Aquene

I’ve been experimenting with making cards that highlight indigenous words for a while now. You might remember that I’ve made a few Nipmuc language thank you cards in recent months. As I’ve written before, the making of these cards is my way of highlighting Native language reclamation efforts. Many tribes, not only in Massachusetts but also throughout New England and North America in general, are working to revive languages that were lost for years (hundreds of years in some cases) because of colonization and Native assimilation processes that have taken place for centuries. This week I’m sharing a very basic language card that features the word aquene.

Aquene means peace in the language of my ancestors.

 

And nothing too complicated here. I die cut the letters in black from this die set, and mounted them to a craft card base. I used a stamp from this Wplus9 holiday stamp set to provide the English translation. I’m thinking this would make a good sympathy card, though I’m hoping I won’t need another one anytime soon.

Aquene,

Simple Patterned Background Card Set

I’m back with a quick little card set.

AGES ago I stamped the tiny triangles background stamp (in VersaFine Vintage Sepia ink) onto some craft card stock, and promptly forgot about the whole thing. I discovered the panels during a craft room clean-up and decided I should use them up and make some cards. I really like the pattern.

I cut each panel down so it was slightly smaller than an 4-Bar size card. I added a strip of gold washi tape onto the card base, so that it would be sticking out only a bit from behind the panel and then mounted the panel onto the card base with some foam tape for a bit of dimension.

I added a hello sentiment to each card using this die from SSS. But just about any sentiment would do. I kept everything very monochromatic, and I’m not too mad about it!

 

Sympathy Card // Prayers are with you

I’m back into the swing of things after taking last week off for some much needed R & R. I really need to do that more often, I think!

Today I’m sharing a sympathy card that was inspired by this one, made by May Park. Just as she did, I stamped some floral images (using the Autumn Leaves stamp set) and embossed them with gold embossing powder. I then blended on some Shaded Lilac, Milled Lavender, and Seedless Preserves distress ink.

I added some spatters of water to give the panel a bit more interest. I kept the main sentiment white and embossed the rest onto some slate gray card stock. The stamp & die set I used for the sentiment is from Hero Arts.

As usual, these kinds of cards are not my favorite to make, but this one turned out pretty (and would be a fabulous design for many other types of cards, too!).

What are you guys making this week?

 

Short & Sweet // Thank You Card

Hi! Sharing a quick card I made several weeks ago, using emboss resist, this background stamp, watercolors, Journaling Alpha dies and a sub sentiment from this Wplus9 set. Simple cards with pretty watercolor washes make my heart happy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet and Simple Note Cards

Well, summer has finally arrived here in New England! After weeks of some very uncooperative whether (hot, cold, rain, cold, warm, hot…etc., etc.) my flowers are all blooming and my vegetable garden is in full swing! And (!) I’m headed to the beach this weekend to celebrate my birthday, which is this Saturday. :)

These cards represent that nice summer-y feeling to me. I put them together pretty quickly, cutting some panels to about 4″ x 5″ and stamping an antique rose onto the bottom left corner of each card in various colors (Hot Mama, High Dive and Onyx Black). Then I cut each panel a bit smaller with a stitched rectangle die and stamped a greeting in a coordinating color.

The sentiments all come from my Doodle Buds stamp set (if you’ve been here a while, you know it’s one of my favorites!), and I thought the font matched the floral image nicely.

I mounted each stamped panel onto a white 4bar-sized card base. I kept these nice and simple – no sequins and just one layer. I really love how they turned out!

Some of these guys will be available in the shop soon!

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Antique Rose & Watercolor Sympathy Card

Is it Friday yet?

I’m popping in today to share a sympathy card that is inspired by this one that I shared not too long ago. I simply stamped and heat-embossed an Antique Rose with white embossing powder then painted a wash all over (deepening the color in some places) on some Canson watercolor paper (affiliate link). After painting on several layers of a blue and green wash, I added some paint splatters with watered down white acrylic paint. The splatters don’t show up too well here, but it created a nice soft effect.

The sentiment was created by stacking several with sympathy die cuts on top of each other. I used multi medium matte for all of this, and used the same glue to adhere the finished sentiment to the right side of the panel.

Happy almost Friday!

Creating Simple Backgrounds with Watercolor Stripes // Two Mother’s Day Cards

I’ve got big plans for this week! I’m going to share three different posts over the next few days full of Mother’s Day card ideas. First up: two cards I put together using the simple background technique of painting some stripes onto a panel.

I used two different paint brushes to add stripes to my panel – one large brush and one much smaller, and you can see that this allowed me to create two different striped patterns on each card. From there, layout and assembly was pretty much the same for each card.

For each card, I stamped and heat embossed several of the outline images from the Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set onto some heavyweight vellum paper using VersaMark ink and gold embossing powder. For the skinny-stripes card, I also heat embossed the Antique Rose stamp from Hero Arts with the same gold embossing powder.

Once I’d finished stamping and embossing the floral images, I arranged them in a cluster at the bottom left of each card. I used foam tape (placed strategically so that you can’t see it through the vellum) to add dimension to the larger central flower, and then used glue dots to adhere the foliage around the central image.

I followed the same “rules” for this card, except used a smaller flower from the Beautiful Day set for the focal point. Each sentiment comes from the Wplus9 Strictly Sentiments 4 set, and I stamped each one with VersaFine Onyx Black ink. I used my Mini Misti for this as well. Because watercolor paper can have a bit of texture to it, getting a clean impression the first time can be difficult. So, having a stamp positioner that allows you to stamp in the same exact place more than once, if needed, can come in really handy!

I also added a few clear droplets onto the wide-stripe card, just to finish it off. Thinking about it now, I might also go back and add some clear droplets or sequins to the other card, too!

Have a great week! I’ll be back with more Mother’s Day cards on Wednesday!