Category: Tutorials

Hey Crafty friends!

It has been a very busy few months! Because I haven’t been able to post as much as I like, I am bringing you not one but THREE cards today! These three cards have been inspired by the Ellen Hutson Pin-Sights Challenge in the CLASSroom blog this month. I would love to know which is your favorite! Leave me a message in the comments with your thoughts! OH! Also, make sure you see the message at the bottom regarding a HUGE two day sale going on at Ellen Hutson!

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These beautiful delicious shades of Strawberry, Orange, and Lemon just scream SUMMER and inspired me to play with my Copic markers, Daniel Smith watercolor paints, and of course my Essentials by Ellen stamps and dies. Laurel did an AMAZING job of putting this month’s inspiration board together. I find when I am stuck in a creative rut, using a mood board and/or a sketch really gets me kick started and my creativity tends to flow from there.

My first card share is one you may have seen over in the Ellen Hutson Classroom if you came over from the Ellen Hutson CLASSroom blog (If you have never visited me before, Welcome!) I was inspired by the bright yellow pop of the lemons in the table floral arrangement. The lemons gave me the idea to use the Essentials by Ellen “Stay Golden” stamp set and matching dies. I loved the sentiment “when life hands you pineapples…” “make Pina Coladas” and when I thought about the whole Life handing you pineapples it made me think of actual hands coming up from the bottom of the card holding up pineapples. I reached for the Avery Elle Hats Off stamp set which ended up being the perfect stamp set to work with the pineapples.

The background was done by layering Daniel Smith Watercolors. I did this on two different pieces of Canson XL 140lb cold press watercolor paper. I cut one piece of the watercolor wash paper down to 4.25 x 5.5 (A-2 card size) and the other piece of painted paper I used for die cutting. I cut out three different sizes of flowers in the stay golden die set and I used a Hero Arts Ombre Light Peach to Dark Peach to stamp the flowers on top. I used a combination of Cracked Pistachio and Peeled paint Distress Oxide inks to stamp the leaves. The white accents I drew in with a signo white gel pen.

I thought the sentiment looked best in a circle shape so I stamped it on a lighter painted scrap of watercolor paper and heat embossed that sentiment with WOW extra fine clear embossing powder. I gave the flowers different levels of dimension by gluing some down against the paper directly and others are on one layer or two layers of foam tape.

I stamped and colored the hands border stamp from the Avery Elle Hats off stamp set with my copic markers. I stamped or drew on some accents that reminded me of hawaiian print shirts. Some patterns I accented with my white signo gel pen. I added a little foam tape behind the hands and the pineapples to make it look more like these hands were actually holding a big pineapple. I took a little Black Soot Distress ink on a ink blending sponge and lightly brushed the edges of the panel to give a vingnet look.

To finish off the cover I added some Pretty Pink Posh confetti and used my spectrum noir clear glitter brush pen to add a little sparkle.

When you open up the card you see the continuation of the sentiment which I stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink and heat embossed with WOW super fine clear embossing powder.

The drink filled coconut is from the “Stay Cool” waffle flower stamp set which I stamped and then colored with copic markers. I added a little Glossy accents on the straw to make it look like a shiny plastic straw.

I think this is a great encouragement card to give to a friend who has had a bad day.

The next card was inspired by the beautiful florals in the photo as well as the gorgeous “Bed of Flowers” Essentials by Ellen die. I had several pieces of watercolor paper that I was practicing watercolor washes with. Not wanting them to go to waste I thought I would cut them up with this beautiful die and piece them back together on a piece of cardstock that I covered with Be Creative tape.

I used the darker die cut negative pieces more to the center of each flowers and going lighter as you got to the edge of the flowers. I put green watercolor negative die pieces in between all the roses.

Once all of the pieces were glued down I matted the pieced together panel with a piece of gold mirror foil cardstock. I die cut two vellum hearts from the Essentials by Ellen Folk Heart dies as well as the Congrats die from the Essentials by Ellen zipper panel die set. I wound some gold thread around each end of the die cut and glued the ends to the back of the panel. I then glued that panel down to a peach colored cardstock card base.

I think this would make a fantastic wedding card.

My next card started out just as watercolor practice, with some beautiful Mondo Flowers from Ellen Hutson.

I took the Essentials by Ellen Mondo Peony flower and stamped that on Arches cold press watercolor paper with Versamark ink. I heat embossed the flowers using clear extra fine embossing powder from WOW. I painted the florals using a mix of colors from Daniel smith paints in Quinacridone Rose, Rose Madder Perm, Transparent Pyrrol Orange, lemon yellow, and pearlescent shimmer. The leaves are painted using Sap Green. I liked my practice piece so I masked the flowers and stamped the Essentials by Ellen Mondo Hydrangea. I heat embossed this flower the same way and then I painted the flower using Daniel Smith quinacridone purple.

The background got a light wash of blue by using Daniel Smith manganese blue hue. I set the florals aside to dry and I painted another piece of watercolor paper with the colors on my palette. Once that was dry I cut it using the largest Lawn Fawn fancy scallop rectangle die. You might notice that you can’t really see a shine of embossing powder on my card. Once the florals were dry my piece was warped quite a bit so I took a piece of copy paper and folded it in half. I placed my card in the middle and down on top of a microfiber cloth. On a no steam setting I ironed the paper protected card until it was flat and quickly removed the paper. The scrap paper absorbed all of the embossing powder leaving me with a one layer card that kept those white lines that I stamped with.

I cut down my floral piece, matted it on gold mirror cardstock and foam mounted that piece on top of the scalloped watercolor panel. That was adhered to a heavy card base.

Inside the card I glued a die cut Many Thanks from the essentials by ellen die and a scrap of that gold mirror cardstock. I stamped the florals in a very pale gray ink and colored them with Copics in various colors in the 00, 000, and 0000 shades.  I thought this added a hint of color but light enough to write over when you write in the card.

I hope you found some inspiration in the Ellen Hutson Pin-Sights inspiration piece as I did. Now its your turn to create something fabulous and participate in the challenge. One random participant will be chosen to win a $50 gift certificate to Ellen Hutson. Head on over to the Ellen Hutson classroom blog for more details. I cannot wait to see what you create!

***There is also a HUGE 15% off everything sale going on at Ellen Hutson Today and tomorrow, June 15-16 2017! Use code SUMMERFUN to stock up on the amazing products I shared with you today and more! I am off to get some new items that has been on my wish list!***

If you are interested in any of the products that I used in my projects today I have listed them below as well as linked them within the post. You may also click HERE for multiple online sources of some items. I tried to make it as easy as possible if you are wanting to find something that I used.

Thank you so much for stopping by!