Mr Cardmaker is Happy and Grateful

I hope your Christmas Day was all you hoped it would be.  We were home, Charlie's mom joined us on Christmas Eve, and spent the night with us.  Charlie made a wonderful beouf bourgignon, and I ate like a starveling. 
And, we had SNOW!  Now, I know to many of you, that's like saying "and we got the Black Plague!", but I grew up in Florida, and even after being north of there for 30 years, I have never once had Christmas snow (that's any considerable snowfall either on Christmas OR Christmas Eve).  Never once before THIS year, that is!  How Great can Christmas snow be, especially when everyone you need to have at your house is already there??

Christmas Day was bright and sunny, but cold, so the snow didn't melt.  Charlie went nuts on gifts, as usual, and I got some beautiful things; most notably, a nice, big, fat, juicy gift certificate to PTI!!  I almost ditched the rest of the day to shop! (I did manage to control myself, however!)  Yes, that puppy has been spent, btw....

I made a stuffed pork loin for Christmas dinner, with roasted potato wedges and a yummy, rich spinach casserole.  As usual, all of my cooking skills evaporate on Christmas Day.  I have no explanation for this phenomenon, but it never fails.  I just need to quit cooking on Christmas, I think.  The pork was blah as blah gets. No flavor, dry, and just blah.  Nobody really cared, I think.  Just frustrating, because I am usually a pretty good cook.  Oh well.  Just food.

So, that's my day.

To thank people who were kind enough to send us gifts, I made some thank you cards.
They look like this--

I masked the sides of this card with post-it notes, and used a sponge to fill in the center with Broken China Distress Ink.  I stamped the sentiment with black Archival Ink, using a stamp from the first set I ever bought.  All I can remember about it is it came from AC Moore.  I then removed the masks, and used several snowflakes from my new Martha Stewart snowflake set (that I grabbed at a 70% off sale at Michael's) in different inks.  I used my new (thanks, Charlie) Fiskars stamp positioner to make it easy to do several of these at the same time.  The shiny ones were stamped in Versamark, and embossed with holographic embossing powder.  I added some gems, and stamped "Thank you for the gift" from PTI's In the Meadow set on the inside.  Round the corners, and off you go!

Here's a closer look, showing the color change-ups--

Well, that's my report of "What I did on my Holiday."  Hope yours was wonderful and that one of your gifts was increased creativity!
I'm posting these on CAS-ual Friday's CFC84 challenge blog.  Wish me luck!

Happy New Year!
Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Merry Merry Christmas!!

Wishing everyone out there in the Blogisphere a wonderful Christmas, with everything you could ever wish for.  I got a great gift certificate to PTI!  Can't WAIT to go shopping!

So, as a last minute decoration, I made this--

 Apparently, I cannot take a still photo to save my life.  Anyway, I made this banner.  I did the letters with my computer and punched them out, used a scallop circle die from Spellbinders for the glittered piece, and folded up some rosettes with some ancient pad of paper I got at the Goodwill for a dollar.  I stamped the letter pieces with some red snowflakes, and added some green and blue punched flakes as a finishing touch.  It's all held together with red and white baker's twine.

And, just a little detail.

Enjoy your day!!
Merry Merry!!
All Best-
Richard

As Long as It's Festive, It's All Good

The last batch of Christmas cards I have to show you are a weirdly mixed bunch.  Some I think are just fine, and I really like them, while others are just, well, weird. 

Have you ever seen the M&Ms print ad for holiday M&Ms where they show the yellow guy and his all yellow Christmas room, and they say something like "some colors are just wrong for Christmas?"  (That is NOT the right quote, but you get the idea.)
Well, I decided I wanted to challenge that idea, since I am a big fan of non-traditional Xmas colors, and I came up with this--

Now, I actually HAD the image and the everything with the red border already made for another project that I ended up trashing.  I thought the snowguy was pretty cute, so I saved him.  Anyway, I grabbed a 4.25"x11" piece of yellow card stock, folded it in half, and then trimmed two inches off of the bottom of the front of the card, which I then border punched.  Then, to the inside, I adhered a 3" piece of red dotted paper, scalloped at the top (which doesn't show when closed),then stamped the pine cone branch-y thing (SU Lovely as a Tree), adhered the snowguy, and added the snowflakes.

 

The outcome?  Yeah....Yellow is really NOT the best choice for Xmas colors.  I think it's a nice and cheery card, but.....yeah.....

 

SO!  I grabbed my SU Loads of Love set, which is so cute, and something I like to use paper piecing on.  That truck can look so cool with the right paper!

I made this with it--

 

Now, I have the Time for a Tree stampin around wheel.  Not too much opportunity to use that one, but it's made to coordinate with this stamp set, so I used it to make my background.  I kinda need to re ink the thing, but I got lazy.  I think it looks ok.  So, I used some Old Olive DSP  to paper piece this truck.  The first stamping was done on black cs, and I stamped in Versamark and white embossed, for some good, BLACK tires!  Makes for shiny rims, too!

The tree is from the Lovely as a Tree set, and I decked it out with some pearls.  The border is done with Martha's branch punch from two different papers, which got stuck down with some help from my two-way glue pen.

This one is cute, but way too much work, I think.  Good for a family with lots of guys!

 

THEN!  One evening, I while perusing FaceBook, I ran across a post form my friend Jennifer Ingle (AKA Jingle) saying she got Martha Stewart Christmas things 70% off at Michaels, one day only!

Well, it was ten minutes to 8pm, and they closed at 10.  I live about 15 minutes away from Michaels, but you KNOW I grabbed my keys and ran out the door! 

I got some lovely washi tapes, and some snowflake stamps.  I WANTED some punches, but, alas, they were gone.  Wah.  However, I took my tapes, and I made these--

 

I used my SU Snow Much Fun set to stamp the cute snowguy, and then used inks and my aqua painter to fill him in.  My white ink is Colorbox's white pigment ink, and it has a wild look to it with the aqua painter.  Reminds me of that movie and book, The Snowman.

This one I'm not so sure of.  The bow is a great stamp from a show I went to in early December, and I cannot remember who makes it.  I stamped it in grey ink, then aqua painted it with red.  The water diluted it to a pink, but I didn't mind that so much.  I hit it with some stickles at the end to liven it up.

The sentiment is PTI.

 

So, also from the company I can't remember, I got this cool snow globe stamp.  I paired it with my Winter Penguin from PTI, and got this--

 

Cute, right?  Paper is from MME.  Somebody sells a die that does the folded flag thing I have here, but I just eyeballed it.

 

The last one was a happy accident card, that came about while I was making a little notebook to house punch templates from all my punches.  I wanted something I could hold over images and sentiments, to see if they'd fit.  I was getting quite the pile of white punch outs, so I decided to put them to work!

I came up with this--

 





 

The notebook pages were just barely off-white, so I mounted them with lots of foam adhesive onto a white piece of CS.  That's got a border of beige, and that's on an ecru cardbase.  I white embossed a small sentiment onto a tiny piece (PTI) and added some rhinestones.  I think this is pretty interesting to look at, myself.

 

SO! Those are my samples for this holiday.  I am working on a rosette banner, and if I ever finish it, I will show that to you!  I am going to take a break until after Christmas, I think, so I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard

 

Mr Cardmaker is Having an Affair

I have a real love affair with stamp sets that have coordinating dies.  I say love affair, because I also have a crazy, nut-case addiction to punches, and it's just not like that with the stamp/die thing.  I REALLY love these things.  Like, really.  ANd, I am super selective with what I do and what I buy with these things.

This year, I bought PTI's In the Meadow set, and the dies that went with it.  I loved these the moment I saw them.  I also bought a set of two Sizzix embossing folders somewhere, and I really liked those SO much as well.  oh yeah, and the PTI Wonderful Words Holiday stamps and dies too.

Anyway, I put them to good use, I think. 

I made these--

 Doesn't that sledder look like he's flying? 
To make the letters pop, I used white pigment ink direct from the pad, rubbing ever so gently over the raised portions.  I did it on the snowflakes in the blue card above, as well.  The branches are done with Martha Stewart's branch punch, and the birds are actually die cuts!  The snow is torn shimmer paper.

The snowflakes are so pretty in this set.  The tree is stamped onto its die cut.  All the figures in these die cuts are from a pewter colored shimmer paper by DCWV.

 

The green version of the sledder.

This one is just stamping, with no die cuts.  The tree is done in Versamark, and embossed with MS gold glitter embossing powder, then topped with VersaPEN around the edges and re-embossed with holographic embossing powder.  The snowflakes are in gold embossing powder and white pigment ink.  The photo doesn't do this justice.  It was one of my faves!

 

 



 

Another fave.  This embossing folder really blows my skirt up.  The aqua shimmer paper die cut against the the River Rock  card stock, and the placement of the sentiment stamp....me likey.

