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 6, 2016 | Anniversary
Hi, there! Hope everyone had a relaxing Labor Day weekend! I was inspired by some paper from my stash to make a really detailed anniversary card for one of my very special nieces. I started out with a cardbase of gold metallic cardstock from a Recollections value pack then added a panel from the Heidi Grace “Forever Love” collection (unfortunately now discontinued). The second panel is matted with the reverse of one of the patterned sheets.
I stamped the focal sentiment in Versamark ink onto a sort of orchid color cardstock (stash) and embossed it with the no name brand gold embossing powder I’ve been trying to use up so I can start on the “good stuff” I bought recently 🙂 The sentiment stamp is from the Fiskars “All Year Greetings” clear stamp set and I cut out the panel with the Spellbinders Labels Eighteen nesting dies. It’s matted with the reverse of the other HG patterned paper.
The smaller “Mr. & Mrs.” sentiment is from a discontinued Fiskars set called “The Big Day” and was also stamped and embossed then trimmed out around the shape of the sentiment. I backed it with the same brown as the label and trimmed that as well.
I tucked a few of the Jolee’s By You—Gold Hearts embellishments (a nice package, it’s been very useful) under the label on the right side and also added one to the embellishment cluster on the left along with a trimmed down white Prima flower, which came in a canister like this, and a gold foil capital ‘R’, source unknown as back in the day I didn’t bother to save any packaging 🙁
I don’t usually get this elaborate with a card, but I decided to go all out and further embellish the cluster by adding some of these pearls– DCWV gem stickers and tying a bow around part of the ‘R’ with some Offray Ivory organdy ribbon I’ve had in my stash forever. I added a few more of the pearls at the bottom of the sentiment panel and called it done! Not only does my niece get a handmade card, I also used quite a few items from my stash!! Mission accomplished 🙂 Let me know if you’re making progress using up your stash as well! Have a great week! Karen
