Mr Cardmaker Has A Different Idea of Christmas "CHEERS" Than Most People...

Prototyping is harder than it looks. Oh yeah, it is.....Just sayin'.

My goal here is to make a design that I can do many multiples of, from my card stock and DP stacks, where I can use different combinations of papers to get the same general effect.  This way, I use some of what I HAVE, instead of making a big investment of cash just to make identical cards.

MEANWHILE, I want to create something that will be beautiful and memorable.  That means, no junky materials.  Inexpensive does not necessarily equal junky.  Flimsy and tacky equals junky.  But, you knew that already.

SO, I already made some prototypes, and they can be seen HERE.  I'm now adding to the choice-making madness.....

I made this one--

So, this is on an Ivory base, which I ran thru the Cuttlebug with another embossing folder.

I made an "asterisk-y" snowflake of sorts with strips of DP, pink and teal and cream glitter paper, as well as red ribbon. Then, I stamped and embossed the sentiment in white embossing powder on the teal plaid and adhered it.

Then I stamped the martini glass and its contents onto white card stock with silver and green ink, respectively, and added the red rhinestone to shine it up. I adhered it with some foam tape.

I think this needs a brighter background, (maybe inked on top of the dry embossing?) and a MUCH brighter ink for the martini. And more bling, somewhere...Otherwise, not too bad.

This one is particularly good for conserving materials, since the expensive stuff is being used only in those tiny strips. I think it's worth a second look, for sure.

Then, I made these--

The photos don't do justice to the papers, I'm afraid.  This is done on a dove grey card body, and the sentiment is stamped on it with silver ink and is embossed with clear embossing powder.

The trees are cut by hand from pink shimmer paper, and run thru the Cuttle bug with Sizzix embossing folders. 

I adhered the "verbage" paper to the card body, adhered the plaid with foam tape, and then applied the trees behind and on top of the plaid.  The tree on top is mounted with foam squares, which are twice the depth of the tape, to cover the difference in distance.  You could do it by doubling the thickness of the foam tape.

The snowflake is done from cream glitter paper, and adhered with a glue dot.  The pearls finish it off.

I did two versions, just slightly different, as you can see. 

In all honestly, while I like this, I think I need to add some ribbon somewhere; maybe on the plaid?

I have to ponder on this one.  Plus I really am not sure what will happen in a different paper background.  I think the words give a lot of action to this card.  We shall see. 

CLEARLY, I have a good bit of work ahead of me.

Anyway, that's me, so far....

Materials-

Martini card-

Papers--the Paper Company, American Crafts Patterned Papers, DCWV, GinaKDesigns

Ink-Studio G, Stampin' Up

Ribbon- The Paper Source

Bling-AC Moore

Tools-Sizzix embossing folder, Scor-pal, EK success punch, Tombo mono-dots, Scotch foam tape.

Pink Trees card-

Same as above, with the addition of pearls from AC Moore, and Martha Stewart snowflake punch.

I have to make a decision on these babies soon, because I really don't want to run out of time.  November starts next week, already!!! 

This is now your time to ofer me some feedback on these, or to tell me to chuck it all and go in a different direction completely.  Seriously, I do well with (constructive) criticism.

Hey, thanks stopping by and checking out my stuff!

All Best-

Richard

Mr. Cardmaker is a Birthday Card Making Guy

My sister, Lisa, has a birthday coming up on the 29th of this month.  Because I value my life, I won't tell you "how many" she's going to be, but she is just 14 months younger than myself, so you can figure it out, pretty much. 

She is a very outgoing, fun girl, with friends and neighbors in and out of her house all the time.  This girl knows how to entertain.  With my reclusive self, it's hard to believe she's my sister.

Anyway, I made her this--

Cute and fun, right?  I think it suits her personality.  I made this card on SU Mostly Mustard card stock, stamped with images from A*muse Studio's "Tini Time" set.  I used Studio G inkpads. 

The circles were cut from scraps of GinaK Designs white, and DCWV green cs with my Fiskars punches, and then inked with some colorbox ink.  I am sorry to say I threw the labels away for several of my colorbox pads, so I can't share the color.  Boo.  Pearls and ribbon from AC Moore (I swear, I LIVE in that dollar bin). 

