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WAFFLE FLOWER SNEAK PEEK + A GIVEAWAY

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There are a LOT more ways this Oversized Hugs Die can be used, but today, I’m showcasing four!

And, Waffle Flower has a giveaway going on—you could win this Kit #05, from their Sneak Peek Club by leaving a comment for me over on this video on my YouTube Channel!

  • Open to folks with US addresses only at this time.

  • Be sure to comment there by 05/31/2023.

  • The folks at Waffle Flower will draw a winner and contact them.

FYI: Waffle Flower’s Sneak Peek Club is a monthly subscription, with each kit featuring part of an upcoming release. All the products included in Kit #05 will be available individually on 06/05/2023 when their release goes live. New subscribers to the Sneak Peek Club as of today’s date (05/25/2023) will receive the next upcoming kit.

Below is a slide show you can scroll through to see still shots of the 4 different cards I created:

So fun, right?! Scamper on over to my YouTube video so you can enter for a chance to win!

And, may the odds be ever in your favour! (wink!)

SUPPLIES: Affiliate links included wherever possible. I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made via my links.

  • Oversized Hugs Die by Waffle Flower (***Kit #05 products will be available individually on 06/05/2023***)

  • Catherine Pooler Cotton Candy Dye Ink - EH

  • Catherine Pooler Do-si-do Dye Ink - EH

  • Catherine Pooler Coral Cabana Dye Ink - EH

  • Blending Brushes - EH

  • Waffle Flower Mini Media Mat - EH

  • Double Sided Sheet Adhesive - EH

  • Scraps of Transfer Foil - *from my stash

  • Spellbinders Platinum 6 Die Cutting Machine - EH

  • Tonic Comfort Trimmer - EH

  • Tonic NUVO Drops in Ebony - SB

  • Flower Sequins - *from my stash

  • Ranger Glossy Accents - EH / SB

  • Bearly Art Glue - EH

  • Neenah Solar White 80# Card Stock - EH

  • Bazzill Pale Rose Card Stock - SB

  • Concord & 9th Ballet Slipper Card Stock - EH

  • Concord & 9th Sorbet Card Stock - EH

  • Patterned Papers - *from my stash

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HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE CRICUT CARD SUMMIT?

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If you're new around here, you may not have realized yet just how much I enjoy card-making with my Cricut Maker, or why I use it so often now.  It's literally become one of my favorite and funnest tools to work with!

Maybe you're on the fence about whether or not you would really use one or maybe you have one, but you still haven't taken it out of the box.  I know folks that have had theirs sitting unopened for a year or more!  ACK!!! 

That said, I wanted to encourage you to grab your free ticket to the Cricut Card Summit, which is coming up May 16-18th!  I will be presenting at this online event and would LOVE to see you join the fun!  I am an affiliate so if you purchase the All Access Pass via my link, I do receive a commission.

Join me at the CRICUT CARD SUMMIT and learn how to foil using the Foil Quill + the Cricut!

I am not what you'd call a “techie”, BUT, I believe digital cutters, like the Cricut, not only make certain aspects of card-making easier, they expand our creative options!  And, I think it's pretty cool that we live in an era where it's becoming increasingly possible to create and craft more things at home, that not too long ago, would have required pro-grade equipment or a factory setting!  •fist bump•

 

THE BENEFITS OF USING A CRICUT/DIGITAL CUTTER

Just a few things that immediately come to mind for me:

  1. Sometimes, you need something last minute—a pre-designed card can be made faster than you can hop into the car and head to the nearest card shop! And, you still made it yourself!

  2. The Cricut is a multi-purpose craft tool: It can not only cut, it can draw, foil, engrave, score and deboss! That’s a lot of capability in a tool!

