Retro Thursday - Tiddly Inks

Today's card is using a stamp set from Tiddly Inks called Ellie Says Hi. I have had this stamp for over a year now, and just did not get around to making anything with it. It's a super sweet stamp, though, and it definitely deserved to be used. So, I decided to make a cute card with it.

I started by stamping Ellie in brown ink, then coloring her in with my Copics. I wanted to go with a palette I seldom use, so I chose green and yellow. After she was colored in, I carefully cut her out, leaving a small white border. The stamp set comes with a cute sentiment, so I stamped out the speech bubble and the "Hi" in brown ink. Then I used a pink ink to stamp the little hearts in the background. I also cut out the speech bubble with a small white border.

The rest of the card came together really quickly. I grabbed a few pieces of patterned paper from my scraps stash and layered them together on a neutral card base. I added some liquid pearls and two pieces of wood veneer that I colored in with Copics.

And that's all there was to it! I really like how the card turned out, and I'm definitely going to use this stamp again. I have another idea on how to color her cute dress, and some other cute patterned paper I've been meaning to use with cards.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Retro Thursday - Mama Elephant

The card I'm sharing today features a Mama Elephant stamp set I've had for a while - Up and Away. While this set isn't retro or retired, it's still one I've held onto for a while, and thought I should make more use of. I'm also using a Mama Elephant die - Landscape Trio - to create the cute stitched clouds at the top of the card.

I started by stamping the cute bunny onto some marker paper. I masked him off, then stamped the umbrella. This gave the impression the umbrella is behind the bunny - which was exactly what I was going for. I colored everything in with Copics, then carefully fussy-cut around the image.

I found a fun rain pattern in a retired Basic Grey paper pad (Kelly Purkey's Mon Ami 6x6, for anyone interested), and I cut it out with the smaller rectangle in the Femme Frames die. I also cut a couple of pieces of white cardstock with the rectangle, and used the Landscape Trio border to turn them into clouds.

I stamped the sentiment onto a scrap of white cardstock.

After that, it was just a matter of layering everything together. I used a combination of adhesive and foam tape. Lastly, I scattered a few sparkly sequins around the card.

Thanks so much for reading!
~Elle~

OHC 75 - Music

A short while ago, I was one of the very lucky winners of the Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday challenge. (Super, super exciting!) After I picked my jaw off the floor, I got in touch with the wonderful staff and they sent me a surprise package.

I didn't know what was going to be in the package, so opening it was quite a thrill. My package was one of the older card kits - November 2012 kit to be exact. Cue in the excited "squee" and a couple of jumps from me.

I didn't start making cards until October 2013 (yes, you can see some of my very early attempts on the blog even!), and didn't start my subscription until December 2013. So, there's quite a few kits that I missed out on -- much to my disappointment. So, receiving this older kit was a fantastic surprise! The hoarder/completion-ist in me cheered for joy, and so did my creative self as looking through the kit contents gave me a great idea for a card.

I was inspired by the paper in this kit, which has a lovely layered look. I decided to go with that idea and add layers of my own. I also pulled out a stencil and my texture paste -- something I've been meaning to do on a card for ages, now. I layered the heart I stamped from the kit stamp, a sentiment and button that came with the kit. I added a tiny Tim Holtz paperclip for a little extra interest.

Lastly, I added a bit of gold strong to bring in some sparkle and shine. I adhered everything together onto a note-card. A few different-sized enamel dots finished the card.

Thank you so much for reading!
~Elle~