Inspired by Stamping Cherry Blossoms

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

Okay…My Version of Cherry Blossoms 🙂

Inspired by Stamping is a new-to-me stamp company, and I’m so glad I found them. I purchased the Cherry Blossoms stamp set recently, and I’ve been dying to use it on a card. I saw an Instagram post by Kathy Racoosin where she drew black horizontal stripes on her card base using a Copic marker. I knew that I wanted to give that a try, and since I love yellow and black together, I decided to make my cherry blossoms yellow. Crazy right?

My Empty Nest Creations using Inspired by Stamping Cherry Blossoms

Like I said, I drew the dark gray lines (Copic N10) on my card front first and put that aside. Using Bristol paper, I stamped several floral groupings and used Copics Y15, Y17 and YG63 to do very simple coloring. I cut out the stamped base for the floral piece and added individual petals with foam glue dots to give it dimension. I wanted the flowers to appear as if they were coming off of the card. All that was left was to add a greeting. I chose one from the same stamp set.

I was going to frame the card front with black card stock but decided against it. I truly wanted the flowers to be the focal point.

I hope you like it.

Supplies Used:

Neenah Solar White 110# card stock
Bristol paper
Copic markers
Memento Tuxedo Black ink

21Jul2017

Unity Stamp Co. Hugs, Kisses & Birthday Wishes

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I love clear stamps for a multitude of reasons, but I will never give up on my cling stamps. Their clean, crisp stamp images are fantastic! Some of the best cling stamps come from Unity Stamp Co. They have several sets with an adorable owl that I just can’t resist. The Hugs, Kisses & Birthday Wishes is a large set that includes many different birthday sentiments along with this adorable owl surrounded by a large bouquet of balloons.

My Empty Nest Creations Unity Hugs, Kisses & Birthday Wishes Stamp Set

I stamped him on Bristol paper using Memento Tuxedo Black ink (Copic friendly), and colored the image with various Copic markers. When cutting it out, I didn’t worry about the balloon strings because I knew that I could just draw them on the card at the end.

I just received the My Favorite Things cloud stencil, so I used it to create a soft cloud/sky background with my ink blending tool and Distress Ink. I used fun foam to adhere the owl image and added a very thin pink strip of card stock to each side. For a little bit of color balance, I glued a bright blue piece of card stock to my card base.

I chose one of the many wonderful birthday greetings from the stamp set and added that to the top. To finish it off, I used my clear Wink of Stella marker on the balloons (unfortunately, you can’t see that in the photo).

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Unity Stamp Co. Hugs, Kisses & Birthday Wishes
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Markers: Copic Sketch Markers, Clear Wink of Stella
Paper: Neenah Solar White 110#
Other: My Favorite Things cloud stencil

9Jun2017

My First Cutsie Critters Card

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

For the past few years, I’ve seen these incredibly adorable “critter” cards all over the internet. I have admired/loved them, but never had any darling animal stamps of my own. Thanks to Butterflyreflectionsink and her tremendous sale, I was able to purchase some sets (and the matching dies) from W Plus 9 that I’ve had my eye on. They are the Friends for all Seasons sets, and they are just the cutest.

My Empty Nest Creations card using W Plus 9 Friends for All Seasons stamps

I started with a 4.25″ x 5.5″ piece of Bristol paper. Using Hero Arts Soft Sky shadow ink, I stamped several of the animals in all directions on the paper. I stamped them again slightly offset with Memento Tuxedo Black thinking that I was going to use Copic markers. Once I saw just how cute the stamping was with the black and white, I decided to leave them as is and just do a light blue watercolor wash using Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and my waterbrush.

I stamped a couple of the animals on Bristol paper and colored them with my Copic markers, and cut them out with the matching dies. My original thought was to just pop up the cut images with foam tape and place it on the black/white/light blue background. It was just too busy. The colored images didn’t really stand out, so I decided to cut a piece of velum using the Avery Elle Wonky Stitches die to place on top of the black/white/light blue piece. (Before I cut it out, I ran it through my laser printer with a cute “from all of us” greeting.) It softened the background just enough to let the colored images shine. Because velum is such a tricky paper to adhere, I just placed some liquid glue behind where the colored die cuts were on the back side of the velum. To finish, I white heat embossed the “Happy Birthday” greeting from My Favorite Things Birthday Bears stamp set onto black card stock. As usual, I thought the card needed just a little bit more, so I added some Nuvo drops in a few matching colors.

Thanks for stopping by 🙂

22Apr2017

Using an Older but “New to Me” Stamp Set

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

Wish Big Stamp & Die Set by Julie Ebersole for Ellen Hutson

I just purchased this stamp and die set recently (but I’ve been wanting it since it first came out). I just love the adorable hippo and bird with all of the birthday extras! Before starting most cards, I check two of my favorite sketch sites. I decided to go with the Freshly Made Sketches challenge this week.

Here is FMS #284…

and here is my entry…

To start, I cut even strips of bright card stock from my scraps (thanks Jennifer McGuire for the inspiration!). I adhered them in rainbow order vertically on to the center of a 3.5 x 5.5″ piece of white card stock. I stamped the hippo and bird using Memento Tuxedo Black ink because I wanted to color them with Copic markers. After coloring the animals, two party hats and two balloons, I used the matching dies to cut them out. To give the party hats a little bit of character, I used a Signo Uni-Ball white pen to add dots and stripes. I knew that I wanted the balloons to be cut out of the vertical stripe area to represent the hearts on the sketch. I decided on the placement of the hippo and bird and die cut the balloons out of the rainbow card front.

In starting to put together the card, I realized that the rainbow card front needed some kind of mat to prevent it from hiding. I cut a piece of black card stock the same height but 1/4″ wider. I glued those pieces together and then attached the animals and balloons with foam tape for dimension. I used a piece of patterned paper from My Mind’s Eye Happy Day 6×6 paper pad to cover the card base and attached the rainbow piece in the center. I white heat embossed the greeting onto black card stock, cut the fishtail end and attached it next to the balloon so that it almost looks like it is flying with the balloon.

Thanks for stopping by!

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24Mar2017

Getting Out of My Color Comfort Zone

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

With the Help of Freshly Made Sketches

I know the trend in card making is now about florals and bright colors. I’ve found myself getting too comfortable with those designs. I wanted to change it up a bit (at least for me) by using colors that I never really even think of when starting a card – orange and navy.

Now, for the design…I went to one of my usual sites for inspiration–Freshly Made Sketches. Here is the latest sketch…

While I usually don’t follow their sketches to the letter, I just received a new stamp set that is perfect—Hampton Arts Lift Me Up. The detailed butterfly is gorgeous, and the sayings are terrific.

I started off by white heat embossing the butterfly on navy Bazzill card stock towards the bottom right corner of the paper. I wanted this image to be kind of a shadow for the main butterfly. Next, I stamped the butterfly with Momento Tuxedo Black ink and cut it out with the matching die. I colored the butterfly with Copic markers and added a few small white extras with my white gel pen. I attached the butterfly with foam tape to give it some dimension. For the last touch, I covered the butterfly with my Wink of Stella clear glitter pen. The “You Lift Me Up” greeting from the stamp set seemed to perfect, so I white heat embossed it on the bottom left corner.

I knew that I needed to accent the card with some orange to balance the orange butterfly, so I cut the navy card stock slightly so that I could have a strip of orange on the left side of the card. Then, I realized that the card front was still a little dark, so I trimmed a slight edge off of the top and bottom so that the white card base would peak through. Once all of that was done, this card still needed something else. I’ve really been trying to incorporate sequins (another card trend) on to my cards, but I didn’t have any orange ones (remember, orange is not one of my go-to colors 🙂 Then, I remembered seeing Jennifer McGuire use her Copic markers to color some pearl accents. I found my pearl dots and colored them with one of the same orange Copic markers that I used on the butterfly. They were the perfect final touch on my card.

I hope you like it!

21Jan2017

Freshly Made Sketches #271

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

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…

and here is my interpretation…

I 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!

6Jan2017

You Color My World

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I found this adorable chameleon digital file on the Little Scraps of Heaven Digi Designs website and just knew that he would be perfect for a cute valentine.

I started by printing my chameleon on regular white card stock and proceeded to color him with Copic markers. I then fussy cut him and added some clear Wink of Stella to give him some pizzaz. He needed a little bit more something, so I used my white gel pen to give him a few details. 1_6_17-chameleo-valentine-img_0779

For the background, I ink blended (Abandoned Coral, Fossilized Amber, Cracked Pistachio and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Inks) using the Simon Says Stamp Large Falling Hearts stencil–I just love that thing 🙂

I mounted Mr. Chameleon with foam tape and punched a heart with my Marvy Uchida heart punch. I gave the heart a few details, and mounted it with foam tape so that it looks like the chameleon is holding it.

I gave it a couple of mats and attached it to an A2 Neenah Solar White #110 card base.

1_6_17-chameleon-valentine-img_0783

For the inside, I stamped “You Color My World” from the W Plus 9 Color My World stamp set. I used a few Copic markers to color in the word Color, too.

I hope you like it!

3Jan2017

My First Valentine of 2017

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

Edited to Add A Slight Modification…

As you can see, I made some slight changes to my original version of this card. The only thing that I changed is the size of the dashed flight path lines. In the original version, I felt that they kind of overshadowed the background a little too much. That’s the beauty of this creative outlet…I can make any change that I think improves the card by just making a new one!

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, and I’m going to use the typical excuse…the holidays got in the way of my creating. Because I’ve had so little crafting time, I’ve kind of lost my mojo. It’s been a little difficult getting back to it, but I did have fun creating this cutie.

As soon as I saw the stamp and die set Fly By from Avery Elle, I knew I had to get it. The airplane and little puff formations are so adorable!

This card is pretty simple, and I have to admit that I’m still struggling with trying to add a little more something to it. My daughter convinced me to post it just like it is. Sometimes simple is truly best.

1_3_17-airplane-valentine-img_0776

The base is Neenah Solar White 110#. I used a small cloud Silhouette cut file to create the sky background by placing a few clouds over white card stock and ink blending the background with Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink. I stamped the airplane and several heart shaped puffs and cut them out with the coordinating dies. I drew a curvy path in light pencil and used a black marker to highlight the path. The airplane was colored with Copic markers, and mounted with foam dots. The heart shaped puffs were mounted with the same foam dots.

1_3_17-airplane-valentine-img_0778

For the inside, I drew another curvy path and connected it to the “love you” stamp. I placed a few cut out heart puffs along the path, too.

I hope you like it. Thanks for stopping by!

28Oct2016

My First Card Challenge

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I’ve been wanting to get involved in card challenges for a while now. It seems like the perfect way to help me grow as a card maker. I tend to create cards that are simple in design, so I thought that the CAS(E) Sketch Challenge would be a great one to start with.

Here’s this week’s sketch…

This week’s challenge has a little different twist. They are asking for pet themed cards to send to a shelter in Minnesota. Be sure to check out the CAS(E) blog for more details.

I’ve had a collection of digital stamps that I’ve been wanting to use for a while. This was my chance.

Here’s my take on the card sketch…

It really was a fun card to make. I printed out my dog image from Bugaboo Stamps and colored it with Copic Markers. I die cut the puppy just off the edge with my Spellbinders Pierced Circles dies. I took the paw prints from the image and printed them on a piece of 4.25×5.5 inch white 80# card stock and colored them with Copics, too. The background was a little too white for me, so I did some ink blending with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink on the top portion of the card. I stamped the “thank you” greeting (Fiskars Thank You Blooms) with Versafine Onyx Black ink. I mounted my pierced circle with fun foam to give it a little dimension. When I started to put my card together on the black card base, I realized that there needed to be some anchor on the left side of the card, so I trimmed my card front by .25 inches to give me that black border on the left side. I printed off an insert for the inside of the card (since the card base is black) with small paw prints.

I hope you like it 🙂

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