Time for a bike ride {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a springtime card to share today. Can you tell I’m sick of this cold, wet, snowy, rainy weather? This is Anna from Purple Onion Designs, riding her bike in the country side with a stone wall separating her from fields of green.

I love how happy this mouse looks riding that bike. Stacey Yacula has a way of creating characters that really come to life, I’m such a big fan of her style.

I stamped Anna, added a mask, then stamped the stone wall. Both were stamped with Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, which is a Copic friendly ink. I then used second generation stamping with the country side background, this time with Memento Espresso Truffle ink for a somewhat softer look.

I colored in my scene using Copics, then stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Around the Town sentiment set.

I used a white Gelly Roll 05 to create the white dot “flowers” in the background and added my panel to a top folding white card base I created. The finished card measures 6 x 4″.

This is a very mail friendly card. No embellishments, it’s almost one layer and sooo simple.

Quite a few Copics, but that usually happens with these full scene cards I create with Purple Onion stamps.

Spring is in the air {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m back with a super simple, almost one layer card featuring one of the chicks from the recent spring release from Lili of the Valley. This guy is from the Little Easter set, and I think he’s adorable riding his scooter.

This card is, as I mentioned, super simple. A bit of watercolor just behind the image creates a little bit of interest without being too distracting.

Just below the image, I decided to stamp a sentiment. This one is from the Paint-A-Flower: Hydrangea stamp set from Altenew, inked up in Wild Wisteria ink from Gina K Designs AND Winter Wisteria ink from Papertrey Ink. The Gina K ink is a little too blue for what I for this card, while the Papertrey Ink color is a little too pink. By stamping them on top of one another, I get the perfect color for my card.

Using the Additional A2 Layers dies from Waffle Flower Crafts, I turned my simple colored piece into a slightly smaller panel, which I adhered to a panel of Wild Wisteria cardstock from My Favorite Things.

I added my double panel to a white card base, and my card was complete. I wanted my whites to match, and actually covered up the card base with another piece of X-Press It blending card, which is what I use for my Copic coloring.

This is a very flat, very mail friendly card. I don’t make many of those, but I really wanted the chick to shine.

Simple, springy color palette, even though it doesn’t really feel like spring. It started snowing Friday night, snowed all through the night and a good chunk of yesterday, before the snow turned into rain, and then later fog. It’s so foggy right now I can barely see the buildings across the street. 18 days into spring, and it feels more like winter than ever before.

Warm holiday hugs {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, crafty friends. It’s time for a Christmas card, right? I love Rachelle Anne Miller’s Polar Bears, and I’ve made a fairly monochromatic card with a little bit of no line coloring, some ink blending, and a stamped sentiment. Super simple.

Isn’t this image the sweetest, with mama bear and her two cubs? For some reason, I love coloring polar bears, and to make them look “white” (although real polar bears aren’t really white), I always do no line coloring whenever I create cards with polar bears.

Once my coloring was complete, I made a quick mask from Post-it tape to cover up my polar bears before I used my Wintry Forest stencil set from Pinkfresh Studio along with inks from Altenew (the colors are Misty Morning, Cloudy Sky and Nimbus) to create my background.

I die cut my panel using the second largest die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower Crafts, adhered it to a panel of Enchanted Evening cardstock from Papertrey Ink and then onto the card base.

I stamped a sentiment from the Scripty Xmas stamp set from Mama Elephant using Enchanted Evening ink from Papertrey Ink and added some white dots to the cub’s hat with a white Gelly Roll 05 pen. And that finishes the card. I decided not to add any embellishments to it.

Oh, how I love blue for Christmas cards.

Naturally, lots of blue for the coloring, too.

May all your wishes come true! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m here today sharing a 4 bar card. I love creating cards of all sizes, and this is a fun one, I enjoy the smaller format.

This is Wishing from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Stacey Yacula. It’s one of the larger stamps from Purple Onion, and it’s actually the first Purple Onion stamp I ever colored up, which means it holds a special place in my heart. I wanted a soft look and stamped the image in Fadeout ink from Inkon3 before coloring.

I love no line coloring, and no line is perfect for an image like this, which has just enough detail to make it interesting, but it’s still large enough to get soft gradient in colors and not too fiddly.

