You Are So Sweet--with Ellen Hutson

Ellen Hutson is having a call for guest designers for their Pin-sights challenge. So I decided to create a few cards for that. This is the first. We are supposed to use only Essentials by Ellen products, as well as ones that are available at EllenHutson.com. I used the "Mondo Magnolia" stamp & coordinating die (designed by Julie Ebersole); and paired it with the "Simply Said: You" die, along with one of the greetings from the "Simply Said: You" stamp set, both from Avery Elle.

I began my card by stamping the magnolia on a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper with Antique Linen Distress ink. I wanted to do some no-line watercoloring. I did end up with an outline, but I think it works to my advantage in the end, by providing a bit of contrast between the petals. It's very light & soft, though, so I am happy with it! I then used Antique Linen & Tattered Rose Distress inks to watercolor it. When it was mostly dry, I added darker accents to the center with Victorian Velvet Distress ink. Finally, I die cut it with the coordinating die.

For my background, I wanted a big contrast with the softness of the flower. So I turned to this technique tutorial to create a "weathered wood" panel. I used Perfect Paper Adhesive on a panel of 140 lb. watercolor paper, just applying it in rough lines and breaking up some of the larger blobs with an embossing stylus. When the glue dried, I scored the panel, and went over it with Antique Linen. I must admit, at this point I thought I'd applied too much glue, since there was a lot of white! But I pushed ahead, and applied Rusty Hinge & Weathered Wood Distress inks, spraying it with water to blend. I dried it with my heat tool, and added some more color and water. I really think it turned out well, & I'm glad I kept going!

I adhered Stick It adhesive to the back of a scrap of black cardstock, and adhered black fun foam to that. Then I die cut it with the "Simply Said: You" die. I inked another scrap of watercolor paper with Tattered Rose, and stamped the rest of my greeting in Versafine Onyx Black ink on that. After cutting it into a strip, I assembled my card. I used (a lot of) Scor Tape on the back of my flower, and created a messy nest of black thread behind it, to carry the black I'd used for my greeting to the top of the card. I adhered that to my background, leaving about 1/4" hanging off the right edge. I adhered my greeting, and finally mounted the panel to black cardstock. I adhered that to a white A2 card base.