Today I’m guesting for the Ellen Hutson 12 Tags of Christmas event, and the Christmas carol that is designated for today is Christmas In A Coffee Shop. How perfect is that?? I mean, I am pretty much running on caffeine and sass, lol!
This event is a two-for-one, so one of the Ellen Hutson design team members are teamed up with a guest, and we each get a Christmas Carol to use as the inspiration for our tags. You can find Adelina’s blog post HERE, and also Ellen’s introductory blog post with her fabulously creative tag HERE!
Here is a photo of my tags, and I will tell you all about them a bit further down.
In all honesty, I haven’t started listening to Christmas music yet, as it’s still sunny and mild here on the Mediterranean coast of Valencia. In fact, only yesterday my Mamma and I spent a good chunk of the day at the beach basking in the sunshine!
However, colouring images is always fun and I do adore these bears from the Weather Weather In The Woods stamp set. I have done one as a polar bear and one as a brown bear, and matched up their sweaters to the rest of the tags.
The bears were cut out with the coordinating diecut and on the back, I added some foam squares, to add some height to the bears.
The polar bear got a nice blue sweater as well as a blue plaid tag, plus a galaxy blue-ish tag too. This is created by sprinkling Nuvo Shimmer Powder in Meteorite Shower on wet water colour paper. I didn’t mix it up a lot as I wanted the different colours to shine through.
I did a similar thing for the brown bear’s tag, only I used Golden Sparkler Nuvo Shimmer Powder. The colours in this fit better with his green sweater and green plaid tag. The tag die I have used for all of these pieces is actually a Combo Swatch die from Waffle Flower, it was the perfect size for my tags.
The finishing touches were a few little snowflake dies, cut out with the adorable Winter Tiny Tags diecut from Lawn Fawn. I also heat embossed ‘do not open until the 25th’ on them with Rich Gold embossing powder, this is from the coordinating Tiny Tag Sayings stamp set. While I had the tag die out, I also cut out one silver and one gold snowflake out of glitter card stock, to layer up with the heat embossed one.
A bit of ribbon and a pompom later and the tags were done!
Thank you so much for stopping by today, I hope you have enjoyed this post. Don’t forget to check out Adelina’s post and the rest of the Ellen Hutson 12 Tags Of Christmas event!
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
Almost all of the products I have used, or a suitable alternative, can be found in the Ellen Hutson shop. Affiliate links to products below, at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much if you chose to support me by using these links, I really appreciate it!
Hi guys, how are you today? All good, I hope. I’ve got lots to cover today, so let’s dive right in!
First of all, let’s talk about a fun collaboration between Picket Fence Studios and MFT Stamps! As part of this collaboration MFT Stamps generously sent me some inks to play with, and I mixed these with some fun Picket Fence goodies for a couple of colourful cards.
On the first card you can see how vibrant the colours are, and on the second you can see how easily they blend, for a soft look.
To make the butterfly stand out better, I cut out a mask and ink blended Cement Gray around this. The mask is done by tracing the outline of the stencil on paper, and fussy cutting this out. It was done on cheap copy paper, rather than masking paper. Once cut out, you place the stencil back over the colourful ink blending, making sure it’s in the right spot, then place the mask on top of this and ink blend around.
I have used a white gel pen to add in the antennas, because they did not stay in place. This panel was then trimmed down to 4″x5.25″ and adhered to a white card base with the help of foam tape. On top of this I have splattered some gold water colour, which you can get by mixing a small amount of Golden Rose paper glaze with water until you have a very liquid consistency.
The final touch, because it wasn’t shimmery enough *cough, cough, I have an embellishment problem* I added some gems from the Sands Of Time mix. I love this one!
In other news, it’s also Day 2 of Feature Day for LDRS! The theme is Fall Favorites but as I don’t have much stuff from LDRS yet, I winged it a bit and made a floral card and then plonked ‘Happy Fall’ on it to make it autumn-esque. Typically, I have a package coming next week with the new October Release stuff!! I can’t wait to try out the Perfect Petals layering dies!
