Thursday, January 28, 2016

Timber!



Continuing on with another card in my Love card series. Today's card features something that seems to be pretty trendy lately - lumberjacks. I saw the Wood You Be Mine stamp set on Stampin' Up's website last year and fell in love with it. It was (unfortunately) only available for a few months last year, so I can't link to it. But here is an adorable alternative from Neat & Tangled and there were a couple of similar sets featured at CHA that should be hitting the stores soon.

For my card, I started by creating a watercolor background using some of my Peerless watercolors. I started by wetting the watercolor paper with clean water, then I dropped in some bright watercolor and let the water do the work for me. I made sure that my colors would mix well together - so, no yellow by the purple for example. After the piece dried, I die-cut it with a stitched rectangle die.

I matted the watercolor piece onto some black cardstock and adhered it to a top-folding A2 card base. Then I got to work on the lumberjack.

I stamped him out in brown hybrid ink and colored him in with Copics. I went for traditional colors (red and green with blue denim). There wasn't anything particularly special about the coloring - I just had fun and tried to add a touch of depth here and there. Once I was done, I carefully cut him out with a pair of scissors, leaving a small white border.

Before adhering him to the card, I grabbed a heart splatter stamp and stamped it onto the watercolor panel with Wild Rose ink. This gave the card a more lovey feeling and tied into the sentiment - which I also stamped in wild rose onto some white cardstock. I matted the sentiment to some light blue cardstock, then adhered it and the lumberjack to the card with foam squares.

As a last touch, I added a few sparkly sequins.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

KK- Sending Hugs



And we continue on with the Love card series!

Today's card features a company that's new to me, but with an art style I just can't get enough of Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps. They're a company based in Canada and they had a sale a little while back during which I stocked up on quite a few stamps. They actually have several artists and lines, so it was really fun to look through all the different stamps and styles. You'll definitely be seeing more cards with these stamps!

Today's card uses the Hannah Hearts stamp. I stamped Hannah onto some marker paper with brown hybrid ink. I colored her in with Copics. I went with one of my favorite red combinations- red and grey. A touch of blue, purple hair and a pink heart finished off the image nicely. I made sure to add some warm grays to the floor, so she didn't look like she was floating.

I die-cut the image with a die from MFT (now retired) and matted it onto a piece of bright red cardstock. I found a patterned paper with a neutral kraft color and large white polkadots. I cut it down to 4x5¼", and matted it with a piece of red cardstock that was just slightly larger. I adhered both onto a top-folding A2-sized gray card base.

I added the image panel in the bottom right corner. Since I wanted to have a sentiment that was a bit different, I used some white letter stickers to spell out "hugs" and adhered them to a small strip of red cardstock. I die-cut "Sending" out of white cardstock and adhered it to the red strip. I added the sentiment to the card using foam tape.

As a last touch, I added a few enamel dots to tie in the grey and red colors.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Friday, January 22, 2016

Pink Hugs

 The Greeting Farm - Furever stamp, WPlus9 - Sunshine dies, Avery Elle - Sweet Scallops Elle-ments die, My Favorite Things - Love & Adore You die, My Favorite Things - Homespun Gingham 6x6 patterned paper

Today's card is an entry in my Love Card Series, using the Furever stamp set from The Greeting Farm. Now, I've recently shared another card where I talked about how much I love this stamp set. So, I'll spare you further gushing and just confirm that yes, I still love it and I really enjoyed using it.

For this card, I wanted to do something very soft, very feminine and very pink. I started by stamping and coloring the cat and the girl with Copics. I then cut the image out with scissors, leaving a small white border.

Next, I pulled my Bigshot and did a whole lot of die-cutting. I die-cut a couple of scalloped frames from white cardstock and some rectangular frames from patterned paper. Originally, the oval background for the girl was also white, but it blended too well, so I used a mini blending-tool to apply some dye ink all over the surface. I adhered all of my panels together, using my standard adhesive or foam squares.

For the sentiment, I die-cut "love you" out of white cardstock and ran it through my Xyron sticker maker. Then I simply adhered it to the bottom of the pink panel.

The last touch were 3 sparkly white enamel dots.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Sunnier Days

Just a quick and simple card share today, featuring the oh-my-gosh-adorable All Wet Cat digi stamp from Some Odd Girl. This stamp was another must-have for me. Who can resist that sad, sad kitty face?!

