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!
Today’s post is all about this slim line card, and lots and LOTS of copic colouring. The Fabulous Floral Slimline Panel from Alex Syberia Designs has become a bit of a fave with me, I love those big florals and think it’s just fab.
I’ve gone for a deep fuchsia/dark pink colour scheme this time. It’s quite dramatic and I’ve seen lots of colour combos used for this, just check out the rest of the design team for inspiration.
The Copics I’ve used are all lined up in the photo but just in case you can’t see it it’s, from darkest to lightest, RV69, RV66, RV19, RV17, RV55, R83 and R81.
I’ve gone in a flicking motion for most of the flowers, but did blend a bit to get those colours smooth. At the end, I did go in with more of the darkest colours to bring back more of a contrast in the middle.
When I had finished the colouring I fussy cut the flowers out, because I wanted to have a different background for the card, rather than a coloured one.
On a slim line card base, I added Gold String washi tape from Altenew and wrapped it around the edges to keep it clean looking. The washi tape wasn’t wide enough to go across the entire panel, so I had to use two pieces, however the gaps will be covered up by the flowers.
To finish off the card I heat embossed a sentiment from the Pure Magic stamp set from Ellen Hutson, in Rich Gold embossing powder from WOW! Embossing, on black card stock. I used my anti-static tool on the card stock first, to avoid stray powder getting where I didn’t want it, then stamped it up with WOW! Embossing ink. Once this was set with the heat tool, I trimmed it down and adhered it to the card. It needed a little something else so I also added a ‘love’ diecut and some matte gold sequins.
With that, I’m all done for today but I hope you like the card! I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post, at no extra cost to you, as well as a link to the digi stamp used, for your convenience. If you shop using any of the links that are affiliate links, I get a small commission from the company directly, as a thank you for directing you to them. This does not cost you a penny extra at all, and any earnings I get from these go directly back into the running of my blog, YouTube channel and Instagram.
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
Below you can find affiliate links to Ellen Hutson, with some suitable alternatives to the items not found in her shop.
Today is release day for Alex Syberia’s March release of digital stamps, and as always, she has some amazing designs for us!
I started out with the Fabulous Floral slim line flowers and printed it on vellum. The upside with having a laser printer is that I can foil the images, which always looks fab! This one I foiled with white Minc foil, using my Minc machine.
To add some colour, I turned it over and used Copics, on the back. When using this technique, you do have to add quite a lot of colours, or strong ones, in order for it to show through the vellum.
When the colouring was done, I gently wrapped the vellum piece over a white slim line card base, and glued down the sides to the back so it wouldn’t show.
To finish this off, I used a discontinued, but loved, word die from Neat & Tangled that says ‘love you’ in a gorgeous font. The paper I used is homemade shimmer paper! You can make your own by smearing Paper Glaze from Picket Fence Studios on card stock, let it dry and voilá!
I cut out another two layers and added these together with liquid glue, before adhering the whole thing to the card. Layering word dies up is such a simple but effective way of taking your card designs up a notch, with little effort. This word die is sold out in a LOT of places, and the only shop I found it actually in stock is Foiled Fox, so if you want it, GRAB IT FAST!!
To celebrate the release the design team are doing an instagram hop, where you can see some fantastic inspiration and hop along for a chance to win a gift voucher to the Alex Syberia shop! I have seen some of the cards, and they are AH-mazing! You are not going to want to miss it.
You can of course use skip straight to Alex’s shop if you already know you are going to want to get some of these for yourself.
Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed this post and will enjoy some of these new stamps for yourself.
Today I’m delighted to be one of the stops on the Tonic Studios Stamp Club release blog hops. This month’s bundle is called Compassion & Poppies, and consists of a stamp set and coordinating diecuts. They will only be sold as a bundle, and are exclusive to Tonic Studios so grab them while you can! Once they are sold out, they are gone!
This is a monthly stamp release, and will be available the last Friday of every month (with exceptions made for holidays) It’s not a club or subscription based program, so there is no commitment or forced buying, it’s simply a small, but fabulous, stamp release.
You can get it both from the UK Tonic Studios shop and the US Tonic Studios shop, but if you want it, make sure to get it fast. Don’t dilly-dally, the last bundle sold out so fast, so better safe than sorry!
There is of course a prize to be won, a blog hop wouldn’t be complete without one, right? One lucky winner will win the entire bundle, as well as a £50/$50 Giftcard to Tonic Studios! How is that for awesome-sauce? Leave a comment on this blog to a chance to win, and the more you hop and comment, the bigger your chance to win. Comments can be made until March 3rd 11.59PM PST/7.59am GST March 4th, and winner will be announced on March 5th!
The entire line-up can be found at the bottom of this post, and you next stop is my talented friend Janette Kausen!
