Sunday, February 25, 2018

Ellen Hutson Catherine Pooler Hop





Hi Folks! I have loved creating with Catherine Pooler stamps and inks for quite some time now, and could not be happier that their product line is being added to the Ellen Hutson store! To celebrate, the Ellen Hutson team (ack, did I just say that?! Whoo-hoo! It's official, I'm on the team!!) is having a blog hop. You may have come from the one and only Julie Ebersole, but if not, feel free to start at the beginning in the CLASSroom.
 

Catherine and I got to meet a couple years ago at Creativation, but this year was extra special as it was her first year as an Exhibitor. And man, did she kill it, with winning Best New Exhibitor! So proud of her. And her team. They are a fun group to hang out with, that's for sure! I only demo'd the Catherine Pooler Inks for a bit the first day, but often ended up back in their booth the whole rest of the weekend. The top right photo always makes me laugh ... Catherine is getting ready to be filmed and asks the camera man how her hair looks. "Long," he replies. Hahahaha! The last photo is me, Catherine, Ingrid Blackburn (Design Team), Susan Furr (Director of Sales), and Shawna Clingerman (illustrator, including the gorgeous background wall). Good times!

One of the new products that I desperately wanted to play with is the Stained Glass Coverplate designed by none other than Julie Mogford (previously co-owner of Winnie & Walter!) Folks, this die is amazing! I came up with 6 different ways to use it on your card (besides just layering it on top of a background). Let's take a look ...


1) Only remove select negatives. This can result in many different patterns, but most of them will have a modern feeling to them. To go along with the modern style, I kept the sentiment simple (from Love Grows).


2) Make a See-Through Card. Start off as in example #1 by just removing select negatives, and then cut away that same shape in the card base below. This will allow you to see through to the inside of the card. It's nice to adhere colored or patterned paper inside. Also fun to tuck the sentiment into the negative spaces so it's suspended over the card.


3) Cut the coverplate in half (width-wise.) Once you have the two halves, layer them on top of each other to create even more new patterns and textures! Keeping both layers white, on a white card base, takes away some of the business of the pattern. This makes such a fun and interesting panel for your focal point.

 
4) Cut even more sections, and layer them randomly. Another fun look! This smaller panel is the perfect size for the "love" sentiment from Love Grows. A mini-attacher keeps all the layers together behind the heart. One of the flower middles is used to stamp around the border of the panel.

Here's what they look like after being cut. When you assemble them, just turn each section so the lines don't match up too much. 

5) Make a Dream Catcher! Once I got the courage to cut into the paper, I started thinking of shapes and what could be done with them. I'm sure there are a ton of shapes in this design, but I focused on the large circle in the middle.


 You can see I even used scrap paper (the one on the left with the blue ink) knowing that it would be hidden after it was layered. After layering them I twisted the top circle so it was offset and that made a pretty awesome dream catcher!
 

I blended some ink on the circles, and wrapped the edge with silver thread. I was a little worried about the feathers after running out of them mid-project. Then I remembered all those annoying stems that sometimes poke out of my down pillow inserts, unzipped the pillow covers, and harvested my own feathers. I'm happy to say, all of these feathers came from my family room pillows! I finished the strings off with a few seed beads.


6) Use your scraps!  After cutting a circle out of the middle of the die, I was left with an interesting frame. I watercolored an Aqua background, stamped a sentiment, and adhered a few of the flowers to complete the card. I love that there's texture around the card, but it doesn't take away from the focal point design.


Hopefully now you see why I love this Stained Glass cover plate so much! There are just so many different ways to use it. We didn't even get into layering multiple colors (which looks amazing, by the way!) If your budget isn't allowing you to buy this cover plate now (or if it's sold out already) you can probably use these same methods with another cover plate that you already own. Except maybe the dream catcher! I think that idea may be unique to this cover plate : )

Your next stop on this hop is the lovely Kittie Caracciolo!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
-Kelly


Affiliate Links from Ellen Hutson:
 

Friday, February 16, 2018

w&w 4th Birthday Bash Blog Hop


 

Hi Folks! A big welcome to a flat-out fantastic blog hop celebrating Winnie & Walter's 4th birthday! We have an amazing list of bloggers assembled to surround you with friendship and love, starting at the Winnie & Walter blog, or you may have just come from the very sweet Rubeena.

I was excited to open up the brand new In Bloom: Ashlee's Rosie Posies with Lydia Evans stamp and cutaway set which was just released last week. The set is filled with many different 3-step flowers and leaves which makes it easy to get a consistently beautiful result. I adhered the die cut flowers to each other so I could hold them over different colors and patterns of paper to try and decide what to use in the background. This is helpful when you have no idea what direction to go, or if you're really stuck between a few choices and you just can't decide. You can "try on" different options.
 

Here's the "fashion show"! We've got a full bleed dark background to make the flowers really pop, a Swiss dot gray with white border for a sweet look, and a beige graph paper with charcoal border for a more graphic look.


These options are a little lighter, with light blue geometrics to contrast the florals, a thin yellow stripe to allow the purple blooms to stand out more. and a full bleed neutral patterned paper (reminiscent of a garden trellis).

Well, whatcha think? Do you have a favorite?
 

My original idea was to have the florals on a dark paper so they really stand out, especially with the white edge all around from the die cuts.
 

This background isn't super exciting, but I think that's why I like it. In this case you want the florals to be the star, not the background, so a subtle pattern like the swiss dots on gray could be a good choice.
 
Ultimately, I went with the florals on the geometric background, probably because I still had this amazing card from Tasnim in my head. Triangles + Florals = Winning Combo! I should also mention that the banner comes from the Framed with Evelin T Designs set. You would think that the sentiments came from the framed set as well, since they fit inside so perfectly, but those are acually from the Ashlee's Rosie Posies set. Love that in addition to getting several 3-step florals, you also get 2 scripted "beautiful's" and many secondary sentiments.

So, did I choose well? Would you have picked differently? Big decisions here, I know!

Winnie & Walter, LLC


Good news on prizes, there will be 4 winners picked at random from the entire blog hop who will each receive $40 credit to the w&w shop! Whoo-hoo!!

I am pleased to send you to the next stop in this hop, super-star Jessica Frost-Ballas!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
-Kelly

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Chibitronics and MFT Blog Hop

 


Hi Folks! We're so excited on the Chibitronics team to partner up with My Favorite Things and make a whole bunch of adorable things light up! To celebrate, we're having a blog hop. If you've just joined us feel free to start at the beginning on the MFT blog.


I've been dying to play with the chefs from the My Favorite Things Recipe for Happiness set, especially since my youngest son is so passionate about cooking. For my birthday this week he asked me to stay out of the kitchen (umm ... sure!) so he could surprise me with homemade chocolate chip cookie dough brownies. Yumm!! Anyway, here you see the chef getting ready to cook his meal in the kitchen, just like my son.

When you pull the tab (stamped with "pull me" instructions from Interactively Yours by Heffy Doodle), the chef walks over to the stove, and ...


... starts cooking! The burner turns on (blue, naturally, since this is a gas stove) and the oven starts as well. Not only that, but you'll notice that his main dish is steaming hot and ready to be served! Fun!


Once he's done and steps away from the stove, it all turns off. The bowl is also emptied, as the steam turns off and hides back behind the chef (I was most pleased with this element of the card and took great care to make sure any of the waves of steam would be hidden behind the chef when he's all the way to the right!)


Here's another look at the stove, oven and steam at work. Check out the casserole cooking in the oven, which you can only slightly see behind the vellum before he turns the oven on, but it's easy to see once he starts cooking. It's so fun to play with accessories like this in a stamp set! Also, I have to admit, I'm a little jealous of this chef with the bamboo floors in his kitchen.


You can see the blue light a little better here with a darker photo. Want to see how it works?




Here's the circuitry, including the pull tab which has copper tape on the bottom side. Once it's pulled all the way to the left, the copper tape completes the circuit on the card base and turns all the white and blue lights on. I've also incorporated Eiko's advice and have covered all the LED tabs with copper tape to ensure the connection is solid.




I like that you may wonder what's going to happen when you pull the tab (unless you're an immediate member of my family and you can pretty much guess that something's gonna light up!!) And now that you know what happens, I hope you enjoyed it!


What's a blog hop without a good giveaway, right? No disappointment here, comment along all the stops for the most chances to win a $50 gift card to MFT or a Chibitronics starter kit. The design team from MFT is also sharing projects today and they’re linked from the MFT blog so make sure to head there, too! Fun stuff!! We have one more MFT/Chibitronics blog hop tomorrow with tons more inspiration!

Now I'm super happy to send you to the amazing Lesley Oman who has a never-before-seen (at least by me!) light-up-pop-up-slider card to share with you ... you're going to love it!!


Thanks so much for stopping by!
-Kelly


Chibitronics Blog
Kelly Griglione <---you're here!
Lesley Oman
Kelly Szafron
WeiWei Wang
MFT Blog