so much love for this crafty lady!

First of all, can I just say that Brandi Kincaid is such a cool girl! I love her words, I love her style and I love her art! Her latest Essentials by Ellen sets make me so happy, Leading Ladies - Crafty Lady and Crafty Ladies Say.

I love that Brandi is celebrating the cool things us ladies do with her new Leading Ladies series. And how perfect is Crafty Lady! I often say that coloring isn't really my thing but Crafty Lady is fun to color and I've been putting in a lot of practice, LOL! Here's a few...

For this card, I used all of the crafty supply stamps to create a "halo" around my Crafty Lady. I paired "awesome" from the Essentials by Ellen Positive Word dies and "you are" from Totally Awesome. I colored the awesome word and Crafty Lady with Copics.

Did you know that WOW! Embossing Powder in Primary Pixie matches Copic G02 pretty much perfectly? I was tickled that the sentiment matched Crafty Lady's cardigan.

For this last card, I created a background with Distress Oxides just because it's fun and it makes me feel artistic. The background was the perfect canvas for the super-sized sentiment from Crafty Ladies Say. And it seemed appropriate that Crafty Lady should be popping for that high five.

Thanks for stopping by and have a happy Friday!

xo,
Carly

P.S. Are you wondering why all my Crafty Ladies are blonde and pale? Well my Copic marker collection is ever-growing but so far lacks options for coloring people, LOL!

supplies:
Essentials by Ellen Stamps, Leading Ladies - Crafty Lady
Essentials by Ellen Dies, Leading Ladies - Crafty Lady
Essentials by Ellen Stamps, Crafty Ladies Say
Essentials by Ellen Stamps, Totally Awesome
Essentials by Ellen Dies, Positive Words
Copic Markers E11, E51, R05, G02, BG11, BG13
Distress Oxide Abandoned Coral & Salty Ocean
WOW Embossing Powder Primary Pixie

Monday Mermaid Tails!

Have you seen the latest Essentials By Ellen release? I'm pretty in love with all of it and I've been crafting my little heart out! 

Julie's new set, Mermaid's Tail has some really cute sentiments and the tail is so beautiful but the die is also fun to use by itself. And of course, I had to make it a shaker card with the new Pretty Pink Posh Mermaid Mix.

I cut the tail from a 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 piece of solar white and the front of an A2 card at the same time using a metal adaptor plate. I cut them at the same time as an easy way to put them in the exact same place so my shimmery tail would show on the card front and inside. Then I made a "faux" shaker by creating a pocket from a page protector.

I made a second card, using silver glitter paper to fill the tail. I *gently* colored the silver glitter paper with 2 BG shades of Copic markers to create an ombre effect.

To make the glitter paper really sparkle, I covered it with Nuvo Drops. The card front (which the tail was cut from), helped create a "dam" and made it easy to fill the tail with the drops.

Hope you're week is off to a nice start!

xo,
Carly

supplies:
Essentials By Ellen Mermaid's Tail stamp & die
Hero Arts Tide Pool ink
Copic Markers BG11 Moon White & BG13 Mint Green
Pretty Pink Posh Mermaid Mix

New Essentials By Ellen!

The new Essentials By Ellen release is available now!!! As you can see from the photo below, I'm all heart-eyes about it and I have lots of projects to share this week. 

So run over and get your new Essentials sets and then come back tomorrow and let's talk mermaids and crafty girls!

Happy Sunday!
Carly

5 Ways To Use Glimmer Paste

Glimmer Paste is one of my favorite new products and today I'm over in The Classroom at Ellen Hutson LLC with 5 Ways To Use Tonic Nuvo Glimmer Paste. 

Come on over!
Carly

united we flourish - love ya bunches!

Have you been checking out the amazing creations this week with the new United We Flourish Love Ya Bunches by Lawn Fawn set? Those Lawn Fawn girls are amazing right? And Kay, Keeway & May in The Classroom at Ellen Hutson yesterday?! Seems like we are all loving this set!

When I saw this set, I was super excited to create something jungle-y and here's what I came up with (and by the way, I'm honored that Ellen used my cards for the "posters"):

3 words...monkeys + green + pine twine! I love pine twine!!!

It's so darn cute that these monkeys actually hang by their tales and the pine twine makes a perfect vine! I used double-sided tape to adhere the pine twine to the back of my die cut panels. Then I foam mounted the panels to my card fronts to give the pine twine "room".

The backgrounds are all done with some simple ink blending, Distress Ink Twisted Citron, Lucky Clover and Cracked Pistachio. I created the stripes with painter's tape, so easy!

And to create my leafy jungle, I used foliage from some of my fav Essentials by Ellen sets...Gourd-jus, Laurel Wreath & Bold Blossoms.

xo,
Carly

supplies:
United We Flourish Stamp & Die Combo, Love Ya Bunches by Lawn Fawn
Essentials by Ellen Gourd-jus
Essentials by Ellen Laurel Wreath
Essentials by Ellen Bold Blossom
Mama Elephant All Prettied Up
My Favorite Things Stitched Stitched Rectangle Scallop Edge Frames
My Favorite Things Blueprints 13
Tim Holtz Pine Twine

something exciting from Ellen Hutson...

There's some adorable monkey business happening over at Ellen Hutson LLC today, it's bananas! Sorry I can't resist the monkey puns! It's a super cute Lawn Fawn set designed exclusively for Ellen Hutson as part of the EH United We Flourish campaign.

And before we talk cute monkeys, I just have to say how awesome I think this is! I love how Ellen loves crafting, crafters and our community! United We Flourish is the theme Ellen chose to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the store and she is continuing it by partnering with some of her friends to create exclusive and adorable sets! This Lawn Fawn Love Ya Bunches is the first one:

Love Ya Bunches is a limited edition 4x6 set of stamps with coordinating dies that is exclusive to Ellen Hutson LLC. You can find it here. I've create bunches (LOL) with it and this is one of my favorites, the Essentials Hinged Thanks combined with Love Ya Bunches to create a banana filled shaker...

After stamping subtle gray bananas on a white panel, I die cut the Hinged Thanks. Behind the thanks, I created a shaker window with acetate and foam tape. I filled the shaker window with little colored banana die cuts & yellow sequins. On the front, I let my little monkey hang from the n window.

Hope you are having a great weekend and stop by again on Friday to see more of my monkey cards!

xo,
Carly

supplies:
United We Flourish Stamp & Die Combo, Love Ya Bunches by Lawn Fawn
Essentials By Ellen Hinged Thanks
Ranger Archival Ink Pad, Shadow Gray
Distress Markers (Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Spun Sugar, Squeezed Lemonade & Mustard Seed)

color trends - Pantone's Graphic Imprints

This week at Ellen Hutson LLC we have been talking about color trends, specifically Pantone's Graphic Imprints. Gorgeous right?

Graphic Imprints is perfect for summer, filled with popping bright colors on a base of black & white. Not only is this palette beautiful, but it is super easy to adapt to cardmaking. Today 3 of us from the EH team are sharing our takes on this hot summer color trend and here's my card...

To create the cityscape, I masked some basic rectangles and watercolored them with Distress Ink. Those of you with a little more paintbrush skill, could free hand the "buildings" too.

To give the buildings a little more form, I added "windows" with a white Uni-Ball pen.

To add the colorful "pop", I used Distress Ink to color my flower die cuts.

Happy Friday!
Carly

supplies:
Essentials by Ellen Lovely
Essentials by Ellen Wild Garden
Distress Ink Black Soot
Distress Ink Picked Raspberry
Distress Ink Abandoned Coral
Distress Ink Carved Pumpkin
White Uni-Ball