by Karen Endress | Sep 30, 2016 | Fall, Seasonal
Hi, all! I’ve been under the weather most of this week, but before I succumbed, I did have a fun new crafty friend over to make cards!!
We made “quilted” cards by punching hexagons (Stampin’ Up) out of coordinating patterned papers. “Patching” it together took a little time because we had to keep the same patterns from ending up next to each other. It helps to have at least four different papers. I added some definition by edging the pieces with VersaFine Vintage Sepia ink.
In the interest of using my stash, I chose the ancient My Mind’s Eye Wild Asparagus stack. This is the very first or maybe second paper stack I ever bought. The other one is called Everyday Tango. I can’t bear to part with either even though they are totally old school.
I used a Recollections kraft cardbase and left space between each hexagon. To further the quilted effect I added faux stitching with a Faber-Castell PITT artist pen (M dark sepia). I finished off the front with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Labels die and a sentiment put together by masking off two different stamps from the Hero Arts stamp & cut set Prayers.
Apparently I missed the stitching one of the hexagons!
These MFT dies come in very handy 🙂
Continuing the sewing theme, I cut the inside sentiment from MFT’s Stitched Alphabet, used the Clear & Simple set called “On the Mend” to stamp the spools, needle & thread, and added a little faux stitching around the inside panel with another PITT pen (M black) to finish it off.
I used my go-to VersaFine Onyx Black for both the outside sentiment and inside elements. I started out adhering my hexagons with Tombow tape runner but it was hard to keep the adhesive off the front of the pieces so I switched to my Zig 2 Way glue pen.
Since I only just very recently acknowledged that summer is over, this is my first nod to any fall crafting. Now that I’ve broken that barrier, though, I’m kinda thinking it would be fun to make some more fall cards! Would love to see any that you guys have made!
Blessings, 
by Karen Endress | Sep 23, 2016 | Hello--Thinking of You
Hi, everyone! Here’s another card origin story for you!
Often my card ideas come from seeing a sentiment, some patterned paper, an embellishment (like the previous “Believe” card), or even just a particularly pleasing color combination. And very often, a new card will emerge from the scraps of a previous card with new elements added to round it out.
This idea came from the backdrop papers I used to photograph the last card. They looked really pretty together as they were from the same DCWV stack I used for that card. Hmmm…my mom likes pretty cards, she’d really like that floral paper & I could use another one of those words from the Color Splash pack!! A card idea is born 🙂
I double matted (DCWV) the blue floral to cover the entire cardbase (Neenah Solar White 80 lb.) and used the red dotted paper as an accent. I chose a darker red for contrast (Recollections Vintage Collector) and cut both with different sizes of the Spellbinders Labels One dies, positioning them so that the word would be about 2/3 of the way down the card. This time I used Faded Jeans Distress ink to color the chipboard word instead of Zig markers and it blended much better 🙂
I grabbed some textured light blue & vellum scraps (from the bits & pieces dishes that are overflowing onto my desk) to layer under the ‘Love’ word for contrast. Then I went to the color section of my ScrapRack for some red embellishments. Most everything in the ScrapRack is unlabeled and as old as the hills but still quite usable! I found the flower & the postage cancellation mark there–YAY! Using my stash!!
Finishing touches included some DMC floss that I wrapped around the ‘L’ and tied into a bow as well as a few coordinating enamel dots (MME Lost & Found Christmas) from my stash. Inside I stamped the Technique Tuesday Ali Edwards sentiment you can see test-stamped in the first picture. Looking back, I’m not totally pleased with the placement of that postage circle, but it is a handmade card and I’m pretty sure my 97 year old mom is not going to be critiquing her card! Have a great weekend!!
by Karen Endress | Sep 18, 2016 | Encouragement
Hello again! Thought you might like to see the card I made for my husband a few days ago. I knew the “believe” would be a perfect set up for the inside sentiment, which would mean absolutely nothing to anyone but him 🙂 He loved it!
The cardbase is my usual Neenah Solar White 80 lb. covered with royal blue glitter paper (DCWV mat stack), layered with patterned paper from DCWV’s Summer Dream Stack, another oldie but goodie. I wanted the dark coral strip to mimic the blue paper’s mottled pattern, so I ran a piece from the DCWV Brights Border punch strip stack through Tim Holtz/Sizzix Bubble embossing folder, then sanded the raised areas with an emery board.
For even more interest, I inked the sanded portions as well as all the panels’ edges with Distress inks in Chipped Sapphire and Abandoned Coral, then punched one edge with the Fiskars interchangeable border punch cartridge Up in the Clouds. I used the same punch on a scrap of the glitter paper and layered them onto the card.
The chipboard die cut is from this Recollections Color Splash collection embellishment pack I found in the 80% off clearance bin at Michaels. I’ve already used three of them (card posts to come 🙂 and have plans for the other two! That’s the kind of bargain I just love!!
My bargain embellishment pack–or what’s left of it 🙂
One of the embellishments after watercoloring!
I used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers in deep blue & Persian blue to try to get an ombre effect. They didn’t blend as well as I had hoped, either because the surface was of a lower quality or I just need more practice with these markers.
I didn’t care for the dot on the ‘i’ so I cut out a tiny heart from one of the elements of Lawn Fawn’s Stitched Journaling Card die set to finish off the card. Next post—where I used one of the other words from that embellishment pack 🙂
Hope you have a crafty week!
by Karen Endress | Sep 14, 2016 | Congratulations
I was flipping through an old copy of The Stamper’s Sampler and saw a card that had a rectangle stamped in a pale ink color which was then overstamped with the top part of a long-stemmed flower. I thought aha! I have a solid rectangle stamp like that! I’ll try the same thing. Well, it wasn’t a rectangle, it was a square (and a slightly wonky square at that). I needed to send a congratulations card, so I decided to turn it into that! A lot of my cards start out with that sort of inspiration, but don’t usually end up the way I originally envision! 🙂
This card is one of my rare clean & simple cards. The cardbase is Neenah Solar White 80 lb. cardstock. I centered and stamped one of the sentiments from the Lawn Fawn Grand Greetings set in VersaFine Onyx Black pigment ink and embossed it with WOW Clear Gloss embossing powder. After I stamped the cardbase, I stamped the Rubber Stampede “Skewed Square” in the Hero Arts Shadow Inks Pale Tomato and Butter Bar and Ranger Archival Aquamarine.
I lined the squares up on scrap paper the way I wanted them on the card, turning the center one upside down for variety. I stamped the sentiment again over the squares and embossed each one separately with the clear WOW. Once they were dry, I lined them up over the sentiment on the cardbase and adhered them with some Tombow tape runner.
For the finishing touches I found a coordinating washi tape and just the right colors of enamel dots in my stash. Don’t you love when that happens?
Hope you’re finding time to get crafty!
by Karen Endress | Sep 11, 2016 | Birthday
Hello, all! As promised, here is another card post, this one using a Stampendous stamp I think I have used only once before since I bought it. I don’t regret the purchase, though, as 1) I didn’t pay full price for it and 2) it makes me laugh every time I look at it. I’m hoping it made the friend I sent it to laugh, too!
I tried looking up the Hippo Cycle and the Stampin’ Up Banner Boutique stamp set I dug out for this card and, sadly, both are retired. The sentiment stamp came from this Inkadinkado Humorous Birthday set and the dashed line around sentiment is part of the Avery Elle Sending You set.
I used a black cardbase (Recollections) layered with an aqua linen textured panel (DCWV mat stack) layered with a piece of pretty patterned paper. This had been lying on my scrap pile for a long time, so I don’t remember where the full sheet came from 🙁 The hippo is colored on Copic-friendly paper I got back when I took a beginner’s Copic class at one of our local scrapbook stores, but is similar to this sold by Ellen Hutson. The banner she is pulling is a scrap of some cheaper white cardstock.
For the other banners, I colored the bottom one with my Copics (I got a really nice set for Christmas one year from my DH 🙂 and actually paper-pieced the other, a technique I hardly ever take the time to do. I like the effect here as I found some scraps of American Crafts paper on my pile that matched very well with the color scheme of the card.
When I assembled all the parts I adhered the colored banner directly to the card but added Scotch foam tape to the second banner and the hippo & her banner. I tied the hippo banner on with some Baker’s twine (Recollections) and the little flower I circle punched from some floral paper to cover up the spot where I messed up the dashed line stamping 🙂 Thankfully no actual card surgery was required for this particular card and no actual hippos were harmed during the making 🙂
Happy crafting!!
