Hope your day is peachy keen! {Purple Onion Designs}

May 14, 2021May 13, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, everyone! I have a peachy keen card to share today, using a few of the stamps from the most recent release from Purple Onion Designs. You can still purchase the entire collection in a bundle at a 30 % discount, an offer that expires at midnight tonight EST.

My card is actually a tri-fold card. My original plan was a regular card with a window on the front and the remainder of the scene on the inside, but I really wanted to use William the owl for this card while still keeping it an A2 size, and there just wasn’t room for him, so I opted for a tri-fold design. I started by stamping and masking Alice the squirrel and the crate of apples from the fruit crates set, and then stamping the produce stand. I colored everything with my Copics, used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles dies from My Favorite Things to turn it into a nice panel and adhered it to the front of a sidefold A2 card card base. Using a craft knife, I cut the opening in the fruit stand through both layers of paper, making sure to be very careful around those garlics so I didn’t chop them off.

On a separate piece of X-Press It blending card, I stamped the remaining two fruit crates, masking the one with the lemons and adding Jane the fox behind it, stamping her so she’d be perfectly placed in the window on the front of the card when it’s closed. You can see the back of the window on the left in this photo. I used the same die from MFT to die cut this panel too, and added a sentiment from the Around the Town sentiment set above the cute fox. I adhered the panel on the back of another sidefold card and glued the two cards together to make my tri-fold.

William gets to steal the show on the middle inside of the card. The front is to his left (you can see the window there) and the panel with the fox and the two fruit crates on the back of the part you can see to his right. He might look a little mis-placed since he’s not tucked in a corner, but it’s with good reason. The panel on the right (which is the back of the one with the fox) has plenty of room for a personal message.

Here’s a bit of a close up. I prefer not to color with my Copics on regular card stock, so I stamped him on X-Press It, colored him with Copics, fussy cut him and glued him to the card base, using a think black pen to draw his feet back in and some gray colored pencils on the card base to ground him.

If you close the front of the card without folding the panel with the fox back where it belongs, it looks like William is the one standing behind the produce stand. This was my reason for placing him where I did, I wanted to have the option of keeping the card half open, so he’d appear in the window instead of Jane.

I used a ton of Copics for this card.

You are sweet {Mo’s Dream Team}

May 12, 2021May 12, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi! Today I have a sweet card (pun intended) to share featuring one of the kids from the 3 on a bench stamp set from Mo Manning. There are two options in the store: you can by the merged stamp with 3 kids sitting on a bench or opt for the separated version, which has the bench and each of the kids as 4 separate image files. I used the latter for my card today, and chose to use just the girl eating the watermelon and the bench.

I colored the girl with my Copics and fussy cut her. I put her to the side while I worked on the rest of my card.

I wanted to repeat the blue from the image in my card, and found a scrap of Fancy Pants patterned paper that was already cut down to fit the front of an A2 card. It’s a beautiful blue, and it has a little bit more interest to it than card stock, without distracting too much from the image.

I used the cloud die in the slim card basics die set from Mama Elephant to create my clouds. The die was long enough that I only had to die cut it once, and cut my finished cloud border into two pieces that are both 4 1/4″ wide. I mounted them to the bottom of my card with 1 mm foam squares for both layers, creating a little bit of depth and dimension in my card, and also an anchor point for the remaining elements. I even stamped part of a background stamp from Tim Holtz on the left half using Spring Rain ink from Papertrey Ink, which is a very light blue ink. Again, it adds a little interest to the background without being too distracting.

I put 1 mm foam squares on the back of the little girl and adhered her near the left edge of my card. I think she’s so cute with that big slice of watermelon!

I used the Parker alphabet die set from Memory Box to die cut the letters to spell “sweet” six times from Red Hot heavyweight card stock from My Favorite Things. I glued them together for a stacked look and adhered the word to my cloud. I stamped and white heat embossed the words “you are” from the Courageous You stamp set from Altenew on a scrap piece of that blue patterned paper, cut the words apart and adhered them to the card using clear foam tape from KoolTak. Those little word strips are so small, I thought clear would be best. I added a couple of light blue enamel dots from Papirdesign to finish.

Not a whole lot of colors used for this one. I also used B90, which is a color I’ve made myself.

Welcome to the world {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

May 10, 2021May 10, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! Today I’m sharing a super simple card (I feel like I always say that), featuring an image (Dinosaur Friends) from Rachelle Anne Miller from the release that’s coming later this week.

I colored the image with my Copics, using the largest of the A2 Stitched rectangles dies from My Favorite Things to turn it into a panel with a nice faux stitch edge. I adhered it to a card base made from Lush Lagoon card stock from My Favorite Things and wanted to keep everything simple and the focus on the image. I did that by adding just a sentiment strip (white heat embossed sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS) and a sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

Simple coloring, simple color palette.

One for the books {Purple Onion Designs}

May 9, 2021May 1, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, everyone! I have another card to share featuring the new spring release from Purple Onion Designs. This card is very different. First of all, it’s a slimline card, which I don’t make too many of (on account of them being difficult to photograph). Secondly, I only used 6 Copic markers for the entire card. I’ve dabbled with grayscale images in the past, but always with a pop of color somewhere. This one is all about those grays. Oh, and those fabulous new images, of course.

I stamped and masked George the raccoon on a piece of X-Press It blending card that I’d already die cut using the slimline starter die set from My Favorite Things. I stamped Room with a view so George is standing firmly on the balcony, then stamped the book store (minus the roof of the book store) below it and then the balcony railing directly over top of the raccoon once I’d removed the mask.

I colored the entire panel with my 6 chosen Copics, adhered the panel onto a card base I made from Stamper’s Select White card stock from Papertrey Ink.

Deciding to keep the grayscale going on the inside of the card, I stamped one of the sentiments in the “Around the Town” sentiment set using VersaMark ink on a piece of Steel Gray card stock from My Favorite Things, and heat embossed it in white, before adhering the sentiment to the inside of the card. Super simple.

The Ns and Ts are my favorite Copic grays. For this card, I went with the Ns.

Sending hugs {Streamside Studios}

May 7, 2021May 6, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have a super colorful shaker card to share today, featuring a cute raccoon from Streamside Studios. Now, the raccoon isn’t particularly colorful, but I did some colorful ink blending of the background, making the raccoon stand out against the background.

I colored the raccoon from the Woodland Friends stamp set using my Copics. Just grays and a little R21 for the cheeks and the inside of the ears. Super simple coloring. I fussy cut the raccoon, leaving a thin white border, before I started on my background.

I pulled out a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock and my Distress Oxide inks for my background. I only have 8 oxides, and I used 6 of them for this, they make a nice rainbow. From the top left corner going clockwise they are Cracked Pistachio, Twisted Citron, Fossilized Amber, Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers. Where the colors overlap, new colors are created.

I splattered some drops of a shimmer sparkle spray onto the ink blended panel, blotting it off with a dry paper towel to create the oxidized look in the background. I then took the largest of my A2 Stitched Rectangles dies from My Favorite Things, along with the Say Hello die, also from My Favorite Things, to die cut the background. I made sure to keep the internal negative pieces from the Say Hello die to puzzle piece them onto the card base.

I die cut the Say Hello die an additional 8 times from white card stock, stacking all but 2 of them to form the shaker area. I removed the internal part of the stacked die cuts, creating a nice frame for my sequins to shake around in. I glued one of the remaining two die cuts onto the card base to fill in the word between the colorful negative die cuts. After filling the shaker area with white orchid sequins from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, I put acetate on top to close the shaker area and the last white die cut on top, inlaid and flush with the colorful background mounted on foam tape for dimension.

I stamped a sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp/Concord & 9th stamp set Monster Hugs using VersaMark ink onto Steel Gray card stock from My Favorite Things, before white heat embossing it, cutting it down to a strip and adding it to the acetate window using foam tape. The last thing was to add 1 mm foam squares behind the raccoon, and my card was complete.

