Candles {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a simple, almost one layer card to share with you today, featuring Candles from Lili of the Valley. This image is so cute with the bear peeking out from behind the line of candles.

I printed the image fairly large and chose a summery color palette of hot pink, apple green and bright yellow. I colored the image with Copics and used the largest die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower to turn it into a nice rectangular panel. I put the panel in my MISTI, and used the A06 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS to stamp sentiments on the plain candles. I used Jalapeño Popper ink from My Favorite Things for the green candles, Raspberry Fizz ink from Papertrey Ink for the pink candles and Spiced Marmalade distress ink from Ranger for the yellow candle, with a little bit of help from VersaMark to prevent the distress ink from beading up on the photopolymer.

Once all my stamping was done, I adhered the panel onto a black card base I created from True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I also die cut a panel to go on the inside from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink for a place to write my personal greeting. I used my black Glaze pen from Sakura to create a little bit of shine to the eyes and the nose of the bear, and added sequins from the Seashore and Iced Sherbet mixes from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards for a finishing touch.

Simple color palette for this one 🙂

Aloha {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. Summer has FINALLY arrived. It’s warm, it’s sunny and I’m loving every minute of it. Another arrival today is the new release from Purple Onion Designs. Charmed by the sea is a massive collection of stamps in Stacey Yacula’s signature style, and I’ve had the best time creating cards with this release.

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. Kai (fox surfer) and Mimi (hedgehog with cocktail) are meeting in front of the tiki hut.  I used the surf board and beach sign from the beach accessories set, stamped the tiki torch in a few places and masked everything before stamping the Sunrise Sunset stamp using fadeout ink from Inkon3 for a no line look in the background. I love that sunrise sunset stamp, and have used it for many of my cards, but they all look very different.

I colored in my scene using Copics, then stamped the Aloha greeting from the sentiment set using Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide ink.

I used a lot of colors for this card.

In the Purple Onion Designs store, there’s a special bundle price for a limited time.  The entire 34 stamp collection and coordinating sentiment set can be purchased as a bundle with over a 30% discount until Thursday, June 29th.  That’s a huge discount on a huge release, and definitely worth checking out.

There’s also free shipping over $75 on US orders (no code needed) & $10.00 off international shipping on orders over $85.00, use code SAVE10 at checkout.

Enjoy your day {Kort & Godt}

Hi, crafty friends! I’m back today with a clean and simple birthday card featuring some Kort & Godt goodies.

I used a banner die with faux stitching to create a shaped card. This banner die is about 4″ wide, making it the perfect size for a decent size card. I used partial die cutting to create the card base, but die cut a separate piece that I used for my ink blending, which I then adhered to the card base once finished.

I used the Big Balloon stencil set from My Favorite Things to create my balloons, and used Distress Inks for my ink blending. Faded Jeans, Mermaid Lagoon and Salty Ocean for the blue balloon, Picked Raspberry for the pink balloon and Mustard Seed and Squeezed Lemonade for the yellow balloon. Where they overlap, they create new colors, which is half the fun of ink blending, right? With the balloon stencil still in place, I added the Falling Stars stencil from Simon Says Stamp on top and ink blended white stars onto the balloons using Fresh Snow hybrid ink from Papertrey Ink.

I stamped a sentiment onto the front using Obsidian ink from Altenew and added a stacked die cut HURRA above it. I layered six black die cuts, before adding this glitter one on top and finished off the card with a few black pearls.

Treat yourself {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, crafty friends! I haven’t shared one of my “signature cluster” cards in a while, so I thought it was about time. I thought the Cupcake Thief image from Mo’s Digital Pencil would be perfect for the occasion, and by opting for a black dress, I could pair the image with a recently acquired black and white patterned paper pad that I’ve wanted to use for a while.

This is Cupcake Thief. I’ve used the image once before. This time, I flipped it so she’s facing right, it’s one of the many advantages of using digital stamps. I colored her with Copics and cut my panel down to a width of 3 1/2″. I put it aside, covered a white card base with the black and white plaid patterned paper from My Favorite Things, then mounted the colored panel on foam tape, leaving a little bit of the patterned paper showing on one side, and more showing on the other.

On my desk, I keep storage pockets of die cut patterned paper scraps that I use on my cards. I keep them organized by color family, and pulled out the pink, orange and yellow ones for this, as well as a grey/white/neutral one. The great thing about this system is that everything’s already die cut (using the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut [which cuts 9 different tickets with one die] and the Fishtail Flag Frames die set from My Favorite Things), so I just play with sizes, colors and composition of the different pieces until I’m happy with the result. For this particular card I used a combo of patterned papers from Sunny Studio, P13 and Bo Bunny. Onto one of the die cut banners I stamped a sentiment from the Little Birthday Notes stamp set from My Favorite Things using Obsidian ink from Altenew. I finished off the card with a few sequins from the Sweet Shop mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards and some Stardust Stickles to the dress.

Quite a few Copics for this one. I also used B90, which is a color I’ve made myself, for a subtle hint of a sky.

It’s your birthday! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m sharing a fun birthday card today, featuring a few images from Purple Onion Designs. Dotty is as adorable as all of Stacey Yacula’s other critters, I just love her illustration style so much. This particular mouse has her arms out, making her the perfect choice if you want her holding something. I chose the balloons from the Balloon Trio & Streamer set, making sure the knot holding all the balloons together is in her hands. I stamped both the balloons and the cute little mouse using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, and stamped The Perfect Spot behind them using Fadeout ink from Inkon3.

I colored the scene with Copics, then used The Perfect Spot again to stamp on white cardstock (Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink, my favorite white cardstock), this time using Memento Espresso Truffle ink. I wanted this to be more visible than the background without being stark black, and this color is perfect. I then die cut the white panel using two dies: a rectangle die from Waffle Flower to make it smaller and the Watercolor Wash Free Form die from My Favorite Things to create a window.

I added foam tape on the back of my white panel for dimension and lined up the stamped lines on the two panels as best as I could, before adding my double panel to a card base I created from Soft Stone cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I then stamped a sentiment from the Everyday Blurbs stamp set using Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide ink, fussy cut around it leaving a thin white border and mounted it on foam tape. To finish off the card I used a Gelly Roll 05 to create white dots on the pink balloon.

Fairly simple color palette for this one. I also used B90, which is a color I’ve made myself.

The biggest cake {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. I thought I’d share a simple birthday card today, featuring The Biggest Cake from Lili of the Valley.

Lili of the Valley critters are among the cutest in the stamping world, and I just couldn’t resist these bunnies carrying a big cake. I colored the image with Copics, before die cutting it using the largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things. I adhered the panel to a card base I created from Autumn Rose cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I used my Quickie Glue pen on the flames and sprinkled on Rock Candy distress glitter for added sparkle. Using foam tape, I popped up a sticker sentiment from Kort & Godt before finishing off the card with sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Very soft color palette for this one.

Hipp hurra {Kort & Godt}

Hi, everyone! Two weeks ago, I received an invitation to join the Kort & Godt design team. If you’re Norwegian, you’ve no doubt heard of this company, they’ve been around forever and make stamps, dies and embellishments that add just the perfect touch to any card. They also make buttons, stitch markers and other knitting/sewing accessories, which is perfect for me! I couldn’t say no, as I love their products. And as if that weren’t enough, I’ve been on a previous design team with several of the ladies on this particular design team. They’re just good people, and that really sealed the deal for me!

My first Kort & Godt card is a fairly typical card for me (except for the fact I haven’t done any coloring). It’s one of those clean and time consuming ones that I often make.

I started by creating a colorful background. Using one of the stamps in the M479 stamp set, I stamped repeatedly across the background using Distress Oxide inks in the colors Salty Ocean and Twisted Citron, as well as regular Distress ink in Spiced Marmalade. I cut the panel down to be 3 1/2 x 4 7/8″ and mounted it to a white top fold card base using foam tape.

