simple watercolor background + new essentials by ellen

There is a brand new Essentials by Ellen release today and it is so super cute! Inspired by the AMAZING Yoonsun Hur of Rejoicing Crafts, I used the adorable images from So Matcha & Wasabi to create background designs to watercolor. 

And I made a quick little video to share my process...

Thanks so much for stopping by & have a great day!

Hugs!
Carly

supplies:
affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. thank you!
Essentials by Ellen Stamps, So Matcha
Essentials by Ellen Stamps, Wasabi
Distress Inks Cracked Pistachio, Carved Pumpkin & Worn Lipstick
Copic Markers YG41, G02, E01, R22, R05, YR16, BG11 & BG34
Ranger Watercolor Cardstock
Purple Tape
MISTI

ink blending custom colors + get to know the EH design team

Even as a (semi)seasoned card maker, I enjoy learning tips & tricks from other crafters. My favorite tip/trick is creating custom colors with Distress Inks...

I have created a little video today to show you what I mean...
Today is going to be so fun as our EH team all shares something they love and some silly things about themselves. And can I just say that I am so incredibly excited to be a part of the Ellen Hutson LLC 2018 Design Team!!! 

Here are a few fun facts about me...
-I think coffee is yucky, which is shameful for a Seattle native I know! And I've just learned to really like tea in the last few years. My current fav is peach green tea.
-I named my blog after myself because it has been with me through quite a few incarnations before I became a cardmaker.
-And I'm addicted to candy, epecially chocolate-covered gummy bears! I know sugar is bad for me but I can't quit! 

So now if you are hopping along with us, your next stop is Carolyn's blog. And if you would like to start at the beginning, head over to The Classroom at EH.

Have a great weekend friends and thank you for letting me share!

Hugs,
Carly

supplies:
affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. thank you!
Essentials by Ellen Stamps, All Inside
Essentials by Ellen Dies, Holiday Words
Distress Inks Wilted Violet & Shaded Lilac
Copic Markers C0, C1, BG11, V00 & V04
Ink Blending Tool
Pretty Pink Posh Jewels, Pansy Purple

using leftover die cuts

What is a girl do to with all the die cuts leftover from the Christmas cards that she never made? Asking for a friend.

Ok, you caught me. I'm totally asking for myself because I have this...

It's a beautiful stack of watercolored backgrounds and die cut cars (and actually there are more die cuts but I was too embarrassed to show you).

I had intended to make loads of these cards for Christmas...

And as I mentioned, that didn't happen so...

What do you think about sending love in those cute little cars?

And please tell me, what do you do with your leftover die cuts? And where & how to you store them?

Hugs!
Carly

supplies:
Right At Home Dies, Holidays Are On The Way
Hero Arts Dies, Infinity Hearts
Pretty Pink Posh Stamps, Bear Hugs
Distress Ink Evergreen Bough, Cracked Pistachio, Mermaid Lagoon, Twisted Citron, Wilted Violet, Picked Raspberry & Worn Lipstick
Copic R22 & T2

heffy doodle!

I'm super excited to be guesting today on the Heffy Doodle blog!!! Come say hi!

Hugs,
Carly

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

1 new honey bee stamp, 3 cards & bunches of talented makers!

Fall brings some of my favorite things like sweaters & pumpkin spice, an excess of fun-sized Halloween candy and some awesome new crafty products from some of my favorite companies like Honey Bee Stamps!

I'm thrilled to be hopping along with my friends at Honey Bee to celebrate their gorgeous fall release! You should be arriving here from Brenda Noelke's blog and before you hop onto Emily Midgett's, I want to share 3 cards I have created with one of my favorite new Honey Bee sets, Gather Together.

This sweet little group of critters has my heart in a big way! And I love the sentiments included like "families are like fudge mostly sweet with a few nuts" or the sentiments you can build like "friends are the family we choose ourselves". Both things are so true!!! And again, those sweet little critter faces! 

In fact, I love those critters so much, I started by just stamping them in black off the bottom edge of my card.

I used two colors of Distress Oxide to stamp "hello", then added a few splatters and a few coral touches to the critters, like their noses and flowers.

The second thing I couldn't wait to try was some loose Copic coloring, the kind that always reminds me of storybooks. I chose bright, primary-ish colors and colored carefully so my coloring would look loose, a bit messy and not meet all the edges. Who knew it would be hard to look messy! LOL!

Lastly, I did some selective stamping and watercoloring practice. I say practice because as you can see, it's certainly not perfect but I think I'm getting better.

To stamp just bunny, teddy & foxy, I applied Antique Linen Distress Markers to just the three of them and stamped on smooth Bristol watercolor paper.

I scribbled my markers onto a clean acrylic block to use a as palette and watercolored.

