Hi, crafty friends! I’m back today with another holiday card. I love creating holiday cards, and the recent releases from Lili of the Valley have left me with plenty of opportunities to play.
Today’s card is a super simple one. I colored up this bunny from the Christmas Friends stamps set, fussy cut around her leaving a white trim and put her aside while I worked on the rest of my card. Little tip: if you mask off the sentiment inside the balloon before stamping, you can make a wintry birthday card instead!
I used a die from the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower to cut a rectangle from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. You can easily cut this with a trimmer, but I had the die set basically at my fingertips and decided to use that. I then ink blended very softly from the top of the panel using Sno Cone ink from My Favorite Things. I wanted a super light background and this was perfect. I matted it on a piece of Autumn Rose cardstock from Papertrey Ink and mounted it to a top fold landscape A2 card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock, once again. It’s my favorite white cardstock, it’s whiter than anything else I’ve tried. I die cut the Silhouette Snow Trees from Mama Elephant from the same white cardstock, layering them up for dimension. I adhered the trees to my ink blended piece, then used foam tape to add the bunny on the side, before finishing off the card with sequins and confetti stars from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Very simple color palette for this one.
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I colored my penguin mug with Copics and fussy cut the image right up against the black stamped lines. This image doesn’t have a whole lot of the whispy, perpendicular lines that are so characteristic of Lili of the Valley images, which was the reason I opted not to include a white trim around the edges. There are 3 or 4 lines at the top of his head that I had to cut off, but I was okay with that. I stamped some snowflakes onto a card base using Spring Rain ink from Papertrey Ink. The snowflakes are from an old Tim Holtz stamp set. I mounted the mug on foam tape near the bottom right of the card.
I die cut a few snowflakes using a couple of die sets from Memory Box. The one at the top, that is partially hidden behind the penguin and speech bubble is from the Stitched Let It Snow Circle Frame die set. The die set comes with a stitched snowflake circle frame and three individual snowflake dies. The snowflakes with the stitching detail are from the Twilight Snowflakes die set. I added some blue diamonds from Kort & Godt to the mug, as well as a heart from the Festivities mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I stamped a couple of sentiments from the Holiday messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Lazy Days ink from My Favorite Things and die cut them into speech bubbles using the Say Anything die set from My Favorite Things. I stacked a couple of additional white die cuts behind the speech bubbles for dimension.
Simple color palette for this one, and I realize now that I forgot to jot down the blue Copics I used for this, but I believe they are B93, B91 and B90, which is a color I’ve made myself.
I mounted the snowman on foam tape for dimension, he fits perfectly next to the sentiment. To finish the card I added a few sequins from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Even though the background is adhered directly to the card base, I love all the dimension in the other elements. And here’s a little secret: I actually like the pops of red. Just don’t tell anyone 😉
I colored up the reindeer with my Copics and fussy cut him leaving a white trim around the edges. I added Glossy Accents to his nose for shine and put him aside while I worked on the rest of my card.
I used the Snowflake Confetti Fancy die from Hero Arts to make an impression into a white piece of cardstock. By dry embossing with the die, I add a bit of interest to the background without it being distracting.
I used partial die cutting with the Stitched Rectangle Scallop Edge Frames die set from My Favorite Things to create my scalloped borders on either side of the dry embossed white cardstock. I used patterned paper from Maja Design for this. The design is called Ornaments and comes from the Happy Christmas collection from 2021. I don’t use a lot of patterned paper on my cards, but I really like this green pattern with some sprigs, leaves and hearts in a darker green, along with some white dots scattered around like snow. The patterned paper from Maja Design has always been my favorite. It’s double sided and very thick. It’s so thick you can even use it for a card base.
I used the Snowflakes and Ornament die set from Hero Arts to create the ornament for my reindeer to sit in. I die cut the ornament die itself from the same patterned paper that I used for my scalloped borders. I then temporarily taped the two dies in the set together, so I could create an ornament with snowflakes. I cut a few from white cardstock and one from silver glitter cardstock from Kort & Godt, stacking them for dimension. I tied a bow to the top of the ornament using May Arts natural twine and added a few pearls from the Glossy Porcelain mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards on top of the knot for additional shine.
I added Rudolph with his shiny nose to the center of my ornament. I also stamped a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Holiday stamp set from My Favorite Things using Shadow Creek ink from Altenew onto a scrap piece of the patterned paper I’ve used throughout. I added a few strips of white cardstock behind it for dimension and adhered it below the ornament, centered on my white, dry embossed piece.
This card wound up very simple looking, but it’s still kind of technique heavy. Partial die cutting, dry embossing with a die and layered die cuts. All the layers make it a very thick card, and it’s not the most mail friendly card I’ve ever made – I love dimension!
For an image this simple, I sure used a lot of colors!!
The koala sitting on the pile of presents comes with a matching sweet sentiment (pun intended), but I chose not to use the sentiment for this card and decided to erase it from the image in Photoshop before printing.
I went with a fairly traditional (at least to me) color combo. Light blue is one of very few colors I feel works well with red, and I even colored the stars blue to avoid adding more colors to this than necessary in order to keep the design clean. I die cut my panel using the largest die in the Watercolor Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things, added foam tape to the back and adhered it to a top fold card base I created from Periwinkle cardstock from Hero Arts.
Onto a scrap piece of Periwinkle cardstock, I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Christmas Wishes stamp set from My Favorite Things, before using the coordinating die to cut it out. I added two more die cuts behind it for dimension and adhered it to my card, before finishing off with sequins and star confetti from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
The popped up panel, and the dimension to the sentiment add a little bit of extra interest to an otherwise fairly clean and simple card. I wanted the image to shine, which is why I kept the sentiment a fairly light color.
