Well, There's That Calendar I Made....

So, as I paddle furiously, trying to catch up on posting about some of the things I have been making, I wanted to show you one of the two calendars I managed to get put together this year.

This one was for Charlie's mom--

Sorry about the photo quality.  I forgot to photograph it at home, and this was taken with my phone.

I decided to try my hand at mixing papers.  Clearly, not a HUGE effort on this one, but I am slow on the pickup on some of this stuff.

So, my first layer is a text sort of paper, with recipes and stuff.  I layered the blue floral on top of it, and then added that strip of weird green graphic paper on the left side.  Whoa, hold him back!  He's goin' CRAZY up in here!  Those got layered onto a green piece of cardstock, picking up the green in the paper, and that got put onto the base which is a blue that goes with the blue flowered paper.  In between I punched a white piece with a large scalloped punch, just for a bit of movement.

The 2014 is die cut from black card stock, and the 0 and 4 are popped up on foam adhesive.  I found a free download for the calendar itself, which I printed out.
I cut it into 12 pieces (for the 12 months), and used Elmer's to glue together the tops of the sheets, so it formed a pad.

The flower stacked die cuts, with a stamped die cut for one of the leaves, and another die cut leaf from a glitter paper that has been lingering for years in my scrap box.  Add the button as a flower center, and there it is.

I made one for Charlie, too, which I also forgot to photograph.  If I can remember to ask him to run it home for me, I'll show you that one someday.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Catching Up a Bit

Well, I have just been terrible about blogging this year so far, and it's almost MAY.  Boo, me!

 

I have been hanging onto this photo for a while now, and I wanted to share it. 

Nephew Elliot has his birthday in January, and he's a BIG ski buff.  He and his dad take a few skiing trips every year, and they have a bunch of ski jumping steel structures in their yard as well, so I would definitely say they are INTO it.

 

For Elliot's birthday, I made this--

 

 

 

I am always glad to come up with a snowy card for Elliot, because I already have all my things out from all my Christmas cards. 

 

I was given the skier stamp by my SIL Jan, who stamped for about 3 seconds years ago.  I guess the bug either bites, or it doesn't.  I stamped him in 5 different inks, going from lightest to darkest.  The first two don't read terribly different in this photo, but they do in real life.

I punched lots of snowflakes out of vellum, and used the edge with all the negative cuts as the base for the two layers to the left of the skiers.  I stacked up lots of vellum snowflakes with some white ones, and added some white Enamel Accents dots.  Snowstorm accomplished!

To mount the skier panel, I popped up just the left side with foam adhesive and adhered the right side right to the card surface.  I wanted it to look like the snow was bursting out of the card.  Whether or not that reads, I am not so sure.  I kinda dig it, though.

What I would do differently (in the event of a next time)--
1.  I would have trimmed the velum panels down to fit inside the borders of the skier panel.
2.  I would have done even more punching along the inside edge of the velum pieces, so no straight line was visible in the snowstorm.
3. More snowflakes! 

So, that's my card. 

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



Papertrey Ink Make it Monday-- Quilty Goodness

I was inspired to join in on Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday challenge this week.  I was however, in a weird spot, because it is mostly a paper challenge, and I have no decorative papers from PTI.  I DID have some scraps of red cardstock from PTI left over from my sample pack, but that's all.  I hope it's enough!  Happily I DO have a cover plate die that would work.

The challenge was to make paper look like a quilt, using a cover plate or embossing plate on top of a quilted paper pattern.


I made this--

I think it looks SO MUCH like a real quilt!    The cover plate die used as an embossing plate really makes the paper look like a top stitched quilt, I think.  Clever!  I liked these red pearls added, too, because they remind me of old fashioned quilting pins stuck into the fabric. 

I made this, too--(so I can enter TWICE!)

Same idea, different treatment with the red strip.  And, of course, now many quilting pins have the pearl tops on them (my Grammy was a quilter).

Here they are together--

This was  a fun thing to try!  Oh, I should mention that the solid blue squares are the card base.  Since I used white background papers in many cases, I decided that more color would be better!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

PS--I was only allowed to enter once, for some reason.  I am a bummed pup...

And Now for Something(s) Totally Different

Well, as the birthday madness keeps charging through, I have a couple more cards to share.

Nephew James is 22 this year, I think.  He's at U of F, and is going to go on to become a dentist, so there's much more school ahead for him. 
His cousin Sophia is 11, and is the only girl in this generation on my mom's side.  She is quite the little lady.

I made this for James--

Super simple and classic.  EVERYONE knows this stamp if they have even heard the words "Stampin' Up", so this is nothing new.  I am loving the Papertrey Ink sentiment from the Think Big Favorites line.  I ESPECIALLY love it in the gold embossing powder on the navy blue.  Classic.

For Sophia, I went in a very different direction--

This was done with papers from My Mind's Eye, the Quite Contrary collection.  I mixed some of the scrapbooking scaled papers with some of the smaller scaled 6x6 pad papers, added some stickers from this line, and used a sentiment from SU.  That little owl peeking out is so cute.  I have been hoarding those stickers forever.  I like the little hot pink pops of color, too.

So, that's it for the kids of April.  Today is my Charlie's birthday.  As soon as I get the pics lined up, I'll share his card, and I'll share the card set and birthday card I made for his mom, too.

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

April Showers Bring BIRTHDAYS, Apparently...

The nephews are a-comin'.  Well, their birthdays are, anyway.  I have one of their cards to share today.

I made this--

I love mixing up these random patterns.  I think this came out rather well, actually.  The majority of these papers are from Cosmo Cricket, and the retro patterns make me happy.  This one is for nephew Adam, who, at 19, just bought his first HOUSE.  I thought the household gizmo paper the that the sentiment is stamped on was good for the new homeowner.  I think the birthday check will buy a few of said gizmos, too.

Another view--

And, the inside--( I can NEVER get these to photograph correctly.  I just don't know what to do about that...)

Imagine this with much less yellow involved. 
I think as long as I use a black pen, this busy paper will still work out ok. 
So that's that.

Hey, we got a dog!  Our friend was in need of a home for his dad's dog.  His dad passed away, and his mom just couldn't manage Max, since she has some health issues.  So, we got to take him home with us!  So cute--

Meet Max!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard