Birthday Ellie

Lawn Fawn - Elphie Selfie stamp

We've got a birthday party to head to this weekend, and I noticed that my birthday card stash has gone dangerously low. Of course, I had to quickly fix that and make a few extra birthday cards.

For today's card, I opted for a cute little elephant and a fun confetti background. I just love finding the perfect patterned paper in my stash!

Thanks for reading,
~Elle~

RC- Coffee Thanks

Reverse Confetti - Coffee And You

Today's card is in a style that's a bit different from what I usually aim for -- it's a little more busy, but I do like how it turned out. It also features a white elephant. I think he's different and fits in perfectly with the different style I tried with the patterns.

Thanks for reading~!
~Elle~

Coffee and Elephants

 Reverse Confetti - Coffee And You

Today, I'm sharing another couple of cards and they feature the adorable Coffee and You stamp set from Reverse Confetti. This super cute stamp is coffee themed and features an elephant and mice that are just plain adorable.

For the first card, I went in a more masculine direction - working with blue tones. The patterned paper seemed like the perfect choice, as it features coffee pots but the colors are muted and the style is more whimsical than cute. The sentiment I chose was a non-mushy love one.

For the second card, I went for a more classic direction. I used lighter colors on the elephant, and I chose a classic cream and kraft striped paper as my background. I added a bit of extra color with the bright blue cup and some enamel dots.

Thanks for reading!

~Elle~

Hello Yellow

Copics: W2. W4, W6, W8, R32, Y11, Y15, Y35, Y38, YR14

 I'm sharing a card today featuring WPlus9's Unforgettable stamp set and some no-line Copic coloring.

I started by stamping the elephant in medium grey dye ink. Now, normally, you wouldn't use dye ink for Copic coloring because it would bleed. But that turned out to be perfect for my technique, because it turned the ink practically invisible. If you're interested, Dawn has a guest video on this technique that shows it off perfectly.

I used a similar technique with the balloon and then I used the coordinating dies to cut out my images. For the background, I went with a layer of striped patterned paper, a plain white panel and a cute chipboard frame. Since the frame had a sentiment, I didn't think it needed anything else.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Watercolor Birthday

 

 

As you can probably tell by my card line-up, I love coloring and I reach for my Copics on pretty much a daily basis. I'm comfortable with them and I can get really cool results - like the elephant from WPlus9's Unforgettable set that you spy on my card. But I really want to get better at other forms of coloring - like with my Prismacolor pencils or with one of the many forms of watercolor I've got sitting in my stash.

Watercolor's kind of scary, though. It's gorgeously fluid and dreamy, but you don't have that level of control you get with Copics. This is both good as it creates very unique pieces that engage my creativity, and bad, as it takes a lot of coaxing to get myself to try it.

In thinking about it, I realized that it was unfair to compare my brief dip into watercolor with years-worth of experience with Copics. I'm sure my early Copic attempts were just as clumsy and odd as my early watercolor attempts. And, at the end of it, I just need practice.

So, I pulled out my Peerless watercolors and dove into making a background. I used a combination of minty teal and purple, and I just randomly plopped color over a wet page. It was far from perfect and I think I did it slightly wrong. But the end result is an interesting background I could use for a simple card.

I paired the background with the elephant from WPlus9 that I'd Copic-colored and a sentiment strip from the same set. To embellish, I stamped a few of the stars from the same set and added some enamel dots and heart.

Thanks for reading!

~Elle~

Birthday Balloons

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge is celebrating their 6th anniversary, and they're having a special celebration challenge. The theme for the challenge is Birthday, and I took this as the perfect opportunity to create a super cute card.

I've been wanting to play with the super cute elephant from WPlus9's Unforgettable set for ages now - ever since I got it, in fact. But I couldn't quite decide on how to use it. Once I grabbed Simon Say Stamp's Birthday Balloons stamp, it just clicked! The scripty "happy birthday" reminded me of balloon strings, and that went just perfectly with the elephant holding a bunch of balloons.

I used my Copics to color in the balloons and the elephant. I went for bright colors because birthdays are such a happy occasion. A couple die-cuts later, I had a card! As a last touch, I added some Crystal Reflections sequins - the colors matched up the balloons pretty well and it added just enough sparkle.

Supplies:
WPlus9 - Unforgettable stamp
Simon Says Stamp - Birthday Balloons stamp
Simon Says Stamp - Heavyweight cardstock in Mint
Simon Says Stamp - Crystal Reflections sequins
Avery Elle - Everyday Collection 6x6 
My Favorite Things - Hybrid Ink in Black Licorice
Copics