I feel like I restrained myself when coloring. I only used four colors for the red, as opposed to my usual six. I kind of went overboard with the green, though. Those holly leaves really didn’t need three colors, they’re tiny.
I colored the bear with Copics and fussy cut right up against the black stamped lines, I added shine and dimension to his eyes with a black Glaze pen, followed by a white dot using a Gelly Roll 05. I put the bear aside while I worked on the rest of my card. I printed a sentiment from the stamp set on a piece of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink that I’d cut down to fit the front of my card with a little bit of a border. I then took the single line die from the Hexagon Pops die set from My Favorite Things to cut a row of hexagons below the sentiment, before lining up the die a second time for a second row of hexagons.
I added foam tape to the back of my die cut piece and adhered it to a top fold card base I created from Summer Sunrise cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I popped the bear on foam tape and added some sequins from the Meadow mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish. Super simple, right?
Simple color palette, too!
This card features a snowman from the Snowfolk stamp set. It’s no secret that I love snowmen, and I colored this guy with my Copics before fussy cutting him, leaving a white border around him to keep the little perpendicular lines that are instantly recognizable as a Lili of the Valley signature.
Onto a top fold white card base, I stamped a snow flurry stamp repeatedly using Spring Rain ink from Papertrey Ink. The snow stamp is from the Flurry of Love stamp set from My Favorite Things. I then created a notch on each side of the card front using a small circle die.
I stamped a sentiment from the Scripty Xmas stamp set from Mama Elephant on top of my blue snowflakes using Autumn Rose ink from Papertrey Ink, wrapped Aqua divine twine from Whisker Graphics around the card and tied it in a bow on the front. The half circle notches help to anchor it, so it won’t slide down the front.
I mounted my snowman on foam tape and adhered him to my card. He fits perfectly on the right hand side, and the outline nestles in so well with the stamped sentiment. The foam tape also helps hold down the twine.
To finish the card I added a few blue pearls from the Ocean Breeze mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. They add a little shine and also create another blue element to tie everything together.
As always, I’ve used lots of colors for the snow, I just can’t help myself.
This is for the 
Using the Precious Polaroids die set, I die cut four polaroid frames and stacked them for a bit of dimension, stamping a sentiment on the top layer using Winter Lake ink from Altenew. I added the stacked frame to the card at an angle, adhered my penguin and finished off the card with a few Snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. To me, this is about as CAS as it gets. Whether it’s genius remains to be seen 🙂
Typical penguin color palette for me, this one.
I admit, I don’t make many Halloween cards. Halloween’s not really my thing. I think it might be the costumes that freak me out. I was scared of Santa as a kid (to be honest, Santa still creeps me out) and I never liked dressing up for carnival in kindergarten either. I don’t know what it is, I’m just not a fan. I am, however, a fan of these ghosts, they’re so adorable. In the stamp, the ghosts are holding a banner, but I wanted the ghosts alone, so I removed the banner, did a little bit of stamp surgery in Photoshop to complete their arms (since they’re holding the banner, you don’t see the entire arm on either of these ghosts). I created mirror images of each of the ghosts so I had four different ghosts to work with, and made a few copies of each.
I did very simple coloring of the ghosts, I just wanted a hint of color and actually only used four markers. I cut down my panel, added foam tape to the back and adhered it to a white card base I’d covered with Caribbean Sea cardstock from My Favorite Things.
I die cut the letters to spell happy using an alphabet die set from Papirdesign. I die cut each of the letters three times from white cardstock and once from Gravel Gray cardstock from My Favorite Things that I adhered on top of the three white ones for a stacked, dimensional look.
I white heat embossed a sub sentiment from the Itty Bitty Boos stamp set from My Favorite Things onto a scrap piece of Caribbean Sea cardstock that I cut down to a small strip. I adhered a couple of additional layers of cardstock behind it before I adhered it to my die cut letters. I added a few pink sequins from the Heaven Sent mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and my card was complete.
As I mentioned, I only used four markers for the coloring of these ghosts.
I colored my reindeer with Copics and fussy cut him leaving a thin white border. I added Glossy Accents to the string of lights and his nose for shine, and used a black Glaze pen and a white Gelly Roll 05 for his eyes.
I stamped and white heat embossed the Christmas Background stamp from My Favorite Things on a piece of white cardstock, before using Hunter Green, Forest Glades and Frayed Leaf inks from Altenew, as well as Squeezed Lemonade Distress ink, to ink blend on top. I ten used a die in the Stitched Mini Slimline STAX die set from My Favorite Things to turn it into a nice panel that would fit my card. I used the Country Landscape die from Memory Box to die cut the landscape in the background, and used the same stitching die on the hilly die cuts for a continuous stitching border across the card. I die cut the windows from Buttercup cardstock from Concord & 9th and the doors from white cardstock from Papertrey Ink that I ink blended with the same colors I used for the ink blending in the background.
I used the Snow Globe Accessories die set from My Favorite Things to die cut the string of lights from a dark gray cardstock and the individual bulbs from Buttercup cardstock once again. I added Glossy Accents on top of the bulbs for extra shine and dimension.
I die cut the word merry from the Merry Christmas die set from My Favorite Things five times from white cardstock, and once from Gold shine cardstock from My Favorite Things. I stacked them, adding the gold on top, and adhered my chunky die cut to the card. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the 
I tried using a somewhat limited color palette for this.
Papirmølla 