pumpkin garland with essentials by ellen

Look what I made!!! Stitching a little on my cards lately might have convinced me to make these pumpkins with the Essentials by Ellen Essential Ovals. I'm sharing more about it on the EH blog today and I would love it if you stopped by to see more!

Hugs!

Carly

countdown to the mft october 2022 release

The MFT Stamps October release is just around the corner and it's fantastic! Let's kickoff the countdown with a little reveal!

The Holiday Hello stamp set is full of sweet & classic Christmas images! And I love the addition of a mailbox and mail! I can never resist happy mail stamps!!!

I created a super clean & simple card with a circle window revealing the holiday mailbox. The mailbox and background are colored simply with Copic markers and then I dotted a white pen over everything to create "snow".

Thanks for stopping by! You can find more peeks at the MFT October release on their blog.

Have a great day!

Carly

mft sketch challenge 614

It's time for a new sketch challenge over on the MFT Stamps blog! I love these challenges and join in as often as I can!

Here's this week's sketch...

And here's my card...

To create the design featured in the sketch I used a few widths of masking tape to make the rectangles and ink blend two colors of Distress Oxide inks. It was such an easy background to create!

With the masking tape still in place, I stamped some leaves in Distress Oxide Abandoned Coral within the ink blended rectangles. The leaves are from the Cozy Days With You stamp set and I've been using them bunches!

Then with the background done I added some stamped, colored and die cut images. The cute little hedgehog & stump are from the Hoodie Weather set. And of course I needed more leaves!

You can learn more about the sketch challenge over on the MFT Stamps blog!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Carly

alex syberia designs kickstarter campaign | blog hop 2 & giveaway

I'm so happy you stopped by today because I've got a card to share but also we can help a fellow crafter make a dream come true! Let's talk...

Did you know that Kickstarter is all or nothing? That means that Alex Syberia Designs need to reach their funding goal to be able to go ahead and manufacture this beautiful collection, so please, help them! You can back them on their Kickstarter Campaign and you can help them spread the word about it! 

Remember that you have some fantastic discounts, which are only available through their Kickstarter Campaign.

We will talk about prizes and hop stops in a minute but first let me share a card with you featuring the Alex Syberia Designs Just Smile And Wave set...

I love cute critter stamps and these penguins are some of the cuuutest! And I feel like they have so much personality that I wanted to keep the card simple.

The top is ink blended Distress Oxide Salvaged Patina with a little water splatter and white pen "snow" dots.

I stamped, cut and colored one of the penguins and paired him with some pom-pom "snowballs".

Ok now let's get back to the hop...

GIVEAWAY PRIZES | OVER £1000/$1200 IN TOTAL

Alex Syberia Designs is giving away some fantastic prizes; their full September Release and two of their gorgeous Floral Bundle or Critter Bundle to choose from. There are also amazing companies and crafty friends who are celebrating with us. Here's the complete list of awesome prizes:

• Alex Syberia Designs:
  
  • Full September Release Bundle (worth £329/$395)
  • Two bundles to choose from: Floral Bundle (worth £160/$192) or Cuties Bundle (worth £108/$129) *
• Artcreatiu - 25€ Gift Card
• Bearly Art - $50 Gift Card (open to US participants only)
• Catherine Pooler Designs - $30 Gift Card
• Crafty Purple Frog - £25 Gift Card
• Kit & Clowder - 30$ Gift Card
• La papelería de Lola - 25€ Gift Card
• Organizemore - $50 Gift Card
• Picket Fence Studios - $75 Gift Card
• Seize the Stamp - CHF 50
• The Gray Muse - $50 Gift Card
• Tonic Studios - £100/$100 Gift Card
• Wow! Embossing powder - £20/$20 Gift Card

* Check the Kickstarter Campaign for more info

That's a total of 15 prizes for 15 lucky winners! To be in with a chance to win one of these amazing prizes all you have to do is play along with each of the four hops! Alex Syberia Designs will draw winners from those entrants that have played along the hops by 16th October 2022. 

To enter, leave a comment on this blog post as well as those of all other amazing designers. You can see the full list, with links to each blog, below.  

Winners will be announced on the Alex Syberia Designs blog on the 23rd October 2022.

BLOG HOP 2 | DESIGNERS LIST

• Alex Syberia Designs <- You are here
• Bonnie Crane
• Brenda Noelke
• Carly Tee ---> you are here
• Cheryl Espie
• Colleen Balija
• Elin Venge
• Erica
• Hannelie Bester
• Ilda
• Jessica Frost-Ballas
• Jo Herbert
• Jo Laverty
• Laura Fadora
• LauraJane
• Lien Leysen
• Liz
• Michelle Short
• Mindy
• Natasha Vacca
• Nicoletta
• Raquel Arribas
• Sandhya
• Seeka
• Tasha
• Tina Wilstrup
• Yasmin Diaz

two cards with essentials by ellen fallish

I'm so excited for fall and the changing of the leaves but it's been 80 degrees at my house so I thought I would make fall cards with pretty leaves. And the perfect stamp set to use? The Essentials by Ellen Fallish set! 

It's such a gorgeous set that I decided to make two cards, one "clean" and one "messy" with the Distress Watercolor Pencils.

For the messy one, I tried to stamp a random background but it's so hard not to overthink it, LOL! Then I use a wet paint brush directly on the watercolor pencil to pick up the color and paint with it. I didn't use watercolor cardstock so I wanted to just lay down a lot of color without moving the water around too much on my paper.

I really like the messy look but maybe I needed to go out of the lines even more so it seems intentional, haha!

And for the cleaner look, I tried to stamp the leaves in horizontal lines across the card front. It's probably not as precise as it could be but not bad for eye balling it!

I used one of my new favorite word dies on top, the Essentials by Ellen Thank You. I love the font so much!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Carly

mft sketch challenge 613

Do you need a little mid-week creative jumpstart? Me too lol, so I suggest the Wednesday Sketch Challenge over on the MFT Stamps blog! 

I love these challenges for making me feel really creative! And when the card design is already done for you, you have the brain space for other things like trying new products. Hello Distress Watercolor Pencils!

Here's the sketch...

And here's what I made...

I started by masking a piece of smooth watercolor cardstock to match the sketch. Then I blended a little light pink ink in the masked rectangle spaces.

After removing the washi tape, I stamped one of the flowers from the Pretty Poinsettias set in a pale ink for no-line coloring.

And then it was time to play with my new Distress Watercolor Pencils!!!

Let me just say that I think I love these pencils but we can talk more about that later, lol! For this card, I used three colors Candied Apple, Kitsch Flamingo and Picked Raspberry. I colored part of each petal and then blended with a wet paint brush.

I probably should have called it after the fist layer of color but I was having so much fun that I did three. Not only are the pencils fab but this was the first time I tried a no-line technique with the Pretty Poinsettias and I.LOVE.IT!

You can learn more about the sketch challenge over on the MFT Stamps blog!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Carly

a simply stitched card with essentials by ellen

I'm over on the Ellen Hutson blog today sharing this card and my tips for creating simple stitched cards designs. I'd love it if you stopped by!

Hugs!

Carly