  3. Cut, draw/foil, engrave designs can be resized as needed (they’re not “fixed” to a specific size)

  4. Need multiples? The Cricut can render the same design on repeat as much as you like!


If you want to learn how to maximize all the different card-making techniques you can do with this machine, the Cricut Card Summit is the perfect introduction:

PRESENTATION SAMPLES

Registration is totally free, with the presentations lasting 24 hours from the time they go live. Please note that if you want early and on-going access, and all the VIP bonus materials, make sure to snag the All Access Pass (affil).

ALL ACCESS PASS BONUS MATERIALS

It’s going to be a fun event, with some great giveaways, too!

Hope you can join us!

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 dimes to you. 🙂 Your support is appreciated more than I can say!

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BIRTHDAY VIBES

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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 dimes to you. 🙂 Your support is appreciated more than I can say!

ESSENTIALS BY ELLEN APRIL 2023 RELEASE IS AVAILABLE NOW (affil)

I am addicted to “type”. I love words, letter forms and typography. There’s a lotta’ my beloved type in this release and the larger the type, the more it makes me giddy. I’m sharing a few samples I made with my new stamps, dies and hot foil designs but there’s a lot more inspo and goodness over on the release page, so check it out by clicking the photo above, or the link directly beneath.

Closer details can be seen in the slide show below:

I share more insights and details on the products I designed and the samples above in a recent video on the Ellen Hutson YouTube Channel right HERE.

Someone on Instagram asked about the colors I used so I am listing the color palette I stuck with for all my samples down below in the supplies. Note, some are paper colors that have been discontinued 😭 but I have included suggestions for alternatives I think would be lovely and are very similar in hue.

Hope you get a chance to join the Ellen Hutson Release Hop over on Instagram—there’s a giveaway and all you need to do is leave some comment love on the hop stops, to toss your name into the hat for an opportunity to win! The eye candy is DELISH!!!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you found the above inspiring!

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HOW TO USE IRON ON VINYL OR HTV ON PAPER

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How to use iron-on vinyl or HTV with a Cricut machine for paper crafts.

When I found out HTV (a.k.a. Iron-On Vinyl) could be used on PAPER, I was over the moon! Cutting smaller or more intricate pieces with my Cricut Maker from card stock can sometimes be a lesson in futility, despite having a clean, sticky mat, a brand new blade, and all the right settings. Enter Heat Transfer Vinyl. I bought some to use with my Cricut to make cute Tees for my grand-littles and loved how easy it was to work with, so I wanted to try it out on paper for myself.

I’m stoked to share that it is fun, easy and WOW! So far, I’ve only tried holographic and glitter HTVs—specifically Cricut Iron-On brand. Because I had it on hand. I made a few mistakes, and learned some tips I share in the video tutorial below. But, for your future reference, keep the following in mind:

  • Anything you plan to cut from Iron-on Vinyl/HTV needs to be “mirrored” in Design Space; you’re cutting through the vinyl from the BACK side and if you don’t mirror, words and such will not read correctly when you flip it over.

  • Select the proper settings, or as close as you can get, in Design Space to the material you’re using; I was cutting through Holographic Iron-On Vinyl for my Lava Lamp Shaker and mistakenly chose just “iron-on” vinyl. It didn’t “kiss cut” properly and I wasn’t able to properly weed the design and had to try again. We all make mistakes and sometimes waste supplies when we are learning something for the first time; it’s OK. Even pros occasionally forget.

  • Always place iron-on/HTV type materials FACE down onto the cutting mat; I think of it as “pretty” side down, ugly side lookin’ up at ya’.

  • If the vinyl is curling up on the mat or the mat doesn’t have enough stick-um to hold it down in place (critical), blue painter’s tape will really help! Apply some along all the outer edges to anchor the vinyl into place. It’s important the material does not shift/move during the cutting process.

  • When working with GLITTER HTV a weeding box will be your best friend! I go over this in the video and you’ll understand when you watch why it’s a great thing! After cutting, you can place the vinyl onto a light table/pad to better see where the cut lines are when weeding; alternatively, if you don’t have a light table/pad, you can tape it to a window where the natural light will help you see those cut lines better. You can also reference the original design visually to help guide you what parts need to be weeded and which should be left on the carrier sheet.

