Cardmaking, Die Cutting, Essentials By Ellen, Essentials By Ellen Release, Hot Foil, Stamping

2 Egg-cellent Spring Cards featuring the NEW Essentials by Ellen Essential Eggs

Angela Simpson shares a closer look at how our Essential Eggs dies, stitching dies, and hot foil plates work together. Follow along as she creates two fabulous cards.

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ESSENTIAL EGG PRODUCTS – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

Hi friends! It’s Angela here, and today I’m super excited to show you the ins and outs of using EBE’s Essential Egg Products. As you may know, the lineup of Essential Shapes has grown over the years and covers rectangles, circles, arches and more. Hopping in just in time for Easter are the Essential Eggs, which are available as regular nested dies, stitching dies, and hot foil stamps. Today, I’m going to share 2 projects that incorporate all three products, and a few tips for success along the way.

2 Spring Cards featuring Essentials by Ellen Essential Eggs

Hello Spring Card Tips

When using stitching dies like I’ve shown in my first card, I like to use very thick (100lb+) cardstock so that the piece doesn’t get too bent or curled as I stitch back and forth. If you run out of heavy cardstock, you can also adhere 2 identical thinner die cut pieces together, then start stitching.
I wanted to incorporate 5 colors of embroidery floss on my shape card, roughly in equal amounts. To do this, I recommend making small pencil marks on the back of the egg die cut before stitching, dividing it into 5 roughly-equal sections. (There were about 50 holes around the perimeter of the egg, so that’s roughly 10 per color). This provides your start and stop marks for each color.
A needle threader is a super inexpensive, very handy tool to have. If you do lots of stitched cards, save yourself the time of fiddling with a needle and thread, and treat yourself to one!
If you notice that some of your stitched strings aren’t quite as tight as others, don’t worry! I noticed a few places where this happened on my card, so before I mounted it on my egg-shaped card base, I simply tugged from the back side of the stitched panel to pull those strings tightly, then placed foam tape on top to hold them in place. Nobody will ever know!

Happy Easter Card Tips

The new Elegant Eggs Stamp Set isn’t just for decorating eggs – you can create abstract backgrounds with it too! I used the spots to add some color to the trimmed white panel, and you could absolutely do the same with the matching hot foil stamps too. This brings me to my next tip…
You’ll notice in the video that I stamped the spots over my foiled frame. Be careful when doing this – especially if your ink pads are very wet. To avoid any ink on the foiled areas from smearing, gently blot (don’t rub) over the top with a tissue or cloth.
Like the other Essential shape dies, the Essential Egg Dies cut a thin frame and coordinate with the hot foil stamps. To cut the egg “window” inside my foiled egg frame, I like to use my electric die cutting machine. This is because there’s a magnetic plate in the sandwich that allows me to keep the die exactly in place. However, if you don’t have a magnetic mat as part of your die cutting sandwich, a little temporary tape works too – just try not to get it on the foiled area, as pulling it back can dull the foil’s shine.