First Valentine Card Using Poppystamps Inlay Heart Die

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I’ve been away from card making for quite a long time. Life became much more important to my husband and me. We became grandparents for the first time about a month ago (6 weeks early) to twins—a boy and a girl. We are beyond blessed! Life certainly is good.

After being away for so long, I kind of lost my creative mojo. My husband has been trying to get me into my craft room just to make something because he knows how much I do truly enjoy it. So…here’s my first stab at a valentine card for 2019.

My Empty Nest Creations Valentine using Poppystamps Inlay Heart Die

I just bought this beautiful Inlay Heart die from Poppystamps, and the Messages for Every Day stamp set from Simon Says Stamp. Poppystamps dies always cut perfectly, and the sentiments on this SSS stamp set are awesome!

I cut the die on a piece of pink Bazzill card stock (sorry, I don’t know the color name), and then cut it again using a piece of patterned paper from the 6×6 Front Porch paper pad from Pebbles, Inc. I added a strip of the same patterned paper to the bottom of the pink piece and adhered it to an A2 white card base made from Neenah Solar White #110 card stock. I placed the single patterned paper heart into the space on the inlayed heart and glued it down.

All that was left was to pick the right sentiment. As I said before, this stamp set has an incredible selection of greetings. There were 3 or 4 that would have worked, but I settled on the “I love you so much!” and white heat embossed it onto a piece of dark brown scrap paper that matched the striped paper I used for the heart. I attached the sentiment strip using foam tape to give it some dimension.

I hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by 🙂

Computer Signature

12Jun2017

Using Altenew’s Bamboo Rose Stamp Set

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

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.

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.

19Apr2017

My Apprehension with Large Floral Background Stamps

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

Let me start off by saying that I absolutely love all of the large floral background stamps out there. I really do. I am in awe of the beautiful cards that card makers create with these large stamps. That said, I’m also a little bit nervous to try and make a card using them myself.

It was The Ton’s Peony Crush Cling Background stamp that got me to give it a try. It is probably one of the most beautiful floral background stamps that I’ve seen. This is the card that I made…

My Empty Nest Creations Purple Peony Card using The Ton's Peony Crush cling background stamp

I started off by stamping the stamp onto Bristol paper with Versamark ink. I heat embossed it with Zing Silver Metallic embossing powder. For coloring, I decided to use some Zig Clean Color Brush Markers—Deep Violet for the flowers, Olive Green for the leaves and Light Blue for the empty spaces. I have to say that I’m still learning how to use these markers. It’s definitely going to take some more practice until I’m completely happy with my results.

For my greeting, I cut a strip of velum and chose some sentiments from Technique Tuesday’s Fringed Dahlia stamp set. I heat embossed it with the same silver embossing powder.

I trimmed the floral piece down to allow for some matting. I adhered the velum strip to the floral piece by attaching it on the back side. Using fun foam for dimension, I attached the floral piece to a piece of white card stock. For the final mat, I used a piece of Swiss Dot card stock in a light purple. All of this was attached to a white, top folding card base.

Once it was all put together, I realized that it needed just a little something more. I found a few light purple sequins, and attached them to the velum strip. That was exactly what it needed.

I hope you like it!