by Karen Endress | Oct 20, 2016 | Encouragement
Hello crafty friends! I finally had time to post this encouragement card I made a while ago. When my new crafty friend 🙂 came over to make cards with me, she chose this one to duplicate. I liked it so much myself that I ended up making another almost just like it.
The cardbase was (you guessed it!) Neenah Solar White 80 lb., covered with a nice gray followed by a slightly smaller panel of a light salmon, both linen textured from my stash of DCWV mat stacks. I continued layering with a panel of cheap white stock cut with one of the Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles and a panel of patterned glitter paper (My Mind’s Eye Home Glitter Book) cut with a long deckled rectangle from this Spellbinders set.
The sentiment verse is from Impression Obsession stamped with VersaFine Onyx Black on Neenah Solar White cut with the same Spellbinders die set. I added trim from the Celebrate It Aria “Vintage Blush” assorted trim roll (Michaels) about 2/3 of the way down the sentiment panel and cut an assortment of leaves & blooms with the Essentials by Ellen Bold Blossom dies from white, vellum & a dotted silver foil paper (CraftSmith Silver Gift). Both the trim & die cuts were adhered with matte medium using the Fineline precision applicator bottle for all of those intricate areas.
As you can see from the photos, I used all the same elements but a different arrangement of the leaves & blossoms and a different trim from the same Celebrate It Aria pack. I also found a match in some flat back adhesive pearls from my stash. Serendipity!
Blessings! 
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 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!