Surprise {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

May 5, 2021May 4, 2021 Elin4 Comments

Hi, there! I can’t believe it’s May and the last month of spring already. It doesn’t really feel like spring, though, it’s still really cold with snow in the forecast for today. What do I do when it’s cold? I escape by coloring summery images, like this I like you image from Mo’s Digital Pencil.

For someone who claims that her favorite color is blue, I haven’t really used a lot of blue lately. It might have something to do with the fact that I associate blue with Christmas, but it might also be that I’ve found myself a new favorite. A double favorite, even. I’ve used the combination of teal and peach on so many of my cards lately, I might have to put away those markers for a bit and try some other colors. 😉

I changed up my teal combo a little bit for this girl and even introduced a green in my combo, making her shirt super light in the highlight areas. I even tried a new combo for her hair, which matched surprisingly well with those yellow flowers she’s holding. Once I was done coloring, I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX dies from My Favorite Things to turn my colored piece into a panel with nice faux stitch edges.

On my desk I keep a tub of die cut paper scraps that I use for my embellishment clusters. I dug through it and found various pieces that I thought would fit this card well. They’re from a mix of companies: Maja Design, Studio Light, P13 and Sunny Studio. I love creating these clusters, they’re so fun to put together, and a great way to make use of scraps (not that my pile of scraps shrinks too much with each card). At the bottom is part of a mini paper doily from Doodlebug, and I added some enamel dots from the Warm and Cozy set from Altenew to finish.

I white heat embossed the sentiment from the Hilsninger stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS and die cut that using the smallest of the fishtail flag frames dies from My Favorite Things. After chopping off the overhang, I had a little piece of that doily left and the end of the sentiment banner, which I adhered in the bottom left corner of the card. I like not wasting my scraps, and this is a great way to use them.

Most of the pieces in my embellishment cluster are mounted on 1 mm foam squares for dimension. Foam without a ton of dimension is key for this, otherwise the card gets super thick from all the layers.

Quite a few Copics for such a simple image.

Thanks a bunch {Purple Onion Designs}

May 4, 2021May 1, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have another card to share today featuring new goodies from the latest release over at Purple Onion Designs.

Isn’t this bunny with her bouquet of flowers adorable? Look at that sweet smile. I love Stacey Yacula’s illustration style, she really brings her characters to life. This is Junie. I colored her with my Copics and decided to fussy cut her.

I pulled out a piece of patterned paper from the Dots & Stripes Pastels pack from Sunny Studio and cut it down to a strip, using one of the Stitched Borders dies from Lawn Fawn on both sides for a nice finished look. I die cut a white card stock circle using a die from My Favorite Things, and mounted it on foam tape.

I stamped and white heat embossed one of the sentiments in the “Around the Town” sentiment set on a piece of Melon Berry card stock and mounted it on foam tape, before adding my bunny with some 1 mm foam squares on top of the white circle.

I finished my card by adding some Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear sequins in a visual triangle around the circle and bunny.

Small image equals a limited color palette.

Paint the town {Purple Onion Designs}

May 1, 2021May 1, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, there. I have a card to share featuring stamps from the brand new “A Happy Little Place” collection from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by the one and only Stacey Yacula.

As soon as I saw Polly the hedgehog with her cans of paint, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. She needed to paint a rainbow. I don’t really free hand draw much on my cards, but arches aren’t too daunting.

I stamped Polly and her paint cans using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, before masking the paint cans and stamping some country flowers behind them. Using a mechanical pencil, I drew in faint lines for the rainbow, before masking the section that needed to be in front of the countryside scene on the horizon, and then stamping that in fadeout ink from Inkon3 for a no line look in the background. I wanted the focus to be on the hedgehog and rainbow.

I colored in the entire scene with my Copics. To be honest I probably spent more time on the rainbow than anything else. I only have five arches, but it was tricky enough to try to color five (the bands are very thin) without the curves getting too jagged, I don’t even want to think about how hard it would have been with seven.