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Monday, January 18, 2016

Viking Love



The second card in my Love card series features a mini stamp from Avery Elle called Viking. I may have mentioned it before, but I love puns. I'm that one person giggling while everyone else is groaning when the pun lands. So, of course, I just had to have the Viking stamp set (and it seems I'm not the only one, as it's out of stock in many places at the moment I'm writing this post).

I started by stamping the viking onto some marker paper and colored him in with Copics. I went for simple earthy colors for his outfit. Since the sentiment is in his beard, I went with bright yellows and oranges for his hair. That way, I was sure that the sentiment would be visible. When I was done, I carefully fussy-cut him out with scissors, leaving a small white border.

I grabbed a cute heart patterned paper and adhered a strip of it to the right side of my top-folding A2 card base (4¼x5½"). I followed with a strip of shimmery gold cardstock, then a simple white panel.

To provide a a background for the viking, I used my mini round blender to swirl in some blue ink. I adhered the viking on top, using foam squares.

As a last touch, I added a couple of red hearts that echoed the patterned paper and scattered a few enamel dots.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Dollie with Hearts

Today's card marks the official beginning of my Love card series, a nifty little collection of cards all about love. It uses the lovely Dollie With Hearts stamp from The Greeting Farm. I absolutely adore the Hello Dollie line. It's the perfect combination of cute, flirty, quirky and fun - with great messy hairstyles and pretty dresses.

I started by stamping Dollie onto some marker paper with brown hybrid ink. I wanted the image to have a slightly softer and warmer feeling, so using a brown ink was a must. I colored her in with Copics. I went for a bright red, chocolate brown and white palette. It's one of my favorite color combinations, and I think it works perfectly for both Valentine's Day and a general "love you" type of card.

I used a die to cut out a rectangle around the stamp, then used the scalloped rectangle die from the same set to cut a piece of patterned paper. I matted the two together, then adhered them to a bright red cardstock panel. This made a clean and simple front panel, which I added to an A2 kraft card base (4¼x5½").

As a last touch, I added a few die-cut hearts to the bottom of the Dollie panel. And voila! Card complete. :)

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

P.S. This is probably one of my favorite coloring projects in a little while. I just love how it turned out!

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Hi Pup!


One of my favorite things about Some Odd Girl stamps is the abundance of cute animals. Sometimes you just need that perfect dog, cat or fish. Between clear stamps and digis, SOG's got you covered.

Today's card uses the digi stamp Puggle. I just couldn't resist his cute completely-smooshable face. I printed him out and colored him in with Copics. I went for a really light brown palette, with a few spots of darker fur on his face, paws, ears and tail. I'm sure I'm not completely on-point with the coloring, but it's close enough.

Since the pup was lightly colored, I continued with bright colors for the rest of my card. I used some fun patterned paper, cut at a diagonal, along with light blue cardstock. I embellished with a few enamel dots and a piece of flair.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Hello!


Today's card features The Greeting Farm's Furever stamp set. This is a stamp set I've been ogling ever since I started stamping - both because it's insanely adorable and because I love the hairstyles and outfits of the girls. But for one reason or another (usually it was out of stock when I went to grab it), I didn't get around buying it until very recently. And I'm so pleased I did!

I started by stamping the pup-walking girl with some black hybrid ink, and coloring her in with Copics. I went for pink and purple tones for her dress, a grayish brown for the dog and my go-to brown palette for the hair (E33, E57, E59, E79).  After the coloring was done, I fussy-cut the image, leaving a small white border.

I found an awesome patterned paper in my paper stash from Bo Bunny's You're Invited 6x6 pad. I really loved the rainbow look, so I cut it down to fit a standard A2 card (4¼x5½"). I adhered it to a kraft card base, then added the girl with foam squares.

I kept the rest of the card really simple. I added a sentiment strip, along with a scattering of enamel dots and shapes.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Monday, January 11, 2016

Lulu Thanks



The year has gotten a bit of a rocky start for me here on the blog, hasn't it? I've been meaning to make a blog post since January 1st, but things just kept getting in the way. Between feeling under the weather and lots of work, I've had very little free time. And what free time I've had has been spent organizing.

