Holiday cheer from me to you {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

August 25, 2021August 24, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi! I said in yesterday’s post that Christmas was exactly four months away. That happens to be true if you celebrate on the 24th, but if you celebrate on the 25th, today’s the day where Christmas is exactly four months away, and I haven’t forgotten about you. In fact, this Giggling Snowman image is one of my absolute favorites from Mo Manning, and probably my most favorite snowman image out of all the ones that exist out there.

I opted for some no line coloring this time, keeping his eyes and eyebrows a dark brown before printing. I used my favorite blues and fussy cut him once he was all colored up.

Directly onto the cardbase I ink blended Distress Ink in the colors Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade and Scattered Straw to create an intense winter time sunset and create some contrast between the cool colors of the snowman and the background. I misted it generously with a sparkle shimmer spray which catches the light nicely when you tilt it, but it doesn’t really show up in my photos (except for a couple of bigger drops). I wanted to ink blend directly onto the cardbase because I knew I was putting lots of layers of die cut cardstock on top, and I didn’t want the card to be too front heavy.

Speaking of die cut cardstock. I used the Winter Forest Cover die from Mama Elephant to die cut three layers of white cardstock and glued them together for dimension, before adhering the stacked die cuts to the card base.

I stamped a sentiment from last year’s Stamptember collaboration set from Mama Elephant and Simon Says Stamp using Lazy Day ink from My Favorite Things. I love this blue color!!

I fussy cut my snowman and adhered him using 1 mm foam squares, before finishing off the card with a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Very few colors used for this one. B93 and 91 are used both for the snow and for the scarf and hat.

Wishing you everything magical

August 24, 2021August 24, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! Christmas is exactly four months away. Unless, of course, you do Christmas on the 25th, in which case you get an extra day to prepare, but I happen to be from one of the many countries that celebrate Christmas on the 24th. The 25th is just a day off to us, nothing special about it. Eating leftovers, basically. Aaaaanyway, since Christmas is four months away, I have a Christmas card to share today, featuring this adorable dragon from Lee Holland. He approached me a few weeks ago asking if I could color a couple of his dragons, and I happen to be a huge fan of his dragons, so naturally, I jumped at the chance.

I played around in Photoshop before printing the image, making the lines in the snow and on the pompom very faint for a no line look, but kept the lines black for the rest of the image. I prefer no line when coloring snow or furry pompoms, but didn’t feel like coloring the entire image in no line. I’ve colored plenty of Lee’s dragons in the past, but this is the first time I’ve opted for a red one. I don’t use reds very often, and I’m super picky with my reds, but this Copic combo (which only includes one red marker) is one that works for me.

I die cut my finished piece with a double stitch rectangle die from My Favorite Things and adhered it onto a top fold landscape cardbase made out of Amarena Cherry cardstock, also from My Favorite Things. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from Mama Elephant onto Smokey Shadow cardstock from Papertrey Ink, added a few more cardstock strips behind it for dimension and adhered it to my card, finishing off with a few white sequins from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Plenty of colors for this image. I even used B20, which I’ve made myself. Lots of colors for the snow, lots of colors for the bell, and lots of colors for the red. Even lots of colors for the black ribbon.

Make a wish {Purple Onion Designs}

August 23, 2021August 22, 2021 Elin2 Comments

Hi! I’m sharing a card today that is near and dear to my heart. I shared the coloring of this Wishing mouse from Stacey Yacula and Purple Onion Designs back in July last year. It was the first Purple Onion Designs image that I ever colored. A little over a year later, and I’m lucky enough to be on the Purple Onion design team, all because of this one image.

I colored the image using a very soft color palette with my Copics. I didn’t write the colors down, so unfortunately, I have no fancy graphic to show you at the end of this post. I wish I did, though, because I really like the colors I used for this.

I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 dies to turn my colored piece into a nice panel with the faux stitch edge I love so much. I decided to adhere it directly to my top fold card base, that I made from Berry Sorbet cardstock from Papertrey Ink. The color matches the darkest parts of her dress very well.

Onto a separate piece of Berry Sorbet, I stamped and white heat embossed part of a sentiment in the A Beautiful Day Sentiment Set from Purple Onion Designs, before cutting it down to a super small sentiment strip using a steel ruler and a craft knife. To me, it’s the best way to create sentiment strips, die cutting is more risky to me, this way, I know it’s straight.

