Essentials by Ellen April Pinsights Challenge

I’m so excited to have been invited to play along today with the Essentials by Ellen April Pinsights Challenge over at the Ellen Hutson blog! Each month a new fun challenge is put together, not just to inspire you, but also give one lucky random participant a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to the Ellen Hutson Store! How cool is that?

This month, the creative minds over at Ellen Hutson are paying homage to the Panetone color of the year – Ultra Violet. Just check out how inspiring this board is:

1. Find your own inspiration from these pinned photos and colors – work it into your project.
2. Be sure to use some Essentials by Ellen products in your creation. Don’t have any yet, no worries – you have a month to enter!
3. Head on over to the Ellen Hutson Pin-sights challenge  – it’s over on the CLASSroom blog and link your card up to the challenge gallery.  You have until May 16th to enter to win!

Mondo Peony Watercolor Tutorial

Stamp and emboss your outlined Peony image and the leaves in Gilded by Brutus Monroe onto 140# Cold Pressed watercolor paper. Arrange and stamp your sentiments from the Lovely stamp set (also by Julie Ebersole) onto the vellum and emboss with the same powder for an elegant look. I combined two for a larger sentiment.

Sprinkle a little Brusho onto your leaves and peony flower. lightly spritz with the Distress Spritzer to get a fine mist. Watch the color explode! The beauty of Brusho is that you get several colors when activated. To get that color, they combine various pigments, and I love the end result it gives. In this flower, you see several hues. Cut out your images using the coordinating Mondo Dies and arrange with a little glue.

Tear your vellum to the size you desire. Mine was an extra 3/4″ on both sides so I could easily overlap and adhere to the back. To create this fun background. Start off by smooshing Iced Spruce, Broken China and Peeled paint Distress Oxide inks onto your craft mat. Use the wrinkle free technique to build up your background. I love to layer lightly, then add those random dots of various sizes from my mat. It always give a cool look to your project. Randomly edge your background and emboss with gilded embossing powder.

You can watercolor stamp the smaller leaves to create a pattern in Peeled Paint, or create a stencil like below. I created one out of heavy duty watercolor paper and sealed it with Gel Medium to help it last. I stenciled my homemade stencil pattern over my oxide background with mini ink blending tools, and assembled my card. Pop up the grey base with foam tape to create a little drama.

To give it a finished look, add some sparkling clear sequins and it’s an elegant card for that special person in your life. I’m earmarking this one for my mom for sure! Do you think she’ll like it?

Thanks for joining me today, be sure to check out the challenge and play along. I can’t wait to see what you create!

Supplies

To make finding the supplies I used in these projects a bit easier for you, here are a few clickable links. Compensated Affiliate Links are used when possible. Click here for disclosure. Happy Shopping!