My First Attempt at Creating with Colorado Craft Company Stamps

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I was so incredibly lucky to win the beautiful Blissful Butterflies stamp set from Colorado Craft Company. Debby Hughes was having a giveaway on her blog, and I was one of the commenters gifted. If you don’t follow Debby, you really should. Her card artistry is absolutely amazing! Her blog is called Lime Doodle Design.

This is my first stamp set from Colorado Craft Company, and I just have to say, the quality and creativity of their stamps sets is top notch. The images are large and very beautifully designed.

I started by stamping the two butterfly images and one of the leaf images onto a 4 x 5 1/4″ piece of Bristol card stock with Versafine Onyx Black ink. I started coloring the butterflies using my Zig Clean Color Markers (052, 032) and my waterbrush. To add a bit more dimension to the butterflies, I pulled out my Cretacolor pencils (orange 11, prussian blue 61). Finally, to help define the butterflies, I used my N0 and N3 Copic markers (outlining around each butterfly and coloring the bodies).

I stepped away for a bit, and came back to see how I felt about the white space that was left. It just seemed a bit too noticeable to me, so I found a small dot stamp from the Simon Says Stamp Spring Flower Burst stamp set and used that to fill in some of that open white space. I also filled in the dots with a black Sharpie marker.

For the sentiment, I used Reverse Confetti’s Lots to Say stamp set. I heat embossed it onto a scrap piece of vellum using Recollections Ebony embossing powder.

To coordinate with the black stamped images, I decided that the white card front needed a black mat. I still wanted the Simon Says Stamp Fog card base to be visible, so I made my mat just slightly larger than the stamped image. To attach the sentiment, I wrapped it around the black matted card front and adhered it on the back (vellum is so hard to attach without the glue showing 🙂 All that was left was to attach the card front to the card base.

I hope you like it!

18Jul2019

A Very Simple Get Well Card Using Impression Obsession’s Tulip Stamp

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I haven’t posted in a while because I just seemed to have lost my creative mojo again. I decided to make a simple card hoping that would inspire me to create some more.

My Empty Nest Creations simple Get Well Card using Impression Obsession's Tulip stamp

I have always loved cards with bases made from kraft card stock, so I started there. I just eyeballed where I wanted the simple greeting (Hero Arts Classic Messages stamp set…I use this one all the time 🙂

Using Bristol paper, I stamped the image with Versafine Onyx Black ink because I knew that I was going to use my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. After “painting” the image, I added a few simple additions with a white gel pen after it had dried.

This image is a piece of cake to fussy cut 🙂 I adhered it to the card base with some foam tape and called it done. Like always, I walked away and came back to it a few hours later. I decided it just needed a bit more, so I added the black dots above and below the flowers.

See, I told you it was a simple card. The design is pretty generic, too, so it would be great for many types of cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

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12Jun2018

A Quick & Easy Card for a Friend

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I needed a card for a friend, and I needed it pretty quickly. I hadn’t made a card in quite a while (home improvements are top of my list lately). I decided to use one of my “go-to” card designs.

My Empty Nest Creations Technique Tuesday Wild Clover Card

I started by masking off a rectangle on the right side of a 4 x 5 1/4″ piece of Bristol paper. Ink blending was definitely in order, so I pulled out some of my favorite Distress Oxide inks. They just blend so beautifully. I used Fossilized Amber, Twisted Citron and Broken China. I let that dry for a few minutes before I stamped Technique Tuesday’s Wild Clover on top in Versafine Onyx Black ink. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

Because of the right-sidedness (is that even a word) of this piece, I knew that I also wanted to adhere it to the right side of a vertical, top folding A2 card base. To balance the black stamped images, I matted the stamped piece with black card stock and then attached it to the right side of my card base.

That’s all there is. I told you it was a quick and easy card.

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4May2018

Gotta Love Some Whale Humor

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

Ever since Ellen Hutson came out with their S’Whale stamp set, I knew it was eventually going to be part of my stash. I just love the sentiments in it, but it was the whales that immediately caught my attention. Who doesn’t love some adorable whales, right?

My Empty Nest Creations Thanks a Ton Whale Card using Ellen Hutson's S'Whale stamps For this card, I paired it with the Hero Arts Wave Background stamp. First, I cut my piece of Bristol paper using the Memory Box Stitched Rectangles Layers die. I’ve had the My Favorite Things Rectangle Peek a Boo Window die for forever, but I’ve never used it; so I thought I’d give it a try here. Once that was done, I placed it on my vertical, top folding A2 card base and lightly traced the window. After taping off the area around the penciled window, I white heat embossed that open space using my Hero Arts Waves Background stamp. The coloring was very simple. I used some Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers in various blue shades to create my ocean.

For the whale, I stamped it onto a scrap of Bristol paper using Versafine Onyx Black ink and colored with a few gray and blue Zig marker shades and my waterbrush. After fussy cutting it out, I started to put my card together.

I adhered the window piece onto my card base with foam tape, and then placed my whale in the window, again using foam tape. There are so many great sentiments in this stamp set, so I had trouble deciding which one to use. I never have enough thank you cards, so I settled on “Thanks a ton”. I white heat embossed it onto a piece of black card stock and placed it just below the window.

Once I had the card put together, I thought that it needed just a little more blue to balance it out a bit. I simply glued a strip of blue card stock to the bottom. I love it when I can use my paper scraps to finish a card.

Thanks for stopping by!

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24Apr2018

Sprinkles Really Do Make Everything Better!

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I fell in love with Impression Obsession’s “Sprinkles Make Everything Better” stamp when I first saw it. I thought it would be really cute paired with some tiny cupcakes. I haven’t made a single layer stamped card in a quite a while, so I thought this would be the perfect design for this card.

My Empty Nest Creations Cupcake Sprinkle Card

To make it easier to stamp my cupcakes, I started by stamping the sentiment in the center with Versafine Onyx Black ink. Concord & 9th’s Sprinkles Turnabout Stamp has some darling cupcakes, muffin paper designs and sprinkles. They were perfect for my card. I stamped the cupcakes with Versafine Onyx Black ink and then stamped the colorful pieces using my favorite Distress Oxide inks–Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade, Broken China and Twisted Citron.

That’s it. Definitely a very simple, but colorful card. I hope you like it!

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19Mar2018

Watercoloring with Distress Oxides

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

Have I told you before how much I love Distress Oxides? They are so incredibly versatile and the colors are just fantastic! They are so easy to watercolor with that I find that I’m rarely using my traditional watercolors.

My Empty Nest Creations Watercolored Flowers with Distress Oxides This card uses two watercoloring techniques. The background was made using, as Kristina Werner says, ink smooshing. I added Worn Lipstick, Fossilized Amber and Abandoned Coral on a piece of acrylic and spritzed it with water. I grabbed a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper and placed it upside down on top of the inks and smooshed it around—Voila…an ink smooshed background!

After letting that dry, I stamped (and masked) several flowers from Simon Says Stamp’s Watercolor Friendly Flowers using Versafine Onyx Black Ink. Using a waterbrush and some more Distress Oxides (Worn Lipstick, Broken China, Wilted Violet, Seedless Preserves), I painted the flowers with a few layers of ink. I added some Black Soot Distress Ink to the flower centers.

I stamped the sentiment from Hero Arts Made With Love stamp set with Versafine Onyx Black ink. I knew that I wanted to use one of my new favorite papers from My Favorite Things Black & White Stripe 6×6 paper pad on the left side of my card, but I thought I needed a little more black accent to balance it out. I found a small stamp set by Simons Says Stamp called Merry Trees that had 3 small filled in circles. They were perfect. I placed various black dots around the flowers to complete the card.

I hope you like it!

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