foiled rainbow card with essentials by ellen

Do you have a favorite cardmaking technique? Or maybe a few that you use often?

Foil is something I love adding to my cards but I really don't do it enough. Maybe it's because my foil press machine lives in a closet...I really need to find her a space on my desk...lol! 

But anyways my foil press has been out the last week and I've been foiling with hot foil stamps & some dies like the Essentials by Ellen Rainbow Card. I paired it with another cardmaking fav, ink blending. What do you think?

Foiling with dies creates really delicate lines...

...so I added the ink blending with Distress Inks to "spotlight" the foiled rainbow and I like how it turned out.

To complete the card, I used the MFT Arched Birthday die. I cut the Happy Birthday from the panel and then adhered gold cardstock behind the negative die cut.

I decided to make it an infinity shaker so I placed the panel in an Avery Elle storage pocket and added gold star sequins.

I added the white die cut clouds as a bit of an after thought and while I like them, I might have spaced everything a little differently if that had been the original plan. LOL!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a great day!

Carly

supplies:

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

Essentials by Ellen Rainbow Card dies

Essentials by Ellen Essential Cloud dies

MFT Arched Happy Birthday dies

Distress Inks Carved Pumpkin, Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet, Mermaid Lagoon & Salvaged Patina

Foil Press

Gold Foil

Star Sequins

my favorite ways to use stencils for cardmaking

Do you use stencils in your cardmaking? I do and I love them because they pair so well with other cardmaking techniques & mediums I love like ink blending, masking, Glossy Accents & Glimmer Paste!

I've got a brand new video over on the Ellen Hutson blog today and I would love it if you stopped by to check it out!

pinkfresh studio april 2022 stamp, die, stencil and hot foil release

I'm thrilled to be joining the hop today to celebrate Pinkfresh's gorgeous April release! Seriously, they have knocked it out of the park again!

The cards I want to share with you today are a combination of foiling and ink blending...

I love how these cards turned out but I almost don't feel like I can claim any credit...the Peony Print hot foil plate is just STUNNING!

Seriously I'm obsessed. I opened it and foiled panel after panel. See what I mean...

When I finally turned off the foil press to make some panels into cards, all I did was a little masking and ink blending.

The sentiments are from one of my favorite PF sets, My Favorite Things To Say Vol. 2. I stamped them on acetate with Stazon ink so the foiled pattern would show through. And I adhered the acetate circles to the card, hiding the adhesive by adding rhinestones.

And can you believe I haven't even played with the coordinating Peony Print stencil? I'm off to ink it up right now and you have more hopping to do!

But before you go, let's talk giveaways!

• Pinkfresh is giving away the full release so make sure you stop by their blog! 
• You also have a chance to win one of TEN $25 to the Pinkfresh shop by leaving comments here and at each hop stop!
• Winners will be announced on the Pinkfresh Giveaway page on May 10th so please make sure to check there (winners have two weeks to claim there prize).

Thanks so much for stopping by! The hop list is below so you can hop on!

Hugs!

Carly

BLOG HOP LIST

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

ink smooshing with essentials by ellen

Ink Smooshing is a really fun and easy technique for creating backgrounds for handmade cards! 

Haven't tried ink smooshing yet? Are you wondering what I'm talking about? Ink smooshing is a technique that uses water-reactive inks, water and a surface to "smoosh" the inks onto cardstock to create a background.

Today I've paired a little ink smooshing with the Essentials by Ellen Inner Mermaid stamps and a little simple coloring with Copic Markers.

I started by stamping the mermaid tail and sentiment on my favorite watercolor cardstock in black ink that is waterproof & alcohol ink friendly.

To create the ink smooshed background, I swiped the Distress Inks on a non-stick craft mat and misted with a little water. Then I used a piece of acetate to pick up the ink and smoosh it on to my watercolor cardstock.

A piece of acetate/plastic is the first way I learned to ink smoosh. Acetate is super flexible so it is easy to customize the shape of your "smoosh". 

When the ink was dry, I colored the mermaid tail very simply with Copic Markers. The markers don't blend like they would on more Copic-friendly paper but I still love the effect.

Want to see this technique in action? Check out my Instagram feed.

Thanks for stopping by!

Carly

supplies:

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

Essentials by Ellen Inner Mermaid stamps

Essentials by Ellen Mermaid Tail stamps (for sentiment)

Distress Inks Salvaged Patina, Mermaid Lagoon & Wilted Violet

Copic Markers B000, BG01, BG05, BG11, BG32 and V04

Bristol

ink smooshing with the mft rainbow bridge kit

Sending a handmade card is always a good idea but never more so then when a friend is suffering the loss of a furry friend. And the latest MFT card kit is full of cardmaking supplies to help!

I wanted to create a soft rainbow effect so I decided to pair some ink smooshing with the large paw print die from the Paw Print die set.

I die cut 3 of the paws and adhered them together, topping the layers with Glossy Accents.

