Hello friend! {Purple Onion Designs}

July 25, 2021July 22, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have a fun slimline card to share today, featuring the Up and Away stamp from Purple Onion Designs. Photographing slimline cards is still something I find very tricky, but this image was begging for a slimline design, and if I don’t practice taking photos of slimline cards, I’ll never get better at it, right?

I stamped the image using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things onto X-Press It blending card and colored it with my Copics before fussy cutting right up against the black lines. I even cut off the strings of the image, but I made little marks on the back of where they were, so I could add some black sewing thread as strings instead.

I used the Slim Film City die set from Mama Elephant to create my background. I die cut the sky from Blue Breeze cardstock and used the Slimline Cloud Edges stencil and the Rolling Clouds stencil, both from MFT, along with some Lazy Day ink, also from MFT, to create my clouds. I even splattered a little bit of the ink on top for added interest. For the skyline I die cut three layers from Gravel Gray cardstock from My Favorite Things. I heat embossed a sentiment from the Sweet SUMMER Sentiment Set from Purple Onion onto the top layer of my skyline and added a few sparkling clear sequins around it.

I used 1 mm foam squares behind my hot air balloon, and decided I wanted even more dimension and interest, so I die cut a couple of clouds from vellum, using a set of dies from Papertrey Ink. I glued the vellum clouds onto my card in very strategic spots, and used more sequins to cover up the glue. Little trick of the trade.

I used a lot of colors for this balloon!

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 {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.

Showering you with birthday wishes {Purple Onion Designs}

June 20, 2021June 20, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi! I have a simple, yet colorful birthday card to share today, featuring the Confetti Celebration stamp set from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Julian Charlton.

I love Elliot & Marcel, they’re such a cute pair, and so full of character!! These two don’t have a ton of detail to them, making them quick and easy to color. If detailed coloring isn’t your thing, these stamps are a great option. I colored my elephant and monkey (and umbrella and confetti) using my Copics, and I didn’t even ground these. I did, however die cut them into a panel using the largest of my A2 stitched rectangles dies from My Favorite Things.

I adhered my colored panel onto a top fold card base I made from Lush Lagoon card stock from My Favorite Things, and added a second white panel with faux stitching to the inside of the card, giving me plenty of space to write a personal message to the recipient.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Confetti Celebration stamp set onto a separate piece of Lush Lagoon card stock and decided to cut it up, leaving out the word birthday entirely and using a die from My Favorite Things to create die cut letters instead. I used the Big Birthday Wishes die, and die cut it three times from white card stock and once from a silver glitter card stock.

I stacked my letters for a dimensional look, glued them to my card and added the rest of the sentiment above and below my die cut word. The wonky angles I used for the sentiment goes well with the playful look of the image and adds a little bit of visual interest.

To finish off the card I added a few enamel dots from Papirdesign that match the colors I used for the confetti and the umbrella.

Very simple use of Copics for this one. With such a fun, simple image, you really don’t need much.

Hello {Purple Onion Designs}

June 11, 2021June 11, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I hope you’ve had a good week so far. Summer’s finally here, and I for one couldn’t be happier about it. More sunlight, warmer weather and looooong days (sunrise before 4 AM and sunset around 11 PM right now). When the weather gets warmer, we always see more planes in the air. Not commercial flights, but smaller planer and seaplanes (we’re on a fjord). I love this time of year and seeing all these cute (can planes be cute?) planes, and I thought this T-bird image from Purple Onion Designs was the perfect image to represent the season.

I used reds, yellows and oranges for my image, colors I definitely don’t use a lot, but I thought it would be a nice contrast to the ink blended cloud background and my gray skyscraper skyline. I stamped the T-Bird and the banner on one piece of X-Press It blending card, wanting the two images to look like one. I fussy cut them and stamped hello from the Journey sentiment set onto the banner, before mounting the plane and banner on 1/16″ foam tape. For the background I used the slimline cloud edges stencil from My Favorite Things along with Eastern Sky ink from Altenew which I ink blended onto a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock that I’d die cut using one of the dies from the Slimline Starter die set from My Favorite Things. I used the same die on a piece of Gravel Gray cardstock from MFT to get the nice faux stitched edge going all the way around my card and a die in the Slim Film City die set from Mama Elephant to create the skyline. Everything’s adhered onto a top fold slimline card base that I made out of Red Hot cardstock from My Favorite Things.

Doesn’t this bear look cute in his plane?? I stamped and white heat embossed some clouds onto vellum and adhered them using slivers of clear foam tape behind the white embossed lines. It would have been easier to glue them straight onto the card, but I like a bit of dimension, which is tricky with vellum, because pretty much everything shows through. The white embossed lines hide my foam tape pretty well.

Like I said initially, these warm colors aren’t the ones that I reach for the most, but I love how they pop against the ink blended clouds and skyline in the background.

Get happy! {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

June 9, 2021June 9, 2021 Elin1 Comment

Hi, there! Today, I have a bright, sunshiny card to share featuring the We Go Together image from Mo Manning. I shared the colored image on Instagram a couple of months back, and for the card I wanted to feature the one color out of the four main ones (blue, teal, pinky peach and yellow) that I use the least. That’s definitely yellow, so I pulled out yellow cardstock, patterned paper, ink and enamel dots.