So, full disclosure, my goodies only arrived 24hrs ago, so it has been a bit of a scramble. I only finished one full card but if I manage to make more, I will share them over on my Instagram.
I started by stamping the big flower image with Black Hybrid ink on Neenah paper with my MISTI, as I wanted to do some Copic colouring. I started out with reds, greens and cool greys, but decided to skip out on the greens in favour of colouring the leaves grey for a dramatic look.
A bit of masking here and there protected my flowers, and I heat embossed the two leaves from the stamp set in Platinum from WOW! Embossing powder. It goes so well with the grey on the leaves, and adds that gorgeous shine to the card. I made sure to use my anti-static tool generously before, as the paper was still a bit wet from the colouring.
I used my WOW! heat tool to set the powder. I love this tool, thanks to the dual settings you have so much more control over the heat and that’s always a good thing.
To add some drama to the card, I ink blended some Hickory Smoke and Black Soot around the edges, using my Blender Brushes. This not only adds drama, but also draws the eye in to the star of the show: the poppies.
The final touch was to heat emboss one of the sentiments onto black card stock. I used Platinum again, for a cohesive look, and trimmed it down to a slim banner before adhering it with liquid glue.
Well, that’s it from me for now, and it’s time to hop on. Or get your shop on! I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post, for your convenience. These links do not cost you anything extra at all, however if you use them I get a small commission from the company directly. Any earnings I get from these links go directly back into the running of my blog, YouTube channel and Instagram. I am so grateful for the support, and can’t do it without you so thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Today’s post is the corresponding blog post for a YouTube video that’s up on my channel today. I’m collaborating with Courtney Kroeber for her 25 Days Of Christmas Cards series and we decided on Copic coloring for our cards.
Now, this might come as a shock as colouring is basically the theme of this card, but I have not used a single stamp set here!! Not a one! Say whaaaaat? I decided to use the Strings Of Lights diecuts from Lawn Fawn and cut out lots of the baubles out of Copic friendly card stock, and these I have coloured.
To get these looking as lifelike as possible, I have used quite a few markers on each one. Going from dark at the edges and lighter and lighter towards the middle.
The screw tops I had to play around with several tries before I was happy with the look. I thought blending the colours would give the most realistic look, but I was so wrong! In the end, what I liked best was using C4 with light flicks, and then going in with C5 to add depth and the illusion of the curve.
With a huge selection of baubles coloured, it was time to think about the actual card base. I had an idea in my head, and went about trying to make it come to life but man… it was a bit more trouble than I thought! The idea was to use the Take A Bough Encore dies from Concord & 9th and create a Christmas tree look. Sounds cool, right? Whilst I got there in the end, it ended up being a very heavy card! This is not one to be sent in the mail, unless you are happy to pay a lot extra for postage.
First of all I cut out a slim line panel using the Slim Line Diecutting System from Picket Fence Studios. Using this as a guide, I then absolutely COVERED it with the Take A Bough Encore pieces. These, and the background panel, are all cut out of Evergreen card stock, from Concord & 9th. When I had a good coverage around the edges, I covered them with a strip of Press’n’Seal and picked them all up. To make sure all of them would stick to the background panel I used Pritt-stick glue. Yep, very old school indeed!
When the edges glued down, I just had to cover the middle with the larger boughs. To make sure the tree looks lifelike, I didn’t cover the backs of the bough dies with glue, only the middle part.
With my “tree” done, I could start the decorating with the baubles! I cut out lots of extra string from the diecut set and then got puzzling. What I realised here though, is that I should have coloured up more of the smaller baubles, instead of going to town with the bigger ones. Admittedly they were easier to colour.
As it’s pretty obvious what occasion this card is for, I didn’t add a sentiment to the front of it. The Man actually said ‘Nobody is going to look at that and think Happy Easter’, lol!
I have used some compensated affiliate links in this blog post, at no extra cost to you, for your convenience. Thank you so much if you shop using these links, I really appreciate the support!
It’s the 14th and it’s time for another release from Picket Fence Studios! This month we are finally getting lots of dies again, yay! Nicole and Matt found another manufacturer to fulfil the orders so we have dies for this month AND some for stamps from previous releases too. As a non-fan of fussy-cutting, I am very pleased about this.
There are some fabu-LEAVES 🍁 🍃 🍂 stand-alone dies in this release: Maple Leaves, Oak Leaves and Ash Leaves. I have, of course, used them all. In my stash of PhDs (Projects half Done) I found a couple of sheets of water colour paper I had done ink smooshing on. With a stroke of luck, the colours were autumnal!
I did my usual thing and cut out loads of them, and then worried about what to do with them later, lol! With these, I decided to simply add them to card bases to create backgrounds. Almost like patterned paper, only with lots of texture. Because I cut out so many, I had enough for three.