I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of SU Daffodil Delight, and popped it up with foam tape.  The 'tini image is mounted on SU Pumpkin pie. 

I cut it out with my usual technique of leaving a white border around the image.  I like how it gives it more substance, and a little pop, especially when you back it with another color card stock.  I used Colorbox and Studio G ink on the martini, and crayola markers to do the cherry.  I popped it up higher than the sentiment with foam squares.

On the inside, I stamped "Olive you!" from the same set, and under it, I used SU's Teeny Tiny Wishes "Happy Birthday" stamp.  (No photo, sorry.)

I like the cheery colors, and the bubbly feeling from all the circles.

I hope she likes it, too!!

Thanks for dropping by! 

All Best--

Richard



Mr Cardmaker is Feeling Sketchy...

Hey there.  I was making a bunch of Autumn themed birthday and thank you cards yesterday, and I decided to toss my cardstock into the mojo Monday and CPS arenas.  For this MOJO210 challenge, I made this--

For this card, I used SU chocolate chip cardstock, and the dp is from Me & My Big Ideas.  The other cardstock is DCWV.  The sentiment stamp is from Inkadinkado, and I used two colors of colorbox ink to ink it up.  Hard to see in the photo, but I also used my sakura glitter pen on the letters.  The pearls and ribbons are from AC Moore's dollar bins.

Then!  I found one of my birthday cards fit the sketch for CPS this week!  What luck!  I made this one--

For this card, I used SU CS for the base, and medalion, and the DP is from M&MBI and SU.  I used a new-to-me Sizzix embossing folder, and my nestabilities dies, as well as a fiskars leaf punch, and a punch from a million years ago for the tiny leaves.  Ink is Colorbox, and the embellies are from AC Moore's dollar bin.. Love that dollar bin!!

I have to say, I find sketch challenges to be sort of tough for me.  I guess I am a bit too literal.  This was a really nice sketch to use, thouigh, and I'm glad I tried it out!  I will have to get more practice!

Thanks for checking it out!

All Best-

Richard

Mr Cardmaker is a Non-traditionalist, Christmas-wise...

With my fall birthdays covered, I need to start thinking about my Christmas cards....Yeah, I know Thanksgiving is first, and I definitely need some cards for that, but I pulled out some beautiful American Crafts Papers, the Dear Lizzie Christmas set, to be exact-ish, as well as some DCWV Shimmer stack and Linen stack papers, and got started on some prototypes.

I made this--

As you can see, this is not your red and green kinda card.  I dig colors that you don't see so much at Christmas.  These are Christmasy-ish.  Who cares? These are beautiful papers.

I layered the teal onto some white to give it some presence, and stamped and wet embossed the sentiment in white onto some teal shimmer cs.  This sentiment is from A*muse studio, the Holiday Greetings Inside and Out set.  This is a really nice set; big, substantial letters.  I like the shadow effect on the bigger type.

The snowflakes are done with a Martha Stewart punch out of cream glitter cs and pink shimmer cs.

The rhinestones are AC Moore, and the ribbon is a scavenged one from a floral bouquet. 

Easy, I can do this idea in many paper combos, blah blah blah....

I made this one next--

I bough this sentiment stamp in Chelsea, NYC this summer, along with one that says "got snow?"  I edged the card stock strip with some pink (one of my SU stampin' spots) and popped it up on foam tape.  The pearl is from my ever trusty AC Moore.

The snowman is from Stampendous, the Holiday Home set.  I have used this set to make "New Home" cards, like the one seen HERE.  This snowman is so teeny-tiny, but I think he makes it look like a greater great outdoors.  He's colored with copics.  

The cream cs is actually glitter cs, hard to see in the photo, and that's popped off of the pink with more foam tape. The pink is a shimmer stock that I ran thru the Cuttlebug with a Sizzix folder.  The clouds are an A*muse Studio die, and I ran those thru the Cuttlebug with the swiss dots folder.  Love me some texture!!  Add some baker's twine from The Paper Source, and I'm done.  (Don't you like the way the red works here?  I gotta add some more red in with these colors.....)

