ELLEN HUTSON CELEBRATES 15 YEARS

I’m so proud of my long-time friend Ellen—to have been in business for 15 (FIFTEEN!!!) years is such an accomplishment and I could not be more thrilled for her! Man, how the years have flown and her company has grown into an amazing small business that all started from basically a closet, if you can believe it!

Now through the 17th, 11:59 PT, you can save 20% PLUS all qualifying orders of $100+ will receive a gift with purchase, in the form of this delightful stamp set, HB2U! Click HERE to go to straight to the “You are Special” Category at ellenhutson.com

I added some notations to my shaker design for this set, as a number of folks have told me they find them helpful. My favorite tip, is snipping that little triangle on the edge of the circle window to create a balloon, heh, heh, heh!

I do think I overfilled the shaker with a bit too much confetti stars, tho; forgot to repeat my mantra, “Less is more. Less is more. Less is more.” . . . Learn from my mistake, LOL!

I just got my COVID booster and was feeling kinda puny this morning, but it’s subsiding and I should be in tip top shape by this evening once again.

Have a wondermous week!

---

SUPPLIES:

• Solar White - 25 pk, Neenah Classic Crest Cardstock

• Essential Circles, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

• Bellini, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad

• Coral Cabana, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad

• VersaMark Ink Pad

• Gold Fine Detail, Gina K Designs Embossing Powder

• Dual Speed Heat Tool, WOW

• Crystal Clear Plastic, Medium Weight 8 1/2' x 11' (10 pk), Essentials by Ellen

• Scor-Tape 1/4' (5mm), Scor-Pal Tape

• Scrapbook Adhesives Crafty Foam Tape, White

• Gold Mini Star Confetti, Pretty Pink Posh Sequins

• Iridescent Mini Star Confetti, Pretty Pink Posh Sequins

• Smoothies Minis, Creative Expressions

• New & Improved Mini MISTI Laser Etched Stamping Tool (6-1/8 X 7), My Sweet Petunia

• Crafter's Companion Gemini Junior

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

ONLINE CARD MAKING EVENT COMING IN FEBRUARY 2022

Truth: When it’s quiet around here, that means there’s an awful lot going on behind the scenes! I’ve been busy with some “creative” professional development stuff and really enjoying the process—I consider myself a life-long learner and I always feel such an amazing, intrinsic sense of “happy” (massive monkey-clapping!) when I learn how to do something that intrigues me—especially when the things are hard, or require technology.

All that to say, I wanted to share some news that relates to a lot of that behind the scenes stuff!

YASSS!!! I made the team! (virtual high fives)

I was accepted as a presenter (instructor/teacher/speaker) for the February 2022 Card Maker Success Summit! There’s so many talented presenters on that roster! This is a FREE virtual event that will be online for a limited time and if you want full, lifetime access to all the classes after the event ends, you can purchase an All Access VIP Pass. I actually attended a similar virtual workshop for artists last summer and enjoyed it muchly, so I’m waaay stoked to have an opportunity to be a speaker at the Feb 2022 CMSS!

Anyhoo, if a virtual card making event sounds like fun to you, I wanted to let you know that the host of the Summit is now offering a Waitlist for those interested in the All Access VIP Pass for February’s event—just click the button below to go over to the signup:

By the way, have you gotten your holiday cards going yet? If not, here’s some eye candy that I hope sparks ya’:

feat. Fa La La, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps / Holly Jolly Christmas by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps / Snowflakes, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

feat. Sweet Surprises by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps / Tiny Stars Background by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Hot Foil Stamps

Hope you have a a wonderful and creative weekend!

---

Disclosure: I include affiliate links when/where possible in this post and make a small commission when you purchase via those links, at no extra cost to you. Thank you, thank you!!!

ALL WRAPPED UP + TAG IT: CHRISTMAS

feat. All Wrapped Up Stamp Set/ Essentials Arches Dies / Farmhouse Tags Dies/ Tag It: Christmas Stamp Set/ Essential Snowflakes Dies

These sweet li’l buddies are helping each other get prepped for the holidays . . . I love loVE LOVE when a darling image takes up enough presence on a card that I don’t have to ponder or agonize about how to combine and layout a card design—All Wrapped Up is the answer to that wish, at least for me, anyhoo!

Ya’ know, those Essential Arches dies are actually PERFECT for making tall snow-globe windows for shakers and/or card fronts—this is a simple window card (clear plastic is sandwiched between the car front and an additional die cut panel so you can peek through). The sentiment beneath is revealed when you open up the card . . . It’s just so sweet, I can’t even . . .

A word to the wise, tho—do all your white paint spattering BEFORE doing anything else; it needs a little time to air-dry before you start die cutting into it and assembling all your pieces. Ask me how I know . . . (chortle). However, if you’re in a hurry, take a clean paper towel and press it down carefully over top to soak up any excess paint droplets.

My paint spatter method:

1. Squeeze a little white acrylic paint onto an acrylic block. It doesn’t take all that much so don’t get crazy.

2. Squeeze a little water at a time from your waterbrush into the paint and mix it right on the block until you have a consistency you like.

3. Hold the acrylic block over the area you want to spatter and use your paint brush to flick it off the block down onto project. Repeat until you have all the spatter you want, then set it aside to dry.

All Wrapped UP also works lovely for tags—GAAAH!!! All the heart eyes! If you love to layer your tags, that skinny one, combined with the sentiments in the Tag It Set are perfect for doing that—anything that makes mass production easier gets 5-stars from me because I’m always last-minute Lucy at getting things wrapped so I tend to keep tags pretty minimalist. (face palm)

Do you like making tags? My daughter is not a card maker, but she does enjoy making tags for holiday gifts.

---

SUPPLIES:

• All Wrapped Up by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

• Tag It - Christmas, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

• Essential Arches, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

• Snowflakes, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

• Farmhouse Tags, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

• VersaFine Clair Ink Pad, Nocturne

• 36 Color Set, Gansai Tambi

• 48 Color Set, Gansai Tambi

• 12 Color Set, Gansai Tambi

• Small Fine Point (23638), Pentel Arts Aquash Water Brush

• Ebony Black 100 lb - 25pk, Essentials By Ellen Cardstock

• Crystal Clear Plastic, Medium Weight 8 1/2' x 11' (10 pk), Essentials by Ellen

• Desert Storm - 25 pk, Neenah Environment Cardstock

• Watercolor Paper Pad 9x12, Canson XL

• Ranger Watercolor Paper, 10 pk

• Bazzill Card Shoppe Cardstock, Wax Lips, 25 pk

• Baker's Twine Twisted Ribbon - Red, May Arts

• Ranger Stickles, Silver

• VersaMark Ink Pad

• Embossing Magic Bag, Inkadinkado

• Stampendous Embossing Powder, Detail White, 0.76 oz.

• Dual Speed Heat Tool, WOW

• Crafter's Companion Gemini Junior

• Platinum 6 Die Cutting And Embossing Machine, Spellbinders Tools

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

GET YOUR HOLIDAY CARD DESIGNS FROM 25+ EXPERTS

This past July I missed out on a cool event called the Card Maker Success Summit.  This summit was jam-packed with awesome presentations from some amazing card makers!

The event was free to attend but if you weren't able to during that time frame, you could upgrade to the VIP All-Access Pass.  And sadly, if you didn’t purchase it before the end of the summit, the VIP All-Access Pass went away.

Fast forward to today, and the folks over at the Card Makers Success Summit have opened the vault and are making it available for purchase for the next 2 days!  I wanted to share it with you because I personally love taking online courses/workshops (yes, I’ve taken many!!!)--I love being able to work at my own pace/when my crazy schedule permits. Plus, access to this many project ideas, tips and techniques is a pretty great value!

Here is what is included in the VIP All-Access Pass:

• Lifetime access to all 25+ presentations ($1,200 value)

• 298 page Holiday Card Project Workbook with a card project planning calculator ($59 value)

• Premium bonus content from our host, including ($100+ Value):

  • Craft Room Organization Guide Workbook, 

  • Free Card and Technique classes, 

  • Exclusive discounts to Stamp Me Some Love Shop. 

• Plus you gain access to the Card Maker Success Summit’s attendee Facebook group which is currently closed to new members.  You can only get in if you are  a VIP member. 

And the best part of all is that you get the VIP All-Access Pass for $49. That’s 35% off the full price of $139.  

Niiiiice!!! (virtual high 5)

You can visit the website to learn more and grab your VIP All-Access Pass.  More information will be sent straight to your inbox afterwards.

GET YOUR VIP All-Access Pass HERE!

Hope you've been having a splendid week and I’m excited to see what you are going to create for your holiday cards this season!

---

Disclosure: Affiliate links have been included where possible in this post and I make a small commission when you purchase via those links, at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!

CUP OF CHEER + FA LA LA LA

feat. CUP OF CHEER STAMP SET + DIES / FA LA LA LA BACKGROUND STAMP / SENDING HOLIDAY CHEER / ESSENTIALS SNOWFLAKES DIES / MODERN GRAPHICS PAPER

When I shoot release page samples, I sometimes group them into little ensembles that make my eyes happy. I just love using those snowflake die cuts in the background—I hope we get snow this winter; it’s always so hit or miss ‘round these parts . . . •sigh•

Eggnog. Because tradition. Because they start putting it out on the shelves looooong before Christmas. Because dessert in a cup. (insert cheeky grin)

I was going to color these, but they looked so pretty just stamped in red that I couldn’t bear tampering with perfection, LOL!

Stamped Fa la la la Background with Peppermint Scrub over red card stock and I love it—sometimes when I stamp a background stamp like this with black, it competes too much with the images in the foreground. After a couple of design fails I decided to try this approach instead. Used my heat gun to set the ink and also pounced the surface with anti-static powder to make sure it was COMPLETELY DRY. Then I could white emboss “Have a cup of cheer” over top and not worry about the powder sticking where I didn’t want it.

Originally, my plan for this sample didn’t have any patterned paper, but once I added that little bit along the bottom of the main panel? Of a sudden, it elevated the whole design. Even when I sketch plans and make notes, sometimes samples can end up going a different direction, slight or massive.

I gotta’ say, the different reds in the Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolor sets are so SO lovely! I originally tried to watercolor these with all sorts of other means (red markers, red ink pads pressed against an acrylic block, etc.) but they didn’t look right. Nothing was working until I grabbed the Gansai Tambi. I’m super picky about my reds, what can I say? (shrug)

My daughter went nuts over this design—told me it was so nostalgic for her because it was reminiscent of the OG Grinch storybook; the illustrations were all black and white, with red to accent. I took that as a compliment—an unexpected, but sweet compliment. It really made me smile because I remember reading this book to her sooooooo many times when she was a little girl . . .

More ombré inking on that bold sentiment—beautiful bold lettering like this just calls out to me for it! I describe how to do ombré inking on my previous post, linked HERE.

I highlighted the patterned paper with a skinny red frame (using the Essentials Rectangles Dies). If you wanted to take this a step further, you could also use the MINC to foil the snowfall patterned paper (yes, these patterned papers work with toner reactive foils* ! WOOT!!! ); I think it would be gorgeous in silver, to match the Silver Stickles in the center of the kraft snowflake! Metallics look so pretty with kraft—silver, gold, copper, rose gold . . . I honestly don’t think you can go wrong mixing metallics with kraft.

Which metallic do you lean towards for kraft? Or, are you like me, winner takes all? LOL!

---

*Toner Reactive Foils can be found at ellenhutson.com HERE, or at Scrapbook.com HERE.

SUPPLIES:

• Cup of Cheer by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

• Cup of Cheer by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

• Fa La La, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

• Holiday Sprigs by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

• Holiday Sprigs by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

• Snowflakes, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies

• Rockin Red, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad

• Peppermint Scrub, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad

• VersaFine Clair Ink Pad, Nocturne

• VersaMark Ink Pad

• Embossing Magic Bag, Inkadinkado

• Powder Tool Adhesive Deactivator, EK Success

• Stampendous Embossing Powder, Detail White, 0.76 oz.

• WOW Embossing Powder, Super Fine - Clear Gloss

• Bazzill Card Shoppe Cardstock, Wax Lips, 25 pk

• Desert Storm - 25 pk, Neenah Environment Cardstock

• Solar White - 25 pk, Neenah Classic Crest Cardstock

• Watercolor Paper Pad 9x12, Canson XL

• Modern Graphics Vol. 2 by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Paper Pack

• Midnight, Avery Elle Hemp Twine

• 36 Color Set, Gansai Tambi

• 12 Color Set, Gansai Tambi

• Smoothies Minis, Creative Expressions

• Ranger Stickles, Christmas Red

• Ranger Stickles, Silver

• Scrapbook Adhesives Thin 3-D Foam Squares, Mix White

• Small Fine Point (23638), Pentel Arts Aquash Water Brush

• Dual Speed Heat Tool, WOW

• New & Improved Mini MISTI Laser Etched Stamping Tool (6-1/8 X 7), My Sweet Petunia

• Crafter's Companion Gemini Junior

• Platinum 6 Die Cutting And Embossing Machine, Spellbinders Tools

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