One I kept really simple and added an already made word die cut that says ‘I miss you‘. Sometimes simple is all you need.
On the next I added only Oak Leaves to, and then a tray of takeaway coffee cups from the Sponsored By Coffee stamp set. These are coloured in with Copics and also had a little bit of patterned paper paper-pieced on them to add colour.
The final card was done with just Ash Leaves diecuts. These I layered up in rows onto a card base, picked them up with Press’n’Seal, added glue to the back and adhered to the card base again.
A few gold splatters, using a little bit of Golden Rose Paper Glaze mixed with water, added a lovely touch. The final piece was to add a sentiment. I didn’t want to cover up the leaves too much so I stamped ‘We have been thinking of you‘ on a piece of white card stock, with Black Hybrid ink. This was trimmed down to a skinny banner and adhered to the bottom row of leaves.
This month we also have a new Slim Line Rainbow stencil and if we know one thing about me, it’s that I do love a rainbow!
I used it in two different ways, and got some fab results! The first one was done with Moonstone Glimmer Paste from Tonic, over an ink blended background piece. It is a sparkly-licious combo!
The second background was done right after the first one, and I didn’t clean off the Glitter Gel before, in the hopes of getting some of it onto my panel. This time the stencil was adhered, with the help of Pixie Spray, to water colour paper. Using clean water and a paint brush, I got the paper a bit wet before adding shimmery water colours to it.
The shimmery water colour I use is actually Ink On 3 Atelier Ink re-inkers with Liquid Pixie Dust mixed in. In a little 6-piece water colour palette I have these ready mixed and they just need a little spritz of water before use, and they are good to go. By adding the Liquid Pixie Dust into the colour, you get the most amazing shimmer!
When the background was all coloured in, I left it to dry with the stencil in place. This will help keep the actual pattern clear and the colours where you want them. The next day I peeled off the stencil and it was colourful, shimmery and sparkly!
To finish off this card I heat embossed lots of sentiments from Crafty Mail, in Gold Rich embossing powder from WOW! I trimmed these down and adhered quite a few to the background. With that, this card was done and so am I for today!
I have used compensated affiliate links in this post, mostly to Picket Fence Studios. I do receive the products free as part of my design team commitments, but I only do use what I love (and quite frankly, I love most stuff from PFS) as my mojo goes on walkabout when I try forcing myself to work with stuff that does not inspire me. These affiliate links do not cost you anything extra at all, but the company they are linked to might pay me a small commission as a thank you for directing you to them, IF you shop using these links. Thank you so much if you chose to support me this way, I really appreciate it a lot.
Thanks for stopping by, lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
Today’s card is made with one of the Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember set from last year, If The Hat Fits, combined with their Spider Web Background stamp. I’m not much into Halloween and scary stuff, that’s just not my jam at all. Making Halloween cards, however, I for some reason, love making!
I used quite a few of the Cool Grey Copics to colour in the hat, but still getting some highlights and contrast to it. Both hats were done in the same colours and the accessories were done in “witchy” colours.
Thankfully for me, as I’m not a fan of fussy cutting, there are coordinating diecuts for this set too, and I used them to cut out the hats.
The background is the Spider Web Background stamp, heatembossed in Opaque Bright White on Eggplant card stock from Concord & 9th. For some reason, despite using an anti-static tool on the card stock first, there was a lot of stray powder all over it and it felt too fiddly to try cleaning that up. The effect was sort of a dusty spiderweb, which actually worked out pretty cool.
To make it look a bit spookier, and also to draw the eye in, I ink blended some Black Soot with a Life Changing Blender Brush around the edges. Doing this works really well with coloured card stock, if you want to add a more dimensional look to your background.
That little piece of acetate with the PostIt tape is a clever little tool I use to keep my fingers off my project, both to avoid finger prints on my ink blending and smudging the ink. It’s super inexpensive and works a treat. After doing the ink blending, I splattered some gold water colour on it and set that aside to dry.
I also heat embossed one of the funny sentiments, from If The Hat Fits, in white on black card stock. This piece I cut out with the Stitched Circle dies, and did another one in white card stock, in the next size up.
To finish off the card I adhered all these bits and pieces to the background with Lawn Fawn glue tube. For an extra pop, I added some Glossy Accents to the green ribbon hat and to the buckle and the moon, on the other hat.
The last finishing touch were some matte black and iridescent black sequins, which I adhered with more Glossy Accents.
With that, I’m all done! I hope you found some inspiration where with me today. If you did, I’d be ever so grateful if you would use the compensated affiliate links provided in this blog post. Using these do not cost you anything extra at all, the company the links are affiliate to, pay me a small commission directly as a thank you for directing you to them. These earnings, however small, help keep my little blog, YouTube channel and Instagram feed fun and fresh for you, so thank you if you use them! It means a lot to me.
