Hi, crafty friends. We’ve reached the third Thursday of the month, which means it’s time to get cracking on Christmas. This is a series Jenn Shurkus created a few years back. The intention is to use the supplies you bought the last holiday season and didn’t get around to using AND to make you less stressed come November, because you’ve already got a bunch of holiday cards made. I enjoy making Christmas cards all year, so Get Cracking on Christmas is PERFECT for me.
For today’s card, I no line colored this selfie with the penguin and snowman from the Selfies with Santa stamp set, designed by Stacey Yacula for My Favorite Things. I love this stamp set and went with a pink to yellow winter sunset in the background, and a grayish green and brownish orange for the rest. Somehow it works. Onto a card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I stamped snowflakes from the Flurry of Love stamp set from My Favorite Things using Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink. I didn’t have an ink in the same tone as my coloring, but the yellow works.
I mounted my the selfie at an angle using foam tape, die cut the Merry Script die from Mama Elephant several times from Ocean Tides cardstock from Papertrey Ink and stacked them together for dimension. I stamped and white heat embossed the word CHRISTMAS from the Itty Bitty Holiday stamp set from My Favorite Things, and adhered that below the die cut word with 6 additional strips of cardstock behind it for dimension. To finish off the card I adhered a few sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Lots of colors for this one.
I printed the image onto X-Press It blending card and colored it with my Copics, before trimming it down. I mounted it on foam tape to a top fold white card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
I felt the need to add a design element that would break the rigidity of the rectangular panels, and decided to add some twine going across. I wrapped Green Apple Divine Twine around the card front three times and tied a knot. The green goes well with the green in the image.
Onto a piece of Eiffel Tower cardstock from My Favorite Things, I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Mini messages stamp set from Mama Elephant, before using a 1″ circle punch from EK Success to create a quick circle from it. I added strategically placed pieces of foam tape on the back of it and adhered it directly onto the knot I had tied on the front of the card.
To finish off the card, I added sequins and gems from the Urban Chic mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. They’re kind of scattered in a trail going from the bottom left to the top right of the image.
The card is simple, but has lots of dimension, and that dragon hugging his peonies will always steal the show.
Mostly analogous color palette, with a little bit of pink and yellow (!) for the peonies.
I colored the dragon with my Copics and fussy cut him right up against the black lines of the image. I put him aside while I worked on the rest of the card.
Onto a top fold white A2 card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I ink blended Azurite, Ultramarine and Eastern Sky inks (all from Altenew) towards the top of the card, fading to white near the bottom. I splashed some water droplets on top for a cool effect. Dye inks are water based and react with water, so this works with most inks you probably have. The darker the color, the bigger the impact.
From Cement Gray cardstock from My Favorite Things, I die cut two layers of the skyscraper skyline in the Slim Film City die set from Mama Elephant and adhered them at the bottom of my card. Using the cloud die in the Slim Basics die set, also from Mama Elephant, I die cut the cloud shape three times from Stamper’s Select White cardstock, stacked them and adhered them to the top of the card.
Onto the card base, I stamped a sentiment from the 
I adhered the dragon partially on top of the clouds, using foam squares behind the parts hanging off the clouds for even dimension, and sprinkled a few gems and sequins from the Seashore mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards around the dragon and sentiment to finish the card.
Suuuuper simple color palette for this dragon.
The image is called Bunny & Guinea: Snowman, and you’ll find it over in 
I used the Mega Snowflakes Cover die from Mama Elephant to die cut my frame. I stacked three for dimension and adhered it to my colored image, then adhered the whole thing to a top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
Using the Merry Script die from Mama Elephant, I die cut three from Hawaiian Shores cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and another three from the same white cardstock that I used elsewhere on the card. I stacked the colored die cuts and the white ones separately so that I could put the white ones behind the parts of the colored ones that aren’t on top of the white stacked die cut frame at the bottom.
Onto a strip of Hawaiian Shores cardstock, I white heat embossed part of a sentiment from Purple Onion Designs and cut it down to fit my card, adding two more strips behind it so that the stamped part of the sentiment would be flush with the die cut part.
I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish the card.
Simple color palette.
I’ve made a slimline card this time, with images from a Stamptember collaboration set from Mama Elephant and Simon Says Stamp that I colored up in November 2020. These have been sitting on my desk for a while, and I always planned on creating this window design with them – Get Cracking on Christmas is the perfect opportunity to execute plans you’ve had for a while, but not had time for.
I colored the flamingo with my Copics and fussy cut it leaving a white border. I put it aside while I worked on the rest of the card.
I used the Crystal Distortion embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp on my white card base to create a little bit of texture and interest to the background. It doesn’t photograph very well, but the texture is much more impactful in person.