The white is popped off the surface with foam adhesive, as is the feeding deer, to push him into the foreground a bit.  So is the word "peace."

 

So, what's NOT to love about these stamps and dies?  See what I mean??

 

Well, it is snowing like crazy out my window right now, and everything is gorgeous.  What a solstice! 

 

I don't have much more to share, and I am out of here for the weekend.  I'll share the last of my cards soon! 

 

Happy Solstice, everyone.  Welcome back to the sun!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard

Mr. Cardmaker is Getting Tryp-y With It

My sister-in-law Susie is a very clever gal.  She finds the most clever cards to send us, and she even makes them every once in a while too! 

She sent us a very clever card with her initial cut out of it.  I can't find it, otherwise I'd show it to you.  Anyway, it inspired me to make a couple of these things. 

I made this--

So, nice, cute, whatever.  This is done with a Recollections set for the light strings, and a Sizzix stocking stamp and die duo set.  The glitter paper is from Michael's.I used a red spica pen for the stripes on the stocking, and the top are there is flocked, using my Glossy accents and some Funky Flock from The Rubber Cafe.  The sprigs are pieces from a snowflake I punched with a SU punch, and there's a punched red dot with a dollar bin pearl, as well.

 

 

But this is just the beginning!  Looks kind of small, right?  Well, this is how it looks when you open it!

 



Ok, I didn't get a great shot.  But, it's THREE panels.  I used a 4 1/4"x 5 1/2" piece of white card stock, and I scored it on my Scor-Pal on the marks with the little arrows on them.  These are just shy of 3 3/4" and just past 7 1/4".  If you don't have a Scor-Pal, you can probably just play with it a bit before you make your creases. 

I used my Cuttlebug and a Spellbinders Wonky Rectangles die to cut and emboss the front panel.
Then, I took some post-its with all over adhesive and masked two panels on the other surfaces.
I stamped the lights, and colored them with copics.  Then I grabbed my Glossy Accents and coated the lights to give them some shine.  When that dried, I took some Memento Bamboo Leaves ink and a blending tool, and colored the front surface of the card.  I added my sentiment on the third panel, and left the middle one plain, for a handwritten message.

For the panel that shows through the front opening, I cut a piece of glitter paper that covered the back of the middle panel, and adhered it.  Then I added my stocking.

This makes such a cool effect, when the image disappears as you open the card. 

But wait!  There's more.  I got fancy with the next one.
I made this--

This is exactly the same idea, only with a die from PTI's In the Meadow set.  I stamped and gold embossed some of my many many snowflake stamps onto a green glitter sheet from DCWV, and I used a Stampendous holly stamp to do the surface of the card.  I hand painted the berries with red ink and my aqua painter, and topped them with Glossy Accents.

The inside of this one looks like this--(sorry for the blur.  This would NOT photograph well, for some reason.)
Here you can see the masking and the center panel.  That sentiment is from PTI as well.
I somehow screwed up something on the front panel, so I tried to fix it with a mask and more ink.  I think it worked out pretty well, all in all.

This turns out to be much smaller than a regular A2 card.  I may figure out the proper dimensions to make one that is a larger size, but I really like the fun you can have with this.  I would probably stay with an 11"x whatever  size, though, if you're going to use your Scor-Pal to do the EASY scoring.

SO, two more of the sixty.  Hope you got some ideas.  Hey, you know, this is just about small enough that if you did a small hole through all the layers and tied a string or ribbon through them, you could have a seriously cool gift tag, as well.  Try it!

More to come! 
Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker Keeps His Christmas (card) Promises

Well, I promised some Christmas cards.  Now, I promise not to show you all sixty of them.  That would be ridiculous, you know. 
However, I will show you a good handful. 

The majority of these are made with papers from My Mind's Eye, and with PTI dies.  There's also some Stampendous stamps, Stampin' Up stamps, papers, and inks, as well as my Martha Stewart branch punch and sizzix embossing folders. 

Let's start the show!

 

The glitter paper used on these cards is from Michael's.  This is super sturdy card stock (which is actually more like card BOARD) and actually, when I tried to use my dies on it, it really didn't work at first.  I solved the issue by peeling away half of the backing on the paper.  Once I got rid of some of the bulk, it worked just fine.

 These snowflake punches are from Stampin' Up and Martha Stewart.  The background paper is from Basic Gray.

