Essentials by Ellen Winter 2015 Release Blog Hop

The giveaway is now closed – thanks for all of the wonderful comments. The winner is announced on this post.

Welcome to the Essentials by Ellen Winter Release 2015 Blog Hop! I’m showcasing the Wish Big and Fancy Thanks stamp sets along with the Mini Windows and Folk Hearts die sets on my post today!

I get to give the Wish Big stamp set to a lucky someone!  Just leave a comment to enter my giveaway!

There is also a Grand Giveaway in the CLASSroom!  To enter, leave a comment there and at every stop along the hop by March 2nd; winners will be announced March 4th! The full list of hoppers is included at the end of this post.

Let’s get started! For my first project, I used the Wish Big stamp set and the Mini Windows die set for a birthday card.

To begin, I cut a window in the lower-right side of a watercolor paper panel with a die from the Mini Windows die set. (The die cuts three sides of the square, creating a window for the card’s recipient to open.) Next, I stamped and heat embossed the bird, the balloon string, the balloon and the “Wish Big” sentiment and watercolored using pencils. (The sentiment was stamped on a separate piece of watercolor paper from the other images.) The black-and-white strip was stamped with a background stamp. To finish, I taped the “Wish Big” sentiment behind the window and adhered the watercolor panel and black-and-white strip to a white card base.

With the same stamp set, I created a buckle card, a card design I learned to make from Julie Ebersole. I used the square die from the Mini Windows set to create a flap on the card front that works as a buckle.

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When you open the flap, the hippo is revealed! The bird is adhered to a square, which is the same size as the flap and slides into the flap to secure the card.

For this card, I stamped and heat-embossed the hippo, bird, balloon and party hat onto colored cardstock. I then fussy-cut the items and adhered them over the image stamped directly onto the card base and square. The black-and-white striped strip was created in the same manner as the previous card; you can get several strips out of a single stamped background. I drew the balloon string by hand. When folded, this card is 4 1/4″ square.

Now let’s look at some cards created with the Fancy Thanks stamp set and Folk Hearts dies.

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To create the nested hearts, I began by placing the largest heart in the Folk Hearts set inside the rectangle die in the MFT Blueprints 1 set to cut the gray panel in my Big Shot. I then took a panel of the pink cardstock and put the next size smaller heart die on it, using the previously cut panel as a guide for placement so that the hearts would line up. I removed the gray panel before running the pink panel through my Big Shot. I cut the red cardstock panel in the same manner. To finish, I stamped the sentiment onto white cardstock and adhered the nesting heart panels one layer at a time to a white cardstock base.

For my final projects, I created two square cards featuring the large “Thanks” sentiment from the Fancy Thanks set. I had the upcoming “bridal season” in mind for these designs.

I heat-embossed the sentiment from Fancy Thanks onto both white and Robin’s Egg cardstock. With a heart die from the Folk Hearts set I cut the heart. For the first card, the heart is a negative die cut and on the second one, it’s a positive die cut.

Supplies:

Here’s the full list of designers hopping today.

Reverse Confetti ABC Valentines

Welcome to this month’s Reverse Confetti Blog Hop. If you were following along from the beginning, you reached me from Lisa Henke’s blog.

I’m sharing two ABC [Anything but a Card] packaging projects designed for Valentine’s Day treats. I chose a preppy color scheme for a twist on traditional Valentine’s Day colors!

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The treat tent, (on the left in the photo above), houses heart-shaped chocolates, but it could just as easily be used to package a nail polish bottle, small soaps, or trial-size cosmetics. To begin its construction, I used the Sweet Treat Tent Confetti Cuts to cut three tent pieces. With my paper trimmer, I trimmed the top tab off of all three. Next, I die cut a heart from one of the tents, the one for the front, with the heart die in the Puppy Love Confetti Cuts set.

I covered the heart cutout with a combination of the Straight Stripes Pretty Panel and the Class Act rounded rectangle, which is the same size as the Pretty Panel. Next I covered the tent front with another tent panel, which I trimmed at the bottom score line. I attached the trimmed tent panel to the tent panel front.

For the scallop bottom, I used Love Note to cut a scallop rectangle. I cut off the two short ends, cut the rectangle in half and trimmed the pieces to the depth of the tent base. Both sides of the treat tent have a scallop bottom treatment.

To finish off the packaging, I added an adhesive letter to the Square Tag for a monogrammed (and personalized) gift tag tied on with navy grosgrain 1/4″ ribbon.

Now let’s take a look at the treat topper. To begin, I cut a rounded rectangle with the die in Documented. I scored the rectangle at its center point approximately 5/8″ from the left and the right. Next I positioned the large heart die from the Heart to Heart Confetti Cuts set in the center of the panel. I placed the top plate of the cutting sandwich on the score line and ran it through my Big Shot. In this manner, only the top part of the heart was cut.

I scored the rectangle on the score lines and embellished it with die cuts cut with Heart LoveArrow and Love Note. The arrow was cut in the middle so that I could extend it a bit. The top heart is attached with dimensional adhesive, as is the love sentiment.

Thanks for joining me today! Next on the list is Kathy Martin’s blog. Comment at each stop along the way for a chance to win a $15 gift certificate. Comments close Thursday at noon CST; the winner will be announced on Friday.

Reverse Confetti Blog Hop

The wait is over! REVERSE CONFETTI has just released SIX stamp sets, EIGHT Confetti Cuts and Quick Card Panels!! There’s something for everyone in this release – whether you’re working on Valentine’s Day cards, putting together classroom or party treats, documenting your everyday or special days with scrapbooking, …

The hop started on the Reverse Confetti blog, and you should have made it here from Lisa’s blog. It would be worth your while to start at the beginning of the hop, so you don’t miss a thing. We have tons of inspiration for you to see using all the new Reverse Confetti stamp sets and dies!

To begin, I’m sharing a Valentine’s Day card that combines several of the newly released Pretty Panels – Heart Love and Big Chevron.

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Next, here are Pocket Scrapbooking pages using Here’s the Story, Right Here Right Now and the Documented Confetti cuts.

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I used the round-corner rectangle die in Documented to cut out journaling cards and photographs. I printed my journaling onto cardstock and then stamped the lines, from the Right Here Right Now set. For some variety, I heat-embossed one of the sentiments from Here’s the Story and added it to the journaling card. (As an alternative, I could have simply stamped the sentiment and the lines on a card and hand-written my journaling.) For the embellishment in the lower photo, I cut an arrow with Documented and added “love” from the Heart Love Pretty Panel.

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For the card in the upper-left, I heat-embossed the “Today” from Right Here Right Now. The cut out heart embellishment (bottom photo) was created with the Love Note heart die and a die in the Class Act set.

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To embellish the quote card, I used the arrow in Documented topped with the stamped “on this date” from Right Here Right Now.

I hope you’ve enjoyed hopping with us today. Be sure and hop with us on the 8th of EVERY MONTH for more REVERSE CONFETTI inspiration! Now it’s time to hop on over to Kathy’s blog. If you get lost along the way, you can find the hop order and list of all the participating designers over on the Reverse Confetti blog.