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Saturday, October 28, 2017

a twist on two step stamping with honey bee

Happy Saturday! I'm over on the Honey Bee blog, sharing one of my favorite techniques for an easy loose watercolored effect without any actual watercoloring. Come on over!

XO,
Carly

Monday, October 23, 2017

sending smooches: stamping + watercolor

Have you seen the newest United We Flourish stamp & die combo, Good Friends? It's so sweet! I'm a bit of a sucker for cute dog stamps and I love the mod feel of this set but I also wanted to try to create an image with a little more texture. 

So here's how a cute little mod cat became a furry little watercolor pup...
I used an Antique Linen Distress marker to outline just the edges of the cat and stamped onto smooth Bristol cardstock (my fav).
I scribbled a Tea Dye Distress marker onto an acrylic block, used a waterbrush to pic up the color and started painting my cat into a dog. 
To change the features a bit, I used the watercolor to add a little crook to the tail, a little fur under the belly and a little flop to the ears. I'm not an artist but these small changes were really easy.

The final step was to add fur with a darker brown. I used the Vintage Photo Distress marker and blended with a little water.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope your week is starting off awesome!
Carly

supplies:
UWF Good Friends
Distress Markers Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Black Soot, Worn Lipstick & Picked Raspberry
Bristol Pad 9x12

Sunday, October 22, 2017

uwf good friends

Today is definitely a Sunday Funday...A) there is a brand new United We Flourish set at Ellen Hutson LLC, B) it's by MFT Stamps & it's so stinkin' cute, and finally C) some of the EH girls & some of the MFT girls are sharing today!

Isn't this set adorable?!

Now before I show you the cards I've made, you should know I'm going through what I can a "Barbie" phase. There has been lots of pink, purple & glitter happening in my craft room. Like really a lot, LOL! 

For these cards I used another current favorite, Distress Oxide resist. It's a super easy and fun technique that I've been using a bunch...I created a messy oxide background using Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry

When it was dry, I wanted to stamp a big heart but believe it or not, I didn't have the right stamp so I used a die and created a mask.

I applied VersaMark through the mask, removed the mask and embossed with clear powder.


After the embossing was cool, I added a wash of Wilted Violet.

With backgrounds made, I just needed critters! I used Distress Markers to color and blended with a Nuvo Shimmer pen for a healthy dose of glitter.


Head back to The Classroom to see more! (Just click on the pictures to see everyone's projects.)

Happy Sunday!
Carly

supplies:

Thursday, October 12, 2017

snail mail with the new essentials by ellen

Have you seen the latest Essentials by Ellen release? Brandi & Julie keep knocking it out of the park with awesome stamps & dies! And I'm very excited to be hopping along to celebrate the new release today. You should be arriving here for Melania's amazing blog and before you hop on to check out the fabulous-ness that May has created, I want to share some snails...
I love that Julie's Snailed It set is so versatile - perfect for many different techniques, masculine cards, fall card, and so much more. And I couldn't resist taking it to a pink & purple & sparkly place. I like to think of them as Barbie snails, LOL!

Here are the steps for Barbie snails...

  • Stamp snails in pigment inks, Piggy Bank and Sweet Lilac
  • Layer 3 die cut shells together, add a little color with ink and coat the whole thing with Nuvo Drops White Blizzard. Such sparkly goodness!
  • To make eyes, squeeze a small drop of Nuvo Drops White Gloss onto a non-stick craft mat and while its still wet, squeeze an even smaller drop of Nuvo Drops Black Ebony on top. The black settles into the white and they dry into the perfect little eyes! 
  • And the last thing is to draw a little smile with a pen.
So now that you've got cute & sparkly snails, what should you do with them?
They are pretty cute on a shaker card that has little envelope shaker bits. I love the Essentials by Ellen Bitty Envelope dies.
And they are also fun as a slider, pulling some Bitty Envelope mail behind them.
Thanks for stopping by and have fun as you continue hopping onto May's blog!

Hugs!
Carly

supplies:
Essentials by Ellen Snailed It stamps & dies
Essentials by Ellen Warm Fuzzies stamps
Essentials by Ellen Bitty Envelope dies
Essentials by Ellen Swing N Slide dies
Essentials by Ellen Silver Linings dies
Mama Elephant All Prettied Up dies
Mama Elephant Piggy Bank & Sweet Lilac inks
Distress Inks Cracked Pistachio, Tumbled Glass, Shaded Lilac & Spun Sugar
Versafine Onyx Black
Nuvo Drops White Blizzard, White Gloss & Black Ebony

Sunday, October 8, 2017

3 easy ways to add plaid to your cards and the new essentials by ellen

So I'm not gonna lie, one of the best parts of working at Ellen Hutson LLC is getting to see all the new stuff and even play with it too! And I love the new October release! It feels like fall so I thought I would pair it with my current fall obsession, plaid!
Today I want to share 3 easy ways to add plaid patterns to your cards...

