1 new honey bee stamp, 3 cards & bunches of talented makers!

Fall brings some of my favorite things like sweaters & pumpkin spice, an excess of fun-sized Halloween candy and some awesome new crafty products from some of my favorite companies like Honey Bee Stamps!

I'm thrilled to be hopping along with my friends at Honey Bee to celebrate their gorgeous fall release! You should be arriving here from Brenda Noelke's blog and before you hop onto Emily Midgett's, I want to share 3 cards I have created with one of my favorite new Honey Bee sets, Gather Together.

This sweet little group of critters has my heart in a big way! And I love the sentiments included like "families are like fudge mostly sweet with a few nuts" or the sentiments you can build like "friends are the family we choose ourselves". Both things are so true!!! And again, those sweet little critter faces! 

In fact, I love those critters so much, I started by just stamping them in black off the bottom edge of my card.

I used two colors of Distress Oxide to stamp "hello", then added a few splatters and a few coral touches to the critters, like their noses and flowers.

The second thing I couldn't wait to try was some loose Copic coloring, the kind that always reminds me of storybooks. I chose bright, primary-ish colors and colored carefully so my coloring would look loose, a bit messy and not meet all the edges. Who knew it would be hard to look messy! LOL!

Lastly, I did some selective stamping and watercoloring practice. I say practice because as you can see, it's certainly not perfect but I think I'm getting better.

To stamp just bunny, teddy & foxy, I applied Antique Linen Distress Markers to just the three of them and stamped on smooth Bristol watercolor paper.

I scribbled my markers onto a clean acrylic block to use a as palette and watercolored.

Thanks so much for stopping by and making it to the end of this post, LOL! I know it was a long one. Hop on over to Emily's blog and have so much fun!

And there's prizes too! Be sure to visit each blog on the hop & leave a comment! Honey Bee will be giving away TWO $50 gift cards to the Honey Bee Stamps store. (Winners will be posted on our blog Monday, September 25th.)

Hugs!
Carly

no peeking shaker card

I adore the sassy "It's Coal" from the new No Peeking set! I like sass and I had these adorable little charcoal sequins from Pretty Pink Posh just begging to be made into a shaker card!

I started with the rectangle from the Essentials by Ellen Mini Windows die set to create a flap on an A2 panel of smooth bristol cardstock.

I masked around the window flap and inked it with Distress Ink Spun Sugar & Worn Lipstick.

Then I added polka dots because they are my favorite "color", haha!

I inked the front of my card with the same pinks and the back of the window flap so everything would be PINK!

Next I added the sentiments, "No Peeking" under the window flap and "It's Coal" on the card front where the window will open.

Acetate and foam tape behind the window flap created the shaker and a little rectangle & bow on the front turned the flap into a gift. And I love it!

If you haven't picked up the No Peeking set for yourself, I suggest you go right now! And fair warning, I'm about to be a big time enabler...

This weekend is the perfect time to treat yourself because there is a 20% stamp sale at EH...

Hugs!

Carly

right at home abstract florals = unicorns?

Well of course they do! I'm guesting over at Right At Home today talking about how I used the yummy RAH Abstract Florals to create unicorns.

Come on over!

xo, Carly

a card & a treat box in one!

I love Halloween! A holiday that basically revolves around candy, yes please!!! And as much as I love to receive (and eat) candy, I like to give little treats too!

Today I want to share a card that says "Happy Halloween" and gives a treat!

I started with the Stamp Witch's super cool tutorial for a diorama card and I added a tray to slip inside and hold treats.

To create the card, cut a piece of cardstock to 5-1/2 x 10-7/8. Score at 3/8, 3-5/8, 4, 7-1/4 and 7-5/8.

Die cut a circle "window" from the 2nd panel (not the first 3/8 section but the first 3-1/4 panel...does that make sense?) Decorate the last panel (on the right) as desired. I used stars from the Essentials by Ellen Got Candy set.

Create the tray that will go inside by cutting cardstock to 3-3/4 x 6. I used Bazzill Circus Peanut orange. Score at 3/8 inch from left, rotate 90 degrees and score again, etc, etc.

Cut the score lines on the left & right to create tabs. Fold up and adhere to make a tray.

Stamp, die cut and color little critters to decorate. I used the bear from the All Inside set and friends & accessories from the too-cute-for-words Bear Ware 2 set. 

Adhere a piece of acetate in the circle window cut from the card base. And adhere all little critters before folding up and adhering card base.

And the best part, add candy! The tray is only 3/8 inch deep so flat-ish things work best like fun size Skittles and M&M's. Sadly (and rather unbelievably) there wasn't any Halloween candy in my house yet so I used fruit snacks. And yes I eat fruit snacks, LOL!

A little bit of washi makes a great way to pull the tray out of the card (but its also easy to push it out from the bottom).

Thank you for stopping by!

Hugs!
Carly

supplies:
Essentials By Ellen Stamps, Got Candy
Essentials By Ellen Stamps, All Inside
Essentials By Ellen Stamps, Bear Ware 2
Essentials By Ellen Dies, All Inside
Essentials By Ellen Dies, Bear Ware 2
Lawn Fawn Circle Stackables
Memento Ink Pad Tuxedo Black
Copic T1, T2, T4, E01, G14, Y17, YR16
Solar White Cardstock
Bazzill Circus Peanuts Cardstock
Scor-Pal

watercolor christmas cards with the new essentials by ellen!

The newest Essentials by Ellen is available today and we are hopping to celebrate! You should be arriving here from Amy Yang's awesome blog! Isn't her coloring perfect?! I love her work so much!

Today I have some watercolor holiday cards to share with you, using the new No Peeking stamp set by Brandi Kincaid...

I love this set - the sentiments are adorable and Brandi's lettering is perfection! I suspect this set will feature heavily in my holiday crafting!

I paired the No Peeking sentiments with the new Modern Christmas stamps & dies by Julie Ebersole and apparently I was in a dreamy, watercolor mood when I made these cards. All mint and pink!

For the watercolor trees I used a MISTI technique by Lydia Fiedler that she calls marbling with the MISTI. You stamp the base color and then use plastic (food wrap, gloves, etc) to add more colors of ink to the stamp and stamp again. I'm totally digging this technique (see this post for more).

I also made my own mint green & pink glitter papers because I didn't have any on hand, shameful I know. For the diy glitter paper, I gave a piece of white cardstock good coat colored pigment ink, topped with WOW Clear Sparkle embossing powder and ta-da!

I know my pictures don't do it justice but its such a yummy sparkle!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Head over to Lisa Spangler's blog next and prepare to be knocked out of your socks! Lisa's tags are so beautiful, bright & happy!

xo,
Carly

supplies:
Essentials by Ellen Stamps No Peeking
Essentials by Ellen Stamps Mod Christmas
Essentials by Ellen Dies Mod Christmas
Distress Inks Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Cracked Pistachio & Lucky Clover
WOW Clear Sparkle Embossing Powder 

today...

I'm over in The Classroom at Ellen Hutson LLC talking about the easiest DIY treat box ever and sharing a little Essentials by Ellen sneak peek. The release is tomorrow...YAY!

Check it out and come back tomorrow for more!

Happy Saturday!
Carly

right at home + so many reasons to love the MISTI!

Happy Tuesday friends! I'm thrilled to be included in today's hop with the My Sweet Petunia and Right At Home teams, basically a bunch of crazy talented people! You should be arriving here from Chris Dayton's blog.

The MISTI has really changed my card-making life! I strive to be clean and precise in my crafty efforts but at heart, I'm really more of a messy-bessy type...think accidental smudges, lots of mis-stamped images and so much wasted cardstock. The MISTI has really helped me and I use it almost exclusively to stamp(my acrylic blocks are getting dusty).

With the MISTI I get perfectly stamped images because I can re-ink and stamp again. It's also much easier to evenly space images & sentiments, use layering stamps and more. The MISTI is the most used tool in my craft room by far!

Today I was inspired to create using an idea from the amazing Lydia Fiedler, marbling with the MISTI. I was going for a tie dyed look and if you let your eyes go fuzzy for a minute, I nailed it, LOL!

One more thing before I tell you a little bit more about my "tie dye", there are prizes today! Two commenters will win their choice of a MISTI or Mini MISTI AND a prize package from Right At Home! So make sure to leave comments at each stop on the hop before September 8th at noon CST.

Ok, now let's talk tie dye...

The key to this technique really is the MISTI and the ability to layer color. The Right At Home Abstract Florals is perfect for this technique because it has great solid floral stamps and also a playful design. I started by choosing 3 colors of pigment ink, a light purple for the base, a darker purple & a blue for accents.

Stamp the first layer.

Leaving your stamp & cardstock in the same place (this is the magic of the MISTI), add the next color of ink directly to your stamp with plastic of some kind. I used a little piece of plastic wrap. The crinkles of the plastic help create texture.

Add a third color and continue to add ink and stamp until you are happy with the results.

I think this technique is so pretty and fun! And it's a little like tie dye right? Haha! I might need more practice but I love it as background and to create a floral coffee cup (with a little masking) using the Right At Home Cup Of Joy and How Have You Bean sets.

I also tested it with other colors of pigment ink...

top left: Avery Elle Orchid, Mama Elephant Pacific Blue & Mama Elephant Tutti Frutti
top right: Mama Elephant, Avery Elle Orchid & Mama Elephant Tutti Frutti
middle left: Mama Elephant Piggy Bank, Mama Elephant Apricot & Avery Elle Strawberry
middle right: Avery Elle Mimosa, Mama Elephant Apricot & Avery Elle Strawberry
bottom left: Mama Elephant Rainwater, Avery Elle Mint To Be & Mama Elephant Sweet Lilac
bottom right: Mama Elephant Apricot, Avery Elle Strawberry & Mama Elephant Tutti Frutti

Thanks so much for stopping by and keep hoping over at Stephanie Severin's blog.

Below is the complete list in case you get lost & have a great day! 
Carly

Nicole Baez

Ilina Crouse

Holly Endress

Jeanne Streiff

Amy Kolling

Kia Gibson-Clapper

Laurie Schmidlin

Ceal Pritchett

Jill Hawkins

Maria Sabina

Stephanie Gold

Giovana Smith

Michelle Murray

Chris Dayton

Carly Minner

Stephanie Severin

Christy Reuling

My Sweet Petunia