PaperFections

Handcrafted Felt Ornaments

Hello & Happy Monday, Crafters! The new October Essentials by Ellen release products are now available in the Ellen Hutson LLC shop! To find out more about this release, please visit the Ellen Hutson Classroom blog. There, you will find info about the super fun release prizes ... One random lucky commenter will win $25 to the Ellen Hutson shop and one will win the whole October Essentials by Ellen release! To enter for a chance to win, make sure to leave comments at each stop along the release blog hop list from yesterday, HERE! To be entered for the prize drawings, please be sure to leave your comments before Thursday, October 10th at 11:59pm PST. To help assist in your felt project crafting, Ellen has just put together a wonderful assortment of wonderful Felt and Embroidery Floss collections! These items are available in the collections, as well as individually. So if a particular collection happens to be currently sold out either just click on the "Notify Me" button OR just make note of the colors listed in the collection product descriptions and those can be purchased individually! <<-- Great for mass productions! Now on to my ornament! To create... Read more →

Sew Cute Stitching Dies for Cardmaking or Felt Crafts - EBE October Release!

Hello & Happy Sunday, Friends! Today the October Essentials by Ellen release is available over at the Ellen Hutson LLC shop ... NOW! You'll find a wonderful new selection of holiday, fall, and general stamps and dies HERE! Come hop along with the Ellen Hutson team today, to find some fantastic inspiration! Links are listed below. For today's project, I stitched a paper snow-woman for you! Even though she is made with paper, you could easily make her from felt and have her be a removable holiday ornament! It was super easy to build this sweet snow-woman! First, I used the previously-released Stitches Cover Plate on Neenah 100 Lb Solar White cardstock to create a quick and easy stitched background. Then I die cut the background using the new Sew Cute-Snowman die. The rest of my snow lady's ensemble was also die cut from cardstock and assembled, then stitched together with DMC Embroidery Floss. To anchor snow lady to her Oyster Gray card base, I created some "snow hills" at the bottom using a Stitching Lines die and adhered her with Foam Mounting Tape to the card base. To finish the card, I added Stardust Stickles to the holly berries... Read more →

Sentimental Background - August Essentials by Ellen

Thank you so much for joining us today for the August Essentials by Ellen Release Hop! You'll find a lot of amazing inspiration awaiting on today's hop, along with . . . *PRIZES: We've got super fun prizes! One random lucky commenter will win $25 to the EllenHutson shop and one will win the whole August Essentials by Ellen release! To enter for a chance to win, make sure to leave comments at each stop along today's hop! Comment before Thursday, August 15th at 11:59pm PST. Winners will be notified by email. But first, here's a little about the card I have to share today, using Julie Ebersole's new Mondo Amaryllis stamp set and Mondo Amaryllis die set: Isn't this floral gorgeous?!! I stamped it with Gina K Jet Black Amalgam ink onto watercolor paper and watercolored with these Daniel Smith watercolors: Rhodonite Genuine (PrimaTek Set), Quinacridone Rose (Floral Half-Pan Set or Ultimate Mixing Half-Pan Set), Permanent Alizarin Crimson (Ultimate Mixing Half-Pan Set), Serpentine Genuine (Colors of Inspiration Half-Pan Set), Green Apatite (Floral Half-Pan Set). The finished floral was die cut with its coordinating Mondo Amaryllis die set and popped up on X-Press It Foam Mounting Tape. The background was... Read more →

Ellen Hutson's 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Touch 2018: Tons of Techniques!

Welcome to this year's Ellen Hutson 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist series . . . my absolute favorite project/post each year! I'm so honored to have participated in this tradition for the past 7 years, since 2011! (You can find my previous year's tags by clicking (here -->) on the 12 Tags of Christmas category over in my right sidebar). This year we once again have 24 designers paired up for each of the 12 days, to share their talents with you as we provide you with ideas for creating your own tags this holiday season! My partner in crafting today is the very talented Emily Midgett! Please be sure to head over to her blog to see her take on today's theme! GIVEAWAY: We are looking forward to seeing what you are inspired to create from the tags/techniques/themes that are shared this year and we would LOVE to have you participate! Just look for the little “theme box” (below) on each post and use the designer’s tags to inspire you to join in the fun! Remember to leave a comment every day sharing your appreciation with the artists (on the Ellen Hutson CLASSroom blog AND the... Read more →

Essentials by Ellen November Release!