Thanks so much for stopping by and making it to the end of this post, LOL! I know it was a long one. Hop on over to Emily's blog and have so much fun!

And there's prizes too! Be sure to visit each blog on the hop & leave a comment! Honey Bee will be giving away TWO $50 gift cards to the Honey Bee Stamps store. (Winners will be posted on our blog Monday, September 25th.)

Hugs!
Carly

no peeking shaker card

I adore the sassy "It's Coal" from the new No Peeking set! I like sass and I had these adorable little charcoal sequins from Pretty Pink Posh just begging to be made into a shaker card!

I started with the rectangle from the Essentials by Ellen Mini Windows die set to create a flap on an A2 panel of smooth bristol cardstock.

I masked around the window flap and inked it with Distress Ink Spun Sugar & Worn Lipstick.

Then I added polka dots because they are my favorite "color", haha!

I inked the front of my card with the same pinks and the back of the window flap so everything would be PINK!

Next I added the sentiments, "No Peeking" under the window flap and "It's Coal" on the card front where the window will open.

Acetate and foam tape behind the window flap created the shaker and a little rectangle & bow on the front turned the flap into a gift. And I love it!

If you haven't picked up the No Peeking set for yourself, I suggest you go right now! And fair warning, I'm about to be a big time enabler...

This weekend is the perfect time to treat yourself because there is a 20% stamp sale at EH...

Hugs!

Carly

watercolor christmas cards with the new essentials by ellen!

The newest Essentials by Ellen is available today and we are hopping to celebrate! You should be arriving here from Amy Yang's awesome blog! Isn't her coloring perfect?! I love her work so much!

Today I have some watercolor holiday cards to share with you, using the new No Peeking stamp set by Brandi Kincaid...

I love this set - the sentiments are adorable and Brandi's lettering is perfection! I suspect this set will feature heavily in my holiday crafting!

I paired the No Peeking sentiments with the new Modern Christmas stamps & dies by Julie Ebersole and apparently I was in a dreamy, watercolor mood when I made these cards. All mint and pink!

For the watercolor trees I used a MISTI technique by Lydia Fiedler that she calls marbling with the MISTI. You stamp the base color and then use plastic (food wrap, gloves, etc) to add more colors of ink to the stamp and stamp again. I'm totally digging this technique (see this post for more).

I also made my own mint green & pink glitter papers because I didn't have any on hand, shameful I know. For the diy glitter paper, I gave a piece of white cardstock good coat colored pigment ink, topped with WOW Clear Sparkle embossing powder and ta-da!

I know my pictures don't do it justice but its such a yummy sparkle!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Head over to Lisa Spangler's blog next and prepare to be knocked out of your socks! Lisa's tags are so beautiful, bright & happy!

xo,
Carly

supplies:
Essentials by Ellen Stamps No Peeking
Essentials by Ellen Stamps Mod Christmas
Essentials by Ellen Dies Mod Christmas
Distress Inks Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Cracked Pistachio & Lucky Clover
WOW Clear Sparkle Embossing Powder 

5 ways to use essentials by ellen modern graphics

Is your desk ever covered in beautiful crafty things but you have no creative mojo to your name? Yup, me too. My favorite way to break out a creative "dry spell" is to challenge myself to use one supply as many ways as I can think of, like 3 cards with the same stamp set or a die two ways. This weekend I challenged myself to use the new Essentials by Ellen Modern Graphics patterned paper with all my favorite techniques.

The result? I'm smitten with this paper and have 5 fun ideas on how to use it.

use it as a background: These patterns are perfection all on their own! Neutral black & white goes with anything and the papers are scaled perfectly for A2 cards. So use them just as they are for backgrounds (or maybe on my card it might be considered the foreground, LOL).

stamp on it: The smooth surface is perfect for stamping so try your favorite ink. I have already tried (and loved the results of) Distress Oxide, VersaFine and Memento.

ink it up: The papers are also perfect for ink blending, which is probably my favorite way to add color. I have found it easier to apply Distress Inks to the Modern Graphics than Solar White, though it is not quite as seamless as my BFF Bristol. And even using pigment inks, like the Distress Oxides I used on this card, the pattern is still crisp & strong.

foil it: The patterns are toner so they foil beautifully and I love foil. 'nuf said.

color it with copics: Another bonus of the toner, you can add color with Copic markers which makes it even more customizable.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs!
Carly

supplies:
Essentials by Ellen Modern Graphics Paper Pack
Essentials by Ellen Stamps Plant Ladies Say
Essentials by Ellen Stamps Rustic Botanicals
Essentials by Ellen Dies Rustic Botanicals
Essentials by Ellen Dies Many Thanks
Essentials by Ellen Dies Holiday Words
Distress Oxide Inks Cracked Pistachio, Worn Lipstick & Picked Raspberry