stretch your dies with ebe essential arches

Do you ever stretch your cardmaking supplies by making DIY stencils? It's one of my favorite things! 

Recently I wanted to make a stencil with the Essentials by Ellen Sentiment Strips die but then I realized that it would just be a giant rectangle and not strips, LOL! So instead of making a stencil, I actually just used the die itself. I taped the die down and used blending brushes to blend right through it. 

After my success with ink blending through the Sentiment Strips, I decided to do it again the Essential Arches and check out what I made...

I used two sizes of the arch dies to ink blend arches on the card front. Then I topped it with the die cut frames.

I thought I was done after I stamped a sentiment directly on the card but I hated it so I added another die cut arch in the top corner to cover it up (see more about that on my IG feed).

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Carly

P.S. You can see that sentiment strip card HERE.

supplies:

affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. thank you!

Essentials by Ellen Essential Arches dies

Essentials by Ellen Casual Greetings stamps

Distress Oxide Inks Salvaged Patina, Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron, Picked Raspberry & Kitsch Flamingo

Black Star Sequins

mft color challenge 192

There's a new color challenge over on the MFT Stamps blog and this one was a huge challenge for me but I love how it turned out!

Check out the color palette...

When I saw there was no pink in sight I wasn't sure if I could do it. I'm kidding about the pink but I was pretty nervous about two shades of brown. But after getting out my MFT Kraft, Milk Chocolate, Lazy Day & Prickly Pear inks, look what I made...

I'm not sure if poppies are ever blue in nature but I love how these one turned out! And as a side note, why am I not using these gorgeous Perfect Poppies all the time!!!

For the poppies I die cut them from white cardstock and ink blended to add color.

I tried a few different adhesive when assembling and found my favorite way was to run the insides, middle & top layers through my little sticker maker and then stick them to the base layer. Just a tip...maybe sure to wait until the ink blending is dry for maximum stick factor!

After creating all the blue poppies, I adhered them to a white card with a kraft panel. I trimmed off any flowers that hung over the edges.

The sentiment is a combo of Modern Serif Alphabet dies and Itty Bitty Love stamps.

I hope you are inspired to join in this color challenge! Pop over to the MFT blog to learn more and thanks so much for stopping by!

Hugs!

Carly

masking with glossy accents

Glossy Accents is one of my favorite cardmaking supplies and I even love using it for masking! I'm sharing a little more about it on the Ellen Hutson blog today and I'd love it if you stopped by!

Hugs!

Carly

a rainbow beach house card with mft

Are you craving a beach vacation? Me too! And while I can't really help you with the actual trip to the beach, I've got a cute rainbow beach house card to share with you!

I created this card with the MFT Stamps Beach Day card kit and a few other dies like the Sand and Surf and Cutest Clouds Ever.

I struggled at first to find a way to make precise rainbow stripes on the beach house. I tried masking (which is normally my go to) and then I tried Copic markers but I'm not steady enough to color a straight line, LOL!

I finally settled on making a stencil. I used the little porch die from the Beach Bungalow and cut it from a scrap of acetate. The opening was a perfect match for the "siding" on the beach house. I just moved the stencil down the house, ink blending the rainbow.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have time to pop over to the MFT blog to check out more Beach Day cards (and maybe treat yourself to the kit)!

Hugs!

Carly

beach day card kit

Here in the PNW we're still waiting on summer so making beachy cards with the new MFT Beach Day card kit has been the best way to spend time!

The kit is available tomorrow but here's a little peek...

I love creating small-ish scenes so I die cut a circle from an A2 panel and layered the elements behind.

Make sure to mark your calendars for the kit release tomorrow and head over to the MFT blog today to see more about the kit!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Carly

mft's slimline challenge - rainbow

Calling all cardmakers!!! Did you know that MFT has a monthly slimline challenge and you can enter for a chance to win $50 to the MFT shop? June's challenge starts today and you are going to love the theme...rainbows!!!

I LOVE using rainbows on my cards so for this challenge I had so many ideas that I didn't know where to start, LOL! I decided it was a good time to use one of the latest MFT dies that I hadn't had a chance to play with yet, Chevron Stripes. Here's how it turned out...

The process couldn't have been easier! I die cut multiple chevrons...the set has one intended for A2 portrait cards and one for A2 horizontal cards but I just used both. And I used the thin chevron that was cut in the middle because I left my two dies attached.

I colored the chevrons with a little ink blending. The sentiment is from Itty Bitty Celebrations and I finished with a few star sequins.

Wanna learn more about the MFT Slimline Challenge? I hope you do ;) Pop over to their blog!

Have a great day!

Carly

a piñata card with essentials by ellen

I'm over on the Ellen Hutson blog today sharing a quick process video on how I made this piñata-style card. I hope you can stop by and check it out!

Hugs,

Carly