Treat yourself! {Purple Onion Designs}

July 13, 2021July 12, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I’m back with another card where it’s pretty much all about the coloring. As a Stacey Yacula fan, getting the chance to play with her images is a dream, and today I dreamt up a very summery birthday card… with a sundae. Can’t beat a sundae!

I stamped Juliet, masked the umbrella and stamped the Tree Line Horizon before removing the mask and coloring in my scene using Copics. I usually color the whole panel, but this time I left the sky white.

To add color to the sky I once again placed a mask on the umbrella, masked off the trees and the horizon line and put a piece of printer paper at the bottom to protect the rest of the scene before using a blender brush from Taylored Expressions and inks from Altenew. I wanted a darker blue towards the grass, going lighter further up. I used Eastern Sky at the bottom and Iceberg towards the top.

I wanted a little bit of extra interest in the sky, and decided to add some ink splatters. I added a spritz of sheer shimmer spray to an acrylic block along with Eastern Sky ink for a sparkly blue. I liked it, but thought it needed a little more contrast, and went one shade darker with Ultramarine mixed with a little bit of water and added that too.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Sunshiny Sentiment set onto a piece of Gravel Gray card stock from My Favorite Things and die cut it using the largest of the three dies in the Fishtail Flag Frames die set, also from MFT. I added a couple of more strips of card stock behind the banner for a little bit of lift, and tucked a couple of sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh under for a little bit of embellishment.

I really really really love Stacey’s images, and they’re so much fun to create dreamy scenes from.

I want to say I didn’t go overboard with my Copics on this one, but there were a lot of greens used for this card. I just can’t help myself.

Hello {Streamside Studios}

July 12, 2021July 12, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! It’s the start of a new week, and I have a new card to share. This is a very simple one, featuring the Woodlands Scene builder stamp set and Toadally awesome woodland friends set from Streamside Studios.

I colored the butterflies from the Woodland Scene builder set and the bubble Hello from the Toadally Awesome Woodland Friends set (that’s a mouthful) with my Copics and fussy cut them all. I wanted to cut right up to the lines with no white borders, which meant I had to sacrifice the antennae of the butterflies. Small price to pay, I think.

I created a card base from Pale Peony cardstock from Papertrey Ink. The card measures 3 3/4 x 5 1/8″, so it’s a fraction larger than a 4 Bar size. I’d intended to make a 4 Bar card, but I wanted a chunky frame without cutting down my white panel too much, so I opted for a size just a bit bigger.

Onto a white cardstock piece, I used 24 Carats Pearly glitter paint from Aladine with the Wavy Lines stencil from My Favorite Things to create a super sparkly, textured background. This paint is a tiny bit more liquid than a regular embossing paste, and it goes on very easily. It comes in a bag with a spout and a screw cap, which makes it less prone to dry out, which can be an issue with most pastes.

I mounted my textured, stenciled background onto my card base using foam tape, and adhered the letters and butterflies on top with clear foam tape from Kool-tak. The Kool-tak foam tape is super sticky, which is perfect on a textured, somewhat grainy surface where regular adhesives tend to not want to stick. I think the balance of the card would have been a little bit better without the largest butterfly, but once it was on, there was no way it was coming off. To my eyes, the card is a little heavy on the right, and I think a smaller butterfly would have been better to complete the visual triangle, or I could have left it off entirely.

The best thing about the clear foam tape from Kool-tak is that it makes whatever you adhere look like it’s floating, more so than white or black foam tape would have. It’s not as visible from the sides, and gives a cool effect. It’s not the cheapest foam tape, so I only use small bits of it, but it’s perfect for those projects where you want the look of something hovering above the card front. You don’t need much, anyway, because it’s super strong.

Not a lot of Copics for this one.

Happy birthday to you!

July 11, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

A certain someone nudged me to play along with this week’s sketch at My Favorite Things. Little challenges like that really drive me, and using a stamp set from the July release, which came out earlier this week, I made a colorful birthday card with a party penguin!

I wanted the focus to be on the party penguin carrying the balloon, and colored him before turning him into a stacked die cut (3 layers behind the colored one). I stamped and die cut the bunting from another stamp in the stamp set, but only added one layer behind each of these, they’re in the background, after all. On a piece of white cardstock, I stamped the Scattered Triangles background stamp using Picked Raspberry and Squeezed Lemonade distress inks. I thought the triangles went well with the bunting, and wanted an ombré effect from the hot pink up to the yellow. I’ve come up with a great trick for achieving this: ink blending on the stamp. By using blender brushes and ink blending onto the actual stamp, I get a really nice gradient in my stamping. It’s a little tough on my blender brushes, and a couple of the bristles have fallen off, but I don’t mind, I don’t normally ink blend that much anyway, a missing bristle or five is a nice trade off for the effect I get – I’ll take it.

I die cut the background using the largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set and adhered it directly to a top fold card base made out of Ripe Raspberry cardstock. I die cut a stitched circle from the same color cardstock for the penguin to stand on, and mounted it using foam tape in the center of the card. I added a white heat embossed sentiment strip below, with lots of extra strips of cardstock behind it, so it would be flush with the penguin. I finished off the card by adding Glossy Accents to the balloon and a few Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh, and glued what was left of the bunting on the inside of the card for added detail.

Not a whole heap of Copics for such a small image.

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.

Let’s get floral {Streamside Studios}

June 29, 2021June 27, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! Sometimes, I like to change up the use of a stamp or two in a stamp set. Small stamps in stamp sets, for example, are great for making backgrounds (though time consuming). This time, I’ve turned a floral image from the Fairy Happy Couple stamp set from Streamside Studios into a card that isn’t wedding related at all. It could be, though, I chose a sentiment that can be used for a birthday card, a wedding card and many other occasions.

This wedding bouquet is so gorgeous, and I printed it onto X-Press It blending card before fussy cutting it, leaving a white border around the edge. For some reason, I’ve been riding a pink, peachy, yellow wave whenever I’ve colored flowers lately, and this one is no exception.

I cut down a piece of Lemon Tart card stock from Papertrey Ink to 3 1/4 x 5 1/2″ and ran it through my die cutting machine with an impression plate to create some texture to my yellow background. I mounted it with foam tape onto a side fold A2 card I created using Stamper’s Select White card stock from Papertrey Ink. It’s my favorite white card stock, it’s thick, bright white and doesn’t crack.

Onto the yellow, I added my colored flowers using 1 mm foam squares. On the part that hangs off the yellow edge, I used foam tape in addition to the 1 mm foam squares to prevent sagging and make everything level. Using a die set from Papirdesign, I created a stacked sentiment. For the shadow, I used some 40 lb vellum, and on top of that I have four white die cuts stacked on top of each other for dimension. The trick here is that I also put two layers of white die cuts behind the vellum, giving it a little lift. In fact, the part of the word that overhangs to the right of the flowers has an additional three white die cuts behind it to compensate for the height of the 1 mm foam squares behind the flowers. Dimension is life?

I stamped and white heat embossed part of a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto Melon Berry card stock from Papertrey Ink and added a few more strips of the same card stock behind it for dimension. I embellished the card very simply using sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink staggered around the flowers. Some are tucked behind, others hanging off the edge, I really like the effect it brings.

Lots of layers, and lots of dimension.

Quite a few colors despite a fairly simple palette. I didn’t want the center flower to be the same color as the other ones, so I went in with dark colors and plenty of layers before I was happy.

Bear hugs {Lili of the Valley}

June 28, 2021June 27, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! I have a simple card to share today, featuring Jenny floral border, which is an image from Lili of the Valley. I printed the image with a low opacity setting to get the no line look and colored in my image with Copics, drawing the facial features back in with a black pen.

I don’t often color fur like this. It’s very relaxing to do and a very forgiving technique, but it’s a time consuming one, layering up all those fine lines isn’t done in five minutes, or fifteen, for that matter, so I don’t usually take the time to do it, but this cute little bear was begging for it.

Using the watercolor stripes stencil from Altenew, I dry embossed a piece of Soft Stone card stock from Papertrey Ink. I’ve had a love affair with the Papertrey Ink card stock for close to a decade now; it’s my favorite, and this particular grey color is so soft and perfect! I mounted it onto a top fold white card base (made out of Stamper’s Select White card stock, another one from PTI) using lots of foam tape, leaving a 1/4″ border around the edge. Using even more foam tape, I mounted my fussy cut colored piece in the center of the grey card stock for even more dimension.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto a scrap piece of Berry Sorbet card stock from Papertrey Ink and turned it into a small banner with one of the dies in the Itty Bitty Strips die set from My Favorite Things. This particular pink card stock is another favorite of mine, and I only have tiny scraps left, I need to stock up! I mounted the banner onto my colored piece using 1 mm foam squares.

I added sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh to finish off my card. Three groupings forming a visual embellishment triangle. I usually only place my embellishments near the sentiment to draw the eye to the sentiment, but for this one I staggered them elsewhere too. I love that these sequins come in a bag with four different sizes. I have other sequins I love too (the mixes from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards are awesome), but I still believe these are my favorites. If I could only buy one type of sequins for the rest of forever, these are the ones I’d choose.

I’m sending sparkling, dimensional, flowery bear hugs your way!