#1. Plaid Stamps

There are lots of cool plaid background and plaid builder stamps sets. I picked up this one from Waffle Flower and used it to make something like a buffalo plaid. I inked a piece of smooth watercolor paper with Distress Ink Abandoned Coral and then stamped the lines in black. I used my custom plaid paper to fill the negative "love" space and I colored Cozy Lady's shirt to match. Don't you love Cozy Lady? I'm definitely coveting the outfit!

#2. Masking

Don't have a plaid stamp set on hand? It's super easy to create plaid patterns with just painter's tape! Mask horizontal stripes and ink.
Remove tape, mask vertical stripes and ink.
Remove tape, mask skinny lines and ink.

Can you imagine the possibilities?! You can create any widths and combine any colors! And stop by on Thursday to see more about how I created snails with Julie's Snailed It set.

#3. Watercolor
Watercoloring plaid is the hardest of the 3 techniques in my opinion but that might just be because I am a messy crafter. *laugh*
I used Distress Ink Hickory Smoke and a clear straight edge (from my MISTI Creative Corners set) to paint against and space my stripes. With this technique I found a drier paint brush is helpful to create cleaner lines.

I also painted a light wash of gray over everything to soften my lines. And I thought the result was a perfect background for a beautiful thistle bloom from the new Essentials by Ellen Thistle set.
Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!
Carly

supplies: 
Essentials by Ellen Leading Ladies - Cozy Lady
Essentials by Ellen Snailed It stamps & dies
Essentials by Ellen Thistle stamps & dies
Essentials by Ellen Holiday Words dies
Waffle Flower Plaid Play stamps
Distress Ink Abandoned Coral & Hickory Smoke
Mama Elephant Pacific Blue ink
Avery Elle Strawberry & Mint To Be inks
Copics T1, T2, T4, E50, E51, E01, R22, R27, G02, BG000, E11, E33, E37 & 100
Painter's Tape

Saturday, October 7, 2017

gummy bear treat box

Happy Saturday! I just wanted to pop in and share another little treat box/card I made. As I might have mentioned, I love candy, Halloween and giving treats! And I LOVED making this card!


Sandy Allnock watercolored the cutest "gummy bears" a few years ago (make sure you check it out) and I thought the sweet & chubby little bears from Pretty Pink Posh would make perfect little gummy candies. 
You can see more about creating the treat box here and full disclosure, the bag of gummy bears inside this box is totally empty. I ate the bears as a crafty snack. Watercoloring gummy bears is hungry work and I told you I loved candy!

Have a great weekend!
Carly

P.S. I've been trying out these new-to-me Art & Graphic Twin Markers and I'm really digging them. And a little bird told me that they are still 25% off at Ellen Hutson LLC.

supplies:
Pretty Pink Posh Stamps, Bear Hugs
Essentials by Ellen Stamps, Got Candy
Zig Art & Graphic Twin Markers Light VioletBright Yellow & Pink
Solar White Cardstock
Bazzill Circus Peanuts Cardstock
Scor-Pal

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

art & graphic markers...

I'm over in the Classroom at Ellen Hutson LLC today with some beginner tips about Zig Art & Graphic Twin Markers. Come on over!

Hugs,
Carly

Sunday, October 1, 2017

a hop for hope

Hi Everyone! Thanks so much for stopping by! You should be arriving here from my sweet friend Carissa Wiley's blog. She's such a talented, sparkly mermaid isn't she?! 

I'm proud to be hopping along with Carissa and a lot of other talented ladies today for such an important cause. I know there is so much need in the world right now that it can be hard to know where to start. Aiding to the hurricane relief efforts has been forefront on my mind lately and then I learned that there were some special women in my life facing a breast cancer diagnosis. Sometimes the bad news can seem overwhelming.

So I'm starting with this card for a sweet friend. And then I'll make a second card for another sweet friend. And more cards and donations and phone calls to check in. The thing I need to remember is just to keep doing little things because they add up to something big. Just thought I would share in case anyone is feeling the same way.

So now on to the card!
For this card, I started by creating a stencil with a scalloped rectangle die and a piece of acetate. I also die cut some of the Courage set flowers from masking paper. I applied the masks first and then the DIY stencil to smooth watercolor cardstock.
Over the stencil and masks, I applied Distress Ink in my favorite shade, Cracked Pistachio.
After inking & removing the masks, I stamped the flowers in the corresponding white spaces. With a few extra.
I love that this stamp set has so much versatility! There are beautiful layers to the flowers but they also look pretty with just a "plain jane" single layer. And the sentiments in this set are perfect!
Thank you again for stopping by and head to Carolyn's blog to keep hopping (or over to The Classroom if you get lost).

xo,
Carly