I die cut part the word wish using a die from Mama Elephant. The die actually die cuts the word wishes, but I cut off the tail end of the word so I was left with just wish. I die cut four more from Grapefruit cardstock from Concord & 9th, and added them behind the top die cut for dimension. This makes the word lighter (and it makes it match the lighter parts of the dress) from the sides. I did the same with the sentiment strips above, making the strip and the stacked die cut flush.

I finished off the card by adding a few sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. I used my scissors to cut the largest sequin in half to tuck it behind the sentiment strip.

Christmas hugs from me to you {Lili of the Valley}

August 19, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi! I haven’t shared a Christmas card in a while, and with a brand new HUGE Christmas release from Lili of the Valley, I thought I was overdue for a new one.

This Penguin Parade is one of many different images in this release. There are penguins, badgers, people, snowmen and angels, even a polar bear or two, so there’s something for everyone, no matter what kind of card you prefer to create. As you may know, I have a soft spot for penguins, and just had to create a card with this little parade.

I colored my penguins with Copics, added glitter to parts of the ground, sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel all over the image and melted the granules from the back of the paper. I die cut a piece of Autumn Rose card stock from Papertrey Ink using a die from Mama Elephant and adhered my colored piece directly on top, and then mounted that on foam tape onto a slimline card base I made from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I stamped and white heat embossed a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment onto more of that Autumn Rose cardstock, die cut that using a die from My Favorite Things and adhered it using 1 mm foam squares. I added a few veneer snowflakes from Crafty Moly to finish off the card.

Last, but not least, the Copics I used for my image.

Hello friend! {Purple Onion Designs}

July 25, 2021July 22, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have a fun slimline card to share today, featuring the Up and Away stamp from Purple Onion Designs. Photographing slimline cards is still something I find very tricky, but this image was begging for a slimline design, and if I don’t practice taking photos of slimline cards, I’ll never get better at it, right?

I stamped the image using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things onto X-Press It blending card and colored it with my Copics before fussy cutting right up against the black lines. I even cut off the strings of the image, but I made little marks on the back of where they were, so I could add some black sewing thread as strings instead.

I used the Slim Film City die set from Mama Elephant to create my background. I die cut the sky from Blue Breeze cardstock and used the Slimline Cloud Edges stencil and the Rolling Clouds stencil, both from MFT, along with some Lazy Day ink, also from MFT, to create my clouds. I even splattered a little bit of the ink on top for added interest. For the skyline I die cut three layers from Gravel Gray cardstock from My Favorite Things. I heat embossed a sentiment from the Sweet SUMMER Sentiment Set from Purple Onion onto the top layer of my skyline and added a few sparkling clear sequins around it.

I used 1 mm foam squares behind my hot air balloon, and decided I wanted even more dimension and interest, so I die cut a couple of clouds from vellum, using a set of dies from Papertrey Ink. I glued the vellum clouds onto my card in very strategic spots, and used more sequins to cover up the glue. Little trick of the trade.

I used a lot of colors for this balloon!

It’s cake time {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

July 7, 2021 Elin2 Comments

Hi, there. After yesterday’s super long blog post, I thought it was time for a shorter one. Just one card today, and it’s a super simple one. A tiny colored image, an emboss resist background, a cardbase and a sentiment. So, so simple.

I colored up a tiny monster from the Cupcake Monster stamp set from Mo’s Digital Pencil and fussy cut the monster leaving a white border. I prefer cutting along the edge, but this monster is so tiny, and with those thin arms, tiny legs and even smaller flame I decided it was best to leave a border. It also helps the monster stand out against the background a little bit better.

Speaking of backgrounds. I stamped the Happy Birthday background from My Favorite Things onto white cardstock and clear heat embossed it, before ink blending over it with three different colors of distress ink (Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade and Squeezed Lemonade). I mounted it using foam tape and placed in the center of the card base, which is also clear heat embossed using that same background stamp. I used 1 mm foam squares behind my monster and added a black cardstock strip with a white heat embossed sentiment from Mama Elephant for his feet to stand on.

It feels a little silly to be adding the Copic graphic for this one, but here it is in all its minimalist glory.

Waving hello {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

July 4, 2021July 8, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have a little pilot to share with you today. This image is from the July release from Rachelle Anne Miller and will be available for purchase on Thursday, along with the other images in the release.

I’ve been using a lot of vibrant colors lately. I think there’s something about the sunshine and the warm temperatures that contribute to happy colors! I’m here for it, fall will be here way too soon anyway. I usually cut against the black lines when I fussy cut, but Rachelle’s images have wonderfully whimsical wispy lines on the outside, and I didn’t want to cut those away. The white border also helps make the plane stand out against the blue background.

