Hi, everyone! I’ve got another wintery birthday card to share today, featuring this adorable mouse Holly from Purple Onion Designs. Isn’t she the cutest? My favorite part is actually her socks, such a genius idea from Stacey to put socks on her feet. It’s all in the details.
My sister’s birthday’s in a few weeks, and I thought this was the perfect card for her. She used to have the nickname “musa” (the mouse) when we were kids. Our cousin, a few months younger, was also quite a bit bigger, earning her the nickname “rotta” (the rat). Of the two, I think my sister got the better nickname.
This card was a bit of an evolution, and is not what I’d call my typical style After I’d colored the image, I had the idea to use this Framed Greetings Cover-Up die from My Favorite Things, but when it was time to actually create the card, I was out of ideas. I die cut the cover frame from Blueberry card stock from My Favorite Things, and was still stuck. Finding the Winter Days Confetti mix from Pretty Pink Posh in my stash led me to the shaker card idea, which, in turn, led me to the Summer Splash card base to match the confetti. An idea was born.
I die cut the frame five more times, cutting away the interior pieces and stacking the frames to form the walls of my shaker. The frame is quite thin, so I didn’t trust myself enough with a ruler and a craft knife to create five identical frames. Die cutting seemed safer and quicker. I’ve kept all the pieces and am planning on using them in the future for a card or two.
Once everything was cut, I was stuck again. I was originally going to make this a portrait oriented card, they’re definitely my “go to”, but I struggled with finding a sentiment. I realized that if I rotated my card to be a landscape card, the “Happy birthday” letters from the Slimline Scallop Frame die set from Simon Says Stamp would fit the width of the card perfectly. I die cut two layers from white card stock, and one layer from X-Press It that I’d colored with the same colors I used for the ears of the mouse. The pink pops against the teal and blue in the background.
There’s quite a bit of dimension in this. Card base, five layers of walls for the shaker, a piece of acetate, die cut cover frame on top, then three layers of letters. Dimension is life!
Limited color palette with such a small image.
I didn’t have any birthday sentiment dies that fit my slimline plan, but this Stacked Merry die from My Favorite Things was perfect. I die cut four from white card stock and stacked them for a dimensional look, before adding embossing powder on top and heat embossing for a shine that matches the embossed snow in the background. I stamped “& bright” from the 
I used quite a few colors for this very simple image. Building color to create contrast is key when doing no line coloring, and the first 7 markers in this graphic were all used for the snow. It might be difficult to tell from the photo, but the orange combo I used for carrot is different than the combo I used for the scarf and pocket, which isn’t as bright a combo in real life.
I stamped 
I used one of the Precious Polaroids dies from My Favorite Things, as well as a wishes die from Mama Elephant. I die cut both four times from Blue Yonder card stock from My Favorite Things and stacked them for a dimensional look. Directly onto the card base, I used a blender brush from Taylored Expressions with Classic Kraft ink from Papertrey Ink over a Tim Holtz mini layering stencil to create some interest in the background. I stamped selected words from two sentiments from the 
I’m woefully short on envelopes to fit A2 cards, and definitely didn’t have any blue, kraft or white ones to go with my card, so I pulled out my A2 V Flap Envelope dies from Simon Says Stamp and created one using scraps of patterned paper from Papirdesign. Blue with snowflakes, can you get any better for a blue, wintery birthday card?
Very limited color palette this time, but it’s no wonder given the size of the image. I also used B90 for the hat, which is a color I’ve made myself.
I started by coloring my image. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do when I started, so I lightly traced a circle and colored everything inside. Using a peachy pink combo with the fairly light blue helps sell the idea of this not being a holiday card.
Once the image was all colored up, I took the same die that I’d used to trace my coloring area to die cut circle windows in four panels of white card stock, before adhering them together for a dimensional look, making sure the window was in the same spot on each of them. I used the Detail Ringlet Plate from Simon Says Stamp to die cut from another piece of white card stock. Lining up the circle once more, I die cut a window from this layer, trimmed 1/8″ off from each side and added it to the stack of die cuts I already had. I glued the colored piece behind the window, and adhered everything onto a card base made out of Berry Sorbet card stock from Papertrey Ink.
Using the Happy Birthday Brush Script die from Simon Says Stamp, I die cut three pieces from white card stock and one from a piece of X-Press It that I’d colored with the same peachy pink Copic combo that I used on my image. I glued all four pieces together for a dimensional look, and used a shimmer spray on top for some sparkle, before adhering the stacked die cut to the front of the card, before adding a few blue enamel dots from Papirdesign as a finishing touch. I didn’t have a colored envelope to match, so I used a white one from My Favorite Things instead.
Not a whole lot of colors for this one. I have, however, used quite a few colors to color in the snow. B41 was used for the sky, but the rest of those light blues, the BV20 and the BG0000 were all used for the snow, as well as the blender. For the sky I also used B40, which is a color I’ve made myself.
I love the no line look, and it’s really no more difficult than coloring with lines. In a way, it’s actually easier, because no one can tell if you went outside the lines a bit! I used a white gelly roll pen to add back in some details in the various scarves.
Here are the 
Here’s 
I stamped a sentiment from the 
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of penguins and polar bears, and even though their habitats are on opposite sides of the globe, they’ve come together for this card. I mean look at them; that cute cub with a scarf and hat and that penguin sitting on a present with a candy cane in his hand – just too cute to pass up.
The little polar bear’s name is 
Here’s a bit of a closeup. I swear the bear has some color, even though he looks very one dimensional here. I stamped a sentiment from the 
Once I finished my coloring, I took the largest of my A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX dies from My Favorite Things to create a nice edge on my scene. I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous, heating the panel from the back until the granules melted. I glued my panel straight onto a top folding card base I made out of Papertrey Ink Blueberry Sky cardstock.
The 
Whenever I have background elements, I pretty much always start with those, and today was no different. I colored in the snow first, both on the roofs and on the ground, before coloring the sky and then the building.
After I’d also colored in the fox, the mailbox and the penguin, I added a sentiment from the 
Plenty of colors used, but there are a lot of images in this one.
I wanted to create a scene with a couple of the cute critters (
When you open the card, the sky’s still there, but below it are the 
I also stamped a sentiment from the new 
In this photo, you can see that there’s another layer of the card behind this panel with the singing critters.
Papirmølla 