Hello friend {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a simple card to share today, featuring this I like you image from Mo Manning. It’s an image that is quick and easy to color. I wasn’t sure what colors to use for her clothing, I thought about teal, but then I googled the image and remembered I’d already used a teal(ish) color on a previous card I made with the same image (blog post here), so I was kind of stuck for color ideas. My color buddy Lisabeth came to my rescue, suggesting green and white, so that’s what I wound up with. Thanks, Liz!!

I printed the image near the bottom left corner of a panel of X-Press It blending card, before coloring it with Copics and using the largest die in the A2 Double Stitched Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things to create a finished look with the nice faux stitching details that I love to add to my cards. I adhered it to a cardbase I created from Jalapeño Popper cardstock, also from MFT, and I had my base ready for some play with scraps.

I love creating these clusters of die cut scraps on my cards, and I have stamp storage pockets with little die cut patterned paper scraps sorted by color. That way I can rummage through these when I create my cards instead of having to find lots of patterned paper to match my card, then die cut it. It usually takes several different patterned papers of one color to create the dynamic look I want for my cards, but for this one, I actually kept it simple with one yellow (P13), one white and gray (Sunny Studio) and only two green ones (Basic Grey and Karen Foster Design). They’re all different shapes, which still keeps it interesting. Some are glued directly to the card, some with foam tape for a little bit of dimension. Using VersaMark ink, I stamped a sentiment from the Mini Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant onto one of these die cut pieces (it happened to be a tag) and heat embossed it using Super Fine Detail embossing powder from Ranger. I used part of a mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design behind my main cluster, and added a few enamel dots (green from Papirdesign, yellow from Altenew) to embellish.

Lots of green for this color palette.

Enjoy the traditions of the season {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! Guess what? I have another holiday card to share, this time featuring the train and train tracks from the I’ll Be Home for Christmas collection illustrated by Stacey Yacula for Purple Onion Designs.

As soon as I saw this train, I immediately thought of the movie The Polar Express, which happens to be my favorite animated Christmas movie. I colored my train in similar colors to the one in the movie, and I put a mask on top when my coloring was done and airbrushed the sky, moon and glow coming from the headlight.

My best friend and I have a tradition where we sit down and watch this movie every year, and I thought the sentiment from the Home for the Holidays sentiment set was the perfect one to add to this card.

The sentiment is actually one long line, but I did some masking to create a staggered one, which I thought fit my card better. I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark ink and heat embossed it in white using Super fine detail embossing powder from Ranger.

I created the moon by first masking off a circle as I airbrushed the sky, then I used the moon mask that was part of the Tim Holtz/Simon Says Stamp collaboration set for Stamptember 2021 to create my moon.

Once I’d created my moon I covered the circle opening again with VersaMark ink and sprinkled on Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder from Judikins, which I then melted. It gives the moon a nice sparkly glow. I thought that would be a nice detail to add to what is otherwise a very simple card. I adhered the colored scene to a white top fold card base and decided not to embellish, I wanted the image to be the focal point on this card.

Lots of Copics for this one. The ones after the white gap are the ones I used to airbrush the sky, moon and the glow from the headlight.

I appreciate you {Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios}

Hi, crafty friends! I have a card to share today featuring this adorable Penguin Hug image from Rachelle Anne Miller. I’ve used this image on a card before, I colored teal penguins for that card, which you’ll find here. For today’s card, however, I chose to create black penguins and keep the colors soft for the rest of the card.

I printed my image onto X-Press It blending card and colored the penguins with Copics, before sprinkling on chunky white embossing powder from Stampendous for a snowy look. I then die cut the Mega Snowflake Cover die from Mama Elephant three times; twice from white cardstock, once from Sno Cone cardstock from My Favorite Things. I glued them together and added my penguins to the back, before adhering everything onto a top fold A2 cardbase I created from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

To keep the rest of the colors soft, I diecut the letters for HUGS three times from white cardstock using the Sending You Hugs die from MFT. I glued them to the bottom center of my card, and added a secondary sentiment that I stamped and white heat embossed on a strip of Cotton Candy cardstock, also from My Favorite Things. I added two more strips of cardstock behind for dimension and stability, before finishing off the card with a few Sparkling Clear Sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

I used probably way more gray markers than I needed to to create these penguins, but sometimes, that’s what I do.

Believe in the magic {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m sharing another Christmas card with you today. Ideally, this should have gone up yesterday, because there were exactly 11 months until Christmas Eve yesterday. A mixup at work meant I had to go to work, however, which meant no time to write blog posts.

Anyway, this cute Cosy Bear from Lili of the Valley takes center stage on this card. I paired it with a digital watercolor background, also from Lili of the Valley and colored it in with my Copics, before sprinkling on Chunky White embossing enamel from Stampendous and melting the granules from the back for a snowy look.

I created a 4 1/2 x 4 1/2″ card base from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink and used an impression plate, also from PTI, to create subtle texture to the base. I put a few extra layers of cardstock behind my image and adhered it in the center of the card. I die cut the word believe using an older die from Simon Says Stamp four times from white cardstock and glued them together for a stacked, dimensional look in the sky above the bear. I finished off with a sentiment from Mama Elephant that I white heat embossed onto a strip of Autumn Rose cardstock from Papertrey Ink and embellished with a couple of Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

Super simple color palette. I don’t usually do reds or pinks for my holiday cards, but this muted pink combo has become a favorite of mine.

I hope you have a great day, whether you have time to be creative or not 😊

Get Cracking On Christmas – January

Hi, crafty friends. A couple of weeks ago, Jenn Shurkus asked me if I wanted to join in to share inspiration for her Get Cracking on Christmas series this year. It’s all about creating Christmas cards all year to prevent being swamped and not have time come November. As you may have noticed, I make Christmas cards all year, and of course, I immediately accepted. It’s the third Thursday of every month, and today happens to be the third Thursday of January, so here we go.

For my first card, I chose to feature this adorable image from Lee Holland. Last year, he asked his followers and fans what more we wanted of his dragons (he is known for his dragons, he has lots of different ones), and I suggested one hugging a penguin. He came through big time, and created this image, which I, of course, had to get. I colored it in noline, because I love the look, before sprinkling Chunky White embossing enamel on top and melting the granules from the back of the paper to create that wonderful snowy look.

I taped a square die inside a rectangle die from Waffle Flower and die cut the two dies four times from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink to create a chunky polaroid frame for my little fellas to fit into. By taping the two dies together, they won’t shift and the square opening will be in the same spot for all my diecut pieces. I stacked my diecuts and put the image behind my chunky frame, before adhering it all to a cardbase I created from Stormy Sea cardstock from Papertrey Ink. Using a die from Kort & Godt, I die cut the word klem three times from the same color cardstock. The die actually cuts the word juleklem (Christmas hug in Norwegian), but it’s so big the first part didn’t fit my card, so I just chose the latter half of the word. I stacked three together for dimension, adhered it at an angle to my card, and put a white heat embossed sub sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS below. This too, has additional layers of cardstock behind it for dimension. To finish off the card, I die cut a few white snowflakes using dies from Hero Arts and Marianne Design, and I stacked two of each snowflake on top of each other to make them stand out a bit.

Fairly simple color palette for this image.

Celebrate {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, there! I have a fun birthday card to share with you today, with this awesome Cupcake Monkey from Lili of the Valley.

I love this image, and I went with bright, bold colors for my Copic coloring, before using the largest of the Wonky Stitched Rectangle STAX dies from My Favorite Things to create some interest to the edges of the panel.

I wrapped some Green Apple twine around my panel twice and tied a knot, and adhered the panel to a card base I created from Sour Apple cardstock from My Favorite Things. The twine adds a little bit of dimension behind the panel, so I put some extra layers of cardstock and some foam tape behind it to make the layer even.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Mini messages stamp set from Mama Elephant on a scrap of black cardstock from Papertrey Ink and die cut it with a circle die from Lifestyle Crafts. I adhered the circle on top of the knot of my twine and put a double layer of foam tape behind it for extra dimension.

I added Nuvo Jewel Drops in the color Key Lime to the green sprinkles. It doesn’t show up very well in the photos, but it adds a little bit of shine and dimension in real life. Using Sour Apple ink from My Favorite Things, I stamped the Number Jumble background stamp from My Favorite Things to the flap of the envelope, which is a Limelight envelope from My Favorite Things.

Bright, happy colors for this one. I hope you have a great weekend!

Have an ice day! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! Today I’m sharing with you a fun, wintery card with the quirkiest moose and giraffe you ever did see. They’re both skating, and I thought they were brilliant to pair together on this card.

Meet Murray and Muriel, aren’t they fun? I stamped them using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things, masked them both and then stamped the Snow Much Fun background stamp behind them, using the same ink.

I’ve probably mentioned this in a previous post, but I love the quality of rubber stamps and their ability to include very thin, detailed linework. The lines in these images are all very thin, and they stamp so beautifully in a way only rubber can. I love it.

I colored my scene with Copics, then stamped a sentiment from the Snow Much Fun sentiment set onto the ice using Jalapeño Popper ink from My Favorite Things, before adhering my panel onto a card base made from Jalapeño Popper cardstock, also from My Favorite Things.

I wanted some sparkle to my ice, and added Stickles. I didn’t like the look of the Stickles, so I scraped most of it off and switched to liquid glue with a sprinkling of Distress Glitter Rock Candy instead. I made sure not to spread it perfectly, but to create streaks to emphasize the streaky look of the ice I created with my markers.

I added a dot of a black glaze pen to their eyes to make them pop, and I love that this card is versatile enough to work as a general card in the winter months or even a birthday card. It’s a bit of an odd size, about 5 7/8 x 4 1/2″, but I made the size of the card fit my scene, not the other way around. I’ll create a custom envelope for this, and it’ll be good to go in the mail.

Lots of Copics used for this one!

Snowman gift tags {Streamside Studios}

Hi, crafty friends! I shared a few of these gift tags before Christmas, but there’s a line in a Norwegian Christmas song saying Christmas lasts till Easter, and as a result, I’m sharing a few more. There’s also the fact that I was too busy all of December not to share anything, basically, but I won’t mention that.

These snowmen from the Snow Much Fun stamp set from Streamside Studios might be my favorite images that Shawne has drawn. I’m a sucker for snowmen, and these are so much fun (fitting with the title of the set). I created these two along with a bunch of other similar one in a few compartmental crafting sessions. I usually create my projects from start to finish in one sitting (maybe two, if I color one day and do assembly later), but for these, I created a bunch of backgrounds at once, created tags from the backgrounds in another sitting, stamped and heat embossed sentiments in one, die cut a bunch in one and did coloring in one. It’s a great way to be crafty even if you’re kind of stretched for time.

I have lots of layers on these, and used a whole bunch of Christmas scraps from old collections by Pion Design, as well as some sentiment stamps and other stamps from Inkido and Norsk Stempelblad AS.

More scraps on the back. I love this way of creating, and I hope to do more of it this year!

Snowman with ice cream {Streamside Studios}

Hi. I’ve been having so much fun creating these gift tags with the Snow Much Fun stamp set from Streamside Studios that I just can’t seem to stop. I’m sharing just one today, though, it’s the last pairing of green with a kraft background.

The process for creating this one was identical to the first ones I shared in this blog post. I used the Snowflakes stencil from Ciao Bella along with modeling paste from The Crafter’s Workshop for to create the background. I then added all my other elements on top, sort of in a cluster, using die cut scraps of patterned paper from Pion Design, a couple of heat embossed sentiments from Norsk Stempelblad AS and a heat embossed seal stamp from Poppydesign.

There’s lots of texture and visual interest on this tag because of all the layers of paper, the foam tape to add dimension and the stenciled background. The accessories on the snowman are in a brighter green color than everything else on the tag, which still makes him stand out against the other elements.

For the back of the tag I used a couple of stamps from Inkido, as well as more of the white heat embossed sentiments from Norsk Stempelblad that I created lots of in one of my compartmental crafty sessions. These tags were heaps of fun to put together like this.

Snow much fun tags {Streamside Studios}

Hi, there. I’m sharing a couple more gift tags I’ve created with the Snow Much Fun digi stamp set from Streamside Studios. These snowmen really are cute, and I shrunk them down a bit before printing, making them tiny and even cuter. In the post at the start of the week (right here) I shared about the process of creating these tags, which was so much fun.

For these tags, I chose red instead of green. I planned ahead and colored some of the snowmen with green accessories, and some with red. For one of these tags I used the Falling Stars stencil from Simon Says Stamp, and I thought it was fitting to add the snowman with the star for that particular tag.

A lot of elements are the same on these two tags as the first two; patterned paper from Pion Design die cut using the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut. I also used the same die from Altenew that I used with the green cardstock on this one, and it’s a nice added element that doesn’t have the perpendicular angles than many of the other layers do, so it breaks up the monotony a little and adds interest. For the tag with the stars, I used the word JUL from the Gledelig jul die from Kort & Godt, and for the tag with the Christmas present, I used the word klem from the Juleklem die, also from Kort & Godt. I added red paper doilies from Papirdesign to the base of these tags, it’s a nice foundation to put everything else on top of.

The backs of these are pretty similar to the backs of the green tags I made. I used the same 24.12 stamp from Inkido and the same stamps from the Distressed Patterns stamp set from My Favorite Things, but changed the ink color to Pure Poppy ink from Papertrey Ink.