Mr Cardmaker Has What Would SEEM to be the Last of the Autumn Cards

Well, I have been diving into Christmas cards lately, albeit slowly, because I have a ton of birthdays coming up right about now. 

I did have some Autumn cards that I wanted to show you, though, so here we go...

I made this--

I did this card with GinaK Designs Fall Foliage set, with a sentiment from, you guessed it the Enjoy the Sunshine set.  I stamped these leaves with various Hero Arts inks, and I have to tell you, that Butterbar ink (the bright yellow) has to be my favorite color EVER.  So rich!  I used it on the leaves, of course, but the I used it to sponge in that glow-y background.  I love this!
It went to my sister Lisa for her birthday.  She liked it.

I also made this--

 

4

 

 

 

 

Well, I seem to be using this stamp set a good deal of the time!   A different color treatment here, plus some fussy cut and foam mounted leaves.  Oh, and the sentiment is from Inkadinkadoo.  This was an exercise in trying to get some blue into my fall cards.  I also used daubers to get more than one color onto the images before stamping, and a bit of hand coloring on some, too. I like the teal in there, but this is a rather frenetic card.  Good thing that sentiment is there, or your eye would have no place to land.

APPARENTLY, I did not get enough of the blue idea pumped out of my brain.

Remember my blue Delft card I tried a while back?  This one....Oh yeah, and there's This one too...I did that for my friend Melanie Meunchinger's blog  a while back.  Love her!

Well, I made this--

Same stamp sets, ONE blue ink pad.  I was SO psyched at the way this one turned out! 

This was done with Memento Blue Danube ink, and I just stamped and restamped without reinking anything, and LOOK at what happened!!  I stamped some extra leaves and fussy cut them, as you can see, and mounted them onto the card with foam adhesive. Love this!  Notice there is a bit more breathing space on this one.

NOW I have enough blue in my fall cards.  The End.  Except for this photo, which shows two of them together....A study in blue, you could say.  (I wouldn't...)

On to the next season!  Snowflakes, anyone?  I DO think I'll have to sneak some non-seasonal things in, just to keep sane (ish). Just sayin'.

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Candy for Halloween! And a Giveway, of Sorts....

A while back, I stumbled onto a Pinterest pin of this thing called "Card Candy", and I was intrigued.  These are lovely bits of punchy, ribbon-y, embellishment-y goodness that you can add to a simple card to get a fun, more intricate focal point in one second.  (I'm inventing the words as I go along, folks!)

The best part is that you can make these with the millions of scraps you have lying around (and I KNOW you have them) in front the TV in an evening.  AND they make for fun gifts, too!

Well, I made some.  Dragged ALL of my favorite punches and my scrap box, plus a few stamps out to the TV room, and got busy.

They look like this--

Yes, there ARE four sets there.  I was busy!!

 

 

Do you like the packaging?  I made that, too.  And I did my signature stamp on the back--

These are mounted with glue dots onto acetate sheets from stamp sets that I have hanging about.  Lift them off like with any other packaged embelly, and adhere them to your project! 

I imagine these working nicely on a set of note cards.  Make the base, add some ribbon or twine, and pop one of these babies into a focal point.  Super simple!  All KINDS of ways to use these.  Oh! How about if you made your own cardmaking KIT, and tucked these in?  Huh? Right?

And now, for some close ups--

Well, now that they're all packaged so nicely, I can't use them myself!  I am not sure what I will do with them.  I considered doing a giveaway, but is there really anyone who wants this?  I'll be entering this over at the Simon Say Stamp Monday Challenge Blog in their Anything Goes challenge, so I figure folks will see them at east a few times.

How about, the first four followers of my blog to ask me for them each gets one set?  That way, I am not foisting them onto someone who would like to comment, but has no interest in having them.  Just make sure I can reach you via email for your address.

Oh, and I will save one set until 10/31 @ 5pm for those of you who reach me only via Facebook.  Did I mention I have a Facebook page?  I need to add that to my sidebar!

Oh, and I thought I'd mention, for those of you who came looking for me last week--
I was on vacation!  They tell you not to post such things until you come home, lest the burglars read your blog.  That idea makes me laugh!  But seriously, you never know.
We were in the Pacific Northwest, and it was gorgeous.  If only I had time to hunt down my crafty peeps that live out that way!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr. Cardmaker Can't Help Himself

Well, I really don't have many people to send Halloween cards to, and so I TRY to stay away from making them. I also don't have that many people coming over during the fall season, but it doesn't stop me from decorating with all my Fall stuff, either!  LOVE me some Autumn!!

Anyway, I ran across my jar of Amuse Studio black glitter the other day, AND I got my Authentique Enchanted paper pad from Oozak recently.  What can I say?  What could any self-respecting, over-shopping crafter say?  I could NOT help myself! 

Photo-heavy post ahead!  Get ready!

I made this--

I stamped the haunted house onto some SU Summer Starfruit cardstock and fussy cut it.  I covered it with Glossy Accents, and when it was dry, I restamped the image onto my paper, and adhered it.

The tree is a Memory Box die.  I covered cardstock with my 2" Scor-tape and ran it, with the die, through my Cuttlebug, took off the liner paper, and covered it with black glitter.
 
NOTHING says Halloween more to me than black glitter all over something! 

I stamped my spiders, then assembled the card, adding strips of paper and some hand drawn squiggly lines to fill out the design.  I added more scor-tape, in thinner strips this time, and glittered them up, too.  This makes SUCH a wonderfully clean line of glitter!  Once you get me started with the glitter, you better keep moving, because if you're sitting still, you could be "made pretty!"

I moved to the inside of the card, and I did this-- (all of my interior photos are weird for some reason. Sorry!)

I masked off and stamped the edges of my cardstock with a web stamp, and was really happy that just a tiny border read really well.  The sentiment stamp is so great, with the skull and pumpkin lurking in there.  I did get that smudge, but I let it go, what with it being all Halloweeny and all.  I will add more smudges before I send it, probably.

I was so happy with the Scor-tape as adhesive idea, I kept going.
I made this-
This one is being entered at Ribbon Carousel, for their Fall/Halloween challenge--

I made the glittered leaves with more scor-tape, then layered them with a plain cardstock leaf for contrast.  I love that look!  I did these with my Fiskars punches.  They were not happy about cutting through so much at once, but they finally did it!

Here's a better look--

To do the cat and sentiment, I used some Sticky Powder from Gary Burlin and Co.  I was not terribly thrilled with the amount of "sticky", to be frank, and will have to try another variety.  I got the general idea, though, and I was able to go back and add some glue on top of the cat, so I could reapply some more glitter.  The sentiment was to thin for me to mess with, though. I keep looking at this one, thinking I smudged it next to the cat, but it's part of the paper, I SWEAR!

I added some black twine, and I used my 1/4" hole punch to lock it into place at the top and bottom of the card.  More Scor-tape and glitter at the left side there, but you already knew that...

I did the inside of this one too, like this--

I love that sentiment stamp from Studio G.  (All the stamps are Studio G, btw, except for the clouds and the swirls on the first card which are from PTI and Inkadinkadoo, respectively)  I think the hand drawn lines really work with the webs here, too!

Finally, I had to do one more--

See how I am good about not wasting any of my papers?  Because I'm stingy frugal like that!

So, clearly I couldn't stop at just the black glitter, and I had to get out the orange as well for this one! 
The dies here are from Papertrey Ink, and I added more of those punched leaves, one glittered and one not.

I like the gray rhinestones added to this one!

The inside of this one looks like this--

I added the speckles after I found a speckle-sized smudge.  I think they work here!  That big spider is so great for a creepy surprise!

So, that's my Halloween collection for this year.  I will definitely make sure they find homes (along with the couple of cards I made last year, and THIS CARD. 

I love making them, and I will send them to those who love them.  Seems it's always my crafty friends who REALLY appreciate them!  Plus, sometimes I get some in return!  Love that!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Papertrey Ink Make it Monday Challenge and ABNH Shape it Up Challenge

       ***This is my second post today.  Scroll down to see my paper-laden Get Well card.***


Well, I am trying to get into some more contests these days.  Seems you get a bit of exposure that way!  (BTW, you ARE all telling your friends and neighbors about me, RIGHT?)

I made this--

 

I made this card, (Which is actually on the small side--Probably best used as an enclosure) for Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday challenge, which this week is to use a layered embossed technique.

I also wanted to enter A Blog Named Hero's Shape it Up challenge, and I did it as a shaped card.

 

I had also planned to enter Case this Sketch's challenge, and Simon Says Stamp's  Dotty challenge, but I was too late on the trigger for those.  Wop, wop....

 

I started by making my base with a Spellbinders Labels Four die, the largest one, on white card stock, and then made another die cut to be the card front. This way, the fold wouldn't show at all.

 

I stamped the background with my dot background stamp (my only non-PTI stamp used here, btw) and then stamped over it with the balloons and sentiment for PTI's Birthday Basics set.  The balloons were stamped in versamark, which I then embossed with clear powder so the background would show through.  I then used three purple inks to highlight the embossing, which, of course, left the background of the balloons the dots on white. 

 

I added some of the dots from Birthday Basics , and hand drew the strings of the balloons on with my white gel pen.  Add a few sequins, and this pup is ready to sign and mail!

 

I really enjoyed doing both (all) of these challenges, and it was really fun finding a way to combine some!

 

Wish me luck!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best--

Richard

 



Mr Cardmaker is Letting the Paper Do the Work

Well, in the continuing story of "I need a card, NOW", I found myself in need of a masculine-ish (because you know about me and masculine cards, #dontgetmestarted) get well card.

*Now I am laughing, because I do NOT tweet, and am not sure what that hashtag nonsense even IS.  Please ignore my madness...*

ANYWAY--

I have a HUGE assortment of cards hanging about.  THREE shoe boxes full, to be exact.  Do you THINK I had what I needed in all of that? 

Nope.

Well, it was off to the craft room, at a rather late hour, to come up with something.  Happily, I had just loaded up on all kinds of new 6x6 paper pads, and I found some really good inspiration.

I can go crazy with layers, or super minimal with a CAS, but that middle, nice-card-with-not-so-much-stuff area gets wombly on me sometimes. 

So, I let my papers guide me this time.
I came up with this---

 

Now, this is nice, right?  Strong colors, nice geometrics, not so fru-fru.  These papers actually had been cut for some other project, so I played around with the scraps, and added some new pieces where they were needed.  I do love my scraps!  All in all there are seven (!) different papers on this card, all from the same paper pack.  Oh, it's My Mind's Eye Dilly Dally, under the Miss Caroline label.  Everything is layered on a chocolate brown card base.

 

The sentiment is embossed with Stampin' Up Early Espresso powder, and I don't know if it was this project, or my versamark was dry, or what, but I was not a fan of that stuff.  I'll have to play with it some more, but it wasn't sleek and shiny, and I'm really pretty sure I didn't overheat it.  Anyway---

I thought it was getting a bit lost on the dots, so I swiped some white pigment ink over top of the area, and wiped it back off the letters with a baby wipe.  Gently does it here!  I like that the effect looks like a worn fabric.

 

That button is actually some replacement button for a pair of shorts I bought recently. It kind of looks like leather, so I liked it for this project.

 

So, while this isn't SUPER simple, it was made easier by letting the paper take center stage.  I do like to pair up papers and cardstocks and all the rest of the stuff, but this one just came together with the paper all by itself. 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best--

Richard

 



 

So, This was a Cool Thing

While bouncing about in Blogland recently, I happened upon a really cool site, called Tagxedo.com.  They do this word cloud thing, and you can use your favorite words, or you can link to your blog, or a website or whatever, and it picks the most used words and it seems to give them this hierarchy thing as it makes the cloud. 

 

So I did my blog!  This is what I got--

 



Pretty cool, right?  I don't know why the word "stopping" made it to be so big.  I will have to read some entries to see how often THAT one is used...Maybe it's not such a word hierarchy as I originally thought.  I was pleased to see the word "love" being so prominent.  Apparently, I use the words "really" and "thing" WAY too often...

Isn't this FUN?!  Imagine doing this with motivational words, or fun things your kids say....

Just a fun thing to look at today!
Oh, and PS--Charlie was out of town this past week, so my card pile has grown.  Lots of fall and Christmas cards coming up!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Get Well Wishes for a Lovely Lady

Our wonderful friend, Betty Ann, is eighty-something, and manages to live alone with her cat, and just a bit of help that comes in a few times a week.  Well, she had a fall in her tub, or into her tub...we are not too sure.  At any rate, she broke her collar bone, no fun at any age, so she has herself a bit of an uphill battle ahead.

Her assistant let us know what is going on, and mentioned that the only thing we could really do to help is to send her one of my cards.  Isn't that just the sweetest thing, ever?  Well, I wanted to get one out to her right away, and I had nothing on hand.

To the craft room, Robin!

Boy, the moment you need a card is NOT the moment for the mojo to vanish.

I grabbed some inks and a stamp set from my collection and got down to it.

I came up with this--

So, I began with stamping a background, using 4 colors of ink, and stamping without reinking as I worked my way across the card.  The boldest ink was toward the middle, and then got lighter in both directions.

Once that was done, I used sponges too ink up the edges of the cardstock, one color for each side.  When that was ready, I attached it to the front of a cardbase that matched one of the inks.  The sentiment was done in the darkest color--here, an olive green.

I stamped and punched out more of the same flower in the same colors and inked the edges.  I pulled out my glitter collection to do the centers, because I really love my shiny surfaces. These were adhered with some foam tape, but looked lonely without some foliage, so I went back and added some die cut leaves.  The leaves were a bit dull on their own so I took my white gel pen and gave them a doodled look.

In my continuing search to make everything more shiny, I added rhinestones in the colors of everything else, and I called it done!

I barely remembered to get a photo before getting this thing into the mail, but it got off safely, and I hope it's now in a spot where Betty Ann can get a good look at it in some sunshine. The glitter looks best then, of course!

We are hoping Betty Ann is much better in a big hurry, and that her feet stay securely underneath her in the future. I'm sure all good energies sent her way would be very appreciated, as well!

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

Crisp Temps and Falling Leaves

We finally have some blue skies today, and I am hoping that means some cool temperatures came with them.  Weird, warm wetness is NOT my idea of a good time, let me tell you.  I want my AUTUMN! 

Speaking of, I have an Autumn card to share with you today.  I was playing around with some masking techniques, and I am happy with what happened here.

I made this-

 

I masked and inked that colored panel, using a wicked old text stamp from Inkadinkadoo, and many, many inks.  I started with the yellow in the center, and moved my way to the darker edges, adding  layer after layer of ink. Some of the inks were Distress inks, so they did some really cool things when I flicked water on them.  Pull off the mask, and it's ready to mount onto a Kraft card base.  I love that wicked crisp line!

 

The leaves stamps are from GinaK Designs Fall Foliage, and I used sponge daubers to get the colors right.  I tried to do that "rock and roll" technique, but the lines just didn't blend well enough for me.  I like how the daubers did.

 

I fussy cut the leaves, curled them with my bone folder, and mounted them with runner and foam tape.  I left quite a bit of air under areas, and I love the look.

 

I used a punch to add grooves to the top and bottom of the card, so the twine would have a nice place to nestle.

 

On the inside, (sorry, no photo) I did another piece of the cardstock, and did another small leave at the bottom-left corner.  No sentiment needed!

 

Well, I am off to take my walk.  If I get to wear a jacket, I will be VERY happy.  Autumn is never a lengthy visitor.  I want to make the most of her!

 

Oh, yeah, we DID make it to the cider mill for apple cider doughnuts already, so we have that going for us.  Now I need a stack of pumpkins, and I will be pretty well set.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard

 



Spooky Scenes

I am playing with this weeks Curtain Call Spooky Scene challenge, and the Ribbon Carousel Blog's challenge!  I pulled out my favorite owl stamp, from GinaK Designs, and some other stuff and got to work.

This is the inspiration photo--



Aaaaaaaaand, mine really has nothing to do with that photo.  LOL!  (Ok, mine has a bird in it...)

I made this--

It's hard to see, but the black frame piece is embossed with a clockworks embossing folder.  I'm sad it doesn't show up better here, but then again, neither does the glittery stuff I did.

So, I started by coloring my white cardstock direct to paper with a grey inkpad, after masking out a circle for my moon.  I colored my moon with a dauber, and then stamped some clouds with more of the same grey ink.
I stamped the owl, colored him with colored pencils and a white gel pen, then masked him off and stamped my sentiment.  I added the swirling leaves at the bottom, and to keep it sort of spooky and dark, went with mostly brown and yellow pencils. 
I used a yellow copic marker to trace around my moon and owl, to add a glowing effect.  There is actually some Sakura glitter pen accents in the letters and on the owl, but they didn't photograph at ALL.  It looks cool, though, especially in the owl's eyes.  Kinda gives that "animal in the headlights" look.

