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

Christmas Wishes from a Santa Bear

Hello, Tallie here again today with this cute, clean and simple one layer Christmas card featuring the Santa Bear stamp set from Avery Elle. I really am loving these simple designs as I get to practice my colouring and use some of those Christmas sets that haven't gotten as much use as they probably should have!

This one is ridiculously easy if you like colouring - it's only got two steps! Well, three if you include adhering the finished card panel to a card base.

I started out with an A6 panel of white blending card stock and stamped out the cute little Santa Bear (don't you just love his beard?) and his bunny onto the top centre section of the card. I used some MFT Extreme Black ink so it wouldn't smudge or bleed with my alcohol markers. Just a tip - if you're using a lot of markers that have high colourless blender contents (e.g. closer to the 00s for Copics or 0s for Spectrum Noirs), you may wish to heat set the ink or leave it for good while to really let the ink set. I find it can smudge sometimes if you don't.

I then coloured the scene in with my alcohol markers. I paid special attention to the lighting - a top left light source - to give some extra dimension to this simple one layer card. If you've got an area that would really be in darkness but you want to make sure it's differentiated (e.g. for his front arm), use a little reflected light by leaving a small slice free of your darker markers.

Once finished, I stamped out the main sentiment from the set along the bottom of the scene and it's finished!

Thanks for reading, catch you next week.

Tallie

Colouring Christmas Cards: Avery Elle Christmas Kids

Hello, crafters. Tallie here and I'm back with a simple design for those last minute Christmas cards. Just in case anyone is panicking that we have less than a month till Santa! Stamps like the Avery Elle Christmas Kids set are perfect for these type of scene cards. I have two versions of this card with slightly different backgrounds for you, depending on how much effort you want to put into the colouring.

I started out by stamping the large stamp from the Avery Elle Christmas Kids set onto some blending card stock using some MFT Extreme Black ink. I stamped the corresponding sentiment underneath the scene at the same time, though depending on how much of a scene you want to do, you may want to stamp this towards the end as sometimes the ink can smudge if you're using markers with lots of colourless blender in them.

I then took out my alcohol markers and coloured the scene in. I stuck to bright, Christmassy colours as I knew the background would be lighter.

For the backgrounds, the first I simply created some ground and shadows using a couple of light blue markers. For the second, I added a sky as well as the ground, using a colourless blender marker to fade the marker into the white card panel. A little white gel pen adds the finishing touch of snow!

This type of design is perfect for stamping out a bunch and then sitting in front of the TV and just colouring away!

Thanks for reading, catch you next week!

Tallie

Sledding Polar Pals

Hello, Tallie here!

Somewhat inspired by the recent colder chill in the air, I'm back with the Christmas vibes today with the Avery Elle Polar Playtime stamp set. I have a couple of friends who like simple cards, so this one-layer, alcohol marker coloured style suits them perfectly. Plus, the design is easy to adapt to any stamp set.

I started out by stamping the sledding characters from the Avery Elle Polar Playtime stamp set onto some blending cardstock with some MFT Extreme Black ink.

I took out my alcohol markers and coloured in the scene, sticking to Christmassy reds and greens for the accessories and making sure to use two different brown families to differentiate between the sledge and the bear's fur.

For the background, I used some light blue-green markers, concentrating the darker colour immediately around and behind the sled to give some movement to the scene.

I stamped the sentiment from the set beneath the scene and then added a few finishing touches of snow with a white gel pen.

A really easy design that can be customised to any stamp set!

Thanks for reading, catch you next week.

Tallie

We 'herd' it's your birthday!

Hello, Tallie here.

I'm taking a break from the Christmas cards today with this punny set of birthday cards featuring the 'We Herd' stamp from Waffle Flower. Paired with some Lawn Fawn Watercolour Wishes Patterned Paper (this is my favourite paper besides the rainbow pack and is back in stock right now!), you can customise the card colours to suit the recipient.

I started out by stamping the herd of sheep and balloon stamps from the Waffle Flower We Herd stamp set twice onto some blending cardstock in some MFT Extreme Black ink. I coloured the sheep in with my alcohol markers using two different tones of grey - more cool greys for the blue card and warm greys for the pink card. I used some pinks to brighten up their cheeks and ears, and die cut them out with the coordinating dies.

I cut two pieces from the Lawn Fawn Watercolour Wishes Patterned Paper pad - a blue and a pink - down and adhered them to top-folding A6 card bases. On this vertical design some of the ears and tails stick out, but the standard C6 envelopes will fit around these so I'm not too worried. I used a couple of strips of DIY black and white striped paper I made a while back (here's the post explaining how) to ground the main image, popping it up with some foam tape.

For the balloons, I popped them up with some foam tape and adhered them above the sheep. I used a black fine liner to add some strings, making sure to get underneath the images so there was no 'gap' in the strings.

I finished the cards off with the punny sentiment from the main set, white heat embossing it across the bottom of the card with some Hero Arts Detail White Embossing Powder.

I actually gave our building's cleaner one of these cards last week and she was tickled pink! Hehee. :)

Thanks for reading, catch you next week.

Tallie

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

  

Simple Backgrounds for CAS Cards

Hello, Tallie here.

More often recently I am finding I am creating cards that move towards the CAS - clean and simple - style. Lots of white space, one layer and perhaps one central image. Sometimes, just adding a simple shaped background can frame your central image and create a focal point. Today, I used the Mama Elephant Fuzzy Hugs stamp set, two sentiment sets and my alcohol markers to create two different cards.

I started by stamping out the adorable central image of hugging bears in some MFT Extreme Black Ink onto some blending cardstock. I then stamped out the sentiment from the Sugar Pea Designs Everyday Sentiments Stamp Set, centred underneath the hugging bears.

I then took out my alcohol markers and coloured the image in.

To create the background, I drew around one of my heart dies that perfectly framed the image lightly in pencil (make sure it is lightly as the pencil will be trapped under the marker ink). I then selected three coordinating teal markers and coloured in the heart, keeping it darker at the bottom and lighter at the top.

A little light grey shading under their feet grounds the image nicely.

This design is versatile and can be adapted to any shape or stamp set. Here's another example using the Mama Elephant Fuzzy Hugs stamp set and the MFT Bitty Thanks & Gratitude Stamp set.

Thanks for reading, catch you next week.

Tallie

  

Thank Ewe!

Hello, crafters!

Tallie here with you today with a quick and simple (at least, for me!) card design featuring the Avery Elle Peek-a-boo Pets stamp set and some alpha dies. A simple pun livens up this thank you card!

Starting with the background panel, I made a DIY stencil from some acetate and a Nesting Circles die. I aligned the circle over a white A6 panel and blended on some Distress Oxide inks in my favourite sky combo: Faded Jeans, Mermaid Lagoon and Cracked Pistachio.

I stamped out two shee and their trotters (if that's what you call them?) from the Avery Elle Peek-a-boo Pets stamp set with some MFT Extreme Black Ink onto some blending cardstock and coloured them in with my alcohol markers. To get the impression of really fluffy sheep, I used small 'C' shapes with some light earthy colours. I cut these out with the coordinating dies.

To create the punny sentiment, I used some more contrasting Distress Oxide Inks in Fired Brick, Candied Apple and Abandoned Coral to colour a white panel. I have a few favourite alpha dies for such occasions : (1) Lawn Fawn Finley's ABCs for taller and chunkier letters; (2) Concord & 9th Simple Serif Alphabet Dies for wider and squatter letters; or (3) Neat & Tangled Journalling Alphas dies for tall and skinny letters. I chose the Finley's ABCs as I thought these would fit better in the space, stacking three layers to give some dimension.

I needed a simple sentiment so I white heat embossed a partial sentiment from the MFT Bitty Thanks & Gratitude stamp set, trimming it into a strip and foam mounting it above the the alphas.

I'm now trying to think of other sentiments that I could use with this type of design. Or perhaps you could use the letters to personalise the card with the name of a recipient!

Thanks for reading, catch you next week.

Tallie

   

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