It's finally time ... the newest November Essentials by Ellen stamps and dies are now available in Ellen's shop and you can find them all HERE! I promised full details for the Pop-Up Mitten banner project I sneaked peeked for you last week, and here they are: As you can see, this adorable die set is great for many other types of projects besides the fabulous intended use of a pop-up mitten element (genius!) -- I absolutely love the three different sizes of pretty snowflakes as well! These mittens measure approximately 3-1/8" at the longest point. I die cut them from coordinating colors of wool felt: light and dark pink, light blue and dark aqua, and paired them up with opposite colors. So the first light pink mitten has a dark pink backing and the second light aqua mitten has the darker aqua backing. Here is a view of the backs of the mittens: I also die cut the snowflakes from the Pop-Up Mittens die set from white felt and stitched them on the mitten fronts first, using embroidery floss. Then I stitched each pair of mittens together using a regular stitch or a blanket stitch, leaving them open at... Read more →

Happy Halloween & Holiday Season!

Happy Halloween and the start of the long 2+ month-long holiday season! A little PSA for TODAY ONLY -- Make your own holiday sale over at Ellen Hutson LLC! The more you spend, the more you save -- on ANYTHING you'd like! Now that's my kind of sale! ;-) Click the banner below to get started: And here's a little start-of-the-holiday season inspiration for you, using Julie Ebersole's Over the River Essentials by Ellen stamp set: The sweet little houses were stamped with Distress Oxide Inks, the rooftops glittered with Tonic's Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Pen (which unfortunately isn't showing well in the photo), then die cut with Essentials by Ellen Folk Hearts die. The heart was popped up on a Oyster Gray stitched scallop die cut (made by shortening a scallop rectangle die cut). Such a sweet, versatile stamp set for several different holidays! And just in case you missed it, it is sneak peek week for the new upcoming Essentials by Ellen stamp and die release this coming Sunday, Nov 4 at 9am Pacific at Ellen Hutson LLC! You can see inspiration projects with all of the new products each day this week over at Ellen's CLASSroom blog. You... Read more →

Ommission Stamping with New Leading Ladies!

A new release from Brandi Kincaid exclusively for Essentials by Ellen is now available in the shop! You can see lots of inspiration on the "This Just In" page of the Ellen Hutson LLC website and on Ellen's the CLASSroom blog. There are two new Leading Lady stamp and coordinating die sets (Bookworm Lady and Holiday Shopper Lady), a great little Ugly Sweater Accessories stamp and coordinating die set, plus some great stand alone dies - Winter Window and Snowfall Backdrop! Today I'm using the Holiday Shopper Lady and the adorable Winter Window die. I always love thinking "outside the box", to find unusual and different ways to use my supplies. So while the Winter Window die would probably normally be used to look at an outdoor scene, I've created a scene of my Holiday Shopper Lady looking into a store window. She's doing a little sidewalk window shopping for her long holiday shopping list, waiting for the store to open so she can catch that big sale! Remember those commercials where everyone is crowded around the store doors, waiting for it to open,saying "Open-open-open"?!! To get this look, I did some selective inking of the Holiday Shopper Lady stamp... Read more →

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 →

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 →

Celebration Lady!

Hello, Crafters! Did you see that the new Essentials by Ellen December release is already available in the Ellen Hutson shop? You can find all the fun, new stamps and dies HERE! If you have an occasion to celebrate, these new stamps and dies have you covered!! In this release is another cute new Leading Lady by Brandi Kincaid: Celebration Lady stamp set and coordinating dies! And here's a card I created with her: I imagined Celebration Lady at a holiday party ... either Christmas or New Year's perhaps? :) The glowing background was created with the emboss resist technique: First I stamped the sentiment and confetti/ribbon with Versamark ink, then clear heat embossed them. Next, I used Delicata Golden Glitz metallic pigment ink to sponge over the the Neenah 110 Lb. Solar White card base. It has such a beautiful shimmer in person! Her dress was paper pieced from yet another one of my Copic Various Ink backgrounds I created in this session << Full background technique details can be found there. I just stamped her dress onto the alcohol-inked Yupo paper using my Misti (the Yupo paper is a bit slick and sometimes it takes several impressions to... Read more →

12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist 2017!

