PaperFections

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 →

Emboss Resist Love You So Matcha!

Happy Friday, Friends! Today I wanted to revisit a favorite "oldie but goody" technique of mine, emboss resist -- especially since I'm absolutely LOVING the Claritystamp Stencil Brushes! Emboss resist is simply heat embossing (in this case, clear detail) stamped images onto cardstock (Neenah Solar White), then applying ink over the embossing. The embossed image(s) resist being colored with the ink ... thus, creating a very unique background! My favorite blending inks are Distress -- here I used an "ode to the end of Summer" combo of Carved Pumpkin, Squeezed Lemonade, and Cracked Pistachio. The Claritystamp Stencil Brushes help give a very soft and very effortless blend! The Folk Heart was die cut from the center of the background panel before inking, so the ink catches the edges and really defines the shape! The sweet So Matcha kimono girl was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and her the main part of her kimono colored with Copic YG41 and G43 (shading) to match the inked background. Then I created a subtle floral pattern on the kimono using the tiny flower stamped with Cracked Pistacio. To finish the card, I die cut the So Matcha girl with her coordinating die and... Read more →

United We Flourish Sale at Ellen Hutson!

Hello, Crafters! I wanted to share an amazing United We Flourish sale happening this week at Ellen Hutson LLC! The United We Flourish line of stamps and dies are a wonderful collaboration between Ellen Hutson LLC and many of the stamp and die manufacturers she carries in her online store. Here are a few "oldies but goodies" projects of mine from this line: Be sure to shop early, for the best selection because when they are gone, they are GONE! You can find the United We Flourish line exclusively here at Ellen Hutson. Read more →

Teacher Time!

Here it is August and soon teachers and students will be going back to school. I made this card a little for those teachers and a little for my oldest daughter, who is headed off to be a college freshman in two short weeks (insert very proud but sad face here!). I thought this sentiment could work well for either: This new Teacher Lady Leading Lady by Brandi Kincaid for Essentials by Ellen is a great stamp set with lots of teacher OR student related accessories! I stamped all the images in black, then colored them with Copics in colors to match the colors in this great watercolor rainbow washi tape, which is on the inside of the card: Teacher Lady was die cut with her coordinating die and popped up over the background: The background panel was also popped up on the card front, with black Copic running down the left side of the card base, to resemble a composition notebook! Do you have a teacher or student that brightens your life? I think we all do! This stamp & die set is part of this month's August Essentials by Ellen release over at Ellen Hutson LLC. You'll find... Read more →

Always Be A Mermaid

My oldest daughter is off to college in a just a few short weeks, so we are in the midst of getting things together for her dorm room. While on a recent shopping trip she spotted a beautiful aqua decorative "mermaid" pillow and squealed with delight! Imagine my delight when I learned of mermaid pillows ... two-sided different colors of sequins which you can brush back and forth, creating wonderful patterns in them -- sparkling like a swimming mermaid! Needless to say, we now have some mermaid pillows in the house! :) That brings us to this custom piece of artwork that will be framed and will go in darling daughter's dorm room, to go with her mermaid pillow: Thank goodness Julie Ebersole created a new mermaid Inner Mermaid friend for her existing Essentials by Ellen Mermaid's Tail stamp set! I paired them swimming together, along with this absolutely fabulous sentiment in the new Inner Mermaid stamp set: I gold heat embossed all the images onto watercolor paper, then watercolored them with my favorite Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors. A few clear droplets were the only thing needed to complete the piece, keeping the watercoloring the focus. Now to find the... Read more →

Watercolor Rainbow Shaker Card

Hello, crafty peeps! It's release day over at Ellen Hutson LLC and we have some Fantasmagorical new products to share today! What exactly is Fantasmagorical? Well, I will defer that question to Julie Ebersole, the creator of this stamp set, but I sure had a blast playing with her new Unicorns 'N Rainbows stamp set and coordinating dies! And evidently July is World Watercolor month, so I threw in some of that, too! ;-) To create this watercolor rainbow shaker card, I used a background of watercolor paper and brushed Tumbled Glass Distress Ink over a cloud stencil, using a fabulous new-to-me tool: Clarity Stencil Brushes! These amazing brushes give such a smooth and soft blend ... I'm totally hooked on them! Next, I stamped the adorable unicorn and his rainbow with Memento Gray Flannel ink onto more watercolor paper, then used Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to watercolor them both. Then I used their coordinating Unicorns 'N Rainbows dies to cut them both. Next, I die cut a spot for my rainbow from the stenciled cloud panel, then stamped the awesome sentiment (from the new Pure Magic stamp set), using the Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. I... Read more →

Shop, Save & Freebie!

