I get the watercolor look that I like, without having to wait for things to dry (because the alcohol in the Copics evaporates a lot faster than water does), I can “watercolor” digital images with Copics because the ink won’t bleed. You don’t need a lot of colors either, and if you don’t have the refills, you can use the actual marker to scribble onto an acrylic block or another slick, non absorbent surface. One of these days I’ll practice coloring regular stamps with my actual watercolors, I just have to carve out the time. Even though they scare me, my watercolors don’t deserve to just be sitting unused in their palette, that’s not the reason I bought them.

I wanted to let the image shine and kept the card pretty simple. I used a rectangle die to cut a window in the center of a panel, mounting the negative on foam tape to frame the image.

I glued a couple of pieces of a mini doily from Doodlebug into the corners of my colored piece. I just wanted a little something. These go well with the soft look I was going for. I stamped a sentiment from the Leaf Clusters stamp set from Altenew in Soft Granite ink from Hero Arts onto a scrap piece of Sweet Blush card stock from Papertrey Ink, and added it in the top left corner, along with some pearls from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. The pearls are the perfect matching color, they were a sampler pack in a big order I placed from her a while back, so unfortunately, I don’t know the color name.

When I do normal Copic coloring I tend to go overboard and use a ton of colors to achieve the look I’m after. With faux watercolor, it’s the opposite, the color palette is always very limited, because I can get a lot of gradient with just one color, depending on how much I dilute it with the blender solution in the water brush. The pink on her dress, the bows in her hair and the flowers is all made with just R43, I’d never be able to achieve this ombré effect using just one color with the markers themselves.

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.

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.