Sooner rather than Later: Essentials By Ellen Release Blog Hop

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Essentials By Ellen Release Blog Hop

I am thrilled to be participating in the Spring 2015 Essentials by Ellen Release Hop! I’ll be showcasing a few of the new stamp sets and dies In my post today!

And, I also get to give this new stamp set, called Amazing Women to a lucky someone! Please leave a comment to enter my giveaway!

You should have arrived from Catherine Pooler's blog, but the fun begins in the CLASSroom and there is also a Grand Giveaway! To enter, be sure to leave a comment there, and at every stop along the hop by May 5th! Winners will be announced May 8th.

I have three cards to share with you today. The first two feature the Wild Garden dies. These are my very favorite item from this release, so I was thrilled to be assigned the set to work with.

These dies are perfect for inlaying, and my first card is a little bit of a twist on the inlaid technique. I first painted some circles and leaf shapes on mixed media paper using Dylusions Ink sprays. I used two colors for each of the flowers/leaves. I really like mixed media paper as it's a very bright white, very smooth, and doesn't warp too much. Once that was dry the flowers and leaves were die cut. I also die cut the flowers/leaves from black cardstock.

Using the black outline pieces as a guide, the flower petals and the leaves were adhered to the card. I didn't actually adhere the outline, just used it to place the inner portions of the flowers.

Once all the inner portions of the die cuts were adhered, I added the black outlines. These were only adhered in the centers, and I used my fingers to kind of soften/curl the cardstock up to add dimension. I finished it off with a sentiment from the Mondo Magnolia set.

For my second card I first created a base of embossed leaves. I've got a quick little tutorial for you on this.

1) Die cut the leaf from a piece of vellum, using the negative cut as a stencil. Vellum works best because you can see through it and it helps with placement.

2) Using a sponge dauber and Versamark, lightly daub around the edge of the leaf and emboss.

3) Repeat as desired to create cluster/background.

The embossed leaves act as a great base for my die cuts, they fill out the space and add texture and depth.

The sentiment is from the Amazing Women set. The set is perfect for Mother's Day covering the gamut of ladies in your life, but I love the unique sentiments in the set. A few gold and black sequins finish off the card.

Finally, I just had to make something using very appropriately named Mondo Magnolia. It's a gorgeous, big, bold, bloom. There's a matching die, but I was in the mood to fussy cut. I tried to pick yellow papers that slowly graduated in color, getting darker towards the center of the flower. The outer two layers were each stamped/cut twice, and adhered offset to one another in order to create a fuller flower. I also used Copics to color the portions of the petals that curl up in the image.

While I stamped the outer layers of the flower with Memento, I wanted that center spray to really pop, so that was stamped with Versafine and then clear embossed.

For a bold splash/contrast, I added painted acrylic brushstrokes to the card base before adhering the flower. The sentiment, also from Amazing Women, was embossed in white, and a few silver sequins add some sparkle.

OK, that's all for me today. Your next stop is Heather Pulverenti, and I've got the entire hop list below for you too. There's a giveaway on each stop and so many good things to see, so be sure to make your way through, you won't be disappointed!