Butterfly Encouragement + Ellen Hutson Coupon

I’m sharing a CAS encouragement card created with the Up the Happy set designed by Julie Ebersole for Essentials by Ellen.

Up the Happy

I colored the stamped butterflies with a variety of Copic markers (practicing my blending of colors that aren’t in the same color family), cut the butterflies with the coordinating die, and attached them to a card base, onto which I’d stamped the sentiment. Some of the butterflies are attached with foam adhesive.

Ellen Hutson is offering 20% off in-stock items today and tomorrow!

Ellen Hutson Coupon

Supplies:

Sunny Summer Days – TE Share Joy Challenge #42

I’m playing along with Taylored Expressions Share Joy Challenge #42.

TE Share Joy Challenge #42

I used the sketch to create a card celebrating summer. I was indirectly influenced by the inspiration photo. The ice cream cone made me think of popsicles, which made me think of flip flops, …).

TE Share Joy Challenge #42

The Little Bits adhered to the die-cut circles, do the heavy lifting here, while the Picture Perfect – Sunny Days frame adds a sentiment and ties the card together.

TE Share Joy Challenge #42

Be sure to head over to the Share Joy Challenge Blog to see more inspiration and to link up your entry!

Supplies:

Freshly Made Sketches #243

I’m playing along with the Freshly Made Sketches #243 Challenge.

FMS243

My take on the sketch:

FMS243

One of my favorite things about challenges is the opportunity to pull from a variety of supplies, often ones I’ve rarely used, as is the case here. For this sketch, I pulled out the Clearly Besotted “Take Flight” stamp set with coordinating dies (I believe it’s now discontinued). I couldn’t picture the plane in any color but red (and didn’t even consider any other colors!), and turned to my favorite color scheme – red/white/blue – for the other elements. I chose a tailored Pink Paislee patterned paper for the background and used a Taylored Expressions embossing folder for the clouds.

Splash! – colourQ challenge #348

I’m playing along with colourQ challenge #348 with a CAS summer-themed card.

CQC348

I thought about this combination of colors for a bit and kept trying to figure out which color should have the most emphasis and which the least. In the end, I decided to give the colors more or less the same amount of emphasis and employed my design friend – repetition.

colourQ challenge #348

I colored Ranger Glossy Cardstock with Distress Inks to cut with the Little Bits – Beach Ball die. I cut the base of the balls and the Mini Caps Alpha & #’s from uncolored Glossy Cardstock. I like how the glossy cardstock emulates the plastic of blow-up beach balls. I colored the background using Loll Thompson’s “splash” watercolor technique using Tumbled Glass Distress Ink- her video is here. I had “splash” on the brain, since that’s what I used for the sentiment!

colourQ challenge #348

Supplies: Tim Holtz wave embossing folder, Taylored Expressions Pockets & Pages – Stitched Essentials, TE Little Bits – Beach Ball, TE Mini Caps Alpha & #’s

Living the Salt Life

I’m constantly on the lookout for nautical-themed stamps and dies. Today I’m sharing a card celebrating the “salt life” in which I’ve combined products from several different companies.

Living the Salt Life

I used two CottageCutz die sets- Pelican and Seagull – to create the seagull standing on the pilings. I colored the die-cut pieces with Distress Inks so that there would be greater variation than I would have achieved had I simply cut the pieces from colored cardstock.

The waves were created with Distress Inks and a Memory Box stencil. The sentiment is from Impression Obsession’s Nautical set.