Warm greetings {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, crafty friends. It’s the third Thursday of the month, which means it’s time for Get Cracking on Christmas, which is a series Jenn Shurkus started years ago, with the aim of making holiday cards year round, so you’re not swamped come November. I’m a huge fan of the concept, and today I’ve combined it with my fondness for penguins.

This Penguin Hug image from Rachelle Anne Miller is one that she created years before she started designing stamps. I was a fan of Rachelle’s style even back then, and when she asked the design team what we wanted to see as stamps, I asked if it was possible for her to turn this particular image into a stamp. She did just that, and I think this might be my favorite of all her stamps, and she’s got loads of great ones to choose from, so that’s saying a lot.

I colored my image with Copics, stamped a sentiment from Mathia Design using Ocean Tides ink from Papertrey Ink, before die cutting a bunch of white snowflakes from the same cardstock (X-Press It blending card) that I use to color on, so my whites would match. I used the Snowflake Confetti fancy die from Hero Arts, along with the CR1335 die from Marianne Design to die cut all my snowflakes. Both these dies cut lots of snowflakes at once, and the snowflakes are fairly small, making them ideal for a background like this. I adhered lots of snowflakes above the penguin’s head, then used a rectangle die from Waffle Flower to die cut my panel. I mounted it on foam tape onto a card base I created from Ocean Tides cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and my card was complete. Another Christmas card done for 2023.

Fairly minimalist color palette. I also used B90 and BG71, which are colors I’ve created myself.

Quick, simple birthday cards {Hobbykunst}

Hi, everyone! I have a few cards to share today, mostly focusing on patterned paper from P13 and their Happy birthday collection. All the cards are 4 bar size, and they’re all pretty similar, using sheets 1-6 from the collection from P13. They number their patterned papers, they don’t name them.

HK P13 Go BIG on your birthday front

My first card is the only landscape one. I covered the card base with that yellow patterned paper and added a white die cut on top. I fussy cut the boy with the present and mounted the image on foam tape, before adding a sentiment strip with additional pieces of foam tape for even more dimension. The sentiment is from the Pawty Time stamp set from My Favorite Things. I finished off the card with a few sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

HK P13 Gratulerer med dagen cupcake med banner front

Card number 2. Covered up the card base again, this time with a patterned paper that barely even has a pattern on it. It’s white with a dotted grid printed in yellow. I die cut the wonky square grid pattern from some of the red patterned paper and adhered it in the center of the card.

HK P13 Gratulerer med dagen cupcake med banner front skrått

I mounted a fussy cut image onto foam tape in the center of the card, and a sentiment strip on top of that with even more foam. The sentiment is from Mathia, heat embossed in white on a piece of red pattened paper. I added a few Pearl White crystals from Pretty Pink Posh to finish the card.

HK P13 Happy Birthday barn med krone front

This one is pretty similar to the last one. I die cut the wonky grid from yellow patterned paper, and adhered it directly to the card base on the left hand side of the card, before adding the fussy cut image with foam tape.

HK P13 Happy Birthday barn med krone front skrått

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things and added it with foam tape on top of the image, before finishing off with some raindrops from the Crystal Collection from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

HK P13 Happy Birthday elefant med is front

How festive is this elephant balancing an ice cream cone? I used the white patterned paper with the yellow dotted grid lines for this one as well as a die cut hole pattern that I tore at the egdes.

HK P13 Happy Birthday elefant med is front skrått

I adhered the fussy cut elephant using foam tape, and a sentiment strip using some 1 mm foam squares, before finishing off with a few sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

HK P13 Happy Birthday kanin med ballong front skrått

This last one also has the hole pattern with torn edges, I think it adds a little more playfulness and interest to these very simple cards. I adhered the fussy cut image with foam tape for this one too. I like that little bit of dimension. I even used my thick foam tape for the sentiment on this one, so this card is extra dimensional.

HK P13 Happy Birthday kanin med ballong front

Heat embossed sentiment strip once again, and as with so many of the other cards, I used the Bitty Bears stamp set for that. Finished off with a few Pearl White crystals from Pretty Pink Posh.

