Another Sighting of Lil' Squatch!

Hi Folks! I admit, I've completely fallen for the Lil' Squatch we saw in the last Essentials By Ellen release ... so much so that I just couldn't stop bringing him to life after the first two cards I made. Here are two additional cards featuring this "unbelievable" guy!

This card uses the Alpine Windows Die Set to set the stage for the Squatch's home base in the snowy mountains. I do like that it's just on a portion of the card to give you a feeling of mountains, without having to cover your whole card in mountains.

Lil' Squatch is sitting on a tree stump that I had to modify from the original in Backyard Party. The original stump is about 75% of this size, which isn't big enough for him to rest his hands on. I made a bigger stump by not inking the right edge of the stump, stamping, not inking the left edge of the stump and stamping. The lines of the bark help to camouflage where it was cobbled together.

Just love the expression on his face ... it looks like he really is just sittin' there, thinkin' of you.

The other card I made uses the sentiment that plays on the lore of the Sasquatch. It's awesome that the sentiment works both ways ... believing in Sasquatch, and also believing the recipient of your card is capable of great things. The footprints leading into the forest also help when you're trying to track these guys down : )

Since he's really a woodsy big foot here, I covered him in brown fur. And only stamped half of him, as he's quite difficult to capture on film.

Here's a recap of all my Lil' Squatch cards. I'm sure there will be many more to come, especially with my teen boys and their friends!

Thanks,

Kelly

Supplies Used (affiliate links used, at no additional cost to you. Thanks so much for your support!)

Lil' 'Squatch by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps Lil' 'Squatch by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies Alpine Window by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies Backyard Party by Brandi Kincaid, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps Backyard Party by Brandi Kincaid, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

Making Your Own Sentiment with Evelin T Designs

Hello friends! I'm happy to share that I have a post at Evelin T Designs where I talk a little bit about making your own sentiment and incorporating it into your card design. I'd love it if you stopped by!

Hope you're all adjusting to the change in the seasons (depending on where you live). We just had our son's last baseball game for Fall Ball, and my other son will finish his regular football season on Friday. Then we take a break from sports until baseball starts up again in late March.

After the game I made my youngest hop in the shower, and then since it was still nice out, we hopped in the car to a small, local forest preserve for some quick family photos. I haven't gone thru them yet, but here are two nice ones.

Thanks for stopping by!
-Kelly

Holiday Inspirtaion with My Favorite Things and Essentials by Ellen

Hi Folks! Welcome to the Holiday Inspiration Fest with Ellen Hutson EBE and My Favorite Things! Both companies just released a TON of amazing holiday sets, and we're excited to combine and share them with you! I've got lots of things to share with you today!

One of my favorite Christmas sets from My Favorite Things is Reindeer Games and the coordinating dies. With three different reindeer included in the set, you will have fun posing them in all different scenes. Here, the two "normal" reindeer are relaxing at the North Pole while Rudolph is doing all the work for the holidays. Not only that, but Rudolph is also giving the cardinal a free ride. 

I curled the sentiment strips so they stand out. The background is made by embossing the wheel stamps from EBE's Wonky Backdrops, which, to me feels like giant snowflakes. I've also used the Landscapes die to make quick snow drifts.

On this card, one of the reindeer figures out how to ski ... on candy canes! I guess that's how they do it in the North Pole?!

The fun sentiment is from EBE Snow Days (which is retiring, and I think there is only ONE SET left!! Hurry!) The background is actually a rubber background stamp from MFT called Ho Ho Ho Backgorund. It's big enough for landscape or portrait cards. TIP: when stamping the background, make sure you don't stamp it upside down, otherwise you'll get an "Oh Oh Oh" background : )

 
My final scene with these adorable reindeer shows two friends making a hurdle of sorts (with extra help from a little cardinal) so Rudolph can work on his jumping before the big day. When you only do this one night of the year, it's important to practice!

 

The cozy sweater background is from Snow Days. I specifically picked this sentiment to go with Rudolph's "abilities." 

