Secret Anniversary Surprise Post for Ellen Hutson!

Hi all! Today I have a special surprise post for Ellen, the founder of Ellen Hutson LLC — an awesome craft supply company! I was lucky enough to meet and get to know Ellen at industry trade shows over the years, and now I’m a design ambassador for the company. Ellen is kind, caring, and truly special. She’s one of those people who has a big heart and you just feel like you can trust her with anything. She’s a beautiful person, inside and out.

So I wanted to try and come up with card to try and capture that feeling…and I ended up making 3! You know me, I can never stop at just one. :)

They’re all based on these dried hydrangeas that I found in Ohio. I just love that color, it’s so rich, right?

All three cards are pretty sweet and simple, but I thought I’d walk ya through a few details — because as they say, it’s all in the details!

First off, I found that Aged Mahogany distress oxide ink was the perfect match for the hydrangeas — it’s so rich and velvety, almost like suede.

Of course since these cards were inspired by hydrangeas I just HAD to use the Mondo Hydrangea on one of the cards! And then I had to bust out the Mondo Sakura too. Both of these are some of my all-time favorite floral images.

I decided to add a wintery twist by adding some liquid pearls to the centers of the flowers — it kinda makes me think of snowballs! :)

And then! Did you notice the fancy die cutting?

I used the matching Mondo Hydrangea dies to cut out windows for the flowers, and then the HELLO is from the Big Words die set.

I lifted the die cut panel up off the card base with foam tape for added dimension. Oh and I made sure to get some of the petals and the stem of the hydrangea going off the edges of the card — love that!

I colored the petals with soft shea butter and bellini inks — a break from my usual traditional watercolor but really love the look this gives, especially on the pale rose cardstock.

And of course while I had everything out I couldn’t resist making one last card! This one is a little different in that I only used the Aged Mahogany distress oxide ink — love love love.

So, can ya guess which card I sent to Ellen? It took me forever to decide, but I went with the Mondo Hydrangea card in the end! Sure hope she likes it!

Happy Anniversary, Ellen! Sending big huge hugs your way!

And that’s not all!