A SHADOW BOX BOOK AND PRESSED PANSIES

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Brandi Kincaid’s Shadowbox Die is such a well-thought out concept; the extra elements for foiling or die cutting a cover label and for foiling the page grooves is brilliant! I ran out of time as I was generating the samples for this release to get to a foiled version, but I’m dying to do it—you’ve got to see how Emily Leiphart foiled her samples. Just stunning!

Sometimes, a monochromatic card is all you need—a little bit of ink blending, masked off in the lower left corner, makes a subtle backdrop for the flowers and sentiment stamped in a darker, more intense hue—the ink blending was done in a combination of Oxide Tattered Rose and Catherine Pooler Bellini and the focal images were stamped with Oxide Spiced Marmalade.

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For this one, I brayered a backdrop starting with Oxide Tattered Rose, then continued with Catherine Pooler Bellini—where the Bellini ink overlapped back onto the Tattered Rose left a different variation of color that I just love! It looks like I used another color of ink, but nope! I finished along the bottom with that Concord & 9th Stardust I adore so much! The sentiment was stamped with C9’s Midnight, which is a rich navy blue and the florals were white embossed onto vellum card stock. I have had great luck using Mini Glue Dots to glue vellum down; when an image has been embossed, there are usually several spots where you can place the glue dots that will be pretty much concealed—I think you’d need a microscope to tell! LOL!

Wrapped those two pieces with my favorite twine, and then popped it up onto a vanilla card base. Turned out dreamy!

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Here’s the front cover of my Shadowbox Book—I used the beautiful hot foil stamp to actually die cut that lovely, leafy label into the cover (quarter sheet of C9 Stardust).

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I used colored pencils to color in the pansies, and as I was assembling everything, realized how cool it would be to have those popped up on a strip of clear plastic; when the card is closed, they lie flat, but as you open the card and the shadow box pops up, so do the flowers because the strip is attached at each end behind the frame of the window. You could certainly just use card stock for that strip, but I love how the acetate just blends in and does not become obtrusive to the overall design.

Want to know a surprising fact about me (the girl who doesn’t like to cook and rarely bakes)? When my daughter was wee little (i.e. 3-6 yrs. old), I’d put together tea parties for her, with vintage china and tea service trays and little finger sandwiches, etc. I went the whole 9 yards with prom dresses, heels, gloves and tiaras I’d found at second hand stores. And, I also kept pots of violas and pansies. I would sugar the violas and pansies and place them atop little cupcakes, covered with a cream cheese frosting . . .

Brandi’s Pressing Thoughts brings back such sweet and happy memories for me . . .

Hope you are having a beautiful day and thanks so much for popping in.


INSPIRING IDEAS FOR GOOD DAY

Keep it simple or go all about with an interactive card! The Good Day Set is a lot of fun for scene building with its chic convertible and free-wheelin' bike images!

This design was color blocked into thirds, and the images were white embossed and then I simply ink blended color onto them, using Blender Brushes, instead of using more traditional coloring methods!

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Same set + the Push-Me-Pull-You Die and my girls are zipping back & forth! Video tutorial for how to use the Push-Ne-Pull-You Die right HERE. And here’s a golden nugget: The die can be used with a wide variety of images you’d like to make travel in reverse action. Think about this: Fish swimming back & forth in the sea, planes or birds flying by in the sky, rotate the card, and you can have critters (gophers, mebbe???) popping up and down out of holes. Now, go forth and be creative! EEP!!!

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I deliberately took a minimalist approach on this last one because, well, that’s truly my favorite style of card-making. A little bit of quick and easy watercoloring, and trimming the park scene/background panel on the diagonal to give our girl the illusion of a pathway to cruise along on her bike . . .

It’s the little things . . . (smile)

Thanks for stopping by today and hope you have some time this weekend to be creative!


SUPPLIES:

Disclosure: Yup, those are affiliate links to the products used in my projects and I make a small commission when you purchase via those links, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for buying all the things!

FUN BIRTHDAY STAMPS WITH A GRAPHIC, RETRO VIBE

I am ALWAYS needing birthday cards, and much as I personally adore balloons and cake, sometimes I just need a little something different from that. I gravitate towards typography and hand-lettering because I love WORDS and it is so fun to have a set that features those elements specifically!

This is a sentiment I’ve always loved—I think it’s great even when it’s NOT for a birthday! I’m super-stoked that I have the option to use the FILLS or the outlines (altho I will say I’m partial to fills/solids personally speaking!) or combine them. Multi-colored letters make me grin big time, too!

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I loved the end result of this ombré style stamping effect of the Ampersand—I spaced each color/impression 1/2” apart to get this effect, starting on the far left with the Tattered Rose, then Bellini, Stardust, Green Tea and finally Spruce and then repeated in reverse order as I moved to the right. It is such a cool, graphic look! And, it would have been literally impossible to pull off with this kind of precision, without using the MISTI.

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Here, I just cut two 4 bar panels from white and pale rose on the diagonal, then mounted them onto a piece of typing paper for the two-tone effect. Then I did all my stamping over the top. Stamped the solid Ampersand twice with Bellini to get a deeper hue, then blended Mandarin Spice along the bottom (directly on the stamp) to re-stamp again 2 more times, creating this smooth blended ombré. Absolutely LOVE this. And, once again, this is a look that is hard to achieve manually; if you don’t have one yet, a MISTI will revolutionize working with clear stamps.

If you’re going to heat emboss anything over the top of this solid stamping, make sure the ink has thoroughly dried, and prep the surface with an anti-static powder to eliminate random bits of embossing powder sticking where you don’t want it. Yes, it makes a difference.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope these samples inspire you when working with the “AND MANY MORE” set!


JUNE 2021 EBE RELEASE IS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED

Yup! New stamps and dies just hit the Ellen Hutson shop! Fun for birthdays, interactive card lovers, for those who enjoy sewing on paper, and my personal favorite, all the things you can do with abstract designs! We’ve got an inspiring hop goin’ on over on Instagram (HERE), so if you’re looking for LOTS of fun ideas, check it out! There’s also prizes . . . Just sayin’ . . . (wink!)

OK, getting on with my personal favorite from this release (I adore all my babies, but, well, this is one of those universal sets that is destined to be an outright staple):

feat. ORGANIC ELEMENTS; “I appreciate you so much” (Nice of you)  |  “Here comes the sun” (Good day)  |  “You are in my thoughts” (Pressing Thoughts)

feat. ORGANIC ELEMENTS; “I appreciate you so much” (Nice of you) | “Here comes the sun” (Good day) | “You are in my thoughts” (Pressing Thoughts)

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And, how ‘bout those colors, am I right?!!! Love this combo!

Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to check out the Instagram Hop for tons more ideas from the Ellen Hutson Design Ambassadors (#ehambassador!


5 WAYS TO USE SMALL STAMP IMAGES FOR CARD MAKING

Looking for ways to use the smaller stamps in your stash? My number one tip is to scale down the size of your card! 4 Bar note cards measure 3.5 x 5”. This smaller format lends itself quite well to clean and simple cards where the focus is on the image, or the image + a sentiment.

Would you be interested in 5 MORE ideas for using small stamps? Let me know in the comments!

Have an amazing day!


SUPPLIES:

Disclosure: Yup, those are affiliate links to the products used in my projects and I make a small commission when you purchase via those links, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for buying all the things!