simple stamped card gift set

Need a last minute Mother's Day gift? Or ideas for a future gift? 

I'm sharing my tips on creating this simple set of cards over on the Ellen Hutson blog today. Come on over!

Hugs!

Carly

rainbow shaker card with essentials by ellen

What's better than a rainbow card? How about a rainbow card filled with glitter & sequins? 

Here's a quick peek at how I made this happy, sparkly card...

I started by adding a little color to the background with Copic markers. Basically I just scribbled them onto the cardstock, blending in between.

I wanted to give the panel some sparkle with glitter paste but my last little bit was too dry so instead I used a squeegee to spread a thin layer Glossy Accents over the color. While the Glossy Accents was still wet, I sprinkled it with glitter & tiny star sequins.

For the shaker window, I die cut the Essentials by Ellen Mini Rainbow from 110lb white cardstock. I adhered acetate on the back of the shaker panel with double-sided tape and a little glue pen around the rainbow opening.

I stamped the "you are awesome" sentiment on the acetate. Doing it after it was already adhered to the panel with the rainbow window helped me with the spacing.

Then I used foam tape on the back of the rainbow panel to create the shaker "container".

And finally I added sequins into the shaker container and closed it with the colored, sparkly panel.

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Carly

P.S. You can peek at all the latest new Essentials by Ellen HERE.

supplies:

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

Essentials by Ellen Mini Rainbow Die

Essentials by Ellen You Are Awesome Stamps

Copic Markers V01, B01 & BG11

StazOn Jet Black 

White Cardstock

Acetate

Glossy Accents

Glitter

Sequins

the cheerly

I've been working on something that I'm so excited to tell you about, a little tee shirt shop called The Cheerly and it opens today!

The shop is a fun way for me to be creative but more importantly, it's a way for me to help make a positive impact on the world. A portion of the proceeds of every sale will be donated to organizations making the world a better place.

Our first partner is Food Lifeline in Seattle. Food Lifeline provides nutritious food to hundreds of thousands of people facing hunger every year by sourcing nutritious food from a variety of food industry partners. They distribute this food through a partnership with 300 food banks, shelters, and meal programs, enabling them to provide the equivalent of 134,000 meals every single day. 

The purchase of one Tee from The Cheerly will provide more than 10 meals to the fight against hunger. We are so excited to help Food Lifeline in their mission!

I would love it if you have a minute to pop over to The Cheerly and check it out!

Thank you!

Carly

easter card idea with essentials by ellen

Looking for a quick Easter card to make & send? Let me show you this sweet one I made today with Essentials by Ellen stamps & dies.

I really wanted a candy themed card and I spent an embarrassingly long time wondering what I could make before I thought of making "chocolate eggs" wrapped in spring colored foil.

The candy eggs are just 3 cardstock egg die cuts layered together and colored brown with a Copic marker (brown cardstock would be even better but I didn't have any, LOL).

For the colored foil, I just grabbed a piece of aluminum foil from the kitchen and applied a little bit of Ranger alcohol inks.

I wrapped the cardstock eggs in the colored foil and nestled them in a little "Easter grass" made from green tissue paper fringe. My paper fringe addiction continues!

Thanks for stopping by!

Carly

supplies:

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

Essentials by Ellen Bear Ware 3 Stamps & Dies

Essentials by Ellen Never Ending Fringe Dies

Ranger Alcohol Inks Purple Twilight & Gumball

Copic Marker E47 (for making white cardstock eggs "chocolate")

Catherine Pooler Icing On The Cake Ink Pad (for the "hoppy easter" sentiment)

how to use fringe on handmade cards

I love adding fringe to my paper crafting projects, especially handmade cards! I love the texture and it is just plain fun!

Another great thing about fringe is that it doesn't require a lot tools. If you have regular ol' scissors, you can fringe. However the more I make fringe, the more I appreciate upgrading my supplies. As you can see below, I started with regular scissors before upgrading to fringe scissors and now I have awesome Essentials by Ellen fringe dies!

My favorite materials to fringe include crepe & tissue paper because there are so many gorgeous colors and they are lightweight for movement. I also love felt and I can't wait to add some felt fringe to some home decor projects.

I also have one favorite way to add fringe to cards that I always come back to...adding it in a negative die cut space.

I love it because it's easy and striking! I use dry adhesive like double sided tape to adhere each layer of fringe on the card front. Then I use foam adhesive to mount a negative die cut panel like this rainbow, over the fringe.

Have you used fringe on cards? What are your favorite tips?

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Carly

supplies:

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

Essentials by Ellen Never Ending Fringe Dies

Essentials by Ellen Rainbow Plushie Felt Dies

Essentials by Ellen Over It Stamps

Black Star Sequins

7 cardmaking ideas with essentials by ellen

 Are you looking for some cardmaking inspiration? Well wait until you see these stamps & dies from Essentials by Ellen! I've been crafting up a stack of cards (because Baby Cal has started sleeping through the night...yay!) and I can't wait to show you what I've been making.

My talented friend Julie Ebersole has designed some really cute stamp sets that are bursting with hysterical puns like this set, Guac On! I had fun using multiple green inks to create custom avocados.

Julie is also the creative genius behind the Just Squidding set. I love that there are multiple options for the squid's expressions and I couldn't resist making a sparkly shaker card.

The Essentials by Ellen stitching dies come in circles, squares, rectangles and ovals. I love how versatile they are...you can weave a fun design like I did on this card...

...or you can just use the little holes as a design element. I love how graphic this card turned out! I die cut the circles, put a little color behind them and a few star sequins on top.

I love pairing the Hit That pinata with fringe and I'm just smitten with the fringe dies! (More on fringe tomorrow.)

You can see more of this adorable Essentials by Ellen release HERE and thanks so much for stopping by!

Carly

pinkfresh studio february 2021 stamp, stencil and die release blog hop

Are you looking for some cardmaking ideas? Well you are in the right place because Pinkfresh has a gorgeous new release and we are having a little blog hop today to show off the new goodies!

I couldn't wait to create with the new Pinkfresh Seamless Starburst Circles stamps & stencils! 

And I would love to tell you that I came up with something oh so clever but the truth is that Pinkfresh did all the hard work! These sets are so cool, a breeze to use and some of my new favorites!

I had so much fun ink blending & layering colors with the stencils and then stamping the black starburst detail later on top.

I almost felt like I was cheating it was so easy! So I added some glossy & glittered letters to make myself feel better, LOL!

The starburst detail layer stamp also looks perfect by itself!

And the stencils are fun without the stamped layer too!

I'm smitten with these sets and can't wait to use them more! Next I think I'm going to try adding a layer of glimmer paste or glossy accents with the stencils. What do you think?

Ok before you go, let's talk giveaways!

• Pinkfresh is giving away the full release so make sure you stop by their blog! They are also running some great specials so you are probably going to want to shop!
• You also have a chance to win $25 to the Pinkfresh shop by leaving comments here and at each hop stop!
• Winners will be announced on the Pinkfresh Giveaway page on February 15th so please make sure to check there (winners have two weeks to claim there prize).

BLOG HOP LIST

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Carly

supplies:

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

Pinkfresh Studio Seamless Starburst Circles Stamps

Pinkfresh Studio Seamless Starburst Circles Stencils

Pinkfresh Studio My Favorite Things To Say #2 Stamps 

Pinkfresh Studio Adore Alpha Dies