Using My Silhouette Cameo For My Latest Card

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

It’s been far too long since I’ve used my Silhouette Cameo for anything. I decided to check out some designs that I purchased a while ago and that have just been sitting in my design library. I chose a beautiful sunflower design by Sarah Bailey (design #320672). Here’s what I came up with:

I started by cutting 3 of the outlines with some scrap brown card stock. Rather than dealing with individual petal cutouts, I just cut out a solid yellow piece to use as the background. For dimension, I glued all of the brown outline pieces together, and then I attached the yellow background piece.

To create the card background, I simply taped off a square portion (I just eyeballed it…no measuring here 🙂 Using a blending brush, I blended Distress Oxide Mermaid Lagoon. I wanted a bit of a fading effect, so I just applied the ink with a heavier hand at the top of the square. After the blending was done, I spritzed some water and blotted it off with a paper towel.

Before I adhered the sunflower to the card front, I decided that it looked a little dull. I blended some Distress Ink Ground Espresso to the center of the flower and added a bunch of dots with a black fine tip Sharpie. To give the petals more life, I just added some golden orange color pencil. Wink of Stella over the whole flower was the last touch. I attached the flower with foam tape.

The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions Simple Strips stamp & die set (This is one of the most clever sets I’ve seen in a long time), and it’s heat embossed onto black card stock. For balance, I added the corner frames with a fine line black marker and some Nuvo Drops in Bright Gold.

Thanks for visiting 🙂

6Jun2020

Birthday Card Using Custom Stencils

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I’m absolutely loving the recent trend of using stencils to create interesting backgrounds on hand made cards. I have had my Silhouette Cameo for probably 8 years, but I haven’t pulled it out recently to make anything. After seeing stencils used by so many popular paper crafters, I decided to try to make my own using my Cameo. At first, I used transparent page dividers from a dollar store. They were okay, but I found a great stencil product on Amazon that had a bit more weight to it, so now I’m using those.

It was really fun coming up with some designs. I’ve been sticking to more simple (less intricate) designs for now.

Here is a card I made using a pair of hexagon stencils…

I started with my larger hexagon stencil and ink blended Festive Berries, Wild Honey, Twisted Citron and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide Inks. Once dry, I went back over using my smaller hexagon stencil with the same Distress Ink colors. It definitely is a bit more noticeable on the actual card than it is in this photo.

For the sentiment, I used My Favorite Things Birthday Wishes die. Using spray adhesive, I attached it onto a large strip of vellum. To balance the black greeting, I matted the background piece with black card stock. I used foam tape to mount it onto a Neenah Solar White 110# card base.

The card still needed a bit of embellishment, so I added some Nuvo Drops in Ebony, Caribbean Ocean and Ripened Pumpkin. After watching one of Cathy Zielske’s 10 minute design videos, I chose to place the drops in a triangular shape to tie it all together.

Thanks for stopping by!

8Sep2018

Another Simple Sympathy Card

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

Unfortunately, when a friend asks for a card from me, it’s quite often been a sympathy card. I’m pretty sure that I’ve made more sympathy cards in the last year than I ever have in the last 10. I’ve said before that sympathy cards have always been hard for me to make. It’s such a personal and emotional thing, that I feel pressure to make it just perfect. This one came together fairly easily, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.

My Empty Nest Creations Sympathy Card using Concord & 9ths Lily stamp set

I started by stamping the lily from Concord & 9th’s Lily stamp set twice on a piece of purple card stock with Versamark ink, and heat embossing it with Recollections Snow embossing powder. Using my white Prismacolor colored pencil, I colored in the petals. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things Brushstroke Expressions stamp set. I black heat embossed it onto a strip of velum and adhered it onto the purple card front.

To brighten the card a bit, I used a piece of patterned paper from My Favorite Things Black & White paper pad as the backing. Because I’m kind of hooked on dimension, I used foam tape to attach the purple card front to the card base, and as usual, I added a few black Nuvo drops.

Thanks for stopping by!

Computer Signature

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30Jul2017

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

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.

Thanks for stopping by 🙂

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 🙂

21Jan2017

Freshly Made Sketches #271

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

Once again, I’m enjoying the sketches from Freshly Made Sketches. I just love how they are simple, but allow for a lot of interpretation. It truly is a great site. Be sure to check them out!

Here is the most recent sketch…

and here is my interpretation…

I used two different stamp sets for the floral piece—Altenew’s Adore You and Stampendous’ Fronds. I stamped them in Versafine Black (my favorite crisp black ink), and did just a little Copic coloring. I didn’t intend to do such a large gray outline with my Copic marker until it decided to just leak on my image. I’m not sure why that happened, but it has definitely happened before. Oh well…I think I camouflaged it pretty well.

I then cut my piece apart to allow for my greeting. I knew I wanted a white embossed greeting on black, so I played around with various greetings until I decided on this one from My Favorite Things Delicate Pretty Poppies. I cut my black mat and then cut a little more off of my floral image in order to fit the greeting. Using my powder tool to help define the area, I stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with white embossing powder.

You can’t tell from the picture, but I adhered the white floral image sections with foam tape to raise them up from the black greeting area. For final touches, I added some white dashed lines to help define the greeting and some Nuvo Crystal Drops in Red Berry. The card base is a light gray to compliment the gray floral outline.

I hope you like it!

15Jan2017

Trying Out My Colored Pencils

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I was one of the lucky ones to get the complete Primacolor Pencil Set for Christmas. It was such an incredible deal on Amazon, that I couldn’t (or should I say my husband) couldn’t pass it up 🙂

I’ve been putting off coloring with pencils for a long time now because frankly, it looks kind of daunting. I have to admit that I’m a little “type A” in that I struggle with something that doesn’t give complete coverage (I love my Copics). I’m working on it, but it’s a slow process. I decided to be brave and give my shiny new pencils a try.

I thought it would be best to ease into it a little bit, so I chose a pretty small image to color. It’s an adorable image called Bunny Love from From the Heart Stamps. You really should check out Faith’s site. She truly does incredible work.

1_14_17-valentine-bunny-img_0796 I just used a few colors for the bunny and the heart. I have to admit that blending and shadowing with colored pencils is really going to take some practice, but I think I’m up for the challenge. The greeting is also from the Bunny Love digital set.

Since the card base is kraft, and the bunny is a little muted, I knew that I needed to brighten it up a bit. I added a strip of patterned paper (sorry I don’t know the manufacturer because it’s at least 10 years old!). To balance the black greeting, I adhered a small strip of black to the left side, too. Since I just got some Nuvo Crystal Drops in red berry, I thought a few dots would finish it off.

I almost forgot…because I wasn’t incredibly careful about coloring over the bunny lines, I outlined him with my Copic black liner.

I hope you like it!