Cut 'n Paste: Stamping

A bold Baby Card

When I was a kid, there was a super catchy insulation advertisement here in Canada by Owens Corning for their pink insulation with the tag line "Do it right. Do it Pink." Even though I had no need for their product, the ad stuck with me (I still sing the "la, la, la, la, la" riff from time to time) and my pink lovin' soul was in total accord with their motto, lol!

So, let's think pink with today's CAS card. The big, bold flamingo stamp was the true star of the show here, with the only additional ornamentation 2 narrow strips of pink cardstock on the card borders.

Because the focal image was so large, it required me to be thoughtful about the placement of the greeting. This is were a stamp positioner comes in really handy. I was able to stamp the flamingo, then position the greeting so that the line of the flamingo's neck didn't cross through any of the open centres of any of the letters.

After stamping the flamingo with waterproof ink onto watercolor paper, I used my Distress markers (see colours below) to paint it pink. To do this, I scribbled the markers onto the Ranger Craft Sheet which I used as my palette. Then, I sprayed drops of water just below the ink and, using my paintbrush, mixed water with ink to make my watercolours.

Thanks for your visit today, it felt like a bit of a walk down memory lane.

SUPPLY LIST:
Stamps: Tickled Pink Flamingo by Colorado Craft Company
Ink: Potting Soil Archival ink by Ranger
Distress ink markers: Worn Lipstick, Dried Marigold, Abandoned Coral, Tattered Rose, Spun Sugar, Scattered Straw, Fossilized Amber, Walnut Stain, Black Soot by Ranger
Cardstock: Ranger Watercolor paper, Rose Quartz by Bazzill, Solar White by Neenah for my card base
Other: Watercolour brush by Zig, Non Stick Craft Sheet by Ranger, MISTI Stamp positioner (large or small, either will work for cards), Water Mist bottle Ranger or Hero Arts

Posted at 06:00 AM in Cards, Stamping | Permalink | Comments (0)

Love you Mom

Mother's Day is approaching fast, so today I am joining some of my fellow Ellen Hutson designers with a compilation post on the EH blog sharing some sweet Mother's Day card ideas - be sure to click on over and check it out for more inspiration!

Because I didn't have a specific Mother's Day greeting stamp, I looked through my stash trying to find a greeting that could be stretched to fit Mother's Day, and this "love you" sentiment seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

I opted to create a patchwork base for my card, using patterned paper from a variety of manufacturers. When I create this type of card, the first thing I do is decide on the focal point of the card, which was one of the floral stamps from the Bouquet Builder set by Waffle Flower. Then, I go through my patterned papers to decide which papers I will combine to create the patchwork. Typically I try to combine papers that have different scale, different values/depth of colour and while this card is somewhat monochromatic, I usually also like to add pops of complementary colour too.

Final tip, in the photo above, you can see how some of the blooms and leaves are a slight bit raised off the background. This is a simple, but important step to add depth and visual interest to the card front. In this card I did it by applying Foam tape behind a few different areas of the floral accent, leaving some of the elements glued flat onto the card, base, and others slightly raised.

Thanks for your visit today. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

SUPPLY LIST:
Stamps: Bouquet Builder 6 by Waffle Flower, Small Sayings by Ellen Hutson
Die Cut: Bouquet Builder 6 by Waffle Flower, Stitching Lines by Ellen Hutson
Ink: Potting Soil Archival ink by Ranger
Distress Markers to watercolor with: Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberry, Mowed Lawn, Shabby Shutters
Cardstock: Ranger Watercolor paper, Solar White by Neenah
Patterned Paper: Spring Fling by Lawn Fawn, Spiffy Speckles Petite paper packs by Lawn fawn, Cottage Stripes and Dots by Memory Box
Other: Die Cutting machine, Scrapbook Adhesives Crafty Foam Tape, Non-Stick Craft Sheet by Ranger, Watercolour brushes, sewing machine and white thread

Posted at 06:00 AM in Cards, Stamping | Permalink | Comments (1)

Merry, Merry, Merry, a Christmas card

I am a pink girl through and through. I love it as a colour to wear, decorate with, and of course to craft with. So I always love it when I find a way to make pink work in Christmas crafting projects. I especially love how this card turned out and feel like even though it uses untraditional colours, it still feels festive and joyful.

I also love to sew on my cards, and felt like stitching would be the perfect accent to add to the card while allowing the die cut sentiment to shine as the focal point. Finally, the wee sprig of holly, from Ellen Hutson's Holiday Characters stamp set added a bit of extra colour and holiday cheer.

Thanks for your visit today, and I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

SUPPLY LIST:
Stamps: Holiday Characters by Ellen Hutson
Die Cut: Merry, merry Dies by The Stamp Market
Cardstock: Peony and Cherry by Hero Arts
Distress Markers to watercolor with: Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn, Festive Berries
Other: Watercolour brushes, Die Cutting machine, sewing machine and white thread.

