Cut 'n Paste

With a thankful heart, I am pleased to share that we are tentatively SOLD out for La Dolce Vita 2019, the women's creative retreat that I host in Italy, pending the payment of deposits. However, typically there is some movement on those lists as we have many months to go before the retreat takes place. So, if you would like to join us, please email me at ladolcevitaretreat@gmail.com and ask to be put on the wait list. There is no obligation, and the wait list is notified about any spots that open up before they are offered to the general public. Also, please take this opportunity to sign up for the "La Dolce Vita" newsletter, which you can find by clicking here. As a newsletter subscriber you will be able to keep up with our latest news - and find out when we launch future retreats.

Last Chance discount on some great Essentials by Ellen Stamp sets

My friends at Ellen Hutson, LLC are having a huge clearance sale on some retiring Essentials by Ellen stamp sets - we're talking 40% discounts! HERE is the link to the sale category on their website. And here are a few samples I've made with some of the sets that are on sale:

This Christmas Tree tag is made using the "TREE FARM" Stamp and Die sets. For the original post, please click on this link, which will take you to a walk through of the project and the complete supply list.

This card features the "HOMESPUN HOLIDAY" Stamps sets. For the original post, please click on this link, which will take you to a video tutorial of the project and the complete supply list.

This tag features the "ELF'D" Stamp and Die sets. For the original post, please click on this link, which will take you to a video tutorial and the complete supply list.

There are so many other cool sets available too - some floral, some fall, some greetings.... happy shopping!

La Dolce Vita 2019 Special Guest and Website LIVE announcement

La Dolce Vita is a week-long celebration of creativity and community that I host in Tuscany. It is a place where women gather and through planned activities and special touches feel valued, encouraged, and inspired. I am incredibly excited to share that the La Dolce Vita 2019 website is now LIVE! 

I invite you to imagine a week spent at a historical olive farm enjoying views to die for, eating the best Italian food you've had in your life, and shopping at markets where you will find everything from comfy linen tops and dresses to antique bric a brac galore. Throw in culinary and creative workshops, talented special guests, and a group of inspiring attendees and you've got a snapshot of why La Dolce Vita is so special. It is a week that leaves past attendees and special guests raving, and I invite you to consider joining me in 2019.

Joining me for the May 18-25, 2019 Retreat is author, licensed artist, business titan and kindness personified, Kelly Rae Roberts.

Joining me for the June 1-8, 2019 Retreat is queen of florals, antique market fan and business owner Wendy Brightbill.

Whether you get creative by whipping up fantastic meals for your family and loved ones, can redecorate a room on a shoestring budget, know how to handle a paintbrush like nobody's business, or you haven't thought about creativity since elementary school art classes, you are welcome here. La Dolce Vita has a place for you at the table. Won't you join us?

Please visit our website, www.ladolcevitaforever.com to read detailed information about our program, pricing and payment plans, and testimonials from past attendees. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, I'd be happy to help you out.

General Registration will open on Saturday, September 22, 2018 at 09:00 AM Pacific Standard Time.

Holiday cards blending old with new

 

Holiday crafting is in full swing here so that I'm ready for Christmas when it gets here. Today I wanted to combine something old with something new. The new? The Snowman and Reindeer Spellbinders Die sets from their new Holiday Die D-lites 2018 Collection, the old? The stamp I used for the greeting and the patterned paper base. It's always a great feeling to break out some of the older supplies and put them to use. 

Let's talk about this wee snowman for a minute. Could he be any cuter?! I decided that instead of dressing him in classic colors, I would experiment and put him in a shabby chic color scheme... and, it worked! I loved it! So, meet Frosty, the Shabby Chic Snowman, lol!

SUPPLY LIST FOR BOTH CARDS:
Dies: Die D-Lites Snowman Etched Dies 2018 Holiday, Die D-Lites Reindeer Etched Dies 2018 Holiday, Nestabilities Scalloped Ovals Lg
Patterned paper: Cardmaking Pad 1 by Pebbles
Stamps: Most wonderful time of the year is from an old Studio Calico monthly kit
Catherine Pooler Inks: Midnight
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White, scraps of green, pink, aqua, taupe, brown cardstock
Other: old mother of pearl and plastic buttons, page from an old ledger

After making the snowman, I moved onto the Reindeer Die set. Oh my, is he ever adorable too!

Each card has the identical design, the only difference is which character is in the center of the card. I had so much fun making these and foresee making a few more to give out this holiday season.

