Hey there, friends! It’s time for yet another fabulous Essentials by Ellen release, and this one’s got me feeling alllll the summer feels. From stamp sets featuring beachy essentials to a 2-layered monstera stencil (my favorite plant!) this is one you’ll want to check out for all your summer cardmaking needs.
One thing I love to do with smaller stamps is to create my own prints, then turn them into backgrounds on my cards. The Summer Doodles stamp set is perfect for this. I chose the palm trees, umbrella drink, sandals and flamingo inflatable images, stamping them in Concord & 9th Parsley ink on an A2 panel of Sprout cardstock.
I really liked the “girls just wanna have sun” sentiment in the Let’s Chill stamp set (which comes with coordinating dies – yay!), but needed to create a window space on my stamped panel that was tall enough to fit the whole thing. To do this, I used one of the Essential Arches dies to cut a capsule-like hole, cutting once with the arched side at the top, then again after rotating it 180 degrees directly on top of the first cut. Voila – a capsule window. I swear, these arch dies are some of my faves!
I stamped the sentiment on lilac cardstock with Catherine Pooler ink in Sugared Lavender, then dug out my Organic Elements stamp set to add a little sun in the space above. As for beneath the sentiment, the palm tree and hammock image from Let’s Chill was perrrrfectly sized, so I stamped and die cut one of those, and after layering the DIY printed cardstock panel on top with foam tape, adhered that too. The card needed just a little something else, so a few tiny Pinkfresh Studio glitter drops on the sandals finished it off.
To celebrate the new release, we’re hopping along on Instagram and if you’d like, you can enter the hop to win prizes. Start with my post here, and comment along on each stop to earn entries. In a shopping mood? Check out the full new release right here. Enjoy!
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