Nesting dies are versatile and perfect for creating backgrounds, frames, borders and more. The Essentials by Ellen, Essential Shapes series go far beyond that – they are must haves for every card maker! Nesting die cuts with coordinating stitching and hot foil basics extend the life far beyond the normal nesting dies on the market – these are nested shapes on steroids! Rectangles, Squares, Circles, Ovals, Hexagons, Arches, 4-Bar, Hearts, Eggs, and Stars have become favorites!
Are you ready to meet the latest shape in the Essentials by Ellen family? Today Angela’s showing off the new Essential Triangles – die cuts, stitching, and hot foil – in a card that features all three formats.
The April Essentials by Ellen release is almost here! I’m thrilled to be here with an introduction to the new Essential Triangles, and like the other essential shapes, you’ll be pleased to know that there’ll be nesting dies, stitching dies, and hot foil stamps available. The project I’ve got for you today showcases all of them, plus some easy beginner-friendly stitching and a fun color palette. Let’s get to it!
The first step for this card, before pulling out any inks or embroidery floss (don’t worry, we’ll get there!) was to select my 3 triangles – one from each set. My idea was to create a party hat “window” with a gold frame, with some multi-colored back-and-forth stitching to fill in the hat’s color. To do this, I needed 2 panels (in addition to an A2 card base): The one you see on top with the foiled frame and window, and one for stitching which I layered underneath.
When choosing triangles, I needed the following:
A. A stitching triangle – the biggest of the 4 dies used on this project. It had to fit easily on an A2 card base with about 1/2″ margin from the edges.
B. A nested triangle die – just smaller than the stitching triangle, so I could cut out the space inside the stitching dots
C. A triangle hot foil stamp – one just slightly smaller than the stitching triangle (A) above
D. One more nested triangle die, slightly smaller than the hot foil stamp (C) to cut the window in the foiled panel.
With the right dies selected, I cut the stitched triangle (A) into one of the A2 panels, then used the triangle die (B) to cut out the center. Then, on the second A2 panel, I foiled the new Confetti Hot Foil Stamp, followed by the triangle frame (C) in the middle. From here, I used the last triangle die (D) to cut out the window.
Ok, now the fun part – color! I rounded up a partial rainbow’s worth of embroidery floss and began stitching back and forth from the bottom of the triangle on my stitching panel, switching colors as I stitched my way up to the top. Then, to add a little more fun, I cut several circles using the smallest die in the Essential Circles die set, and adhered those in a random fashion to the embroidery floss with glue dots. (They’re surprisingly strong and rather perfect for this purpose!)
From here, I covered the back of the foiled panel with foam tape and layered it right on top of the stitching layer, lining up the windows so that all of the holes were hidden. I’d already created a ton of foiled sentiment strips using the new Celebrating You hot foil plate, and the “Time to Party” seemed like a pretty great fit for this card. (Yes, you’ll spy a different sentiment in the photo below – I changed my mind because I wanted more contrast!) This was nearly the end, but I decided the card needed a little something extra – a topper for the hat.
For this, I used the pom pom die from the new Pyramid Box Party Hat Add-On Die Set to cut a whole bunch of layers from gold-flecked tissue paper. I stacked these up on top of each other, squeezing just a little dab of liquid glue in the center of each so that the edges could be fluffed up. And voila – our stitched party hat card is complete!
Thank you so much for stopping by to check out this sneak peek today. The Essential Triangles, plus all the other new products I’ve used (and more!) will be available in the Ellen Hutson shop this Friday, April 21st at 9am PT. Until then, be sure to mark your calendar, start that shopping list, and stay tuned for more reveals here on the blog. See you back here soon!
Stay tuned for another exciting day of new release previews coming your way tomorrow! As a reminder, we’ll be previewing new items all week long from our upcoming Essentials by Ellen release, available this Friday at 9 AM PT!
Catch up with all the crafty fun and find us @ellenhutsonllc us on Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok!
2 Comments
Fun card idea! I love the added color and texture with the stitched detail!
Love all the different techniques used on the card! And the rainbow colors on top of that 😍