I cut a piece of Summer Splash cardstock from My Favorite Things at an angle and stamped the word flamazing. The Bella Letters stamp set from Mama Elephant was perfect for this. The stamp set comes with multiples of each letter, so I could stamp the entire word at once. I used Summer Splash ink from My Favorite Things for a tone on tone effect. I could have stamped the letters individually to get them closer together, but I like the spacing for this card. I also stamped and white heat embossed part of a sentiment from the Bitty Birthday Wishes stamp set from My Favorite Things onto Berry Sorbet cardstock from Papertrey Ink to complete the sentiment.
I mounted my angled colored cardstock panel with foam tape at the bottom of the card, using foam tape behind the top part of the flamingo as well. This design worked out really well, because I could adhere it’s thin legs directly to the cardstock with liquid glue instead of having to fuss with small pieces of foam tape. I also added a few sequins from the Ice Water sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish the card.
The card isn’t just simple, it’s super simple. I colored the scene with my Copics and decided to just create a frame around it and leave it at that, letting the image really shine.
Using the Card Front Designs die set from Neat & Tangled, I die cut the oval frame twice; once in the center of a panel of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, once from Blueberry Sky cardstock, also from PTI. I used the negative of the white die cut and the actual frame from the blue, taped them together on the back and mounted them on my colored panel with lots of foam tape.
In the perfect “corner” of the image, I stamped a sentiment from the Mini Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Blueberry Sky ink from Papertrey Ink.
I added three sequins from the Seaglass mix of sequins from Simon Says Stamp around the sentiment. Nothing else, I wanted this to be very simple.
A little dimension, a little shine and an adorable image. What more does a card really need?
Super simple color palette for this one. I also used a color I’ve made myself. I’ve made my own B20 using a couple of refills and an empty marker, which I used for the blanket.
I’m focusing on ONE of the images for today’s card. I couldn’t resist the cute triceratops sitting on top of a present. I love The Land Before Time and chose to color this one similar to the character Cera from the movie. She’s orange with a cream underbelly. I kept mine all orange, but made the pads on her feet cream. Flowers are Cera’s favorite food, particularly yellow ones. There are no flowers in my scene, but opted for yellow on the present instead.
I used a couple of very pale blues for the sky in a halo around her, and used a few greens for a simple grassy hill for her to sit on. I die cut the Leafy Cover die from Mama Elephant to frame my image. I used one white die cut and two green ones made from Meadow cardstock from Hero Arts. I stacked them for stability and dimension.
I would have loved to use the prehistoric sentiment from the set of landscape elements, but I really wanted to heat emboss my sentiment, which is one of the few things you can’t do with digital stamps. I went digging through my clear stamps instead, and found this one from the Bitty Birthday Wishes stamp set from My Favorite Things that I thought went perfect with the image. I stamped and white heat embossed it on a piece of Hawaiian Shores cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
I wanted sequins that would match the sentiment strip and the teal colored parts of the image, and the Seaglass mix from Simon Says Stamp was the perfect match. I used way more sequins than I normally do and scattered them all across the card front.
There’s nothing quite like the dimension you get from layering die cuts, it adds so much interest to the card.
Lots of oranges and yellows for this. It IS an orange triceratops sitting on top of a yellow present, after all, so I guess it’s only natural.
I recently made a full shaker card with another image from Rachelle with lots of balloons. That card was all in warm tones, so I thought I’d use cool tones for this one. I did add a few orange balloons, though, I think orange is a fun color to use with teal and green. I used a die from the Stitched Mini Slimline STAX set from My Favorite Things to turn my colored piece into the perfect rectangle to fit a mini slimline card. I stamped a sentiment from the Birthday messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Prickly Pear ink from My Favorite Things and put the panel aside while I worked on the rest of my card.
I ran a piece of Sour Apple cardstock from My Favorite Things through my die cutting machine with a Geometric embossing folder from WRMK, and adhered it to a mini slimline card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, leaving a white frame on the outside. I used foam tape to mount my colored and die cut piece in the center of the card.
I wanted another element and used the Cloud 1 & 2 die set from Papertrey Ink to die cut a couple of clouds from vellum. I mounted the clouds on 1 mm foam square to give them a little bit of lift, making sure to put the foam squares in strategic spots so I could cover them with enamel dots in matching colors (green and orange dots from Papirdesign, teal dots from the Cool Summer Night pack of enamel dots from Altenew).
Simple, yet fun color palette for this image.
This bunny is the Clover Bunny from the newly released 
Once my image was colored, I decided to turn this into a very simple card by adding a frame around it and not much else. Using Fire Coral cardstock from My Favorite Things along with the largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 Set and the Selfie Square die, both of these also from MFT, I created my frame.
I used the Circular Lace Stencil from Simon Says Stamp with Fire Coral ink from MFT onto the Fire Coral cardstock for a little bit of subtle interest to the background.
Next to the bunny, I stamped a sentiment from the Scripty Bday stamp set from Mama Elephant using Fire Coral ink once again. I love it when everything matches on a card.
I added foam tape behind my frame and adhered it all to a top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I added a bit of clear Wink of Stella to my “flower”, but decided not to add any embellishments. Super simple, right?
The color palette is even super simple. I rarely use as few colors as this.
Papirmølla 