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!

Computer Signature

17Nov2017

Non-Traditional Christmas Colors for the Latest Freshly Made Sketches Challenge

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

It’s been quite a while since I joined in on a card challenge. I’ve been busy making my Christmas cards for this year. Since they are almost finished, I thought I’d create a card for one of my favorite card challenge sites, Freshly Made Sketches.

Here is the latest sketch…

and here is my entry.

Any holiday card that I’ve made usually has red and green on it, so I decided to leave my Christmas comfort zone and do something a little less traditional. How about light blue and light green? I really like that color combo, so I went for it.

I started with Ellen Hutson’s Mondo Poinsettia stamp set. I gold heat embossed the images onto Bristol paper, and water colored them with Peeled Paint and Broken China Distress Oxides. I really love the Distress Oxides. They stamp beautifully, and they are wonderful as watercolors. After the leaves and flowers had dried, I cut them out with the matching dies and put them aside.

My Merry Christmas sentiment is from WPlus9 Hand Lettered Holiday stamp set. I just love the pairing of the script and capital letters. I cut Merry out of some silver metallic card stock and heat embossed Christmas with silver embossing powder onto a velum strip. Once that was done, I needed to do a little something with my card base. Plain white just wasn’t going to be right. I decided to do a little light stenciling using the Broken China ink and a Gina Marie Designs stencil. All that was left was to put the card together. I adhered the velum strip just between the two flower groupings and popped up the flowers with some foam tape. The final touch was to add a few sequins and some Nuvo gold drops on the flower centers.

I hope you like it. Thanks for stopping by. Happy Holidays!

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 🙂

12Jun2017

Using Altenew’s Bamboo Rose Stamp Set

Posted in Cards by My Empty Nest Creations

I have had this stamp set for quite a while now and have hardly used it. Not that I have a ton of stamp sets, but many of them end up in a pile and get forgotten. I came across this set while cleaning a bit, so I decided to put it to some use.

I started by cutting a panel from purple card stock (I know it looks a little blue in the photo, but trust me, it’s purple). I then stamped multiple images with Versamark ink and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder. I die cut the panel using the largest stitched rectangle from Memory Box and put the panel aside.

I clear heat embossed a few of the images onto Bristol paper and colored them with some Zig Clean Color Brush Markers. I’m still getting the hang of these markers. I need to practice some more. Since I don’t have the matching dies for this Altenew set, I fussy cut them out. Because the images aren’t that detailed, it was fairly easy. I embossed a strip of velum using a Cuttlebug checked embossing folder.

Then, it was just a matter of putting it all together. Since the purple panel was significantly smaller than the white card base, I mounted it with a piece of Bazzill Alpaca card stock. I decided where I was placing the flowers in order to find the right spot for the velum. I adhered the velum with some glue behind where the flowers were going to go. I glued the flowers in place using some fun foam behind a few to give it dimension. I chose Avery Elle’s Simply Said: You set for the sentiment and silver heat embossed it onto a strip of black card stock. For some additional dimension, I glued the entire panel onto the white card base using fun foam.

That’s it. Thanks for stopping by.