Christening {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, crafty friends. Today, I’m sharing a quick Christening card with Mo Manning’s Christening image. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve used this particular image, but it’s so versatile! This image is only available in her old shop until the end of the year, so if you want it, don’t wait too long to get it.

I colored the image and die cut it using one of the circle dies in the Stitched Circle STAX die set from My Favorite Things. I also die cut circles from grey cardstock and patterned paper from the Denim & Friends collection from Maja Design using the Nesting Circles die set from Lifestyle Crafts. The shape of the card is created with the Nesting Frames #8 die set from Lifestyle Crafts.

I popped some pieces up using foam tape, die cut the letters for the name using an alphabet die set from Scrapmagasinet and adhered the letters to a banner I die cut with an old die from Spellbinders. I used an old die from Marianne Design for the spriggy things on the left, and used some old Blueberry Sky buttons from Papertrey Ink to embellish.

Very limited color palette for this one.

Merry X-mas penguins {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m sharing another holiday card today, this time featuring Penguin Photo Strip from Lili of the Valley. It’s no secret that I’m a sucker for penguins, and these are fun and playful. I love the idea of the photo strip, but I decided to shake it up and not make it a strip.

I started by coloring the images with Copics. They each come with a frame, but I wanted this postage stamp look, so I cut my images on the inside of the frames.

I wanted some interest in the background, and the Sparkling Snow embossing folder from Simon Hurley/Spellbinders is amazing! It creates proper six pointed snowflakes and gives such a cool texture,  I want to use it on everything. I used it with a panel of Blue Breeze cardstock from My Favorite Things. It’s one of my favorite light blue colors, I may need to hoard it since MFT went out of business. I trimmed my panel down, matted it with a panel of Cranberry cardstock from Concord & 9th and adhered both to a top fold white card base I covered with an A2 panel of X-Press It blending card, just so that my whites would match.

I adhered each of my colored images onto Cranberry cardstock for a nice framed look, then adhered my matted images to postage stamps I die cut with the Postage Collage die from Waffle Flower.

I mounted each of my postage stamps using foam squares, adding the first two straight before making sure the last two were wonky. I like that both the images and their placement tell a story about what happened in that photo booth, everything going perfectly at the start, followed by slight chaos. To finish off the card, I added black glaze to the eyes for some shine and a tiny bit of dimension, as well as snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Not a whole heap of colors used for these.

Autumn Greetings {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! I’m back with a fun interactive card featuring a cutie patootie image from this year’s fall collection from Pei and Purple Onion Designs. The image is Autumn Greetings, and I snuck in the much older birch tree background from Stacey Yacula in there, too – it’s in the background.

I stamped my images (both the critters and birch tree background) on separate panels of X-Press It blending card with Copic friendly ink, colored them in and fussy cut them. Before fussy cutting the critters, I actually stamped over my initial stamping with Obsidian ink from Altenew, which gives super black lines that are extra crisp. It’s a pigment ink, though, so it needs to be stamped after the coloring. I also colored a sky and some bushes on a separate panel, where I stamped my sentiment in Blueberry Sky ink from Papertrey Ink. I cut an oval into a panel of Americana cardstock from Papertrey Ink using an old oval die from Spellbinders (Petite Ovals Large) and then created two pieces of accordion folds in the same color cardstock. I glued my background with bushes and sky to the back of the accordion pieces, the birch trees in the center, and the panel with the oval window in front. I mounted my critters using foam tape and used black glaze pen for the eyes. I then adhered my accordion to a top fold card base I created from Rustic Cream cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I used a lot of Copics for this one. I even used B20, which is a color I’ve created myself using an empty marker, B21 reinker and blender reinker.

Let it snow {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, crafty friends. Today, I’m sharing with you a very simple card featuring Giggling Snowman from Mo Manning. This is probably my most used image of hers, and it’s 50 % off right now. She has a new store (here), which means that everything in the old store (here) is half off. The old store will close at the end of the year, so if you want something there, it’s best to get it as soon as you can.