In fairness to me, I’m still having summer vibes in my neck of the woods. It’s regularly +25C and glorious sunshine here, and lots of flowers are still blooming so it’s hard to get into ‘fall mode’. Plus I’m a summer gal through and through…
I used the Layered Poinsettia diecut and cut out LOADS of bits, in Bristol Vellum paper as I planned on doing lots of ink blending, with a splash of water colouring/ink smooshing. I wanted to try an idea to add colour to the bits, and that was to basically smoosh the pieces into the ink pads to get them covered with colour. It worked much better than ink smooshing actually, and left the colour much more vivid.
So yeah…. it’s got Spanish autumn vibes, but I did have to use lots to creative discretion here to get it to work with the theme. Maybe it was a bit of a cop-out but hey, it sure made a pretty card!
For Feature Day 1 I made another floral card, only this time I used the Potted Poinsettia stamp set and coloured it in with Copics.
Thankfully this stamp set has a coordinating diecut too, so I used that to cut the image out and on the back of this I used LOTS of foam squares to pop it up.
On the pre-cut strips I dabbed my Embossing ink really well to make sure they were coated, then I sprinkled the Luxurious Chocolate embossing powder over them, tapped off the excess and then used the heat tool to set them.
These were then adhered to a trimmed down piece of card stock, with the help of my grid mat to make sure the spacing was even. This piece was then adhered to an actual card base, and then the Poinsettias were added on top.
The final touch was to stamp up Happy Holidays, from the Potted Poinsettias stamp set, in black ink on a skinny white banner. This was trimmed down to be even smaller than the background piece and then adhered on top of the flowers.
The last thing I’ve got to share today is a fab promotion from Pinkfresh Studio!
From today until the 4th of Nov you can take 15% off standalone slimline stencils using the code SLIMST15. It’s only valid on in-stock products, while supplies last. Don’t forget to use the code at checkout.
You can see how I have used some of the stencils in the photo below, stencils really are one of my favorite things to work with. They are versatile, great value for money and so much fun to play with!
Well, I think that’s it for today. What do you think? Is this format preferred over separate blog post showing each card on it’s own? I’d love to hear what you think and what you want to see from me so I can provide content that you will enjoy.
If you like colouring, you might have heard of The Daily Marker hosted by Kathy Racoosin. It’s a challenge where she challenges you to take 5 minutes per day to yourself and colour, with whatever medium of your choice. The challenge is running for the whole month of August, and I have been taking part every day.
This is a re-cap of my projects from the first eight days, as it started on a Sunday Aug 1st. My aim is to do a re-cap post every Sunday with the cards and colouring I have done for it.
For Day1 I picked this cute penguin stamp from Mama Elephant. I adore these guys. It’s coloured in with Copics and then I ink blended a background with Squeezed Lemonade, Salvaged Patina and Chipped Sapphire. It’s my current fave combo!
The background is splattered with some gold watercolour from the Starry Night palette from Kuretake. It’s my go-to for gold. The card is finished off with the word die that comes with the coordinating diecuts for the penguins.
On Day 2 and 3 I coloured in this fabulous Botan Peony from Picket Fence Studios, with Fuchsia and pink copics. This card is finished off with a word die from Neat & Tangled (they have sadly closed down) and a generous sprinkling of Clear Sparkling sequins.
There is a reel for this one too, and you can find that HERE.
This card was actually for Day5, but I forgot to post it on my Instagram that day, oops. I have recently joined the Crafty Meraki design team and will be making a couple of videos a month for them. I used the Elegance stamp set and coordinating diecut for my first video, which I coloured in with Ink On 3 Atelier re-inkers mixed with Liquid Pixie Dust to make shimmery watercolour. To get the no-line colouring effect I used the Fadeout ink, also from Ink On 3.
The one below is from Watch This! stamp set, and it´s done with water colours, as well as the same Dienamics to spell out Adoption. The reel for these two can be found HERE.
I am also going to make a little mini-album or something to send to my sister so she can keep a little mini-diary of her journey with Otto.
On Day6 I tried some new-to-me markers, Paint Pens, from Artistro and tried some rock painting! I had never done this before, so this was completely new to me. I did make a big rainbow and then a little heart rainbow on a smaller rock.
I have a reel for the big one HERE, and I think I will share the one I made for the little rock too. If you are interested in trying these, you can get 10% off by using the code ERICAANDERSSONB.
On Day8 I made another rainbow, only this time on paper and completely flat. This stamp set is Rainbows, it´s from Avery Elle and I just adore it. I used a ridiculous amount of Copics for the colouring, but that happens all the time. I always use so many markers to get depth and details.
I finished it with a sentiment from the stamp set, a friend diecut from Mama Elephant and lots of Crystal Clear Fusion sequins from Studio Katia. The reel for this card can be found HERE.
Well, that’s it for me for today, I hope you have enjoyed this little re-cap. I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post, as well as some suitable alternatives in the links below, in case you want to snap up a little something-something for yourself. Shopping with these links do not cost you anything extra at all, the company it’s linked to will give me a small commission directly as a thank you for pointing you in their direction. Thank you so much if you use these links, I really appreciate the support!
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica! If you want to see more of my work, I have linked to my social media accounts below. I’d love it you’d give me a follow there!
Today’s cards are another couple of slim line cards. It seems I can’t stop, and won’t stop, with these for a while. Oh well, things could be worse, right?
To make these I started out by cutting panels of white card stock with the Slim Line Diecutting System from Picket Fence Studios. On the smaller rectangles, I adhered strips of coloured cardstock to create rainbows. The card stock I’ve used for these is from Lawn Fawn, and you can get it in a handy Rainbow Pack if you don’t want to invest in 10 sheets of each colour.
I’ve used a few different diecuts to make the sentiments, and the big Hi Die and Friend Die, are from The Stamp Market. The Happy Birthday is from MFT Stamps. Both the Friend and the Happy Birthday have been cut out of white card stock a few times and layered up.
The Happy Birthday one was then heat embossed with Glisten Changer to make it sparkly. This particular one has been retired, but HERE you can find a really good alternative.
The Friend one I heat embossed with Clear Gloss to create that puffy sticker look. I love doing my word diecuts like this, it just adds something extra!
For the clouds I have used some Stitched Cloud Dienamics from MFT Stamps, on white card stock. For a little while longer you can find the EXACT ONES at Ellen Hutson!
These I have jazzed up by heat embossing them with the WOW! Changers Texture and Glisten. The way these powders work is that you can change your embossing powder to either be sheen, glittery or texture. All you have to do is mix your choice of powder with whatever effect you want.
I haven’t used the Texture one before so I decided to use it for one of the cards! For the second one I used Glisten, which I am obsessed with. Both powders are mixed with Clear Gloss and the pieces were dabbed with the Embossing Pad, covered in the powder mix and then set with the Heat Tool.
With these cloud bits done, I glued them to the rainbow panels. I did have to use both tape runner and Lawn Fawn glue because of the heat embossing, and I also left them under flat weights to make sure they dried flat.
On the first one I glued down the Happy Birthday with Glossy Accents, as I ran out of my Lawn Fawn Glue Tubes!! SEND MORE STAT!!!!
The second card was finished with the big Hi and the Friend diecuts. The Hi I layered up with fun foam, cut with the diecut, to add height. The Friend I added on top of the Hi and with that, the card was done.
I actually managed to make a bonus card with the outline from the Hi die too. It seemed a shame to waste it, when I had a load of rainbow card bases done already.
Using a Nuvo fine tip glue pen, I adhered the outline Hi to a card base and ta-da! Another card done!!
On my YouTube channel you can also find a video of the making of the slim line cards, if you fancy seeing the Changer powders in action.
