The musings and offerings of a burgeoning greetings master

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Mr Cardmaker is the Berries

Well, this week I am entering the Tag! You're It #50 challenge over at their blog, and I actually spent quite a few hours fretting over this one.

I made this--


I loved the inspiration piece, which is this--



And I decided that some juicy red strawberries were in my future!

I love strawberries, both to eat and look at. They're like these amazing jewels, and they're sweet and tart and just wonderful. Did you know they were actually very low in sugar, for a fruit? Good to know!

Well, I started with a manila tag and a stamp from GinaK Designs That I have owned for years. It's my only strawberry stamp that I own, I think, and was just perfect for what I wanted to do.

I made a couple of masks, because nothing but a big bunch of berries would do, and I stamped all over the tag with Versafine Black onyx ink, which I then embossed in clear.

The next part was water coloring everything with Distress Inks, allowing (in  most cases) different colors to dry before layering more and more ink for depth.

The last steps on the tag involved drawing in white dots with a gel pen, and then coating just the red parts of the berries with lots of Glossy Accents. Sadly, the glossy accents mostly wiped out my white dots, but there's just enough to show, so I'm living with it.

I coated a houndstooth embossing folder with versamark and ran my black backer tag through my Cuttlebug, and then clear embossed it for some shine. Such a great effect, and I really liked the fact that the powder wasn't exactly perfect.



For the card base, I first used more distress ink to deepen the card stock color, then stamped a leaf pattern all over. I added a panel of black and white striped paper to one side, and then mounted my tags.

(HEY! I am having a serious problem getting fun foam to stick to things-my ATG gun doesn't work, Tombo Mono multi glue didn't do it, even Glossy Accents needed some nudging, even though once I weighted it down it did finally work. Anybody else having this issue? I love using fun foam, but COME ON...)

Anyway--
Notice there's a diagonal thing going on here--diagonal paper stripes, diagonal lines make up the leaf pattern, and the tags are placed on diagonals. AND, the twist of the twine is basically a diagonal, too!

To soften things up a bit, I added a VERY round banner to the tag, which I made by die cutting a round frame and trimming it. I added a sentiment and some yellow ink, to punch up the folds, and after adhering it and some additional leaves, I thought I was done.

As I looked at it, though, I decided that I couldn't just leave that one little bit of yellow hanging there by itself, and I punched and inked some tiny flowers to look like strawberry blossoms. It carries the strawberry idea further, and gives my an opportunity to get THREE areas of yellow onto my card, which it really needed. Plus, I was able to really get a nice little primary color scheme out of the whole thing, too! Hey, green is a neutral here!


I created a panel to use on the inside of my card, doing each step as I did my tag, and just as I was getting ready to adhere it to the inside of my card, I got a huge black smudge on the top corner. ARGH!
Well, I wasn't about to throw the whole thing away, so I got my trimmer involved and got this--

It really leaves me with a pretty small writing area, but you know what, just look at the pretty stuff. I can always write on the back, too...

So that's my card!
You can also see my things (and lots of them well before they hit the blog) at my Instagram @rlbreaks.

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

15 comments:

  1. Richard an awesome tag and an awesome card! that stamp gives you so much dimension. Thank you for sharing with us at CASology this week!

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  2. Absolutely stunning. Even though blue is my least favorite color, you've managed to make me love that watercolor background!

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  3. This is really a beauty! I love the detail you achieved with the strawberries, even though you mentioned the problems with the white dots. No one can even tell because this looks AMAZING! Beautiful color and design!

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  4. Amazing! I just want to pick a strawberry right off the card!

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  5. Okay this is my all time favorite of yours!! This is truly a work of art! Looks ( and sounds) like you spent hours on it! Your watercoloring is amazing too! All of it, just beautiful!!

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  6. Beautiful design and gorgeous colors of those berries. My mouth is watering for some right now. I love your tags too.

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  7. Love this tag card, Richard! Thanks for the inspiration!

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  8. Well hello there Mr Cardmaker :) So happy to see you and your lovely blog..I couldn't find you :( I LOVE this, so amazing, I want to eat those berries. Now I am off for a rummage through your blog. Cx

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  9. WOW...fabulous card/tag Richard! I'm with everyone else in that your strawberries are so realistic looking...you did an amazing job with water coloring all of them! Absolutely love the houndstooth back tag in black and the blue leaves on the card base...you really have made all these colors and patterns work so well together!! You definitely get my vote for the winning tag!! :0)

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  10. This is so beautiful.! Awesome coloring and design. Thank you for joining the Tag You're It challenge.

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  11. WOW WOW WOW! This is drop dead gorgeous - love the red and blue together and the glossy accents make the berries so yummy ! A total knock out Richard!

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  12. I'm echoing all the WOWs you've received and following up with several of my own! Jeanne's right: drop dead gorgeous! Your strawberries are scrumptious! As for the writing space: not to worry, the lucky person receiving this will be too dazzled by the artistry they won't notice a 'wee' note! Thrilled that you shared your creativity at Tag You're It!...heading back for more gazing and admiring...
    ~carol

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  13. Well, HELLO, Mr. Cardmaker! What an amazing tag/card! All the steps paid off for one delicious project! PS, love strawberries too!

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  14. Wow, Richard! This is one stunning tag and I love the inside too! Oh my gosh this is beautiful! I can see all the work that went into this! I love strawberries too!Thanks for joining us at Tag You’re It, Richard!

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Your comments mean so much. Thanks for taking the time!