The Ton’s Dearest Peony and Freshly Made Sketches #298

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

It’s been a while since I’ve entered a card sketch challenge. Freshly Made Sketches is one of my favorite sketch challenge sites, and here’s the latest sketch…

And here is my entry…

For the background, I used the Hero Arts Houndstooth stamp inked with Hero Arts Soft Granite Shadow Ink. I had to stamp it a few times to get good covered (thank goodness for the MISTI tool). Because of the design of the card that I had in my mind, I had to alter the sketch a bit. I knew that I wanted to cut out the diagonal from the background, but I also wanted to stamp my sentiment within that cut out…so, I reversed the diagonal from the sketch and cut the opposite corner diagonal from my background. Using light pencil markings, I determined the perfect positioning of my greeting and stamped that in Versafine Onyx Black ink (my favorite black ink for fine details) onto my card base. To finish off the background, I used foam tape to adhere the two houndstooth pieces. I just love how the sentiment is recessed.

Now, on to the pretty part. I stamped The Ton’s Dearest Peony floral image onto white card stock with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with black embossing powder. To color, I simply applied Picked Raspberry and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks with a waterbrush. Once it was dry, I fussy cut it and glued it to the two houndstooth triangular pieces. I added a few Nuvo drops to finish it off.

Thanks for stopping by 🙂

Supplies:

Stamps: Hero Arts Houndstooth background, The Ton’s Dearest Peony
Ink: Hero Arts Soft Granite Shadow Ink, Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark, Distress Inks
Card stock: Neenah Solar White 80# and 110#
Other: Nuvo Drops, black embossing powder

18Jun2017

Reverse Confetti’s Bear Hugs Stamp Set

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I just recently purchased this set with the matching dies during the recent Reverse Confetti sale, and I’m so glad that I did. Koalas have always been one of my favorite animals ever since my husband and I held one during our honeymoon in Australia. They are just so adorable!

I started by painting some rainbow stripes on watercolor paper using my Gansai Tambi watercolors. While that was drying, I stamped those adorable koalas onto Bristol paper using my Versamark black ink pad. I heat embossed those images with clear embossing powder. (I love the way that gives me boundaries for my coloring.) Using my Zig Clean Brush markers and a waterbrush, I watercolored the bear images and cut them out with the matching dies.

I used my My Favorite Things Blueprints 13 large pennant die to cut the watercolor piece. For a little bit of dimension, I adhered the bear with the flower with fun foam and glued the other bear die cut with liquid glue.

For the background, I clear embossed a piece of Bristol paper with the Hero Arts Designer Woodgrain wood stamp and ink blended over it with Weathered Wood Distress Ink. I don’t think that I’ve ever used that color before. I love the blue/gray color! I balanced it out with a strip of black striped paper (I used my MFT striped background stamp and black heat embossed a large piece of paper to use for a bunch of cards.)

The sentiment is from the Avery Elle Simply Said: You stamp set and is white heat embossed on a stripe of black card stock. I added a few black Nuvo drops to finish it off.

Thanks for stopping by 🙂

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 🙂

2Apr2017

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #281

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I have been wanting to use my latest Simon Says Stamp Watercolor Friendly Flowers for a while now, and the latest Freshly Made Sketches sketch seemed like a good place to start.

Here is the latest sketch…

This is the card that I made…

I started by white heat embossing the outlined flowers in the set. I pulled out my Zig clean color markers and selected a few softer colors that worked well together. I used a water brush to disperse the color on each petal. Once they were dry, I heat embossed the center portions of the flowers with Zing Metallic Silver embossing powder using my embossing pen. They still needed a little something more, so out came my Wink of Stella clear glitter pen.

On to my card design…I knew that I wanted a little color on the white background where my flowers were going to go, so I lightly ink blended an area in the center with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. I liked the 3 horizontal stripes on the sketch, but I really wanted my flowers to be the highlight. I found a very old stamp set from TPC Studio called Dots and Stripes. (I’m so glad that I dug into my stamp collection because these stamps are fantastic!) I chose one of the dot border stamps and stamped it 3 times with Versamark ink and used the same silver metallic embossing powder as before.

I fiddled around with my flower placement until I liked what I saw. I glued 4 of the flowers on to the white base and adhered 2 with some fun foam to give the grouping some dimension. For my greeting, I chose the “just for you” stamp from a 3×3 set from Lia Griffith (Hero Arts) and stamped it in black.

I knew that the card base needed to be something other than white, so I went with my next favorite, light gray. I think it coordinates well with the silver embossing.

I hope you like it!

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16Mar2017

Need Something to Brighten Someone’s Birthday?

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I’m on a rainbow kick, and I’m pretty sure that it has something to do with this crazy weather we’re having. I really shouldn’t complain when I see pretty much everyone north of the Mason-Dixon line shoveling like crazy. As a former northerner, it gives me flashbacks!

I made this card (along with some others) to give to some friends as a small birthday gift. I wanted something that was pretty generic as far as birthday cards go. I figured that children or adults would enjoy receiving this bright, cheerful card.

I started off by heat embossing, with Recollections Gold Embossing Powder, the Hero Arts Tiny Star Background stamp. I used Barn Door, Mustard Seed and Broken China Distress Inks to ink blend the background. I just love Neat & Tangled’s Celebrate dies, so I knew that I had to gold heat emboss the detailed die cut. So that it wouldn’t get lost on the background, I also cut the die from black card stock and adhered it to the back of the gold die cut. It gave it a slight shadow–exactly what I wanted. To tie in the black shadow on the die, I white heat embossed a happy birthday greeting from the Altenew Birthday Greetings stamp set onto black card stock.

Because I’m so pleased with how this card turned out, I’ve included it in my Etsy shop. I hope you like it 😉

5Mar2017

Using Ink Blending with a Detailed Background Stamp

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

The Latest Freshly Made Sketch Challenge

I just love the Freshly Made Sketch Challenge blog. Their sketches are so wonderful because they allow for a lot of creative freedom. They never fail me when I’m in a little bit of a creative slump. If you’ve lost your creative mojo, you should definitely check them out! They even have all of their sketches archived.

Here is this week’s sketch… and this is what I came up with…

I started with an A2 size piece of Bristol paper and white heat embossed it using the Hero Arts wave background stamp. This was my first time using this stamp. I always worry a bit when I’m using a detailed background stamp, but let me tell you, it stamped beautifully! I just love Hero Arts stamps and my Misti of course.

Using Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Picked Raspberry, Carved Pumpkin, Cracked Pistachio, Mermaid Lagoon and Wilted Violet), I ink blended the whole piece in a rainbow like design. I die cut a frame from the Lil’ Inker Designs Dual Dotted Rectangles die set, and glued it on the left side of my card front. I cut away the part of the frame that wasn’t attached to the card front, and using the same Distress Inks, I ink blended the frame to match the base. I love how the frame got a little bit of the deeper colors. I think this prevented it from disappearing into the background a little.

Now for the sentiment…I’ve been wanting to try the Hello die from Mama Elephant for a while. I gold heat embossed it twice to give it a little dimension and adhered it in the bottom left corner of the frame. I cut off the front portion of the die cut that didn’t fit on the card. For a few final touches, I glued a some sequins just above the greeting. I trimmed the card front just a smidge (is that a word?) because I wanted the Neenah Solar White 110# card base to frame this colorful piece.

I hope you like it. Thanks for stopping by 🙂

Supplies Used:

Hero Arts Wave Background stamp, Recollections Snow and Gold embossing powders, Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Lil’ Inker Designs Dual Dotted Rectangles die set, Mama Elephant Hello die, Neenah Solar White 110# card stock

3Feb2017

This Week’s Freshly Made Sketch Entry

Posted in Handmade Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

Once again, I’ve gone to one of my absolute favorite card sketch sites to get some inspiration. Freshly Made Sketches is a great card challenge site that you must really check out!

When I first saw this week’s sketch, I immediately thought of washi tape. I don’t know where that came from because I don’t think that I’ve ever used washi tape on any craft item. My small stash tends to be used to hold card pieces down when I’m die cutting. I went with my idea, and I’m pretty happy with the results.

Here’s the latest FMS…

and here’s my card…

I chose 3 of my favorite washi tape designs that coordinated pretty well together. I simply ripped a piece (no measuring or cutting with scissors here) of each and placed them on a piece of white card stock. I then matted that piece with some blue card stock and then adhered that to my A2 top folding card base.

Using one of my favorite heart stamps, Hero Arts Patterned Heart, I heat embossed it with Recollections gold embossing powder. The heart is attached with dimensional adhesive. All that was left was the greeting. I decided on one of the greetings from Simon Says Stamp’s Hydrangea Blooms stamp set.

I hope you like it!

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8Jan2017

Freshly Made Sketches #269

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

It’s been a little while since I’ve participated in a card challenge. I love the simplicity of Freshly Made Sketches, so I thought I’d give it a go today. Here is the latest sketch…

When I saw this sketch, I immediately thought of those oh so popular birch trees. Unfortunately, I don’t own any birch tree stamps or digital files, so I went to Etsy to see what I could find. Lo and behold, I found a lovely set of PNG and vector files from Amanda Ilkov’s Etsy shop. Using my Silhouette Cameo, I created a few cut files for this card (the birch trees and the cardinal).

Here’s what I came up with…

After cutting my files, I used Mermaid Lagoon (my new favorite) Distress Ink to ink blend the background. I didn’t go with complete coverage because I wanted to mimic the sky. I used a Copic marker to give some gray shading to the tree trunks. I glued the trees to the base and used some dimensional glue dots to adhere the cardinal. I black heat embossed the sentiment from the Hero Arts Stamp and Cut Yes set. To balance the black greeting, I added a thin black strip down the left side of the card. I sprayed some shimmer spray to give it a little extra (even though you can’t see it in the photo)! I settled on a light gray card base and attached the panel.

I hope you like it!