Altenew’s Happy Bloom Birthday Card

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

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 set I’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!

Happy spring everyone!

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2Apr2018

Watercoloring with Distress Oxides AGAIN!

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

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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21Mar2018

Letting Go of My Fear of White Space

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I have learned and been inspired by so many card makers out there in blog land. I came across a card challenge blog that got me thinking. I really need to work on my use (or lack of use) of white space in my card making. It’s so difficult for me to leave a large blank space on any card that I make. I’m not exactly sure why that is, so I decided to give it a try on my latest card.

My Empty Nest Creations W Plus 9 Doodle Buds and white space I started by masking of a line a little more than a third from the bottom edge of a piece of 4 1/4″x5 1/2″ Bristol paper. W Plus 9 Doodle Buds is one of my favorite whimsical flower stamp sets, so I stamped a few of the flowers along with the stems on this bottom portion. Me being just a bit lazy, I decided not to bother masking the flowers and stems. Using a small sponge dauber, I ink blended the background using Twisted Citron, Peeled Paint and Broken China Distress Oxides.

For the flowers, I used my trusty waterbrush and more Distress Oxides–Squeezed Lemonade, Wilted Violet, Seedless Preserves and Abandoned Coral. Once the watercoloring was dry, I went over the stamped images with a black marker to help them stand out a bit more.

To give the masked edge a better look, I cut a very small strip of paper from My Favorite Things Black & White Stripe paper pad. Here’s where I struggled with my fear of white space…where was I going to put the sentiment? My initial thought was above the black & white strip, but that is exactly what I would always do, so I decided to cut it out of white card stock and place it very near the bottom of the card. I just love how Simon Says Stamp Happy Birthday Script die cut fits perfectly and shows up nicely over the colored portion. To complete the card, I glued this card front to a A2 top folding card base.

Thanks for visiting!

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7Feb2018

The Joy of Finding an Old Stamp Set

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I have been collecting stamp sets for quite a while now, so there are always older sets that just get lost in the back of a pile. Since I have a limited budget to spend on the latest and greatest stamping/diecutting supplies, I have to rediscover stamp sets that I’ve had in my stash for a few years and never used.

The Hello Mason Jar set from Stampendous is one such set. It has a beautiful array of flowers and a wonderful mason jar. There are a few sentiments that are small and perfect to fit in a small space on any busy card.

My Empty Nest Creations using Stampendous Hello Mason Jar set and Zig markers For this card, I just used the flower grouping that I colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and a waterbrush. I die cut it with the matching die. All that was left was to figure out the right background.

I seem to be obsessed with ink blended backgrounds lately. I think it’s because they are so easy to make, and you end up with the perfect custom background for your card. I blended Salty Ocean and Peeled Paint Distress Oxides for this background. Once that was done, I thought that the card still needed a little something else to help frame the flower image. Again I reached for something that I rarely use, my Spellbinders diamond dies, to create the frame. After popping the floral image up with foam tape, I die cut happy birthday from purple card stock using the Simon Says Stamp Happy Birthday Script die.

Thanks for visiting!

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