SALE ALERT! June 15-19 Shop the Oops Overstock category, save & get a freebie at Ellen Hutson LLC!! Click the Oops graphic below to shop the special sale category. If you spend at least $100, you'll get a brand new stamp set (Over It by Julie Ebersole shown below) FREE!! Happy shopping! Read more →

Stitched Stamping: United We Flourish Ellen Hutson & Waffle Flower

Hello, Crafters! After a little bit of a break Ellen Hutson's United We Flourish campaign is back, bringing you a beautiful stitching stamp and coordinating die set by Waffle Flower called Stitched Together: And here are some projects I created with it: This clear stamp set is a 5-step layering set that creates this beautiful world globe, filled with flowers and leaves as the land! You can download this stamping guide to assist you HERE: Your stamp guide or MISTI will be of great assistance for this set (especially when stamping multiple projects) but since it is clear, you can probably eyeball it just as easily. Here are some of my step-out photos, using my MISTI. I tried stamping the globe stand both ways, first and last, and ended up preferring stamping it last -- I felt it was easier to make sure the stand fit around the already-stamped globe. TIP: Either way, make sure the left side and bottom of the stand are lined up straight on your stamp guide or acrylic block. Here's the stand stamped last. I used Memento Summer Sky, Angel Pink (which I ended up changing to Rose Bud for my projects below), Bamboo Leaves,... Read more →

Rainbow Birthday

Hello and happy Monday, Friends ... Today I have a bright rainbow full of birthday cheer for you! This wonderful cupcake image is included in the adorable Memory Box Spring Bunnies stamp set. I love stamp sets that have a ton of versatility, and this one sure does! It's not only great for Easter and Spring, but also babies, love, anniversaries, and birthdays! I stamped the fabulous cupcake image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto X-Press It Blending Card, then colored it up with these Copic markers: Then I die cut the cupcakes with their coordinating Spring Bunnies die set and glittered them with Nuvo Glitter Gloss Aqua Shimmer. Next, I die cut Sentimental Happy Birthday from X-Press It Blending Card and colored it with the same markers, with an ombre effect. To complete the card, I anchored the birthday die cut with a piece of washi tape, and stamped the Sweetest sentiment (also from the Spring Bunnies stamp set). I also wanted to let you know about this great sale happening over at Ellen Hutson LLC on EVERYTHING ! ! Shop early, for the best in-stock selections! Thanks so much for joining me today! SUPPLIES: CL5220 Spring Bunnies clear... Read more →

Beginner Simple Watercolor: Mondo Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)

Hello, Friends ... Happy Sunday! Today I have a simple 2 or 3-color watercolor technique to share with you, using the GORGEOUS new Mondo Sakura stamp set from Julie Ebersole for Essentials by Ellen, available NOW! Tip for beginners: To color this beautiful floral image, first I heat embossed the image with gold detail embossing powder onto watercolor cardstock. The embossing helps to hold your colors within the lines and not bleed into other areas! Then I used Daniel Smith PrimaTek watercolors: Rhodonite (pink) and Jadeite (green). I simply watered down the pink color until it was very light and applied it to all of the flower petals, leaving some white space around the upper edges of each of the petals. Then I just gradually mixed in a little more of the pink color, to deepen the centers and lower edges of the petals. By gradually deepening the color, you can achieve wonderful shading with just one pigment! I did the same thing with the leaves and stems. Once the flowers were colored, I used Dandelion Kirarina WiNK pen to fill in the centers of the stamen. Optional: Add a third color to fill in the background. I used my... Read more →

Create Your Own Die Cut Stencils

Happy Friday, Friends! To go along with the current new Memory Box Challenge #37 to use Insects, Butterflies, or Dragonflies on your projects, I created this card: I had fun watercoloring my die cuts again! The Honeycomb Square was die cut from watercolor paper I colored with gold metallic watercolor ... it has such pretty golden shimmer! The beautiful Intricate Bee was watercolored with yellow and light black, to help keep it soft and subtle. The bee's wings were watercolored with a white/silver mixture and the cut-outs left/held in place by placing foam mounting tape under them. Create Your Own Stencil: The background was created by die cutting the Hex Collage out of adhesive stencil material and using it as a stencil to apply aqua watercolor onto a watercolor paper panel. To finish the card, leftover black watercolor was flicked onto the background and the Bee Yourself sentiment stamped in Memento Gray Flannel. I hope you'll join in this month's Memory Box Challenge and create your own Insect/Butterfly/Dragonfly project, for the chance to win some wonderful Memory Box dies! SUPPLIES: 99920 Intricate Bee craft die 99921 Honeycomb Square craft die 99990 Hex Collage craft die CL5222 Bee Yourself clear stamp... Read more →