You need more friends like me {Hobbykunst}

Hi, everyone!

I colored up Victoria and Juliette’s Night Out from Stamping Bella for day 15 of the most recent round of Kathy Racoosin’s coloring challenge on Instagram, and the image has now made its way to a card.

I colored my image with Copics on X-Press It blending card and added Stardust Stickles from Ranger to the pink dress. The image is quite tall, so I decided to just trim the panel on either side a bit.

I put a piece of patterned paper from the Party Patterns paper pad from My Favorite Things on the card front, and mounted the image on foam tape. Lots of foam tape, I was not shy!

I stamped and white heat embossed a Mathia design sentiment (You need more friends like me) on True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink and mounted that with black foam tape from Gina K., before finishing off the card with a couple of sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

One sheet of patterned paper – eight cards! {Hobbykunst}

Hi, everyone! Today’s blog post is a long one with lots of photos of lots of cards, so I suggest you get comfortable 🙂

I’m starting with a baby card. I made quite a few baby cards from this one sheet. Usually I make A2 size cards, but this image is so big that the card actually measures 5 x 8 1/2″. I used a knife and a pair of scissors to cut my image, keeping a thin white border along the edge.

I ran a piece of white cardstock through my Gemini Jr. using an embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers. The result is a background with a little bit of interest, while still keeping the image in focus. I used foam tape to add my dry embossed pane to my card base and some 1 mm foam tape from Rayher on the back of my image for a tiny bit of extra dimension. I also used 1 mm foam squares to add the sentiment strips to the balloon, and finished off the card with some sequins and crystals from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

The embossing folder I used is 6 x 6″. Since my panel was taller, I had to run it through from both ends. Along the seam I added a strip from another sheet of patterned paper from the same collection. The strip hides the seam and also acts as an anchor for the balloon image.

My goal was to use every little bit of the images on the one sheet, so I glued the left over branches to the inside of the card.

This is the sheet of patterned paper I’ve used for all my cards. It’s called Cuddles and is part of the Little Treasures collection by Kaisercraft.

My second card is along the same lines as the first one. I used the bunny in the pink hot air balloon and the stars that are scattered around the paper on this one. This card is a little more narrow, measuring 4 1/4 x 8 1/2″. On the background I used cloud stencil from My Favorite Things and Distress Oxide in the color Tumbled Glass to create some interest in the background without overshadowing my focal point. This time I glued the image straight to the cardbase using foam tape. I also used foam tape behind some of the stars, while others are glued down using liquid glue.

I used a Papirdesign die set to diecut the word babyjente (baby girl). I diecut the shadow twice in vellum and the actual word several times using white cardstock. I put a few layers behind the vellum, making it look like the vellum is floating, and the rest of the layers on top of the vellum. Diecuts really pop when they’re layered like this.

Even though the card is simple, all the dimension makes it a little bit interesting anyway.

I glued on some sequins from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards on this one too. The leftover stars I glued to the inside of the card.

My next card is a simple birthday card. I’ve gone back to my regular A2 size with this one. I used the largest of the dies in the Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things and used an embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers to create a little bit of interest to my background. I glued the panel straight onto my pink card front, with no dimension this time.

I used 1 mm foam squares to glue my fussy cut flower to the front of the card. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from Mathia design on a strip of black cardstock and used foam tape to attach it to the card over the stem of the rose.

I finished off my card by gluing on some Pretty Pink Posh sequins in a sort of visual path from the bottom of the card near the sentiment all the way to the top rose. I always glue small embellishments like this close to other elements on my cards, it creates a better visual effect than gluing them far from everything else.

Card number four is a very different kind of card for me. When I started the process of making these cards I drew sketches for each card. The sketch for this one was for a portrait orientation, but when I actually started making this one I realized that the image was a landscape orientation, so I had to flip my sketch and change things around a bit. This image is quite large, so this is an A7 (5×7″) card. I had two sheets of the patterned paper, so I used the back of the second one to create my frame, and glued it to my cardbase using foam tape.

I added the flowers to my cardbase using foam squares.