Yes, I got bit by the organizing bug again... Initially, I had just planned to make things a little easier on myself by pulling out some supplies and goodies to use up over the next few months. But that quickly spiraled into a need to catalog and organize virtually everything. On the bright side, it's made me rediscover a veritable trove of treasures to use with cards and paper crafts. On the not-so-bright side, it's made me realize I need clones or another 6 hours in a day where I can play with papers and ink.

Although I was incredibly tempted to pull everything out of my stash and organize it again (hey, I'm not buying things, so this is the perfect time to do so, right?), I decided to pull myself away and to jump into some card-making. After a rocky start, I'd managed to create a couple of "love" cards I was very happy with. I'll be sharing them very soon as part of my Valentine's series.

Today's card is a winter-themed thank you card featuring a Lulu stamp from Stamping Bella. I happen to have a rubber stamp (which I believe is discontinued now), but you can find a digital stamp right here.

I used bright and feminine colors to color the stamp, keeping the shading simple and minimal. After the coloring was done, I die-cut the image with a stitched circle die. I also die-cut a slightly larger circle out of some grayish brown paper and matted the two together with foam squares.

I grabbed a standard top-folding A2 card base (4¼x5½") and adhered a strip of patterned paper at the bottom. I grabbed a piece of white cardstock and trimmed it to 4¼x5½, then die-cut a decorative scalloped white edge. I adhered it to the top of the card base and added the matted image on top.

To finish off my card, I added 3 enamel dots echoing some of the colors in the card. I used some alphabet stickers to spell out my sentiment, and the card was done!

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Friday, January 1, 2016

Happy New Year!

And we've officially rung in the new year! I wish you all prosperity, happiness and good health in 2016, and may your New Years' resolutions come to fruition!

I  had originally planned to make an awesome card to ring in the new year, but I've had a few busy days lately. I did get a chance to get crafty and created a couple of thank-you cards for some lovely and generous friends and family (who really spoiled us for Christmas!). They've already been mailed, so I can't snap a picture.

Instead, I figured I'd do a chatty/rambling little crafting update.

In my effort to prepare for the new year, I've been going through and organizing some of my crafty supplies. Organizing is kind of tricky. On one hand, it's a great way to go through all of my supplies to find hidden treasures and to get very inspired. On the other hand, it takes over my free time, so I'm not actually creating anything. It feels very productive, but there's nothing to show for it. However, it's still something I have to do a few times per year - such as during major holidays or when I need to pull out stamps I don't use all year round.

My big resolution/goals this year involve using what I have, and I thought it would be a good idea to go through some of my stash as a reminder of all the goodies I own. I also took the opportunity to put away the winter holiday crafting materials in a way that kept it neat and organized.

So, I thought I would share some of my organizing solutions that will help me stay on top of making cards this year.

- I have a mini-crate in my crafty cart with stamps I really want to use. This is more convenient and keeps me from constantly having to dig into my stash to find a stamp to use. In the crate, I have some of the newest stamps I got, a few favorites and a selection of never-before-used stamps I've been meaning to ink up. Having this crate is going to help me focus when I sit down without a specific idea on what I want to make. But the rest of m stamps are still close by in case I'm inspired to use a special stamp or two.

- I'm still using the mini-sticker dot system to mark which stamp sets I've used. I've also started putting check-marks on the dots with cards I've blogged about and a little dot on cards I sent out to family/friends for their birthday. I try to do something slightly different for each birthday card, so it helps me to know when I've used a stamp set already.

- I went through my paper pads and made myself mini paper bundles. This one took a bit of time, but I really think it was worth it. I started by pulling out all the papers that I liked or that I felt I needed out of a mountain of paper pads. Then, I chose several papers that fit a specific theme (ex. masculine cards) or palette (ex. pink, mint and gold) and bundled them together using a little piece of post-it tape to hold them. I really love this idea because I can quickly grab a bundle and know I'm set with all the papers I'm going to need for a card or 5.

- I chose some embellishments and put them in a plastic zipper pouch. I happened to have several of these pouches, so I was able to divvy up my embellishments into 4 categories: enamel dots, flowers, dimensional elements (woodchips, flair, etc) and stickers. I left my sequins in their containers, since they're really well organized there already. I will go through the pouches once per month and keep track of what's been used up.

- Lastly, I prepared a few card bases. Since I make my own card bases from cardstock, this involved cutting and scoring cardstock. It's a bit repetitive, but it's something I can easily do with music playing in the background. And it does save me a bit of time to not have to do it while making a card.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~