At the end of the rainbow, I created a dripping edge with a puddle of paint on the grass. Isn’t Polly cute holding that paint can and brush?

I stamped a sentiment from the “Around the town” sentiment set onto my colored piece using VersaFine Onyx Black ink, holding my breath as I did so. I didn’t want to mess up my panel and have to start over at this point.

I used the largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things to turn my colored piece into a finished panel, making sure the ink in the sentiment was dry before running it through my Gemini Jr. I added my panel onto a white card base with a top fold, and my card was complete.

Lots and lots of Copics. That happens with rainbows 🙂

Are you sure you’re a year older? {Mo’s Dream Team}

April 28, 2021April 25, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! It’s Wednesday again, and you know what that means. Time for another Mo Manning creation around here. This time, I’ve kind of gone back to my roots, but not really. It’s a layered card, which used to be the norm for me, but the image is fussy cut, which most certainly has never been my signature.

I received an order for a 50th birthday card for an electrician. The card needed to be “messy”, which is kind of difficult for me. My usual style is pared back and very simple, I just don’t have enough elements on my cards to be able to make a mess of any kind. Thus going back to my roots of using lots of patterned paper. I colored up Mr. Fixit in my favorite colors and fussy cut him.

I had to go looking for inspiration online. The last “old style” card I made was in June of last year, which means I’m rusty. I found a card I liked and used it as a guide to create this one, which is actually an A7 card (5×7″). I dug through my patterned papers, both 12×12″ sheets and scraps, and found a few from Papirdesign, Maja Design and a small scrap from My Mind’s Eye that I used to die cut the gears and numbers. I arranged all the elements on my card, some using foam tape and others adhered straight down, and wound up with this. I used old dies from Sizzix for the gears, forcing me to pull my BigShot out of retirement for a few minutes. Those dies are too thick for my Gemini Jr., which is the machine I use for nearly all my die cutting. The last time I used my BigShot was over two years ago, so there’s a reason it’s retired in the closet. I added a piece of Snip Art chipboard and a film strip piece from Tim Holtz for a little bit of added interest and something that wasn’t just made of paper.

On the inside, I adhered left over pieces of the gears, just to use it all, and stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Dark Indigo ink from Papertrey Ink. There’s plenty of room on the right for a personal message, this is a side fold card (another anomaly from me, I prefer top fold).

On the back of the card, I repeated a lot of the elements that I used on the front. The tag dies I used are from My Favorite Things, and I used my recently acquired personal stamp from Create a Smile on one of the die cut tags, stamped in Dark Indigo ink.

Not a lot of Copics used for this one, I mostly stuck to blues.

Birthday card galore {Hobbykunst}

April 26, 2021April 3, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! Remember the 4 bar birthday cards I shared a couple of weeks ago? Well, I have another batch today. Still using the Happy birthday collection from P13, still all 4 bar cards.

I’m starting with what’s probably the simplest one, certainly the cleanest one. I die cut a wonky grid from white card stock and adhered it directly to the card base, before adding the fussy cut bunny with foam tape.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things and popped it up using foam tape, before adding some clear crystals from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards in clusters to the background. I even fussy cut another, smaller bunny and glued him to the inside of the card, which you can sort of see in this photo.

This card looks a little bit busier, simply because I added some patterned paper to the background. Once again I adhered the fussy cut image using foam tape.

I white heat embossed a sentiment from the Pawty Time stamp set from My Favorite Things, added it with foam tape and finished off with a few clear crystals from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

This is probably the most involved of the cards, simply because I created a faux stitch rectangle from the patterned paper in the background, instead of just leaving it plain and letting it cover the entire card base.

I used a Papirdesign die to create the white die cut going across the center of the card, and added my fussy cut piece using foam tape. The sequins used for this card are from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

An elephant with some balloons, ready to party is next up. I used part of a die cut to span across the card for a little texture in the background, before adding the elephant with foam tape.

The sentiment is from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things, and I added a few pearl white crystals from Pretty Pink Posh for a finishing touch.