Hi, everyone! I’m back with a birthday card, this time featuring Cupcake Thief from Mo Manning. It’s a fun image, and once again I’ve gone for sherbet-y summer colors to counteract the doom and gloom outside (it’s snowing).
I colored my image onto X-Press It blending card using my Copics, before using the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX dies from My Favorite Things to turn it into a nice panel with faux stitching around the edge. I adhered it onto a card base I made from Coral Crush card stock from My Favorite Things. Sadly, the color’s discontinued, but they have loads of other gorgeous card stock colors at My Favorite Things.
I added a small cluster of scraps to the top left of my card. About half a mini doily from Doodlebug Design is at the bottom, followed by die cut pieces of patterned paper from Sunny Studio and a sentiment banner on top. I white heat embossed a sentiment from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things onto a banner of Peach Bellini card stock, also a discontinued MFT color.
My embellishments tend to be sequins or enamel dots centered around the sentiment on my cards. For this one, I added another two sequins in the bottom right corner, just to do something different than my standard three sequins. These sequins are from the Heaven Sent mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
I used quite a few colors for this one. For the frosting on the pink cupcake, I also used R87, which is a color I’ve created myself.
My card is heavily inspired by a card 
Tenia’s card had a wide piece of washi tape going in from the right near the top of the card, with a rectangle perpendicular to the washi with a couple of small colored flowers on top, a sentiment and a few enamel dots. Once I’d ink blended a little bit using Audrey Blue and Island Blue inks from Simon Says Stamp, I tried to add a rectangle to my card, but it was too long and too wide for my liking. I scrapped that idea and die cut a polaroid frame instead for my little hedgehog to sit in. I used the second smallest die from the Precious Polaroids die set from My Favorite Things, and stacked four on top of each other for dimension. The die cut was just big enough to stamp a sentiment onto. The shortest sentiment in the 
I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and my card was complete. Lots of white space, a cute hedgehog and one more Christmas card in the bank for 2021. Doesn’t get much better than that!
Super limited color palette for this tiny image.
I wanted a soft look to this, but at the same time, I also wanted to change things up a bit. I went with a darker skin tone than I normally do, and I really wanted a soft yellow bunny. I printed the image onto a piece of X-Press It blending card cut to 3×6″ for a mini slimline card. I adhered it to a card base I made from Lemon Tart card stock from Papertrey Ink with a 1/8″ border. I used the same color card stock to die cut “God påske” (Happy Easter in Norwegian) using a die from Papirdesign. I stacked three die cuts on top of each other and used a sparkle shimmer spray from Imagine to add lots of shimmer to the die cut. It has a really nice shimmer in real life, even though you can’t see it in the photo. To finish off the card I added a few sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Part of me can’t believe I used five different greens for this one, but that tiny green heart? They all fit in there!
Meet Grace. She comes in seven different poses, and each pose comes in a regular black lined version, and a more sketchy pencil style version, which is what I used for my card. I thought the sketchy look would be amazing with watercolor, but watercolor doesn’t play well with the ink in my printer, so I’ve totally cheated and used Copics. Well, Copic refills on watercolor paper, to be exact. Works like a charm and you get soft results, it’s fast to do and you don’t need a lot of colors. And for a sketchy style image like this, it doesn’t even matter if you go outside the lines a bit, it adds to that watercolor feel. I used this technique years ago (blog post 
I wanted all the focus to be on the image, and used the Fine Frames Cover die with some patterned paper from Papirdesign in a soft, matching purple, adding dimension behind every other frame (the wider ones), while gluing the others straight onto the card base.
I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Statement Flowers stamp set from Altenew, before adding a few sequins from the White Orchid Sequin Mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Very limited color palette. I put a drop or two of color onto my glass work surface and picked up the color with a watercolor brush filled with blender solution instead of water. I have a watercolor brush just for blender solution.
I didn’t have any birthday sentiment dies that fit my slimline plan, but this Stacked Merry die from My Favorite Things was perfect. I die cut four from white card stock and stacked them for a dimensional look, before adding embossing powder on top and heat embossing for a shine that matches the embossed snow in the background. I stamped “& bright” from the 
I used quite a few colors for this very simple image. Building color to create contrast is key when doing no line coloring, and the first 7 markers in this graphic were all used for the snow. It might be difficult to tell from the photo, but the orange combo I used for carrot is different than the combo I used for the scarf and pocket, which isn’t as bright a combo in real life.
After coloring the image, I used a die from the nested stitched doily set from Cottage Cuts to turn my colored piece into a circle with some nice detailing along the edge. I die cut two more from white cardstock and added them to the back for a little bit more strength and stability.
