Alpine Carolers: first look & giveaway

Hi there!

I am over the moon excited to give you a first look at Alpine Carolers, the set I designed in collaboration with Mama Elephant. They are showing it off on their blog today too - click!

I couldn't help but pair the littlest girl from the set (in her bear coat and tiny ugg boots) with a figgy pudding cupcake.

Here's how I transformed the Carnival Cupcakes treat:

I stamped the liner first, the one in the middle, and then did some selective inking on the cupcake top with the scalloped bottom (the one I circled.)  I inked it up and completely wiped off the ink from the bottom before stamping down.

With a copic multiliner, I drew a straighter line to fill in the bottom, and gave it the drippy line for the white glaze you'd see on a figgy pudding cake.

For the mistletoe topper, I inked up the floral cluster from Carnival Toppers (circled above) but wiped off the ink from the flower before stamping down. Three hand-drawn circles created the signature berries.  

Easy, right?

I love the whimsical fonts that Kryssi chose for the set (that is not my area of expertise at all!) I inked up part of the sentiment at a time, so that it would frame the image.

I hope you like it!

I created another card for the Mama Elephant blog today - click over to see it in full!



I'd love to know what you think of Alpine Carolers so far!

Leave me a comment on this post and I'll make it worth your while: I have an extra set to give away to one of you.  I'll leave it open until midnight on the 17th (EST) and announce the winner later that same day.

♥.

a big bear hug.

With lawn fawn's inspiration week over, I'm at the end of my marathon blogging of 9 days in a row.  And even though this the last project I'm sharing with you, it was the very first one I created.

When I received the Mama Elephant dies, I was trying to make little cards and things for the kids to brighten up their first days at school.

I used the new Tags a Lot dies to create these little bear hug packages for lunchtime treats:

My kids are huge fans of the carnival cupcakes set that was released last month, so I knew they would love these tags.  I didn't anticipate my son coming home telling me how much he loved the treat, but that he got teased by his friends.

womp, womp.

I guess we're at that age now. He told me to keep making him stuff, but could I please just give him the tags separately at home? ha.

I combined the adorable bear image with a custom sentiment using sketchy letters.

And inside the packages? Had to be bear cookies, of course!

I hope you like it, and thanks for stopping by!

♥.

carnival toppers {mama elephant designer series}

Hi there, I'm here and on the Mama Elephant blog today with a quick and easy carnival toppers card set.  When paired with carnival cupcakes and their matching dies, it's a snap to create a gift set, or just a slew of birthday cards to have on hand for last minute parties.

I'm so sorry I didn't take extra pictures, but I was literally out the door to hand-deliver these as a birthday present to a friend.

Some tips for you, as you mix and match for a gift set:

• keep to a color scheme: I kept mine loose but still cohesive in pinks, light blues, and browns.
• keep the same design on each card: a cupcake, its topper, a bit of twine, some confetti dots and sprinkles, the same sentiment and a swipe of white ink along the bottom.
• package it pretty: I put these into a clear card box and finished it off with a gorgeous ribbon.

I hope you like it!

♥.

carnival toppers {mama elephant stamp highlight}

Hi there! the Mama Elephant team is showing off the carnival cupcakes companion set, carnival toppers.  You can't really have one without the other, they work so well together. And look! I'm finally featuring the cupcakes.

The bunny is having a party! I stamped the bigger bunny from carnival cupcakes, masked him and stamped the cupcake so it looks like it sits in behind him a bit.



Then, I masked the cupcake and stamped the lolli stick from carnival toppers, and fit the smaller bunny into the scalloped topper. SO CUTE.

I used the tiny dot image as confetti, and stamped it in rainbow colors all around.

I stamped the balloon and then hand-drew the balloon string so it looks like the bigger bunny is holding on.

Aside: I took the pictures at different times, can you tell? After taking the full card picture, I decided I didn't like that I could still see the bunny's head outline under the party hat so I paper-pieced the image and took some close-ups. 



I love this sentiment.

I hope you like what I've created! There's more to see on the Mama Elephant blog today!

carnival cupcakes {mama elephant stamp highlight}

I think you really liked this month's Mama Elephant release! I loved reading all of the comments on my post and on the ME instagram pictures - so fun!

Today, we're highlighting the new set, carnival cupcakes.

Once again, I've left out the cupcakes and used the lion image. If you could see me rolling my eyes right now... here's the thing: when you are trying to get ready for a 2 week vacation, and dreaming of dipping your toes in the sand and hearing the roar of waves breaking... you might just look at the lion image already clinging to the stamp block and think it would be a great idea to use him again.

I actually really love this card, and thought it would be cute to make a set like this, but with a different animal on each card.... too bad time ran out.  Wouldn't that be cute, though? A card full of bears or bunnies?  I still have plans to stamp those :)



I stamped the lion on a piece of cardstock, the same size as the card-base (I hate it when copic coloring shows through, so this is how I usually do things) and colored all of the lions identically.  I then used a smoky, light blue marker to color all of the area around and between lions.  It makes it look more like a print that way, which I love.  I sponged all of the edges in a soft brown ink and then popped up a hello greeting (from everyday greetings) to add a touch of interest and texture.  The hello bubble is covered in glossy accents.

I hope you like it!  There's more to see on the Mama Elephant blog today - click!

Also, there is a card coming tomorrow that really does feature the cupcakes! ha.

Mama Elephant August Stampede!

It's time for the Mama Elephant August Stampede!The new release is live and available for purchase in the store.

Just a quick note from me before we get all excited and I forget to say: I'm doing a half-release with Mama Elephant this month, so you will only see my face pop up for half of the stamp highlight days, while our family enjoys a few weeks of sun and sand in Virginia.

And now, what was I saying before? oh yeah, STAMPEDE:

I used the new set Carnival Cupcakes - it is the cutest thing ever, and designed by one of my favorite illustrators, Torico.  I have a few Birdie Brown digital stamps that I purchased through her Etsy store, when that was still in existence.  Seriously, she is amazing. I had the pleasure of working with another of her new stamp sets, while I was guesting for MFT this month.

I decided to pair the lion from Carnival Cupcakes with the ball image from Nursery Deco. He screamed circus to me - so I made it happen:

I masked the lion to be able to balance him onto the ball, and stuck a cupcake topper flag behind him (but here, it's a circus flag) so he could casually greet you... and he's a party lion, with his birthday hat. just because :) The stripes on the card base were painted on with the chisel tip of a red copic marker. I love that they are imperfect.



I hope you like him as much as I do! This stamp set is so versatile, and it goes beyond all the cute things you can do with cupcakes!  

As always, there's a giveaway!  To celebrate the new release, Mama Elephant is giving away one of each of the new stamp sets released.  Winners will be chosen at random from the Stampeding blogs and will be announced on the last day of the stamp highlights. You have 3 chances to win, just leave a separate comment for each:

Leave a comment on this blog post,

Like/share Mama Elephant on facebook

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Now get to stampeding!  Here's the complete list:

Mama Elephant ♥ Emily ♥ Ashley ♥ Nichol ♥ Elena ♥Geralyn ♥ Pamela ♥ Laura ♥ Torico