  • Whatever brand of iron-on vinyl/HTV you are using, read the manufacturer’s recommended heat settings, length of time for pressing and whether or not it’s a warm, cool or cold peel (to remove the carrier sheet). Every product line is different and all that info will vary from one to the next (including the various types of HTV made by each company).

  • If using a household iron, avoid steam by making sure you’ve emptied the water chamber completely before using. Also avoid the steam vents; they can leave an unwanted impression in some vinyl products.

Enjoy the video—I hope you find it helpful! Still shots of the projects I used HTV on are below the video. I didn’t film using the Glitter HTV, but the process is exactly the same—just remember to select “Glitter Iron-On Vinyl” in your materials setting, instead of Holographic; it makes a difference. 😉

Learn how you can incorporate iron-on vinyl/HTV with your paper craft projects using a Cricut.

 
 
 
 

I seriously had a ton of fun using this stuff—I had been on a quest for no-shed glitter card stock because most that I own, shed glitter like crazy, which makes me NUTS! Love the look, hate the mess. So, when I saw someone using HTV, I literally started monkey-clapping!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Disclosure: I include affiliate links to the products used in my posts and make a small commission when you purchase via those links, at no extra dimes to you. 🙂 Your support is appreciated more than I can say!

SUPPLIES MENTIONED:

Tools & supplies I use regularly in my Cricut Crafting:

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2 PUNNY VALENTINES PLUS A TUCK AND FOLD CARD

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This card started as a sketch, but as I temporarily laid everything out, I felt like it needed something “more”—something small, but a little different from what I do out of habit. Originally, I had planned to white emboss the sentiment onto a strip of black card stock and work it into the layout. That’s a great stand-by that works quite well for many of my designs.

But, the idea of deviating from my stand-by, just slightly, kept nagging at me. So, I mounted the solid pink heart to the base card and then moved that to my MISTI, and curved the sentiment slightly, along the edge of the heart, got it mounted to the lid, and then inked and stamped. The golden colored frame was then mounted a little cattywampus (intentionally) with a little bit of glue in just 3 spots—I like the dimension it gives when it curves slightly up from the card front.

Everything else was clear embossed with my favorite black ink (affil) onto watercolor paper (affil), watercolored and die cut before 3D mounting into place.

Immense satisfaction achieved! (fist pump!)

This little bubblegum machine shaker card turned out so cute! Initially, I couldn’t decide on a background/backdrop for the machine and it occurred to me to grab my 1” circle punch and just punched a bunch of “dots” from card stock in coordinating colors—I love it!

I used Staz-On Cotton White (affil) to stamp the sentiment on the Crystal Clear Plastic (affil); I probably should have heat embossed it (this acetate is heat resistant) for better visibility as it’s hard to capture it that well in a photo, but IRL, it shows more prominently. Those teeny, tiny rainbow confetti hearts (affil) were just beggin’ to be filler, so I had to do it!

Here’s a TIP:

If you don’t have any sheet size foam tape (affil) to die cut for the shaker walls, try cutting the shaker front piece 5x from 110# Neenah Solar White (EH / AMZ affil) and just layer/stack them all together with Bearly Art Glue (affil)

feat. BIG LOVE STAMPS (the hearts background) | XOXO DIE

This way fun “fun-fold” design is actually a tri-fold that tucks and folds! I haven’t done one of these in so long and it’s one of my favorites so I need to poke myself as a reminder to do this more often because it’s so easy and always feels “clever”.

Video Tutorial below:

If you give this fun fold a try, you’ll have to let me know what you think! I love that it’s soooooo simple but the explosion of colors just makes it so visually impressive!

I cannot believe we are mid-way through January already; CRAZY!!!

Stay crafty!

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 dimes to you. 🙂 Your support is appreciated more than I can say!

OTHER SUPPLIES

The color palette I used for these samples:

Tools:

Embellishments:

Miscellaneous: