PaperFections

Easy Stamped Watercolor Two Ways

Hello, Stampers! Today I have an easy stamped watercolor project to share that can be accomplished in two different ways. Isn't this new Mondo Holly stamp by Julie Ebersole for Essentials by Ellen absolutely gorgeous?!! I could not wait to get my hands on it, to color! Here's the easy way I've colored it today -- simply by using Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers directly on the stamp -- shown on the cover of my Mist Stamping Tool below: I find the Misti a great tool for this type of project -- you can easily re-ink whatever parts of the stamp that may not stamp very well. The colors of markers I used were: Light Green, Green, Olive Green, Dark Pink, and Carmine Red. You can find all but the Dark Pink in this set of 24, or individually in Ellen's shop. Now here's where the two different ways come in: For the first style of stamped watercolor, I misted my watercolor paper with water FIRST, THEN stamped. In photo 1 below, you can see the paper still wet. The middle photo shows how the color bled a little more and I also moved some of the color around,... Read more →

Unconventional Watercolor Holiday Card

Hello, stamping friends! Today I have a little bit of an unconventional holiday card to share. Unconventional in color: aqua/mint, pink, and yellow; and also unconventional content: adorable bees! These sweet Christmas Bees are part of the fabulous new products from Art Impressions: clear and cling stamps, and dies that are now available over at Ellen Hutson LLC! I had a blast watercoloring these merry little cuties! They are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto watercolor paper, then watercolored with Gansai Tambi watercolor set: One thing I love about this large watercolor set (besides the great variety of colors!) are the metallic colors of pearl white, silver, and two golds. I used the metallic silver for the bee hat trim -- it is a very faint silver, but gives just enough color to make it stand out from the white background paper. The yellow card base was created by stamping the honeycomb hex shape with Mustard Seed Distress Ink onto watercolor paper, then spreading that color with a water brush: To finish the card, I die cut the bee panel with MFT's Stitched Rectangle Scallop Edge Frames. Then I watercolored the scalloped frame with a lighter version of my... Read more →

Essentials by Ellen Retirement Sale!

Here's the sale you've been waiting for, crafty peeps! Get your favorite retiring Essentials by Ellen stamps and dies, before they are GONE for GOOD! Shop the Last Chance Sale category HERE or click the graphic above. Here are a few of my favorite past projects using some of these awesome stamps and dies: Using Sunshine word die: Using Stay Golden stamps and dies: Using Thankful stamp set: Using Elf'd stamps and dies: Using Prize Stag die, Have fun shopping! STAMPS & DIES ON SALE NOW AT ELLEN HUTSON LLC: Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies, Sunshine Word by Julie Ebersole (Retiring) Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps, Stay Golden by Julie Ebersole (Retiring) Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies, Stay Golden by Julie Ebersole (Retiring) Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps, Thankful by Julie Ebersole (Retiring) Read more →

Over the River Sparkling Holiday Tags

Holiday seasons are in the air over at Ellen Hutson LLC! The September release is new in the shop, and full of Julie Ebersole's delightful humor and whimsical illustrations! Today I'm using the adorable Over the River stamp set and coordinting Over the River dies to create a set of holiday tags: I also used Julie's awesome Concertina Tag die set -- this die cuts three tags at once for you! For the tags below, I stamped the deer with Brushed Corduroy and polar bear with Hickory Smoke Distress inks so the ink would bleed a little whenever I applied the Nuvo Aqua Shimmer clear glitter gloss pen over it, creating a bit of shading. On the deer tag I stamped the trees in Evergreen Bough, Cracked Pistachio, and Twisted Citron, and the sentiment in Barn Door, all on Ellen's awesome Oyster Gray cardstock. The pine twig at the top was also shimmered and popped up on foam tape (as was the deer). The polar bear tag background was stencil brushed with Tumbled Glass Distress ink and a cloud stencil. The icy water was created by stamping the oval from Julie's new Winterscapes stamp set with Tumbled Glass Distress ink... Read more →

Taylored Expressions 10th Birthday Party!

Hello, Crafty Peeps! Today I am BEYOND excited to help my dear, sweet friend Taylor VanBruggen celebrate her awesome stamp company, Taylored Expressions, 10th birthday!! I can not believe it was "just" 10 years ago that Taylor invited me to be part of her first design team to help open her company adventure! You can find her inaugural blog post here! You can see and read about my very first project and post here, or view all of my Taylored Expressions projects/posts here (or click on "Taylored Expressions" over in my right sidebar, under Categories - over there) ---> Today's celebration involves almost 50 designers in a special birthday bash blog hop! You can find a full list of participants over at Taylor’s blog and hop along with us! You will also find a bunch of fabulous new products that were released last night, especially for this birthday bash, over in the TE store here. Today I am highlighting some fun previously-released birthday products because TE LOVES birthdays and has a ton of ways to celebrate them! Another thing I have always loved about Taylored Expressions is their Share Joy Campaign. It is very simple for you to participate in... Read more →