Using the Detail Ringlet Plate from Simon Says Stamp, I created a white panel with subtle texture. I wanted something that wasn’t too plain while at the same time not being too distracting from the image. I cut down four more pieces of white card stock, added them to the back of the die cut one and adhered it to a card base I made from Berry Sorbet card stock from Papertrey Ink.
A stacked die cut sentiment (die from Papirdesign) and a heat embossed sub sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS were added to the front, and finally a couple of matte gold sequins from Little Things From Lucy’s Cards. Before adhering it to the card, I used a shimmer spray on my colored piece, you can sort of see it in this photo, but it’s a lot more sparkly in person.
I have this throw pillow on my couch that jump started my inspiration. It’s got a nice geometric look, but it’s not too colorful (I prefer a neutral interior to a super busy colorful one, I put all my color into my cards), and the best thing is those blue triangles (it’s a darker blue in real life than in the photo, I need to compensate for bad winter lighting these days). I love blue (as evidenced by the blue throw pillow behind it, the blanket on the left that has lots of blue in it and the light blue walls in the background)!
My first card uses the exact same pattern as the one that’s on the pillow, but in other colors. I used the After Midnight color from My Favorite Things, Tickled Pink and Grout Gray, also from My Favorite Things, along with Berry Sorbet and Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink for the vibrant pink and white, respectively.
I popped my panel of triangles onto a 4 3/4″ square card base using lots of foam tape. On a die cut circle I stamped and gold heat embossed a sentiment from the 
Being told “you are great” is something we all could use at times, right?
My next card features basically the same pattern, but I changed up the colors and extended the pattern to make it a rectangle. I wish I hadn’t cut the top part off, or cut even more off to make the pattern end in a full size or half size rectangle instead of what I ended up with, but it’s the sacrifice I made to make my card an A2 size with 1/4″ border around the triangles.
The card stock colors I chose for this card are Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, Lemon Tart, True Black, and Rustic White, all from Papertrey Ink, as well as Blue Breeze from My Favorite Things. The Rustic White is more of a grungy white (is that a thing? It’s not bright white) with dark speckles here and there, it’s really cool. I used the Sweet Hello die from 
Below the die cut hello, I added a sub sentiment from the 
For my last card I decided to go rainbow. No chunky 1/4″ frame, I wanted the colorful triangles to go all the way to the edge in this one. The card measures about 4 1/4 x 5 1/4 (I learned from last card and didn’t want any weird looking shapes). The card stock colors (except for the white, which is Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink) are all from My Favorite Things. They are, from top to bottom, Blue Yonder, After Midnight, Field Day, Limelight, Pineapple, Orange Zest, Red Hot, Razzle Berry, Grape Jelly and Wild Wisteria.
I didn’t want to cover up too much of the background, so I took out my Impact Alphabet die set from My Favorite Things and die cut the letters H and I six times from white card stock. I stacked two of each letter, added two layers of vellum on top, then the remaining four layers of the letters on top for a dimensional look. By having a couple of layers of the letters behind the vellum, it makes the vellum float. I added a few raindrops from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards for a finishing touch.
This one is definitely less dimensional than the other two cards, but the colors and the stacked sentiment still make it pop.
There you have it – 3 same but different cards using one fabulous geometric builder die. Obviously you could create triangles on your own without the die, but the die makes it so much easier and more accurate than I could ever hope to do on my own. And I’m super detail oriented and a bit of a perfectionist, so I’d definitely use the die!
I had trouble deciding whether to make a card for a baby girl or for a baby boy, so I decided to go somewhat neutral with a combo of yellow and green. I colored the image with my Copics, added a clear coat of glitter on the green areas using a Wink of Stella glitter brush.
I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Fresh Leaf ink from Altenew, and decided to even add some clear crystals of various sizes from the Crystal Collection from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
I used a frame die from Mama Elephant and die cut 3 frames; two from white card stock and one from Lemon Tart card stock from Papertrey Ink, which is a very nice soft yellow. I glued all three frames together for a stacked look and spritzed the frame with a sheer shimmer spray from Imagine, before adhering the frame onto the colored piece, and then onto a white card base. I paired it with a Lemon Chiffon envelope from My Favorite Things. It’s not a perfect match, but it’s close enough.
Very limited use of colors for this card.
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.
I love no line coloring, and this guy with the candy cane was so much fun to color up. I added snow flurries to the background with a gelly roll pen when I did my coloring, and once I’d die cut my colored piece I wanted even more snow, so I sprinkled on embossing enamel, as well, and melted that.
I even added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards once my card was assembled. I love this look of snow on Christmas cards.
The sentiment is from the Scripty Xmas stamp set from Mama Elephant, stamped in Lady Bug ink from Memento. I added my panel onto a 4 1/4 x 4 1/4″ top folding card base I made from Electric Red card stock from My Favorite Things.
Papirmølla 