Thursday, September 29, 2011

Mr. Cardmaker Keeps His Promises

Home again! And only the teensiest bit of jet lag!
SO many thanks to everyone who answered my survey (in the post below).  Your views are such a big help!

So, Paris was as amazing as everyone has said.  Even more so, since it was my and my DP's 20th anniversary trip.  (Uh, Dear Partner, not designer paper in this instance.)  We ate and WALKED (and walked and walked and walked) through every street, monument, and museum we could get our butts near, and stopped for the best coffee, bread (!!) and cheese (!!!) we've ever had along the way.  Often.  Lots.  SO often.  YUM.  Just sayin'.

ANYWAY, here are the pics I promised from that trip--

Great collage courtesy of Picasa.  This is such a great feature!  This is only a few of the pics out of over 300 we took, but you get a flavor of what we did.  Loved the Musee D'Orsay, and Versailles.  Those charming cottage pics were taken @Versailles, at Marie Antoinette's hamlet. She had this little village built so she could play farmer.  Nice, huh?  Just past the very ornate theatre she had built so she could pretend to be an actress.  No wonder the peasants revolted.

ANYWAY!!

I also promised you some pics of the sweet little cards I made for Halloween.  These things make me giggle...

I made these things--


Cute, right?  I cased one of the lovely ladies at StampTV for the genesis of the mummy and Frank, but I really changed them up.

These are cards with only card FRONTS--they don't open (or st least, not so much.)  Let me show you what I mean.

They do this--

I made the raven card first, having attempted to make a triangle card and making it way too small.  I punched out some circles with my fiskars circle punches, extra large and medium, I do believe, and layered them up on some black cs for the crazy eyes, and then adhered the triangle as a beak.  I used SU stamps from TeenyTiny Wishes and Smarty Pants, and got the greeting on the inside.  Two little punched black circles with a regulation hole puncher from my desk make the nostrils.  I added dots with my glitter pen for highlights in the eyeballs, layered it on some white, and this was done! 

I felt there was only room needed to sign and give a little wish, so I left it as just the front.  Why not be different sometimes?  Oh yes, this card base is only 4" wide, which left me a bit of room to go off the edge and still fit in a regular A2 envelope! 

The mummy is done by tearing and inking the edges of strips of ivory cs (use a piece of cs a bit wider than the base, so you can play with your placement) layered on some mustard cardstock, with more circle punches used to make the eyes and tongue. 
Be sure to tear an extra strip to be used as your flap piece, and make sure to ink the edges of both sides of that one.

I crumpled the circle I used for the eyelids before cutting it to make them look old.  I used the same stamps for the sentiment, and adhered my flap piece to the back of my mustard cs before mounting the whole thing onto some olive cs.  Done and done.

For Frank, I really wanted him to have a flip top head.  To do this, I scored my olive green cs at 1/4", and 1 1/4"  I slid the black strip I used for hair (which was about 1 7/8") under the 1/4" fold, then stamped my greeting just under and above the second fold.  This kept things well hidden. 
I hand drew a scar line both on the flap and the cardbase, and I hand drew the mouth. 
The eyes are more punched circles, but I had the idea to punch the tiny holes out of black irises to make the highlights this time, and I inked the edges if the whites of the eyes with some red ink.  I like how that makes the eyes really pop.  Two little strips of black for the neck "plugs", an orange base, and this monster was all set. 

And that other triangle card was an easy do, just some $1.00 Studio G stamps, a paper pieced house, a strip with the sentiment, and clouds made with my A*muse Studio Clouds Duo dies, inked with black to make them "ominous."  That one also has the SU sentiment stamps on the inside (yes this one has an inside.)  One of these things is not like the others......

So those are my Halloween cards!  I did buy MORE stamps for more cards, but I need to move along into some Thanksgiving, Fall Birthday, and yes, even get started on some Christmas ideas! 

Speaking of Christmas ideas, I am having a heck of a time finding the right image stamps for both Christmas and Winter.  Not sure what I want, but my go to spots are leaving me kind of flat.  I am VERY much all set with sentiments; it's the images I need.  I am kind of non-traditional at Christmas, so I will probably do a couple-a-few with my Tini Time set from A*muse Studio, but I need MORE!!!  Ideas, anyone??  Please??

Hey, Thanks for stopping by and dealing with my ramblings.  So glad you're here!
All Best--
Richard

10 comments:

  1. Your photos are absolutely fabulous! What beauty that many of us have never and will never see! You and DP look so handsome! Looks like you had a wonderful time, so happy that you got to go! What's next? Sicily??? Got ya thinkin', don't I? Mr. Cardmaker, I cannot help but smile out loud over these fun cards. Love how you've adapted them into only card fronts. Pure genius! It will be fun to see what you come up with for Thanksgiving and Christmas....I'll be watching! Thanks for sharing :)

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  2. Okay, so your cards are so stinking cute it's killing me! And your photos of your trip are absolutely fantastic!!! You two are adorable, btw!

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  3. This is so cool. Had one blogger friend this week post pics of her trip to Las Vegas and I lived vicariously through that and now this! That was the best trip I've ever not taken to Paris. :D
    I would love to see more pictures of the food though. Weird huh? But really I miss the European food, oh so much...the bread. Oh the bread...
    Incredible cards with absolute creativity and very cost effective for only making fronts. VHF!! (Virtual High Five)
    Ciao,
    Lisa

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  4. Richard, I'm glad that you and your DP had a wonderful time and safely came back home. Love that collage! Looks like the weather also treated you nicely! :) Love the cute cards too!

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  5. LOVE the penguin....can't wait to make that for my DD!

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  6. Penguin....Hmm, okay, I can see that too...I was going for a Raven. Eh, a black bird is a black bird. I'm happy people are getting THAT out of it! LOL!!!

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  7. I thought penguin at first too. Whatever, it's adorable. As are the whole lot! Great work. Welcome home!

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  8. ahhhhhh, Paris, SO glad you had a good time, your beautiful pics take me back to my one and only trip there in the Fall of '98! (I might need to go dig out some pics to scan for you from it, we have one of a chocolate mousse that brought out that was bigger than a punchbowl!)

    super cute and spooky kooky cards!!

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  9. Happy 20TH! Jay and I just celebrated 25 and I wish he was well enough to travel. We used to travel all of the time when he was well. Just want to make sure that you do all you can do when and while you can. You never know what the future holds so go for it whenever you can. You cards are fab too. Had to laugh at the penguin comments! I knew it was a raven, but I am so into Halloween. LOL Best to you both! Curt

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  10. Congratulations on your 20th, Richard! And what a wonderful way to celebrate. Your Paris collage is gorgeous and makes me want to TRAVEL! And you know I think your Halloween cards are a hoot. Lemme put on my thinkin' hat re: Christmas for you... :)

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