You crack me up! {Streamside Studios}

Hi, there! I have a fun, super simple card to share today, featuring the Hatching Chicks stamp set from Streamside Studios.

Streamside Studios Hatching Chicks front rett

I colored in the eggs with my Copics, before fussy cutting them. I forgot to create a graphic of the colors I used, but it was B04, B02, B01 and B000 for the blue and YR16, Y17 and Y00 for the yellow.

Streamside Studios Hatching Chicks front skrått

I used one of the stencils in the Simple Patterns Trio set from Cathy Zielske (Simon Says Stamp) on a panel of Stamper’s Select White card stock from Papertrey Ink using an ink blending brush from Taylored Expressions along with Altenew Ink in Limeade and Fresh Leaf. I wanted a bit of a gradient in the green going up the panel, so I used the darkest of the two at the bottom of the panel with a medium firm application, and the lighter color with a lighter application towards the top. I cut off 1/4″ off each side and mounted the panel to my card base using foam tape.

Streamside Studios Hatching Chicks flatlay

I added the eggs with 1 mm foam squares and drew the legs back in on the chicken sticking his legs out on the left hand side.

Streamside Studios Hatching Chicks flatlay venstre med egg

By adding the sentiment inside one of the eggs, I eliminated the need to find a place for it elsewhere.

Easter treat

Hi, there! I’ve got an Easter card to share today, with a little bit of a treat inside.

Påskekort Lee Holland Bunny front

I actually made this card last year, for an Easter card swap. Easter cards aren’t really a thing in Norway, but because of lockdown last year, I figured what the heck. Easter to me is ten glorious days spent in the mountains. Skiing and playing in the snow all day, card and board games at night. Reading crime novels (a uniquely Norwegian Easter tradition), eating oranges and chocolate; it all belongs. Obviously there was no trip to the mountains last year, and I knew that it wouldn’t really feel like Easter for me at all, but I wanted to try to make someone else feel like it was still Easter.

Påskekort Lee Holland Bunny front skrått

I colored up this bunny from Lee Holland using the no line technique, and made an oval frame around him using a die set from Neat & Tangled. Using the same die with some patterned paper from Sunny Studio, I created a window for my oval frame to sit in. I also used a faux stitch rectangle die from My Favorite Things to get the nice detail on the edge that I love so much.

Påskekort Lee Holland Bunny front skrått venstre

I stamped a sentiment from Papirdesign onto a piece of yellow cardstock from Papertrey Ink using Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink, and die cut it using another die from that same set of dies from Neat & Tangled as the ovals. I added the die cut banner on foam tape and adhered a few sequins from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to draw attention to the sentiment.

Påskekort Lee Holland Bunny inni

The inside of the card is where the magic is. It hides chocolate! Not just any chocolate, either, this is as official of an Easter chocolate as you get in Norway. This particular chocolate is a symbol of Norwegian culture. The average Norwegian eats 9 Kvikk Lunsj bars a year, 3 of them at Easter. You don’t mess with a Norwegian and his/her kvikk lunsj! 😉 I blurred and smudged the personal message in this photo. I don’t have a Copic color palette to share for this card, it’s been a year since I made it, after all.

Trifold Christmas card {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, everyone! I’ve got a Christmas card to share today. I know it’s Easter time, but there’s a line of lyrics in a Norwegian Christmas song that says Christmas lasts till Easter, and I’m sticking to it. The next line in the song states that it’s not true, but that’s beside the point 😉

This started out as an idea of a fairly simple card with a window on the front so you could see inside, but evolved fairly quickly into a trifold card. A heavy one at that, even though it looks simple, there are a lot of layers, and the card actually weighs in at 28 g.

I started by coloring the polar bear (Icicle) and fussy cutting him, leaving a thin white border around him. I’m not good at leaving a white trim when I fussy cut (my scissors naturally gravitate towards the stamped lines), but I get around that by drawing an outline about 1 mm outside the stamped line with a mechanical pencil, and then cut along that.

I love the snowflake circle die from Hero Arts and have used it many times before. I die cut a window into the center of the front of my card base, and at first thought that would be it. Once it morphed into a trifold, though, it was so back heavy that I needed an additional two die cut windows on top of the card base for some strength and stability. I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles from My Favorite Things to create a nice finished edge to the top layer.

For the inside panel that you can see from the front, I stamped the Frozen Pond using fadeout ink from Inkon3 and colored in the entire panel, before using the same stitched rectangle die that I used for the front for a nice finished edge. This entire panel flips down, leaving lots of space on the inside for a personal message.

I stamped a sentiment from the Holiday Messages Sentiment set straight onto my card using Ocean Tides ink from Papertrey Ink, before adding the polar bear with 1 mm foam squares.

In this photo it’s pretty evident that the three layers of panels with die cut windows add a nice bit of dimension, as well as stability to what would otherwise be a pretty floppy card front, since the window is so big. I use 110 lb white card stock (Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink), which is a nice, sturdy card stock, but with that big of a window, the only thing that will work is using several layers.

I added white pearls from Kort & Godt to the center of the snowflakes. 3 mm pearls for the largest snowflakes, 2.5 mm pearls for all the others.

Lots and lots of Copics for this one. I used 20 markers to color just the bear, 10 for his fur alone, which is a little bit crazy.

Time to celebrate {Hobbykunst}

Hi, everyone! I have a few cards to share today, all of them using just a few products. The Happy Birthday collection from P13 has some great images that are perfect for quick, easy birthday cards.

I’m starting with this bear, ready for a party! The papers in the P13 collections don’t have individual names, they just have numbers, and I fussy cut this bear from 05. I die cut a piece of 01 using a die from Papirdesign, tearing the edges for an uneven look and glued it straight onto my 4 bar top fold card base, before adding the bear with foam tape for dimension.

03 in this collection from P13 has wide, diagonal stripes in different colors. I cut it down to strips, and used them to emboss my sentiments to get the perfect color matches. The sentiment on this card is from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things. I added the sentiment strip using foam tape, and finished off the card with some sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

For my second card I covered the entire card front with the back of the 05 sheet. Most of the papers in this collection have lots of images on the front, and are more plain on the back, of course with colors that coordinate. The little mouse on a unicycle is from the 02 sheet, and again I used 03 to stamp my sentiment on. This sentiment is also from My Favorite Things, it’s from the Pawty Time stamp set.

I die cut a chevron pattern from white card stock using a die from Papirdesign and adhered it directly to my patterned paper card front, before popping up the image on foam tape, and the sentiment on even more foam tape. Again I added sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix to finish the card.

Card number 3. Now, I’m not sure whether this is a cat or a tiger, but whatever he is, he’s definitely ready to party. I fussy cut him from the 02 sheet, and I used the back of the same sheet to cover the card front. Once again, I popped the image on foam tape for dimension.

I used the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Bitty Bears stamp set again, and this time I used some clear gems from the Crystal Glass collection from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to embellish.

I made the last card for today very simple. I die cut the same hole pattern as I used for the first card, only this time in white card stock for a bit of textured interest in the background. The cat is from the 05 sheet, which I used a lot of for these cards.

I added the cat using foam tape, the sentiment using more foam tape and those white sequins once again. These cards were so much fun to create, and I’ve got more in upcoming posts.

A little hello {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, everyone. I’m starting the new week with a new card, featuring the Flower Garden digital stamp from Rachelle Anne Miller.

As usual, I printed the image on X-Press It blending card and colored it in using my Copics. Once done coloring, I took the second largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things to turn it into a panel with nice faux stitching along the edges. I mounted it with foam tape onto my card base.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from InkyWings onto a tiny scrap of Raspberry Fizz card stock from Papertrey Ink. It was so small I barely even cut it smaller before adhering it to my card using Gina K foam tape, which isn’t as thick as the foam tape I used for my colored piece. I added some gems and sequins from the Iced Sherbet mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and my card was finished.

Colors. Not a lot, but some, with an added confession. I made a very similar card to this about six months back, and I’ve used the exact same colors on this one, except for one. Being a little lazy this time, I didn’t want to redo the entire graphic because of one single marker, so this graphic is one I’ve used before. The only color in there that I didn’t use for this card was E13, simply because I forgot.

Smile – it’s spring {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, everyone! I have a quick and easy card to share today, featuring Balancing Bunny from the upcoming release from Lili of the Valley. Lots of Easter themed images, which is perfect right now, don’t you think?

I colored the image in with my Copics and used partial die cutting with a die from My Favorite Things to turn it into a tall, slim panel. I stamped and white heat embossed a stamp from the Pinstripe stamp set from Altenew repeatedly on a card base I made out of Winter Wisteria card stock from Papertrey Ink, and added my colored piece in the center using foam tape. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from Papirdesign onto a scrap piece of card stock, die cut it and matted it with a white circle, before using 1 mm foam squares to pop it off the colored piece just a bit. And that finished the card for today. Super simple.

Lots of colors used for this one, for some reason.

God påske {Streamside Studios}

Hi, everyone! I have an Easter card to share today, featuring the Easter Friends slimline panel stamp from Streamside Studios. I scaled the image to fit the front of a mini slimline, and colored the image with Copics.

Soft, pastel colors throughout this one. I die cut the panel into a rectangle by doing partial die cutting twice with a stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things. I don’t have any dies for mini slimline cards, but partial die cutting definitely works.

I added the panel to a card base made from Lavender Moon card stock from Papertrey Ink. I die cut God påske (die from Papirdesign) four times; three from white card stock and once from Lavender Moon. I stacked them and centered my dimensional die cut as best I could above the image, before finishing off with some sequins from the White Orchid Sequin Mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I love her mixes, they’re awesome!

My light Copic palette shouldn’t come as a surprise, pastels and spring go hand in hand.

Just saying hi {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, eveyone! The dumping of snow we got yesterday doesn’t stop me from wanting spring and summer, and my remedy tends to be on the colorful side. This card is so bright you might actually need sunglasses.

I colored up Dinosaur from Rachelle Anne Miller, and this bright green is definitely one that you notice! The dinosaur actually reminded me of Littlefoot, and for some reason, I thought that he was green (he’s not, but Spike and Ducky are!). I die cut my colored piece down to a faux stitched rectangle using a die from My Favorite Things, before heat embossing a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment in white onto my colored ground.

I added two layers of cardstock behind my colored piece, so it would stand out a little from my Limelight card base (colored card stock from My Favorite Things).

I added some vellum clouds on tiny pieces of foam tape, so it looks like the dinosaur’s neck is really long, I thought that was a fun little detail to add. Placed some enamel dots from Papirdesign in strategic places to cover the foam tape, and made an envelope from Papirdesign patterned paper using the A2 V flap envelope dies from Simon Says Stamp for the card to go in.

Bright, bold Copics!

God påske {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, everyone! We’ve reached March and the first of three glorious spring months. The weather’s getting warmer, and I took advantage big time by going on a hike for a couple of hours. About 10 kilometers and 14,000 steps, and it felt sooo good to get out. Before that, though, I colored and created a card using one of the images in the upcoming release from Lili of the Valley. Bunny Hugs is such a cute image, and I decided to make an Easter card. Easter cards aren’t really a thing in Norway, but I thought the big bunny was perfect for Easter.

I wanted a soft look to this, but at the same time, I also wanted to change things up a bit. I went with a darker skin tone than I normally do, and I really wanted a soft yellow bunny. I printed the image onto a piece of X-Press It blending card cut to 3×6″ for a mini slimline card. I adhered it to a card base I made from Lemon Tart card stock from Papertrey Ink with a 1/8″ border. I used the same color card stock to die cut “God påske” (Happy Easter in Norwegian) using a die from Papirdesign. I stacked three die cuts on top of each other and used a sparkle shimmer spray from Imagine to add lots of shimmer to the die cut. It has a really nice shimmer in real life, even though you can’t see it in the photo. To finish off the card I added a few sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Part of me can’t believe I used five different greens for this one, but that tiny green heart? They all fit in there!

It’s the most magical time of the year {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, everyone! Hope you’ve had a great weekend. I thought I’d share with you a gift tag before we get to a new week and a new month tomorrow. I sat down to color Flannel the racoon from Purple Onion Designs, and a friend of mine suggested pink and silver for a color combo. Not my go tos for Christmas (well, silver kind of is), but I had so much fun with this. I always do when she suggests colors for me.

I went with a really bright pink, colored in the image with my Copics and did some serious fussy cutting, before adding 1 mm foam squares to the back. I also stamped one of the sentiments from the Holiday Blurbs II set using Hibiscus Burst ink from Papertrey Ink, fussy cut it leaving a thin white border and added 1 mm foam squares to the back. I even added some sparkly sheer shimmer spray to the raccoon. He’s very sparkly and shimmery in real life, even though the camera couldn’t quite capture it.

From a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock, I used the largest of the dies in the Stitched Traditional Tag STAX die set from My Favorite Things, masked off a curved line towards the bottom and ink blended a gray sky using Charcoal, Soft Granite and Wet Cement ink from Hero Arts, as well as Soft Stone ink from Papertrey Ink. The Charcoal is fairly dark, but the Soft Stone super soft, giving a nice gradient feel. I sprinked on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous and heated the tag from behind to melt the granules for a snowy effect on my background.

Going direct to paper, I colored a scrap of Bristol Smooth with the Hibiscus Burst ink pad that I used for the sentiment, before using one of the tiny dies in the Tag Builder Blueprints 6 die set from My Favorite Things to create my reinforcement piece. I think the faux stitching on the circle matches the stitching on the tag perfectly, one of many reasons why I love my MFT dies, they’re so awesome to mix and match. I added a bit of Cotton Candy twine from Whisker Graphics and a charm from my stash near the top to complete the tag.

Not a lot of colors for this one, but I did my best to make the pink really pop against the other colors.