I also die cut the paw print from the ink smooshed panel so that it would be easy to get the right placement when adhering the paw print to the card.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have time to pop over to the MFT blog to check out more Rainbow Bridge cards (and order the kit)!

Carly

rainbow bridge card kit from mft

Sympathy cards for the loss of a pet are always so hard to create but the MFT April card kit is going to make it so much easier!

The kit is available tomorrow but here's a little peek...

I used the Through The Clouds stencil and a rainbow of inks to create the background.

I layered 3 of the puppy die cuts together (from the Pet Silhouettes set) and added Glossy Accents to the top.

And I finished it with a sentiment from the Rainbow Bridge Goodbyes stamp set.

Make sure to mark your calendars for the kit release tomorrow and head over to the MFT blog today to see more about the kit!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Carly

mft's sketch challenge 590

It's time for another MFT Stamps Wednesday Sketch Challenge!

Have I told you how much I love these? I love the way they jumpstart my creativity! And did you know that you might win $50 to the MFT shop if you enter?! I'm just playing along (and not entering) because I'm lucky enough to already be on the MFT design team.

Here's this week's sketch...

And here's my take on it...

I was planning to copy the sketch very exactly because I love using circles in my card designs but some how I ended up with a different interpretation...haha!

I used two of the sweet fairies from the MFT Fairy Special along with the clouds from the Better Together set, to make my three "circles".

The fairies are colored super simply with these Copic colors...

And the square background is ink blended on the card with Distress Oxide Salvaged Patina.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are inspired to join the sketch challenge! You can find all the info HERE on their blog.

Hugs!

Carly

pantone inspired cards

I'm over on the Ellen Hutson blog today sharing these cards inspired by Pantone swatches and the color of the year, Very Peri.

I would love it if you popped on by!

Hugs!

Carly

negative die cutting, ink blending & the mft april release

Negative die cutting, ink blending and the MFT Stamps April release, oh my! Today I have a lot of fun things to talk about!

Up first let's talk about new stamps & dies! The MFT April 2022 release is available now and it's pretty cute! You can see it all HERE but before you run off, I have a quick card to share...

Winged Wonders is one of my favorites in the new release and I paired it with two cardmaking techniques I love, negative die cutting and ink blending.

I used the Winged Wonders dies to create a panel with the negative die cut butterflies.

Then I ink blended Distress Oxide inks Carved Pumpkin, Picked Raspberry, Shaded Lilac, Salvaged Patina and Twisted Citron on my card front.

The butterfly panel is adhered over the ink blending and the sentiment is stamped in black. 

I stamped one butterfly in black and used a black pen to color in a few parts of the stamped butterfly & add a little faux splatter.

I really like how it turned out. What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

Carly

just one more day until the mft april release

There's only one more day until the MFT April release and I've got one more little peek for you...

This release is full of happy spring things like rainbows and I might be a little smitten with all of them! I'm also low-key obsessed with coloring my rainbows in this cool palette, haha!

The card is so simple but I think it is so sweet. Besides my calm & cool colored rainbow, the clouds are glossy & glittery (not that you can tell from the pic...sorry).

The Better Together set is adorable and is going to be perfect for making baby cards!

To see more of what's coming from MFT this April, pop over to the MFT blog and YT.

Hugs!

Carly

2 days until the mft april release

Are there cardmaking techniques that you like but don't feel great at? I have a few I love but I've yet to really get the hang of. One technique I really want to master is no line watercoloring. Here's my latest bit of practice and a peek at new MFT...

I thought the world stamp from the new Top of the World set would just be gorgeous in watercolor and I was right!

My no-line watercoloring skills are still a work in progress but I'm proud of the result.

Do you like no-line watercoloring? I'd love to hear your tips & tricks!

You can find more peeks at the MFT April release on their blog and YouTube channel.

Thanks for stopping by!

Carly

a happy shaker card + 3 days until the mft april release

I ADORE making shaker cards so it's no surprise that I couldn't resist creating a sunny, smiley shaker card with some of the latest MFT!

To create this happy card, I started by applying yellow ink my card front and topping it with glitter paste.

The shaker window is just a circle but I stamped the smile from the SPECtacular stamp set on the acetate. 

Then I added the die cut sunglasses using the Stay Cool die set.

To see more of the MFT April release, make sure you pop over to the MFT blog!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope to see you again tomorrow for another sneak peek!

Hugs!

Carly

clean & simple critter cards + 4 days until the mft release

I love creating clean and simple card designs with little critters! And MFT makes some of the cutest critters around like the little kitty I'm about the share with you.

The countdown to the MFT April release continues and here's a little sneak peek of the new You're My Sunshine stamps and dies...

This card couldn't be simpler! I stamped the rainbow and sentiment on an A2 card panel and colored with Copic Markers.

The cat I stamped, die cut, colored and foam mounted over the rainbow.

I love creating cards like this because it give me time to practice coloring and I just love all the white space!

You can find more peeks at the MFT April release on their blog and YouTube channel.

Thanks for stopping by!

Carly