Mr Cardmaker Earns His Stripes

I just love CASE-ing talented people. CASE (copy and share everything) is a wonderful way to come up with a starting point for a project, and gives you the most marvelous ways to stretch your creative muscles.

Jennifer McGuire has been a fantastic resource for all things card making, whether it's a new technique, new product, or new way to look at something you're already doing. She is also a major organizational champ, and a Sweetie, too, so DEFINITELY check her out, if you don't already do so on a regular basis.


She did a terrific tutorial about doing masked stripes, which I really enjoyed, and I knew I had to dive into this one for myself.

To start with, I made this--

This technique is done with ink and ink blenders, with the help of some low-tack tape. Layer of ink create different depth of color, and when you stay in somewhat of a rainbow order, you can safely move from color to color without being in danger of creating muddy messes. I used Distress Inks, which are terrific for blending like this.  I didn't actually stay in rainbow order here, but I liked these colors, and they all have so much yellow in them, I think it worked out just fine.

My favorite part is going back over areas with stripes of white pigment ink, which makes some pretty amazing highlights.

I tried to keep the rest of this card to a minimum, so the background could really shine. 

I also did a second panel, but I had some trouble getting the tape to adhere to the wet ink where I was trying to do layering, so I had some boo boos I had to cut off.

I ended up with these--

These are tiny 3" cards, which would be great for gift enclosures or tags. I quickly colored up some Hero Arts critters and flowers, and managed to salvage what I could of the panel.
Note that I DID manage to achieve rainbow order here!

This was so fun to do, and other than my challenge of getting the tape to cooperate, these were pretty idiot proof (ME, being the idiot in question). Oh the key is to use enough tape that you can tape to your surface, as well as your paper panel. Once I grasped that one, it was smooth sailing!

So, thanks to Jennifer for the idea. I'll be returning to this technique, I think!

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

#jennifermcguire #heroarts #distressink

Mr Cardmaker is a Sketchy MFT-er (Part Two)

So, in part one I did a sort of refined version of the My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge.  I was determined to get in on this one, especially since I missed the last one by EXACTLY one minute!

I decided to
A. Use SOME of that huge paper stash I have.
B. Go just a bit free and loose with the sketch, while definitely adhering to it.
C. More Crazy Birds!!

I made this--

The sketch Looks like this--



I used the MFT Absolutely Fabulous dies and Leafy Greenery dies here, and I added in a Tim Holtz Crazy Bird, because I love them so. These beautiful papers are from My Mind's Eye, and it always hurts me to have to cut into them.

I also heat embossed some wood veneer stars with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder to add some detail. I did this last Christmas I think, and I love the effect.

I received the Absolutely Fabulous dies as a free-with-60 gift, and I was happily surprised to see how the "absolutely" cut, leaving the bottoms of the letters attached to the card stock.

I did substitute the "sentiment flag" portion of the sketch with the Fabulous die cut, but as it becomes part of the sentiment, I think it achieves the sketch.

Speaking of the sketch, there are millions of way to interpret it. This was my other card--

Bit of a difference, right? You can read more about it if you scroll down to the older post!

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

Mr Cardmaker is a Sketchy MFT-er (Part One)

Well, last week I missed entering the My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge by EXACTLY one minute. For reals. Boo, hiss.

Not gonna get myself in that trouble this time!

I made TWO projects, and I'm posting them separately, so I can enter them both.

I made this--

Here's the sketch--


I used the Flashy Florals stamps and dies here, and I went with a pretty tight color scheme, staying with green and gold, with a touch of gray here and there.

I used Memento Delicato Golden Glitz ink to watercolor some shine onto my background panel, which, sadly flattens out in photos.  I amplified the effect of the gold with the gold glittered banner, and gold flower center and gold thread.

Does anyone else have issues doing those thread nest things? I think they are just too random a thing to make for a control freak like myself. I never think they turn out right for me...Anyway...

I like how this one turned out; all nice and refined-ish.

Stay tuned for part two, where things take a big turn!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Triptychal

I have been remiss in posting lately, mostly due to the fact that I can much more easily head over to Instagram and toss up a photo of what I've been doing, rather than compose all the words and stuff I do for the ol' blog. Plus, I post pics of Max the Beagle and Charlie the Husband there, as well.
Check me out- HERE.

HOWEVER, I have not forgotten YOU, faithful blog reader, and so today I want to share Charlie's birthday card, which is NOT on Instagram yet, so you haven't missed anything!

So I made him this--

Which opens up to look like this--

I know I call this a triptych in the title, but I think it's actually just a trifold card, since it's really just one long picture, and not three scenes that go together, which I believe it the better definition of a triptych. (Who says you don't learn little tidbits here and there when you visit my blog?)
I just think that punny title is better...

The base is just a regular piece of 8 1/2"x11" piece of cardstock trimmed at an angle (which made it just about 7 1/2" inches tall at one end, and 4 3/4" tall at the other) which I scored on my Scor-Pal at the handy little arrow marks which are there to allow this kind of card fold. I'm not sure what the exact measurements are...The overall width is just under 3 3/4", so it easily fits into a regular business size envelope with some wiggle room, which allowed me to overlap that cloud on the first panel just a bit.

So, most of this is done with Lawn Fawn's Hello Sunshine stamps and dies, but is did sneak in an old Stampin' Up or two to do the underbrush-y stuff, and a SU set called Happy Happenings for the sentiment(s).

I colored the chicks and bees with Copics, using just a couple of yellows. I love how simple these images are, and they kind of remind me of those Minion things as well as marshmallow peeps.

To make the card look right when it's closed, I had to also do some stamping on the BACK side of the middle panel.
That looks like this--

Not terribly eventful on that side, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

So closed, it looks like this--

Sorry about my fingers in there, but that's 110# cardstock, so it doesn't lay flat when folded so well.
You can find the little vellum clouds in there a little better in this shot, too.

The balloons are all coated with Glossy Accents to shine them up, because, shiny!

So, Charlie loved it, and I was really pretty happy with the results. Yay!

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