Hi, crafty friends! I’m sharing a small, super simple card today, featuring this On Our Way image from the I’ll Be Home For The Holidays collection illustrated by Stacey Yacula for Purple Onion Designs. This is a brand new collection that was released last week, and in it there are lots of images with a running theme: spending time with family & friends while enjoying the festivities and traditions of the holiday season with one another. This On Our Way image is perfect for that, and it reminds me of being a kid going to my grandparents’ for Christmas. It was a long drive, and the car was always packed full with presents.
The shape of the car actually dictated the shape of the card. I love shaped cards, and aside from the side mirrors, this one was pretty easy to fussy cut.
I colored in the car with the critters using my Copics, fussy cut right up against the black lines and added the car onto a top fold white cardbase. I then fussy cut that, making sure to temporarily glue the card shut for the cutting to be a little bit easier. Those side mirrors are fussy, but the rest was a cinch.
To create a truly one layer card would have been easier than having to fussy cut the car, adhere it to the card base and then fussy cutting again, but I didn’t think of it when I stamped my image, so I did it the hard way. Simon Says Stamp has a 120 lb cardstock that’s great for one layer cards with Copic coloring. Copics bleed through on most cardstocks, but the 120 lb from Simon doesn’t and would have been perfect for this card if I’d only thought of it before I was finished. Onto the headlights I put a thick layer of Glossy Accents for shine, and my tiny car card was finished.
Not a whole lot of colors used for this one. I’m loving the green combo I used for this, it’s giving me life. The entire collection can be purchased as a discounted bundle for a limited time, the offer is available until Friday, November 12th, and you can read all about it on the Purple Onion Designs blog here.
Shari’s images are funny, whimsical and quirky, and they make for very playful cards. For this card I colored up 
Once my sunset was in place, I colored the trees. I usually like a bit of contrast in the coloring, but for this one I really restrained myself. It’s a background element, and I didn’t want it to take any attention away from the foreground with the new stamps, so I only used BG93 and BG90 for the green, and E71 and E70 for the tree trunks.
Using the Madison Avenue die set from Mama Elephant, I die cut a frame three times from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. To one of the cardstock pieces, I added Stick It adhesive before die cutting. I glued the three frames together, putting the one with the adhesive sheet at the top of the stack. I removed the backer sheet and sprinkled on Rock Candy distress glitter, before putting the backer sheet back over the top and burnished with a bone folder to make the glitter really stick to the adhesive and not fall off.
I trimmed down the scene slightly to make it fit inside my frame, and adhered both the scene and the stacked die cut frame onto a top fold card base I created from more of that Stamper’s Select White cardstock. It’s my favorite white cardstock, I still haven’t been able to find a good quality cardstock that’s whiter than this.
I fussy cut Feathers the bird leaving a small white trim and glued him down to the frame using liquid glue. His head’s sticking out into the scene, so I put a small piece of foam tape behind it. I also stamped a speech bubble from the 
I did my best to limit the amount of Copics I used for this card. The five marker colors that come after the gap on the bottom row are the ones I used to airbrush the sky.
I love 
I stamped Flannel using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things onto X-Press It blending card. It’s my favorite cardstock for coloring. It’s super bright white and the Copics blend very well on it. It’s no surprise, though, the paper is made especially for Copic use.
I die cut the panel using the largest of the dies in the Wonky Stitched Rectangles STAX set from My Favorite Things, which is one of the many things I purchased with the $250 gift card I won in this year’s Superstar contest. I love my MFT faux stitch dies, and this wonky one is a fun change from my regular faux stitched rectangles. I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous and melted the granules from the back of the cardstock, before adhering it to an A2 card base I created from Green Parakeet cardstock from Papertrey Ink.
Using the Very Merry and Bright die from My Favorite Things, I die cut the letters for the word Merry five times from the same green cardstock that I used for the card base. I glued them together for a stacked, dimensional look and adhered them to my colored panel using liquid glue. Onto a small strip of Cocoa Bean cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I stamped and white heat embossed part of a sentiment from the 
To finish off the card I added a few Snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards for a little bit of extra interest and dimension. I love these tiny clay snowflakes, I use them all the time.
Simple color palette. That bright green really is fun!
