PaperFections

Thinking of You Distress Oxide Watercolor

This week I've been playing with some new goodies -- Tim Holtz's new Distress Oxide inks! (Ellen Hutson just received a new shipment today, so get them while you can HERE! If they happen to disappear quickly, don't fret -- I hear another shipment should be received next week!) This first offering of 12 colors is a beautiful selection; below I've shown a few of them. (Ink swatches graciously provided by Jennifer McGuire and can be downloaded here.) On the left side of the color swatches, I applied the ink direct-to-paper from the ink pad. On the right side of the swatches, I sponged the color on. As you can see, the sponged color turns out a little lighter (although more color can be built up to achieve the same color as the direct method) and blends BEAUTIFULLY -- so much smoother and effortless than regular Distress Ink! The first thing I wanted to try with these inks was watercolor . . . And it worked beautifully! Since these inks are a hybrid of dye and pigment inks, the resulting color is very nicely opaque, buildable and beautifully soft, resulting in a slight chalky feeling when dry. As the "oxide"... Read more →

Essentials by Ellen February 2017 Release Blog Hop & Giveaway!

Welcome to the February 2017 Essentials by Ellen Release Hop! I’ll be showcasing several of the new products on my post today! Read more below about the giveaway! PROJECTS First up is the Spa Day stamp set and coordinating Spa Day dies by Brandi Kincaid. I also used Brandi's new Mirror Mirror die set: This card started with a watercolor background created with a mixture of Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors in No. 50 Pale Aqua and No. 61 Cornflower Blue on Ranger Watercolor Paper, using a Black Velvet 8 watercolor brush. After the watercolor had dried, I stamped the flower with Cracked Pistachio Distress Ink. The spa girl stamp images were inked with Distress Markers: Cracked Pistachio (towels), Antique Linen (skin), and Spun Sugar (lips), Frayed Burlap (eyes) and stamped onto watercolor paper. The mask and straw were inked with Picked Raspberry Distress Ink, the cucumbers with Lucky Clover, and the glass with Tumbled Glass. After each of the images were stamped, I ran a watercolor brush over them, to spread the ink around the image. All the images were die cut with their coordinating Spa Day dies. The glass was also die cut from Ellen's 40# Vellum and adhered... Read more →

Sprinkled With Fun

Today over in the CLASSroom I have this fun card to share, which uses an ENTIRE stamp set for the background! Please come visit me there, for all the details! PLUS, Stamps are on sale this week at Ellen Hutson LLC. What?!! YES!! Click the graphic below to shop the best selection of in-stock stamps, while they are still available! The sale continues through this Sunday at 11:59pm Pacific. Happy Friday! Read more →

Copic Marker Free Valentine Art Download!

Hello and happy Valentine's Day, friends! If you are like me and need a quick last-minute Valentine (and don't want to get out in the pouring rain, like it is here today!), Copic Marker has you covered! They have two different downloadable FREE pieces of Valentine artwork you can print off and color, with two different print color options per image as well! You can download those HERE. I chose the squirrel image because we have about 5 or 6 squirrels at any given time that are playing in the trees, woods, and creek behind our house (and ON the house) ... it is quite entertaining to watch them! You can watch a video of the fabulous Chihiro Howe coloring the same squirrel image I have, by clicking HERE. Here's how I colored the squirrel image: I printed the digital image onto X-Press It Blending Card, and colored it with the following Copic Markers: The N-series for the squirrel bodies, using a dotting method to give some texture: The squirrel tails were colored with the W-series markers shown above, using long flicking strokes to create a hair-like texture. The foliage and flowers were colored with these markers (C1 was used... Read more →

Love You So Much

Happy Friday, Friends! Today over in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom I'm sharing this cute Valentine card made with Darcie's Heart & Home clear stamp set "Love Hearts" and coordinating Tin Pin embellishment. These sweet little 1-inch dimensional tin embellishments give a fun pop and dimension to their coordinating stamp sets, or can be used alone to create quick and easy one-of-a-kind projects! I hope you'll make it over to this blog post for all the details! And it just so happens that Embellishments are on sale this week thru Sunday at 11:59pm Pacific over in Ellen's store. Click the graphic below to shop . . . You're welcome!! Happy Weekend, Read more →