I went for a no line version this time. This is probably my most used image from Mo, and I love how easy he is to color. I chose a pink color combo that I really like, and I think this could work both as a holiday card and as a general winter card. I added the dots back into his scarf using an extra fine white Sharpie, and then fussy cut him. He’s pretty easy to fussy cut, too. I used the Sparkling snow embossing folder from Simon Hurley (Spellbinders) on the background for some texture. I love the detail this embossing folder gives, and they’re proper six pointed snowflakes and not the weird 8 pointed ones that some companies make. Real snowflakes never have eight points, they always come in multiples of six. It has to do with the way water molecules are formed and then bind together. Anyway, it’s a great embossing folder and it adds interest to an otherwise plain background.

I trimmed my embossed panel slightly, added a couple of layers behind it and adhered it to a card base covered with a panel of Autumn Rose cardstock from Papertrey Ink. On a separate piece of Autumn Rose cardstock, I stamped a sentiment from the Snøstorm stamp set from byCino using VersaMark ink, before sprinkling on super fine detail embossing powder from Ranger and melting it until it was smooth. I cut my sentiment down to a wide strip, added a layer to the back of it for a little bit of dimension, then put a couple of additional layers behind the snowman before gluing him down and finishing the card with a few sequins from the Assorted Moonshine mix from Simon Says Stamp.

Simple color palette for this one.

Merry Christmas {Papiria}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a very clean and simple card to share today that I created for the Papiria blog. Lots of white space and a simple color palette of white and blue – my favorite color combo for Christmas!

I started with a panel of white cardstock (Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink) that I cut down slightly from a quarter sheet. I used a couple of dies from Papirdesign to do a dry emboss on my cardstock. I covered a white top fold card base with a quarter sheet of Harbor cardstock from Concord & 9th and layered my white dry embossed panel on top.

I die cut the banner pieces in the Joyful Season die set from Concord & 9th from Harbor and Powder cardstock, before stamping a sentiment from the Merry Greetings builder stamp set from Kristina Werner onto the banner pieces using Harbor ink. I assembled the banner and added a few layers of cardstock behind it for dimension. I die cut a tree and a snowflake from the same dies that I used for my dry emboss background, both from Powder cardstock. I stacked two of each and glued them on top of its actual position in the embossed background, before finishing off with Opal gems from Spellbinders. Very simple.

Hello {Rachelle Anne Miller}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m back today with a simple card featuring Hot Air Balloon from Rachelle Anne Miller. I’ve used this image before, but this time, I flipped it. The little girl faces left in the original image, and one of the advantages of digital stamps is that it’s easy to create a mirrored image.

I printed my image on X-Press It blending card and colored it with Copics. I chose a soft blue green for the balloon itself, and vibrant colors for the florals to make them pop. Using the largest die in the Blueprints 27 die set from My Favorite Things, I turned my image into a panel with a nice scalloped border with faux stitching, put lots of foam tape on the back and mounted it to a card base I covered with a quarter sheet of Wildberry cardstock from Concord & 9th.

I die cut hello from the Blooming Delight die set from Altenew four times from white cardstock and once from Wildberry cardstock, stacked all the layers together and adhered my sentiment, before finishing with a few opal gems from Spellbinders.

Quite a few Copics for this one.

I adore you. The end. {Papiria}

Hi, crafty friends. I’ve played with colors and texture on today’s card. It’s fun to play.

This time, I landed on Honeysuckle, Sprout and Tidepool, which are all colors from Concord & 9th. I started by die cutting hexagons from my three colors using the Simply Hexagons die from Pinkfresh Studio.

Onto the Sprout hexagons, I stamped leaves from the Leaf Clusters stamp set from Altenew using Sprout ink. On the Tidepool hexagons, I ink blended for a gradient look using Tidepool ink before dry embossing with an old stencil from Memory Box (Texture Dot Grid) for some added texture. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment onto one of the pink hexagons and left the other one plain. I glued additional hexagons behind each and even added foam tape behind the sentiment one for even more dimension. Dimension is life, after all.

After adhering everything to my card base, I cropped the card down slightly. It matched my design better, so this card is 4 x 5 3/8″. I added opal gem stones from Spellbinders near the sentiment to draw the eye in.

The dimension makes it look like these hexagons are floating on the front of the card, and the pink one with the sentiment is floating a bit more than the rest.

