Season's Greetings (February)

 

It is the last day of February, and it's time to share my monthly holiday card. As I'm writing this, I can see snow through my window - big, lazy clumpy snowflakes that dance around as they're picked up by small gusts of wind. It is my favorite kind of snowfall, as it just makes everything look peaceful and magical.

I've been thinking about slowly introducing some small personal challenges again to help boost my creativity. Lately, I've been staring at a blank page (or in this case card base) and feeling overwhelmed. There's so much I'd like to do and so much to create that I don't know where to start...

Hopefully, a small challenge will give me a starting point. I'll let you know how it goes - but hopefully, I'll have a few cards that to share at the end of it.

Thank you for reading!
~Elle~

Birthday Bear

 

Today is my brother's birthday, so I thought I'd share a birthday card. Birthday cards are the type of card I make the most, and yet I still never have enough of them. If I do decide to focus on a theme one of these months, I think it will be a Birthday theme. I certainly could use a bigger selection of birthday cards, not to mention completely cute and snuggly critters are perfectly at home on a birthday card - even when it's a card for a grown up.

I feel like I'm getting closer to putting up some personal challenges again, but I am trying to take it slow. I like the focus that I get from taking on a challenge, as it can make me more productive. The downside is that it does create some pressure and I really need to take things slow and easy, still. I may do some brainstorming and see what I can come up with.

Thanks Bear

 

There's always a need for thank you cards, and they're probably my favorite kind of card to make (and the kind of card I make the most often). Any kind of scene can fit a thank you card, be it playful/cute or subdued and solemn.

For this card, I went with something simple - maybe even fitting a melancholy mood of a winter scene. I have a little box full of images I colored in the past that have yet to find a home on a card. I'm going to try and use them on the next few cards I make, as they make for some quicker cards.

Bits & Pieces: Bear Cake

A simple birthday bear using some bits and pieces on my crafty desk.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Happy Bear-thday

A simple birthday card today.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Birthday Hugs

There's something about a gray/pink/yellow palette that I'm really crushing on lately. I really ought to play around with it more - especially when paired with a super cute birthday bear.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Pastel Hello

I'm in a spring mood today, so I thought I'd make something super cute. I used Mama Elephant's Pretend Play stamp set and hello die, along with a Blueprint die from My Favorite Things. I'm really digging this comic strip look and I think it works just perfectly for today's card.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Woodland Hello

For quite some time, I've been wanting a forest/flower/tree cutout die to use with some scenes. I think it creates such a lovely look and it's going to work perfectly with the many woodland creature stamps I own. One of the things that made me hesitate, though, was the size. The window needed to be big enough to show a background and to tuck details under, but not so big to take up the complete card front.

I finally settled on this die from Memory Box, and I'm so pleased with it! I think the size is perfect and the detail is great without being too overwhelming. I'm excited to see all the lovely ways I'll be using it in the months to come.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Merry Christmas, Dude!

Today's card is a masculine card with a fresh and frosty palette. I love the skiing bears from My Favorite Things for guy cards - that extreme sport element is always fun, but the bear adds a bit of cuteness too. A quirky sentiment from Paper Smooches ties everything together.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Christmas Bear

I took a step back into the traditional with the reds, creams, kraft and a bit of green. I used one of my all-time favorite Christmas sentiments from Technique Tuesday and I paired it with the adorable bear from Reverse Confetti. It was a really simple card to make, but I like how all the different elements play together.

Thanks for reading.
~Elle~

Cool Day Greetings

My Favorite Things - (Birdie Brown) Cool Day (retired)

One of my all-time favorite stamps is Birdie Brown's Cool Day. I just absolutely adore the two bears in this set and all the accessories match them so perfectly.

For today's card, I decided to keep it a very simple scene. A little distress oxide ink blending on the background and some time spent coloring and layering the elements is all I did. I'm really happy with how it all turned out.

Thanks for taking a peek!
~Elle~

Concept Trio Challenge: Seasons - Winter

My Favorite Things - Ski-sons Greetings

The last of my concept trio challenge cards is a winter card featuring the adorable skiing bear from My Favorite Things.

I decided to go in a more detailed direction with this card, and added a few layers. I made good use of my Blueprint dies from MFT, as well as added some pretty paper and ribbon. I really like the palette of warm gray, purple, blue and pink for winter cards. I think it's perfectly suitable, but a little unexpected.

This card has inspired me to go with my next trio challenge -- a palette challenge. Expect to see some new cards for that challenge in the next couple of days!

Thanks for reading,
~Elle~

Festive Polar Greetings

My Favorite Things - Birdie Brown - Birthday Bears

I know, I know! We're barely getting into the autumn season and here I am sharing a Christmas card... In my defense, I've been trying to get very organized when it comes to card-making this year, as I know I won't have a ton of free time to make all the cards and the presents and the decorations...

So, over the next few weeks, I'll probably be trying out some stamps and some card ideas to help with the Christmas crafty workload.

For today's card, I used a non-winter card - Birdy Brown's Birthday Bears. I like how versatile this set is and how a simple color change takes a birthday bear and turns him into a polar Christmas bear.

Thanks for taking a look.
~Elle~

Thankful Autumn

Neat & Tangled Stamptember Exclusive 2017 - Hello Pumpkin (retired)

You guessed it! I'm still really enjoying playing with the Hello Pumpkin set from Stamptember 2017. This time around, I wanted to do a little scene that's very CAS. I also wanted to play with some distress oxide inks to create a fun background.

While I like how it turned out in the end, I got my fingers soooooo messy! I think I might have to buy some gloves to wear while I'm ink-blending pretty backgrounds.

Thanks for taking a look!
~Elle~

Aqua autumn

Neat & Tangled Stamptember Exclusive 2017 - Hello Pumpkin (retired)

Another happy autumn bear card today, but I decided to switch up the palette a little bit and add a cool aqua and some pink to my dark gray bear. The aqua, pink and yellows were my go-to summer palette, but I think they can work for autumn, too.

I added some sparkly iridescent sequins as an embellishment and kept the rest of this card very simple.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Rainy Miss You

Sugarpea Designs - Timber, Mama Elephant - Chance of Rain, Avery Elle - Handwritten Notes

Since I'd been toying with that idea of making a scene card, I finally bit the bullet and made one. I used a ton of different elements and combined several companies, but I think it turned out really fun. I played around with the card layout, too, and I think it looks really interesting.

Thank you for taking a look!
~Elle~

Pink and Blue Day

Today's card is yet another card that was a bit challenging to photograph as it features very soft and subtle colors. Adding a simple doily gave this card a precious felling and I think it would be perfect for a baby card. I'll have to play around with these elements again.

Thanks for taking a look!
~Elle~

Curious Day

I found a vellum panel I'd cut out for a card that never quite made it onto a card, so I decided to use it for today's creation. One of the challenging parts of using vellum on cards is adhering them, so I had to use a design that covered at least a part of the front panel. I chose a simple rectangle and added a scalloped element to the bottom. Overall it's a bit different from what I was thinking originally, but I do like the layered aspect.

Thanks for reading.
~Elle~

Curious Thanks

This card was really hard to photograph, as there are parts of it that are very subtle - such as the little heart border and the sentiment. Nonetheless, it turned out sweet and I'm happy with the overall feeling of the card.

Thanks for taking a look!
~Elle~

Good Luck Bear

In stark contrast to yesterday's summer theme, I pulled out the Ski-sons Greetings stamp set to make a simple encouragement card. I paired the image with a retired sentiment set from My Favorite Things and a subtle gingham paper.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~