Speaking of backgrounds, I used the Rolling Clouds stencil from My Favorite Things with Lazy Day ink (also MFT) directly onto my card base to create clouds in the background. The card base itself is made from Blue Breeze cardstock from My Favorite Things.

Using a die in the Slim Film City die set from Mama Elephant, I die cut a skyline from two gray colors of cardstock from My Favorite Things (Gravel Gray and Eiffel Tower). I die cut three layers of the lighter one (Gravel Gray) and stacked them. I die cut two layers of the Eiffel Tower cardstock and stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from Purple Onion Designs onto the top layer, and adhered these two offset from the lighter gray buildings behind them.

I wanted to add a little something extra, and decided to die cut a few clouds from vellum. I love creating vellum clouds, there’s something dreamy about them. I’d adhered my plane using 1 mm foam squares for a little bit of dimension, and by placing my clouds directly onto the plane and the layered cityscape, I get dimension without having to use more foam squares, which can kind of be a pain with vellum, because most things show trough. I put tiny drops of glue in strategic places behind my clouds, anchoring each of the clouds in two spots.

I thought about adding enamel dots on top, but went with sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. These aren’t as distracting from the focal image as enamel dots would have been.

Not a lot of colors 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.

Hello {Purple Onion Designs}

June 11, 2021June 11, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I hope you’ve had a good week so far. Summer’s finally here, and I for one couldn’t be happier about it. More sunlight, warmer weather and looooong days (sunrise before 4 AM and sunset around 11 PM right now). When the weather gets warmer, we always see more planes in the air. Not commercial flights, but smaller planer and seaplanes (we’re on a fjord). I love this time of year and seeing all these cute (can planes be cute?) planes, and I thought this T-bird image from Purple Onion Designs was the perfect image to represent the season.

I used reds, yellows and oranges for my image, colors I definitely don’t use a lot, but I thought it would be a nice contrast to the ink blended cloud background and my gray skyscraper skyline. I stamped the T-Bird and the banner on one piece of X-Press It blending card, wanting the two images to look like one. I fussy cut them and stamped hello from the Journey sentiment set onto the banner, before mounting the plane and banner on 1/16″ foam tape. For the background I used the slimline cloud edges stencil from My Favorite Things along with Eastern Sky ink from Altenew which I ink blended onto a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock that I’d die cut using one of the dies from the Slimline Starter die set from My Favorite Things. I used the same die on a piece of Gravel Gray cardstock from MFT to get the nice faux stitched edge going all the way around my card and a die in the Slim Film City die set from Mama Elephant to create the skyline. Everything’s adhered onto a top fold slimline card base that I made out of Red Hot cardstock from My Favorite Things.

Doesn’t this bear look cute in his plane?? I stamped and white heat embossed some clouds onto vellum and adhered them using slivers of clear foam tape behind the white embossed lines. It would have been easier to glue them straight onto the card, but I like a bit of dimension, which is tricky with vellum, because pretty much everything shows through. The white embossed lines hide my foam tape pretty well.

Like I said initially, these warm colors aren’t the ones that I reach for the most, but I love how they pop against the ink blended clouds and skyline in the background.

Hello {Streamside Studios}

May 31, 2021May 30, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Good morning! It’s the start of a new week, and if this green color doesn’t wake you up, nothing will. It’s bright!! It feels like summer’s finally on its way, and I spent a good chunk of yesterday hiking. Everything is so bright green now after what feels like the coldest, rainiest spring ever.

I put together this little scene with an owl, a tire swing and a tree, all from the Woodland Friends digital stamp set from Streamside Studios. I did some simple Copic coloring and used a die from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things to turn it into a nice panel with faux stitching around the edge. I love these stitched rectangle dies, I use them so much!

I mounted the colored piece onto a card base made from Limelight cardstock from My Favorite Things. It’s a very bright green. I die cut some leaves from the Leafy Cover die from Mama Elephant and mounted those near the bottom left corner using some 1 mm foam squares.

On top of the die cut leaves I added a die cut “hallo” (hello in Norwegian) consisting of 3 white layers with the Limelight green on top, and a white shadow. I mounted this on foam squares, too, so this has a lot of dimension.

A side view to show more of all the layers. I added some sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards for a little bit of an extra detail near the die cuts.