Notable Nest

Hi Friends! I'm looking forward to sharing a few projects with you from the new Essentials by Ellen release, as well as showing a trick to get the most from your supplies.

You may have come from the blog of Emily Mydlowski, but if not feel free to start at the beginning with the Ellen Hutson Blog.

One of the fun new dies is a Gingerbread Man and Lady! They are sized to fill an A2 card, so you can absolutely make a card with them, but you can also use them to cut felt and make adorable plushies like I've done here.

The dies for the Gingerbread Lady come with all the trimmings for her face, buttons and dress details. You can probably be fancy and stitch these on, but I just used regular glue.

This set also comes with a die that pre-punches the holes for your stitching to make it as easy as can be. I've done a running stitch for this one since it's a gingerbread and the solid white line does a great job of mimicing the outline of frosting you'd see on a decorated gingerbread cookie.

I plan on making a whole set of these for our family and hang them on the tree this year. The button area is where I'll customize the little gingerbread guys ... I've already got little baseball and little football buttons to sew on for my sons!

But, I only have the Gingerbread lady die set. Hmmm ...

I have a proposition for you. I have a feeling that if you're not going to buy both dies, and only have enough money to pick one, most people are going to pick the gingerbread boy. I have to admit, I originally wanted the gingerbread boy but got the girl instead. This turned out to be the best thing possible ... because guess what, YOU CAN JUST CUT THE DRESS OFF!

Now you have a Mrs. AND a Mr., hooray!!

This isn't as easy when it comes sewing becuase the pre cut holes still follow the lady's shape. But I've made a few men already and it's not so bad to make your own holes. You could even make a little hole template for that inch area where you cut the dress off and mark where your needle should go. So far I've been fine just eyeballing it.

OK, so let's see what you can make after your little surgery!

Ta-da! Looks just like a regular gingerbread shape! AND, you may notice he's not at all a gingerbread man, hahaha. This little fella has been treated to the Skelly Add-On set! One of the ways you can use this is to make this little skelleton guy who's just adorable.

Again, just a little glue for all the bones and he's completely transformed from Christmas to Halloween!

Not big into Halloween? No problem! With the Bad Day sentiment set, you can make him into a little voodoo doll to help someone thru a rough patch!

When I posted these on Instagram this week a few people were asking about the pin I used for the tag. It's the easiest thing ever ... just get a couple sequins and seed beads and randomly add them to your pin. Then add a little bit of hot glue to the pin shaft and quickly slide another seed bead on top of the glue. Done!

When we were all sharing sneaks on IG this week I saw Julie's voodoo doll, and immediately ran back into my craft room ...

This guy is definitely not as cute a ginger lady or skelly, but that is afterall the point ... he's a true voodoo doll! This is where you can totally let your imagination run wild and add whatever details you'd like.

Although the Skelly Add-on die set comes with a button, cross, and stitches die, you can absolutely just sew them yourself. Find a fun button for the eye (maybe it's a extra button from someone's clothing), and then just start stitching the rest of the details. The beauty of this is that it's supposed to be wonky and handmade, so you don't want your stitching to be perfect.

I've got the same tag here as the Skelly guy, only in black with the white embossing. And did you notice I added a few strands of hair?!

I was going to make all the hairs really short, about an inch or two, but I wasn't sure so I made them really long thinking I'd just cut them to size. But I ended up loving how wild and crazy it looks, so I just left it long, hahaha!

What a fun way this would be to lighten someone's mood! How could you not smile?! Love how versatile this die is. We've gone from Christmas to Halloween to Voodoo!

I do have some cards to share if you don't mind sticking with me!

There's a new Bear Ware 5 set in this release as well, also for Christmas and Halloween. I've stuck with Halloween for this release and first would like to present to you the mad scientist bear.

He's juggling all the different ingredients for his latest formula he's been working on in the lab.

And we see the formula is actually one for the perfect halloween!! Who knew?! His goggles crack me up. The background is some scientific ink smooshing with gold spatters, and then the card base has "Hocus Pocus" stamped multiple times from an older set, The Last Bite.

If mad scientists aren't your thing, than how about Frankenstein?!

If you want to have a laugh while you're crafting, this is the way to do it! I was giggling the whole time I was figuring out where the neck bolts should be on Mr. Bear : )

He even has his arns outstretched (a little), hahaha! I've got him stationed in the pumpkin patch just outside the big city, lurking around.

Lots of older products here to make the scene ... the clouds die, constellation background, big city die, and landscaping dies. All are linked at the end of this post.

Lots of possibilities with this set, and we didn't even get to Christmas yet!

You made it! Thanks for sticking with me, as I had a lot I wanted to share with you. Hope you found some must-have goodies!

Prize Info ...
Prizes, prizes, we've got the prizes! One lucky commenter will win the whole Essentials by Ellen holiday release! And another will receive $25 to spend at ellenhutson.com! For a chance to win, all ya' gotta' do is hop along, enjoy the fabulous eye candy, and leave a little love for your fellow crafters: increase your chances by commenting on each stop on the hop! Comments left before 11:59 PDT on October 14 will be entered to win. (Winners are selected randomly.)

Your next stop on this hop is Jen Wong.

Here's the full list of stops on this hop if you need it:

Thanks so much!
- Kelly

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

The entire new release is found here in the Ellen Hutson shop.

Items used from prior releases can be found here:

Shipping Tags by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies	The Last Bite by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps	All Inside by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps	All Inside by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies
Bear Ware 2 by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps	Clouds, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies	Constellation Background, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies	Big City by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies
Landscapes by Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Designer Dies	Gold, Lawn Fawn Embossing Powder	VersaMark Ink Pad	Black Jack, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad
Sangria, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad	Skylight, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad	Queen For A Day, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad	36 Pan Set, Altenew Watercolor Paint
Stamp Shammy, Lawn Fawn

Hi Friends! I really like how the new Altenew Craft-a-Flower: Rose came together, and am looking forward to showing you two different cards, and two different ways to order the CAF: Rose layers.

You may have come here from the blog of Jaycee Gaspar, but if not feel free to start at the beginning with the Altenew Card Blog.

For both of the cards in this post, I used the Gradient Cardstock: Shades of Purple to assemble these beautiful florals. The layered leaves use a mix of charcoal, white, and the page from a book.

I love all the different layers on the purple rose!

The gradient stripes washi tape is always a convenient one for adding something to the bottom of a card to ground your design. The gold foil on the very bottom is great for a little shine to the card.

Here's a great example for you to see how you get different results based on what order you use the shades of cardstock. If you start with the darkest color on the bottom, your flower will look a tad darker, like the on on the left. If you start with the lightest color on the bottom, your flower will look a little lighter.

The background with the Dahlia stencil is nice because it has a floral vibe, and since it's tone-on-tone it doesn't detract much from the focal flowers.

About half the time now, I'm adding gold spatter to finish a card. But most of the time I'm afraid to add it all over so I mostly just flick the spatters on the card base.

I'm not sure which way I like it better, dark to light or light to dark. Do you have a preference?

Giveaway Prizes

To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $30 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog by 10/12/2020 for a chance to win.

Altenew will also draw a winner to receive a $15 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 Winners Page on 10/15/2020.

I am happy to send you to the blog of Norine Borys who always has something exceptional to share!

Here is the entire list of amazing crafters on the blog hop: