A Simple But Elegant Card

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I have to admit that I’ve been in a creative rut lately. It happens to me quite a bit, but I have learned one thing…go back to simple. It works for me every time. So, that’s what I did. To help with a little inspiration, I checked one of my favorite sketch sites, CAS(E) This Sketch. I love their sketches because they are generally simple, but allow for a lot of creativity.

Here’s their latest sketch…

For my card, I started with a stamp set from Lil’ Inker Designs that’s been out for a while…Filled Heart. It’s such a beautiful stamp set, and the design practically makes your card for you.

I gold heat embossed the heart image onto watercolor paper. The light coloring is from my Light Violet Zig Clean Color Real Brush marker applied with my water brush. It is very subtle, but adds just the perfect softness to the image.

The greeting from the same set is gold heat embossed onto a strip of watercolor paper. I cut fish tail ends on both sides and attached it with foam tape to give it some dimension.

All that was left was matting the card front. I decided on a piece of Recollections gold glitter card stock. This was the first time that I have used this paper, AND I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!! It has a nice heavy weight (and it comes in silver, too)!! The photo doesn’t really do it justice. It sparkles beautifully.

After attaching the card front to a white, top folding A2 card base, I added a few gold and iridescent sequins to finish it off. Unfortunately, the photo makes the gold sequins look brown. Trust me, they are a beautiful, shiny gold.

I hope you like it. I’m thinking of adding it to my Etsy Shop.

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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

2Feb2017

My Latest Ink Blended Card

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I haven’t made anything for several days, and I can always tell when it’s time to create. So, I pulled out some newly purchased stamps from Lil’ Inker Designs (I just love their stuff), and went to work.

Distress Ink Blended Thank You Card by My Empty Nest Creations Of course, I started with my favorite card size, A2 4.25″ x 5.5″, made from Neenah Solar White 110# card stock. I then cut another 4.25″ x 5.5″ piece of white card stock for my ink blending and embossing layer. First, I white heat embossed the floral images from Lil’ Inker’s Inky Flowers stamp set. I knew that I wanted the flowers to be on a good portion of the card, so I had to do this in multiple steps because of the size of the images. Then, I set to work on my ink blending. I used both Blueprint Sketch and Wilted Violet Distress Inks. After I was done ink blending, I gently rubbed a baby wipe across the floral images to remove any ink that may have landed on the white embossed areas. To finish the base layer, I sprayed a light water mist over the top. (I just love to watch Distress Inks react with water.) For one last detail, I spritzed my Tsukineko Shimmer Spritz over the enter surface to give it a little sparkle. In order to do something a little different than just adhering this whole piece on the card base, I decided to cut it up in a few pieces. After I cut them, I felt that they needed a little something to help define the edges a bit, so I used my ink blending tool and gave the edges another layer of ink. I arranged the pieces so that there was a slight gap between them when I adhered them with dimensional adhesive. That left just the greeting. I thought that a silver embossed greeting would blend perfectly with the Distress Ink colors that I chose. I cut a thank you greeting from Heidi Swapp’s thank you die and cut it in half so that I had a two word greeting. I silver heat embossed it with Zing Silver Metallic embossing powder. I just love how embossing a die cut gives it so much dimension. To finish it off, I glued the greeting on the top with some liquid glue.

I hope you like it!