Ellen Hutson New Stencil Dies

Hi Folks! We've got a new release live for Ellen Hutson, with several new stencil dies for really versatile backgrounds!

The Scallop Die is so perfect for creating backgrounds for anything you have involving water ... mermaids, boats, beach, shells, fish, and yes, whales!

The S'whale set came out earlier this year, but it's such a cute one with two different whales, a school of fish, and lots of punny sentiments like this "thanks a ton."

To make the background, I used both the positive, white pieces of the scallop die for the foam on the crests, and stenciled green and blue portions of the scallop die for the actual waves. A little ink blending, a few sequins, and that was really it for this card.

Recently it occurred to me that I haven't been showing you the insides of the cards since so much of the photography is flat-lay nowadays. So this time I made sure to include a photo with a peek into the inside.

Another die in the stencil die series is the Snowfall die.

The intention of this die is to provide a nice snowfall effect for any winter scene you may be creating on your card. It's nice because it's a smaller size, so you don't feel like you have to use the entire card creating a magical winter wonderland. Just a 2x3 rectangle. 

Die cutting this snow scene out of copy paper and using it for a stencil will make nice backgrounds for things like the Alpine Window dies.

However, if you rotate this die 90 degrees three more times, you're left with a wonderful frame of confetti to feature your exciting news!

I love that you can see through to the inside of the card below.

After inking around my square of confetti, I stamped my "big" sentiment from Totally Random Sayings Vol 2 several times to frame the whole card. 

Two different ways to use this new Snowfall die!

Thanks so much for looking! Check out all the other items in the new release!!

-Kelly

Skinny Stripes by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies Snowfall by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies Diamond by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies Scallops by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies Pattern Dies by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Die Combo Alpine Window by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps, Totally Random Sayings Vol. 2 by Julie Ebersole Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps, S'Whale by Julie Ebersole Winterscapes by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps Catherine Pooler Ink Pad, Black Jack Catherine Pooler Ink Pad, Aquatini Catherine Pooler Ink Pad, Green Tea Catherine Pooler Ink Pad, Melon Ice Catherine Pooler Ink Pad, Grass Skirt Catherine Pooler Ink Pad, Royal Treatment My Sweet Petunia MISTI Laser Etched Stamping Tool (8-1/8 X 10-1/2) VersaMark Ink Pad Brutus Monroe Metallic Embossing Powder, Gilded

From Mountains to Monsters

Hi Folks! I've got a cute little monster here who thinks he's actually scaring someone with his jagged-tooth smile. And let's talk about that smile shall we ... does anyone recognize that from the Essentials By Ellen September release? Nope, no monster smile dies released by EBE, but Julie Ebersole did create the amazing Alpine Windows set of dies!! : )

Right? You see it!
 

As a refresher, this is the way the die is really intended to be used, as a peek-a-boo winter scene featuring a nice mountain range. But of course you can do other things with it! Let's take a closer look ...

I used the We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board to make a gift bag. Not sure if you've seen the myriad of blog posts on making things with this tool meant for making envelopes, but there is a whole world out there making boxes, gift bags, bows, pinwheels, etc. They've come out with specific punch boards for some of these items, but I think those are totally unnecessary. You really only need the envelope punch board. I used this article from Pootles for this specific gift bag. 

Then I stamped stripes for him with the border stamp in the EBE Winterscapes by Julie Ebersole.

After all that stamping, I was a little nervous sending him through the die cutter, just in case. kwim?! But I lined up the die so that the top half of the circle is off the edge of the cutting platform, and the mountains/teeth are on the cutting platform. This step is super important, otherwise he would have a very gummy smile with no top teeth. After that's cut, flip the gift bag around and this time have the teeth that you just cut hanging off the platform. Then line up the sides of the circle die to the circle that was just cut. Now you will be cutting the second row of teeth.

And here's what it will look like. I cut an additional set of mountains out of white cardstock to adhere on top of the base so he has white teeth. Monster's gotta brush teeth before bed too, you know!

For the eyes I stamped the circle from Winterscapes for the pupil and found a random dot from one of my sets. I stamped one more strip in purple and cut fringe into it for the monster's hair.

