Colourific Christmas Cards

I have four projects on the Colourific blog today - all Christmas cards.  When I first saw this gorgeous tree made of stars in the Mr & Mrs Snow stamp set... I knew that it was wanting to be foiled!  I am so happy that I did... I love the end result:

 After running it through my machine, I cut it out and mounted on a simple triangle of dark green cardstock, adding a little brown base - then created a square card with my patterned tree paper.  I added a snowflake die cut, and cut the word "joy" out of some gold cardstock.  A few gold sequins added to the glimmer.

It's always hard to photograph anything shiny!  It's got quite a lovely shimmer in real life.

A few weeks back, I did some butterfly cards using the A4 Alphabet & Numbers stamp set, and wanted to try using it for some Christmas cards:

I'm sure you've seen variations on this idea before, but I wanted to give it a try with Colourific's fabulous font!

I stamped the words, leaving spaces where the O's should be... then I photocopied them onto some white cardstock (the foil only sticks to toner), and then ran them all through my Minc machine with gold foil to make my shimmery letters.

 I die cut two snowflakes from gold cardstock, and layered them onto each sentiment.

 All of the words are adhered to the base with pop dots for a little dimension.

And of course, I couldn't resist using my sewing machine to sew around the panels.  *So if you don't have Christmas stamp sets on hand, but want to put some holiday cards together - this is a quick & easy idea, and a great way to use a font.  

*There are brand new stamp sets being released by Colourific on December 1st!  Be sure to check out the blog in the coming weeks to see all of the new ideas from the Design Team.

Colourific Christmas cards

I have the sweetest images to share with you today - all from the new holiday stamp sets from Colourific:

I'm all about bright colours & papers... and these images had me grabbing these bold patterns, and I love the aqua added in with the traditional red & green.

I stamped and coloured the snowmen from the Mr & Mrs Snow set with Copic markers, and started building my snowy scene... and felt like it needed a little glimmer.  So I ran the pole and striped scarf through my Minc machine, adding red foil to them, and I made the snowflakes silver.

 I finished off my card with some die cut snowflakes and some zigzag stitching with my sewing machine.

 There are actually three sweet birds that come in the Singing Robins stamp set, but I decided to just feature one, sitting on a branch with the snowy sky behind him.  There's a little shimmer on this card also, as I foiled the sentiment in silver as well:

Be sure to check out all of the new holiday sets that are available on the Colourific website here!  Happy stamping!

Santa's Sleigh from Colourific

Today I'm so excited to be sharing the new Colourific holiday stamps!  You can find the entire selection on the Colourific website here... but I am using Santa's Sleigh today:

 When I'm colouring images with my Copic markers, the starting point is always my patterned paper.  I picked this coordinating pack from Echo Park, and pulled out the colours to use on my images.  I used a subtle dusty aqua snowflake pattern as my sky, and die cut a snowy hillside, adding a few die cut snowflakes randomly as well.  After colouring the sleigh, bear & gifts, I fussy cut them all out, and glued them together so that they appear to be stacked in the sleigh.  I attached pop dots all over the back of the image to attach it to my base, and did the same to my sentiment.

 This Santa is such a cute, happy guy - I just love him!  All of the images were stamped separately, coloured with Copics and fussy cut out.  Like my first card, I created an evening sky, then some snowy banks, and attached both Santa and the sentiment with pop dots.  I glued the toys behind the sack, and attached it all to the base.  You can check out all the newest stamps on the Colourific site, and get them ordered asap to get going on your holiday cards.  Happy stamping!

Colourific Butterflies

I am up on the Colourific blog today, sharing two cards using the lovely Spread Your Wings and Fly set, along with the Alphabet & Numbers:

 Now, you're going to have to forgive my photography... no matter how I edited my photo, the butterfly came out with a distinct red tone!  It's much more of a wine colour like the photo below.  I coloured the butterflies with Copic markers - so many possibilities and different ways they could be coloured!  I fussy cut around them, and then scored down either side of the body, so that the wings bend upwards.  For both cards, I used my sewing machine to zigzag the black patterned paper onto the base.  The teal circle on the "Fly" card is adhered with pop dots for a little dimension.

