Merry Christmas {Rachelle Anne Miller Studios}

Hi, everyone!

I’ve got a pretty clean and simple card to share with you today. Some coloring, blue cardstock, a die set and some snowdrift sprinkles were all I used on this one.

I started by printing my little snowman scene from Rachelle Anne Miller onto X-Press It blending card, before coloring with Copics. I then used the shadow die from a die set from Papirdesign to partially die cut the shadow at the bottom of my scene. I trimmed off about 1/16″ on either side and glued it straight onto a card base made from Enchanted Evening cardstock from Papertrey Ink that I’d trimmed down to 4 1/8″ wide.

I die cut god jul (Merry Christmas in Norwegian) three times from the same color cardstock and stacked them for dimension, before adding the final touch of a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

I used quite a few colors to color in this image. This was my first try at creating a glow in an image, and as far as first attempts go, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

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.

Merry… penguins? {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi, everyone!

Another Wednesday, and another Mo Manning creation around here. This time I’ve made a slimline card featuring the 3 Penguin Chicks stamp set, which is one of the newer ones, and those penguins are a must have, don’t you think? Slimline cards are tricky to photograph, and I need heaps of practice, but I did my best. After printing and die cutting my image, I went in with mostly gray Copics and colored in my little penguins. Pat has colored up the sample in the store, and while hers is light grey on the bodies of the penguins, I wanted to create a really textured look on mine, so these are a lot darker.

I used a little bit of color for their cheeks, the snowballs and also the sky around them, but that was it. I stamped a Norsk Stempelblad AS Christmas sentiment onto one of the snowballs using Papertrey Ink Blueberry Sky ink and glued my panel onto a card base of that same Blueberry Sky color. I finished my card by adding a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Like I said, I mostly used grays for this image. Here are most of the colors I used. I also used BG71, which is a color I’ve made myself.

Merry Christmas

Hi, everyone! I know you’re thinking it’s too soon, Christmas is still four months away, but I like getting my Christmas cards started early, so I’m not swamped when November comes around and there’s enough to get done as it is.

Today, I’ve got snowmen for you. I colored up these snowmen from Mama Elephant for Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge… in June last year. I wasn’t able to do all 30 days of that round of the challenge because of a shoulder fracture, but I got a few days in before I had to throw in the towel. Blue Christmas cards are my weakness, so I colored in all the accessories for the snowmen in the stamp set using blues and browns.

I fussy cut my snowmen and made myself a little sketch, to make the actual cardmaking process easier. I find sketches help make me more productive. I used the Tag Builder Blueprint 5 die set from My Favorite Things to create my frames, and layered 3 diecuts together on each of the four frames to make them more dimensional. I kept the interior pieces to use with the remaining snowmen for an additional two cards. I dry embossed my cardbase using the Falling Snow stencil from Simon Says Stamp. It’s not easy for the camera to pick up in photos, but there’s a subtle bit of texture to the background.

I glued a panel of Enchanted Evening cardstock from Papertrey Ink straight onto the card front using doublesided tape, and stamped my sentiment repeatedly next to it using Enchanted Evening ink, also from Papertrey Ink. The stamp itself is from Norsk Stempelblad AS. I glued my frames down onto the blue background in a wonky, whimsical arrangement, mounted my little snowmen inside each frame using 1 mm foam squares and embellished very simply with snowflake sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

You’re the best! {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi, everyone!

I feel like every other day is Wednesday, and today’s another one. Time just goes by so incredibly quickly, it’s hard to keep up and keep track of the weekdays. I colored up Mona from Mo’s Digital Pencil on Saturday, that much I know. I’ve now turned her into a happy card. I diecut a panel with my image as I often do using the largest of the Stitched Rectangle STAX Set 2 dies from My Favorite Things, it’s probably the one die I use the most out of all the dies I own. I used double sided tape to glue it to a cardbase, which I made from Ocean Tides cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I haven’t made one of my cluster cards in quite some time, but I really enjoy the process of putting these clusters together, so I decided to do it for this card. It’s a great way to use some patterned paper scraps, and one of these patterned papers is actually from 2007! It’s from Autumn Leaves. Remember them? I think it’s been a while since they ceased to exist. Now, when you go to autumleaves.com, you get to a site for assisted living communities for those with dementia. It’s a Texas based company, and definitely not a maker of pretty patterned paper. The other papers I’ve used are also what we’d call old in the card making world, the yellow one is from My Mind’s Eye and was released in 2011, and the remaining two were both released in 2013, they’re from Maja Design and Inkido, respectively.

I use a couple of different dies to make these clusters, I make the banners using the Fishtail Flag Frames set from My Favorite Things, and I use the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from Xcut for all those tickets. It’s one die that cuts nine different tickets, and I love that I get that many from one run through my diecutting machine. I mounted some of my diecut pieces on 1 mm foam tape, and glued others down using just double sided tape. Behind the whole thing I put half a mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design. I used the other half for the card I posted yesterday. On top I added a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS stamped in Ocean Tides ink from Papertrey Ink. I mounted that on foam squares, and tripled up the foam squares on the left side of the banner. Finished off with a few pink dots from Papirdesign.

I have so many tickets left over, and with this kind of cluster you don’t even use whole pieces for all of it, so I have the off cuts from some of these also. I added half a ticket in the bottom left corner, too, and glued another dot on top. And that finishes my card for today.

I leave you with the colors I used for the adorable little girl. Not too many today.

Hope your birthday is on POINT! {Streamside Studios}

Hi, everyone!

I’ve got a clean and simple card to share today, featuring some very colorful pots of cacti from Streamside Studios.

“Elin goes overboard with coloring” is a common theme around here, and I used 50 Copic colors to create this little scene. I wanted to keep the focus on the colorful image, so I used a stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things to diecut my panel and mounted it on Smokey Shadow cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I added a couple of pieces of a mini doily from Doodlebug to opposite corners to soften the look a little bit, before popping up a sentiment from the stamp set onto black foam tape from Gina K.

All I did for embellishments was add a couple of sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh, and my card was complete.

These are 49 of the 50 Copics I used to color my image. I also used BG71, which is a color I’ve made myself.

It’s Pawty Time! {Hobbykunst}

Hi, everyone!

How about a clean and simple birthday card?

I colored up this cute dog and present from My Favorite Things a few days ago, and used a color palette that’s very unusual for me. I decided to keep focusing on the green and glued a piece of patterned paper from the Party Patterns paper pad (also from MFT) straight to my cardbase.

I ran a white cardstock panel through my Gemini Jr with an embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers to create some texture in the background. I mounted it on foam tape and centered it on my card front, before adding my colored image with some 1 mm foam squares for even more dimension.

I white heat embossed a sentiment from the same stamp set onto True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink, mounted that on more foam tape and added some sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh for a finishing touch.

Time for balloons and soda {Rachelle Anne Miller Studios}

Hi, everyone!

I’ve got a cute birthday card to share today, featuring the adorable Animal Parade image from Rachelle Anne Miller. I simply had to have it, it was way too cute to pass up. I went with a color combination of brown, grayish green and a bright, in your face pink. That pink really stands out against the other, more subdued colors.

I wanted most of the focus on the cute little parade, so I kept the rest pretty simple. I made a cardbase from Hibiscus Burst cardstock from Papertrey Ink. It matches the pinks in my image perfectly. I used a die from Kort & Godt to diecut the main sentiment from four layers of the same color cardstock, layering them for a dimensional effect.

I white heat embossed a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment (time for balloons and soda) onto Stormy Sea cardstock (also from Papertrey Ink). I stacked four layers on this one too, making the sub sentiment flush with the diecut word.

I added a couple of matte gold sequins from the Mint Gold sequins mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards as a finishing touch. They sort of match the cymbals the tiny squirrel is holding, and also the drumsticks. Simple, bright and cheerful. If this birthday card doesn’t put a smile on someone’s face, I don’t know what will.

I leave you with the colors I used for this image. Not really a whole lot for this one.

Wishing you a happy day {Hobbykunst}

Hi, everyone!

I’ve got some florals coming your way today.

The Statement Flowers from Altenew really do make a statement, and during the last round of Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge, I decided to stamp and color them using the no line technique. I inked up the stamp using fadeout ink from Inkon3 and colored with my Copics. I used my lightest BVs for the flowers.

I wanted something in the background, but nothing too distracting. White on white is such a classic look, and I diecut both the Layered Snowflake cover dies from Altenew (there’s an A die and a B die), stacked them on top of each other and glued them to my cardbase.

I fussy cut around my colored image and mounted it on foam tape. This image is quite large, and even though there’s a lot of detail in the image, it’s very easy to fussy cut. I mounted it on a bit of an angle, making the leaves stick out from both sides of the card. I also white heat embossed a sentiment from the same stamps set on black cardstock and added that to my design.

My last finishing touch was a few sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. Some of them tucked, in true Laura Bassen style, and I even used my scissors on one.

Julehilsen {Mo’s Dream Team}

Hi, everyone!

I colored up Winter Present for day 22 of Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day challenge on Instagram and made a simple Christmas card with it.

I used the largest of the faux stitch rectangle dies from My Favorite Things to create a nice edge for my panel. I mounted it to a cardbase I made from Soft Stone cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I dug through my scrap stash of Christmas themed patterned paper and got really lucky with part of a diecut ticket and some pine branches.

I made a little cluster starting with half a Doodlebug mini paper doily, then the partial ticket stub and the pine branches. I found a fitting sentiment on the bottom of a piece of patterned paper from Papirdesign, so I cut that bit out and added foam tape behind it. I finished the card with a few snowflake sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.