Using the DIE294 die set, I die cut 8 layers of the words from True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink and one shadow layer using heavyweight translucent vellum from My Favorite Things. I stacked three of the black layers, added the vellum layer on top and then the last five black layers. I even added a coat of Nuvo Crystal Drops in the Ebony Black color to the top layer for extra dimension and shine. On a piece of Limeade Ice cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I stamped a sentiment from the M458 stamp set using Obsidian ink from Altenew, before adhering both the stacked die cut and my stamped sentiment strip at an angle, before finishing off the card with a couple of crystals (BE107). And that’s a wrap for my first DT card for Kort & Godt – I can’t wait to play more, and hope this inspired you.

Paint the town! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! I have a birthday card to share with you today, featuring Polly from Purple Onion Designs. I’ve used this image before, and this time, I teamed her up with the Country Flower Set. The country flowers and Polly are all from the A Happy Little Place release from 2021, illustrated by the one and only Stacey Yacula.

I stamped and colored my images, before fussy cutting them, leaving a bit of a white border around them all. I put my colored pieces aside and started working on the rest of the card. I decided to do a bit of ink blending with the Paint Strokes stencil from My Favorite Things. I thought the brush strokes would be good for a background for my colored images.

I started out with Coral Bliss and Pink Pearl inks from Altenew for the pink, but wanted a little more oomph and went over them with Picked Raspberry and Worn Lipstick distress inks, which gave it the pink I wanted. On the orange paint stroke, I only used Spiced Marmalade distress ink, and for the yellow, I chose Mustard Seed and Squeezed Lemonade distress inks. I then stamped a sentiment from the Around the Town sentiment set using Obsidian ink from Altenew, before I adhered my images near the bottom of the card. I put Polly herself on foam tape, just to make her stand out a little bit against the background, and I finished off with a few gems from the Crystal Collection – Glass from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

For such small images, I used a lot of colors for this card.

Finally Christmas! {Streamside Studios}

Hi, crafty friends. Today, I’m sharing with you a very simple gift tag for Christmas, featuring one of the snowmen in the Snow Much Fun stamp set from Streamside Studios. The snowmen in this set are so cute, and they’re perfect for tags.

I colored my snowman with Copics and fussy cut him leaving a thin white border. I put him aside while I worked on the rest of the tag. Onto some white cardstock (Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink), I ink blended distress inks in the colors Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade and Scattered Straw for a soft background. I then used a die set from Hero Arts (Snowflake and Ornament) to die cut the ornament from my background and the snowflake circle twice from white cardstock. I adhered the two white die cuts together for a smidge of dimension, before adhering them to the base.

I mounted the snowman on foam tape and white heat embossed a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto a strip of Enchanted Evening cardstock from Papertrey Ink, mounted that on foam tape and added diamonds from Kort & Godt to the centers of the snowflakes, before finishing off the tag with a piece of ribbon, some thread and a couple of bells from UiT Hobby.

Super simple color palette for this one.

HAPPY birthday {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m here today sharing a slimline card, featuring the new Bunny Alphabet stamp set from Lili of the Valley.

This set offers so many possibilities for customizing your card to suit your needs. I colored the letters to spell happy and fussy cut them, leaving a thin white border and put them aside while I worked on the rest of the card.

Onto a piece of Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I ink blended Sno Cone ink from My Favorite Things using the Geometric Landscape stencil from Altenew. It’s a 6×6″ stencil, but it was easy to create a longer section with a little bit of masking and moving the stencil. I then diecut the panel using the Slimline Double Stitched Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things and adhered it to a card base made from Cotton Candy cardstock, also from My Favorite Things.

I popped my colored, fussy cut letters on foam tape in the center of the card, heat embossed a sub sentiment from the Bitty Birthday Wishes stamp set from My Favorite Things and finished off the card with drops and sequins from the Ice Water mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.