"Bee" Fabulous

I am participating in two challenges today - one for Stamps, Ink, Paper Challenge and the other is the Ellen Hutson Mix It Up Challenge featuring Essentials by Ellen and Honey Bee Stamps.

I was so excited when I saw the Ellen Hutson, LLC Facebook post yesterday because I knew it would give me a chance to use the adorable Build-A-Bee stamp and die set that I was finally able to get.  I've been wanting to get it mostly so I can make an interactive card for my littlest grandson, Xander, who started kindergarten a few weeks ago.  I don't have too many products from Ellen Hutson, but I thought I could figure out a way to make this work for their challenge.

I was putting some patterned papers away in a different container the other day and stumbled upon a few sheets of forgotten patterns that were in my pile.  Many of them only 1/4th sheet sized. One of them was the soft grey pattern you see in the background on this card. Originally, that background was Vintage Cream colored but with a little Lemon Tart Ink and a mini ink blending tool I could make the yellow a little more noticeable pretty easily.  I am not a big fan of bright yellow like many people are.  I like mine in a soft butter kind of color.

I am also really learning to like my copic markers now that I've found a cardstock I like for coloring.  I'm using X-press It Blending Card which is specifically made to use with copic markers.  I love it mainly because it takes a lot less work to get the colors blended and it is smooth as silk and takes a lot less of the alcohol inks to do the job. In the end, it's a pretty big time and cost savings along with also being less frustration. The normal #110 paper is so thick that I think it takes a whole lot of effort and ink to get a good looking result.  Before I gave up coloring completely, I wanted to give the specialty paper a try. I still don't use it often, but I am glad I tried it. I found mine on Amazon.  I cut each sheet into 4 pieces and stamp one piece at a time.

For this card and pretty much any image I stamp for coloring anymore, I used Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink and double stamped in the Mini MISTI to get a really crisp black edge.  I have very few yellow Copic Markers, so the bees were done with Y00, Y02, Y06 and Y08.  The grey stripes were done with a bit of Black 100, then C7, C5 and blended out with C-1.  I have actually used my cool grey markers enough that I need to replace or refill C1. For the wings, I added some B000 and BG01 with some flicking motions at the base of the wings and then used Spectrum Noir Shimmer Pen in Clear all over just the wings. Given my penchant for shimmer, this shows great restraint. *wink*  I also added a dot of white gel pen to the eye and made all the little tongues red with R39.

The top folding card base is made with Lemon Tart while the grey background panel was cut from Smokey Shadow Cardstock and the aqua is cut from Hawaiian Shores Cardstock using my regular stitched rectangle dies from Simon Says Stamp and MFT. I put a piece of fun foam under the patterned paper panel to add some dimension and also die cut and stacked three of the fabulous word dies from True Black Cardstock, one of top of the other, using Ranger Multi Medium Matte. That finishes up this card for the Stamps, Ink Paper and Ellen Hutson Mix It Up Challenges.

I colored a few extra bees for my grandson's card but I'm saving this to send to one of my "Fabulous" girlfriends for an encouragement card. After all, we can all use a little encouragement once in a while.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Ellen Hutson's June 2017 Pin Sights Challenge

I was so surprised when I went to look for something I'd seen on the Ellen Hutson Classroom and saw that I won the Mix It Up Challenge for last month. I haven't gotten my gift certificate yet, but I was excited to win.  For one thing, Ellen Hutson Challenges require the use of their products and I only have a few things. The gift Certificate will allow me to purchase another of their products that I've admired for a while, the Mondo Peony Stamp and Die Set.  I'm pretty anxious to order it.  It's a more expensive set that I wouldn't normally buy for that reason so I'm glad I'll have a gift Certificate to help pay for that.  I won with the entry on the right which was made with the BCRF Fundraiser Set called Courage.

Anyhow, when I was on that site, I saw the newest Pin Sights Challenge and wanted to play. I just love the colors in this challenge - the pink and orange in particular.  There's a touch of Yellow but the whole combination is just so pretty and summery!  We can use the shapes, the objects or whatever we love about the inspiration to be inspired by for our design.  For me, It's a combination of the colors and the flowers.

The Mondo Magnolia is one of only two Ellen Hutson Stamp Sets I have and it can be water colored so I chose to use that.  I started by heat embossing the magnolia in Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  I wanted to make a card for a girlfriend using my "Fabulous" die designed by Julie Ebersole and was a gift with purchase a couple of years back around Thanksgiving.  You can purchase it now and I've linked it for you.  

To color my bloom, I grabbed three acrylic blocks and smooshed Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon and Fossilized Amber - one color to each block.  I did a light wash of color over the entire bloom with Picked Raspberry.  I wet the entire bloom with clean water first and then dropped in the color while it was still wet so that it would spread out and make each petal light pink to begin with.  There were a few areas where the color didn't touch at all initially so those areas remained white. Once that was dry, I went in and did a second and third layer of color because I wanted something more vibrant.  Next, I wet each petal again and went in with the Ripe Persimmon and put that color only where I thought the shadows would be. This let the Ripe Persimmon mix and mingle with the Picked Raspberry.  For the final color, I mixed a little Fossilized Amber with some Iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist to drop in the yellow color on the petals and then misted the whole thing with Iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist.  When it was nearly dry but not quite there yet, I used my fingers to shape the outer petals a little bit. That is a little trick I learned from my friend Yana.  

I die cut a Scalloped Top Folding Card Base from White Cardstock and adhered the magnolia to the card base with a piece of 1 inch scor-tape on the back.  It's such a strong adhesive that it will hold just by placing it in the center of the bloom.  I heat embossed the "hello" from the Altenew Label Love in Antique Gold as well and then trimmed it out to go above the gold die cut word, "fabulous" so that it would read "Hello Fabulous".  It is always hard to photograph White on White cards, but this one worked out pretty well and you can see all of the shimmer on the bloom.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and seeing my project.  I hope some of you will be able to check out the challenge and participate in it with me.  There a $50.00 Gift Card to the Ellen Hutson Store up for grabs.