Aussie Christmas {Rachelle Anne Miller}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a fun holiday card to share today featuring Light up emu, which is a stamp from this month’s release from Rachelle Anne Miller. I love creating Aussie themed cards, and thankfully, all the Aussie images I have are cute ones. I’m staying far away from blue-ringed octopus, red back spiders and Eastern brown snakes (as well as cassowaries, box jelly fish, stonefish, great white sharks and salties, among other things). Today’s card has an emu, which maybe should be on my list. It was certainly on the Australian government’s list about a century ago. The Australian government actually declared war on the emus. I’m not making this up, it’s called The Great Emu War. The emus were destroying wheat crops, and the government wanted to curb the population and launched a military operation to do so. Weird, huh?  Do you know what’s even weirder? The emus won. Twice!! My emu’s not destroying anything, he’s lit up like a Christmas tree, and he even has a koala wrapped around his neck, which I thought was so cute. I really can’t resist a koala.

I colored my emu and koala with Copics, and fussy cut the image leaving a white trim. Cutting around that string of lights was tricky, but worth it.

Onto a piece of white cardstock, I stamped the Christmas Lights Bold Prints stamp from Hero Arts using VersaMark ink, and poured on Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder from Judikins, which I then heat embossed. It adds a sparkly, but subtle shine to the background and I love that the lights are just like the colored lights on the emu.

I cut off a strip of the panel on each side and die cut a star in the top center using the Stars Five die set from Spellbinders. I mounted the panel on foam tape and added it to a card base I’d covered with the Gum leaves patterned paper that was part of the Aussie Christmas digital paper pack that was also part of this month’s release. This green color is dreamy!

I mounted the emu in the star opening, making sure to adhere the delicate lights directly to the white panel, while the emu itself is backed with foam tape. I stamped an white heat embossed a sentiment from the Christmas Wishes stamp set from My Favorite Things onto a scrap piece of my gum leaves paper, before using the coordinating die to cut it out. I backed it with four white die cuts and adhered it underneath the emu’s feet and dangling lights, before finishing off with sequins and star confetti from the Starry Night mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

You can see a little more of the sparkle in this photo.

The emu and the koala are very muted, so I chose bright colors for the lights.

Oh, and before I go, just because I feel like it – a little light-hearted “everything wants to kill you in Australia” meme:

For you {Lili of the Valley}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m back with another floral card. I keep waiting for spring to arrive, and nothing says spring to me like the first flowers of the season. Up until the middle of last week, all I’d seen so far this year were snow drops. We had a few warm, sunny days last week, and even though I was at work and didn’t get to enjoy the weather to its fullest, I saw coltsfoot (usually the first sign of spring) and even wood anemones. Today, it’s back to cold, rainy weather, and we’ve even got snow in the forecast, which means I’m back to dreaming about warmer weather by coloring florals.

This image was so quick and easy to color up. It’s a digital stamp from Lili of the Valley, entitled If friends were flowers.

I colored the image with Copics, trimmed a little bit off the edges of my panel and adhered it to a card base I created from Berry Sorbet cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I used the same color cardstock to die cut the words for you using a die in the Sweet Sentiments die set from Altenew. I stacked two on top of each other to give a little bit of dimension, without it being too much, before finishing the card with a gems from a pack of Color Essentials gems (in opal) from Spellbinders. I also added a dot of black Glaze pen to the eye of the little bee for a little bit of shine.

Simple color palette for this one.

Christening {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, crafty friends. Today I’m sharing a card made for a little girl whose christening was actually back in November.

This Christening image from Mo Manning is one that I’ve used in the past as well, and I used a bunch of scraps of patterned paper as well as some really old dies and flowers to create this card. More than anything, I love it when my pile of scraps shrinks. It doesn’t happen very quickly, because I rarely use this much patterned paper on a card, but boy, does it feel good.

I used 3 different collections of patterned paper from Maja Design for this card. One of the benefits of using their papers is that their collections usually match pretty well. Vintage Basics Summer, Vintage Baby and Sofiero are the collections I used for this card, and they all match. I used older dies from Lifestyle Crafts, Cottage Cutz, Scrapmagasinet, Marianne Design and Spellbinders, as well as flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and Papirdesign.

The insides of the card have a very similar layout, and so does the back. Onto a white circular panel, I stamped a christening stamp from North Star Design using Soft Granite ink from Hero Arts.

The card was too thick to fit inside a regular envelope, so I created a box envelope using a punch board from We R Memory Keepers. Onto a diecut eyelet circle I stamped a Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment and adhered it to the box envelope.

This image is so quick to color and doesn’t require a ton of markers. Easy peasy!