Thanks for your visit!

Thanks muchly, an abstract watercolor card

Sometimes it's fun to make a card in a style that's completely different from what you usually make. Typically I like to make feminine cards with beautiful florals or pastels. But every so often the spirit moves and I feel called to make something a little more abstract :) This card is from one of those days. I used the circles from the Essentials by Ellen's Wonky Backdrops Stamp set as my focal points... this is a really fun and versatile set, which can also be seen in action here. After stamping the circles onto white cardstock with Catherine Pooler Midnight ink I watercolored them using Distress inks. This project is nice because it would be really easy to make a pile of cards and by simply switching out the ink colors in the circle you could tailor the cards to all kinds of different recipients. 

HERE'S THE SUPPLY LIST:
Stamps: "Totally Random Saying No.1" and "Wonky Backdrops", both by Essentials by Ellen
Dies: Stitched Tabs by Pretty Pink Posh, A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX Set 1 by My Favorite Things 
Inks: Midnight by Catherine Pooler
Patterned paper: Modern Graphics by Essentials by Ellen, Good Vibes 6x6 paper pad by Crate Paper
Cardstock: Solar White by Neenah
Distress Markers to watercolor with: Worn Lipstick, shabby shutters, pumice stone, Tumbled glass, Spiced Marmalade
Other: Watercolor brushes, Ranger Craft Sheet, MISTI Stamp positioner (large or small, either will work for cards), sewing machine with white thread, Essentials by Ellen Vellum, small old buttons, small scrap of kraft cardstock.

Thanks for your visit today!

Save the date for La Dolce Vita 2019

Creativity and travel are huge passions of mine, and I honor those passions through La Dolce Vita Retreat, a week long creative lifestyle retreat that I lead in Tuscany each May/June. For the past five years it has been the highlight of my year, and I am thankful for attendees who feel the same way.

Yesterday I announced the dates for La Dolce Vita 2019. My team and I have another wondrous week planned and I know that the creative, adventurous women who decide to join us are going to be in for a real treat!

If you're unsure what exactly a "creative lifestyle retreat" is, it's a retreat where we enjoy a melange of actives such as: culinary and creative workshops, antique and weekly market visits, city explorations, and fantastic scenery at a stunning home base. If you visit my @ladolcevitaretreat Instagram account you can see images of activities and locations past attendees have enjoyed. 

So, start looking at your calendars, my friends.

Retreat #1 will be: May 18-25, 2019
Retreat #2 will be: June 1-8, 2019

 

I'll be announcing the special guests who will be joining this Italian adventure next week - they are amazing artists who will be bringing their magic to Italy to share with us. I can't wait!

Essentials by Ellen Animal Toppers - Alcohol ink background with Copics

Merry Christmas! I know, I know, it's only September. But for those of us who love to send holiday cards, this is the time of year when we start to build our collection of home made cards so that we aren't in a crunch for time come December when we want to give them out.

Each year I look forward to the holiday collection that Ellen Hutson adds to her Essentials by Ellen product line. Designer Julie Ebersole always designs a nice combination of elegant (check out the holly image at the bottom of this post) and cute. It was fun to put my spin on these new items! I was challenged to use the Animal Box Toppers and the Winterscapes stamp set for my project. While the box toppers can be used with the coordinating House Box die, which is a part of this release, I used them to create a character that I could put on the front of a greeting card.

HERE'S THE SUPPLY LIST:
Stamps: "Winterscapes" and "Santa's Flight", both by Essentials by Ellen
Dies: Animal Box Toppers by Essentials by Ellen
Inks: Midnight by Catherine Pooler, and Barn Door Distress ink
Cardstock: Classic Cream and Solar White by Neenah
Copic Markers: E35, E37, E71
Other: Moroccan Red Nuvo Drops by Tonic, MISTI Stamp positioner (large or small, either will work for cards), sewing machine with white thread, Essentials by Ellen Vellum, small old buttons, small scrap of kraft cardstock.

While my card design itself is fairly simple, I wanted to make a fun background for the deer pelt. I used my die cutter to die cut two pieces of the deer head with white cardstock and vellum, then glued those two mediums together. Then, I used copic markers (which are made of alcohol ink) to created little pools of brown ink onto the vellum. Because vellum isn't porous the ink sits on top of it, until it evaporates, so you get these cool edges to each pool of color. In the places when I didn't want the hard edges I simply deposited less ink from the marker and tried to feather the edges out.

