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 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 | Aug 22, 2016 | Encouragement
I was re-organizing my stamps when I ran across this old stamp & die set from Hero Arts/Sizzix. I thought it would be fun to have the butterflies stamped inside the card so you could see them through the die cut openings. Apparently not as easy as it sounded, the first attempt was a fail. This one turned out much better 🙂
I used a Ranger ink blending tool to sponge on some Distress inks in Squeezed Lemonade and Peacock Feathers (my personal favorite) then added some water droplets. The butterflies made me think of flight and reminded me of an older wood-mount stamp in my stash from Prickley Pear. I do have a tendency to over-embellish, but after using the ¼ WRM Corner Chomper I wisely decided to leave it as is. Here’s a close up of the cut-outs.
Let me know if you decide to try one of those oldies from your stash! Thanks for stopping by!