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 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
Where are my fellow crazy dog people at? In this month’s Picket Fence Studio release there is a super cute puppy stamp called Stella Puppy.
It looks so much like my sweet Lab boy Hercules, who we lost back in 2016 after a very short, but ferocious health issue battle. Less than six weeks after that, we lost our remaining Lab, called Molly, in a tragic accident. The cards I got from friends after we lost them meant the world to me, because losing a fur baby, never mind two, is one of the most gut wrenching things you can ever go through.
I’ve made two card, doing my thing where they are similar but slightly different. On the first card I stamped the Stella Puppy up with my MISTI and Black Hybrid ink directly onto a card base of Neenah card stock. After setting the ink with my WOW! Embossing heat tool, I got to work with Copics. I don’t have a photo of the first one, but here is the second one I did.
I wanted to add a rainbow on the background but I don’t have a rainbow stencil *insert shocked gasps and wide-eyed looks here* I know, it’s shocking. So, what to do? Well, I made my own! First I cut out a mask and added over most of the doggie, then I used a small bowl to cut out a curved shape out of card stock. This I used as a stencil/mask and ink blended Ink On 3 Atelier Inks in Bee Sting Yellow, Goddess Green, Peacock Blue, My Jam Purple and Marilyn Red with Life Changing Blender Brushes.
My brushes are a little bit over-saturated and need a spa day, and I should have used a new mask for each colour, as they blended into each other BUT it did also give me an extra teal colour between green and blue. The last bit, in the top left corner, I should have skipped because I feel like it got too dark, but oh well.
On white card stock I stamped up some sentiments from the Stella Puppy set with Black Hybrid ink. These I trimmed down as much as I could and then added over some areas where I wasn’t happy the colouring and ink blending had overlapped.
The final touch was to add some Glossy Accents to the little nose and set it aside to dry.
On my second card, for which there is a video on my YouTube channel, I tried applying what I learnt from the first card. With some success and some more issues. Card making is never straightforward in my craft room, lol!
For this, I decided to stamp up the Stella Puppy on a separate piece of Copic friendly card stock, with my Mini MISTI with the Black Hybrid Ink, colour it in and then fussy cut it out. I used slightly different colour Copics on this one and I think the depth is better, than the first one, so that was good. You can see the difference in the photo above.
Second, I used a sheet of acetate to make my “stencil”, instead of card stock. The reasoning for this is that with acetate I can just wipe off the ink, and have less contamination. Good start. Less good execution. I used a, what I thought was, permanent marker to draw the shape of the curve of the rainbow. Well, it was less permanent and more smudgy than I realised, which led to a slightly dirty looking yellow bit. I trimmed off the part with the marker on it, and carried on.
I used the same Atelier Inks on this one, in the same order, after wiping my Life Changing Blender Brushes on kitchen towels. I also used a lighter hand with the inks.
With the negative part of the stencil/mask I was able to add more green to the background, without mixing in the blue. This is better explained in the video, but I didn’t add enough green or moved the stencil/mask too far when I did the blue, which left a gap. By covering up the blue with the negative bit, I was able to add the green without contaminating the blue. Pretty smart, huh?
There is another sweet pet stamp in the release called Your Friend Dear. I’ve done the same thing with this stamp: basically the same layout, but different looks.
This was the one I started with, and I actually stopped midway because I was not very happy with the colouring of the dog. I couldn’t make it work!
In order to get me out of that funk, I stamped it up again and tried another colour combination, this time with Warm Greys. This worked better and I finished off the card with a very colourful girl, and a simple sentiment from Levels Of Friendship. And the Glossy Accent again.
With this one being a success, and also my meh-ness about the first one having died down a little, I thought I’d give it another go. I’m very glad I did because I did actually manage to turn it around!
To make sure this one was different than the first one, with all that white space, I cut a mask out and placed over the image. Over this I used the Fancy Kaleidoscope stencil and Distress Oxide inks in Wild Honey, Worn Lipstick and a hint of Abandoned Coral. They created this gorgeous glow around the image and I love how it turned out!
The final touch for this card was to stamp up the sentiment that comes with Your Friend Dear, in Black Hybrid ink and with that, it was all done. The last two cards are not in it, but there is a video for one of the rainbow puppy cards on my YouTube channel.
The August release from Picket Fence Studio is now available and if you shop any of these links, which are compensated affiliate links to various companies, I will get a small commission directly from the company it’s affiliated with. It won’t cost you anything extra at all, but the potential earnings from these links will keep my blog, YouTube and Instagram fresh and fun. Thank you so much if you choose to support me this way.
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
CaCaCraft by Erica 