'Tis the Season to Break into a Cold Sweat

It's COMING!!  CHRISTMAS is COMING!!!!  Are you ready?  Are your cards started?  Designed?  Have you even shopped for the STAMPS and paper and envelopes yet?  WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE????

Oh, sorry.  Whew.    Just a minor freak out there.  But really, it IS time to at least let your brain start to wander into Christmas mode, just a little bit.  Many of my blog friends are full force already.  I can't.  Nope.  Can't do it.  I have five Autumn birthdays to create for, and I host Thanksgiving, so...

Ok, trying to make myself breathe after that last statement.  If I am not WELL on my way by Thanksgiving.....Head between my knees. Brown paper bag time. 

However!  I do have TWO, count them, TWO Christmas cards done!  I made them for sketch challenges that I did NOT enter, for some reason or other.

I made this--

This is a 4"x4" card on GinaK Designs Kraft card stock.  The papers are by My Mind's Eye, and the sentiment stamp is by Stampendous, the Holiday Home set.

To assemble this, I adhered the background piece (DCWV, embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder)and layered the biggest flag on top of that.  Then I used foam tape to pop the red and green flags off of the surface.

 I used Distress Inks to do the Sentiment oval, and I backed it with a scalloped oval made with glitter paper from DCWV's Linen stack.  They are put together with more foam tape, and even MORE foam tape is used to add it to the card front.

The snowflake is from a scrap of white glitter paper, punched with a Martha punch, and the button is one from my very old stash.  That went on with a mini Zots glue dot.

Then I made this--

This started with a piece of Beige card stock from the same DCWV Linen stack.  Same paper from MME is adhered to it, and the same glitter paper makes the scalloped oval.  I am sensing a THEME here, folks!!

The image is from Stampin'Up!, the SNow Much Fun set, and I used my Copics to color this cutie in.

As you can see, I am NO Copic expert!

The snowflakes here are PTI white shimmer paper, and the bling is from the dollar bin somewhere.  The ribbon is from Michael's.  The bow turned out like that because I didn't cut enough ribbon, but I kind of like it!

So, that's a start anyway.  Maybe these will inspire me (and even you) to get a move on!!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is in Autumn Heaven

Autumn is my favorite time of year.  Not so surprising, really.  How could you NOT love the colors, the smells, the crisp air? 
Now, I once knew a man who got depressed when autumn came.  When I asked him about it, he said it was because "it only means that winter is coming."  Terribly unfortunate for him, to have that reaction to such a beautiful time of year. 

Anyway, I decided to do some autumn cards, and I came up with a Thanksgiving (or just a thank you) card that I am really happy with. 

I made this--

 

This card's inspiration comes from the little gold colored panel.  I started with a piece of cream cardstock, and hand colored it with a direct to paper technique, using Mostly Mustard and Crumb Cake inks (SU).  Then I ran it through the Cuttlebug in an embossing folder, and re inked it with more crumbcake ink, hitting only the raised portions.

 

I backed it with a panel of gray card stock , colored with more crumbcake ink and edged with Memento Espresso Truffle ink, and added some white brads that I colored to look cream with a copic marker (E53).

 

The background was stamped with my Inkadinkadoo flourish stamps in Versamark ink, then wet embossed in clear embossing powder.  Then, more crumbcake ink to make it all pop.

 

The leaves were the super fun part for me.  I grabbed scraps of designer paper AND the piece of scrap paper that was under the cardstock I did my hand coloring on, and punched leaves with my Fiskars leaf punch. 

The scrap leaf looks like this--

 

 

 

I did MORE direct to paper on the rest of the leaves, making them bright but streaky and worn looking.  Doing the direct to paper AFTER punching helped to give the edges more presence, and I didn't have to go back and add edging on each leaf with a sponge dauber later.

 

They looked just a bit flat to me, so I grabbed my Delicata gold ink, and hit them all with that.  WOW! what a difference!  Lots of life, and a wonderful little shimmer and glow. 

 

I curled the leaves around a pencil, with some edges going forward, and some going back, and I adhered them by adding tape only to the places where the leaf hit the surface, so lots of edges were loose, and lots of texture was visible. 

 

The label was made with memento Espresso Truffle ink on a stamp by inkadinkadoo, and punched with an SU punch.  I punched a second label out of Kraft card stock, edged it in the same ink, and cut it in half to add a backing to the sentiment piece. That was added with some foam tape for some dimension.

Here's a close-up of that--

 

 

 

All in all, I really like this one, especially because of the shiny stuff! 