I wasn’t sure what to do for a sentiment since I had to turn my sketch 90 degrees and make changes to it. The idea I had for the portrait orientation didn’t translate to a landscape orientation. In the end I chose to put my sentiment in the bottom left of my card. That’s not a spot I usually use for my sentiment, but on this card I thought it was the best placement. The sentiment itself is a veneer piece from Rayher that I embossed using four layers of white embossing powder, glued straight to my flowers and frame using liquid glue.

A few Pretty Pink Posh sequins around the sentiment finished off this card.

My next card is another baby card. A square one, measuring 4 1/4 x 4 1/4″. No white border around the fussy cut bunnies, simply because the tip of the tail on the largest bunny intersects with a rose bud on the patterned paper, making me have to cut a little bit off his tail. Once that was done, I decided it would be best to cut right up to the edge of the rest of the bunnies as well.

The background paper I used on this card is part of the Little Gem sheet, so is the sentiment I used. I diecut an eyelet circle using a Cottage Cutz die and added it in the center of my card using foam tape. I added the bunnies with 1 mm Rayher foam suares, and did the same with the sentiment, staggering it.

I finished off the card with some matte gold sequins from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. As usual when I add sequins to my cards, I glued them on near the sentiment. There’s another yellow bunny on the sheet of patterned paper, I fussy cut that one and glued it on the inside of the card.

The next card is a slimline card. I used a Memory Box stencil with some acrylic paste from Kreul to make a little bit of interest to the background, once again making sure it still remains a background element.

I glued the bunny to the cardbase with 1 mm foam squares and diecut Gratulerer (Congratulations) from Papirdesign multiple times from white cardstock, then glued them to a shadow made from colored cardstock (Fine Linen from Papertrey Ink). The stamped sub sentiment is from a Papirdesign stamp set (100 år), stamped in Memento Espresso Truffle ink on the bottom strip of the patterned paper. I added it with some foam tape below the diecut.

I finished the card by adding sequins from Pretty Pink Posh in a visual triangle. They’re all in close proximity to the sentiment and the bunny. Some of them glued on top of other elements, some of them tucked behind.

My next card is another regular A2 size card. I covered the cardbase using the same sheet of paper I used on the square card, only the reverse side. The small flowers are from that main sheet I’ve used throughout each of the cards in this blog post. These flowers were on the edge of the sheet, so they’re flat on one side, so I had to put them along an edge. I figured that this polaroid frame from My Favorite Things was perfect.

I made a white, dry embossed background on this card also and mounted it using foam tape. It makes the background a little less busy, and the little flowers I fussy cut a little more prominant. I stamped a sentiment from fra Mathia design onto the patterned paper and used it as my “photo” in the polaroid frame, which I created from several layers of white cardstock that I stacked on top of each other. Here you can also see a little bit of the inside of the card, as well, where I glued the flowers that didn’t fit on the front of the card. I was determined to use every single image from that one sheet of patterned paper.

I embellished with sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. This time in two clusters near the flowers to keep the focus on them and not so much the sentiment in the center.

The final card. I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with this one. The feathers were the only images remaining from that one sheet, and I didn’t know how to use them in a good way and turn them into a nice card until I realized I could make a background from them. There was only one turquoise feather on the page, so I fussy cut the turquoise feather from the second sheet to get a good balance of color between all the feathers.

Embossing folder on white cardstock once again, and I created a pretty wide margin on the outside with this one. I usually like my margins fairly narrow, but I think this turned out good. I added my feathers to the dry embossed panel using 1 mm foam squares, cut off the excess and used those bits to cover the empty spots left behind in the corners.

The sentiment is from a stamp set from Mathia design, stamped in black on a white cardstock strip. The turquoise strip behind it is from that other sheet of patterned paper that I’ve used here and there in the course of these eight cards. There’s a sentiment in white on that strip, but the strip I glued on top started and ended between words on the turquoise one, so only the turquoise is showing, I was really lucky that way. I finished off my card with some Pretty Pink Posh Sequins. This time I glued some near the sentiment and scattered a few others tucked between some of the feathers.

Enjoy {Mo’s Dream Team}

Another Wednesday, and another Mo Manning Cutie. This time I used Honey, and teamed up my image with a simple heat embossed sentiment and some hexagons.

I started by coloring up the cute little bear with my Copics. I haven’t used my markers in quite some time, so I felt a little rusty going in, but I took my time and it came together in the end.

I used a background die from Papertrey Ink to create my hexagons and stacked them five layers thick in three separate clusters on my card. I made the cardbase from Summer Sunrise cardstock (also from Papertrey Ink) just to shake things up a little bit, and glued some leftover hexagons on the inside.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from Mathia Design onto Hawaiian Shores cardstock from Papertrey Ink before gluing my sentiment strips to the card using foam squares and liquid glue. I finished it off with a few sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh, and my card was done.

Happy birthday {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi, everyone!

Another Wednesday, and another card with a Mo Manning cutie.

For this card i used Jessie, an image I colored during Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day challenge back in March. I haven’t really done any coloring since the last challenge ended in early May, but I still have images to use and I’ve even made quite a few cards lately with no coloring whatsoever.

I used a stitched circle die from My Favorite Things to diecut the image, used a bigger die to cut from Sweet Blush cardstock from Papertrey Ink and glued the two circles together. I used an embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers to create texture to my background by running it through my Gemini Junior. I love that little machine.

I used foam squares without too much dimension on the back of my circles, added them to the center of my card and added a stamped Mathia design sentiment with more foam squares. I finished off the card with a few pink pearls from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

I really like the peachy pink combo I used for this one and colored many images around the same time using that same combo.

Enjoy every second of your day {Hobbykunst}

Hi, everyone. I’ve got a birthday card to share with you today, but it’s not in my usual clean and simple style, it’s a more layered card. I used to make this kind of card all the time when I first started making cards, and it’s what I feel I have to go back to whenever I get an order for a card. It’s a good way for me to justify the price I set.

I was told that the birthday girl likes blue, pink and flowers. I knew just which papers to dig out from my stash. The paper I’ve used here is all from the Denim & Girls collection from Maja Design. I love their collections, the patterns are nice and small and the colors to die for. I mean, look at those blues!!! Amazing!!! I’ve predominantly featured two sheets on this card; Summer outfit (which is the blue with the flowers) and Romantic blouse (the pink one). The image comes from the Snapshots sheet.

I started by cutting down the patterned paper to the sizes I wanted, before using a paint brush with clean water to wet all the edges. This makes the paper more pliable, and I can curl the edges with my fingers, giving the paper some dimension and interest. The cool thing is that when it dries, it stays like that, it’s very sturdy. With Maja Design patterned paper it’s extra sturdy, because the paper is so thick you can actually use it for card bases. It’s really nice.

I added a paper doily, some pink lace, some May Arts natural twine, a bow, a couple of diecut numbers and a few paper roses from Papirdesign, in addition to a couple of sentiment strips. I stamped the Mathia design sentiments straight onto the pink patterned paper using Enchanted Evening ink from Papertrey Ink, distressed the edges of the strips slightly with a finger nail and mounted them on foam tape. The top sentiment translates to “Enjoy every second of your day” and the bottom one says “Happy birthday”.

When creating this type of card I go all out and decorate all four sides of my card. I used the same layout on the insides, but skipped all the embellishments. The kraft panels are actually removable. I added double sided tape to the back in generous amounts, but left the release paper on, and glued the panels on using just a glue dot. Glue dots are a nice temporary solution, and it enables you to pull the panels out fairly easily, write your personal message, remove the release paper from the double sided tape and glue the panels back where they belong. It’s a great way to not have to write inside a bulky card.

I had to decorate the back, too. I just had to. Same basic layout on the back. Not as heavily embellished as the front, also not as bare as the insides. I stamped a birthday sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS using the same color ink as the sentiment strips on the front, and added a few blue roses to finish the card.

With cards this thick, they don’t fit in regular envelopes, so I usually make simple envelope boxes to match. This one is 1″ high, and it actually could have been a little higher, it was a little bulgy when the card went in. I diecut the blue patterned paper with a Simon Says Stamp label die and added pink diecut letters from Scrapmagasinet to spell the name of the birthday girl. I did two layers so the name wouldn’t get completely lost with that busy background.