I cut the colored piece down more than I normally would to let quite a bit of the yellow patterned paper from Papirdesign show around my image, and mounted my die cut colored piece on foam tape in the center of the card. I adhered pieces of a mini paper doily from Doodlebug to opposite corners of my die cut piece for a little bit of added texture and interest.

Onto a scrap piece of X-Press It blending card I stamped a sentiment from the Journey sentiment set from Purple Onion Designs using Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide ink. I love how well the Distress Oxide inks stamp. I cut it down to a strip using the medium sized die in the fishtail flag frames die set from My Favorite Things, and added it to the card using foam tape and foam squares. To finish off I added three enamel dots from the Pocketful of Sunshine pack from Altenew.

Quite a few Copics on this one, I rarely feature four different colors in one piece.

Waving hello {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

June 7, 2021June 14, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! Today I have a sneak peek to share of one of the new images coming from Rachelle Anne Miller later this week. It’s a hot air balloon, and I actually saw one outside my craft room window a couple of weeks ago. They’re not too common around here.

I printed the image on X-Press It blending card, colored it with my Copics and die cut it into a panel using the largest of the dies from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things. I adhered it to a card base I made from Wild Wisteria card stock from My Favorite Things and went digging through my stash looking for the perfect sentiment.

The girl in the basket is definitely waving hello to the little bird on the outside, so I decided to use this sentiment from Purple Onion Designs. I white heat embossed it onto a separate piece of Wild Wisteria card stock, cut it down to a strip with a nice end using the medium size of the fishtail flag frames dies from My Favorite Things and adhered it to my card using 1 mm foam squares. I finished off the card with a few sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

Not a lot of Copics for this one, this image was quick and easy to color. The first thing I colored was actually the bird using those blues, but once the rest of the image was colored too, he really stood out, so I put some pinkish purple on top of the blue.

Mr. Fixit {Purple Onion Designs}

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I’ve got a simple card with some dimension and fussy cutting to share today, featuring a couple of stamps from the latest release from Stacey Yacula and Purple Onion Designs.

I started by stamping Milton the bear and the ivy cottage in Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, coloring in both images with my Copics. I fussy cut both right up to the stamped lines, and used a die from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 set from MFT to do some partial die cutting of the cottage. I wanted the foreground to have that nice stitched edge, but not cut off the tree – partial die cutting is great for that.

On a piece of white cardstock, I used the cloud stencil from My Favorite Things to ink blend some puffy clouds with Iceberg ink from Altenew. I die cut this panel with that same die that I used for the ivy cottage, adhered it directly onto a white top fold card base, and mounted the ivy cottage onto that using 1 mm foam squares. I added Milton on top with more 1 mm foam squares, stamped a sentiment from the Around the Town sentiment set using Soft Granite ink from Hero Arts, and added the sentiment towards the top of the card using foam tape. I adhered a few sequins from the white orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish my card. I need to create a slightly bigger envelope than usual for this card. The tree hanging out from the edge means it won’t fit in a standard envelope for A2 cards.

Not a whole lot of Copics for this one. Lots of green, though.

Hang in there {Purple Onion Designs}

May 20, 2021May 20, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I have a very clean and simple card to share today, featuring some more stamps from the latest release from Stacey Yacula and Purple Onion Designs.

I thought the Hang in there sentiment from the Around the Town sentiment set (also new with this release) would be the perfect accompaniment to the clothes line. I could have kept my card even simpler by not adding anything else to it, but I wanted to create a little scene. I stamped Jane the fox waving hello at the very front and added in one of the stamps from the country flowers set to fill out my scene a little. They match the little sprigs at the bottom of the clothes line perfectly. I stamped the countryside horizon towards the top of my panel and colored everything with my Copics.

Once my entire scene was colored, I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles dies from My Favorite Things to turn it into a panel with a nice faux stitch egde and adhered it to a top fold white card base. I stamped the sentiment using Blueberry Sky ink from Papertrey Ink, die cutting it into a nice banner using one of the dies in the Fishtail Flag Frames die set from My Favorite Things. I adhered it to my card using foam tape and added some blue enamel dots from Papirdesign to finish.

I’ve colored a lot of scenery for the cards I’ve made with this release, and wanted to get a different green look for the grass and trees for this card compared to the others, which have all been fairly bright. This is a more subdued green, I kind of like it.

Best news ever! {Purple Onion Designs}

May 17, 2021May 17, 2021 ElinLeave a comment

Hi, there! I’m sharing a shaker card today, featuring Alex the owl from Purple Onion Designs. He’s got good news to share!

I colored the image with Copics and set it aside while I worked on the rest of the card. On a piece of white card stock, I used the Linen & Canvas impression plate from Papertrey Ink to add texture to all that white space, before using the Selfie Square die and the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles dies from My Favorite Things to add the faux stitching around the edge and also to frame the window.

I added acetate in the window and put micro beads inside, before mounting it all on foam tape and adhering it to a top fold card base I made from New Leaf cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Around the Town sentiment set onto a scrap of New Leaf cardstock, which I die cut using the smallest of the Fishtail Flag Frames dies from My Favorite Things. I finished off the card with a few green enamel dots from Papirdesign.