 The Alphabets & Numbers set is such a great font!  Really easy to fussy cut/paper piece like I've done here.

I was going to use the sentiments that come with the Spread Your Wings and Fly set on the front of the card... but they were busy enough already, so I mounted them on some teal paper, stamped a few butterflies in black ink, and added them to the inside of the cards.

A lot of butterfly papers are light & pastel-ish, so I love the dark, rich colours of these papers for a change.

You can find all of the Colourific stamps on the website here, or just click on the links above.

Happy stamping!

Hydrangea card

I am posting on the Colourific blog today, and I'm sharing a card that started out as a wreath... but ended up being a hydrangea ( ??? ).  Scroll down for the details...

 I started out by stamping multiples of all three sizes of the outlined flower images from A6 Moderne Flowers, and a bunch of the outlined leaves from the A6 Leaves set on a large piece of watercolour paper.  My intention was to paint them all in autumn shades, fussy cut them out, and put them together to make a wreath.  But there was something about seeing 25 or so of the flower images side by side that made me think "hydrangea".  So my plan did a complete about take, I found a blue that I painted them all with, and got busy cutting.

 I gradually watered down the shade of blue that I was using, making some of the blossoms lighter, and lighter still, as I knew I wanted some to be hidden behind that would be darker, or in 'shadow'.  I used a bright yellow mixed with a bit of green to make up my limey/green leaves, varying the colour a bit on each one.  At first glance it looks like an awful lot of cutting!  But once I got going, it probably only took about 45 minutes - easy to do while you watch a little TV.  I added a dot of silvery Perfect Pearls to the center of each flower, and let them dry.
I ran a couple of rows of irregular stitching around my white cardstock piece, and then started building my flower from the bottom up.  I used a bit of adhesive just on the center of each flower back, so that the petals all curve up a little, giving a lovely bit of added dimension shown below:

By far the scariest part of putting this card together was adding those little blue spatters to the background - after all the work of stamping/painting/cutting/assembling, I was panicked that I might drop a big blob of paint onto my work!  So it was definitely a less is more situation, and I stopped after getting just enough spatters to cover it.  I white embossed my sentiment onto black cardstock and adhered it with a few pop dots, and called it a day.  Happy stamping!

Dream - Colourific

Hello everyone!  It's my day to post on the Colourific blog, and I have a simple card using 3 different stamp sets to share:

 I started by die cutting a circle shape from a piece of scrap paper to create a mask, then I taped it down on my cardstock and created an ombre/sunset effect using three colours of Distress Oxide Inks (Wild Honey, Worn Lipstick & Candied Apple).  After removing the mask, I stamped the two flowers from the Moderne Flowers set, the leaves and butterfly from the Leaves stamp set, and added the Dream sentiment from Unicorns & Chasing Rainbows - all in Black Versafine ink.  I drew in the stems with a fine black marker.

I used my sewing machine to stitch the panel down to some black cardstock, and popped the whole piece up with some pop dots before adhering it to my patterned paper.  I added a few white sequins to finish it off.  You can find all of the stamp sets on the Colourific website here... or click on the stamp names above to go directly to them on the site.  Happy stamping!

I'm a Colourific Designer!

Very excited to share that I am now on the DT of a new stamp company out of the UK - Colourific!

The very talented Annelies Brown (owner/illustrator) has a wonderfully artsy style, and has put together a fabulous team of designers from around the world.  

For my first post, I am using the smaller unicorn image from Unicorns & Chasing Rainbows, along with sentiments from Unicorn Text:

I started creating my background by blending four colours of Distress Oxide Ink to provide a soft halo of colour.  Then I used my sewing machine to stitch around the panel before adhering it to the base. I've coloured the unicorn and flowers with Copic markers, and fussy cut them all out.

The unicorn and a couple of the smaller flowers are attached with pop dots for a little added dimension, and a few sequins provided some sparkle!

I used another one of the sentiments from Unicorn Text on the inside, along with the small flower spray:

We are just getting this party started over on the Colourific Stamps blog - be sure to visit regularly to see what our fabulous design team has to share.  You can also find Colourific on facebook here, and you'll want to join our Colourific Stamps Fan Group here, where you can share your creations as well.