I easily could have kept going making different scenes ... the next one was going to be Rudolph flying over the EBE city die, but alas I had to move on. I really enjoyed making these three!

The next set of cards and ornaments all feature the Peace on Earth Die ... which couldn't be easier or quicker to make some really fun projects!

The way the dove and the text are designed to fill the card is just perfect! And that means that little effort is required to make a beautiful holiday card.

You can absolutely use the dove flat as it's intended, but I thought it would be fun to make the wings dimensional by cutting two more doves and layering them all together. You just need to clip the tiny connection piece at the back of the wing where it meets the body, and then fold the wing towards you. Then adhere the bodies together.

Could. Not. Be. Easier.   

The purple and charcoal colors of the last card aren't your traditional holiday colors. This card is a little more typical ... a navy background with white, silver and gold elements.

I cut out just the body from a piece of felt and adhered that to the top. Did you know Ellen Hutson is now carrying our own line of felt ?!? Love that texture!

 This is my favorite way to add dimension ... where you can fold it all flat for mailing.

I thought I'd try another 3D pop up card ... how fun is this?

Instead of stacking white die cut paper for the dove, I used some leftover scrap pieces of double-sided patterned paper for a fun surprise inside the wings. The base of the card is stamped with the dots from Wonky Backdrops and the stripes from Winterscapes.

Just as cute from the back, thanks to the double sided papers.

 

And happily, it folds flat for mailing and storage.

I loved the 3D dove concept so much, I wanted to come up with uses other than cards ... the natural choice is ornaments. Let me tell you, these are the quickest, easiest, and cheapest ornaments ever!

 

The basic version of this ornament is to stack five layers of white cardstock together. Adhere them along the body, bend the wings out, and you're done! That's it! 

I love how full the wings look from the back, and the body is nice and thick.

 

Here's an example using stamped, colored cardstock. The scallops from Wonky Backdrops are perfect for the feathers on the wings.

And what about vellum?! I just can't wait to see what it looks like on my tree with the lights behind it!

I scored the wings along each of the scallops and bent them back and forth for even more dimension.

They look so full! TIP: because the vellum is so thin, I was able to die cut three layers at the same time. What a time-saver!

Here's a peek at the different birds before they were assembled. You've got the stamped wings, the vellum wings, the double-sided paper wings, and the plain white wings. I totally want to make a small flock of these guys for my tree! Or to give away. They would also make great gift tags!

Who knew you could create so many different things with a simple dove die?!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you've gotten a few ideas for the holidays.  If you enjoyed your time here, I'd welcome you to follow me on Instagram for all my latest projects!

Supplies Used: (affiliate links included at no additional cost to you ... thanks so much for your support!)

Peace On Earth, My Favorite Things Die-Namics Reindeer Games, My Favorite Things Clear Stamps Reindeer Games, My Favorite Things Die-Namics Snow Days by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps (Retiring) Winterscapes by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps Wonky Backdrops By Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps My Sweet Petunia Mini MISTI Laser Etched Stamping Tool (6-1/8 X 7) Life Changing Blender Brush - 4 Piece Broad, Picket Fence Studios (LCB-4) Teflon Bone Folder, Essentials by Ellen

I'm Kelly ... please visit the other Ellen Hutson and My Favorite Things artists below for even more holiday inspiration!

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Altenew October 2019 Stamp/Die/Stencil Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hi Folks!

Welcome, welcome to another amazing Altenew release! I'm super excited to share a little bit of everything with you today ... we've got florals, string art, pattern-builders, scene-builders, landscape sketches ... it's all here!

You may have just come from the blog of Nathalie DeSousa, but if not please feel free to start at the beginning with the Altenew Card Blog

1) Precious Peony Stamp and Die

Precioius Peony

Precious Peony Die

   

I'm not always a big believer in getting coordinating dies for every stamp set. Sometimes, especially if the images are fairly simple, you can get away with cutting them out on your own. For this floral set, however, I knew I wanted the coordinating dies given all the details they cut. Let's take a look!

  

The long, thin berries, all the leaves, even the space in the middle to the left of the pink peony are all cut out for you. Love this look!

