Hi! I have a 50th birthday card to share today, featuring the Teeing Off image from Lili of the Valley that was released a few weeks ago.
The card was made on order for a golf-playing tinsmith whose favorite football team (European football) is Liverpool. I wanted to include as many of the elements as possible, and made a slimline card with patterned paper from Papirdesign, P13 and 7 Dots Studio.
I used lots of foam tape for dimension, and varying widths of the patterned paper layered and criss-crossed across the card. I used the Slimline Starter die set from My Favorite Things and also the Stitched Trad. Tag STAX dies to create the tags. The reinforcers are made with the Tag Builder Blueprints 6 die set, also from MFT.
Through one of the reinforced holes, I pulled a piece of Cherry twine from Whisker Graphics and dug through my stash to find a ball charm, perfect for a football fan. I wanted to include a little bit of metal because of his profession, and started by stapling the twine to the tag. I also fussy cut a few footballs from patterned paper from Papirdesign that I scattered across the front.
I fussy cut my golfer and added him to the front of the card using foam tape.
I created a circle with the recipient’s age and covered it with a thick layer of Glossy Accents. Glossy Accents takes a long time to dry, so I made this little piece before starting on the rest of the card and put it somewhere safe to dry for a few hours. Once it was time to put the card together, I’d completely forgotten about this little 1″ circle, and only found it after I’d handed the card over to the woman who ordered it. Thankfully, I was able to meet up with her the following day to add it to the card, but of course, all my photos were already taken, so I snapped this super quickly with my phone just to show what the card should have looked like all along.
I was asked to try to put the Liverpool team song somewhere on the card, and I figured that one of the insides had just enough space. The other inside has plenty of room for a personal message to the recipient.
On the back of the card I used more patterned paper, more fussy cut footballs and also a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS stamped in Memento Ladybug ink.
I also added my personal stamp to the back of the card, on a white football with splatters. Back in February, Create a Smile had a two week collaboration with Sommerabend where you could order personal stamps. I got this one and an address stamp. I’ve been creating cards for over 10 years, but never had a personal stamp until now, and I’m so happy with how they both turned out.
I felt like I hadn’t hit the brief in terms of the tinsmith part, so I decided to die cut the letters of his name in foil sheet and add to the front of the envelope. I put a couple of layers of plain card stock die cuts behind each foiled letter for dimension, and used an old hammer from Tim Holtz to add a little texture to the letters. A few footballs on either side of his name to complete the look.
Not a whole lot of Copics required for an image that mostly reads as red and white.
I colored the penguin with my Copics, fussy cut him and added 1 mm foam squares to the back. I created a fold over tag using the second largest die in the fold over tags nesting die set from We R Memory Keepers and some really old pink patterned paper from Magnolia.
I created a tag to go inside the folded over tag using scraps of patterned paper from Papirdesign. Using one of the dies in the Tag Builder Blueprints 6 die set from My Favorite Things, I created the to/from circle using that pink patterned paper, and matted it with a white die cut circle. I probably didn’t need the white circle, I’m thinking the letters would have stood out more against the grey patterned paper, but what’s done is done. I still like the white.
Fairly quick coloring on such a small image means I didn’t use a lot of markers. I originally colored his feet and beak orange/yellow, but didn’t like the look and covered it with grey. You can still see the orange shining through in the finished coloring. That, I don’t mind, for some reason, I just didn’t like the look of the orange alone. Some species of penguins have black feet anyway 😉
I went with a really bright pink, colored in the image with my Copics and did some serious fussy cutting, before adding 1 mm foam squares to the back. I also stamped one of the sentiments from the 
From a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock, I used the largest of the dies in the Stitched Traditional Tag STAX die set from My Favorite Things, masked off a curved line towards the bottom and ink blended a gray sky using Charcoal, Soft Granite and Wet Cement ink from Hero Arts, as well as Soft Stone ink from Papertrey Ink. The Charcoal is fairly dark, but the Soft Stone super soft, giving a nice gradient feel. I sprinked on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous and heated the tag from behind to melt the granules for a snowy effect on my background.