The black frame is mounted over the image with foam tape, and the whole thing is on a yellow green card base (Summer Starfruit for you Stampin' Up folks), which is a fun surprise when you open the card.  The twine has a yellowish color, which speaks to the yellow in the image, and that awesome crystal-y button is also from Stampin' Up.

I LOVE making Halloween cards, but very few people (other than crafty folks) really care about them, so I don't do many anymore.  This was so much fun to do, though, so maybe I need to start back up with them.  I better get going, if I'm going!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and get over to Curtain Call and play along if you get a second. 
All Best!
Richard

The (Clean and) Simple Things Make Me Happy

I spend a good amount of time following card blogs, and I try to make sure I find EVERY giveaway out there.  FREE is my favorite word, after all!  I really like the ones where they randomly pic from the comments left by readers, because there's no WORK involved (although, crafting is never really WORK), and there's free STUFF sometimes.

I won some really GOOD stuff from Paper Smooches a while ago!  The Crystal Clear set, which has the ever popular Ball jar, AND some really cool bottle shapes.  I also won the Many Thanks set from them at another point (or was it at the same time?), and I LOVE that!

I used them to make this--

I just love how layering these bottles works!  I LOVE colored glass, and this is perfect for me.  I think I will try to see what happens if I rough up the surface of these stamps a bit, because the inks I used (Memento and Papertrey Ink)  are pretty splotchy.  I really don't mind the splotchiness here, but in other applications, I will probably want it a bit smoother.

I like how I kind of get the feeling of forward movement from the placement, and the small bits of sparkle from the sequins.  Happy colors, happy little sprig (Ooo, that was very Bob Ross of me).  All in all, pretty simple.  Makes me smile.

Do something that makes you smile today!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Love is an Everyday Occurence

This is my second post for today!

Scroll down to read how I pat myself on the back for my PUBLICATION TRIUMPH!

......................................................................................................

Well, here we are, Mr. Cardmaker and his Mr., twenty-two (22!) years later, and yes, miraculously enough, he still puts up with me! 

Our anniversary coincided with the appendectomy and the sinus  infection, so it was what you would call "low-key."  Like, "here's a card" low-key.  Hey, it works.

I made this--

I have no idea why this is so blue.  Same camera, same lights, same everything as always.   Weird.  BAD PICASSA!

So, the fun thing here, for me, anyway, is the GOLD being interjected into this here new fangled chalkboard thing I hear tell of. 

Is anyone already over this idea?  Don't tell the manufacturers!  There's new stuff coming out daily that lets you chalkboard better, faster and easier!

I just liked the colored pencil on the black cardstock, to be honest.  The gold embossing powder is one that I a NOT over yet, so stay tuned to more of THAT in the future!

The card is really awfully simple--Punch out and adhere hearts, a border punch strip, and some rhinestones on a panel of pink.  Add your matted image, and a little flourish with some ribbon and more hearts and rhinestones.

Oh yes--The gold hearts were made by embossing a small scrap entirely with gold embossing, then punching the hearts.  Just a little extra "sump'in'-sump'in'."

Oh! Charlie made ME a card!  I love it when he invades the craft room.  He puts stuff back (good boy), and he makes the sweetest things.  I will be keeping it private, however.  Suffice to say, he's a good one!

Is there one of those card making trends STILL going on that you wish would go away?  What is it?  Did you even TRY it? (Just curious--no judgments here)

Hope you find love as an everyday occurrence in YOUR life. 

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best--

Richard

Mr Cardmaker is in PRINT! Well, Digital, Anyway....

SO, I can finally tell you that I have been PUBLISHED!  TWICE!!

The Winter edition of CardMaker Magazine has hit the web, and there are TWO of my cards in it!  I am so stinking excited, I can't EVEN tell you!

I am holding back on posting the pictures here (because I don't know if I'm allowed to show them), but if you are a subscriber to CardMaker, (no relation, by the way) you can log in and be among the FIRST to see the new issue!  AND!  You can see MY CARDS!  (Not TOO proud of myself, am I?)

Uh, YEAH.  Picture me with a big, cheesy grin right now.  Yuppers, that's me.

Check it!
I'm not sure when the print issue hits the stand, but LOOK for it at your craft stores!

Thanks for stopping by!
Cheers!
Richard