Creative Concepts with Abstract Nature and Guest Kelly Griglione

We’re so happy to have our friend Kelly back on the blog showing her clever ways to use some of the new products from the Essentials by Ellen collection.

---

Hello Friends! I’m so happy to be popping in to share several cards I made with just one very versatile set from the March Essentials by Ellen Release.

The set responsible for all the madness in my craft room is the Abstract Nature stamp set. Just looking at this set gets you excited for the possibilities. The talented team at Ellen Hutson has already shared many different and creative ideas, let’s take a look at a few more!

The first card starts with the top left amoebic shape that looks like an abstract flower.

I love that there are several other shapes included in this set that you can layer on to make the flower really come to life. The oval forms the center, and the cluster of dots adds texture. The outline ovals stamped twice add a fun energy.

There are a few leaf-like shapes that work to fill out the bouquet. The sentiment for this card, and all of the cards I’m sharing today, comes from the Casual Greetings Hot Foil Plate and the Casual Greetings Coordinating Die Set.

Having fun stamping the flowers, I wanted to keep going and make a card full of them. I used the same formula for these flowers (amoeba + oval + cluster dots + outline oval) and went to town stamping.

Because I densely stamped the flowers, they looked rather squished. So it was a no-brainer what sentiment I wanted to use ; )

Let’s move on from Summer flowers to Fall leaves!

This vignette is made from the large leaf shape, a narrow half oval stamped in the middle for the stem, and a smaller leaf sprig. I made acorns from the middle-sized oval, and added caps to the acorns with the smallest oval turned sideways. The small cluster of dots is great for adding texture.

Speaking of the small cluster of dots, I used those to “kiss” the large inked leaves before stamping. This removes some of the ink, so you get the dappled texture. This is a second card I made because I liked the design.

You may have noticed one card had a normally foiled sentiment (like the sentiments grouped on the right here), and the other card had a reverse foiled sentiment (like the sentiments grouped on the left). Carissa recently gave a great tutorial on using the solid foil plate in this post. It’s really a no-brainer.

Once you hot foil your sentiments, you might as well use the remains, and then die cut them as well. You instantly get a second set of sentiments that are outlined in hot foil!

For my final card, I thought the abstract leaf might make a really cute turkey tail. So I played around and came up with this cute little guy! I stamped the medium and small ovals for his body and head, and the long half ovals for his wings.

Then you just need to draw a few details, like the legs, eyes and beak. The background under the main panel is stamped with an assortment of shapes from this set. 

I thought the sentiment was appropriate for this Thanksgiving turkey. I considered adding an “ing” so it would read “Thanks & Stuffing” lol!

Thanks for stopping by today! I sure hope you got some ideas, or sparked new ideas on using this very versatile set. We’d love to see what you can dream up!

Have a wonderful day!

– Kelly

If you’d like to see more of Kelly’s beautiful work, you can find her at @notablenest on Instagram.

supplies: