Mr Cardmaker Loves Coffee on an Atomic Level

There's something about things from the Atomic Age that I find really appealing. I love the shapes, the lines, the ordered randomness of it all.

I made this card, and I liked it so much, I made a replica of it for my dad's Father's Day card.

But this is the original.

I made this--

I loaded this thing UP! 

I used Tim Holtz's Atomic Elements dies, as well as letter dies from Momenta and stamps from CASual Fridays Exclamations, which I think is now unavailable.

First, I stamped jacks images on black cardstock, and heat embossed them in clear. Now I had a base to work on.

I knew I wanted to do rainbow letters, so I diecut them from colored cardstock, and inked blended them to have deeper colors on the bottoms of each letter.

I then arranged them with the dies so I could see how I wanted to put things together--

Like so--

When I was happy with my arrangement, I cut everything out from gold, white, and silver glitter cardstock. With all those bright colors, the metallic papers would really act as neutrals, so no fighting!

So, here's my initial arrangement with pieces cut--

The next thing was to decide where everything lay in relationship to one another--what was getting popped up? What was behind what? 

I have been really enjoying doing more intricate cards here and there lately, and I had a lot of fun with the ins and outs of this one.  I found I needed a few extra pieces to fill in, and I had no lack of elements to pick from in this die set.

I also wanted a sub sentiment here--the letters looked incomplete, even with all the madness going on, so I added my FAVORITE sentiment stamp. That "squeal" never fails to make me happy, and it just fit in there perfectly!

And so, I got this!

This was a good few hours work, mostly in the decision making area. I'm so happy to share it with you for my final guest designer spot for Coffee Loving Cardmakers! 

Thanks so much to Amy Tsuruta for asking me to guest! I had a blast, and I am looking forward to seeing what August's guest designer comes up with.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Be well, and be safe!

All Best--

Richard

Mr Cardmaker finds Coffee to be a Great Substitute for...well, ANYTHING, Really

Week FOUR of my guest designer spot at Coffee Loving Cardmakers! I'm having a great time, and I hope you're having fun, too! 

For this week, I made this--

I love these warm colors, and they fit the message just perfectly. I love substituting images for letters, and a steaming coffee cup says "hot" just perfectly. I bet if I wanted to say "cool" instead, I could substitute a couple of popsicles for the Os. How fun would THAT be? So fun, and really effective.

I pulled the sentiment stamps from a Concord & 9th stamp set. The glittered letters are cut with Momenta dies, and the coffee cup die is from Li'l Inker Designs, which has sadly closed up shop.

This cup die is my go to.

 Here, I pulled out my ancient paper crimper, and gave the die cut cup some texture. If you've been crafting for some years, you probably have a crimper collecting dust somewhere. I will often crimp a panel of cardstock to use as padding for a heavily embellished card to protect it in the mail, but other than that, this may be the first project to see a crimper in many a year. I was happy to find a use for the thing!

The stencil is from Tim Holtz, and I love it. Tim's stencils are more scaled to use on a tag, but because these circles are so rough around the edges, it's super easy to extend to bigger cardstock panels, like I did here. Man, I have really become quite the fan of stencils lately. They're inexpensive, and really versatile.

Putting the card together was quick and easy, until I got to the stamped sentiment strips. I did a bit of experimentation, and I was happy with what I finally landed on.

This wasn't quite right. Nothing else on the card was black, and it seemed just wrong to me.

This was closer, but just not quite there.

I finally found my answer.

I hope you agree with me!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Now, go dig out your crimper!

All Best--

Richard

Mr Cardmaker Must Be Drinking that Kona Coffee, or Something...

Wow, it's already week three of my guest designer spot at Coffeeloving Card Makers! I'm glad there are FIVE Fridays in July, because I'm having a great time!

My first decision of the day, after deciding whether or not to just stay in the dang bed, is to choose my coffee cup. I usually go for the biggest one available, whichever that may be, depending on the dishwasher has clean or dirty dishes in it.

Well, for this weeks card, I wanted a BIG cup.

I made this--

I get a serious Hawaii vibe from this card. The background was done with an inkpad dragging technique, which was then amplified with lots of spatters and a bit of stamping. The colors of the panel, plus the brown of the kraft card front really says Hawaii or Polynesia to me.

This running boy image is from Waffle Flower Crafts, and I could not love this stamp set more. Kids hightailing it to the beach? Yessir! 

My kid is hightailing it to the coffee, but, I get the same feeling for both things; don't you?

This guy is actually waving a shirt or towel in the stamp, but a bit of careful snipping got rid of that. I also took a fine line pen, and drew him in a shirt. I mean, it's bad enough he's losing his dang shoe...

 

Getting rid of his shirt from his hand allowed me to give him an ENORMOUS coffee mug. I decorated it with a palm frond image from Stampin' Up, and used that same stamp to give my card front some tropical flair.

The white heat embossed sentiment is from Honey Bee Stamps. I added that, and some white Nuvo drops, and this guy was all set!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope I gave you a bit of inspiration today.

Be safe, and be well.

All Best-

Richard

Mr Cardmaker Likes a FANCY Coffee Card

I'm back with my second week of guest designing for Coffeeloving Card Makers! So happy to be back, and I have another card to share with you

Don’t you love a hot, steamy cup of coffee? Of course you do! Simple perfection, right? But, sometimes, isn’t something fancier a nice treat? Something with foam, or some kind of flavor, or even CHOCOLATE??? Oh, yeahhhhhh…

Well, I thought this week's card would live in that world, and I went for some luscious flowers from The Greetery. The Print Shop: Fresh Florals set comes with both stamps AND stencils, and the effect you can create with these things is just stunning.

I made this—

I reached for my Distresss Oxide inks and Unicorn white pigment ink to work on this kraft cardstock, in order to keep as much vibrancy and true color as possible. Distress Oxide inks are both dye AND pigment ink hybrids, so you can definitely get the opaque qualities of pigment ink with the vibrancy of dye inks. For instance, I created the pink petals by stamping white ink on top of the red oxide ink. On a light cardstock with dye inks, the petals in the back would be lighter, with a darker shade stamped on top of it.

My sentiments, both stamped and die cut, are from Honeybee Stamps. I cut the black letters from cardstock that was heated with clear embossing powder before cutting. I felt that trying to wrangle teensy letters like that was just not going to be as successful. I think this way worked out just fine!

The coffee cup die is from the sadly closed Li’l Inker Designs. Coffee cup dies are more than plentiful, though, so finding something to work for you should be easy.

A sprinkling of some clear sequins finishes me off!

I think someone should make coffee cups in this floral pattern. I’m thinking it’d get me into the coffee shop a little more often. Not that I need an excuse, mind you…

Thanks so much for stopping by. See you next week!

All Best—

Richard

 

Mr Cardmaker Loves Guesting (Almost) as Much as He Loves Coffee!

I'm so happy to be guesting this month for Coffee Loving Cardmakers! I was so thrilled to be asked, I sat down and did all month's worth of cards in just a few days! I'm caffeined up, and ready to fly! Thanks so much for stopping in to have a look.

For my first week, I'm sharing this card--

I only had about ten coffee stamps and die sets, so of COURSE, I had to order more in order to do this guest spot! I went to Taylored Expressions and bought the Koffee Time Stamp and Die combo. This set has great sentiments and a die set that builds a KEURIG machine! (well, it's a one-cup brewer, but I kinda say Keurig in the way I say Kleenex, or Band-aid...)

I don't know about you, but my Keurig is a lifeline at about three o'clock every day.  And, sometimes 4. And, sometimes at 11am...Whenever the pot runs out. You know what I'm saying...

Many dies involved! I have to admit, I found it just a touch tricky for me, especially since I had to go search the web to get some instructions, but I persevered and finally got where I needed to be. I guess I'm just a bit slow on the uptake. I have it down, now...

I just think this thing is too stinking cute. This machine. Cute. A machine is cute. Yeah, I said it...

When it came time to design the card, I decided that my Keurig would be one of the things that had to come with me to a desert island, and so the idea of a tropical setting came to mind. I mean, besides the chocolate, and a couple of dozen other earthly delights, you gotta have the coffee. And electricity, I guess...

 

I pulled out some juicy colors and some tropical stamps and dies from Stampin' Up, and got busy.

I liked the sentiment here, because I figured any Monday on a tropical island was BOUND to be short, right?

I also had to hunt through my stash to find a tiny puff of steam to add to my ombre coffee mug. I mean, that stuff comes out HOT, right??

So, thanks so much to Coffee Lovers Cardmakers for having me come onboard this month. I have lots more to share, so come back next Friday!  

Thanks so much for stopping by!

All Best--

Richard