Birthday Card Using My Favorite Things Beautiful Bloom Stamp & Die

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I’ve had this stamp & die set for quite a while, but had never used it before. You know how stamps can get to the bottom of a pile and are “still new to you” months after they were released. That’s what happened to this beauty! I needed a quick and easy birthday card for a friend, so I thought that this large flower would be perfect.

I started by stamping the image using Gina K’s Amalgam black ink (Copic friendly) and chose a pink combination of Copics for the coloring (RV02, RV04 and RV17). My coloring skills here were very, very simple. After coloring, I die cut the image out and put it aside.

I knew that I wanted to “pop” the flower up, so using the die and another piece of white card stock (4″x5 1/4″), I cut out another flower. Rather than glue that to the colored flower, I just put it aside and placed thin foam squares (these are new to me, but I LOVE THEM!) on the colored flower.

Before assembling the card, I stamped the outside greeting from Reverse Confetti’s Lots to Say stamp set onto the card front piece. Final assembly involved finding a matching piece of pink scrap card stock for my card front mat. After that was adhered to my white card base, I glued my white card front to the card. All that was left was adhering the colored flower in the open die cut space. (side note: that was probably the most difficult thing about the card…finding the right way to attach the flower).

I love how the pink mat peeks through underneath the flower.

I’m hoping this made sense, but if not, please leave me a comment with any questions. Thanks for visiting 🙂

Using My Silhouette Cameo For My Latest Card

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It’s been far too long since I’ve used my Silhouette Cameo for anything. I decided to check out some designs that I purchased a while ago and that have just been sitting in my design library. I chose a beautiful sunflower design by Sarah Bailey (design #320672). Here’s what I came up with:

I started by cutting 3 of the outlines with some scrap brown card stock. Rather than dealing with individual petal cutouts, I just cut out a solid yellow piece to use as the background. For dimension, I glued all of the brown outline pieces together, and then I attached the yellow background piece.

To create the card background, I simply taped off a square portion (I just eyeballed it…no measuring here 🙂 Using a blending brush, I blended Distress Oxide Mermaid Lagoon. I wanted a bit of a fading effect, so I just applied the ink with a heavier hand at the top of the square. After the blending was done, I spritzed some water and blotted it off with a paper towel.

Before I adhered the sunflower to the card front, I decided that it looked a little dull. I blended some Distress Ink Ground Espresso to the center of the flower and added a bunch of dots with a black fine tip Sharpie. To give the petals more life, I just added some golden orange color pencil. Wink of Stella over the whole flower was the last touch. I attached the flower with foam tape.

The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions Simple Strips stamp & die set (This is one of the most clever sets I’ve seen in a long time), and it’s heat embossed onto black card stock. For balance, I added the corner frames with a fine line black marker and some Nuvo Drops in Bright Gold.

Thanks for visiting 🙂

Birthday Card Using Custom Stencils

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I’m absolutely loving the recent trend of using stencils to create interesting backgrounds on hand made cards. I have had my Silhouette Cameo for probably 8 years, but I haven’t pulled it out recently to make anything. After seeing stencils used by so many popular paper crafters, I decided to try to make my own using my Cameo. At first, I used transparent page dividers from a dollar store. They were okay, but I found a great stencil product on Amazon that had a bit more weight to it, so now I’m using those.

It was really fun coming up with some designs. I’ve been sticking to more simple (less intricate) designs for now.

Here is a card I made using a pair of hexagon stencils…

I started with my larger hexagon stencil and ink blended Festive Berries, Wild Honey, Twisted Citron and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide Inks. Once dry, I went back over using my smaller hexagon stencil with the same Distress Ink colors. It definitely is a bit more noticeable on the actual card than it is in this photo.

For the sentiment, I used My Favorite Things Birthday Wishes die. Using spray adhesive, I attached it onto a large strip of vellum. To balance the black greeting, I matted the background piece with black card stock. I used foam tape to mount it onto a Neenah Solar White 110# card base.

The card still needed a bit of embellishment, so I added some Nuvo Drops in Ebony, Caribbean Ocean and Ripened Pumpkin. After watching one of Cathy Zielske’s 10 minute design videos, I chose to place the drops in a triangular shape to tie it all together.

Thanks for stopping by!

My First Attempt at Creating with Colorado Craft Company Stamps

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I was so incredibly lucky to win the beautiful Blissful Butterflies stamp set from Colorado Craft Company. Debby Hughes was having a giveaway on her blog, and I was one of the commenters gifted. If you don’t follow Debby, you really should. Her card artistry is absolutely amazing! Her blog is called Lime Doodle Design.

This is my first stamp set from Colorado Craft Company, and I just have to say, the quality and creativity of their stamps sets is top notch. The images are large and very beautifully designed.

I started by stamping the two butterfly images and one of the leaf images onto a 4 x 5 1/4″ piece of Bristol card stock with Versafine Onyx Black ink. I started coloring the butterflies using my Zig Clean Color Markers (052, 032) and my waterbrush. To add a bit more dimension to the butterflies, I pulled out my Cretacolor pencils (orange 11, prussian blue 61). Finally, to help define the butterflies, I used my N0 and N3 Copic markers (outlining around each butterfly and coloring the bodies).

I stepped away for a bit, and came back to see how I felt about the white space that was left. It just seemed a bit too noticeable to me, so I found a small dot stamp from the Simon Says Stamp Spring Flower Burst stamp set and used that to fill in some of that open white space. I also filled in the dots with a black Sharpie marker.

For the sentiment, I used Reverse Confetti’s Lots to Say stamp set. I heat embossed it onto a scrap piece of vellum using Recollections Ebony embossing powder.

To coordinate with the black stamped images, I decided that the white card front needed a black mat. I still wanted the Simon Says Stamp Fog card base to be visible, so I made my mat just slightly larger than the stamped image. To attach the sentiment, I wrapped it around the black matted card front and adhered it on the back (vellum is so hard to attach without the glue showing 🙂 All that was left was to attach the card front to the card base.

I hope you like it!

I Love Altenew’s Cherished Memories Stamp Set

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It’s been a pretty long time since I’ve made anything.  Being safe at home has given me the opportunity to appreciate time spent with family, be it in person or through video.  Card making has taken a back seat for too long, so I decided to pull out a new-to-me stamp set and get to work.

I started off by stamping a few of the flower and leaf images onto Bristol paper using Versafine Onyx Black ink and heat embossing with Recollections Ebony embossing powder. I hadn’t used my Zig Clean Color markers in a while, so I chose a few purple and green shades to use (082 and 080 for flowers and 053 and 044 for leaves) along with my waterbrush. Once the images were dry, I cut them out using the matching dies.

Now for card design…I’m never very good at following a plan. I usually just start putting things down and seeing what looks best to me. I’m also not very good at feeling comfortable with a lot of white space (something that I need to work on). I decided on using piece of Simon Says Stamp fog card stock for a foundation for my flower/leaves piece. To give it a bit of dimension, I dry embossed it using the Cuttlebug Checkered embossing folder. The sentiment I chose was from the Taylored Expessions Simple Strips set cut out using the matching die (if you haven’t seen these sets yet, you really need to check them out…brilliant design). I backed the strip with a piece of My Favorite Things Black & White Stripes paper.

I adhered the flower using foam tape, and thought I was done at that point. After finishing a card, I always walk away for a while. Usually, I come back and still like what I created. This time, it still looked a bit unbalanced. That’s when I added the small black strips on the diagonal corners. As soon as I placed them, I knew it was done.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Celebrate or Birthday Card Using a DIY Stencil

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It’s really funny how most everything old becomes new again.  Card making is no different.  Stencils are back, although for some, they really never left.  I love stencils because they are a relatively cheap way to add to your craft stash, and there are so many ways that they can be used.  Even better, you can actually make your own for almost nothing if you have a cutting machine.

(Side note…to make my own stencils, I use dollar store plastic notebook dividers and my Silhouette Cameo machine.  You can find so many basic shapes in the design store, or even make your own.  This plastic material cuts beautifully using the stencil material cut settings already set in your machine.)

I had already made a few stencils several weeks ago, so I decided to give one of them a try…a balloon stencil.

Here’s what I came up with…

My Empty Nest Creations DIY Stencil Celebrate Card

This one was really simple to make, but I just love the bright colors with the black & white sentiment.

Using my home made balloon stencil, I ink blended 5 balloons using Worn Lipstick, Peacock Feathers, Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade and Wilted Violet Distress Oxides.  I love the fact that no masking is needed.  It’s perfectly okay, in fact it’s more realistic, to have the balloons peeking through.  Once the balloons were dry, I drew the strings with a Micron marker and a ruler.

All that was left was die cutting my Celebrate sentiment using Neat & Tangled’s Celebrate die with black and white scrap card stock and stamping the smaller sentiment using Winnie & Walter’s Sentimental: Gift stamp set.  The final step was to pop the Celebrate die cut with some dimensional tape.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Cute Birthday Card Using Both Digital and Stamped Images

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I have collected so many digital images that I just never seem to think about once I store them away in the appropriate folder on my computer.  After seeing a recent Instagram post from Kathy Racoosin (@kathyrac) where she colored a gorgeous digital image, I was inspired to go through my stash to find something that I could use on the birthday card that I was making.  As you’ll see, I decided to start pretty small, but I’m hoping that it will inspire me to use more digital images in the future.

My Empty Nest Creations Birthday Card using Bugaboo Digital RPHello image

I started by ink blending my background (4×5 1/4″) using Distress Oxides Broken China, Blueprint Sketch, Faded Jeans and Black Soot.  As you can see, I had a slight mishap on the lower part, but I kept going because I figured that I could “hide” it a bit with my dog image.  (For some reason, the mishap isn’t so obvious on the real card.  Lighting and camera seem to highlight it.)  I finished the background adding some water spritzes and some white heat embossed stars using Simon Says Stamp Birthday Celebrations stamp set.  The final touch for the background was a few clouds cut from vellum using Ellen Hutson Silver Linings die set.  In order to hide the spray adhesive on the clouds, I simply added some white gel pen lines.

On to the stamping and coloring…Using Spectrum Noir paper, I stamped the heart balloon from Concord & 9ths Monster Love stamp set using Gina K Amalgam ink, and I printed the cute dog from Bugaboo Digital Stamps (RPHello).  After some very basic coloring, I fussy cut both images and put them aside to dry a bit.

Putting everything together was easy.  Using foam squares for some dimension, I adhered the dog and balloon in places that would leave room for the birthday banner.  Before adding the banner, I tied and glued the string around the balloon end.  While I let that dry, I stamped the greeting using Hero Arts Stamp & Cut Ribbon Messages stamps, but I knew that I wanted to have a portion of the banner to wrap around the balloon string.  To do this, I used the partial die cutting technique that Jennifer McGuire has shown many times on her blog.  I let the die cut most of the image, but left the left side of the die off the cutting pad.  Using my scissors, I added a bit to wrap around the string.

Once the glue was dry on the balloon string, I attached the banner and glued the string to the dog’s paw, and called it done!

Thanks for visiting 🙂

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p.s.  If you’re not following Kathy on Instagram, you really should.  She is so incredibly talented and a genuinely nice person.  Also, be sure to check out Bugaboo Digital Stamps to see some adorable images.

A Very Simple Get Well Card Using Impression Obsession’s Tulip Stamp

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I haven’t posted in a while because I just seemed to have lost my creative mojo again.  I decided to make a simple card hoping that would inspire me to create some more.

My Empty Nest Creations simple Get Well Card using Impression Obsession's Tulip stamp

I have always loved cards with bases made from kraft card stock, so I started there.  I just eyeballed where I wanted the simple greeting (Hero Arts Classic Messages stamp set…I use this one all the time 🙂

Using Bristol paper, I stamped the image with Versafine Onyx Black ink because I knew that I was going to use my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.  After “painting” the image, I added a few simple additions with a white gel pen after it had dried.

This image is a piece of cake to fussy cut 🙂    I adhered it to the card base with some foam tape and called it done.  Like always, I walked away and came back to it a few hours later.  I decided it just needed a bit more, so I added the black dots above and below the flowers.

See, I told you it was a simple card.  The design is pretty generic, too, so it would be great for many types of cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

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A Note of Thanks Using the Mondo Hydrangea set from Ellen Hutson

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I have had this stamp set on my craft desk for quite a while now.  I bought it because I absolutely loved every single card that I saw on Instagram that used this stamp image.  I figured it was about time I gave it a go.

My Empty Nest Creations Thank You Card Using the Mondo Hydrangea Stamp Set

I started by black heat embossing the flower stamp onto a 4×5 1/4″ piece of Bristol paper (I used Bristol because I knew that I was going to be coloring with my Zig Clean Color markers).  I then cut a mask out of masking paper to cover the bloom so that I could black heat emboss a few leaves.  I really love heat embossing any image that I’m going to water color because the embossing keeps bleeding to a minimum.

I pulled out one blue, one yellow, two green Zig markers and my water brush and started coloring.  That’s another thing that I love about Zig markers…you only need a few to get different shading and dimension.  Once the flower and leaves were dry, I stamped the greeting from W Plus 9 Basic Banners stamp set with Faded Jeans Distress Oxide ink that matched the blue from the flower perfectly.  I found a scrap piece of blue Bazzill card stock and mounted the flower piece on top and then attached it to an A2 card base made from Neenah Solar White 110# card stock.  After stepping away for a bit, I decided that something just wasn’t quite right, so I pulled out a fine tip black marker and drew in the frame.  That was exactly what it needed.

Thanks for stopping by!

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A Very Simple Valentine Card Using Heart Dies and Ink Blending

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Like most card makers, I’m really stuck on rainbow ink blending.  It’s so bright and cheery that I just can’t help it.  This time I used it as a background for my cut out heart card front.

Rainbow Hearts Love You Card using MFT Pierced Heart dies and Distress Oxides

I started by ink blending a piece of 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ Bristol paper using Wilted Violet, Mermaid Lagoon, Twisted Citron, Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade and Candied Apple Distress Oxides.  While I let that dry, I cut out hearts using 3 of the heart dies (My Favorite Things Pierced Heart Stax dies) from another piece of Bristol paper the same size as the ink blended piece.  I had to be careful and collect the some of the small paper scraps because I knew that I would probably need some of them to fill in the heart shapes (note the tiny white piece on the top left corner of the card front).

Putting the card together was very easy.  I adhered the die cut heart piece on top of the rainbow piece first.  Once I did that, it was easy to see where I needed to complete any heart shapes.  It turns out that the only white scrap piece I needed was for the purple heart on the top left corner.  The sentiment is from The Ink Blot Shop’s Tiny Bubbles set.  I white heat embossed the bubble and words onto a scrap piece of black card stock and attached it to the card front using a foam square.

At this point, I was finished with my original idea, but I felt it looked a bit blah.  I decided it needed a few black additions, so I outlined each of the hearts with black dashes using a fine tip black marker and added a few black Nuvo dots.  That was exactly what it needed.  To finish the card, I attached it to an A2 top folding card base.

I hope you like it!

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