My reindeer's wee Rudolph nose was made with nuvo drops. Finally, to add a little bit of whimsy, as a final step, I freehand cut two little teeth and added them beneath his muzzle. I think he looks so friendly now!

Thanks for your visit. I hope you enjoyed my contribution to this product release. You can check out the whole collection here on the Ellen Hutson shop.

You are a blessing to me - Cuppa Coffee, Cuppa Tea by Spellbinders

Hi Friends! I hope this first week of September is treating you well. I found a bit of time to escape to my studio earlier this week and I whipped up this card for a friend. She is the kind of person who is always encouraging me, both personally and in my business. Her loving care reminds me that I need to step up my encouragement game too and bless others the way she has blessed me.

I was kindly sent the new Spellbinders Cuppa Love etched dies to join the launch party for this new collection. It is so cute and I love how my card is completely different in feel from the one that they have as a sample on the Spellbinders website. Isn't it cool the way different cardmakers can use the same dies in yet have a totally different feel to their project?!

SUPPLY LIST:
Die: Die d-lites Cuppa Love Etched Dies
Patterned paper from the following 6x6 paper pads: Blush by My Mind's Eye, C'est La Vie by Pink Paislee, Wonder by Crate Paper.
Stamps: Singnature Greetings by Papertrey Ink
Catherine Pooler Inks: Midnight
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White, green cardstock (I'm sorry, I can't find the name/brand)
Other: sewing machine with white thread, page from an old book page

In the image below you can see that I stacked the foliage spray and hearts to give them dimension. For the greenery I cut, then stacked two green cardstock pieces directly on top of each other. Then, I cut a white piece and offset it so that the white became a shadow to the green. For the heart, I stacked 4 layers of the white cardstock ontop of each other. This is a simple, and quite effective way, to create faux chipboard accents!

Thanks for your visit today. As usual, please feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

Summer shifts into Fall

As the calendar gets ready to flip from August to September, the schedule starts to fill up with regular activities again and cooler weather is on the horizon. I was inspired by the coming calendar flip to make a card to send to a friend to welcome this new season.

I used one of my favorite techniques, watercolor stamping, to stamp the wee mushrooms onto watercolor paper. The technique is very easy. Simply color directly onto the stamp with waterbased ink markers (I used Distress Markers), then holding a water mister about 6-8 inches away lightly mist the stamp surface and immediately stamp onto watercolor paper. This will give you the beautiful watercolor effect as seen on my mushrooms! If you try the technique let me know, I'd love to see what you make!

PS - The 6x6 patterned paper pad that I used on todays card, "Good Vibes" is currently on on sale in Ellen Hutson's online shop. It's a fun, bright paper collection that I also used as backgrounds on my cards here and here. 

SUPPLY LIST:
Stamps: "Snailed It" and "Bear Wear 2", both by Essentials by Ellen
Catherine Pooler Inks: Midnight
Patterned paper: Good Vibes 6x6 paper pad by Crate Paper
Watercolor paper: By Ranger
Cardstock: Classic Cream and Solar White by Neenah
Dies: Die-Namics, A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX Set 1 by My Favorite Things  
Distress markers to watercolor with: weathered wood, vintage photo, peeled paint, crushed olive
Other: #8 Kraft Tag by Ranger, MISTI Stamp positioner (large or small, either will work for cards), sewing machine with white thread, Water Spray bottle, Essentials by Ellen Vellum, Twine and old button.

Thanks for your visit!

Happy 70th Birthday

This month my Dad celebrated his 70th birthday, and so I made this card for him. I loved taking a die set that has a distinctly feminine feel, and by simply leaving off the last step, which is the filigree cut, it allowed the numbers to work perfectly for this masculine design. I have also been saving that scrap of antique ledger paper with the "Dr." on it forever. My Father has his doctorate, so I knew that it would be awesome to use it someday on a project for him, and this was that project! The birthday greeting was simply done by using my computer and printing the word onto cardstock.

Here's the supply list for his celebratory card:

Die: Shapeabilities Filigree numbers etched dies by Spellbinders, Oh Happy Day Elegant 3D Vignettes by Spellbinders 
Patterned paper: Strips of patterned papers are from the following 6x6 paper pads: The Pier by Crate Paper, Everyday by Jen Hadfield, Wonder by Crate paper, Antique ledger paper
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White, Bazzill Candy Buttons, Bazzill Banana Split, Platinum pack poster board by Spellbinders
Other: sewing machine with white thread

Thanks for visiting!