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

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

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!

Computer Signature

4May2018

Gotta Love Some Whale Humor

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

Ever since Ellen Hutson came out with their S’Whale stamp set, I knew it was eventually going to be part of my stash. I just love the sentiments in it, but it was the whales that immediately caught my attention. Who doesn’t love some adorable whales, right?

My Empty Nest Creations Thanks a Ton Whale Card using Ellen Hutson's S'Whale stamps For this card, I paired it with the Hero Arts Wave Background stamp. First, I cut my piece of Bristol paper using the Memory Box Stitched Rectangles Layers die. I’ve had the My Favorite Things Rectangle Peek a Boo Window die for forever, but I’ve never used it; so I thought I’d give it a try here. Once that was done, I placed it on my vertical, top folding A2 card base and lightly traced the window. After taping off the area around the penciled window, I white heat embossed that open space using my Hero Arts Waves Background stamp. The coloring was very simple. I used some Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers in various blue shades to create my ocean.

For the whale, I stamped it onto a scrap of Bristol paper using Versafine Onyx Black ink and colored with a few gray and blue Zig marker shades and my waterbrush. After fussy cutting it out, I started to put my card together.

I adhered the window piece onto my card base with foam tape, and then placed my whale in the window, again using foam tape. There are so many great sentiments in this stamp set, so I had trouble deciding which one to use. I never have enough thank you cards, so I settled on “Thanks a ton”. I white heat embossed it onto a piece of black card stock and placed it just below the window.

Once I had the card put together, I thought that it needed just a little more blue to balance it out a bit. I simply glued a strip of blue card stock to the bottom. I love it when I can use my paper scraps to finish a card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Computer Signature

17Nov2017

Non-Traditional Christmas Colors for the Latest Freshly Made Sketches Challenge

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

It’s been quite a while since I joined in on a card challenge. I’ve been busy making my Christmas cards for this year. Since they are almost finished, I thought I’d create a card for one of my favorite card challenge sites, Freshly Made Sketches.

Here is the latest sketch…

and here is my entry.

Any holiday card that I’ve made usually has red and green on it, so I decided to leave my Christmas comfort zone and do something a little less traditional. How about light blue and light green? I really like that color combo, so I went for it.

I started with Ellen Hutson’s Mondo Poinsettia stamp set. I gold heat embossed the images onto Bristol paper, and water colored them with Peeled Paint and Broken China Distress Oxides. I really love the Distress Oxides. They stamp beautifully, and they are wonderful as watercolors. After the leaves and flowers had dried, I cut them out with the matching dies and put them aside.

My Merry Christmas sentiment is from WPlus9 Hand Lettered Holiday stamp set. I just love the pairing of the script and capital letters. I cut Merry out of some silver metallic card stock and heat embossed Christmas with silver embossing powder onto a velum strip. Once that was done, I needed to do a little something with my card base. Plain white just wasn’t going to be right. I decided to do a little light stenciling using the Broken China ink and a Gina Marie Designs stencil. All that was left was to put the card together. I adhered the velum strip just between the two flower groupings and popped up the flowers with some foam tape. The final touch was to add a few sequins and some Nuvo gold drops on the flower centers.

I hope you like it. Thanks for stopping by. Happy Holidays!

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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