I bought a 36 tube set of Mijello Mission Gold watercolors last September, and they’ve been sitting in their palette scaring me, but I’ve recently started dabbling a little bit. Images like this with big open areas are great for practice, and this is my third proper watercolor piece. Yes, I’m keeping track, haha. The previous two attempts were both noline. One was a background, and the other a digital stamp. My printer ink doesn’t play well (or at all, really) with water, so I had to opt for the noline look to prevent visible bleeding. I dove right into the deep end, hoping I could pull it off.
I stamped the image onto Fabriano Artistico Extra White watercolor paper using VersaFine Onyx Black ink. I’ve created a birthday card with these two once before (blog post 
For my last card with this image, I used my Copic BV20 series for a purply gray elephant. This time, I went for a bluer version to get a nice contrast. I actually decided to mute my pink a little before painting with it. The Bright Opera color from Mijello is a super bright pink, and I added a tiny bit of Hooker’s Green to dull it a little, it was just too bright a pink straight from the palette for what I wanted.
Once I’d painted my scene, I went back over with a black pen to trace the lines of the image. I would have restamped if I could, but I stamped the image weeks before I painted it and removed the stamp from my MISTI in the meantime. Black pen to the rescue. I just wanted crisp black lines. I stamped a sentiment from the stamp set using VersaFine Onyx Black ink and heat embossed that using clear embossing powder.
I cut down my colored panel slightly and adhered it to an A7 top fold card base I created from two pieces of Poppin’ Pink cardstock from Papertrey Ink. To finish the card I adhered sequins, beads, confetti and other various little bits from the Sweet Shop mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I don’t usually put this many sequins on my cards and scatter them like this, but I wanted to really keep the party vibe from these two going across the entire card front.
This cute image is called 
I actually turned this into a trifold card. I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 dies from My Favorite Things, as well as the Square Peek-a-Boo Window die to die cut from this panel of Lazy Day cardstock, also from My Favorite Things.
When you open the card, the rest of the image is revealed, and that cute snowman isn’t alone. He has a little friend giving him a present. Below the image I stamped a sentiment from the Holiday Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Lazy Day ink from My Favorite Things. This panel is also die cut using that die from the Stitched Rectangles STAX set from MFT. I love these faux stitch rectangle dies, they’re my most used dies by far. I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous and heated the panel from the back to melt the granules before adhering it to my card. This opens up to reveal ample space to write a personal message to the recipient.
I colored up these 
I’m usually good at using scraps of patterned paper and rarely use a brand new sheet. Today was the day, though. I thought this patterned paper from the I wish collection from Maja Design went really well with my coloring, and I didn’t have a single scrap of this particular paper. Using the same die that I used on the white panel, I die cut my patterned paper before cutting up my die cut into pieces I could use on my card. I added two layers of cardstock behind both pieces and glued them to my card. I now have a continuous stitched border, even though some of it is my colored panel and some is patterned paper. I love little details like that. I die cut three of the god jul die from Papirdesign from red cardstock and glued them together for a stacked look. I glued my die cut to the center of the wide patterned paper before adding a sub sentiment. The sub sentiment is from Norsk Stempelblad AS, white heat embossed on the same color red cardstock and cut down to a strip, with two additional pieces of cardstock behind it to make it flush with the die cut. I added three snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to the patterned paper, and my card was finished.
Not a whole lot of colors for this one. Soft colors too (except for the darkest green, I wanted a little bit of contrast there), which is rare for me.
I actually colored this in May last year. I keep my colored image in stamp storage sleeves from Tim Holtz. They’re super sturdy and you can put a lot of colored images in one pocket. They come five in a pack, which is perfect for me, that way I can dedicate each sleeve to one design team, since I’m currently on five design teams. Sometimes, I just want to color without having to turn it into a card right away, and sometimes I just want to make a card, but don’t feel like coloring, or simply don’t have time to do both. Compartmental crafting for the win.
I mounted my colored panel using foam tape and adhered it to the center of the card. I felt like it was missing something and needed a little bit extra. Mini paper doilies from Doodlebug Design to the rescue. I love these mini doilies, I use them often. And you don’t need the whole doily, either, I just used two small pieces for this card, and there are 75 doilies in one pack, they last forever. Onto a piece of Blue Breeze cardstock from MFT I stamped a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment using Blueberry Sky ink from Papertrey Ink. I cut it down to a 1″ circle using a circle punch from EK Success, added it to my card using foam tape and finished the card with a few pink enamel dots from Papirdesign.
