COASTAL GREETING DESIGNS

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. Thank you.

There are so many cool lighthouses along the Pacific Northwest coast line—it would be fun to take a road trip and visit them all. Some day, maybe I will. In the meantime, I have no problem creating little seaside scenes on paper, LOL!

Some really soft ink blending over the wave lines for the ocean, a little quick coloring with a few alcohol markers and just a few of those Clear Droplets!

The wonderful thing about Seaside, is how well it combines with Summer Doodles—so many ideas in my head, but I haven’t yet had time to play with.

I adore a two-step stamp set like this one—those who like to color can, and peeps like me can use our beloved solids! YAY!!! An ink that stamps crisply and comes in beautiful colors is ideal, so I rely on Catherine Pooler and Concord & 9th for the job. I’ll have all the colors I used on this design listed down in the supplies.

After die cutting the landscape and wave pieces, I ink blended along the shaped edges, trimmed them and popped them up on my base card. I liked this one so much the way it was, I sat on my hands overnight. It’s always tempting to add “one more thing” . . . But, the next day I still felt the same about it, so that’s my story and I’m stickin’ with it.

Have a beautiful day and thanks for stopping by!

TROPICAL VIBES

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. Thank you for the support!

My little flamingo was black embossed onto some watercolor paper, then watercolored. She has a few palm trees behind her in this little scene. I created a two-tone effect by using Green Tea Ink on the one stamped directly on the card front, and Matcha for the die cut popped up version. By trimming about 3/8-1/2” off the long edge of the card front, I could allow the palm tree to lean right and float over that edge, which is a fun way to give the illusion of more layers to the card than there really are. I felt the crown was apropos.

I used the same Cummerbund ink to stamp the water and then ink blend a little over top. Then, I just chose to embellish her simply, with some Stickles Diamond Glitter Glue on her crown and along the water—hard to pick up on camera, but love, LOVE that stuff! Such an easy, mess free way to add a bit of sparkle to any project. Wish it came in a jumbo size bottle!

For a pinky/peach vibe, I very lightly blended Grapefruit ink, followed by Orange Twist—with a VERY light hand. It’s very subtle and the eye picks that up more than the camera does.

Die cutting the Aloha from different colors of card stock from the palette I was working with and just popping them up, aligning them askew from each other is casual and fun—I love how the lettering allows the pattern in the background to show through.

A natural/rustic tassel made of my favorite twine was calling out to me for this design and I couldn’t resist; I think it really sets off the island/tropical vibe I was going for!

Hope these two designs sparked some ideas for you and thanks for stopping by!

"HEY, NOW YOU'RE A FLOCK STAR"

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. Thank you.

Flock Star , from the the July 2023 Essentials by Ellen Release , makes it super fun and easy to make an interactive card. Fans of the movie “Shrek” may recognize the opening song “All Star” by Smash Mouth, which actually inspired this particular combo. I’d never heard of the band until I saw the movie. Hence, the pun “Flock Star”. (snort)

The dies feature a debossed wing design on the body of the flamingo, making it easier to determine where to stamp whatever sentiment you want to use from the stamp set, so it will be revealed when the hinged wing is pivoted up or down. There’s also an additional wing, without a hole for the brad, if you want to layer another wing over top to conceal it. Options are nice, right?!

I gold embossed the sentiments (detail gold embossing powder), but it would also look great just with black ink. I just felt the gold was a nice touch because of the glittery gold card stock I used to cut the concealing wing. It’s popped up with a little foam tape over the pivoting wing.

I think I’ll be swooning over the Monstera Stencil for all eternity—when I was designing it, I really wanted it to have a uniquely hand-drawn or hand-cut look. You don’t want to know how many renditions I went through before I was finally satisfied, LOL! I have a tendency to obsess over things like that. OCD much? In any event, I love it SOOOOO much, so I’m going to cut myself some slack over the time it took to get it “just right”.

I’ve been practicing my ink-blending; I’m always so heavy handed but I really really want to achieve that lovely, delicate effect I’ve always admired by the talented Laurie Willison and I think I’m finally getting there.

One thing I also wanted to mention is this seriously cool, new Grip Mat by Waffleflower! I’ve been using it to anchor my paper down for stenciling and stamping!!! You can read about it on their site; they’re taking pre-orders for it now, if you’re interested. You can get a smaller one that will fit your Mini MISTI, too. I swapped out the foam layer in my MISTI platform and dropped this in, with the acetate grid they’ve designed to go with; I won’t have to deal with magnets/tape again. It truly is brilliant!!!

I have more samples to share with the products I designed for the release over the coming days. For now, you can hop over to Ellen’s site and check out the whole release HERE—it is such a lovely collection!

Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to slather yourself in sunscreen when you’re enjoying the fabulous summer weather—it’s been gorgeous here!

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ESSENTIALS BY ELLEN JUNE 2023 RELEASE

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Yessirreee, the June 2023 Essentials by Ellen Release is available now!

When I was first introduced to stamping and card making over 30 years ago, postage themed rubber stamps were VERY prevalent and I LOVED using my collection to make collage style greetings and dress up my envelopes! Back then, the art style was reflective of real/vintage postage stamps, as well as date and cancellation markings.

Today, we’ve given it a modern and refreshing whimsical touch and it is so much FUN to play with!

Stroll through the slideshow above to see a few ideas I developed (Alas, there’s never enough hours in the day to execute all the ideas running through my head . . . ) and be sure to check out the Ellen Hutson Instagram Hop for more inspiration and give some comment love to all the contributing designers for a chance to win in the giveaway!

Thanks for stopping by today—if you have time to comment below, I’d love to know which of the products speak to your card-makin’ soul! Also, if you have any questions about these samples, feel free to ask in the comments!

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. 🙂 Thank you for buying all the things!

SUPPLIES:

Happy Mail Die - EH

Envelope Slider Dies - EH

Catherine Pooler Do-si-do Ink - EH

Catherine Pooler Samba Ink - EH

Catherine Pooler Suede Shoes Ink - EH

Catherine Pooler Wintergreen Ink - EH

Catherine Pooler Dress Blues Ink - EH

Versamark Ink - EH

Detail White Embossing Powder - EH

Versafine Nocturne Ink - EH

Clear Embossing Powder - EH

Dual Temp Heat Embossing Tool - EH

Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers (used for watercolor) - EH

Canson XL Watercolor Paper - EH

Concord & 9th Sorbet Card Stock - EH

Concord & 9th Midnight Card Stock - EH

Neenah Solar White 80# Card Stock - EH

Kraft Card Stock - EH

Dune Wool Felt - EH

Winter White Wool Felt - EH

Coral Wool Felt - EH

Very Light Turquoise Embroidery Floss - EH

Peel n’ Stick Fabric Fuse - EH

Gemini Jr. - EH

Spellbinders Platinum 6 - EH

MORE HUGS BY WAFFLE FLOWER

Waffle Flower’s recent release centers around hugs, and I have two sweet hugs cards to share! The first one, above features the Retro Hugs Stamp & Die Combo. It’s so gosh darn FUN to have a design style that was popular when I was growing up resurface and be embraced not just by myself but also by my daughter and granddaughters! I think that qualifies as multi-generational! Am I right?!

I thought it would be fun to “frame” the sentiment with the huggers, arms overlapping. I added pop dots under just the hands resting on top to add a little dimension. I’m STILL into this “warm” combo of pink, orange and coral hues, blending from one to the next. I usually ink up the area I want the palest color first, using these cosmetic blending sponges and stamp, then apply the mid-tone color, blending the edges where the two colors meet on the stamp, and then finally the final/darkest color. I used Glossy Accents to mount some flowery, concave sequins from my stash. Glossy Accents is great for things like this because it maintains its “loft” as it dries and it stays crystal clear.

Inside the card, I used the exact same ombré inking on a stamp that reads, “huggers gonna hug”. SO STINKIN’ CUTE!!!

The Bear Hugs Die Set includes each of the bears you see, a flower, some hearts, butterflies and more . . . The bears have flaps so you can attach one to each side of a quarter sheet of card stock and then fold them towards each other, creating this ultra adorable interlocking gate-fold type hug.

I watercolored the bears around the edges with a very light hand using a brown tone, and the flower after die cutting them, and borrowed a sentiment from the Retro Hugs Stamp Set to white emboss a greeting in the upper left corner of a quarter sheet of warm gold card stock (one of my all time favorites). To finish it off, I mounted an extra quarter sheet of plain white card stock to the back, to conceal the flaps.

Although the bears intertwine, depending on the thickness of paper used, you may need to wrap it with twine or make a “belly band” to keep it fully closed. Without anything to hold it closed, it will partially open, and looks ADORABLE displayed on the mantel. Just sayin’ . . . (grin)

My two designs are super simple, but I’m so tickled with how quickly and easily they came together!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your weekend was relaxing and fun—summer is getting so close now!

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!

SUPPLIES:

Waffle Flower Crafts Retro Hugs Stamp & Die Combo - EH

Waffle Flower Crafts Retro Hugs Stamp Set - EH

Waffle Flower Bear Hugs Die Set - EH

Catherine Pooler Cotton Candy Ink - EH

Catherine Pooler Apricot Ink - EH

Catherine Pooler Coral Cabana Ink - EH

Versamark Embossing Ink - EH

Detail White Embossing Powder - EH

Heat Embossing Tool - EH

MISTI - EH

Neenah Solar White 80# Card Stock - EH

Canson XL Watercolor Paper 140# - EH

Pink Card Stock - EH

Orange Card Stock - EH

Golden Card Stock - EH

Watercolors - EH

Glossy Accents - EH

Sequins - *from my stash; original source: HAI Supply

Dimensional Adhesive - EH

Double Sided Adhesive Tape - EH