2-for-1 cards+Pattern Mixing with Ellen Hutson Summer of Stamping!

Hi there! Have you seen the Ellen Hutson Sumer of Stamping releases? To help break up the monotony of staying home during these unprecedented times, Ellen Hutson’s stamp designers came up with some extra special releases and festivities (which are now completed)! I didn’t get a chance to play along with the fun challenges that took place, but I’ve never met a flower stamp that I didn’t like, and the Mondo Pansy stamp set by Brandi Kincaid is so darn pretty that I couldn’t resist making a card set with it!

I started by stamping a full A2 panel of watercolor paper with Hero Arts Intens-ified Black Ink using the Mondo Pansy stamp set to create a panel of custom patterned paper. I used Daniel Smith watercolors in shades of blue, jade green, and yellow to watercolor the entire panel.

I love the combination of a pretty periwinkle blue and sunny yellow, so I kept my color palette simple for both cards. I stamped the plaid background (the one that I used is discontinued, but the Buffalo Plaid stamp from Honey Bee Stamps would work just as well for this!) on some A2 panels of Lapis cardstock from Hero Arts using Blue Jay ink from Pinkfresh Studio.

I trimmed the watercolored panel into two strips, one slightly wider than the other, and then added some strips of black cardstock to the back. This black cardstock helps make the black outlines of the stamped images pop, while also helping to create a barrier between the stamped Mondo Pansy patterned paper and the lightly patterned tone-on-tone blue card base. One thing to remember when mixing patterns: use multiple sizes of pattern. These cards, for example, feature a the large, rounded, almost-flowy patterns of the floral paper with the smaller, more precise plaid paper. The black cardstock helps to differentiate the patterns even further. For the first card, I used the Thank You sentiment from That Thing You Did, white heat embossed on a strip of black cardstock.

For the second card, I used the same basic layout, making the floral strip slightly wider and showing less of the plaid background. I created the greeting using Big Scripty Thank You dies. I began by die cutting the words themselves from white cardstock, then, leaving them in the negative, blended some Blue Jay ink in an ombre using blending brushes. I adhered this ombré sentiment to the vellum die cut outline, then popped it up with some clear dimensional adhesive. The final touch was to add some iridescent white jewels.

Well, that’s all for me today! Thanks so much for stopping by, and stay well!