I’ve used compensated affiliate links in this post. What that means is these links goes to shops I’m affiliated with, and as a thank you for sending you to them, I will get a small commission directly from them if you buy something. This doesn’t cost you anything extra at all, but it really makes a difference to me if you do use these links. Any earnings I get from these links go directly back into the running of my blog, YouTube channel and keeping my Instagram fresh, fun and inspiring for you, so thank you if you choose to support me like this. I really appreciate the support!
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
You can find me on various social media platforms if you want to see more of my work
On this panel, I used the Slimline Die Set Scallops and Banners from Trinity Stamps. This set comes with banners as well, but I only used the two scalloped slimline dies.
I was contemplating to only use one of them, but heck, I’m not one to back down from layers. The smaller one got a solid layer of foam tape on the back, and the bigger one was adhered directly to a white card base.
I love the big Happy so that was the ones I chose for this card. It’s also coloured in with Copics. I used one colour, in three different shades, for each letter.
With all the bits and pieces done, I took some time to try out different layouts and this is the one I settled on. Everything is adhered with liquid glue. I did use all the images from the Dandy Day set and think it turned out adorable!
So that’s it, the card is all done. What do you think? Have you tried slimline cards yet? Is the craze here to stay?
Thank you so much for stopping by today, I hope you like the card and found som inspiration here with me. If you want to pick up any of these items for yourself, I have used compensated affiliate links in this post for your convenience. If you do use these, I get a small commission from the company directly, at no extra cost to you whatsoever. Thank you for supporting my crafty shenanigans and I by using these links!
‘Ello mates! (That’s me channeling my inner Aussie)
Today’s post is a collaboration with the lovely Michelle Lupton, who’s doing a fun Christmas card making collaboration with lots of crafty friends. The idea is to CASE/Copy And Selectively Edit a card from each other and do it in a Christmas theme.
I had a hard time picking one because Michelle makes AH-mazing cards! Check out her Instagram to see for yourself. After going back and forth and then back and forth again, I finally settled on this gorgeous card.
I started out with a stencil from MFT Stamps called Peace, Love and Joy, and Gold Deco Foil transfer sheets. To attach the foil to the pattern, I used Transfer Gel Duo with a spatula. Of course I sprayed the stencil with Pixie Spray first. Whilst waiting for that to set, I started working on a second card.
On top of this I used a light watercolour wash to add some colour, like the original card. These water colours from Gansai Tambi are really rich and pigmented so you only need a tiny bit.
When that was dry, I added it to a card base. To then achieve the look of the inspiration card, I adhered two panels cut out of white card stock, on each side of it. A little christmas sentiment stamped on a slim banner was the last touch to this one.
The first card was finished off by adding the foil to the pattern and the transfer gel, then run through the diecutting machine. It works so great, and you don’t need a laminator with the Transfer Gel Duo either.
This card also got a slim banner with a christmas sentiment added to it, and was adhered to a card base. The sentiment set I used is from MFT Stamps and is unfortunately not available any longer. Which is a shame as it’s perfect for winter/holiday/Christmas cards.
That’s it from me for today, but I hope you will make sure to hop on over to Michelle’s blog post and check out what card she CASEd from me.
I’ve used some compensated affiliate links in this blog post for your convenience. If you shop using these links I get a small commission from the company directly at no extra cost to you whatsoever. Anything I make from these links go towards the running of my blog, YouTube channel and Instagram. Thank you so much if you chose to support me in this way, I really appreciate the support and encouragement!
Today’s post is a quick one, as it’s a quick card! I peeked at the MFT Stamps Sketch Challenge for this week and I thought hmm, I can do this one. I did end up flipping the sketch on its side though.
I started by colouring the doggies in the PAWsome Lucky Dog stamp set from MFT Stamps, this one is retired sadly. I used so many Copics for these little guys to created texture, dimension and to bring them to life!
When they were all coloured in, I then cut them out with the coordinating die-namics. How cute is this little gang? As a self-confessed CDL/Crazy Dog Lady I have a weakness for doggie stamps.