You are simply wonderful {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

June 23, 2021June 23, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! Today, I have a simple card to share. Nothing out of the ordinary, really, my cards are usually pretty simple.

August from Mo Manning is such a cute image, and I colored it up with my Copics in the beginning of the month, and I’ve turned my colored piece into a very simple card.

I die cut my colored piece with the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX dies from My Favorite Things and adhered it to a top fold card base I made from Lavender Fields card stock, also from MFT. I also die cut a white piece to put on the inside of the card for a space to write a personal message.

I die cut a patterned paper piece from My Favorite Things using the same die, and cut it down to a 1 1/4″ strip with my paper trimmer. I mounted it on foam tape above my image. I love that the faux stitch edge is continuous across the colored panel and this patterned paper strip.

I stamped and white heat embossed a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment onto a separate piece of Lavender Fields card stock, and die cut it into a banner using the smallest die in the Fishtail Flag Frames die set from My Favorite Things and mounted it on 1 mm foam squares to the patterned paper.

I finished off with a few sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh near my sentiment.

I used lots of colors for her skin, but other than that, I didn’t use a whole lot of Copics for this one.

Hello {Purple Onion Designs}

June 22, 2021June 21, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, there! I’m sharing a card that’s a little different for me today. I created a little landscape scene using three stamps from Purple Onion Designs: Chloe, Birch Tree Background and Bloom no. 2 Daisy. I did some masking and stamped my images using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things onto X-Press It blending card, which is what I pretty much always use for my Copic coloring. I love my X-Press It! I wanted a golden brown bunny and actually chose to color the shirt yellow. I don’t use yellow a lot in my cards, but thought it was the perfect summery color for this one. Summer solstice was yesterday, which means that even though we’re only three weeks into summer, the days are about to get shorter. I don’t want shorter days, I love it when the sun barely has time to set before rising again the next day.

I don’t make many landscape cards, and this one turned out to be a side fold card, which is even more rare for me. I love my top fold cards, but I’d already cut and scored this card base and figured I might as well use it and create a side fold card for once.

To reinforce the yellow shirt and the yellow on the flowers, I decided to add a yellow frame. I die cut the largest of the Stitched Rectangle Scallop Edge Frames dies from My Favorite Things out of Bright Buttercup card stock from Papertrey Ink and added three additional white die cut frames behind it for dimension.

In the space between the trees I had room for a fairly large hello, die cut using the Say Hello die from My Favorite Things. It’s really a speech bubble die, but I’d used everything but the word for a different card and had the stacked hello die cut in a bowl on my desk, ready to go. There’s a ton of dimension in this die cut, it’s six layers thick.

Some bright, sunshiny Copics to finish off.

Super simple baby cards

June 6, 2021June 6, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! I have two super simple baby cards to share today, featuring images from Art Impressions. These babies were so quick and easy to color.

The first card features this Little Monster stamp set. I stamped with Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things and colored the baby with my Copics, then placed the piece of X-Press It blending card back in my MISTI and stamped again using VersaFine Onyx Black ink. I used the second largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 set to die cut the panel and mounted it with foam tape onto a card base I made out of Milk Chocolate card stock from My Favorite Things (side note: all these years I’ve thought that Set 2 had slightly larger dies than Set 1, and I found out today that set 1 is the larger of the two).

I stamped the sentiment in the stamp set using Dark Chocolate ink from Papertrey Ink onto Classic Kraft card stock, also from Papertrey Ink. I used one of the fishtail flag frames dies from My Favorite Things to turn it into a strip with a nice finished end. I mounted it on 1 mm foam squares and finished off with some green enamel dots from Papirdesign. I die cut a panel of Classic Kraft cardstock and adhered it to the inside, for a nice space to write a personal message to the recipient.

Card number 2 features the Little Man stamp set from Art Impressions. Like I did with the first card, I stamped and colored the image, before stamping it again to get the crisp black lines. I mounted it with foam tape onto a card base I made from Classic Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink. Onto the cardstock I stamped the Paint Splatter background stamp from My Favorite Things using Papertrey Ink Fresh Snow hybrid ink for a little bit of added interest to the background.

I added a strip of Milk Chocolate cardstock from My Favorite Things to the front of the card before I adhered my colored panel, to ground it a little and to add another dark element other than the circle with the sentiment. The sentiment itself is from the stamp set with the cute baby, heat embossed in white using super fine detail embossing powder from Ranger and added to the colored panel using 1 mm foam squares. I finished off the card with some enamel dots from Papirdesign.

Same color schemes on both cards, similar stamps, both simple cards, yet slightly different. And I’d normally add the Copics I used to color my images, but I colored them last July for Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge, and I don’t remember what the colors are.