I took advantage of all the details and turned it into a shaped card. To figure out where the fold should be I decided where the two point would be for it to stand (the bottom two leaves) and then I made sure the top fold is parallel to that.

The florals look equally good on an A2 card. Here, I've combined two of the same floral sprays.

I'm happy because this card base has been in the scrap pile for AGES. I literally just adhered the two florals and that was it. Bonus points for using up leftovers!

 

2. String Art Butterfly Die

String Art Butterfly Die

This die does not cut a butterfly shape ... it cuts holes in your cardstock so you can build a butterfly with thread!

The backgroud is the new Faceted Stars Background Stamp ... how perfect is this with the string art butterfly?! The butterfly is on a panel cut with the Nesting Labels Die (love how it leaves an indented ridge along the edges!)

Colored and/or variagated string would make for a beautiful butterly, but for this one I opted to use a golden floss and color the cardstock underneath the floss. To do this I cut the butterfly holes on a scrap piece of paper, cut out the butterfly, and then used that as a mask to apply the ink inside. There are probably many different patterns you can make with the string but I chose to follow the picture on the back of the packaging. 

3. String Art Rectangles Die

String Art Rectangles Die

So many different things you can do with these dies! And I honestly can't wait to see what everyone else did on this hop!! They are separate dies, but I chose to leave them attached to the packaging and run them through the die cut machine as-is.

All that texture is just wonderful! I was so pleased that in addition to the tiny holes, you also get the indentations from each of the metal strips. The sky's the limit with how you want to use the holes, but for this card I chose to use them as a way to hold the flowers together, as well as to secure the tiny tag.

Here you can see the texture on the card base a little better. The flowers are from two different sets ... BAF: Plumeria and BAF Hellebore, and then I just cut some scrap green paper for the stems.

4. Wanderlust Stamp Set

Wanderlust Stamp Set

Here's an easy scene-builder that can either be the focus of a card, or of course just be used for a backgrounds.

Here I used the trees and mountain range as the focus of this card. I was going for the sun setting over the purple mountains magesty on an early Fall evening. 

  

I love the sentiments and think both of them together will be great for a graduation card. There's nothing wrong with "congrats on your graduation" but sometimes it's nice to have a different, more personal, sentiment.

5. Delicate Tiles Stamp Set

Delicate Tiles Stamp Set

These tiles have a million different combinations, which can be overwhelming if you try to think about it too much. It's best to just pick four coordinating colors and start stamping!

It was so neat to see how different the tiles looked when you changed what pattern went in what color ink. This card has three different patterned tiles. 

And did you notice the border? It's the purple mountains magesty from the previous stamp set, Wanderlust!

 6. Winter Wishes Stamp Set

Winter Wishes

I am certainly not an artist, so I love it when there's a stamp set that makes me LOOK like an artist!

 
This winter scene is created using shades of gray alcohol markers to color in the house and trees, and then white chalk for all the snow. Love how the black and white scheme gives it an old-fashioned look.

The scripted "winter" die from Hello Winter Die Set looks like it was just made for this card! I appreciate that the die only leaves two different pieces of paper, so it's not difficult to line up. The rest of the sentiment comes from the stamp version of Hello Winter.

 

 

Whew, what a release! Here is the link to the October 2019 release collection page if you'd like to see them all at once.

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 Scrapbook Blog by 10/16/2019 for a chance to win.
 

We’ll also draw a winner to receive a $20 gift certificate from the comments left on each designer’s blog on the blog hop list below. All winners will be announced on the Altenew blogs on 10/20/2019.

Now I'm pleased to send you to the blog of the dear Nicole Picadura who I know will wow you with amazing creations! 

Thanks so much for stopping by. If you enjoyed your time here, I'd welcome you to follow me on Instagram for all my latest projects!

- Kelly

Supplies used (with affiliate links at no additional cost to you. Thanks so much for your support!!):

Precioius Peony

Precious Peony Die

String Art Butterfly Die

String Art Rectangles Die

Wanderlust Stamp Set

Delicate Tiles Stamp Set

Winter Wishes