The musings and offerings of a burgeoning greetings master

Monday, July 14, 2014

Papertrey Ink Make it Monday-- Rainbow Medallion

Well, after slowing WAY down on my blog posts, it is shocking to ME that I am getting two posts in in one day.  I did want to try my hand at this new Make it Monday challenge at Papertrey Ink, so here I am!

The challenge is to use a stamp to create a medallion, using rainbow ink colors, using the method that Dawn showed on her video.

Well, I came up with this--

This was made with the Harvest Berries stamp set, a big "go to" set for me. My PTI ink collection hasn't started yet, so I filled in with what I have, and added details with a Sakura sparkle pen.

I cut the doily with a PTI Dainty Doily die, from black card stock, and white embossed the sentiment from Framed Out #1 in white.

My tiny vellum butterflies are made with a tiny heart punch, cut on the fold to create the butterfly shape.  I love that technique!  Tiny dots of sparkle finish them off. 

I also used the sparkle pen to hand draw some squigglies around the leaves.  Why?  Because my hand slipped and created the first one, that's why. As this was already my THIRD attempt at this card, I was MAKING it work!

If I win this challenge, I think it's high time I get some PTI inkpads. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best--
Richard

Mr Cardmaker has that Friendly Flower Feeling

Well, my very wonderful crafty friend Michelle Woerner has been her SUPER generous self, and gifted me some things, which I am FINALLY able to use and enjoy.

Michelle is a Spellbinders gal, and the things she makes with these dies are, well, to die for. Bad pun, yes, but she really rocks it.

Anyway, I made this with some dies she shared with me--






































This was cut on the fold of my Papertrey Ink card stock first, then again to make a card
front, because I am not a fan of looking at incomplete shapes that happen when you try to get the fold in. Personal quirk, we'll call that. 

Next came the same shape in some My Mind's Eye paper, which was adhered on the offset.

Then, to add a pop of brightness, I cut the next smaller size in white, and ran it through an embossing folder. Twice more with that shape, in some old SU designer series dotted paper, and then from a bright yellow piece of card stock from DCWV.  The last one got its center removed with the smallest die, and then was run through my swiss dots embossing folder. They all got put together with flat and dimensional adhesives, and attached to the card front. A bit of glue on a big ol' brown jewel and a tiny circle of designer paper that's been around for ages, and there you go. Oh wait. I did emboss that paper. Because, why not.

Lastly, I made a small banner with a SU die, and stamped "happy birthday" with an SU stamp onto it.
 
Inside, I stamped "happy day" from a Hero Arts set by the same name. Super simple.
 
 
Well, after all that, I realized that I didn't have an envelope that was going to work well with this. 
Happily, Himself got me the We R Memorykeepers' envelope punch this past Christmas, so I could take care of that. I dug into my old, old DCVW papers and came up with a piece of paper with yellow roses on it. Well, that doesn't mail so well. The USPS tends to want to be able to read things unhindered, you know. HOWEVER, the white back of the paper sure does work, and oh, what a pretty lining that would make!
 
It looks like this--
 
 
A while back, I found some liquid that you can use on your homemade envelopes to give them a "lickable sticky" once it dries. (That sounds like Lemony Snickett's second cousin, doesn't it?)  Went on like a charm, and it's all set to mail.
 
This was surprisingly easy to put together, once I decided what I was using. It helps that there was one main source to go to for the shapes, for sure, and I just love that this shape is very basic, yet super strong in design. I will have to return to this idea over and over!
 
Thanks so much, Michelle, for keeping me creating!
 
I am running out of things I have photographed--I will have to work on that!
 
Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard
 



Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Mr Cardmaker is feeling Seasonal

Well, my good friend Lisa Minckler posted her FINISHED collection (yes ALL of them) of Christmas cards, so I thought I should spill the beans and show you what I have managed to come up with for Christmas so far.

You may have seen the Christmas tins I did, but I also came up with some cards. 
I was theoretically going to do some every month so I wouldn't go crazy in December.  Yeah, that....

Anyway!
They look like this--

My Charlie gifted me much of these supplies--The papers and the wood trees, and the two woods stamps. I think there are wood snowflakes waiting to be used, too.  Such a nice man, him.





Super simple stamping with just as simple punches.  The berries are my office punch!  I think all of us have that stamp, too....Love the gold cardstock and bokeh paper here.
 See the deer in this one below?  Such a lovely stamp.  I white embossed this, then rubbed some white ink on it to make it look "chalkboard-y."
 This one was so simple--Stamp image, stamp sentiment, add strip of paper.  Boom.
 I love the red on red hounds tooth paper  that the flair piece is on. It's just a strip, so you can write something above.  I have no idea whatsoever where that little tag came from.  ?????  Sure works here.
Oh, and yes, I did fix that ribbon.  OCD me, except when taking pictures, apparently.
 
 
Well, that's what I have so far.  I have MANY more to go, and I am hoping to get multiples of some of what I come up with next.  I will try to share some along the way, but as you know, the posts are fewer and farther between these days.  Hope springs eternal for the Cardmaking Man!
 
 
Thanks so much for stopping by! 
All Best--
Richard