Hi, crafty friends. I have a couple of gift tags to share today, featuring two adorably quirky characters designed by Shari Bresciani for Purple Onion Designs.
Meet Kale and Flo. Aren’t they the funniest? There’s something about the way Shari’s able to create these goofy expressions on their faces that cracks me up.
I paired them with sentiments from the Holiday Blurbs II set, and stamped the green one using Jalapeño Popper and Sour Apple inks, both from My Favorite Things. I used Poppin’ Pink, also from MFT, for the pink one.
There are some differences between these. Kale is stamped and colored on the tag, while Flo is fussy cut and popped up. I used similar techniques for the background, but kept a lot of the same elements across both tags.
For Kale, I masked him off and ink blended around him using Coral Bliss and Pink Pearl inks from Altenew, as well as Scattered Straw Distress ink. I used the largest die in the Stitched Traditional Tag STAX set from My Favorite Things to turn him into a tag and then used the Falling Snow stencil from Simon Says Stamp with Light & Fluffy Modeling Paste from The Crafter’s Workshop to create snow coming down. I used Snowfall Grit-Paste from Ranger at the bottom of the tag and sprinkled on Rock Candy distress glitter before the paste dried. I then added a snowflake charm and some ribbon at the top of the tag and tied it together with Cotton Candy twine from Whisker Graphics.
On the back of the tag I did soft ink blending using the same colors and stamped a to/from stamp from the B06 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Coral Bliss ink from Altenew.
Not a lot of colors used for this adorable bunny.
I used the same tag die, stencil, paste and inks for blending on this tag, but decided to add a little extra. I die cut the Silhouette Snow Trees from Mama Elephant from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and on the trees I added Grit-Paste and Rock Candy Distress Glitter.
I let the trees dry, used liquid glue to adhere them to the tag and added Flo on top using foam tape.
I also used foam tape on the back of the speech bubble and used ribbon, a snowflake charm and some twine at the top for this one too.
Another stamp from the B06 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS on the back of this one.
I used very bright colors for Flo.
I stamped and colored the surfboard eight times, and fussy cut them all right up against the stamped lines. I put them aside while I worked on the rest of my card.
I used the Big Happy Birthday die from My Favorite Things to die cut into a 5×7″ piece of Soft Stone cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I put acetate behind it and added the counters of the letters back into place on top of the acetate, using the actual letters as placement guides, before doubling up on foam tape on the back of the cardstock for a deep shaker well.
On a piece of X-Press It blending card, I stamped the palm trees from the 
I added seven of my surfboards to the bottom of my panel and adhered it all to a top fold card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
I couldn’t fit all my surfboards on the front of the card, so I glued the last one to the inside next to a sentiment from the 
Lots of colors for this one.
I colored the image and fussy cut it right up against the black lines. When you do, you lose the cute little extra lines on the outside that is part of Rachelle’s signature, which is a bit of a shame, but for the card design I had planned, it was a necessary sacrifice. I could have kept a little white trim (and thus, the wispy lines) around the image, but I feel that would have made the image less of an integrated piece of the overall design, so I went with the close cut.
Onto the card base, I ink blended Icy Water and Winter Lake inks from Altenew to create a soft blue sky. I die cut the Winter Forest cover die from Mama Elephant from Heavyweight vellum from My Favorite Things and adhered it on top. Using the same die, I also die cut the background from a couple of colors of gray cardstock. I used Mushroom from Concord & 9th and Soft Stone from Papertrey Ink and adhered the little gray notches into the openings of my vellum trees. On parts of the lighter ones, I ink blended with Charcoal ink from Hero Arts for a little variation in my grays.
I adhered my little scene on top of the vellum trees. I glued it flat down on the edges and used 2 mm foam squares near the top of the image for some dimension. I used a black glaze pen to add some shine to their eyes, and added a white dot on top once the black was dry using a Gelly Roll 05.
I die cut the Winter Forest cover die one final time, this time from white cardstock. I cut away the trees, but kept the frame and slope near the bottom and stamped a sentiment from the Together stamp set from Purple Onion Designs using Gravel Gray ink from My Favorite Things.
This image is so sweet and can be used for a variety of occasions. Rachelle’s images always have such a cosy vibe, and this one fits perfectly with all the other images she’s illustrated.
I see I’ve forgotten to add the greens I used in my Copic graphic. They were YG17, YG03, YG01 and G40.
Meet 
I colored the scene with Copics, cropped down the panel and white heat embossed a sentiment from the coordinating sentiment set using VersaMark ink and Super fine detail embossing powder from Ranger. I added a few white dots to the wave using a Sharpie and put the panel to the side while I worked on the rest of the card.
I thought the Stitched Ripple Backdrop die from Lawn Fawn would work perfectly for a subtle wave pattern in the background. It’s a landscape oriented die and I wanted a portrait oriented card, so I die cut it twice from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, before adding colored strips along the seam for a little bit of added interest. I colored the strips with a few of the Copics I used for my scene and used a die from the Blueprints 27 die set from My Favorite Things to turn them into strips of the same width.
I mounted my scene to the center of the card using foam tape, before embellishing with sequins and raindrops from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. The sequins are from her Ice Water mix.
The finished card is a simple looking one. I love adding dimension, the sequins and raindrops work perfectly with the colors and Kalei’s making the most of her summer. I hope you are too 🙂 And if you’re in the Southern hemisphere in the middle of winter right now, I feel your pain.
I tend to go overboard whenever I color skies or water.
I packed a lot of stamps into this one card, which is actually an A6 size card (4 5/8 x 6 1/4″). Whenever I create cards with new releases from Purple Onion Designs, I let the design of the card dictate the size of the card, whatever that turns out to be.
I colored the scene with my Copics. I’d managed to overfill a marker when I refilled it, creating a big drop of blue ink on my peach colored cabana when I went to color in the window. At that point the sky, fences and beach were all colored, I only had the critters left and didn’t want to start over, so I made the fences darker and made the cabana darker too. It’s still visible, but I wanted the focus to be on the critters enjoying their time at the beach. If it had happened on a main element of my card, I probably would have started over.
I used a white Sharpie to create foam from the waves coming in, and stamped a sentiment from the coordinating 
Fairly muted color palette for this one.
Meet 
I colored in the scene with Copics, stamped the sentiment using VersaMark ink and sprinkled on Super fine detail embossing powder from Ranger, before melting in it from the back for a smooth look. Did you know that you get smoother embossed results if you use the heat gun from the back of the paper instead of the front? It makes quite a bit of difference, actually. I urge you to try it if you haven’t already.
It looks like I wrote down the Copics I used for this card in a bit of a haste, because I see I’ve left out the blues, both for the water and the jetski. I made this card at the end of May, so I don’t really remember which ones I did use, but I believe it’s the B10 family (B18, 16, 14 and 12) for the water, and the B30 family (B39, 37 and 34) for the jetski.
Meet 
Whenever I color scenes like this, I always start with the background elements. For this card, I started with the sky and sun, then colored the ocean, the sand and the palm trees, leaving the accessories and the mouse for last. These are the most colorful elements. I even opted to color the crab blue. I didn’t want it to be brown and not show up in the sand, so I decided a blue swimmer crab was a good fit for this scene. It stands out against the other elements in the foreground, but still works with the overall design, because there’s already lots of blue on the card with the ocean and sky. Three completely different blue combos, but they work together still. Also, the blue swimmer crab makes me want to move back to Australia, even though it’s winter in Australia at the moment, and soooo cold (at least winter’s cold in Adelaide, where I used to live)!
I’ve used the sunrise sunset background on more than half the cards I’ve made with this release, and I’ve tried to color it differently for each card. I love love love the versatility of this stamp, and never in a million years did I guess in advance that this would wind up being my favorite stamp of them all, but there you go. It’s just THAT good.
To finish off the card, I stamped a sentiment from the coordinating 
Lots of colors used for this one, and I realize I’ve even left out a few in my graphic. I used W3, W1 and W00 for the mouse, in addition to R21 and R000 for his cheek and ears.
This time, I made a birthday card. I stamped and masked 
I had the scene all figured out, but struggled with the colors for this one. I’m usually confident in my color choices, but had a hard time with this card. I didn’t want to repeat the color combinations I’d used for the cards I’d already made using stamps from this release, and the combo I tried just didn’t work with the bright aqua. The door, windows and the trim of the beach house all have so many layers of different colors, and the end result is a mottled, rusty look. The rusty look, while not what I was going for, is cool, and I leaned into it by coloring one of the birds in the same color, as well as Iris’ skirt.
The end result is more of a fall vibe than a summer feel, but some people still go to the beach late in the season, and little Iris looks like she’s running away, so that part at least feels appropriate.
To finish off the card I stamped a sentiment from the coordinating 
Fairly limited color palette, actually, considering how many colors I tried for the beach house trim.
I wanted a bit of a dramatic sunset for this card, and also for the critters (
I adhered my colored panel to a card base I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, stamped a sentiment from the 
Lots of colors for this one.
I did a ton of masking for this card. I love creating stories in my head with these images, then stamping them and making them come to life. 
I colored in my scene using Copics, then stamped the 
I used a lot of colors for this card.
Papirmølla 