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Good morning! I have a special video and post today. My friend and Ellen Hutson teammate Ardyth Percy-Robb is celebrating a special milestone: 1000 YouTube subscribers. You’ve probably seen Ardyth’s fabulous videos; they’re usually brief but chock full of wonderful tips for getting great card results! To celebrate, she’s having a special video hop with lots of fantastic guests.

For my project today, I chose to work with one of my new favorite mediums: Tombow Water Based Markers. I’ve been a little frustrated with how the Zig Markers fade, so I’ve been on the search for new mediums. I recently tried the Tombow markers at a retreat and liked them so much that I bought several different color packs.

Here’s my video:

Watch on YouTube here.

In case you can’t watch the video, here’s a brief description of how I created the project.

I started by die cutting and heat embossing the large bloom from Hero Arts’ Peonies stamp set onto some Arches Cold Press watercolor paper using gold embossing powder. I then added four different layers of color to the peony blooms using four different shades of Tombow Dual Brush pens: a pale peach, bright orange, watermelon pink, then bright fuchsia purple. The more layers of color you add to your project, the more depth and dimension you can add to your floral image.

After I had colored my peony, I used Distress Oxide inks in Abandoned Coral and Picked Raspberry to create a pretty ombre background. I then used white pigment ink and the Crossing Waves stencil from Hero Arts to add a very subtle patterned background to my blended panel. I arranged the flowers on the card front, adding dimensional foam adhesive to the back of the peony, and adhering the foliage with liquid adhesive to add extra dimension and texture to the card front. I added a die cut sentiment from Concord and 9th’s Fabulous Phrases die set. The final touch was a few jewels from Pretty Pink Posh.

Well that’s all for me today! There are some fantastic guests on this hop, so I definitely encourage you to start at the beginning on Ardyth’s video channel. Not to mention…. there are prizes to be had!!! Get comfy with a nice (iced?) beverage, and settle in for some seriously wonderful inspiration! Thanks so much for visiting, and have a marvelous day!

Good morning! The 9th of the month means a new challenge over at Where Creativity Meets C9! Our challenge this month is… wait for it…. FLORAL. Yes. You read that right. Be still my flower-loving heart. And it’s a perfect challenge for this month, because after the winter that never wanted to end, we are finally feeling some warmer temps…. maybe even a little warmer than I’d like this quickly haha. (Yes, I am picky.) But warmer temps mean that flowers are starting to bloom, providing plenty of inspiration for your projects! My project uses the beautiful Painted Rose set that was released a couple of months ago… I couldn’t wait to get it all inked up and do some serious coloring on it!

I started by stamping the main rose image from Painted Rose onto some watercolor paper using a new ink that Kathy Racoosin recommended for no-line coloring and I’m totally smitten: Ink On 3. It starts out dark enough that you can easily see your stamped image, but then it fades away very nicely after you’ve colored your image. It makes it look like I can fake some artistic drawing skills haha! I painted my rose using Daniel Smith watercolors in Rose of Ultramarine, adding shadows with Shadow Violet, and painted the leaves using Hooker’s Green. (I’ve linked them individually below.)

The key with no-line watercoloring is to keep your wet sections apart. For example, I watercolor one petal on the bottom, then switch to another petal that isn’t touching the first petal. After I’ve done a couple of petals away from the original, I can move back to the petals touching the first petal, because it’s dry at that point. I painted the rose and foliage, and then added a watercolored halo of color around the flower.

For the sentiment, I added a greeting from the coordinating Painted Rose die set cut from some metallic black card stock. The final touch was to add a few bits of bling!

Now it’s your turn! Create a project using one of the many floral stamp and/or die sets from Concord and 9th and link it to our link up. (Be sure to read all of the rules for the entries to ensure that you’re eligible if your project is chosen!) Your qualifying entry could win a $25 shopping spree to the Concord and 9th store! (Also, have you seen the gorgeous new release that’s available right now?? Swoon!!!) Have fun, and good luck!

Good morning! I have another project for the new Ellen Hutson May 2018 Essentials By Ellen release, this time with a video sharing a few tips on how to add some depth to your Copic coloring! Here’s the video, which is also on the Ellen Hutson blog:

Here is my project:

For the card that I showed in the video, I initially stamped with Memento Black Tuxedo ink, then colored with my Copic markers. I used the new Totally Random Sayings combined with the “beautiful” die cut from the Mondo Sakura coordinating dies. I adhered the “beautiful” die cut to a vellum strip, then folded the end over and adhered that to the back of the card front, also adding tiny dots of adhesive to the back of the vellum strip where the die cut could hide them.

I stamped the rest of the greeting with Versafine and clear heat embossed it.

Well, that’s all for me today! I am so enamored of the new Mondo Sakura stamps and dies… I can’t wait to play with them some more! Have a marvelous day!