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.

Wishing you a relaxing day! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I have a sweet, relaxing birthday card to share today featuring the new Bubble Bath Time stamp from the Spring is in the Air collection from Purple Onion Designs, illustrated by Pei.

I stamped the image with black ink onto X-Press It blending card and colored it with Copics.

I added a mask to my image, then used the Bokeh Elements stencil duo from Waffle Flower to softly ink blend additional bubbles in an ombré effect in the background. I used Sweet Pea, Grapefruit and Buttercup inks, all colors from Concord & 9th, making sure to add slightly more color on the smaller circles than the large ones, while still keeping it fairly light.

I stamped a sentiment from the Good Libations stamp set using Dragonfruit ink from Concord & 9th, and I also stamped a sentiment from the Summer Days sentiment set using Grapefruit ink.

I trimmed my panel down slightly and added it with of dimension to a top fold white card base that I ombré ink blended using the same three colors I used with the stencils. I did also add a dot of black Glaze pen to the eyes of the ducks for a finishing touch.

Simple color palette for this one.

Friendly reminder: this image is part of the Spring is in the Air collection from Pei at Purple Onion Designs. A bundle with all 12 images in the collection is available at a 30 % discount until July 10th, 2025.

Confirmation blast {Mo’s Digital Pencil}

Hi, crafty friends! I’m back today with a confirmation card I made on commission. I was told that the recipient does kickboxing, likes car races, swimming (lake or beach doesn’t matter as long as it’s water) and is a bit of a prankster. Lots of interests that I tried to incorporate into my card. They’re all very different interests, so I had a tough time figuring out what to do, but the card was a huge hit with the recipient, and that’s never a bad thing.

I looked for a kickboixng image I could color up, as I wanted that to be the main focus on the card – it was his main hobby. I didn’t have one, nor could I find one, but I found this greyscale sketched image with boxing gloves that was perfect.

The gloves cover the entire front of the card. I still needed something to color, because a black and white image isn’t very interesting on its own. I settled on Blast from Mo Manning, which was the perfect image for a prankster who loves water. I colored it up in very vibrant colors, making sure to include some red, which I thought would work great with the boxing theme AND the car racing theme. I fussy cut him and placed him on top of one of the gloves. He blended in with the background a little too much, so I decided to print the gloves again, this time with a very low opacity. I fussy cut the glove, scored it on one side and made it into a flap that opens. Put the colored image on top of this one, and now it didn’t get lost in the background. I also added a bit of Glossy Accents to the goggles for a bit of shine.

I mounted the colored image on pieces of foam tape, making sure to add a magnet in a strategic spot to keep the flap from opening on its own. I put another magnet behind the image of the gloves to keep both magnets hidden. They’re still plenty strong enough to work through a couple of layers of cardstock.

Once you open the glove fully, there’s a sentiment from an old confirmation stamp set from Stempelglede, stamped in Wild Cherry ink from My Favorite Things. I used one of the dies in the Essential Stitched Sentiment Strips die set from My Favorite Things to create a flag end to pull the glove open when the card is closed. The magnets are so strong, it won’t open on its own, and by adding the little flag end, it gives the recipient a little clue to look behind the glove.

Back to the front of the card when it’s closed. I stamped an white heat embossed the word KONFIRMANT from the A05 stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto a piece of Red Hot cardstock from My Favorite Things, and then die cut it using a banner die from MFT – they have lots! I popped it up and made sure the end crossed into the image, to tie the two together. I did the same thing with my letters, die cut using the In Stitches Alphabet die set from My Favorite Things, also from Red Hot cardstock. I stacked a few layers for dimension and stability, the L and the U are only barely attached to the glove and the back of his left leg, so they needed a little bit of strength.

I finished off the front with a few red enamel dots from Papirdesign.

On the inside, I printed and cut out a checkerboard pattern, which I thought worked well with the car racing theme. There’s still plenty of room to write a personal message. I also used the Wax Seals die set from Waffle Flower to create a rosette badge with a Norsk Stempelblad AS confirmation sentiment heat embossed in the center. I used the Itty Bitty Strips dies from My Favorite Things to create the ribbon ends hanging down from the actual rosette.

On the back of the card, I used more of that checkerboard pattern, stamped another confirmation sentiment (it’s actually an Emerson quote) and used the Splash die set from Papirdesign to create some water splashes from Summer Splash cardstock from My Favorite Things. I thought they tied in well with the super soakers in the colored image on the front of the card.

A simple color palette to finish off. This card was a hard nut to crack, but once I got going I had a blast (no pun intended) creating it.

Happy holidays {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m still in somewhat in a holiday making mode, and this time, I have Carlie & Vincent from Purple Onion Designs getting ready for Christmas.

I colored these cuties with my Copics and did the same with Home Sweet Home that I used in the background. I stamped a sentiment from the Merriest City sentiment set using Autumn Rose ink from Papertrey ink. It fits well nestled into the scene.

I used the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower to cut my panel down slightly, then adhered it to a card base I created from Autumn Rose cardstock from Papertrey Ink, before I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Lots of Copics for this one. I even created a new combo for the fox which requires less markers than the one I used to use.

Get happy! {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends! I have a fun card to share today with some cuties from Purple Onion Designs. I colored this up for the rainbow theme for last month’s Coloring Club Challenge over on Instagram. Polly the hedgehog is so cute with her buckets of paint, and I had her paint a stone wall this time.

In addition to Polly and the stone wall, I also used Hazel and the countryside horizon background. I die cut a panel of X-Press It blending card using the Postage Collage die set from Waffle Flower. I then used the coordinating coloring stencil to mask off the edges, so I could stamp in the “windows” only and keep the outside white. I used a 0.03 Copic multiliner to add a very thin frame around each part of the scene to contain my coloring inside.