The arms are just cut out free hand, and stamped with the border stamp for his sleeve.

Catherine Pooler Inks for the win in Sweet Sixteen, Tiki Torch, Melon Ice, Garden Party, and Tiara.

I've got another project coming soon using the Alpine Windows dies in a way they probably weren't intended, so stay tuned!

 

 Thanks so much for looking!

-Kelly

Winterscapes by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps Alpine Window by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board Catherine Pooler Ink Pad, Melon Ice Catherine Pooler Ink Pad, Tiki Torch Catherine Pooler Ink Pad, Sweet Sixteen Catherine Pooler Ink Pad, Garden Party Catherine Pooler Ink Pad, Tiara ZIG Clean Color Real Brush Marker, Set of 48 My Sweet Petunia MISTI Laser Etched Stamping Tool (8-1/8 X 10-1/2)

Grandma Griglione's Pumpkin Bars Recipe Scrapbook Page

Hi Folks! Catching up a bit here from a busy couple weeks filled with amazing blogging friends, my oldest son's first homecoming dance and hosting dinner for 18 of his friends, and a three wild concerts in five days!



I've posted another page on Winnie & Walter featuring Winnie & Walter's classic Moonlight set, 



and our treasured family recipe for pumpkin bars that Grandma Griglione made every Fall (in her own handwriting no less!!!). Grandma was the best at efficient recipe writing ... instead of a lot of directions, I love how she just numbers the ingredients in the order you need to combine them. That's it! The only sentence here is to not grease the pan.

I realized I only shared the front of Grandma G's recipe in the w&w post, so I'm adding a photo of the back here in case you'd like to try it yourself : )

Thanks so much for looking!
-Kelly

Winnie & Walter WCMD Challenge

Happy World Card Making Day!!! There are a lot of festivities going on today, including several challenges over at Winnie & Walter that I recommend checking out. One of the challenges is Coordinating Die Coloring, where you use the coordinating die to cut a stencil and quickly color the image by sponging ink inside. Hope you can play along, I'd love to see your creations!

Thanks for stopping by!
Kelly

Catherine Pooler's Home for the Holidays SOA is Released!

Hi folks! If you were at all wowed by the Catherine Pooler team projects these past few days, you're probably super excited now, because the Home for the Holidays Stamp of Approval collection is finally on sale!

Based on all the wonderful comments I've read on the IG hop, it seems the majority of people are most excited about the Christmas cookies in this collection (coordinating dies are sold as an add-on), so I thought I'd post my Christmas cookie card and share a few tips on how I made it.

Although a few years ago I bought wire cutters specifically for cutting dies apart, I don't use them very much anymore because I like to keep as many dies together as possible so I can cut out all the images at once. Not that I'm a lazy stamper, hahaha, but I do want to maximize my time available for playing around with pretty things, vs. administrative tasks like die cutting images. Here's how ... set your dies with the cut side down on your misti. Then individually line up each of your stamps on top of the dies (stamping side down). Once you are set, close the lid of your misti. Now whatever you stamp will line up perfectly with every single die!

Tape the connected dies on top of your stamped/embossed images and run them through.

Can I tell you how GRATIFYING it is to have them all cut and ready at the same time?!? I feel so efficient!

To make this particular card, I "baked" 7 batches of cookies, and took out all the snowflakes. Four of them I kept intact, two I cut in half, and one I cut in quarters. Then you just adhere them on the card as you would arrange them on a baking sheet.

I also inked the edges a little so they're baked.

The best part is now I have 7 sets of all the other cookies to play around with!

The one set I didn't see as much is the Tiny Wishes stamps and Tiny Tags dies. I stamped and embossed most of the images on their coordinating tag shape just because I was dying to see what they all looked like! I really can't wait to use these on cute little gifts this season.

By inking the background, and adding details with marker or pencils, you can really have fun personalizing each of these designs to what you need. Plus there's a really good mix of sentiments, bold images, and outlined images. 

Well, I sure hope you've enjoyed seeing everyone's Home for the Holidays projects these last few days. I've certainly had a blast, and am so thrilled Catherine asked me to join along for this release! If you're at all interested, I'd make up my mind sooner vs. later in case they sell out. Hate it when that happens!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
-Kelly