Posted at 06:00 AM in Cards, Ellen Hutson, Stamping | Permalink | Comments (1)

Merry Christmas, a watercolor stamped card

'Tis the season, friends! How are your Christmas preparations coming along? I've been nesting, baking, decorating, and listening to my favorite holiday music on repeat all day long. Alongside these things, I've spent a bit of time in my studio making some greeting cards to give during our family celebrations.

Today's card speaks to my shabby chic loving heart. It's soft and pretty while also being clean and simple. Using Penny Black's "Xmas Sprig", I colored directly onto the stamp using Ranger Distress markers, then spritzed with water before stamping it onto watercolor paper. This is a simple way to get that soft, watercolor look, without spending the time (or having the talent!) to actually watercolor!

SUPPLY LIST:
Stamps: "Xmas Sprig" by Penny Black, and "Bear Ware 2" by Essentials by Ellen
Ink: Potting Soil by Ranger
Patterned paper: Patio Party by Jen Hadfield
Cardstock: Ranger Watercolor paper, Caramel Apple by Bazzill
Distress Markers to watercolor with: Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn, Festive Berries, Walnut Stain, Shabby Shutters
Other: MISTI Stamp positioner (large or small, either will work for cards), Water Mist bottle Ranger or Hero Arts

Posted at 12:38 PM in Cards, Ellen Hutson, Stamping | Permalink | Comments (0)

You're my kind of person encouragement card

Happy Monday and last day of September! This month has FLOWN by, and I'm so excited about heading into October and fall weather.

Over the past year+ I've fallen in love with The Stamp Market products. The owner, Amy Yingling, combines modern typography and designs that fit in beautifully with my vintage style. So, today I want to share a card I made featuring one of their beautiful floral stamp sets. I combined it with a sweet greeting from Pretty Pink Posh to make an encouragement card for a friend.

Have a wonderful week, friends!

SUPPLY LIST:
Stamps: Summer Stems by The Stamp Market; Simple sayings kind by Pretty Pink Posh.
Dies: Summer Stems by The Stamp Market; Fringed Scallop Borders by My Favorite things
Inks: It's a Girl, Be Mine, and Sauna by Catherine Pooler; Potting Soil archival ink by Ranger.
Cardstock: Solar White by Neenah, Pale Rose by Bazzill
Patterned paper: Spiffy Speckles Petite paper packs by Lawn fawn
Other: MISTI Stamp positioner (large or small, either will work for cards), sewing machine and white thread, 3D Foam adhesive

Posted at 10:47 AM in Cards, Stamping | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ellen Hutson March Release Celebration!

You guys! I am in love with this new stamp set, So Matcha, by Julie Ebersol for Ellen Hutson - can you even? How cute are those little girls?! Today I'm a part of the release celebration for the brand new March release from Ellen Hutson and I'm so pleased to be here because these stamps were barely in my hand for a hot minute before I had the vision of what I wanted to create in my head.

Let's jump right in. As you can see from the image above, I made a set of cards with complimentary colors that were meant to evoke the feeling of Spring. (Can you tell I'm tired of winter?!)

For my first card, above, here is the supply list:

Stamps: So Matcha by Essentials by Ellen, Good Fortune by Essentials by Ellen
Die: So Matcha by Essentials by Ellen
Copic Markers: RV11, RV13, G21, G24, W0, W2, W3, E35
Distress markers to color the bamboo: Bundled Sage, Antique Linen
Black ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White
Other: Clear Wink of Stella, MISTI Stamp positioner (large or small, either will work for cards)

Stamps: So Matcha by Essentials by Ellen
Die: My Favorite Things Stitched Diagonal STAX Rectangle, So Matcha by Essentials by Ellen
Copic Markers: G21, G24, W0, W3, E35
Ink: Picked Raspberry Distress ink
Black ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White
Other: Clear Wink of Stella, Ranger Blending Tool, MISTI Stamp positioner (large or small, either will work for cards)

Thank you for joining me today to see my take on these adorable new Essentials by Ellen sets. Let me know if you decide to pick any of them up - I'd love to see what you do with them!

Posted at 08:56 PM in Cards, Ellen Hutson, Stamping | Permalink | Comments (3)

Getting to know the Ellen Hutson team Blog hop

I'm so pleased to be a part of the Ellen Hutson design team for another year and we're sending you on a blog hop today so that you can get to know each of the talented artists who are a part of the team.

My name is Carolyn, welcome! if you haven't met me before here's a little bit about me: I love to craft with my preferred style being feminine, clean & simple and vintage-shabby. My love of travel, antiques and creativity has also led me to hosting/owning a women's creative retreat in Tuscany, Italy. My husband of twenty years and I live in a suburb of Vancouver, Canada.