Once my coloring was complete I stamped a sentiment from the Journey sentiment set from Purple Onion Designs using Altenew Obsidian ink.

I stacked cardstock scraps behind each of the postage stamps for dimension and adhered everything to a card base I created from Rustic Cream cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I love this cardstock, I need to break it out more!!

To finish off the card I embellished with iridescent flowers from the Spring Leaves mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Lots of Copics for this one.

Christmas magic is in the air {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m back today to share a card featuring Tofu & The Snowman from the Tofu & Friends holiday collection from Purple Onion Designs.

i colored the scene with Copics, before using a die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower to trim down my panel. I stamped a sentiment from the Holiday Time Sentiment set using Harbor ink from Concord & 9th, before sprinkling on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous, which I then melted from the back for a snowy look.

I used the Snowflake Oval Frame embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp to create some texture on a panel of white cardstock which I adhered directly to a top fold card base, before mounting the panel on foam tape to finish the card. Super simple, right?

A lot of Copics for this one.

Gledelig jul {Papiria}

Hi, crafty friends! I’m sharing another holiday card today, this one is with a very non-traditional color palette. It’s no secret that I loathe the traditional red and green for Christmas, whoever thought those two colors would work well together for the holidays should have been short, quartered and hanged, it’s such horrible combo. I started this card with black and gold glitter, and it kind of grew organically into something green, which I love.

I started by die cutting the sentiment. I cut the shadow layer from True Black cardstock from Papertrey Ink and the top layer from gold glitter cardstock from Kort & Godt. I love their glitter cardstock, it’s so smooth and nothing rubs off. I used the largest die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower on a piece of Eucalyptus cardstock from Concord & 9th, before using the faux stitch die in the Festive Blooms die set from Concord & 9th to dry emboss the panel, which I then adhered to my black card base. I love that there’s a tiny little black border.

I die cut leaves and sprigs from the Festive Blooms die set and the Joyful Season die set (also from Concord & 9th) to frame my sentiment. I used Sprout and Juniper cardstocks from Concord & 9th for the leaves and sprigs, and a little bit of Rustic White cardstock from Papertrey Ink for the berries. I curled up the ends of the leaves, added foam tape on the back of the berries and adhered it all to flank my popped up sentiment. There you have it, a Christmas card with what I believe to be a very modern palette.

Winter Greetings {Purple Onion Designs}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m sharing a fun winter card today featuring Tofu, Flappy & Mousy Fun in the Snow, which is a stamp from last year’s holiday collection of Pei’s images from Purple Onion Designs.

This is one of those super simple cards. I stamped the image using Extreme Black ink from My Favorite Things and masked it before stamping the Winter Trees background in Fadeout ink from Inkon3 for a no line look in the background. I colored in my scene using Copics, before using one of the dies in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower to cut it down slightly.

I stamped a sentiment from the Holiday Time Sentiment Set using Autumn Rose ink from Papertrey Ink, mounted my panel in the center of a top fold card base using foam tape and finished off with a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I love these sprinkles!!

I stuck to a pretty limited color palette, I feel, but there’s still a lot of markers.

Today’s the last day of the annual holiday sale over at Purple Onion Designs, so this is a gentle reminder to head over there, fill your cart with stamps at 25 % off, and check out.

Express delivery from the North Pole {Rachelle Anne Miller}

Hi, crafty friends. I’m still in the midst of creating holiday cards. Christmas is in exactly one month, and it snowed today as I was working on this card featuring Snowman’s Gift from Rachelle Anne Miller. I definitely went with a non traditional color palette this time, even choosing purple voluntarily. It doesn’t happen often, probably not even once a year.

I printed the image onto X-Press It blending card and colored it with my Copics, going for a couple of different purple combos – one dark for the snowman’s hat and scarf, another for the cute little bird. I chose a deep pink combo for the present and the bird’s accessories to bring in another color. I die cut my panel using a rectangle die from Waffle Flower, then went in with a snowflake stencil from Ciao Bella and some Lilac ink from Concord & 9th. I then added VersaMark on top and sprinkled on Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder from JudiKins to turn the snowflakes sparkly once the powder melted.

I stamped a sentiment from the Julehilsen stamp set from byCino using Autumn Rose ink from Papertrey Ink. The sentiment translates to “Express delivery from the North Pole” and was the perfect size for my chosen placement. I adhered a quarter sheet of Autumn Rose cardstock from Papertrey Ink onto a white card base and mounted the colored panel in the center, before finishing off with sequins and raindrops from the She’s So Lovely mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Lots of purple. I can do hard things (using purple is HARD).

Hooray {Rachelle Anne Miller}

Hi, crafty friends. It’s time to celebrate, because there’s a brand new release from Rachelle Anne Miller today. It’s Penguin Party! This scene creator set consists of an igloo with a party clad penguin peeking outside as well as five other penguins, a present, some stars and a couple of sentiments. This set has me so excited – I love anything even remotely penguin related, and this is right up my alley.

I used the igloo with the peeking penguin and only added one small penguin for this simple card. I didn’t even use the entire igloo, I like the look of the design coming in from the side like this. I colored the image with Copics and used a die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower to turn it into a nice panel and adhered it to a top fold card base I created from Peacock cardstock from Concord & 9th.

Using the Hooray Script die from Mama Elephant, I cut three die cut layers from Watermelon cardstock from Concord & 9th, which I stacked for a little bit of dimension. I white heat embossed a sentiment from the Birthday messages stamp set from Mama Elephant on a strip of Peacock cardstock. I added a few more layers of cardstock behind it and adhered it below the die cut part of the greeting, before finishing off the card with a few sequins from the Ice Water mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.

Mostly BGs for this card. I love my BGs.