Hi, crafty friends. I started March by hopping on a flight to Trondheim for a crafty weekend away, and on Sunday, I even taught a class. I was a little apprehensive about the whole thing, as my mojo went missing around New Year’s. As it turns out, it had run away to Trondheim, and I was lucky enough to bring it back home with me. I taught a very simple Easter card, complete with Copic coloring. Some people did use Zig clean color brush markers, as that was the coloring medium taught in an earlier class, and the participants all received a few Zigs in their class kits for the weekend.
The Easter Bunnies stamp set from Simon Hurley was the perfect one to teach with. It’s a stamp set with lots of images to choose from. They’re all small, easy to color and very beginner friendly, as there aren’t any big areas to fill in. Once colored, we fussy cut the bunnies. There’s a coordinating die set for this stamp set, but these are pretty easy to fussy cut.
I did some simple ink blending on the background. I used the Watercolor Rectangle stencil from My Favorite Things and ink blended from the bottom to the top using Worn Lipstick distress ink, Pink Pearl ink from Altenew and Scattered Straw distress ink. These colors went well with the Copics I used for the bunnies, and it creates a little bit of interest to the background. I used the Giant Happy Easter die from Lawn Fawn and die cut that four times from white cardstock, before gluing them all together for a stacked look. I adhered the sentiment in the top center of the card, mounted the bunnies on foam tape and added a few sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I also used a black Glaze pen for the eyes, which the attendees really enjoyed, as it creates a little bit of dimension and shine very quickly and easily.
Very soft color palette for this one.
I didn’t want to use Flappy and his little friends on their own, so I decided to create a mask and stamp 
Once my coloring was complete, I stamped a sentiment from the coordinating 
I used a mixture of brown and gray for Flappy’s fur, and an obscene amount of colors for the green.
I used the second largest die in the Watercolor Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things to turn my colored piece into a panel with a fun edge. I added some layers of cardstock behind it and adhered it to a top fold card base I created from Berry Sorbet cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
I used the Sweet Hello die from My Favorite Things to create my sentiment. I die cut four from white cardstock and one from Grapefruit cardstock from Concord & 9th and adhered them all together for a stacked, dimensional look. I stamped and white heat embossed a sub sentiment from the IWCL2017005 English stamp set from InkyWings on a strip of Berry Sorbet cardstock and added it to my die cut sentiment, making sure to put a few layers of cardstock behind it on the part that overhangs. I added a few sequins from the White Orchid Sequin Mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and put a dot of black Glaze pen from Sakura on the squirrel’s eye for a little bit of shine and dimension to finish off the card.
I used a lot of colors for this simple image.
I colored the image with my Copics and stamped love you from the Mini Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Berry Sorbet ink from Papertrey Ink, before using the panel die in the Blueprints 27 die set from My Favorite Things to cut it out and give it a nice scalloped edge with a faux stitch line on the inside.
Onto a top fold white card base, I adhered a piece of blue patterned paper from the Watercolor Brights 6×6″ paper pad from My Favorite Things. I added a few layers of cardstock behind my large panel for a little bit of lift and adhered it to the card front, before finishing off simply with a few pearls from the Glossy Porcelain Mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. Oh, and I also used a black glaze pen from Sakura to add a black dot to each of the eyes. This makes the eyes pop, and it adds shine and a little bit of dimension in real life, which you can’t really tell from the photo.
Very simple coloring for this one.
I really don’t want the sentiment to come true right now, I don’t remember there ever coming this much snow in the city in such a short time, and I’d very much like to not have to walk to work tomorrow. I saw plenty of people out with their shovels today when I walked home, their cars were snowed in, their driveways were full of snow and they could barely open their front doors. It’s winter, we get it, but it’s enough now, we don’t need more snow.
I’m done venting. I think. I was originally planning on adding a stacked die cut where all the snow is, but then I came up with the idea of a shaker card instead. It’s kind of like the little person under the beanie is trapped inside the shaker with all the shaker bits, which I thought was a fun concept.
I used the Giant Let It Snow die from Lawn Fawn, covered my window with acetate and filled my shaker well with Distress Mica Flakes, a little bit of Rock Candy Distress Glitter and a small pile of embellishments from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
I added my shaker panel to a top fold card base I created from Blueberry cardstock from My Favorite Things and decided not to add anything else.
Very simple color palette for this one.
I colored up 
I stamped a sentiment from InkyWings using Pink Pearl ink from Altenew. The stamp actually has the word hugs in it too, but I opted for a die cut hugs, using the Sweet Sentiments die set from Altenew. I die cut four from Grapefruit cardstock and stacked them together for a dimensional look.
I finished off with a couple of heart droplets from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Fairly simple color palette for this one.
I’ve used this image a few times in the past, but I’ve never colored the penguins blue, which kind of blew my mind when I realized. I decided to remedy that and created soft blue penguins and a corally pink scarf. I cut my panel down to a square, die cut a heart in the center using a die from Papirdesign and mounted the negative onto a square card base I created from Berry Sorbet cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
Onto my colored heart, I stamped a sentiment from the Mini Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Berry Sorbet ink from Papertrey Ink. I adhered the heart to the card front and added a few sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish my card.
Oh, and before I forget, I used a super simple color palette for this one.
I printed the image onto X-Press It blending card and colored it with Copics. I went with a grayish green/muted pink combo, which is one I often use for holiday cards. I’m not a fan of bright red and green together, but this works for me. Once colored, I used a die from the Wonky Stitched Rectangle STAX set from My Favorite Things for a fun faux stitch look on the edges. I adhered my panel to a top fold card base I created from Autumn Rose cardstock from Papertrey Ink, which is a nice match with my pink coloring.
I used a fairly simple color combo, but it’s still a lot of Copics, I never can seem to rein it in.
As usual, I colored the image with Copics, cut my panel down a little on the sides and added Glossy Accents to all the ornaments. This time, I decided to use the 
My signature clean and simple cluster cards have been few and far between this year, and I thought a mini cluster would work well for this card. I started with a scrap of a mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design that I adhered to my colored panel with liquid glue. I die cut a couple of additional pieces using the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut. This is one die that cuts nine different tickets, and it’s one I use a lot. I cut one from the light blue gingham patterned paper, and the other one from a scrap piece of patterned paper from Kaisercraft. I put them both on foam squares for dimension. The sentiment is from the Itty Bitty Holiday stamp set from My Favorite Things, stamped and white heat embossed on a piece of Autumn Rose cardstock from Papertrey Ink, which I then die cut into a strip with flag ends using a die from the Itty Bitty Strips die set from My Favorite Things. I finished off with a few sequins from the Ice Water mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
A very simple color palette for this card. I started out with blue ornaments, but once I printed the patterned paper, I realized they needed to have a green tinge and went over the blue with BG32 and G00.
I colored the cute mouse and the tree with Copics, before fussing cutting them. I left a white trim around the edge to make it a little easier on myself, that mouse is small and I didn’t want to accidentally cut off his tail. Onto Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I ink blended trees using the Wintry Forest stencil set from Pinkfresh Studio along with Polar Bear, Icy Water and Winter Lake inks from Altenew. I used the largest die in the Stitch. Trad. Tag STAX die set from My Favorite Things to turn it into a tag and sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous, which I melted from the back for a snowy look.
I mounted Pippin and the Christmas Tree to the tag using foam tape. I stamped a sentiment from the 
I used a reinforcer die from the Fold-up Tags die set from MFT to add strength to the hole at the top of the tag, added a couple of Snowdrift Sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, as well as some blue satin ribbon, a piece of Blueberry Divine Twine, a thin string and a snowflake charm to the top of the tag for a finished look.
Simple color palette for this one. I didn’t even go overboard with the snow on the tree.
Papirmølla 