Monday, April 27, 2020

Mother's Day Cards Colored Inside and Out with the Essentials by Ellen Leading Ladies



Hi Friends! Wanted to let you know I have a Mother's Day card post on the Ellen Hutson blog today! I'm featuring four different cards made with the Essentials by Ellen Leading Ladies sets.


 
Two of them are colored inside the lines, and two of them are colored outside the lines, for something a little different. If you'd like to see more, head to the blog post where I share tips for each one!

Thanks so much for stopping by : )
Kelly


Supplies Used (including affiliate links, thanks for your support!)


Leading Ladies - Teacher Lady By Brandi Kincaid, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps

Leading Ladies - Teacher Lady By Brandi Kincaid, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies

Leading Ladies - Grand Lady by Brandi Kincaid, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

Leading Ladies - Grand Lady by Brandi Kincaid, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

Leading Ladies - Cat Lady by Brandi Kincaid, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

Leading Ladies - Little Lady By Brandi Kincaid, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps

Leading Ladies - Hot Mess Lady By Brandi Kincaid, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

Totally Random Sayings Vol. 3 by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

That Thing You Did, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps

Winterscapes by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps

Wonky Backdrops By Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps

Clouds, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies

Classic Block Alpha by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies

Black Jack, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad

Aquatini, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad

Lemongrass, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad

Tiki Torch, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad

Samba, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad

Uni-ball Impact Gel Pen, White

Gold, Coats Metallic Thread

Bluish Gold, Gansai Tambi Single Color



Friday, April 24, 2020

A Quick Mother's Day Card for Grandma - Essentials by Ellen



Hi Friends! Mother's Day this year is certainly going to look different for many families compared to prior years. Even if you're not under some sort of quarantine order, I'm guessing you may not be able to get together to celebrate the older female members of your family. Until we can see our grandparents again, our cards will just have to do!

This card is part of a compilation of Mother's Day cards made by the fabulous Ellen Hutson Design Ambassadors.


I made a set of three Mother's Day cards with several of the Essentials by Ellen Leading Ladies for an upcoming EH blog post. As I was packing up my craft desk I noticed the Grandma and Little Lady randomly stamped on a scrap piece of paper and liked how they looked together in the corner. So as long as all the supplies were out I stamped them on a card.

Then I needed a focal point. Don't have something? No worries! Just fold some copy paper in half and cut out a heart like you used to do in second grade! After doing this I brushed a rainbow of ink in my homemade stencil. 


I did put a mask (also made from copy paper!) over the ladies before stenciling the heart. While I had the heart stencil on my paper I added some gold spatter.

The spatter just above the little lady's thumb was too juicy and ended up dripping (TIP: don't let your cards dry in an upright position, hahaha!) That's when all the sequins were added!


The "i love you" and the "grand" sentiments are actually from different sets, but I love how they go so well together. Not a bad little card for the last 5-10 minutes of a crafting session!

Don't forget to check out the Ellen Hutson blog for all the other wonderful Mother's Day cards made by our talented team!

Also, I'll be sharing three more Mother's Day cards on the EH blog on Monday!

Thanks so much for stopping by : )
-Kelly



Supplies Used (including affiliate links, thanks so much for your support):


Leading Ladies - Grand Lady by Brandi Kincaid, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

Leading Ladies - Grand Lady by Brandi Kincaid, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

Leading Ladies - Little Lady By Brandi Kincaid, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps

Totally Random Sayings Vol. 3 by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

Black Jack, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad

Lemongrass, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad

Tiki Torch, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad

Samba, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad

Bluish Gold, Gansai Tambi Single Color



Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Altenew Paint-A-Flower: Hydrangea Release Blog Hop + Giveaway



Hi Folks! Welcome to the latest Paint-a-Flower hop for Altenew!


This month is the beautiful Paint-a-Flower Hydrangea and I've got two cards to share. You may have come from the blog of Norrine Borys, but if not feel free to start at the beginning with the Altenew Card Blog.


This first card uses the gorgeous floral embossed in gold. As one who's not always super confident with watercolors, I think it's so much easier to paint the individual petals when you emboss the stamp, as the embossing creates all those nice "wells" for you.


I added two of the sentiment strips from Sentiment Strips 2 which was just released last week in the April release.


And to finish it off, I added the Painted Grid washi tape and the new white sequins. This tape might be small, but boy is it useful for adding small bits of design to a card. Love how you can slightly see thru the washi tape as well.

I still can't get over how adorable the new sequin packaging is!!! That cork!


The second card uses the florals in the opposite, or negative, way. I stamped the hydrangeas 3-4 times on the front of the card, like fitting them into a puzzle. It was pretty fun!


Then I just used a marker to color in all the negative spaces. Love creating a patterned paper like this. And with all the details in the hydrangea itself, I don't feel you need much else for the card. The sentiment comes with this set. Such a pretty font!

Paint-a-Flower Hydrangea

Prizes:
To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $30 gift certificate to 5 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog for a chance to win. We'll also draw a winner to receive a $15 gift certificate from comments left on each designer's blog in the blog hop. All winners will be announced on the Altenew Blog on 4/30/2020.

You're next stop on the hop is my talented friend Ashlea Cornell!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
-Kelly

Supplies used (with affiliate links, thanks so much for your support!)

Friday, April 17, 2020

Altenew April 2020 Stamps/Dies/Stencils/Stamping Mat/Sequins Release Blog Hop + Giveaway - 12 PROJECTS!!



Hello Friends! When May asked if I wanted to participate in the April 2020 stamp and die release, I replied that I would love to, but I'd probably only be able to make a few cards because we were going on vacation over Spring Break that next week. Little did I know I would actually be making TWELVE projects, because not only would we not be going on Spring Break, but we wouldn't be leaving our house for weeks!

I hope you and your family are staying healthy. If you'd like some distraction and inspiration, please consider hoping along and seeing all the fantastic new products. You may have come from the super-talented Jaycee Gaspar, but if not feel free to start at the beginning with the Altenew Card Blog.

Let's get started!


This set of cards has been created with the most amazing stencil ever! It's the Sweet Spring Stencil!

Sweet Spring Stencil

This stencil comes with a stencil for the main layer of color (top) and a coordinating stencil for the shaded areas of color (bottom). This is definitely the product I got the most use out of during this craft session ... such a bargain for only $7!


You can definitely use just one color for the main stencil and a darker color for the shadow stencil, like I did on these envelopes. SO QUICK and EASY to dress up a large corner of an envelope.


Love having a stack of these ready to be addressed, and all 17 of them took me only 5-10 minutes to make.


For my cards, I wanted to make the flowers a different color than the leaves, so I made a few different masks by stenciling the image on copy paper and then cutting OUT the sections I wanted to be colored.



Here's what the masks look like. The mask that is under the stencil has been cut away so I can ink all the dark green detail pieces of the leaves. Then I rotate the masks and coordinating inks until the whole image is stenciled.


Here's what half of the stencil (one of the two flowers) looks like with the masked colors.


You may have noticed the new sequins! Not only are these awesome sizes (check out those tiny ones!) but they come in the cutest glass container with an adorable cork top. Definitely something that you'll love keeping out in your craft area!

Back to the stencil ...




Here's the whole stencil, with both main flowers. It's such a nice size to span across a portrait A2 card.


The Satin White sequins are used on this card, along with just a small strip of the Patchwork Kite Stencil. So awesome for making geometric borders.



Here's a similar card, with the same set of florals, only this time they are underneath the sentiment instead of on top of the sentiment like the previous card. Such an appropriate sentiment for these times! "Stay Strong" is from the long anticipated Sentiment Strips 2 set.


You may have noticed the banner with "stay strong" ... that's from the new Envelope Art Set, proving you don't have to just use it for envelopes.



It's actually a focal point for this card, being dimensional like this. So easy to do, you just adhere the ends a little bit closer together than normal. It can flatten on its own.


Here's a card that I've used the stencil twice on, just oriented opposite from each other.


Envelope Art


And, a matching envelope, using the Envelope Art set to mark the address area. I'm super excited about this set, as I've always wanted to up my envelope game.



Finally, I used the stencil several times to fill the entire card front with blooms. Really, this is such a high impact look for relatively small effort and time. A bed of rose blooms for a new baby is just so darn sweet.


And as much as I was excited about the first Sentiment Strips, the Sentiment Strips 2 has about the same effect on me! Here are more of the sentiments.




Sentiment Strips 2

Here they all are! Not sure if you saw my post when the first set of these came out, but my tip for you was to NOT TAKE THE STAMPS OFF THE BACKING until you've stamped a few rounds of these all at once. I like to tape the entire backing to my misti and then whip out a few sets. You can cut them in strips and gaze at your pretty pile on your workspace : )

Just get them now before you forget ... you will use them FOREVER!




Radial Stars Cover Die
The Radial Stars Cover Die is a good one to have for festive occasions, like graduations. I'm all about efficiency, and it's nice knowing that with one pass in the die cutter, the entire card is pretty much designed for you. I just did some ink blending beforehand, and then added more of the Sentiment Strips 2.


Once you're done with your stars card, it seems such a shame to waste the actual stars, right?! No better time to make a shaker card! The graduated sizes of these stars makes for the perfect contents of a shaker card, as well as the different colors


This floating shaker card is made with the Framed Thanks Die.



Dog Rose A&B Panel

Finally, the dual Dog Rose A&B Panel dies are another highly efficient way to make a great impression. The hardest part honestly is picking out the different colors for each layer (and for a fun surprise, have a different color for inside the card as well!)



These are the perfect size for note cards! With all these die cut details, you really don't need anything else. Except perhaps one of the sentiment strips! I like having it run the length of the panel, like a spine of a book, for the blue card on the left.


Really loving the power of the white on white layers, again, since there are so many wonderful details in these dies. To jazz it up a little I used the tiny sequins that are also new for this release.
Sequins


And finally, here's what the panels look like on a traditional A2-sized card.


Another sentiment strip, and satin gold sequins, and you've got a finished card!


You've made it through my projects! As you can see, I truly enjoyed playing with the products in this release. I'm hoping you're finding some time to have fun with your supplies as well!

Prizes:
To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 6 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or Altenew Mixed Media Blog for a chance to win by 4/23/2020. We'll also draw a winner to receive a $20 gift certificate from comments left on each designer's blog in the blog hop. All winners will be announced on the Altenew Blog on 4/26/2020.

Your next stop on this hop is the one and only Jennifer McGuire!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please stay safe : )
- Kelly

Supplies Used For Any Projects You Liked (affiliate links, thanks so much for your support!)

Sweet Spring Stencil
Envelope Art
Sentiment Strips 2
Radial Stars Cover Die

Patchwork Kite Stencil
Dog Rose A&B Panel