Tag Archives: Altenew

Altenew’s Happy Bloom Birthday Card

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I’m not sure how new this stamp set is, but it is certainly new to me.  I just love the floral arrangement and the banner that’s perfect for the sentiment.

My Empty Nest Creations Birthday Card using Altenew's Happy Bloom setI’m not the best Copic colorer (I definitely need to watch more videos and practice a lot!).  I just used two or three color blending for each flower and leaf, and put a few gray shadows on the banner.  For a little interest, I used my white gel pen to give a few of the flowers a bit more detail.  Some black sequins finished it up.  I struggled with what color to mat the flower image and decided on purple to bring out the largest flower.  The sentiment is from the same Altenew Happy Bloom stamp set.  After all of that, I felt the flowers looked a little flat so I pulled out my Wink of Stella pen and sparkled them up!

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Happy spring everyone!

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Concord & 9th’s Hello Lovely…again!

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I just love this stamp set, and I seem to use it on every other card that I make.  It is just that beautiful.  I paired this stamp with some pretty bright Zig Clean Color markers.  I usually am drawn to more pastel or muted colors, but I wanted to venture a little beyond my normal comfort zone.

My Empty Nest Creations Concord & 9th's Hello Lovely Just For You card

I started by white heat embossing the floral image onto Bristol paper.  I especially like doing this because it makes using a water brush much easier.  I used several Zig Clean Color markers to paint the flowers and leaves.  To highlight the floral image, I lightly water colored a gray background using marker 091.

Using Waffle Flower’s Lacy Layers, I die cut the floral piece (what an adorable scalloped edge 🙂 and attached it to a piece of yellow card stock that matched the yellow flowers perfectly.  To give the card a little dimension, I used foam tape to adhere it to the purple polka dot card base.  This card base comes from a Pebbles Cardmaking pad that is loaded with adorable bright colored card bases.  All that was left, was the sentiment.  I white heat embossed a sentiment from Altenew’s Penned Rose stamp set onto a scrap piece of black card stock.

I hope you like it!

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A Very Simply Cut Out Card

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I’ve wanted to try this cut out technique for a while.  I’m pretty sure it was Jennifer McGuire that inspired this card.

My Empty Nest Creations Cut Out window card using Paper Smooches Best Buds stamps and dies

I started with a vertical top folding A2 card base.  I die cut the flower/mason jar image from Paper Smooches Best Buds dies.  Using the cut out as a template, I fit the matching stamp in the cut out space and stamped it through the window using Memento Tuxedo Black ink (love my Tim Holtz Stamp Platform).  I colored the image using Copic markers with very simple blending.  To give the flowers a little more detail, I pulled out my white gel pen and Micron black marker.  The sentiment is from Altenew’s Penned Rose stamp set.

This was such a simple card, but I really loved how it turned out.  I hope you like it, too.

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Watercoloring with Distress Oxides AGAIN!

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Let me start by saying that I’m not the best at watercoloring anything, but I just love using Distress Oxides and heat embossing to create some “easy to color” images.  Anyone can color within the lines, right?

Here is my latest card…

My Empty Nest Creations Distress Oxide Watercolor Floral Birthday Card

I started by gold heat embossing and masking many times the rose from Altenew’s Penned Rose stamp set on a piece of Bristol paper.  For the watercolors, I used Peacock Feathers and Fossilized Amber Distress Oxides and a waterbrush.  Once that was dry, I cut it on a diagonal to fit a top folding horizontal A2 card base.  Before adhering it, I covered the whole card base with yellow paper that matched the yellow portions of my watercolor piece.  I attached my diagonal watercolor portion, and added a happy birthday die cut using Lawn Fawn’s Happy Birthday Line Border die and the scrap from my watercolor piece.  Because that scrap wasn’t long enough to cover the whole diagonal line, I simply cut the tail end after “birthday” off.

That’s all there was to it…a pretty simple and colorful birthday card.

Thanks for taking a look!

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A Simple Cut Edge Card Front

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I think I’m kind of obsessed with the popular emboss resist technique partnered with Distress Oxide inks.  With that said, I figured I needed to come up with something just a little different from my normal card fronts.

My Empty Nest Creations Rainbow Emboss Resist Technique using Distress OxidesI started with one of my favorite large stamps—Simon Says Stamp’s Emma Background.  I white heat embossed it onto the front side of an A2 top folding card base, and ink blended it with Candied Apple, Spiced Marmalade and Fossilized Amber Distress Oxides.  They just blend so smoothly and don’t leave any kind of harsh lines or marks.  They are definitely easier to blend than the traditional Distress Inks.  To emphasize the beautiful stamp image, I lightly wiped away any ink that was sitting on top of the embossing.

To change things up a bit, I decided to fussy cut around the bottom portion of the embossed image and stamp my greeting from Altenew’s Adore You stamp set below my cut edge.  All that was left was to add a few matching sequins.

Thanks for visiting 🙂

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Making Multiple Cards from One Stamped Image

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I’ve kind of been on a little creative slump lately.  I always love making cards during the winter holidays, but that excitement always seems to leave around December 26th.  Even Valentine’s Day doesn’t get my creative mojo fired up.  That said, I just love it when I can get multiple cards using just one stamped image.  Two for the price of one…who doesn’t love that!

I have a few of Simon Says Stamp beautiful background cling stamps that I always seem to go to.  They are great for any kind of card.  Stamps are expensive, so I love it when I can buy one that is so incredibly versatile.

For my latest cards, I used Simon Says Stamp’s Emma Background.  I white heat embossed it on Bristol paper, and ink blended over it using Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry Distress Oxides (I just love how the oxides blend so effortlessly).  I die cut a heart out of the center of the image.

For my first card, I placed the background minus the heart onto my card base and lightly traced the heart outline.  This helped me stamp my greeting in the right spot.  Using one of my new fav stamp sets, Pretty Pink Posh Everyday Greetings, I stamped my greeting within the lightly traced heart space.  After erasing the heart outline, I adhered my stamped background onto my card base with dimensional tape.  The final touch was adding a few small pink hearts to finish it off.

For the second card, I embossed a piece of white card stock using the Doodle Hearts  embossing folder from The Paper Studio.  I then die cut that piece using a Gina Marie Designs double stitched rectangle die.  Using Altenew’s Halftone Happy die, I cut the beautiful script Happy out of silver metallic card stock.  To finish the sentiment, I die cut a banner out of white card stock and stamped “anniversary” from Altenew’s Halftone Happy stamp set.  I matted the white background piece with the same silver metallic card stock.  All that was left was to simply glue it all together.  Once again, the final touch was adding a few tiny pink hearts.

Thanks for stopping by 🙂

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Coloring with Distress Oxides

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I just got my first batch of Distress Oxides in the mail, and I’ve been dying to give them a try.  So many crafters have been raving about them for so long.  I had to see what all the fuss was about.  I’ve been using the Distress Inks for watercoloring for a while, and I wanted to see how the oxides differed from the inks.

The biggest difference is readily apparent when you first smoosh the pad onto an acrylic block.  The pads are much “juicier” than the regular Distress Ink pads, and the colors seem thicker and more opaque.  The color lasts a whole lot longer on my waterbrush, too.  A little definitely goes a long way with these oxides.  As far as coverage, I didn’t really notice a huge difference between the oxides and the regular inks.

Here’s a simple card that I made using the Paper Smooches Best Buds and Altenew Birthday Wishes stamp sets and Distress Oxides (and a couple of Distress Inks, too).  Whenever I’m going to watercolor a stamped image, I like to heat emboss first.  It gives me nice, safe margins to paint.  (I haven’t tried the no-line watercoloring technique yet, but it’s definitely on my list.)

My Empty Nest Creations Paper Smooches Best Buds Birthday Card

I finished the card using a few strips of card stock to balance the left side.  I added a few black paint splatters, too.  There’s just something about bright colors coordinated with black and white stripes that gets me every time…love that combo!

After trying Distress Oxides for the first time, I’m definitely going to add the rest of the collection onto my wish list.  If you haven’t given them a try, you definitely should.  They are fantastic!

 

Using Altenew’s Bamboo Rose Stamp Set

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I have had this stamp set for quite a while now and have hardly used it.  Not that I have a ton of stamp sets, but many of them end up in a pile and get forgotten.  I came across this set while cleaning a bit, so I decided to put it to some use.

My Empty Nest Creations card using Altenew's Bamboo Rose Stamp Set

I started by cutting a panel from purple card stock (I know it looks a little blue in the photo, but trust me, it’s purple).  I then stamped multiple images with Versamark ink and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder.  I die cut the panel using the largest stitched rectangle from Memory Box and put the panel aside.

I clear heat embossed a few of the images onto Bristol paper and colored them with some Zig Clean Color Brush Markers.  I’m still getting the hang of these markers.  I need to practice some more.  Since I don’t have the matching dies for this Altenew set, I fussy cut them out.  Because the images aren’t that detailed, it was fairly easy.  I embossed a strip of velum using a Cuttlebug checked embossing folder.

Then, it was just a matter of putting it all together.  Since the purple panel was significantly smaller than the white card base, I mounted it with a piece of Bazzill Alpaca card stock.  I decided where I was placing the flowers in order to find the right spot for the velum.  I adhered the velum with some glue behind where the flowers were going to go.  I glued the flowers in place using some fun foam behind a few to give it dimension.  I chose Avery Elle’s Simply Said: You set for the sentiment and silver heat embossed it onto a strip of black card stock. For some additional dimension, I glued the entire panel onto the white card base using fun foam.

That’s it.  Thanks for stopping by.

Need Something to Brighten Someone’s Birthday?

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I’m on a rainbow kick, and I’m pretty sure that it has something to do with this crazy weather we’re having.  I really shouldn’t complain when I see pretty much everyone north of the Mason-Dixon line shoveling like crazy.  As a former northerner, it gives me flashbacks!

I made this card (along with some others) to give to some friends as a small birthday gift.  I wanted something that was pretty generic as far as birthday cards go.  I figured that children or adults would enjoy receiving this bright, cheerful card.

Rainbow Ink Blending Birthday Card by My Empty Nest Creations

 

I started off by heat embossing, with Recollections Gold Embossing Powder, the Hero Arts Tiny Star Background stamp.  I used Barn Door, Mustard Seed and Broken China Distress Inks to ink blend the background.  I just love Neat & Tangled’s Celebrate dies, so I knew that I had to gold heat emboss the detailed die cut.  So that it wouldn’t get lost on the background, I also cut the die from black card stock and adhered it to the back of the gold die cut.  It gave it a slight shadow–exactly what I wanted.  To tie in the black shadow on the die, I white heat embossed a happy birthday greeting from the Altenew Birthday Greetings stamp set onto black card stock.

Because I’m so pleased with how this card turned out, I’ve included it in my Etsy shop.  I hope you like it 😉

Freshly Made Sketches #271

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Once again, I’m enjoying the sketches from Freshly Made Sketches.  I just love how they are simple, but allow for a lot of interpretation.  It truly is a great site.  Be sure to check them out!

Here is the most recent sketch…

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and here is my interpretation…

1_20_17-floral-gray-get-well-card-img_0815I used two different stamp sets for the floral piece—Altenew’s Adore You and Stampendous’ Fronds.  I stamped them in Versafine Black (my favorite crisp black ink), and did just a little Copic coloring.  I didn’t intend to do such a large gray outline with my Copic marker until it decided to just leak on my image.  I’m not sure why that happened, but it has definitely happened before.  Oh well…I think I camouflaged it pretty well.

I then cut my piece apart to allow for my greeting.  I knew I wanted a white embossed greeting on black, so I played around with various greetings until I decided on this one from My Favorite Things Delicate Pretty Poppies.  I cut my black mat and then cut a little more off of my floral image in order to fit the greeting.  Using my powder tool to help define the area, I stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with white embossing powder.

You can’t tell from the picture, but I adhered the white floral image sections with foam tape to raise them up from the black greeting area.  For final touches, I added some white dashed lines to help define the greeting and some Nuvo Crystal Drops in Red Berry.  The card base is a light gray to compliment the gray floral outline.

I hope you like it!