As I’m challenging myself to make more CAS/Clean And Simple cards, I wanted to make it very simple and let the doggies take centre stage. So I cut out a scalloped square out of some patterned paper, from the Trail Mix 6×6 Paper Pack. Because I love blue, I used a blue one. This paper pack is also retired, as I have hoarded it for so long, lol!
A quick straight to the point sentiment, You’re Dog-gone Awesome, was stamped up with black ink on white card stock. I trimmed it down a little and then stuck all these bits down onto a white card card base. That was it. Not even a single sequin! Can you believe it??
I’m going to try and remember to submit this to the Sketch Challenge in time, as I usually don’t. Kind of nuts, as there is a $50 gift card up for grabs just to submit the card as the winner is randomly drawn.
Right, I’m done! Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
You can find me on various social media platforms if you want to see more of my work
Today’s post is based on this week’s MFT Stamps Sketch Challenge #501 and I’ve not done one of these for a while, so I thought why not?
I really wanted to use the cute dragons from the BB Magical Dragons set. With that in mind, I stamped them up on Copic friendly card stock with the PFS Black Hybrid ink, set it with my WOW! heat tool and got to work with Copics. My first dragon was done in what I picture to be a natural colour for dragons: green!
My second dragon was done in more teal-like colours, maybe she’s a girl dragon? The tummies, horns, wings and back scales on both of them were done in lighter, but still matching colours.
There were two fire bursts stamped up too, so I did these in flame colours. Deep reds with some fiery yellow. I’m so glad this set comes with coordinating Dienamics as fussy cutting is not my jam.
The background I did with the Mini Cloud stencil, one of my favourite stencils ever. I wanted a really soft look, so I didn’t add any more ink to my Life Changing Blender Brushes, just used the blues left on them. It turned out fab!
One of my newest purchases is Sparkle Spray by Nuvo Tonic Studios, and I wanted to add some sparkle to the background with this. Buuuuut… I went a little overboard, which left the background COVERED in the sparkle spray. This one is Morning Fog, and wow! I think I will be adding a few more to my arsenal.
To finish off the card, I stamped up a couple of the sentiments from the BB Magical Dragons set with Black Hybrid ink. Then I adhered the dragons and the fire bursts with Lawn Fawn liquid glue, added a little bit of Wink Of Stella to the wings and horns, and with that, the card was done! I was originally only going to add one of the fire bursts but as I went overboard with the Sparkle Spray, and it kind of looked like ash in the air after the dragon had gone to town breathing fire, I added both.
Thanks so much for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed this card and found some inspiration here with me. I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post, at no extra cost to you. If you shop via these links I get a small commission from the company directly. Any earnings I get from these go directly back into the running of my blog, YouTube and Instagram so thank you so much for supporting me by using these. I really appreciate it a lot!
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
You can find me on various social media platforms if you want to see more of my work
Today I’m participating in a very special blog, YouTube and Instagram hop, organised by the fabulous Justine Hovey, you can find more information on her blog. The goal of this hop is to come together to stand in union with our black and brown friends to show solidarity and stamp out racism. Not just for crafters, but for everyone who’s experienced racism. The fight to end racism and bring equality to every aspect of life is so important and we can not stop until it is reality!
I have used the BFF My Tribe stamp, from Picket Fence Studios, for my card and I think it’s so perfect as you can basically go a rainbow of skin tones. A different one for each arm, to make sure all your friends are included. I have a YouTube video too.
I used sooooo many Copics to colour in the image, to make sure I covered as many skin tones as possible. I’m not very good at skin tones with Copics, I definitely need to practice a lot more with that. Time to crack open the Human Rainbow colouring chart from Sandy Allnock and get it down.
The top part of the card I had kept free for a sentiment and I wanted to diecut letters in skin tones and pastels to spell out ‘Better Together’. I used my long-term fave Stitched Alphabet Die-Namics from MFT Stamps. I use these so often and have loved them from the start! I used a pastel card stock from a DCVW paper pack as well as coloured card stock from Lawn Fawn. The ones from Lawn Fawn are Vanilla Malt, Paper Bag, Chocolate Bar and Ground Coffee.
To line up the letters straight, I used the grids on my work mat, a ruler and PostIt Tape, or use purple tape or even washi. I also have a magnetic work mat that comes in handy for this sort of thing. Then I glued them down with the glue tube from Lawn Fawn. I also added some gold details with a gold gel pen, to things like brackets and rings.
I almost left it like that but then I had a last-minute idea! I added a black heart with BLM, for Black Lives Matter, heat embossed in white, on top of the hands. Sort of like an extra strong message of unity.
Now it’s time to hop along, and the next stop is Angie! The full list of the hop can be found on Justine’s blog RIGHT HERE.
Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed this post and the rest of the hop. I have linked most of the products used for this card with compensated affiliate links for your convenience. If you shop using these links, I get a small commission from the company directly, at no extra cost to you.
Welcome to a video hop celebrating 3 of our friends – Ardyth, Kathya, and Jenny. They all recently reached 5k subscribers on YouTube, so they are co-hosting a hop full of happy cards to celebrate and I was lucky enough to get invited to the celebrations! This is the blog post for my video.
There is a link to my YouTube video HERE and you can also find the whole hop list of participants is on Ardyth, Kathya and Jenny’s blogs.
Ok, now I’m quickly show off my cards and I actually love them both!
We also have a number of fabulous sponsors and prizes that will be awarded randomly throughout the hop to commenters, so the more you hop and comment, the better your chance of winning a prize! Deadline for comments is June 5 and prizes will be announced on Ardyth, Jenny and Kathya’s blogs on June 6. Prizes must be claimed by June 30.
I coloured the first one with Copics with a flicking technique, leaving lots of white space. The markers used are RV69, RV09, RV04, RV52, Y17, Y13 and Y11.
To stick to the celebration theme of this hop, I have used the Celebrate word diecut from MFT Stamps. Many, many times in fact. I cut it out of white card stock first, and then once out of black card stock. These I layered up with my beloved liquid glue from Lawn Fawn. Sadly, this fan-tabulous die-namic is retired! Waaaaah!!
I did two while I was on a roll, one is finished with the black card stock and one with the white. Both have been doubly heat-embossed with clear embossing powder to create a nice, shiny puffy sticker look.
I finished the card off with a generous helping of Pretty Pink Posh sequins, adhered with Glossy Accents. The ones I have used are from their Sparkling Clear Mix and I love them. The Man thinks I over-sequinise (which is totally a word now, even though he’s wrong).
With this card done, I decided I loved it so much that I made another one! With a bit of a twist, of course. As I had the Peony stamp in my MISTI still, it was quick work stamping up another card panel. On this one I added more colour to the petals and also filled in the space behind the flowers with Cool Grays.
This feels a lot more dramatic than the white one! I did add some white details with a white Posca pen to bring more white into the panel, as I felt it was perhaps a little bit too colourful.
To add even more white, I used the white Celebrate word die and that was just the thing for it. This one also has clear embossing powder on it, two layers, to create that shiny look. Which has not been captured very well in the photos, sadly.
This one got sequins added too. In almost the same spots as the same white one.
Next to each other they look quite different, despite having the exact same layout. Isn’t it amazing to see how things can change just by adding dark spaces or keeping white ones? I absolutely love this dreamy Botan Peony stamp and have gotten so much use out of it. If you like big flowers (and you can not lie) this one is definitely one to add to your stash.
Well, that’s it from me for today but don’t forget to check out the video I made for these cards as well as the rest of the video hop! There are so many incredibly talented card makers lined up, you will be absolutely spoilt rotten with inspiration and gorgeous projects. Oh and prizes from these sponsors!
You can find me on various social media platforms if you want to see more of my work
Affiliate links below to Ellen Hutson shop, at no extra cost to you. The other links in the blog post are to various other shops. None of the links will cost you anything extra at all, but if you shop using these, I will get a small commission directly from the company it goes to. More importantly though, it will help strengthen my relationship with them so thank you if you choose to support me like this.
CaCaCraft by Erica 