Ellen Hutson Mondo Peony and Paper Cutting

We're already almost halfway through the current 30 Day Coloring Challenge, and I haven't managed to participate, so I pulled out the Mondo Peony set from Ellen Hutson and got to work.

Normally I like to color my flowers in very bold colors, I think light tones scare me.  I decided to try my hand at some light colors for this one, using R000, R00, and R02.

Once I had my flowers colored, I fussy cut them.  I do have the coordinating dies for this set, but wanted a really crisp clean look without the little halo that comes with coordinating dies.

I paired this first flower with a really gorgeous print from an old Studio Calico paper pad.  The print was trimmed down so it was centered on my panel.  To add a little interest, I used a cutting knife to trim out portions of the pattern.

The patterned paper was adhered to a white panel, and then to my card base.

The flower was popped up with foam tape, and I added a sentiment from my Lovely Lotus set for Neat and Tangled which was also popped up.

For this next card, I used some patterned papers from Pinkfresh Studio which was fussy cut with scissors.

The background paper with the elongated hexagons was cut around the pattern to create a dynamic edge.  I added a strip of another patterned paper from the paper pad at the bottom to ground the panel, and then used foam tape to pop up the fussy cut piece.

The flower was then adhered to the panel, and another sentiment from Lovely Lotus was added.

It's been quite a week here!  Hope that everyone is staying safe and healthy!

*Affiliate Links Below

Obsidian Amalgam, Gina K Designs Ink Pad

Mondo Peony by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps

R000 - Cherry White, COPIC Sketch Marker

R00 - Pinkish White, COPIC Sketch Marker

R02 - Rose Salmon, COPIC Sketch Marker

Variations on a Theme, Another Card Set

It's funny because I almost never make card sets, but in the last couple months I've made several, and I'm really enjoying the process.

It's fun to be able eto take out a new set and use multiple images at once.  Otherwise, I find that I'll use a new set, put it away, and not get back to it again for months or even years.

I also love when I find a product that can do double, or in this case, quadruple duty.  I'm talking about this Oh, Hello There die from Simon Says Stamp.  I love that it cuts the three words separately, so you can use different combinations of the words as I did with these cards.

The images are from Picket Fence Studio's Sweet Dear Friend set, and I used sentiments from Neat & Tangled, mostly from the So Many Sentiments set, but also one from the Lovely Lotus set.

I started by die cutting my sentiments and then playing with the placement on some panels of Neenah White cardstock.  I also had the stamp sets with me so I could figure out which girl/sentiments went best with each of the die cut sentiment combinations.

Once I had figured out the general layout of the cards, I stamped the girls using Gina K Black Amalgam Ink.

The girls were then colored with Copics.  I did use my normal three color, but I used a very light color for the base coat and very sparing touches of the darker colors to emphasize the light airy feel that the girls have.

Once my panels were colored, I adhered the die cuts and added the secondary sentiments.

I also added a colored mat for each of the panels.

I really love these little girl images, they have so much personality.

Thanks for visiting, hope your week is going well!  We're in the final push to back to school (we start next Tuesday), and we have birthday parties for both girls this weekend, so it's getting a little crazy around here!

Blessed to Know you with Neat & Tangled Lovely Lotus

Hi all!  I'm over on the Neat & Tangled blog today sharing this card featuring the Lovely Lotus stamp set and Parquet stencil.

I started by stamping my images with Fairy Dust ink from WPlus9.  It's a very light gray which is great for no line coloring.  In this case you still see a bit of the gray though because the colors I used for my coloring were so light (RV000, RV00, RV10 and YG01, YG61, YG63, along with the colorless blender).

Because the gray still showed a bit, I figured I would fight fire with fire and added some accents in gray using an N1 marker.  

Once my coloring was done, I die cut the images, and then arranged them over top a panel I created by misting my Parquet stencil with some white Dylusions spray over a very dark gray cardstock piece.  

The front most flower was popped up with some adhesive foam.  Since it was so close to the bottom of the panel, I could trim off the bottom of the stem and use that to double as the stem for the first flower.

The sentiment is also from the Lovely Lotus set and was popped up over the florals with two layers of foam tape.

That's all for me today.  Thanks so much for visiting!

*Affiliate links in text to Neat & Tangled and below to Ellen Hutson

Lovely Lotus, Neat & Tangled Clear Stamps

Lovely Lotus, Neat & Tangled Dies

COPIC Sketch Marker RV000, Pale Purple

COPIC Sketch Marker RV00, Water Lily

COPIC Sketch Marker RV10, Pale Pink

COPIC Sketch Marker YG01, Green Bice

COPIC Sketch Marker YG61, Pale Moss

COPIC Sketch Marker YG63, Pea Green

COPIC Sketch Marker, 0 Colorless Blender

Neat & Tangled October Release and Giveaways - Day 2

Hi everyone!  Today we're showing off my newest stamp set from Neat & Tangled, Lovely Lotus, along with a new set of versatile dies called Card Front Dies.  

Lotuses are such beautiful delicate flowers that can have a very translucent look.  For this first card I was trying to recreate that translucency.  

The flower was stamped with WPlus9 Fairy Dust ink and then colored with Copics - C1, C3, and C5.  The coloring is a little less 'smooth' than I was hoping for because my C1 marker needs a new tip, but I think it turned out OK.  

The color I chose for the stem ended up being a little too saturated, so I went over it a couple times with my colorless blender and then with the C1 marker to soften and mute it.  

I kept things very clean and simple with some simple patterned papers that read almost as solids, and a sentiment from the set that was embossed on a black  die cut from the Card Front Dies set.

For this next card I focused on the lotus leaves.  I love how big and showy these are, such a contrast to the kind of compact beauty of the flowers.  I've included two leaves in the set, and used both of them here.

The leaves were colored with Copics - YG01, YG13. and YG17.  

Using the card front dies I cut a panel with an oval in the center from some Ellen Hutson patterned paper, and popped that up over my black card base.

The leaves were also popped up and positioned.  I did cut and colored an extra stem to extend that large leaf stem down.

The sentiment is also from the Lovely Lotus set.

OK, I'm going to send you over to the Neat & Tangled blog to check out what the rest of the team created.  Danielle is giving away a set of stamps and dies on the blog, so be sure to leave a comment.

Leave a comment here as well - I'll be drawing some winners for my new release products at the end of the week.  You can earn extra chances on my IG page too (@mprantner).  See you back here tomorrow for something fun and geometric!