Hap-pea Merry Little Christmas!

Hello, Tallie here. The big day is almost here so I thought I'd end this year with a non-traditional punny Christmas card design I sent to some of my closest friends this year. It's a great one for using non-holiday themed stamps in a festive design. I used the Lawn Fawn Be Hap-pea stamp set, Lawn Fawn Say What? Christmas Critters stamp set and some stitched star dies (these or these would be good).

As usual, I started out by stamping the peas and their pod from the Lawn Fawn Be Hap-pea stamp set in some MFT Extreme Black Ink onto some blending cardstock. I also stamped out some of the small hats from the Lawn Fawn Yeti or Not set to dress up the peas. I used some bright greens and reds to colour in the images and cut them out with the coordinating dies.

On a top-folding A6 card base I blended on some Distress Oxide Ink in Broken China, focusing most of the ink in the centre of the card. On another panel, I blended on some Distress Inks in Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey and Squeezed Lemonade and die cut with a stitched star die. With a gold gel pen, I added some dot detail to the star and adhered it centrally to the card base.

Some foam tape helped pop the peas and their pod up onto the star. For the sentiment, I stamped out the 'hap-pea' sentiment from the Lawn Fawn Be Hap-pea stamp set and the 'merry little christmas' from the Lawn Fawn Say What? Christmas Critters stamp set in some Candied Apple Distress Oxide ink. I prefer to stamp bright colours in Oxide ink as they don't stain the stamps like dye inks do in the brighter colours. I adhered the sentiments underneath the peas.

I made two different designs with the two different pod stamps from the Lawn Fawn Be Hap-pea stamp set. A few final touches with a white pen finish it off.

Thanks for reading and I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a wonderfully successful new year 2020!

Tallie

 

Jingle Bells Reindeer Games

Hello, Tallie here. In the last few weeks in the run up to Christmas, I find I need some quick and simple cards to give to those who suddenly surprise you with an extra Christmas card. With designs like this one, you can colour up a bunch of characters in advance and create the simple scenes as and when is needed.

This cute little reindeer from the MFT Reindeer Games stamp set is a perfect size for a centre piece in this card design. I stamped him out in some MFT Extreme Black ink onto some blending cardstock and coloured him in with my alcohol markers. I die cut him out with the coordinating dies once finished.

The background is really simple. I've mentioned before that I have a DIY stencil made from a circle die cut (I used the 2 inch size from this set) from some thick acetate. I blended on some Distress Oxide inks in Picked Raspberry and Broken China. I love the purple-ly blend you get when you mix these two colours!

A bit of foam tape, some red ribbon and a white jingle bell help to dress up the simple reindeer. The sentiment is a strip from the MFT Bitty Holiday Wishes stamp set.

I hope you've finished all your Christmas cards and there are no last minute panics!

Thanks for reading, catch you next week.

Tallie

Oh So Jolly Gift Bag

Hello, it's Liz here. Today's project features an upcycled plain white gift bag. First of all I stamped, coloured and cut out the two figures (twice) from the Stamping Bella set 'Little Bits Winter Collection Figure Skaters' (matching dies are here). Then I used three of the figures to decorate the bag popping them onto green and blue cardstock which had been die cut into dome shapes using 'Stitched Dome Stax Die-namics'. Before adhering the domes to the bag I wrapped some twine around and tied a bow. 

For the tag I wanted to stamp the sentiment from the 'Oh So Jolly' set by Sugar Pea Designs onto white cardstock but it just wasn't having much impact so I cut out a further two tag shapes from the green and blue cardstock and layered them together at a slight angle. Then I attached my fourth little figure to the tag using foam pads. I'm pretty pleased with how my little bit of upcycling turned out!

Thanks for stopping by today, happy crafting!

Happiest of Holidays

Hello, it's Liz here again and I have the happiest of cards to share! How are your Christmas makes coming along? It's only 43 days to go! I have watched one Christmas movie - Love Actually, I have listened to my Christmas playlist twice and I have made ten Christmas cards! I'll need to get a wiggle on!

My card features the three elves from the Santa's Elves set by My Favourite Things. I added the stitched detail to the background using my Quilted Stitched Spirals die by Lil' Inker Designs, I love all these background type dies, so useful. Before attaching the backgound panel to the card base I wrapped some red and white twine around and tied a bow. As a finishing touch, and to add some festive sparkle, I added some stickles to their hats and cuffs.

