Sooner rather than Later: Essentials by Ellen Winter Release 2015 Bog Hop

Monday, February 23, 2015

Essentials by Ellen Winter Release 2015 Bog Hop

Hello, and welcome to the Winter 2015 Essentials by Ellen Release Hop! I'm THRILLED to be participating and will be showcasing several of the new stamp sets and dies on my post today! You're going to love this release, so many wonderful sentiments, images, and dies. OK, here's what I made:

First up, a card featuring the You Rock dies (some of you are lucky enough to have these already as they were part of Ellen's Black Friday special last year, but now they are available for general purchase) and the Hello Gorgeous stamp set.

I wanted to use the gemstone die in a different way, so I die cut a whole slew of them, ran them through my Xyron sticker maker and then adhered them to a panel of cardstock to create a pattern. I wanted to add some extra sparkle, so I cut another group of them from silver glitter paper and then popped the negative cuts into the top of the stones. I think it gives it a slightly Art Deco feel.

I cut a strip out of the panel to create a space for the sentiment, which was embossed in silver. Some thin strips of silver glitter paper accent the opening, and the original panel with the die cuts was popped up for some extra dimension.

My next card features the Folk Heart dies and Love You So stamp set. The dies come wired together, and although I'll eventually snip them apart and use them individual, for this card I just left them together and die cut them several times using three shades of red/pink cardstock.

I freehand cut some hearts from printer paper to use as bases and then assembled the hearts. I wanted to create some shine in the card, so I inked them with Versamark and clear embossed them. I ended up doing this twice to get a really good glazed look.

The hearts were then adhered to the top and bottom panels, and the excess was trimmed away. The sentiment was stamped in Versafine and clear embossed, and then the heart panels were adhered with foam adhesive.

I just had to squeeze in one more card, because the Bold Blooms dies were begging me to use them, and who am I to refuse? This one was just fun, fun, fun to make. I started by die cutting a bunch of blooms and leaves. I positioned the flowers to get an idea of where they would go, and then removed them and 'colored' them in with a paintbrush Dylusions Spray Mists.

Once that was dry I added some dark splatter as well as a little bit of stenciling/paste for some extra texture. I wanted to glam it up a bit, adding a strip of gold cardstock which was stitched on. The flowers were then adhered (just the center part of the flowers). The sentiment comes from the Hello Gorgeous set. I added a bit more stitching to that and then popped it up. A few gold sequins finished it off.

Ok, not for the fun stuff, I get to give this new stamp set, called Hello Gorgeous to a lucky someone! Please leave a comment to enter my giveaway!

There is also a Grand Giveaway in the CLASSroom! To enter, be sure to leave a comment there, and at every stop along the hop by March 2^nd; winners will be announced March 4^th!

Your next stop is Julia Stainton, but here is the full hop order in case you get turned around: