If this card looks familiar it’s because it is a carefully made CASE of a card posted by the uber talented Martin Stone of @martinmayhem on February 4. His blog post on it is here. Instagram post is here.

You’ve probably had it happen to you where you see something and HAVE TO make it. I went so far as to get the retired stamp and die set, called Happiness Abounds, off eBay (very reasonable price, thank goodness) in order to make this card. Since then I have made other cards with the stamps and dies. I think if I were stuck on a deserted island with my craft supplies I'd take this stamp and die set with me, it's so good. 

One game-changing idea I learned from Martin’s Mayhem is how to alter a diecut to better match the color of your card. When you stamp an image on white cardstock, color it, and die cut it, you end up with a white outline around the image. Sometimes it works with your design and sometimes the white is just too stark. On this card, Martin colored the white outline with alcohol ink markers to fit in better with his card. Now I've started doing that (I used watercolor here) and I'm loving the results.

I stamped the flowers from Happiness Abounds (retired) on watercolor cardstock with black Distress Archival Ink and watercolored the inside of the images with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers (I know Dull Blue was one of the colors). I used a waterbrush with Fossilized Amber Distress Ink to color the leaves, and then with Misty Moonlight ink to color the outside edge of the images, just before I die cut them. After this, I splattered the image with white ink. Specifically, I used Dr. Ph. Martin's Pen-White ink. I am splatter-impaired and both the black and white ink from Dr. Ph. Martin's allows me to use a small paintbrush to make tiny splatters with NO giant blobs falling on my paper. It dries super fast and I think I am "cured" from my impairment. 

I stamped the sentiment from another amazing SU stamp set called Good Feelings with black Memento ink onto 80lb white cardstock, and used one of the dies in the Happiness Abounds stamp set to get the spiral notebook edge at the top.

I assembled it to copy his card as best I could, adding lots of different bling when I was done. I was very happy with the results. Thanks, Martin. 

What I've used here :

Cardstock: Watercolor paper, 80lb Hammermill Premium Color Copy Cover, Stampin’ Up! Misty Moonlight

Stamps: Happiness Abounds (plus matching dies), Good Feelings, both by Stampin' Up!

Ink: Distress Archival Ink in Black Soot, Memento Black Tuxedo Ink, Distress Ink Fossilized Amber

Other: Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, Dr. Ph. Martin's Pen-White ink for white splatter.

I created this card with the Soaring Tree Frame from Poppystamps. It is adorable and oh-so flexible on regular, slimline or mini slimline cards. Here I used it as the centerpiece on a mini slimline Valentine. First, I cut the tree frame out with Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb cardstock. Next, I wanted some small hearts to look like the leaves of the tree. I found exactly what I was looking for in the Poppystamps Whittle Adorable Kitty Kit. One of the included dies cuts both a small and a large "whittle" heart. I cut a lot of these out from a big variety of Stampin' Up! pink and coral cardstock. I also used 2 pieces of pearlescent cardstock from the Memory Box Vintage Pastel Mirror Pad - the 6 x 6" pad has both shiny, mirror paper and pearlescent paper in the same color. I have a great 6 x 6" paper pad by My Mind's Eye called Lost & Found in blush. In it, I found some beige, dotted paper and some pink, gingham paper and decided on those for a background.

Ingredients

CS: Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb

Patterned Paper: unknown - from my stash

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark embossing ink

Stamps: My Favorite Things Harvest Mouse, friend definition background stamp - unknown (maybe Hero Arts)

Dies: Circle: Stampin' Up! Stitched Shapes, Poppystamps Poinsettia Background, David Tutera for Sizzix Eucalyptus, MFT Harvest Mouse

Markers: Copic & Dick Blick alcohol markers

Embellishments: Stampin' Up! linen thread, Nuvo Crystal Drops Dandelion Yellow, Taylored Expressions white embossing powder, Darice fall leaves embossing folder, Signo Uniball white gel pen

Challenges: The Global Design Project #GDP316, AAA Challenge Birthday Card Challenge 
, Craft Animals Challenge

I made this card by using the Poppystamps Diamond Snowflake die set and cutting out snowflakes from 3 different colors of glitter cardstock. I stacked them one on top of the other so that parts of all 3 would show. I also used a gorgeous 3D embossing folder to emboss the white panel. I matted the white panel onto dark green glitter cardstock and then onto a seafoam green colored cardstock. I added gemstones on and around the snowflake and finished the card with a die cut sentiment from a new Poppystamps Christmas stamp and die set. 

I just love the MFT Warm Hugs & Frosty Kisses stamps and dies, and when I found a sketch challenge from MFT and a color challenge on Color Throwdown, I had my plan. Putting the star together was a challenge. I used my Silhouette to cut the star. I used Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide to ink the sky, with a few well placed water droplets for stars. Next I used the Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders dies to cut the hills. If I had thought it through, I simply would have used precut stars with the hillside borders, so everything would stack neatly. Instead I just used some scrap cardstock and glued it down, then trimmed the edges to fit the star shape base. That was not easy. I used light blue cardstock sprayed with pearl glimmer mist for the ice. I did precut this in a star shape, so that made fitting the lower half onto the star very easy. The sweet doggy and penguin are colored with alcohol ink markers. The sentiment is printed from my laser printer and backed with a slip of SU's Night of Navy. 

Ingredients:

CS: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb, Gina K Pure Luxury 110lb, Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake, Night of Navy (under sentiment), Seaside Spray (ice)

Stamps: MFT Warm Hugs & Frosty Kisses 

Ink: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Stampin' Up! Smoky Slate (ice patch)

Dies: MFT Warm Hugs & Frosty Kisses, Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders

Alcohol Ink markers: Copic B41, B45, Dick Blick cool grays

Glimmer effects: Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Pearl, Clear Wink of Stella on trees

Embellishments: Stampin' Up! Elegant Faceted Gems

Challenges: MFT Sketch Challenge 557, Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, Kat Scrappiness September Challenge, Clever Dexter Challenge 21, Color Throwdown 658

It's been too long since I made a truly clean and simple card, so I was thrilled to find this sketch challenge from the CAS Colours and Sketches. And then I found a couple more great challenges (listed below). I stamped my brand new Sunny Vibes "beach doggy" on cardstock, colored with  Copics and Dick Blick alcohol markers (see below) and then stamped the perfect sentiment from the same stamp set repeatedly (yes, a stamp platform is mandatory for this). Pop-dotted the little cutie and I was done. 

I was so excited to get MFT's Warm Hugs & Frosty Kisses in the mail. I have ideas coming out my ears. I wanted to enter the MFT Slimline Challenge to make an autumn-themed slimline. I started by using a blend of 4 Distress Oxide inks on my Gina K cardstock. Then I used my alcohol ink markers to color in these sweet, tiny penguins (all the while dreaming of sweater weather). I die cut them, and cut the hills and trees on my Silhouette Cameo. The hardest part of this card was cutting small enough pieces of my foam adhesive to fit the back of the trees.

Inspired by a Toni Maddox (@frankiehelpscraft) card using this Bubbles of Joy stamp set from Lawn Fawn, I gave my mice a cute house complete with door, chimney and a very nice lawn. I limited myself to 3 colors: pink, gray and mint green in order to stick with a color challenge theme. That color restrictions made for a lot of fun. I am still in love with slimline cards.