So, this one is easy enough to do in other papers, colors, etc, too.  This way, I can use up MANY of the papers in my stacks, and still get the same, or at least a similar look in lots of cards without having to go out and purchase a ton of the same papers and stuff.

So, those are the first of the prototypes.  I actually have two, no, well....two and a half more to share.  Next time.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

All Best-

Richard



Very A*Mused, Indeed

Last Sunday, I was fortunate enough to make my way to Arlington, MA, to participate in an open house held by the lovely and talented Ms. Liz Ballard.  Liz is an A*Muse Studio consultant, and I happened to find her on my search for a copic marker instructor.  She led me into another area for the copic stuff, but she was kind enough to invite me to her open house, to meet some of her peeps, and to get acquainted with A*Muse studio. I had never been to Arlington, and I was definitely into seeing some new product lines...who isn't? 

Anyway, she had a small gathering, and together (more or less) we each made our versions of these really fun cards--

Adorable, right?  Notice I have no watermark on these photos.  These are Liz's design work, not mine.  I was just lucky enough to be able to make and take them with me!  Thanks for a great time, Liz, Andrea, Mary Sara, Amy and Kathy!!

Aren't those clouds just TOO cute?  Those were made with an A*Muse Studio die.  Had to have it, and the one that die cuts GRASS!!  And some Christmas stamps, and some paper......You know, I pretty much spent WAY too much money.  In fact, when Charlie asked me how much I spent, I had to tell him, "Nunya."  As in, Nunya business. 'Sright.

Speaking of the grass die, Liz was so sweet to let me play with hers.  I cut a couple of pieces, and smuggled them out with me.  I really liked them SO much.  I can't wait for my order to arrive, but I have to, because Liz is holding it until I am able to shop the Holiday catalog after Aug. 22.  Wah, I say.  Wah.

Now that the pity party is over, I'll show you what I did with the grass cuts.

I made these--

So, these had an interesting creation.  I had the two pieces of grass die cuts, each of them about 5 1/2" long.  I really had no idea WHAT I was going to do with them, but I really wanted to use them asap.  SO, out came all the inks, papers and stuff. 

I got out a sponge dauber, and I sponged SU grass green on the blades of grass. I set them aside, and on a piece of white cardstock, I put down some post-its to make a mask, and I sponged more grass green onto the lower 2/5ths of the paper.  I turned it around, and sponged SU Ballet Blue on the top part, leaving some light places to make some clouds.  I added the grass die cuts, popping just the bottom one off the cardstock, in order to give the illusion of depth.

Ok. Sky and grass.  Lots of empty space.  Lots of possibilities.  Now what? 

I pulled out some SU stamps, Pocket Silhouettes, to be exact, and went to town with some SU inkspots , and made the garden of flowers.  Then, feeling like it was a bit flat, I pulled out my GinaK Designs Follow Your Dreams set, and added the dragon flies, stamping them both on the card stock, and onto a scrap to be colored and cut out to stick on for more dimension. 

Ok. Looks pretty good.  Pretty good, but not great.

I cut it in half!  Way to give the elements much more importance! 

I knew I wanted to use some of the new A*Muse paper I had just picked up, so I pulled out a sage piece and made it the card base for both of the cards.  Then I grabbed some of my new papers from my friend Michelle, these DP pieces are from MME-Quite Contrary.  I scallop edge punched the checked paper, and pierced the scallops with my piercing tool.  Then I layered it with some DCWV teal card stock, and in the first card, I popped it off the card front with some mounting tape.  I think it almost looks like an awning. 

Then some more DP, with a green cs backing, this from one of my value packs.  Yup, still trying to use that bad boy up.  Truth be told, I really do like the lighter weight for layering; I just would avoid it for card bases.

Some ribbon and brads from AC Moore, and it's done! 

But wait.  Hmmm.....

I think it's still just a tiny bit flat.  Not to worry!  I have a Glitter pen!!!  After going over stems and dragonflies and flowers, I felt that the negative space was the thing that was still bothering  me, so in a moment of inspiration, I did the random flightpath of the dragonfly, my mind's eye's version of it, anyway, in the less populated areas of the card base.  Now we're talking.  Done and done.

I think my favorite part of doing cards is the organic emergence that happens when you just grab your stuff and get started.  There are definitely some cards that have hit the heap and will never see the light of day, for sure, but I even have a few early cards that just want some tweaking.  And I'll get to those one day.  Really.  But just stamp and cut.  DO it. I looked at that grass die cut for no less than 4 days before I got inspired.

My list of followers has really grown, thanks to my buddy Melanie's blog candy bribe (which is over, sad to say).  Thanks to everyone who's joined on recently, and continued love to my tried and true gang! 

I turn 48 (!) tomorrow, and having 48 followers to mark the day would be so cool!  That's only 4 more.  Surely you know a friend who could use some bloggy inspiration?  

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Say hello, why don'tcha?

All Best--

Richard

Plain, Yet Fancy

I like what I see when I see people do cards on Kraft card stock.  Usually it's some fun, simple thing with a good bit of the kraft left visible.  Looks great, right?  Well, I decided to play around with this idea. 

I came up with this--

This was made with my friend Melanie Muenchinger's The Vine stamps from GinaK Designs, on GinaK Designs Pure Luxury Kraft card stock.  I ran the card front through my cuttlebug with the folder that came with it, and then added that piece of black cs from The Paper Company, which I cut with a nestabilities scalloped rectangle die, then embossed with my Swiss dots folder.  I had the flowers and vines cut out a while ago, but they are stamped on cs from DCVW, with Studio G chalk ink.  The ribbon and pearls were from the dollar bin at AC Moore. 

So, I put all of this together, popping up leaves and flowers along the way with both adhesive squares and my NEW friend, mounting tape.  Did you know this stuff is awesome?   And that it lifts stuff off your page, but not anywhere near as high as a foam square will do?  So you can do several heights of your elements??

I do now!  

However-- I decided there just wasn't enough LIFE in this card.  Enter my Sakura GellyRoll glitter pen!!!  Ok, I may have gone a LITTLE crazy with this thing, but isn't it cool?  Can you tell I just bought my first glitter pen?   It's around the pearls, all over the vines, it's just everywhere...

This bad boy was so delicate in moves, it let me touch the tips of my swiss dots and left the perfect amount of glitter.  I totally dig it directly on the Kraft too.  Gives a little glam to the roughness. 

Hey, so, head on over to Melanie's blog Hands, Head and Heart, and check out my last installment as guest designer for this "The Vine" series.  She's giving a chance to get some blog candy if you become or admit that you are a follower of my blog, and leave her a comment on her blog. I get all Dutch-like in that one.  Check it.

This has been such a great experience, living with this set, and being Melanie's guest designer.  I have never delved so deep into what a single stamp set can achieve.  I found it to be a great focusing exercise;  it makes you HAVE to be as creative as you can be.  Fun stuff!!  Thank goodness this was a great set to work with.  This one will show up again, I'm sure. 

Next time, I have to tell you all about my great stamping party experience with some gals working with A*Muse Studio products.  Oh, and I have been playing with using several companies stamps in one image, too.  More on that later!

Thanks for stopping by! 

All Best-

Richard

Lucky Me, Lucky Me!!!

A while ago, I did a posting or two about all the lovely things my buddy AJ Otto sent me to play with.  Paying it forward, she said.  Well, I have been graced to have not one, but TWO benefactors this week!!!  I got two majorly stuffed priority mail envelopes on Wednesday, and found them chock-a-block filled will stamps and papers and ribbons.....Enough to keep this newbie busy for weeks and weeks!

Who are these most generous ladies?  Well, as far as I can tell, they probably know one another, but I doubt each of them knew the other's movements.  They are Ms Emily Giovanni and Ms Michelle Woerner, both of whom I have come into with through StampTV.  They have both been so kind and encouraging and generous of spirit, and now they have been really generous with their supplies too! 

Emily sent me SEVEN GinaK Designs stamp sets.  I don't even know where to begin.  Then she also slid in some beautiful grosgrain ribbons to play with, too....Lots of it, in several colors.  Wow.  Lucky Me!

Then, in envelope #2, there were two out-of-this-world DP collections, a big bag of really beautiful buttons, more stamps, more ribbon (did I mention I am a nut about ribbon?), and a BoBunny cardmaking kit. (This I got merely a glimpse of, because my partner grabbed it and announced HE was going to make some cards now. Yours Truly has a birthday in a couple of weeks, you see...)  SO many beautiful things.....Again, Lucky Me!!!

And the CARDS!!!!  They each sent with all of these magnificent playthings, GORGEOUS cards, of their own making, of course.  That may have been the best part!! 

Well, I cannot thank these ladies enough.  I just can't.  However, they should be watching their mail; my feeble attempts are on their way.

SO, with my new toys, I made this!

This was made from a sketch from CPS, and I think I will enter the contest this week with it. 
The downlow on the supplies:
Cardstock: GinaK Designs, DCWV
DP:PinkPaisley
Ink: Ink it Up, plum and walnut
Dies: Spellbinders, labels four, grommet tags
Stamps: GinaK Designs, All Occasions Greetings
Embellishments: ribbons, buttons, brads

I used the inks to highlight the edges of almost all the cardstock and paper with a direct to paper technique.
The triangles are popped up with foam squares, as is the tag.  I used teeny tiny strips of paper to make the stitching on the buttons, and applied them to the card front with glue dots.

The papers are from Michelle, and the ribbon is from Emily.  Merci, Ladies!!
Am I lucky, or WHAT?  Maybe they should call me Lucky Breaks, instead of Richard Breaks.  That would be catchy, right?  Or is it Kitschy?  Yeah, maybe the latter....

Thanks for stopping by! 
All Best-
Lucky
Richard

Got Ten Minutes?

If you've got ten minutes, you can have a card.  The Free for All Friday challenge at StampTV this week was to make a card in ten minutes or less.  I knew I had some summer stickers hanging out in the bottom of my embellies box, so I quick-like-a-bunny came up with this--



My apologies for the weird color.  I actually fixed this one TWICE, but it somehow doesn't translate to blogger.  I need to practice with my picasa program, I guess.

Now, could this BE any easier? SO I cut a piece of blue green DCWV cardstock to 11"x4 1/4", and using my Scor-Pal, scored it at 5 1/2 inches and made a topfold card base. 

I then, again on my Scor-Pal, which I use on EVERY project I do, I scored the dry embossed lines that you see on the edges of the card.  The series of five lines at the bottom started at 1/8" from the edge, and happen at 1/16" increments.  The lines on the sides and top are at 1/8" in from the sides.  

The cute stickers are A touch of Joleen's, the sunbather set, which I got for a dollar at AC Moore during a sale.  I have enough left in that pack to do another one of these (maybe in orange?).

The sentiment is by my friend Melanie Meunchinger for GinaK Designs, Gifts from the Sea set.  I stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. 

 And, there she is.  I think five minutes of the ten was deciding what I wanted to do. 

I like a challenge, every now and again.  Anybody know of any challenges/challenge sites out there worth checking  out?   Drop me a link, and let's see what you're doing for these challenges! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy your weekend!

All Best-

Richard

Necessity is the Mother of Creativity

Two of my clients just bought a new home.  They are particular favorites of mine, having been with me almost the entire time I've been at the salon where I work.  They are fun, hip, smart, great parents, and we always have a great time when I do their hair. Anyhoo...

 I wanted to congratulate them on their new home, and I find there isn't too much out there by way of sentiments that express that sort of thing (or at least not at my local craft stores).  I probably could've done a big search and found something online, but they were moving the very next day, and I thought, "wouldn't it be nice to get some real snail mail in your brand-new place?"  I like to jump on these sorts of things, mostly because my memory can be a bit shoddy these days, so I started digging through my supplies.

So, I made them this--

Please forgive the grainy photo.  I snapped this with my phone just before I mailed it....

I found a Christmas set that I could work with.  This is Stampendous' Holiday Home set, which I like because of the picket fence, which just says "home" to me. I stamped everything with Memento Tuxedo black ink, and used markers to color the house just a bit.  I attached the house and fence piece to the grass bit, and the popped it all off the surface with some foam squares.  The trees behind the fence were stamped right onto the cloud paper with Versacolor Split Pea.  The sentiment is from Stampendous' Everything Happy set, which I really like because it stamps really clearly, and is so cute and tiny. 

I used GinaKDesigns Pure Luxury 120#  white paper as the base and layered it with black and white stock from The Paper Co.  This is my value cardstock; not so fancy, but good for layering.

I used two papers from DCWV The StackIII, the sky and grass image papers.  I can't find anything similar to these papers anywhere, and I will be so sad when I run out of them.  I will have an "issue" with buying another StackIII just to get those papers, let me tell you!!

The inside was a bit tougher to come up with.  I did this--

Again, please forgive the lousy photo.  I really have to leave my camera nearby, so I won't be tempted to use my phone so much.  I really wanted to mail this one quickly!

Because I had no "new home" sentiment to play with, I got inventive.  I have these letter stamps that I bought at TARGET for $1.00.  I figured that this was a cutesy enough stamp set that I could go a little crazy, so I stamped the word NEW all askew like that in SU Ruby Red ink and hand drew the little bracket that tries to stuff the whole word into the sentiment.  I backed it all with some black and a tiny piece of my grass paper to tie it into the front, and there you go.  Oh yeah, those exclamation points are done by hand too.  Why not, right?

So, this was rather easy to accomplish, once I figured out where to go with it.  Stuffing words into sentiments probably wouldn't work with a more formal card, I know, but I think here it's rather fun.  And it sure doesn't look like something you bought at the drugstore!

I haven't seen them since they moved yet.  I hope they liked it, and that the move and settling in all went smoothly.

Thanks for dropping by! 

All Best-
Richard

Mildred (Paper) Piece

So, I learned to paper piece recently.  Not pierce, with an "r". I kept rereading the tutorial, looking at the pictures for the cute little holes that make such a cute edge and stuff.....uh, no.    Big DUH for me. 

Apparently, when you don't put the "c" into the word, it means you are inserting a different piece of paper, either stamped or some designer paper (DP) into some or all parts of your stamped image.  OHHHHHHHHHH......

Once I re-taught myself to READ WORDS, I made this--

I made the card base from some Aqua card stock, and then cut a coordinating lighter weight card stock on top.
 I stamped three boats onto the same lighter card stock with Memento tuxedo black ink and cut them out.  I then stamped the same boat onto three different DPs and cut out just the sails.  I used a glue pen to attach the sails to the boats, and put them aside. 
I grabbed two different blue card stocks, and this great photo paper that has water on it, and tore them at different angles.  I layered them up and arranged them until it made the waves I wanted to create, then carefully stuck them together and attached them to the card front piece.  I trimmed around the card front with my snips to remove the extra overhang. 
I left the edges loose, since they weren't going anywhere, and that let me carefully slide my boats into place between the layers. 
I used a gel pen to create the clouds.  I LOVE me some gel pen!!  I decided to pull in some more of the pink from the DP, so I got out my pink colored pencil and highlighted the clouds just a bit. 
All that was left to do is stamp the sentiment, attach the front to the base, and that puppy was done! 
These stamps are from GinaK Designs.  The card stock and water DP are from DCWV, and the boat DP is AC Patterned Paper, the Play set.  I love this paper!!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Thanks Dad, and More Thanks

Father's Day is Sunday.  I love how making cards to commemorate events now has me aware of when things are happening.  I usually have a scramble to come up with a card on the last possible day to send them and get them there in time.  I have often been late, too.  Don't judge me. 

Anyway, I DID remember Father's Day this year, and actually made a pretty cute card for my Dad, too.
Looks like this--

I think this is the first card I have made where I actually DREW something on the surface and found it acceptable to use.  Those clouds were done with versamarker, my new friend, and white embossing powder.  I did the embossing twice, which gave the clouds some great depth, and did the lines with a white gel pen.  Oh yeah, and I did the grass with the gel pen, too. 
The stamp is from SU, their Loads of Love set.    I stamped the truck twice and cut out the bumper so I could coat it with some clear embossing powder and then bump it up with some pop dots.  It's a bumper, after all!  I hit the window, the door handle, hubcaps and flowers with Glossy Accents to give them some shine too.
Btw, I got the stamp set at a great bargain price from a shop that was selling some sets at 25% off the OLD prices.  Love me a bargain, baby!  I now need the companion set.  I do believe I'll have to call my demo and pay retail for that one, though.  Rats.   Hate paying retail on anything.
The sentiment stamp is from GinaK Designs, and the DP is from DCWV. 
Super easy, and cute, right?  Hope he likes it.  Thanks for everything, Dad!!

