by Karen Endress | Oct 7, 2016 | Congratulations
Hello again!! As promised, here is the second housewarming card I made recently đ While I had all the house stuff out, I used some of the elements from the previous card (brown embossed paper, Echo Park cardstock sticker, glitter foam heart, Stampin’ Up dies, Neenah Solar White) plus some modifications to make the second card đ  This one went to one of my dearest friends.  After living 40 minutes away for 25 years or so, she recently moved about 5 minutes from my house!! Which means we will see each other ALL the time, right? UmmâŚ
For her card I die cut two of the houses into the brown cardstock and layered the yellow patterned paper under them, then layered two more yellow houses on top. Â The edges are inked with Ranger Distress inks in Scattered Straw and Vintage Photo. I added the heart to the front door & popped the house up on foam tape and the outside was done!!
On the inside, I stamped a sentiment with the Nicole alpha set âTypewriter Uppercase.â (I know AC Moore still sells these, but I could not find a link for them đ I was afraid to stamp the letters for the WELCOME directly onto the cardbase (donât ask), so I stamped onto white scrap and punched them out with a ½ âsquare punch (Recollections, again no link, their website was not cooperating). The rest of the sentiment was easy because I used an alpha set I got once at a scrappy yard sale (Karen Foster Small Casual) and they connect together to form the words!! Score! These are go-to for me for that reason. I die cut a piece of the scrap brown with a Spellbinders classic scalloped rectangle die to back the sentiment.
Since that same yellow DCWV Mi Casa paper (circa 2009) was out on my desk, I made an envelope out of it and my project was done!! In the next post youâll see what I did with the rest of those yellow scraps đ  Once I have a piece of patterned paper out, itâs hard not to keep going with it! Anyone else do the same thing?
Hope you are all crafting up a storm & using up your stash!! Â 
by Karen Endress | Oct 4, 2016 | Congratulations
Hardly anyone I know ever moves, so who would have guessed I would need two housewarming cards within a short time of each other? SoâŚI dug around till I found some brown cardstock embossed with cute little houses that I knew I had somewhere. This is why itâs a good practice to go through your stash from time to time. It reminds you what you already have and, theoretically at least đ keeps you from buying duplicates.
The first card was for a very special niece đ I covered the whole cardbase (Neenah Solar White 80 lb.) with the brown paper, then die cut & layered the four houses. Slap on a sentiment sticker, pop up a house sticker on Scotch foam tape, add a self-adhesive glitter craft foam heart & wowâa card that didnât take me two hours to make!!
The cardstock stickers are from the Lori Whitlock âThe Story of Our Familyâ collection by Echo Park. (I only bought the sticker sheet, not the whole collection but now sort of wish I had!) The heart was in one of the many âbits & pieces dishesâ on my desk from a previous project so I donât remember which die I used. Sadly, these stash items are no longer availableâthe house dies from Stampinâ Upâs Homemade Holiday set and the teal paper from the Kelly Purkey Second City 6×6 pad by Basic Grey.
I did use current product to ink around the edges of the brown and patterned papersâMemento Luxe ink in Teal Zeal and Ranger Archival ink in Potting Soil. Â Both of these links have videos explaining the qualities of the ink so you can compare the differences if you like.
I needed a gift card holder to go with the card, so I used a piece of beautiful floral paper from a coordinating (but confusingly named) Echo Park collection, We Are Family, also by Lori Whitlock! The striped circle pull tab is the reverse of the floral paper.  I was inspired by that combination to make a hello card for a friend right after that, so look for that post after my second housewarming card đ
Till next time,Â
by Karen Endress | Sep 30, 2016 | Fall, Seasonal
Hi, all! Iâve 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 âquiltedâ cards by punching hexagons (Stampinâ Up) out of coordinating patterned papers. âPatchingâ 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 Mindâs 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 canât 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 đ
Continuing the sewing theme, I cut the inside sentiment from MFTâs Stitched Alphabet, used the Clear & Simple set called âOn the Mendâ 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 Iâve broken that barrier, though, Iâm kinda thinking it would be fun to make some more fall cards! Would love to see any that you guys have made!
Blessings,Â
by Karen Endress | Sep 23, 2016 | Hello--Thinking of You
Hi, everyone! Hereâs another card origin story for you!
Often my card ideas come from seeing a sentiment, some patterned paper, an embellishment (like the previous âBelieveâ card), or even just a particularly pleasing color combination. Â 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. HmmmâŚmy mom likes pretty cards, sheâd really like that floral paper & I could use another one of those words from the Color Splash pack!! A card idea is born đ
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 đ
I grabbed some textured light blue & vellum scraps (from the bits & pieces dishes that are overflowing onto my desk) to layer under the âLoveâ 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 âLâ 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, Iâm not totally pleased with the placement of that postage circle, but it is a handmade card and Iâm 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 âbelieveâ would be a perfect set up for the inside sentiment, which would mean absolutely nothing to anyone but him đ 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 DCWVâs Summer Dream Stack, another oldie but goodie. I wanted the dark coral strip to mimic the blue paperâs 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 panelsâ 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. Iâve already used three of them (card posts to come đ and have plans for the other two! Thatâs the kind of bargain I just love!!
My bargain embellishment pack–or what’s left of it đ
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 didnât 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 didnât care for the dot on the âiâ so I cut out a tiny heart from one of the elements of Lawn Fawnâs Stitched Journaling Card die set to finish off the card. Next postâwhere I used one of the other words from that embellishment pack đ
Hope you have a crafty week! Â