Shimmer paper used in the die cut is by DCWV, the Shimmer Stack.

Photo corner punch from EK Success.

The silver swirly paper is from AC Papers.  The swirly stamp (in red) is from PTI.

The globe stamp is from Jillibean Soup.  

Peace ON Earth.  Get it?? 

 

 

This is the first batch.  I have more.  I STILL promise not to show you all sixty.  On account of that would be ridiculous.  And, on account of I still have to make about 8 more to reach sixty.

Back to work!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard

 



Mr Cardmaker Has the BEST Friends & My Blog Hop with Melanie

Well, this is my first posting since my WONDERFUL stint as Moxie Fabber of the Week over at Moxie Fab World.  I can't begin to describe how wonderful it was to get so much love and support from all of you, both here at my blog and at MFW.  I am one grateful card maker.  Welcome, welcome to my new followers, as well as my dear, regular dropper-inners!

Well, my very greatly talented friend Melanie Muenchinger has been at being her very sweet self again, and she has gifted me not one, but THREE of her fabulous stamps sets that she designed for GinaK Designs.  I could not be more thrilled about that!  I have been in the throws of Christmasing up my house, and, of course, SHOPPING (grrrrr), but I was able to IMMEDIATELY drop it all and come up with a thank you/Christmas card for her.  I am ashamed that she will see it here before she gets it into her own hands, but she is a great lady of immense forgiving capabilities, I am certain.

And, we're HOPPING! (and we're hopping, and we're hopping......oh, sorry.) On to the inserted verbage....

It's a Happy Holiday Hop! Becky and Melanie thought it would be great fun to team up for a little Holiday Hop today. Today we are showcasing Becky's new set, "Warm Woolen Mittens" along with Becky's new cut file "Grand Banners" and "Grand Banners - Winter Sentiments" and Melanie's newest set, "Lots of Letters" as well as some of her other recent favorites. Joining us are some dynamic designers that will knock your socks off with their beautiful work today! Make sure you visit everyone's blog to leave a comment and be entered to win a clear "I do!" and "Beyond Baskets" stamp set! A winner will be announced Thursday. Now on to today's projects!

Here's the list of crafters that you can drop in on to check it all out--

                               Melanie Muenchinger 

Becky Oehlers (Illustrator of Warm Woolen Mittens)

Beate Johns

JJ Bolton

Laurie Schmidlin

Latisha Yoast

Michelle Woerner

Richard Breaks

Vera Yates

Tosh Leyendekker

 

And now, back to me!

I made this--

This card was made with Melanie's beautiful Stately Flowers series.  This is from the 5th collection in this series, and I have to say, I have not seen a better mistletoe.  Period.  I am clearly smitten with it.
Now, the set comes with TWO versions of this mistletoe, one larger than the other, plus an extra set of berries, which, as you can see here, I have put to work. 

I stamped all over my 4 1/4"x 5 1/2" SU River Rock card stock with the large image in Versamark ink, and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I also stamped all my berries on a separate piece of River Rock, and embossed them as well. 

After fussy cutting all of the berries, I took my Memento Delicata gold ink pad, pressed it onto an acrylic block, and used my aqua painter to "watercolor" all of the berries.  I purposely made some of the berries more opaque than others, to add depth.  Berries don't usually all ripen at the same moment anyway, right?  So, some reality to my fantasy!

The Merry Christmas sentiment (THANK YOU for adding that to the set, Melanie!) is stamped onto a scrap of ecru colored paper in versamark, and then heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  I punched it with my large circle punch, inked the edges with River Rock ink, and adhered it to the bottom of my card, then trimmed it with snips.  I added the ribbon (winnings from Stampendous), and adhered the card stock to a white, top-folding A2 card base.

With all of that done, I could place my berries.  I used tiny pieces of dimensional foam to pop each of them off of the surface, spacing them out nicely as I went along.  Don't tell anyone, but some of them mask imperfections that may or may not be there during the stamping process.  I plead the fifth on that one...

Sadly, pictures tend to ruin the glossy, shiny finishes on so many cards.  This is really nice and shiny though, I promise!

So, that's my card.  Now that I have it made and PHOTOGRAPHED (my least favorite part of blogging) it, I can get it out to Melanie! 

Do you make your holiday thank you cards?  Or are you just spent after making your Holiday Greeting cards?  I still have to make a good amount of cards this week.  I'd better get to work!

Thanks for stopping by! 
All Best-
Richard