Speaking of thanks, I was very happy and humbled to get a package from awesome designer AJ OTTO the other day.  She made me the oh, so generous offer of sending me some stamp sets she was no longer using, and I gratefully said YES!  I was really excited when not only did THREE (possibly four) GinaK Designs stamp sets show up, but also some beautiful designer paper from their brand-new stamp set!  AND!!!!  Hold me back!  Some Nestabilities dies!  Ones that I NEED, too!  (OK, so "need" is maybe overstating things.  You know what I mean.) I was bowled right on over!   Such amazing generousity on her part.  Way to make the new guy feel welcomed and supported.  Many, many thanks to her.  Oh yeah, I made her a card with the stamps she sent, and with some of the DP as well.  Looks like this--

The images and border are done with two GinaK Designs sets, Cute as a Bug, and Bring the Bling.  I hand colored the bee and honey pot with colored pencils, and made some of the "bling" in the border bees with a fine tipped black marker.  I also made this one--

This set may be GinaKDesigns, but I don't find it on the website. Maybe it's discontinued?   I am a huge Armistead Maupin fan, and one of his books was called Babycakes, after one of the characters' nicknames.  I love the hot pink and green combination.I used the Glossy Accents on some of the frosting, and used Stickles to do the sprinkles. I kind of dig the use of negative space on this one, too. 

AJ says she's just "paying it forward", sending me this stuff.  I hope I can return the favor soon, and hope to carry on with the pay it forward idea.  Thanks again, AJ!

FYI-- AJ Otto does some amazing work, and you can see it and follow her blog by going HERE.  I love how she can take a handful of elements and make a huge statement.  She has an amazing feel for negative space, as well.  I hope to emulate her style a bit, as my own work progresses.  Rock on, AJ!

Oh yeah, I also did one more card with the sets she sent me.  I'll show you that one very soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers-

Richard

Well, Ain't I Just Krafty??

Remember my first prize winning set of stamps that I won from GinaK Designs?  I made this from it, and I had some colored shells left over.  I made a medalion with them and some shapes I cut with nestabilities dies on my dear friend the cuttlebug, and I was holding onto that waiting for inspiration to strike.  Oh yeah, and I used some Inkssentials Glossy Effects to make the inside of the conch shiny( like it oughtta be). 

I have not done too much with kraft paper, other than haul groceries home in it.  So, when GinaK Designs did a Kraft challenge a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be a great time to jump in with both feet.  Luckily, one of my pathetic little value paper packs had a sheet of Kraft in it, so I was ready to go. 

Here is my offering for that challenge....

I have a pad of paper called The Stack III, from DCWV (Die Cuts with a View).  I get a ton of great ideas from this stack, because it has patterned and photograph pages, and the colors are pretty amazing too.  I picked this up for a song at a local thrift shop, and I am so glad I found it before some other crafter got a chance! 
From this stack, I got this water paper.  I tore it to get the white edges to show, and layered it to make the ocean waves effect.  I used the sand stamp from the GinaK Gifts from the Sea set to stamp the sand, using two brown inks and some white.  I think the white is what really makes it pop. 

The colored cardstock is from my value packs from The Paper Company, and the sentiment is from GinaK Designs, the Enjoy the Sunshine set.  The ribbon is  a $1.00 special from JoAnn's, and I had the jute twine hanging around in my art supplies. 

Oh yeah, about the shell.  I had some shells I used as summer decorations in the past, so I dug this one out and drilled a hole in it so I could tie it on the card.  After ma few moments of sliding the drill bit across the surface of the shell, I figured out that if I drilled from the INSIDE, and started slowly, I could get the job done.  I actually made it work without shattering any shells.  Oh yeah.  It takes me a minute to catch on, but I get up to speed pretty quickly! 

All in all, I think this relatively simple card turned out to be a good one.  I am trying to get a handle on CAS (clean and simple) cards lately.  I have one to show you next time, but I have more to learn in this realm.  Seems negative space is my nemesis at the moment! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I love hearing your comments!

All best-
Richard