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 | Oct 7, 2016 | Congratulations
Hello again!! As promised, here is the second housewarming card I made recently 🙂 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 🙂 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? Umm…
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. 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 “Typewriter Uppercase.” (I know AC Moore still sells these, but I could not find a link for them 🙁 I was afraid to stamp the letters for the WELCOME directly onto the cardbase (don’t ask), so I stamped onto white scrap and punched them out with a ½ “square 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 you’ll see what I did with the rest of those yellow scraps 🙂 Once I have a piece of patterned paper out, it’s 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!!
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 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