Watercolored Die Cuts

Happy Friday, Friends! Today I'm sharing how you can watercolor your die cuts, to create a project quickly and easily, by cutting all the elements from white watercolor paper then watercoloring each of the pieces! For this card, I used two different colors (deep blue and deep purple) of Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors on damp watercolor paper, let it dry, then splattered the background with white watercolor to create a starry effect. Next, I die cut the Starry Ring from the upper left corner of the background, then mounted the background to a white card base. The Roaring Rocket and its flames were die cut from white watercolor paper, then the rocket pieces watercolored with silver, white, black, blue and violet: I finished the card by heat embossing the Outta this World sentiment in white onto black cardstock. Both the rocket and the sentiment piece were popped up with foam tape. Clear sequins were scattered over the background. Thanks so much for joining me today ... I hope you'll give watercoloring your die cuts a try! Happy weekend! SUPPLIES: 99975 Roaring Rocket craft die 99972 Starry Ring craft die CL5221 Outta This World clear stamp set Ranger Watercolor Paper, 10... Read more →

Watercolor 2 Ways: Textured Watercolor

Happy Friday and weekend, crafty friends ... Sharon Harnist here with you again! Today I have two styles of watercolored cards to share, because I couldn't make up my mind which I preferred! I would love to hear which is your favorite, below in the comments! My first card boasts a new technique I haven't seen anyone else share, and it was a fun experiment ... I hope you like it! I call this one "Textured Watercolor". To begin, I painted gesso onto heavyweight white cardstock using a regular paint brush and let it dry. You will naturally get some paint strokes in the gesso and this is what you want ... it creates some great texture in the final project! After the gesso was dry, I used Avery Elle Liquid Watercolors on top of the gesso. My original intent was to apply the watercolor directly from the bottle to the top of the tilted cardstock panel and just let them run down the panel, creating whatever pattern occured. While this could create a really great background, it just wasn't what I was looking for the background for this card. Instead, I took a watercolor brush and smoothed the watercolor... Read more →

Partial Die Cutting: Hot Mess!

By now you've heard the news: There are two new Leading Ladies over at Ellen Hutson LLC! These fabulous Ladies are the awesome creation of Brandi Kincaid, exclusively for the Essentials by Ellen line. Today I have another example of partial die cutting, along the right edge of this card: Here's how she was created: First, I used my Misti to stamp the Hot Mess Lady onto watercolor paper. The rough texture of watercolor paper sometimes prevents a crisp, fully stamped image. If that happens, it is easy to re-stamp the image again using the Misti! I'm loving my new bar magnets (wrapped with glitter tape for easy handling) and easy wipe mouse pad made for the Misti! Next, I placed my top die cutting pad along the right edge of the paper, where I wanted to cut away the area around Hot Mess's hand using her coordinating die. When you run this sandwich through your die cutting machine, it will only cut the paper where the top plate covers it: Next, use your paper trimmer to finish cutting a straight line above and below her arm, trimming away the excess: Here, I placed a piece of bright paper behind... Read more →

Partial Die Cutting: Everyday Hero!

Hello and happy Sunday ... There are some new Leading Ladies in town today! Just in time for Mother's Day, or any occasion you may have for any of the "Leading Ladies" in your life! Here's how this top-hinged, partially die cut card came together . . . First, I stamped Everyday Hero with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto a Neenah 110 Lb. Solar White cardstock panel. If I had known how I would finish this card, I would have stamped her onto a top-folding card base, so take note of that if you would like to re-create this card! :) Then I colored her with these Copic Sketch Markers: (Not photographed - Skin: E00, E11, E121); Pictured below - Shirt: R22, R24, R27; Jeans: B21 (Pictured below) - Jeans: B23, B26; Cape & Headband/Crown: Y08, YR21, YR23, E33; Hair: T0, T1, T2, T6 Then I partially die cut just her legs by placing my top die cutting plate only over the lower portion of the panel I wanted cut away. Using a ruler, I placed pencil marks across the bottom of the panel where I wanted to cut away the lower quarter (you can see those just above the... Read more →