Thanks for stopping by today, happy crafting!

Peace, Love and Joy Reindeer Scenes

Hello, Tallie here with some more Christmas inspiration.

It's an MFT week for me and at first I thought I was going to have to bin these backgrounds before they ever made it to a card base. Sometimes, you just have to keep going and it turns out okay in the end! I used three different MFT products: Peace, Love and Joy stencil, Reindeer Games stamp set and the Bitty Holiday Wishes sentiments.

I started out by inking some Versamark ink over the MFT Peace, Love and Joy stencil onto a white card panel. For the first one, I tried not taping it down to my surface whilst inking and I didn't get a very good impression on the card - this one I actually used for the second card presented further below. For my second try, I used some washi tape to fix the stencil and panel down to my surface, carefully making sure the ink covered all the stencil. I then clear heat embossed it using some Lawn Fawn Clear Embossing Powder. The end result was not completely perfect, but I liked the distressed-not-perfect look I ended up with.

I used my favourite winter sky Distress Ink combination to blend on some ink: Faded Jeans, Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio.

For the focal images, I stamped out the reindeer, trees and cardinal from the Reindeer Games stamp set. I coloured these in with my alcohol markers and cut them out with the coordinating dies. I popped these up with some foam tape and layered them over a simple die cut circle (this happened to be the centre of a Merry Christmas Circle Frame but any circle die will work) in the centre of the background panel.

The sentiments were stamped from the MFT Bitty Holiday Wishes set with some VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink, clear heat embossed and cut into small strips. A little foam tape makes them stand out from the background panel underneath the main focal images.

I turned the first, almost-failed panel into another card. So a lesson for me today - don't give up before you at least try it out!

Thanks for reading, catch you next week.

Tallie

  

Dashing Through The Snow

Hello, it's Liz here today. I have a super quick, easy and fun card to share. One that could be 'dashed' off during a bulk cardmaking session. The white piece of cardstock was run through my die cutting machine using My Favorite Things Stitched Strip Dienamics.

Then I stamped, coloured and trimmed around the Avery Elle Dashing stamp. I stamped both sentiments above the stitched lines, I love how they follow the shape of the tree and the car.

Then all the elements were fixed to the card using foam pads for dimension. I added sequins from the Full of Love Sequin Mix to represent the snow (and I thought that top corner was looking a bit bare!)

Thanks for stopping by today, happy crafting!

Oh Joy

Hello it's Liz here today. I have another festive make to share. This time I have made a super cute card using Festive Friends by My Favorite Things (the matching dies are here). I love the fact that the snowmen in this set are really quick and easy to colour just their hat, scarf, mitts and boots - job done. I have also kept the colour pallette simple, just an eye-catching red and white.

The Oh Joy die by Mama Elephant comes with it's own shaped background but I have used the words on their own. Next time I think I will try it with the background - so many possibilities!

The swirls on the background have been made using Swirl Dies by Concord&9th. I like to think it's the trails in the snow left by the snowmen during their snowball fight!

Thanks for stopping by, happy crafting!

It's a Penguin Parade!

Hello, Tallie here with you today!

I say this every time Mama Elephant come out with one of these sets, but I love the new Penguin's Waddle stamp set. They are so great for practising your colouring and you have a scene card created without much effort.

I started out with the A6 background panel, ink blending on some of my favourite wintery sky Distress Oxide colours: Faded Jeans, Mermaid Lagoon and Cracked Pistachio. The key to getting good dimensional layers in a snowy background is three different layers: 1) clean water splatters, 2) bigger splats of white acrylic using a larger brush, and 3) smaller splats of white acrylic using a smaller brush or toothbrush.

I stamped out the penguins from the Mama Elephant Penguin's Waddle stamp set in some MFT Extreme Black Ink onto some blending card stock. I coloured the cute little scene in with my alcohol markers, sticking to some warm greys, purples and pinks for the colour scheme. If I added another colour (like the yellow) I tried to use the 'rule of threes' and place it in three different places on the card to balance it. I cut this out with the coordinating die and foam mounted it to my background panel.

I'm a big fan of simple sentiments so the new MFT Bitty Holiday Wishes Stamp Set has all sorts of sentiments to choose from. I chose one with a line from one of my favourite Christmas songs and white heat embossed it onto a strip of black card, foam mounting it above the penguins.

A few touches of Glossy Accents and the card is finished!

Try out your own scene cards!

Catch you next week.

Tallie