I drew some sheets of ice with a pencil after I’d stamped my penguins, and made an ocean scene. The stamp with the two penguins holding the party banner is too wide for a regular portrait A2 card, and I wanted to include some more penguins in my scene as well. Slimline to the rescue. I thought it’d be fun to have the penguins on two separate icebergs instead of just the one.
I started by coloring the sky, then the ocean. This was probably what took the longest, it’s a big ocean, and while it’s not difficult to color, it takes time to build up layers. Next up were the icebergs, then the penguins, then finally all their accessories. I love Stacey Yacula’s style, it lends itself to create very textured critters, so that’s what I opted for.
When the entire scene was colored in I white heat embossed a sentiment from one of the stamp sets I used onto black cardstock and put two additional pieces behind it for a little dimension. I also heat embossed the word PARTY from the same stamp set. The letters are sized and spaced perfectly to fit across that bunting. It’s perfect. I mounted my colored panel onto a black cardbase to frame my cute penguins. Very simple.
Lots and lots of Copics for this one. I used a lot for the ocean, the icebergs and the penguins, and that little rainbow of accessories make up the rest of this very colorful palette.
I’ve made what looks like a pretty plain box for my Innovation Master entry this year. It measures 3 7/8 x 3 7/8″, and it’s 1 3/8″ deep. I like creating these three dimensional projects, but I prefer not having to use any specialty dies, so this project is made by scoring and folding what essentially starts out as rectangular pieces of cardstock. I’ve only used one die for this entire project, and it’s the smallest of the dies in the Fishtail Flag Frames die set to die cut the two banners that the cute little bird is sitting on.
When you pull on the little handle at the end, you reveal a scene of more cute critters on the inside. I’ve used two stamp sets for this project. The sentiment and the stamped snowflakes are from the Flurry of Love stamp set that was released last year, all the colored critters are from the Christmas Carols stamp set that was part of this year’s September release. The snowflakes stamped in light blue on the “lid” and the ones heat embossed in white are the same ones stamped repeatedly to create backgrounds.
The outer casing splits open and works as an easel of sorts to display this little scene on the inside. I stamped and colored all these critters with Copics, before fussy cutting them right up against the black stamped lines.
I ink blended blue inks on the background to get a gradient of color, going from Blue Beyond at the top where it’s the darkest, then Cornflower in the middle and Blue Yonder at the bottom. The critters are more or less hiding the gradient, but it’s more visible in the die cut banner on the lid, where it goes from dark blue on the far left, to a lighter blue on the right.
I cut away the center of the lantern and replaced it with acetate for it to be see through. I used a yellow Copic on the back of the acetate, and you can see the dark blue background and the white snowflakes through it. I added strips of acetate on the back of the critters to make a dimensional scene where the different animals are on different levels. The lamppost is at the very back, 1/4″ from the back, then the cow and sheep are both at 3/8″ from the back, the pig at 1/2″ and finally the goat at 7/8″. I’ve glued the acetate strips to the back of the background for them to be as hidden as I could. I only created small slits for the acetate to go through, you can spot a few of them behind the goat and the lamppost in this photo. I have a slit towards the top of each of the critters as well as one closer to the bottom, so they’ve all got two anchor points. The lamppost has three; one at the base and one at the top and the bottom of the actual lantern.
As you can see, the drawer can be pulled out completely from the casing. I stamped the cobblestone image that comes in the Christmas Carols stamp set repeatedly on a piece of X-Press It blending card and colored it in, creating a ground for these critters to stand on. Here you also see the different levels of the animals better. This cobblestone image is perfect for repeat stamping, and it looks like one big stamp instead of a smaller one stamped four times. I love that you can create this effect with this stamp, because of how brilliantly it’s designed.
I needed to place the critters fairly high up in this drawer to prevent them from being hidden behind the lid of the casing that covers it when it’s all standing up on display, so I decided to create a box within the drawer for a little surprise. It was just big enough for a small Snickers bar to fit.
I didn’t use a whole lot of Copics for this, in spite of coloring so many images.
Papirmølla 