Wishing you a wonderful birthday celebration {Hobbykunst}

Hi, everyone! I’ve got a simple, yet colorful birthday card to share today, featuring stamps from Mathia design. I was actually inspired by a card I made a couple of years ago for this one. It featured a couple of Papirdesign stamps, and I made the card very similarly to this one. You can find that blog post (written in Norwegian) here.

This time I used a Gratulerer sentiment and plenty of inks. From top to bottom they are Plum Pudding (Papertrey Ink), Autumn Rose (Papertrey Ink), Picked Raspberry (Distress Oxide), Worn Lipstick (Distress Ink), Spiced Marmalade (Distress Ink), Fossilized Amber (Distress Oxide), Twisted Citron (Distress Oxide), Cracked Pistachio (Distress Oxide), Peacock Feathers (Distress Oxide), Salty Ocean (Distress Oxide) and Blueprint Sketch (Distress Ink). Distress ink and clear stamps aren’t the best of friends, but if you put VersaMark on the stamp first, then distress ink, you’ll get a better result. The distress ink will stick to the VersaMark and won’t bead up as much.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from another Mathia design stamp set and popped it up on black foam tape from Gina K.

Behind the black cardstock piece I put a nest of angel hair. It’s a very very thin thread, and it has actual silver in it. I buy mine at the flower shop, one bag will last a looooong time. I finished off my card with some crystals of unknown origin. I know the brands of most of the stuff in my craft room, but these are a mystery.

Monster Sized {Hobbykunst}

This is my second post today, if you’re looking for my Mo Manning entry, you’ll find it here.

I’ve been following Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge on Instagram this past month, and these monsters were the first ones I colored up, all the way back on day 1. I wasn’t sure if I was going to participate, the previous 30 day coloring challenge ran from March 1, that short of a break seemed too short for me, but I decided to go for it anyway. I’m glad I did, but I need a break from all the coloring now!

This card was a bit of an evolution. You might even call it remotely controlled cardmaking. I’ve been coloring so much lately, but not made a lot of cards, so I was really unsure of what to do when I sat down to create this. Lisabeth Vefall came to my rescue, and via Instagram messages “we” created this card together. She found this cute little card that Christine Comploj had made, and despite the sketches I’d done, I really wanted to give that design a go. Hers is a baby card, and so cute, right?

I love Christine’s style and follow her on Instagram. You should, too! 😉

The first decision was to diecut those monsters from My Favorite Things. I usually like fussy cutting, but Liz decided that diecutting was the way to go with this one. She pretty much ran the show, I just did as she asked. I made my little frame and decided where it needed to go before going in with orange and yellow inks on the cardbase.

I had four monsters, so Liz urged me to put the last one on an ink blended circle on the inside. I asked her if she wanted paint splatters on the inside too, before I removed my circle mask. She wanted water splatters, so I added water splatters. I had a great time being remote controlled by her!

The sentiment (by Mathia Design) was a story in an of itself. By the time I got that far, I was super tired, so I struggled to decide where to put it. My “remote control” had also run out of batteries at that point, so I needed to sleep on it. This morning, it was a lot easier to decide. I added a few enamel dots close to the frame, and that finishes off my card. Or our card, I should say, I probably wouldn’t have gotten this done if it weren’t for Liz helping out!

Enjoy every second of you day {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi, and welcome to another Wednesday. Yes, it’s Wednesday for those of you struggling to keep track of the week days. I’ve got a super clean and simple one layer birthday card to share today, featuring a fun image from Mo Manning.

I printed Cupcake Monster (the separated version, there’s also a merged one you can purchase here) onto Classic Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink and pulled out my colored pencils. I rarely use my colored pencils, so they kind of scare me, but when I can color a rainbow of monsters I can’t help but smile and be happy about it.

Once I’d finished coloring, I went back in with a 0.03 black Copic multiliner to bring back the original linework that was covered in layers of pencil, before stamping a sentiment (Enjoy every second of your day) from Mathia design in VersaFine Onyx Black ink. And that finishes my card. A one layer card, even, I don’t make many of those, but I really wanted that image to shine.