It's that time of year again, for one of my favorite projects -- Ellen Hutson's 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist! You can find all the instructions for my Copic Various alcohol ink background tag over in the CLASSroom. << Simply leave a comment on that blog post and you'll be entered into a drawing to receive a $25 gift certificate to spend at EllenHutson.com! Or if you are inspired to get creating and join in the challenge fun, you could win a $150 gift certificte! You can find all the details here. Happy Holidays! Read more →

Essentials by Ellen October 2017 Release Hop

Hello and welcome to another inspiration blog hop for this month's new Essentials by Ellen products! Oh.My.Goodness! Are y'all ready for some serious cuteness?!! Meet Bear Hugs by Julie Ebersole -- one of this month's newest Essentials by Ellen die sets! I had SO much stinkin' fun stitching and stuffing these adorable felt bears and their JOY gifts! Bear Hugs is a huge version of Julie's popular All Inside stamp set & coordinating All Inside die bear -- he measures 5" tall x 2-3/4" wide, so he will also fit on a card front ... or BE an adorable folded card! I chose to stitch these three bears into felt Christmas ornaments. The JOY letter dies are from the Concertina Tags die set -- they measure 1-3/16", which were just a smidge larger than the gift die in the Bear Hugs set. Or you could use a small alpha die such as Taylored Expressions Sweet & Simple Alpha-Uppers, which are about 7/8" tall -- My first idea was to use those to monogram a bear for each member of my family! These guys were simple to make. I just die cut two of each color of bear from Taylored Expressions... Read more →

Essentials By Ellen September 2017 Release

Hello Crafty Friends! Welcome to the first day of inspiration hops for the September Essentials by Ellen release! This month brings some fun new accessories (and pals!) for the adorable All Inside bear, with the Bear Ware 2 stamps and coordinating Bear Ware 2 dies! Another one of my favorite additions this month are the Concertina Tags: So I combined all of these elements to create this fun tag card: The Concertina Tags each have different decorative bottom edges and are hinged together but you can easily trim them apart, to make die cutting multiple tags super quick and easy! For the base of my tag card, I die cut through two layers of Neenah 80 lb. Solar White cardstock with the tags die, leaving the top edge uncut and "hinged". This creates a card base 6-3/8" wide x 3-1/4" tall that will fit in a #10 business envelope: Next, I die cut a single layer of Solar White cardstock Concertina Tags, cut them apart, then used the following Distress Oxide Inks to sponge color onto the white tags, in an ombre effect: When the card is closed, the hinged tags can be Z or accordion-folded: I had fun dressing... Read more →

Christmas in July!

Hello and welcome to Christmas in July! There's nothing like thinking about cooler weather and getting a head start on holiday cards than in the middle of the hottest part of the summer -- right?!! :D Plus, a SALE doesn't hurt, either -- Just click the banner above to shop the Christmas category! The Ellen Hutson team has a little blog hop going on today for you, to help get you in the holiday cardmaking spirit! We hope you'll join us -- You can find a list of all those participating today over in the CLASSroom. Here's my project, in a chilly shade of blue! When last year's Essentials by Ellen Holiday 2016 stamp and die release came out, I never got the opportunity to use the beautiful dove from Julie's Bird Shapes die set, so I was elated to get to use it now! Isn't it gorgeous?! More inspiration for #WorldWatercolorMonth -- I created a quick background using my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors: #57 Turquoise Green (very watered down). After washing the background with the lighter Turquoise Green wash, I splattered it with a darker/less watered down Turquoise Green and a mixture of both Bluish Gold and Antique Gold,... Read more →