Inspired by Stamping’s Summer Bouquet

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I’ve had this stamp set for quite a while now, and I thought that it was time to actually use it. It has such a lovely cluster of magnolia blossoms and some wonderful sentiments, too!

My Empty Nest Creations Magnolia Blossoms Hugs Card

I started by gold heat embossing the flower image onto a 4×5.25″ piece of Distress Watercolor Card Stock (using my Tim Holtz Stamp Positioner made it very easy to get a good impression). Using Distress Oxides and a waterbrush, I painted the flowers and buds (Fossilized Amber, Frayed Burlap), leaves (Iced Spruce, Peeled Paint) and the background (Broken China). As you can see, all of the coloring is very, very soft. I really wanted the outlined images to be the highlight.

The greeting, from the same stamp set, was gold heat embossed on velum and folded under the watercolor piece so I could attach it. I chose a pearlized, textured green cardstock (I think it’s from Die Cuts With a View) as the card mat because I wanted the light blue watercolored background to stand out a bit. My last step is usually to add a few little sequins or Nuvo drops, but I really wanted the card to have a very, very soft, pastel feel, so I chose not to add anything else. All that was left was to adhere it to a Bazzill Alpaca top folding card base.

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Computer Signature

10Jul2017

Concord & 9th’s Hello Lovely is Truly Lovely

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I have been ogling over this stamp set since it was released (which was quite a while ago). For whatever reason, it usually takes me a couple of months after a stamp release to order/receive it. This one will always be one of my favorites. I love the floral arrangement, but I also really like the greetings.

My Empty Nest Creations Card using Concord & 9th's Hello Lovely Stamp Set

I started off by gold heat embossing the floral stamp onto watercolor paper. (Because of the texture of the paper, I had to stamp a couple of times with Versamark ink in order to get good coverage. The MISTI makes this process so incredibly easy!) Next, I chose a couple of Zig Clean Color Markers for my coloring. I really like the watercolor look, so I just added ink directly to the paper and used my waterbrush to spread the ink. To highlight the floral image a bit, I used a light blue Zig marker and my waterbrush to softly outline the image. I gold heat embossed the HELLO greeting from the same stamp set. I knew that I needed to add something to the top to balance the card a bit. To go with the soft watercolor feel, I just added a few stripes of color using my Zigs and waterbrush. A few Nuvo drops in gold, pink and purple (I know you can’t really see the colors in the photo) gave me the finishing touch.

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26Jun2017

Just Loving the Stampendous Fronds Stamp Set

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I have had this set for quite a while now, and I just love how versatile it is. For this card, I used several of the stamps to create a wreath. First, I lightly drew a circle using one of my circle dies as a template above center on an A2 size piece of white card stock. I chose a few of the stamps in the set giving the wreath a little more unique look and stamped in various shades of Distress Ink (Fossilized Amber, Abandoned Coral, Pine Needles, Forest Moss and Crushed Olive). The berries stamped in Abandoned Coral looked a little washed out, so I took a black fine tip Sharpie and outlined those.

For the circle die cut, I decided on using Crushed Olive and the watercolor “smooshing” technique. I pressed the ink pad on my mat and sprayed it with water. I “smooshed” the circle die cut around until I got the coverage that I wanted. After it was dry, I sprayed a little more water on it to give it a more distressed look. To define the circle, I used my ink blending tool and blended some Vintage Photo lightly around the edges.

I popped the circle die cut up with some fun foam, and used the My Favorite Things Many Thanks die to cut out my greeting. I twice gold heat embossed the die cuts to get complete coverage, and glued them to the circle die. The card front need a little more balance, so I trimmed a little off of the top and bottom of the wreath card front. I gold heat embossed the top and bottom edges of a new A2 sized card front and glued the wreath card front on top. I think that last step just finished it off nicely.

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