Blimps and Bonbons - Essentials by Ellen November Release

Hi Folks! Welcome to the November Essentials by Ellen Release Hop! I've got a couple cards and one project to share. You may have come from the one-and-only Sandy, but if not feel free to start at the beginning with the one-and-only Julie!

As soon as I saw this Up in the Air stamp set, I was dying to get my hands on it ... it's so unique and perfectly suited for older kids and teens. There's a time to send them the cute teddy bears, and then all too quickly they think they're "beyond" that.

The blimp is large and simple enough to be a good candidate for paper-piecing, which I've done here. I also added "12" from Hinged Numbers to personalize the age. The banner flying behind it carries part of the sentiment.

There are a couple other sets at work here, including a new set of cloud dies! Always a fan of felt clouds for the awesome texture. Totally Random Saying, Vol 3 supplies the scripted sentiments. And the skyline is cut with the useful Big City die (quickly becoming one of my go-to dies for scene building).

This is a one layer card, which obviously uses the Up in the Air blimp set, but also uses the new sentiment set That Thing You Did. Love this set! There are a lot of fun, sassy sentiments in the set, although for this card I went with a more traditional sentiment. The thick vs. thin font is very appealing to me, as well as having several choices for a secondary sentiment.

I've blended ink for the sky and the blimp, using masks I cut from plain copy paper. Here you can also see some of the other elements included in this set, like the clouds, birds, and cheering fans on the ground. These enthusiastic onlookers really add a lot to the happy feeling of this scene!

Sometimes when I get a stamp set that has a specific, distinctive image like this blimp, I use it a couple times and then feel like I need to move on to different sets to avoid making cards that are too similar. The large open areas of this blimp, however, lend themselves to lots of different coloring techniques, patterned paper, paper piecing, etc. to keep the cards different enough for lots of uses. I really appreciate that.

Another fun die available this release is the Bonbon Box die. It cuts two sides of the box, so you only have to run it through your die cutting machine twice to get all the pieces necessary. It's pretty amazing how it's designed to stay shut on its own just by putting the handles through the slots. Before assembling it, which really only entails adhering one of the bases on top of the other, stamp whatever sentiments you'd like.

Santa is from the recent Holiday Characters set and is attached to a new mini tag from the appropriately named die set Mini Tags.

Prizes
We’ve got super fun prizes!!! One random & lucky commenter will win $25 to the EH shop and one will win the whole November Essentials by Ellen release!!! To enter for a chance to win, make sure to leave comments at each stop along the hop! Comment before Thursday, November 14th at 11:59pm PST. Winners will be notified by email.

It's now my pleasure to send you to the super-talented Elena!!

Sure hope you've enjoyed the projects here, as well as from the rest of the talented Ellen Hutson team! I'm so glad you've stopped by : )

-Kelly

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

Bon Bon Box, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies Mini Tags, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies Small Sayings, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps Clouds, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies Up in the Air By Brandi Kincaid, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies Up in the Air by Brandi Kincaid, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps That Thing You Did, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps Big City by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies Totally Random Sayings Vol. 3 by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps Holiday Characters by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps Holiday Characters by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies Black Jack, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad