Ellen Hutson United We Flourish Guest Designer!

Good morning! Today, I have the absolute pleasure of being a guest designer for the September Ellen Hutson United We Flourish collaboration Blog Hop! This month, Ellen Hutson is collaborating with the ever-fabulous Altenew! The brand new, limited edition Poppy Fields stamp and die set is really stunning, don’t you think? I absolutely love that you’re able to do both the layered floral stamping that Altenew is known for as well as do some coloring with the beautiful outline images provided.

For my first card, I have created a video showing my technique for painting these beautiful poppies using Daniel Smith watercolors in shades of purple. One of my favorite things about poppies is that they come in a myriad of colors, so you can pretty much paint them any color you want! Artistic license is a beautiful thing. 🙂

For this card, I die cut and silver heat embossed the beautiful blooms from the Poppy Fields stamp and die set onto some Arches Cold Press watercolor paper. Next, I watercolored them with my Daniel Smith watercolors in shades of Carbazole Violet, Neutral Tint, and Moonglow using my Silverwhite Synthetic Round #4 paintbrush. After painting, I used Post It tape to mask around the edge of a panel of pale gray card stock, then used my blending tools to blend some Distress Oxide inks in Wilted Violet and Peacock Feathers. I thought that the red undertones of the Wilted Violet might clash with the green undertones in the Peacock feathers, but there was enough blue in both to create a lovely shade of medium blue when blended. So pretty! I also spritzed that with a bit of shimmer spray.

After playing with the arrangement of the florals for a bit, I decided to die cut a few leaves from the Ellen Hutson Poinsettia and Pine die set to add a bit more interest to my floral bouquet. I used the same silver embossing powder to create a “molten” silver look by pressing my Versamark pad directly onto the die cuts, then dipping them in the silver embossing powder, heating it up, and repeating the process two more times (three times total) to create a beautiful silver die cut embellishment. If you’ve never done that before, try it. The finished product is so luxurious.

After I had completed my blending (watch the video for the magical removal of the masking tape. It gets me every time! So cool!), I stamped my greeting from the Poppy Fields set onto the blended panel using Versafine ink and clear heat embossed it. Next, I arranged my florals in a cluster and used Press ‘n Seal to pick up my bouquet and add foam adhesive to the back while still in my carefully-arranged bouquet. Finally, I added a few sequins and jewels just to add a little sparkle.

For my second card using the Poppy Fields set, I have chosen a very autumnal color scheme. Poppies are traditionally red, but come in a huge variety of other colors. I couldn’t NOT paint some red poppies, but I added in some deep, royal purple and some lovely sunrise yellow.

This card has the same basic layout and techniques involved as the previous card, with the exception of my watercoloring medium. I wanted the deep, vibrant colors that you see in the autumn, so I decided to use my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers to obtain that really rich color. I started by heat embossing the blooms in gold instead of silver onto Canson Montval watercolor paper, then I die cut them with the coordinating dies. The rest of the techniques are essentially the same; I used Candied Apple and Spiced Marmalade Oxide Inks for the background.

For the greeting, I also used another Ellen Hutson sentiment set: Fancy Thanks. I added the sentiment using black ink, then heat embossed the tiny heart in gold and fussy cut it, then popped it up using dimensional adhesive.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you! I hope you’ve enjoyed my projects using this fabulous new set from Ellen Hutson and Altenew. The United We Flourish blog hop stops at the blogs of the absolutely fabulous Mayline Jung and Kara Vrabel. You can get direct links to them at the Ellen Hutson The Classroom blog.

Now, for some prizes!

To celebrate two randomly selected commenters will win a $30 gift certificate to the Ellen Hutson shop and two commenters will win a $30 gift certificate to the Altenew shop. To enter just leave a comment on the Ellen Hutson Classroom blog or the Altenew blog by 12pm PST on Wednesday, September 27th.

Have a fabulous day, friends!