PaperFections

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 →

United We Flourish: Ellen Hutson & Concord & 9th

Happy Sunday, Friends! Are you in need of a little sweet treat today? If so, the Ellen Hutson and Concord & 9th teams have you covered today! We've both teamed up for another United We Flourish campaign to bring you this oh-so-sweet stamp and die combo set, available exclusively at EllenHutson.com! Here's a look at the awesome Sweet Sprinkles stamp and die set: And here's a card I created with it: The cupcake's frosting was die cut from another one of my Copic Various Ink background making sessions << Full details can be found on that blog post). It was created with Copic RV14 & RV17, with Gold Metallic Mixative added: Then I used the smaller sprinkles stamp to add some glittery gold goodness (aka metallic gold sparkle embossing powder) to the top of the frosting! The cupcake liner was die cut from gold foil cardstock, then run through my paper crimper. The cupcake was popped up on foam tape on the white card base. Another scattering of sprinkles was heat embossed down the left side and the cute sentiment added along the bottom in Rose Bud Memento ink, to match the frosting. :) BLOG HOP & PRIZES! To celebrate... Read more →

Top 5 Gifts for Crafters

Hello, friends -- Today I have a card to share that uses one of my favorite techniques, alcohol ink blending, to create a fabulously glitzy background for the holidays! My alcohol ink of choice is Copic Various Ink Refills, since I already have them on hand to refill my Copic markers. They are also my #1 pick for one of the Top 5 Gifts for Crafters this holiday season! There are a few different ways to work with alcohol ink. My first go-to method is to place drops of the alcohol ink onto a felt ink blending pad (I used YG03 & G46), attached to an alcohol ink applicator tool or ink blending tool. I also added in some drops of festive gold metallic mixative. You can also add a few drops of 0-Colorless Blender, to help keep the felt pad moist. Then just pounce the ink blending tool all over a piece of Yupo paper: The Yupo paper is coated, which allows the alcohol ink to move around on the surface of the paper, creating wonderful shade variations! You can keep working the ink until you achieve your desired effect. Another way to use the alcohol ink is to:... Read more →

Copic-Imagination International Announcements, Blog Hop & Giveaway!

Today the Copic / Imagination International Inc. blogging and teaching teams are welcoming the amazing addition of Jennifer Dove to the traveling instructor team! Jennifer has been part of our Fine Arts team and will replace Lori Craig, teaching Copic Certification and Coloring Classes. Lori has moved into her awesome new role as Tommy Arts Brand Ambassador, launching the new Tommy Art product line for Imagination International (my project today uses these paints!). Please join us in congratulating these two wonderful women -- I know they will each flourish in their new positions! It just so happens that today I have a Tommy Art Paint project to share with you! I used Tommy Art Chalk-Based Mineral Paint and Metallic Paint to create this tag: Here's how I created it: PAINT #8 Manila Tag with a base coat of Tommy Art Pearl Metallic Paint. Tommy's metallic paints are available in 5 dazzling colors (bronze, copper, gold, pearl and silver). They adhere to most surfaces without preparation and can be layered with Tommy Art colors or thinned with water for glazing effects! Note: Since the tag I used is a manila color, my tag resulted in more of a vanilla color. If... 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 →

Thanks in my Heart

Happy Friday, friends! Today I have another fun-to-create beautiful background card to share with you, using some fabulous new stamps and dies from Concord & 9th: (Click on any photo for a larger view. Bold products are linked below in the supply section). To create this background, I used my favorite new'ish toy, Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolor set. I've had the small 12-set of these professional watercolors for a while ... I wanted to test them out to see how I liked them. Well, to say I loved them is a huge understatement, so this sweet 36-set showed up at my door this week! I've also been enjoying creating stamped watercolor a lot lately, so I thought I would see if it could be done with these watercolors. Test results are in . . . it works great! Using a waterbrush, I used only a small amount of water to pick up some color from the dark pink color "cake" in the palette. Then I painted it onto the heart from Concord & 9th's Give Thanks stamp set, and stamped onto watercolor paper. If you are not pleased with the results, just add a little more water to the stamped... Read more →

Painted Thank You

Hello, happy Friday, and happy September to you all! I'm helping Concord & 9th celebrate their first birthday in the stamping world, today over in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom! I hope you'll join me there for all the details on how to create this easy watercolored thank you card, with gold heat embossed accents! I hope you will be enjoying a nice and relaxing holiday weekend! Read more →

Faux Watercolor

Today over in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom, I'm sharing a Faux Watercolor technique. I hope you'll join me there for all the details on how to create this fun pineapple card! Read more →

Bear Hugs!

Do you need to send a big bear hug through the mail? Then this adorable bear "hugs" die to create a tri-fold card is definitely the way to do it! Today in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom I show you how to create this unique card, with ink blended water effect background ... I hope you'll join me there! Read more →

Copic Workshop Hop & Giveaway!

Welcome to a Start of Summer Copic Blog Hop! While the Copic instructors are taking a short break this summer from teaching Certification Classes, we are gearing up for the Fall season of Copic Workshops: More Whimsical Faces and Hair, Vintage Values and Mono Tones, and Dress For Success-Clothing & Accessories! All three of the workshops will be taught at all nine of the following locations this Fall: Registration is NOW open for these three locations (Click HERE to sign up for a workshop): Chicago, IL August 19th-20th Dallas, TX August 26th-27th Edmonton, AB August 26th-27th The rest of the fall classes will be opening soon, so make sure to sign up for the Copic Newsletter (<= at the bottom of that page) in order to get email notifications, so you will be the first to know when classes are open in your area! Upcoming Copic Workshops will be held in: Charlotte, NC September 9-10 Las Vegas, NV September 23-24 Sacramento, CA September 23-24 Boston, MA October 14-15 Hanover, MD October 14-15 Portland, OR October 14-15 To celebrate all this Copic coloring goodness we are hopping through our Copic instructors/design team’s blogs AND have a prize worthy of hopping: A... Read more →