Hi, there! You probably aren’t thinking of Christmas cards yet. We’re still in early April and Easter just ended, but I looooove making Christmas cards all year and have one to share today. Not very traditional with a sheepdog on the front, but I know just who to send this to.
I colored up Christmas Sheepdog (with hat) very quickly using my Copics. There’s also a version without the hat. I colored the fur uneven and streaky on purpose. I didn’t want to take the time to do real fur, but I also didn’t want it completely flat.
After die cutting my colored piece to a rectangle with faux stitching around the edge using a die from My Favorite Things, I adhered it directly to a top fold card base made out of Soft Stone card stock from Papertrey Ink. Initially, I wanted green, but none of my green card stock colors were a good match (green is tricky), and this grey from Papertrey Ink is beautiful!
I pulled out my usual cluster supplies – mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design, the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut and my Fishtail Flag Frames dies from My Favorite Things. They’re staples whenever I make embellishment clusters.
Rummaging through my drawer of Christmas patterned paper scraps, I found these lovely green ones from the Christmas in Norway collection from Pion Design, and used the dies to cut out a few pieces to go on my card. I also used a die from Papirdesign to die cut a pine branch, just to add something different to the mix.
I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto one of the banners, heat embossing it in white, before assembling my cluster and adding it to the card with foam squares to build up the layers. I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and the card was finished.
Very limited color palette for this one.
I stamped the flowers in fadeout ink from Inkon3, before coloring them in with Copics and fussy cutting up to the line.
I die cut Hello three times from white card stock and stacked the die cuts for dimension. The die is from a die set that came with my Gemini when I bought it two years ago, and this is the first time I used it. It has a swirl going down at the bottom of the H that connects to the o, but I chopped that off. 
I added sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s cards on or near the flowers and the sentiment, and my card was complete.
I’m starting with this bear, ready for a party! The papers in the P13 collections don’t have individual names, they just have numbers, and I fussy cut this bear from 05. I die cut a piece of 01 using a die from Papirdesign, tearing the edges for an uneven look and glued it straight onto my 4 bar top fold card base, before adding the bear with foam tape for dimension.
03 in this collection from P13 has wide, diagonal stripes in different colors. I cut it down to strips, and used them to emboss my sentiments to get the perfect color matches. The sentiment on this card is from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things. I added the sentiment strip using foam tape, and finished off the card with some sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
For my second card I covered the entire card front with the back of the 05 sheet. Most of the papers in this collection have lots of images on the front, and are more plain on the back, of course with colors that coordinate. The little mouse on a unicycle is from the 02 sheet, and again I used 03 to stamp my sentiment on. This sentiment is also from My Favorite Things, it’s from the Pawty Time stamp set.
I die cut a chevron pattern from white card stock using a die from Papirdesign and adhered it directly to my patterned paper card front, before popping up the image on foam tape, and the sentiment on even more foam tape. Again I added sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix to finish the card.
Card number 3. Now, I’m not sure whether this is a cat or a tiger, but whatever he is, he’s definitely ready to party. I fussy cut him from the 02 sheet, and I used the back of the same sheet to cover the card front. Once again, I popped the image on foam tape for dimension.
I used the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Bitty Bears stamp set again, and this time I used some clear gems from the Crystal Glass collection from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to embellish.
I made the last card for today very simple. I die cut the same hole pattern as I used for the first card, only this time in white card stock for a bit of textured interest in the background. The cat is from the 05 sheet, which I used a lot of for these cards.
I added the cat using foam tape, the sentiment using more foam tape and those white sequins once again. These cards were so much fun to create, and I’ve got more in upcoming posts.
As usual, I printed the image on X-Press It blending card and colored it in using my Copics. Once done coloring, I took the second largest die in the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set from My Favorite Things to turn it into a panel with nice faux stitching along the edges. I mounted it with foam tape onto my card base.
I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from InkyWings onto a tiny scrap of Raspberry Fizz card stock from Papertrey Ink. It was so small I barely even cut it smaller before adhering it to my card using Gina K foam tape, which isn’t as thick as the foam tape I used for my colored piece. I added some gems and sequins from the Iced Sherbet mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and my card was finished.
Colors. Not a lot, but some, with an added confession. I made a very similar card to this about six months back, and I’ve used the exact same colors on this one, except for one. Being a little lazy this time, I didn’t want to redo the entire graphic because of one single marker, so this graphic is one I’ve used before. The only color in there that I didn’t use for this card was E13, simply because I forgot.
These peas are part of an upcoming stamp set from 
Once I’d colored the peas, I masked off each individual pea and did some ink blending across the entire panel using distress inks. I went for an orange to yellow ombre combo with Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed and Squeezed Lemonade. I placed a stencil (Dotted Flowers) from Ranger on top and ink blended again using the same colors, going in with a heavier hand. I adhered the panel to a mini slimline card base I made from Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink and used foam tape for a little bit of dimension behind the sentiment, before finishing off with some sequins from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Simple coloring leads to a simple color palette.
I colored up 
I added two layers of cardstock behind my colored piece, so it would stand out a little from my Limelight card base (colored card stock from My Favorite Things).
I added some vellum clouds on tiny pieces of foam tape, so it looks like the dinosaur’s neck is really long, I thought that was a fun little detail to add. Placed some enamel dots from Papirdesign in strategic places to cover the foam tape, and made an envelope from Papirdesign patterned paper using the A2 V flap envelope dies from Simon Says Stamp for the card to go in.
Bright, bold Copics!
I wasn’t sure what to do at first, but wound up fussy cutting the image, leaving a white trim. I usually prefer cutting right up against the edge, but I didn’t want to cut off the sketchy lines on the perimeter of the image, and decided to leave the white border. I ran a piece of white card stock through my die cutting machine using a geometric embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers. It gives the background a nice texture without being too distracting from the image.
After die cutting an eyelet circle from a Cottage Cutz die set using a piece of patterned paper from DCWV, I did some aggresive cropping to one side and mounted the remainder of the circle on my dry embossed white card stock using 1 mm foam squares. I added the white panel to the card base using regular foam tape, and added the girl on top of the circle, before finishing off the card with a heat embossed sentiment from an Altenew stamp set and a few sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. The blue card stock is Blueberry from My Favorite Things.
Last, but not least, the colors I used for my coloring.
My card is heavily inspired by a card 
Tenia’s card had a wide piece of washi tape going in from the right near the top of the card, with a rectangle perpendicular to the washi with a couple of small colored flowers on top, a sentiment and a few enamel dots. Once I’d ink blended a little bit using Audrey Blue and Island Blue inks from Simon Says Stamp, I tried to add a rectangle to my card, but it was too long and too wide for my liking. I scrapped that idea and die cut a polaroid frame instead for my little hedgehog to sit in. I used the second smallest die from the Precious Polaroids die set from My Favorite Things, and stacked four on top of each other for dimension. The die cut was just big enough to stamp a sentiment onto. The shortest sentiment in the 
I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and my card was complete. Lots of white space, a cute hedgehog and one more Christmas card in the bank for 2021. Doesn’t get much better than that!
Super limited color palette for this tiny image.
I don’t know what’s going on with me, but I’ve made another red Christmas card. I love creating Christmas cards, but I’m not a fan of red, not even for Christmas. The best thing about creating cards is that they get sent to someone else, so even if I personally don’t like certain colors, I’m getting rid of them eventually anyway, so it doesn’t matter. 😉
Once I’d colored the image with my Copics, I trimmed 1/4″ off each of the four sides and covered the back with foam tape. I found an old scrap of patterned paper from Magnolia that was already cut down to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2″, probably a reject from a previous project, but perfect for this one, the red matches my coloring! It has white “snowflakes” on it. These have 8 points, so they’re not actually snowflakes. There’s no such thing as an eight pointed snowflake (or a five pointed, for that matter), it has to do with how water molecules are formed.
I die cut a couple of scraps of Maja Design patterned paper using two of the Fishtail Flag Frames dies from My Favorite Things. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto one of the die cut banners, adhering it to the larger one using 1 mm foam squares for a little bit of dimension. I used the same foam squares on the back of the bigger one and glued both banners to part of a mini doily from Doodlebug adhered to the top left corner of my colored panel. I added a few enamel dots from Papirdesign, and my card was done.
I found an old scrap of patterned paper from 3ndypapir that was just large enough to create an envelope from using the A2 V flap envelope dies from Simon Says Stamp. I thought the color matched the brown in my card nicely.
Not a lot of colors used for this one.
Papirmølla 