Ellen Hutson December Pin-Sights Challenge

Good evening/morning!! I am seriously thrilled to be joining the fabulous ladies over at the Ellen Hutson blog for this month's Ellen Hutson Blog Pin Sights Challenge!!! If you're not familiar with this particular challenge, here are some of the details: every month, the EH blog highlights a different graphic chosen from images on Pinterest to use as an inspirational jumping point for challenge participants to use! A random challenge participant will receive a $50 gift certificate to the Ellen Hutson store.  To be eligible, you MUST use Essentials by Ellen products and the photo badge (above) as inspiration. There will be an inlinkz on the challenge post where you can submit your own project to be entered in the drawing for the prize!

I loved the graphic so much (and you all know how much I love EH stamps) that I created two different projects!

 The first uses an older Ellen Hutson holiday set: Mistletoe and Holly, as well as the new Leaping Deer die from the last release. I started by stamping the poinsettias and foliage from Mistletoe and Holly onto the edges of a panel of watercolor paper using Silver Pearl embossing powder. After embossing everything, I colored the images with my trusty Zig Clean Color Markers, spreading the color and adding shading with my wet paintbrush. 

The sentiment, also from Mistletoe and Holly, was added using Versamark and red glitter embossing powder. After my watercolor panel had dried, I adhered it to a red A2 card base, then die cut the Leaping Deer from red foil card stock. (The linked foil card stock isn't the exact same card stock that I used, but it will certainly do the trick!)  I simply popped it up on the watercolor panel to add some dimension. I thought that the card needed a little more sparkle... since apparently pearl embossed flowers and sparkle embossed sentiment aren't sufficiently shimmery and sparkly... so I added a few Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. Classic, but still trendy with the watercolor and foil reindeer! 

My next card is a new favorite. I am the first to admit that I'm not a "homespun" kinda gal... just not my style. I like clean lines, bright white, and symmetry. But I loved all of the watercoloring potential for the Homespun Holiday set that was included in the Winter 2016 release. Those stockings were particularly intriguing to me. To start, I die cut three of the stockings from watercolor paper using the coordinating dies, then heat embossed them with White Pearl embossing powder and did some coloring with my Zigs and wet paintbrush. I decided that a white card base was just too plain, so I used some light gray ink that I stamped off once on scratch paper to stamp some of the cute little berry sprigs from the Homespun Holiday set to add some interest to the background. I adhered a strip of gray cardstock across the top of the card as a way to sort of ground the stockings, then adhered the stockings with regular adhesive. 

I thought a pretty, shiny frame would accent the pearl embossing nicely, so I die cut the Mama Elephant Park Avenue Frame from some more red foil and popped it up around the edge of the card base with some dimensional adhesive. Finally, I die cut three of the "Believe" die from the latest release, one from that red foil, the other two from some scrap watercolor paper I had on my desk for extra height and sturdiness. I glued them all together, then adhered them over top of the stockings in the center of the card. And that was it! One of my favorite cards out of all of what feels like the bajillion cards I made for this holiday season... I like it so much that I kept it for myself instead of mailing it out when I mailed out my holiday cards yesterday. ;) 

Now, for some more fun! Now that you've seen the inspiration photo and the project inspiration, it's your turn! 

• To participate, simply use any Essentials by Ellen product and create a project based on the above inspirational photo. 
• One participant will be randomly selected to receive a $50 gift certificate to the Ellen Hutson store!
• To enter, please add your projects to the Inlinkz link up on the bottom of the EH Pin-Sights post.

I can't wait to see what you come up with! Such a fantastic inspiration photo, and the EH products are fabulous to work with. Have fun, and good luck with the challenge!