Going direct to paper, I colored a scrap of Bristol Smooth with the Hibiscus Burst ink pad that I used for the sentiment, before using one of the tiny dies in the Tag Builder Blueprints 6 die set from My Favorite Things to create my reinforcement piece. I think the faux stitching on the circle matches the stitching on the tag perfectly, one of many reasons why I love my MFT dies, they’re so awesome to mix and match. I added a bit of Cotton Candy twine from Whisker Graphics and a charm from my stash near the top to complete the tag.
Not a lot of colors for this one, but I did my best to make the pink really pop against the other colors.
I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS below the image using Scarlet Jewel ink from Papertrey Ink. Using a faux stitch tag die from My Favorite Things, I die cut four tags, one from the panel with the image and three from scraps of patterned paper from the Fröjdefull Jul collection from Maja Design. I glued two and two back to back, before gluing the two double tags together, offset quite a bit.
On the back, I used another stamp from Norsk Stempelblad AS and the same color ink as I used for the front.
I punched a hole through the top of the tag, added a red eyelet for strength, pulled some twine through and also added a snowflake charm to finish.
Simple image means I didn’t use a lot of colors for this one.
I colored the image with Copics, die cut it using a large faux stitch tag die from My Favorite Things and stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS on the bottom using Scarlet Jewel ink from Papertrey Ink. I created three more tag die cuts from the Fröjdefull Jul collection from Maja Design and glued one of them to the back of my colored panel. I glued the other two back to back and glued my two double tags together, slightly offset. I cut a hole at the top of the tag, used a red eyelet for strength and threaded some red twine through, adding a charm with mittens for that little bit extra.
On the back of the tag I stamped a To/From stamp from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Smokey Shadow ink from Papertrey Ink, which is a nice dark gray. I attached a couple of loops I made from one of the patterned papers and was able to thread a candy cane through, I just hope the dog doesn’t get into the presents and eats the candy cane.
Very limited color palette for this one, not a whole lot to color.
I created this gift tag for my niece. It’s quite a big tag, its diameter is about 5″. The white circle panel isn’t just a panel, it’s dry embossed using an embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers. Unfortunately, dry embossing doesn’t show up very well in photos, and even less so when you’ve used white cardstock. It’s there in real life, though, and it provides a little bit of texture. I colored and die the Christmas Baking image from Rachelle Anne Miller, and popped it up on foam tape in the center of the white panel, before creating a hole at the top, adding an eyelet for strength. Through the hole I thread some cherry red divine twine and a tiny little cookie cutter embellishment, I thought it fit the image well.
On the back I added another diecut circle that I’d already added a To/From stamp to, using Scarlet Jewel ink from Papertrey Ink. I cut a slit above and below that to feed the candy cane to, and double up on the foam tape when I glued it to the larger circle.
Quite a few Copics for this one, and I used B90, which is a color I’ve created myself, on the background.
I decided to go for a version in gray and green, and used a die from Papirdesign to create a scallop heart for the front of my gift tag. I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Ripe Avocado ink from Papertrey Ink.
I diecut a regular tag shape from patterned paper from Maja Design using a die from My Favorite Things and glued the scalloped heart to the regular tag.
For the back of the tag I die cut the regular tag shape again from that same patterned paper as the one for the front, as well as a second scalloped heart from white cardstock. I used the same green ink as I did on the front to stamp the To/From stamp from Norsk Stempelblad AS.
Not a lot of Copics used for this one, but it’s a small image.
This is a simple one. I colored 
On the back of the tag I die cut an additional two tags from patterned paper from Maja Design and stamped a To/From stamp from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Olive Twist ink from Papertrey Ink. I used a couple of strips of patterned paper to get a candy cane in there, as well.
I added some twine through the top of the tag and even a snowflake charm, but let the rest be very simple. I’m hoping this penguin will put a smile on my sister’s face, she loves penguins, and this one is going to her and her husband.
Lots of grays for the penguin, and also quite a few greens. I love this green combo.
Papirmølla 