Ellen Hutson Pin-sights Challenge and a Giveaway!

I'm really excited today to be guest designing for the Ellen Hutson Pin-Sights challenge.

The Essentials by Ellen Pin-Sights challenge is a monthly inspirational challenge based on a Pinterest Inspired photo/board.  Here's this months's board:



A random challenge participant will receive a $50 gift certificate to the Ellen Hutson store.  



To be eligible, you MUST use Essentials by Ellen products and the photo badge as inspiration. There will be an inlinkz on the CLASSroom challenge post where you can link up.

I got a little carried away and ended making two cards. 



This first card didn't turn out the way I planned.  I had planned to work in some florals, but for some reason this card wanted to be a Christmas card.  

I started by clear embossing some of the scribbled circle stamps and dots from the Boken Dots stamp set on some Mixed Media paper.    

Using my Kuretake watercolors, I added some dry brushstrokes in the colors from the inspiration board.  When that was dry, the embossing was ironed off.  



Using second generation stamping, in Versafine Smokey Gray, I re stamped the scribbled circle and dots.  I wasn't trying to line them up, I wanted to just create another layer.  Then I stamped the sentiment and stars, from the Brushstroke Christmas set, and embossed them in gold.  

The card was finished off with a bit of splatter, some sequins and some stitching.  



My second card is similar, but a little more controlled.  I started by creating a banal with cardstock strips in the inspiration colors.  I added some white acrylic paint in the corner and stamped the sentiment from Love You So.

Then I added some black die cuts.  Most are from my favorite set, the Bold Blossom Stand Alone dies.  I did add a solid die cut from the Matching set beneath the large bloom and a couple of sprays from the Wild Garden dies.



To soften things a bit I added some vellum cuts slightly offset from the leaves and sprays as well as a few sequins.  I also used my Wink of Stella pen on the little berry ends of the spray for some sparkle.  

I mentioned a giveaway right?  I have an extra set of my favorites, the Bold Blossom Stand Alone dies for one lucky winner.  



Just leave a comment by next Thursday the 27th and I'll announce a winner on the 28th.  Leave an extra comment if you're a follower and let me know how you follow:  Feedly, Bloglovin, Blogger, etc.  

OK please head over to the CLASSroom to check out the full post and see what the rest of the guest designers created, and be sure to join in!