 

I hope your autumn is a beautiful one, and that you are getting wonderful inspiration from Nature at its finest!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard

 

Supplies:  Cardstock-GinaKDesigns, Bazzill Basics; Embellishments- Recollections(brads)Ink-Tsukineko Memento and Delicata, Stampin'Up, Studio G, Copic Marker;  Papers, Me & My big Ideas, My Mind's Eye;  Stamps- Inkadinkadoo;  Tools-Stampin' Up and FIskars punches, Scor Buddy, Cuttlebug machine and embossing folder.

 

 

 





Mr Cardmaker CASEs Himself

A couple of years ago, in my "early days" of cardmaking, I saw a video about using the masking technique, and decided to try it out with my shiny new stamps and $1 Studio G ink pads. 
I made this--

This was made with Inkadinkadoo Flowers and Stampendous Happy Everything sets, and I am sure this is on discount card stock, with DCWV paper as the mat.  I thought this was kind of cute, especially for a beginner.

Now, as a semi-beginner, I decided that I really liked the way it all turned out, so I went back to it and tried to see what else I could come up with.

So, I made this--

So, immediately I notice that my new, homemade lightbox is working pretty well!  Boo-yah!

I like this well enough, and I think there is at least SOME progress being made. 

I still have DCWV paper on there, but I have graduated to much better SU and PTI card stock. 

Surprisingly, my StudioG stamp pads still have some ink, and I LOVE the colors and coverage.
 
The bottom of the card is punched with an EK Success punch, and if you look closely, you can see the white dots on the inside of the card.  I could NOT get a good shot of the thing closed.

The pearls are from Kaisercraft, and the ribbon is the LAST of my roll from AC Moore.  No ACM in MI, and I am sad that I can't find any more of this stuff.  Wah.

So, what do you think?  Any progress happening here (other than my photography skills), or was I better as a newbie?

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful weekend!
All Best-
Richard

Blog love for Clearly Besotted Stamps!

Photo and Artwork Source:Stephanie Wincott

Hey Readers! 

The lovely and uber-talented Stephanie Wincott over at Stamping and Sharing has some amazing news!  She's started her own stamp line, and she's starting to sell them TOMORROW!  The line is called Clearly Besotted Stamps, and I have to tell you, she has some BEAUTIFUL things here! 

I have only seen a small number of her stamps in action, but she has some lovely samples on her blog right now, and there is MORE on her Pinterest page!  Please check out Stephanie and Clearly Besotted Stamps, and if you feel like it, send her some words of encouragement.  She ROCKS!!

PS...When you get to the Pinterest page, you'll immediately think there are no pins there, because of the way the page is organized.  SCROLL DOWN!  Don't miss her Signature Christmas set, and  her Twinkle Toes set, for the ballerina in your life! 
It looks like there are SO MANY sets on their way. I can't wait to see them ALL.

Thanks for stopping by and seeing me.  Now go see Stephanie!

All Best-
Richard

Some Call Me Mr. Mojo

No, not really.  I was able to get myself a bit of mojo though, in time to put together a card for Mojo Monday 261.    That sketch looks like this--

I made a card for my SIL Andrea, who is having a birthday with a ZERO in it!  Maybe it'l be lucky for me over at Mojo Monday.

I made this--

I went out on a limb and substituted my circle of leaves for the large circle in the sketch.  Gotta take some chances, sometimes!

This is on GinaK Designs Pure Luxury Kraft card stock. with random bits of very old card stock used in the other elements.  The leaves are Punched with an EK Tools punch from  scraps (mostly from Me & My Big Ideas), that I inked up using a "direct to paper" method.  I also curled up some of the edges of the leaves.
This picture doesn't show it, but they're all coated with some Brilliant gold Delicata ink, so they're really sort of glitzy.  I wish the picture was better at showing that, because it's sort of the best part.  *sigh*....

The gold flag started as textured white card stock, that I ran through my Cuttlebug with an embossing folder, then inked with both sponge daubers and "direct to paper" on the raised surfaces.

I stamped the sentiment in Memento Espresso Truffle ink with a stamp from GKD Enjoy the Sunshine set, and stamped flourishes from inkadinkadoo, then cut it out with a Spellbinders Nestabilities die.  I stamped the flourishes both in Crumb Cake ink from Stampin' Up, and more Delicata ink.

The backgrounds stamp is from Ditto, and I got that pup at Michael's for $1.99!!  Love that!  The ribbon is from the dollar bin at Michael's too.  The button is an old one, and the twine is some random stuff from AC Moore.

This is actually the THIRD in a series using that embossing folder.  I made two others, that are more, Autumn/Thanksgiving themed.  I'll show you more of those next time. 

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best--
Richard