Once I finished my coloring, I added my panel to a 4 bar card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I created some texture to the dandelion fluff by using my Quickie glue pen and sprinkling on Rock Candy Distress glitter.

I adhered scraps of a Doodlebug mini paper doily to opposite corners of the card to add to the soft, delicate look I was aiming for. Using Sour Apple ink from My Favorite Things, I stamped a sentiment from the A Beautiful Day sentiment set from Purple Onion Designs onto Sprout cardstock from Concord & 9th, cut it down to a strip and mounted it on foam tape and adhered it to the top right corner of the card, before finishing off with a trio of crystals from Papirdesign.

Very soft color palette.

Let’s pretend it’s still your birthday! {Streamside Studios}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a super simple card to share with you today. It’s almost one layer, it’s that simple. No bulk, no dimension, and this came together so quickly.

There’s something about the Sloth-some Sloths digi stamp set from Streamside Studios that really appealed to me, and this is my third card using the set. First sloth, though.

I printed my image on a quarter of an A4 sheet of X-Press It blending card. A4 is narrower and taller than lettersize, so my quarter panel doesn’t quite cover an A2 card front. By letting a strip of the card base showing as a result, it adds a design element to the card.

Once my coloring was complete, I ink blended Berry Sorbet and Melon Berry inks into one of the openings in the Say Anything stencil from My Favorite Things, before stamping a sentiment from the Anything-but-Basic Birthday Wishes stamp set (also from MFT) using VersaFine Onyx Black ink.

I adhered the panel directly to the card base (Melon Berry cardstock from Papertrey Ink) and added a few confetti stars from the Rosy Glow mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

The stars are matte gold, but they still shine in the light. And because they’re flat, and everything else on this card is also flat, this card is very mail friendly, which is a rarity for me.

Quick, simple color palette.

Have an ice day! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! I’m back today with a larger card, featuring a couple of critters and a background stamp from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Shari Bresciani.

Meet Parker and Walter. These critters from Shari have so much character, they’re so quirky and fun. A whack a mole type card would be fun with lots of holes on the ice and Walter sticking out of one of them. Whack a walrus?

I stamped and masked both Parker and Walter before using the Snow much fun background stamp to create the scene around them. For the background section of the background stamp, I used Fadeout ink from Inkon3, and Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things for the foreground.

I didn’t want to mess up the card too much with my sentiment, so I decided to add a subtle one from the Snow Much Fun sentiment set, using Aqua Mist ink from Papertrey Ink. I think it goes well with the ice.

I cut the panel down to 6×4″ and mounted it in the center of an A7 card base using foam tape. And that’s it. Super simple.

Not so simple; the coloring. A lot of Copics went into creating this card. It’s become the norm for me when creating these full scene cards using Purple Onion images.

By the way, there’s a March madness sale going on at Purple Onion Designs right now. Select stamps are 50% off, no coupon needed, sale price will be reflected in your cart. Sale ends March 10, 2023. Some of my favorite stamps are in the March madness category – just sayin’. 😉

Happy one year older day! {Streamside Studios}

Hi, crafty friends! Today, I’m sharing with you a quick, clean and simple birthday card, featuring the ice cream from the Sloth-some Sloths digi stamp set from Streamside Studios. Today’s my sister’s birthday, so it’s kind of fitting, I think. It also happens to be our dad’s birthday, March is a big birthday month in our family.

I colored the ice cream with my Copics, fussy cut it leaving a thin white border and put it aside while I worked on the rest of the card. Using the Watercolor Stripes stencil from Altenew, I ink blended stripes using Melon Berry ink from Papertrey Ink, going heavy handed at the bottom with a soft gradient toward the top of my A2 card base.

I used the Hand-Lettered Happy Birthday die from My Favorite Things to die cut the word happy from white cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I then did a little stamp surgery, by combining two sentiments in the Anything-but-Basic Birthday Wishes stamp set from My Favorite Things to stamp a sub sentiment to the lower part of the die cut word. I then stamped the same sentiment directly on my card base, still using Melon Berry Ink. I die cut two more of the happy to glue behind the stamped one, stacked all three together and adhered it to the card front, lining up the stamping on the die cut with the stamping on the card base. I then mounted the ice cream on foam squares, added a bit of Glossy Accents to the heart and some enamel dots from the Cool Summer Night pack from Altenew for a little bit of added interest and color.

Very limited color palette.

God påske {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, crafty friends. There’s a new release today from Rachelle Anne Miller. It’s all spring and Easter themed, and I’m here for it. I’m glad spring is officially here with the arrival of March, even though we still have snow on the ground, and probably have more snow coming.

I used the Egg hunt stamp for my card today. Egg hunting isn’t really a thing in Norway. Neither are Easter cards, but I sent a couple last year, and they were very much appreciated by their recipients, so maybe it should be. And when there are cute images, I just can’t resist.

I wanted a pastel look for my card, and this is probably the lightest wash of color I’ve ever done with my Copics. Except for E25 on the guinea pig, I’ve only used markers ending in numbers that are 3 or lower. That’s super light for someone who doesn’t shy away from using markers ending with 9. Once the coloring was complete, I used a black glaze pen to create shine in their eyes, and I went over it with a dot of white Gelly Roll 05 on the bunny.

From a piece of Winter Wisteria cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I die cut a circle opening and also used a faux stitch rectangle die from My Favorite Things to create a little bit of extra interest around the edge of the panel, before mounting it on foam tape.

I used a die from Papirdesign to make my God påske (Happy Easter in Norwegian) sentiment, and made it dimensional by stacking four white die cuts on top of each other, before finishing off the card with a few crystals from Papirdesign that match the Winter Wisteria cardstock nicely.

Here it is, the softest color palette ever.

Thank you {Lili of the Valley}

Hi! I’m back today with a fun card featuring a flower wreath from one of the stamp sets Lili of the Valley came out with in their spring release. This is one of the stamps in the Magical Florals stamp set.

I stamped the wreath on a piece of Rustic Cream cardstock from Papertrey Ink, before coloring with pencils. Yes, you read that right, I broke out my Prismacolors and did pencil coloring. I don’t use my pencils very often. Copics are my “go to” coloring medium, but every now and then, I shake things up.

I fussy cut around the finished piece, leaving a white border along the edge and cutting the open part at the top right as if my colored panel was a circle. I didn’t want to cut away the interior, and this seemed faster, easier and better. I created a 4 1/4″ square card base and used the Caleidoscope embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp to create a little bit of texture in the background, before mounting the wreath on foam tape.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Mini Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant onto a piece of Cornflower cardstock from My Favorite Things, before using a nested circle die to turn it into a circle. I put a few foam squares behind it and adhered it to a part of the wreath where it wouldn’t cover up too many of the flowers.

To finish the card, I added a generous amount of Papirdesign pearls for some shine.

Commencing happy dance {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m back today with another card featuring one of the cute images from Rachelle Anne Miller. This time it’s Kitty Love, and who doesn’t love a litter of kittens? I grew up with cats, and they’re the absolute cutest.

I colored the image with Copics and fussy cut around it, leaving a white border. This image is pretty easy to fussy cut, so it didn’t take long. I’m trying to get out of my standard “full panel with cluster” mode, and fussy cutting the image gives me endless possibilities.

I needed something in the background behind my image, and decided to create a circle stencil to ink blend into. I used Distress Ink from Ranger in Abandoned Coral, Spiced Marmalade and Squeezed Lemonade, before I removed the stencil and looked through my stash of background stamps I could use to add some more interest. I wound up with a mixture of stamps from Inkido, Tim Holtz and My Favorite Things, and used Distress Ink once again for the stamping. This time Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed for a bit more of an intense yellow on top of the ink blending.

I mounted the image using foam tape, and die cut the word happy from the Bold Happy Birthday die set from My Favorite Things. I die cut four of each letter and stacked them for a dimensional look, overlapping them on my card to make them fit.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Anything-but-Basic Birthday Wishes stamp set from My Favorite Things onto a piece of Caribbean Sea cardstock, also from MFT. The sentiment actually says Commencing Happy dance, but since I already had a diecut happy, I only needed the first and last word for my card. I added three additional strips of cardstock behind the words for dimension, and finished off the card with a few enamel dots. The teal ones are from the Cool Summer Nights pack from Altenew, the orange ones from a Halloween pack from Papirdesign. I also added a dot of black Glaze pen to the kittens’ eyes and the boy’s eyes, then a white dot using the Gelly Roll 05 from Sakura once the black had dried on the boy.

Fairly simple color palette for this one.