Even as a seasoned card maker, I enjoy learning tips & tricks from other crafters. My favorite tip/trick is to add sewing to a project. It adds subtle texture and a homespun quality. On many of my projects I feel like the sewing elevates the card/layout from something I like to something that I LOVE. You don't need a fancy sewing machine for this technique - in fact, I actually recommend that you try to find one at a garage sale or thrift store. That way you don't have to worry about sewing over adhesive, or other things that would be of concern if you spent a lot of money on a machine. Also, while a ton of fancy stitches are fun, 99.9% of my paper sewing is done with a straight or zigzag stitch, two stitches that the most basic of sewing machines usually come with, so you really don't have to drop a ton of money to find a machine that will work well for paper crafting.

Here's the supply list for the card I'm sharing today:

Stamps: Thistle by Essentials by Ellen, Many thanks by Mama Elephant
Die: My Favorite Things Stitched Diagonal STAX Rectangle
Paint: #10 White by Kuretake
Markers/Ink: Picked Raspberry: marker\ink, Worn Lipstick: marker\ink, Shabby shutters: marker\ink, Mowed Lawn: marker\ink
Black ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White, Ranger Watercolor paper, Bazzill Gold Foil paper
Patterned paper: Magnolia Jane 12x12 paper pad by Heidi Swapp, My Favorite Things Striped Kraft 6x6 paper pad
Adhesives: Thin 3D foam squares
Paintbrush: Tonic Watercolor brush set
Other: Vintage buttons and embroidery floss to sew them, sewing machine and white thread.

To close out, here are a few lighthearted Q&As:

Coffee or tea? Tea. And, if it's black tea, always with milk and sugar.
How did you come up with your blog name? Oh my, I set this up so long ago... I think it was just that I wanted a saying that described what I do: "Cut 'n Paste". Then, my byline: "the adventures of a crafty girl" further opened it up so that I could talk about all kinds of different things, art, travel, jewelry design, home design, etc.
Tell us one silly/random/interesting tidbit about yourself! Growing up, my family watched very few 'current' movies. Instead we were raised on Classic Cinema. I think I've seen every Laurel and Hardy movie known to men many times, and my favorite movies tend to be ones no one has heard of: "It Started with Eve" starring Deanna Durbin and "Ball of Fire" starring Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper are two that I especially love. If you like screwball comedy with a bit of romance those two films are real gems.

Thank you for joining me on this hop today. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Your next stop is the blog of Elena Roussakis. And if you get lost, you can always start again in the Ellen Hutson CLASSroom.

Here is today's hop roster:

Ardyth Percy-Robb
Carissa Wiley
Carly Tee Minner
Carolyn Peeler <-----YOU ARE HERE
Elena Roussakis
Emily Midgett
Heather Campbell
Julia Stainton
Julie Ebersole
Justine Hovey
Kelly Griglione
Kittie Caracciolo
Laurel Beard
Lisa Adametz
Lisa Spangler
Lydia Evans
Michele Ferguson
Sandy Allnock
Sharon Harnist
Therese Calvird

Posted at 06:00 AM in Cards, Ellen Hutson, Stamping | Permalink | Comments (72)

Sending you Love...

Today I'm part of a blog hop welcoming the Catherine Pooler brand of stamping products into Ellen Hutson's store. I had never worked with Catherine's products before being sent some products to work with for this hop and man, what a great introduction it was! Her inks are really juicy and stamp so evenly - I am a fan, and already have my eye on several of her softer colors from the Spring Fling collection. This card gets it's magic by the use of various depths for the elements and the addition of several textures to up the shabby-chic quotient!

To get started, here's supply list for today's card:

Stamps/Dies: Love Grows STAMP | DIE
Catherine Pooler Inks: Rose Petals,Seafoam, Polished, Shea Butter, Stone Blue
Black ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock: Bazzill Icy Mint, Neenah Solar White
Patterned paper: Magnolia Jane 12x12 paper pad by Heidi Swapp
Adhesives: Thin 3D foam squares
Other: Old ledger paper, Vintage buttons and embroidery floss to sew them, sewing machine and white thread, seam binding.

A walk through the design process:

First, I used several inks from the Catherine Pooler Zen Garden collection to stamp an assortment of flowers and leaves. I overstamped so that I had a lot of options when it came time to assemble the card. The great thing about doing that, is that I now have a bunch of unused flowers to use for another project.

The heart was free cut from old ledger paper, then sewed onto a white cardstock rectangle. I do this so that at the end I can glue this rectangle onto a card front, thereby hiding the stitching so that it's not visible in the inside of the card. Next I glued a strip of brick patterned paper onto the bottom of the card, and then stamped the 'love' with Stone Blue ink.

The most challenging part of this project was deciding on the placement of the flowers. It took a few minutes of trying a few different things before I settled on the positioning you see here. Some of the flowers were glued directly to the card background, others were placed on 3D pop dots to elevate them a bit.

I tied a piece of cream seam binding into a double bow across the line where the brick patterned paper and the white cardstock met. I then glued the rectanlge card front onto a piece of light blue cardstock so that there was a pretty border along each side of the card front.

The final step was to stamp "sending you" onto a small strip of white cardstock and glue it, using 3D foam adhesives, to the left of the word 'love'. You'll notice that the stamp actually says "sending you a", however, I simply didn't ink the final letter which allowed the greeting to say what I wanted it to say.

Thank you for joining me on this hop today. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Your next stop is the blog of Emily Midgett. And if you get lost, you can always start again in the Ellen Hutson CLASSroom.

Here is today's hop roster:

Posted at 06:00 AM in Cards, Ellen Hutson, Stamping | Permalink | Comments (28)

Poppin' Bottles...

Hello! Welcome to the Essentials by Ellen December release blog hop. I'm delighted you stopped by and am happy to share my project with you. If you've been following along with the hop, you will have come here from the blog of Carly Tee Minner.

I was challenged to work with the new Bottles of Bubbly die which I combined with a stamp from the brand new Cue the Confetti set.

This set came at the perfect time for me as my husband, who works in law enforcement, was just promoted to Sergeant. So we're "Poppin' Bottles" indeed!

First, for the products: The A2 card base and white cardstock are Neenah Solar White heavy cardstock, the patterned paper is the Modern Graphics by Essentials by Ellen and the gold Paper is Gold Foil by Bazzill.

Stamp: Essentials by Ellen Cue the Confetti

Die: Essentials by Ellen Bottles of Bubbly

Ink: Clear Emboss It by Ranger

Embossing ink: Gold by Hero Arts

To start, I cut a piece of white cardstock slightly narrower and shorter than the front of an A2 card. To that, I cut the bottle with my die cutting machine. The next step is to do the gold embossing of the greeting. Then, I choose the black and white dotted patterned paper and glued it directly to the back of this white cardstock. I loved this particular paper design because it reminds me of bubbles rising to the top of the bottle - a great design for this purpose!

I glued small strips of the gold oil paper and black and white patterned paper directly to the A2 card front as seen in the sample card, then used 3D foam dots to stick the white cardstock with the bottle on it to the card front so that that piece is layered above the backgrounds.

Thank you for joining me on this hop today. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Your next stop is the blog of the amazingly generous and creative Jennifer McGuire. And if you get lost, you can always start again in the Ellen Hutson CLASSroom.

Here is today's hop roster:
Julie Ebersole   http://papertrufflez.com
Brandi Kincaid   www.brandikincaid.com/blog/
Kittie Caracciolo   http://kittiekraft.typepad.com/
Carly Tee Minner   www.carlytee.com
Carolyn Peeler   http://www.carolynpeeler.typepad.com/ <------ YOU ARE HERE
Jennifer McGuire http://www.jennifermcguireink.com/blog

Posted at 06:00 AM in Cards, Ellen Hutson, Stamping | Permalink | Comments (59)

G'day!

Hi friends, I'm back with another card project for you today featuring the brand new Essentials by Ellen United We Flourish set, G’Day Mate by Avery Elle. I had so much fun with this one!

First, let me tell you a bit about Ellen Hutson's United we Flourish program. Here's what she says about it:

Last November we began celebrating our 10th anniversary with the theme United We Flourish. And what does United We Flourish mean? It means that our company would not be here without the amazing companies we work with, the designers who create stunning projects showcasing the wonderful products being created AND you, our fabulous customers! YOU are such a vital part of our creative community - you inspire & encourage us! Your response to United We Flourish was overwhelming and heart-warming. We heard repeatedly from you that you appreciate how our little company works together with the other manufacturers we carry to bring you their products and education showing how to use those products. To thank you for your constant support and encouragement, we have partnered with some of our friends to offer exclusive limited edition stamp & die sets!!! These sets will be available for a limited time (most likely 3-6 months) after each release, depending on how quickly you snap them up. The theme of these stamps sets are uplifting and fun.

Awesome, right?

So onto my contribution with this cute set. I chose to use the kangaroo stamp as she is so adorable.

Along with the stamp set, I used watercolor paper and the following watercolors:
Daniel Smith Bronzite Genuine
Kuretake No. 43 - Mid Yellow
Kuretake No. 90 - Gold

I stamped the kanagroo with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, then colored her with Copic markers in the following colors: E11, E13 (currently only the refill is available in the store), E23, E33, W3.To attach her to the card, I used 3D foam stickers which set her off from the background to give depth. Finally, I glued the watercolor paper onto Taylored Expressions Lemon Meringue cardstock.