PaperFections

New Catherine Pooler Products!

Hello, Crafty Friends! Today I wanted to share some beautiful new Catherine Pooler Designs products -- stamps, dies, and inks -- that Ellen Hutson has started carrying at her online store! These inks are quick drying non-permanent dye inks (except for Midnight) and the pads are foam, which means they give amazing coverage that results in gorgeously stamped images! You can see that amazing coverage on my sample, even on kraft cardstock! The Catherine Pooler ink colors I used were: Polished (light red-orange), Shea Butter (soft yellow), Seafoam (light green), Stone Blue, Sugared Lavender; and Midnight, which is a gorgeously deep, dark black permanent ink which works beautifully with alcohol and water-based markers. I can't wait to try this ink with my Copic markers and watercoloring! The sweet stamp set I used is also by Catherine Pooler Designs, Love Grows -- it's such a great flower building set, with wonderful sentiments! The small flowers and flower centers were stamped with Versamark ink, then I used White Pearl Kirarina WiNK pen on the smallest flower centers. MFT's Blueprints 27 was used to create a white stitched scalloped right card edge. BLOG HOP: This post is part of a blog hop to... Read more →

Floral Butterfly Birthday

Happy Saturday, crafty friends! Today I'm sharing a birthday card made for my dear, sweet husband's aunt who turned 94 years young this week (and it happens to be MY birthday today)! :) It came together quickly and easily, by using these fabulous Memory Box dies: Fresh Picked Flowers, Primavera Butterfly, Adora Butterfly, and Sentimental Happy Birthday. I started by die cutting the solid Primavera Butterfly from white cardstock, then the Adora Butterfly die cut from gold metallic cardstock and placed on top. I love that this gives the look of gold metallic embossing, but a lot easier and less mess! The butterfly was mounted to a kraft card base with foam tape on the top right wing, to give it some dimension. The beautiful Fresh Picked Flowers die was cut from white cardstock and then colored with Copic markers G20, G21, and R20. It was also mounted to the card using foam tape behind the leaves and glue dots behind the flower centers, to create more dimension. The flower that was originally behind the butterfly was cut off the stem and added with foam tape to the top of the lower right flower. Finally, the pretty Sentimental Happy Birthday... Read more →

Very Happy Day & Sale!

Hello, Crafty Stampers! I must mention this first today because I wouldn't want you to miss it! Exciting, right?!! Just click the banner above to shop the Stamp Category at Ellen Hutson LLC . . . Shop early, for the best selections, before they sell out! AND new colors of DISTRESS OXIDE inks are also in stock at Ellen Hutson, so do yourself a favor and add a few (or all!) of those to your cart while you are stamp shopping, too! You'll thank me for it -- these inks stamp beautifully and create such fun techniques! Shop them here or click on the banner below: Now on to today's project . . . Valentine's Day may be over for the year, but that doesn't mean you must put away your "Valentine" stamps and dies! They can be great for weddings, anniversaries, or just an everyday "Wishing you a very happy day" card! For this card, I used Memory Box's Wirework Hearts clear stamp set and coordinating Wirework Hearts die set, along with the Heart Rays die: I simply gold heat embossed the beautiful large wirework heart onto 110 Lb. white cardstock, and die cut it. I prefer heavier cardstock... Read more →

Valentine Pampering

Could you use a little pampering today, to get ready for Valentine's Day? I'm here to help! I'm also very excited to announce that I'm the newest member of the Memory Box design team and I couldn't be more thrilled! I've loved and used Memory Box products for MANY years and I am very grateful and excited to begin this journey with them! I recently hosted my neighborhood ladies Bunco game night and wanted these wonderful women to feel special and pampered, so I came up with these relaxing bath salts gifts for them! An internet search for homemade bath salts will yield dozens of recipes for you to try ... I settled on Lavender and Rose Petal. Here's the easy recipe I used (I made a full recipe for each fragrance. Each recipe filled approximately 6-7 frappuccino bottles): 5 cups Epsom Salts (be sure they have no added fragrance) 3 cups sea salt (Mediterranean or pink Himalayan) 1 cup baking soda (helps to soften water & skin) Food coloring (about 8-12 drops, depending on depth of color you'd like) Essential Oil (about 10+ drops, depending on how fragrant you want them, keeping in mind the fragrance will dissipate a... Read more →

More February Essentials by Ellen Dogs & Cats!

Hello again, Friends! On Sunday I showed you my Cat Lady from the new Essentials by Ellen release of the new Leading Ladies by Brandi Kincaid, so today I'm using the Dog Lady Stamps and coordinating Dog Lady Dies: Although cats were my first love, I eventually found just as much love for dogs, so today I had a ton of fun watercoloring Dog Lady! I stamped her with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto Ranger Watercolor Paper, then used my Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors with a waterbrush. I swiped #34-Dark Pink onto the background, and splattered #91-Bluish Gold all over. I love that her coordinating Dog Lady dies cut out her arm, so she can hold one of the four cute pups included in this set! I used foam tape to pop up and attach the pup in her arms, then also to attach Dog Lady to the background I created. Then I die cut the background with the stitched and scalloped panel from MFT's Blueprints 27. To finish the card, I stamped the sentiment at the end of the leash and scattered a few Pretty Pink Posh 4mm and 6mm Sparkling Clear Sequins. So which is your favorite: So... Read more →

New February Essentials by Ellen Dog & Cat Ladies!

Hello and happy Super Bowl Sunday, Crafty Friends! Are you a dog or cat person? Thankfully, no matter which you are, the new Essentials by Ellen release today has you covered! Introducing the new Leading Ladies by Brandi Kincaid, Dog Lady Stamps and coordinating Dog Lady Dies: And Cat Lady Stamps and coordinating Cat Lady Dies: Since cats were my first love, I've used the Cat Lady today: While recently watercoloring some #90 Gold splatters on another project, I decided to use up the remainder of the gold paint left on my waterbrush and splattered and scribbled the color off the brush and onto a piece of watercolor cardstock ... this background was the result! I simply die cut it using the scalloped stitched panel from MFT's Blueprints 27, then popped it up with foam tape onto a top-folded Solar White 110 Lb. card base. Next, I stamped Cat Lady with her cat and ball of yarn with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto watercolor paper, die cut them with their coordinating Cat Lady dies, then watercolored them with my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors: #57 Turquoise Green, #44 Light Brown, #47 Dark Brown, #10 White, and #20 Black. To finish the... Read more →