First Valentine Card Using Poppystamps Inlay Heart Die

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I’ve been away from card making for quite a long time. Life became much more important to my husband and me. We became grandparents for the first time about a month ago (6 weeks early) to twins—a boy and a girl. We are beyond blessed! Life certainly is good.

After being away for so long, I kind of lost my creative mojo. My husband has been trying to get me into my craft room just to make something because he knows how much I do truly enjoy it. So…here’s my first stab at a valentine card for 2019.

My Empty Nest Creations Valentine using Poppystamps Inlay Heart Die

I just bought this beautiful Inlay Heart die from Poppystamps, and the Messages for Every Day stamp set from Simon Says Stamp. Poppystamps dies always cut perfectly, and the sentiments on this SSS stamp set are awesome!

I cut the die on a piece of pink Bazzill card stock (sorry, I don’t know the color name), and then cut it again using a piece of patterned paper from the 6×6 Front Porch paper pad from Pebbles, Inc. I added a strip of the same patterned paper to the bottom of the pink piece and adhered it to an A2 white card base made from Neenah Solar White #110 card stock. I placed the single patterned paper heart into the space on the inlayed heart and glued it down.

All that was left was to pick the right sentiment. As I said before, this stamp set has an incredible selection of greetings. There were 3 or 4 that would have worked, but I settled on the “I love you so much!” and white heat embossed it onto a piece of dark brown scrap paper that matched the striped paper I used for the heart. I attached the sentiment strip using foam tape to give it some dimension.

I hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by 🙂

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20Apr2018

Using the Soft Bokeh Look on a Background

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

My Empty Nest Creations Ink Blended Heart Bokeh Butterfly Card I’ve seen so many famous card makers do this beautifully on their cards, so I thought that I’d give it a try. This card background is a piece of Bristol paper that is ink blended using Distress Oxides Twisted Citron, Peeled Paint, Broken China, Salty Ocean and Wilted Violet. To get the bokeh effect, I stamped a heart stamp from Simon Says Stamp’s Tons of Hearts stamp set with Hero Arts Unicorn pigment ink. Before stamping on the paper, I stamped it first on a piece of scrap paper (I believe that this is called second generation stamping.) because I wanted the bokeh hearts to be very soft. Because they were stamped with pigment ink, I set it aside to dry for a bit before putting the card together.

The butterfly was die cut using Poppy Stamps Ornamental Butterflies dies and colored with an orange Copic marker (no color blending here). The black details were added with a fine tip black Sharpie marker. The sentiment, from an older Teresa Collins Now & Then stamp set, was white heat embossed onto a strip of black card stock. To give it a bit of character, I fishtailed the ends using a small square punch.

I used foam tape to adhere the butterfly and sentiment banner to the bokeh background and then used the same foam tape to attach it to my card base.8

Happy Spring everyone!

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30Jan2018

Do You Struggle Making Sympathy Cards?

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I don’t know about you, but I always hesitate just a bit when someone asks me to make a sympathy card for them. It’s really pretty difficult finding a design that will work for everyone…male, female, family member, friend or simply an acquaintance. If you google for ideas, you’re not going to find that many to spark your creativity. It just isn’t a very popular card to make and post on social media.

I think I’ve come up with a design that just might work for any recipient. I think it’s also a design that could work for almost any greeting, too.

My Empty Nest Creations Sympathy Cards using Poppystamps Die and Distress Oxides

Using a Neenah Solar White 110# top folding card base, I masked off a rectangle that would fit within the die cut window piece. (Note that my die cut window piece is not quite center cut from the 4×5.25″ piece of white card stock. I left a slightly larger bottom on my frame for visual interest.) For the colored backgrounds, I used Distress Oxides Seedless Preserves (purple) and Salty Ocean with some Faded Jeans (blue) around the edges. To add a little extra something, I spritzed some water and removed the droplets with a paper towel. I die cut several pieces using the Hampstead Stem die from Poppystamps and glued them in place on the color backgrounds. Using a sentiment from Bo Bunny Sentiments stamp set, I black heat embossed it onto a strip of velum. Initially, I was going to use a white heat embossed greeting, but I really love how the black just pops off the background. All that was left was adhering the white frame with foam tape.

I could see this card design with many different color combinations, die cuts and greetings. I’m excited to see what other cards I can come up with using this versatile card design. I hope you give it a try. I’d love to see what you come up with 🙂

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