Mr Cardmaker is having a Yummy Casadia

Well, I couldn't be happier.  I was put into the roster for Wida Miller's awesome Casadia (A CASE + an Idea) at Beachorado.  I am in a line of VERY good company, and we are all working off a super cute card by Laura Bassen..

This is Laura's card--



and waaaaaay down the line, I was given this card to CASE by Jaclyn Miller--

.....NICE, Right???

So, here's MY take on that one--

This circle card was cut with Spellbinders dies, and the letters are PTI dies.  The hearts are a Stampin'Up punch, cut from paper that I coated with clear embossing powder for some shine.  Sadly, that doesn't play in this photo.  they are also popped up with some foam adhesive.  The black card stock was run through the Cuttlebug with a hounds tooth embossing folder.  Cute and mostly simple.  It did take me three tries to get something I really liked.

 CASEing is not for the faint of heart.  You really want to honor the idea you're working with, but at the same time, you want to make it your own.  However, it is SO much fun, and so rewarding when you finally rise from the work table triumphant!!
I love the word "hiya"; don't you?   It immediately makes me feel chummy and welcomed.  I use it whenever possible in real life.

Just so you get an idea, I figured I'd leave you with a peek at my prior iterations.  They just didn't blow my skirt up, if you know what I mean.  The first one loses impact because the letters are too diffused, and the second is better than just okay, but just not really a home run, either.

They look like this--

So, that's my story.  Check out the rest of Casadia's projects, and stay tuned for more to come.  Somebody is CASEing me next!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Following Orders

Today's card is actually something I'm making MONEY on!!  My MIL asked me to make her a set of thank you cards, and so I came up with twelve cards for her.  I used some Stampin' Up DSP that I had around for a while, and used it for my jumping off point.  

I made twelve of these--

Now, this was originally supposed to be something simple.  Yeah.  I guess you could call them that.  I should get a sketchbook or something, I think.  Proportion seems to be my achilles' heel.  I just kept looking at all that RED (which is a color I like, mind you) and I guess I freaked out and went a bit haywire with doo-dads.
Then the white at the top bugged me.  A hand drawn line worked there.  Then I had to have one at the bottom.

Don't you like that open font on the sentiment?  That's from GinaK Designs, Theresa Momber's Follow Your Dreams set.  Me likey.

Anyway, they FINALLY got to looking okay.  Some days, it hardly seems worth it all....
Except for the CA$H part.  MIL Dearest insists on paying me (as do I, btw).  What would you charge for a dozen of these??

Wait 'til I show you my next card, and the disaster that almost happened there.  If nothing else, I AM learning how to save a card from the trash bin.

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Black and White with a Pop

Hey guys!

Today I am showing a card I made for my friend Janeen, who is on the job hunt.  I can't think of  a much more Unfun thing to do, so I hope this cheers her up a bit. 

I made her this--

I love the Cuttlebug folder I used.  I swiped the raised portions with my white pigment ink pad and let it dry overnight.  The background is stamped with my Jenny Bowlin receipt stamp, and the sentiment is SU.  The brads make a real impact on all that clockworks, I think.  I added just a pop of pink, and I think it really says  "girl at work."  To me it does, anyway!    And, just to be sure it stays feminine, a little black and white baker's twine bow on the sentiment flag.

So that's it.  I was planning to enter this at Simon Says Stamp, for their challenge, but I missed the deadline.  *SIGH*...
UPDATE!  I am a DOPE!  I did NOT miss the deadline.....Read the WORDS, Richard!!!!
Anyway, I think Janeen will be happy about it.  Who doesn't love snail mail, anyway?

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy Thursday!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Having an Affair

I have a real love affair with stamp sets that have coordinating dies.  I say love affair, because I also have a crazy, nut-case addiction to punches, and it's just not like that with the stamp/die thing.  I REALLY love these things.  Like, really.  ANd, I am super selective with what I do and what I buy with these things.

This year, I bought PTI's In the Meadow set, and the dies that went with it.  I loved these the moment I saw them.  I also bought a set of two Sizzix embossing folders somewhere, and I really liked those SO much as well.  oh yeah, and the PTI Wonderful Words Holiday stamps and dies too.

Anyway, I put them to good use, I think. 

I made these--

 Doesn't that sledder look like he's flying? 
To make the letters pop, I used white pigment ink direct from the pad, rubbing ever so gently over the raised portions.  I did it on the snowflakes in the blue card above, as well.  The branches are done with Martha Stewart's branch punch, and the birds are actually die cuts!  The snow is torn shimmer paper.

The snowflakes are so pretty in this set.  The tree is stamped onto its die cut.  All the figures in these die cuts are from a pewter colored shimmer paper by DCWV.

 

The green version of the sledder.

This one is just stamping, with no die cuts.  The tree is done in Versamark, and embossed with MS gold glitter embossing powder, then topped with VersaPEN around the edges and re-embossed with holographic embossing powder.  The snowflakes are in gold embossing powder and white pigment ink.  The photo doesn't do this justice.  It was one of my faves!

 

 



 

Another fave.  This embossing folder really blows my skirt up.  The aqua shimmer paper die cut against the the River Rock  card stock, and the placement of the sentiment stamp....me likey.

The white is popped off the surface with foam adhesive, as is the feeding deer, to push him into the foreground a bit.  So is the word "peace."

 

So, what's NOT to love about these stamps and dies?  See what I mean??

 

Well, it is snowing like crazy out my window right now, and everything is gorgeous.  What a solstice! 

 

I don't have much more to share, and I am out of here for the weekend.  I'll share the last of my cards soon! 

 

Happy Solstice, everyone.  Welcome back to the sun!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard

Mr. Cardmaker is Getting Tryp-y With It

My sister-in-law Susie is a very clever gal.  She finds the most clever cards to send us, and she even makes them every once in a while too! 

She sent us a very clever card with her initial cut out of it.  I can't find it, otherwise I'd show it to you.  Anyway, it inspired me to make a couple of these things. 

I made this--

So, nice, cute, whatever.  This is done with a Recollections set for the light strings, and a Sizzix stocking stamp and die duo set.  The glitter paper is from Michael's.I used a red spica pen for the stripes on the stocking, and the top are there is flocked, using my Glossy accents and some Funky Flock from The Rubber Cafe.  The sprigs are pieces from a snowflake I punched with a SU punch, and there's a punched red dot with a dollar bin pearl, as well.

 

 

But this is just the beginning!  Looks kind of small, right?  Well, this is how it looks when you open it!

 



Ok, I didn't get a great shot.  But, it's THREE panels.  I used a 4 1/4"x 5 1/2" piece of white card stock, and I scored it on my Scor-Pal on the marks with the little arrows on them.  These are just shy of 3 3/4" and just past 7 1/4".  If you don't have a Scor-Pal, you can probably just play with it a bit before you make your creases. 

I used my Cuttlebug and a Spellbinders Wonky Rectangles die to cut and emboss the front panel.
Then, I took some post-its with all over adhesive and masked two panels on the other surfaces.
I stamped the lights, and colored them with copics.  Then I grabbed my Glossy Accents and coated the lights to give them some shine.  When that dried, I took some Memento Bamboo Leaves ink and a blending tool, and colored the front surface of the card.  I added my sentiment on the third panel, and left the middle one plain, for a handwritten message.

For the panel that shows through the front opening, I cut a piece of glitter paper that covered the back of the middle panel, and adhered it.  Then I added my stocking.

This makes such a cool effect, when the image disappears as you open the card. 

But wait!  There's more.  I got fancy with the next one.
I made this--

This is exactly the same idea, only with a die from PTI's In the Meadow set.  I stamped and gold embossed some of my many many snowflake stamps onto a green glitter sheet from DCWV, and I used a Stampendous holly stamp to do the surface of the card.  I hand painted the berries with red ink and my aqua painter, and topped them with Glossy Accents.

The inside of this one looks like this--(sorry for the blur.  This would NOT photograph well, for some reason.)
Here you can see the masking and the center panel.  That sentiment is from PTI as well.
I somehow screwed up something on the front panel, so I tried to fix it with a mask and more ink.  I think it worked out pretty well, all in all.

This turns out to be much smaller than a regular A2 card.  I may figure out the proper dimensions to make one that is a larger size, but I really like the fun you can have with this.  I would probably stay with an 11"x whatever  size, though, if you're going to use your Scor-Pal to do the EASY scoring.

SO, two more of the sixty.  Hope you got some ideas.  Hey, you know, this is just about small enough that if you did a small hole through all the layers and tied a string or ribbon through them, you could have a seriously cool gift tag, as well.  Try it!

More to come! 
Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker Has the BEST Friends & My Blog Hop with Melanie

Well, this is my first posting since my WONDERFUL stint as Moxie Fabber of the Week over at Moxie Fab World.  I can't begin to describe how wonderful it was to get so much love and support from all of you, both here at my blog and at MFW.  I am one grateful card maker.  Welcome, welcome to my new followers, as well as my dear, regular dropper-inners!

Well, my very greatly talented friend Melanie Muenchinger has been at being her very sweet self again, and she has gifted me not one, but THREE of her fabulous stamps sets that she designed for GinaK Designs.  I could not be more thrilled about that!  I have been in the throws of Christmasing up my house, and, of course, SHOPPING (grrrrr), but I was able to IMMEDIATELY drop it all and come up with a thank you/Christmas card for her.  I am ashamed that she will see it here before she gets it into her own hands, but she is a great lady of immense forgiving capabilities, I am certain.

And, we're HOPPING! (and we're hopping, and we're hopping......oh, sorry.) On to the inserted verbage....

It's a Happy Holiday Hop! Becky and Melanie thought it would be great fun to team up for a little Holiday Hop today. Today we are showcasing Becky's new set, "Warm Woolen Mittens" along with Becky's new cut file "Grand Banners" and "Grand Banners - Winter Sentiments" and Melanie's newest set, "Lots of Letters" as well as some of her other recent favorites. Joining us are some dynamic designers that will knock your socks off with their beautiful work today! Make sure you visit everyone's blog to leave a comment and be entered to win a clear "I do!" and "Beyond Baskets" stamp set! A winner will be announced Thursday. Now on to today's projects!

Here's the list of crafters that you can drop in on to check it all out--

                               Melanie Muenchinger 

Becky Oehlers (Illustrator of Warm Woolen Mittens)

Beate Johns

JJ Bolton

Laurie Schmidlin

Latisha Yoast

Michelle Woerner

Richard Breaks

Vera Yates

Tosh Leyendekker

 

And now, back to me!

I made this--

This card was made with Melanie's beautiful Stately Flowers series.  This is from the 5th collection in this series, and I have to say, I have not seen a better mistletoe.  Period.  I am clearly smitten with it.
Now, the set comes with TWO versions of this mistletoe, one larger than the other, plus an extra set of berries, which, as you can see here, I have put to work. 

I stamped all over my 4 1/4"x 5 1/2" SU River Rock card stock with the large image in Versamark ink, and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I also stamped all my berries on a separate piece of River Rock, and embossed them as well. 

After fussy cutting all of the berries, I took my Memento Delicata gold ink pad, pressed it onto an acrylic block, and used my aqua painter to "watercolor" all of the berries.  I purposely made some of the berries more opaque than others, to add depth.  Berries don't usually all ripen at the same moment anyway, right?  So, some reality to my fantasy!

The Merry Christmas sentiment (THANK YOU for adding that to the set, Melanie!) is stamped onto a scrap of ecru colored paper in versamark, and then heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  I punched it with my large circle punch, inked the edges with River Rock ink, and adhered it to the bottom of my card, then trimmed it with snips.  I added the ribbon (winnings from Stampendous), and adhered the card stock to a white, top-folding A2 card base.

With all of that done, I could place my berries.  I used tiny pieces of dimensional foam to pop each of them off of the surface, spacing them out nicely as I went along.  Don't tell anyone, but some of them mask imperfections that may or may not be there during the stamping process.  I plead the fifth on that one...

Sadly, pictures tend to ruin the glossy, shiny finishes on so many cards.  This is really nice and shiny though, I promise!

So, that's my card.  Now that I have it made and PHOTOGRAPHED (my least favorite part of blogging) it, I can get it out to Melanie! 

Do you make your holiday thank you cards?  Or are you just spent after making your Holiday Greeting cards?  I still have to make a good amount of cards this week.  I'd better get to work!

Thanks for stopping by! 
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Feeling His Moxie Fab-ishness

Well, ain't I something?!  I am the Moxie Fabber of the Week over at Moxie Fab World!  I am very honored to be chosen.  Cath is the BEST!  Lots of fun happening at Moxie Fab World every week!
What a great thing to take me into the holiday season! 

I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving.  Mine was SO great, but I have to say it was everything BUT relaxing.  We had from 2-4 house guests all week, and THIRTEEN for dinner on Thursday, as well as more dinners tucked in here and there.  Wow, it was fun and really delicious, but I sure needed a NAP by Sunday afternoon!

This week, I wanted to share this card set that I made for my sister, Lisa.  This will probably be the last of the leaves that you'll get from me this season, unless they're Holly or something....

I made this--

Oh, did I mention there was a box?  There's a box.  To hold the cards.

Anyway, a while back I won ('cause my mom says I'm a winner!) a card class from My Little Craft Blog where I learned how do do these leaves with sponge daubers and clear embossing powder, as well as the gold and folder embossed pieces that you see on the bottoms of the cards.  My design is different overall, but I REALLY like this leaf technique, and will use it a lot!

I particularly like the box.  I will make many of those, I'm sure.  It is roomy and sturdy.  Because I won the class, I can't give you too much info on how to create all of these things, but I believe the class is still available for purchase, and it is really fun and informative.  I don't be stealin' from nobody's stuff, so don' ask!

Speaking of leaves, you may remember my rant about having to deal with my forest full of leaves in THIS post.  Well, the other day, Charlie and I returned home from a day out to find that our yard had been mowed and EVERY LEAF WAS GONE!  GONE, I tell you, GONE! 

Turns out, my neighbors Chris (across the street) and Eric (behind us) had been out with their tractors, and after they did their own leaves, got to chatting and decided to make a contest of "who-could-get-up-our-leaves-fastest."  Are these guys the best, or what???  Well, I baked them cookies, and, of course, made them cards. 

They look like this--

The sentiment is from 7Gypsies, and the leaf stamps are from Studio112.  I used the same leaf technique for the card stock leaves, as I'm sure you can tell.

Anyway--Chris has been back 4 times(!) to get more leaves, and I could not be more grateful.  He has gotten a thank you care package to supplement his cookies, btw...

SO, That's about it. I have some close-ups of this card set to show you...

Here they are--Please forgive the blur on some of them.

 I will have some Christmas cards to share with you next time!

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard  

Supplies--

Card set and box--card stock, GinaKDesigns; Inks, Stampin' Up!, Ink it Up, Memento; papers, Stampin Up!, Buttons, Joann's: Embossing powder, Ranger; twine, Ranger; leaf punches, EKSuccess and Fiskars.

Thank You cards--Card stock, papers, and inks all Stampin' Up!; sentiment, 7Gypsies; leaf stamps, Studio112; buttons, Joann's; twine, Ranger; leaf punches, EKSuccess and Fiskars.



Mr Cardmaker is No Longer a Blue Ribbon Guy

Just a quick posting for the end of the week, to catch you up with some ideas I've been playing with.

My local JoAnn's had some Jenny Bowlin for Fiskars punches on clearance, so I grabbed a couple.  Sadly, I dropped one that made really cool blue ribbon cuts, and broke it.  Wop wop.  I was able to put it to use to make this card, though, and the bird punch, also JB for Fiskars, survived.  There are lots of stamps going on here.  The background is Jenny Bowlin, the phone is Claudine Hellmuth Studio, the So Retro set  , the "You are pretty amazing" is Papertrey Ink, and the "you inspire me" is by Stampin' Up.  The papers are all SU, as is the binder punch.  The card base is GinaK Designs.  I also did some dry embossing on my ScorPal.

The buttons and pearls are dollar bin specials, and the twine is from Paper Source.  Notice how I used my hole punch to make a spot for the twine to rest in? 

This was so fun to make, and I am sad my blue ribbon punch is dead. 

Hope you have a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Thankful, Through the Pain and All...

My house is on a beautiful 3/4 acre lot, with many trees.  We love our lot, and we are smart enough to allow professionals mow the lawn for us, because we would either wreck it or be living with waist high grass.  We are also pretty frugal.  Okay, we're cheap, especially when it comes to doing stuff we really know how to do.  When we asked our lawn people about leaf collection, they came back with a quote that made my eyes pop.  Needless to say, we declined nicely. 

Let me tell you how we are DEFINITELY having them do the leaves next year.  We have already disposed of 27 lawn bags of leaves, and I bagged up 11 more yesterday.  There are probably another 20-something bags worth still out there on the lawn.  I love my trees.  I do.  I am NOT such a fan of all the leaves.

Of course, my favorite tree is the last one in my WHOLE neighborhood to change color, and while it is indeed magnificent, it makes me nuts to think I am going to be collecting those leaves well into the middle of November.  I am getting too old for this.  I need to move back to a city, I think.  Speaking of backs, mine is killing me.

I am able to break from the leaf nightmare to make a card or so every once in a while.

I made this--

I won a tutorial class from Beth at My Little Craft Blog, where she makes a wonderful card set and box.  The LEAVES are the real jewel of this class, and I will be using her technique until the end of time to do leaves from now on. 

This involves using inks and daubers to color your punched or die cut leaves, then coating them in Versamark and coating them with clear embossing powder, which of course you then heat with your heat tool.  They are gorgeous and shiny and just wonderful!

This card is on GKD Kraft card stock, and the papers are Stampin' Up.  The gold flag piece is done with Martha Stewart gold glitter embossing powder (which is just a bit chunky for my taste, actually).

The stamp is from Inkadinkadoo, and I used my Versamarker to get the tree to accept more glitter embossing powder.  I used a background stamp from Inkadinkadoo on the pale grey piece with some SU crumbcake ink to give it some interest.  Spellbinders dies made the framed window for the image, and the whole piece is raised off the kraft with some foam tape.

I like Thanksgiving cards.  I am entering this one in the Paper Smooches Thankful challenge.  I love their stamps, and I have NONE yet.  Wish me luck!

I have some pictures of one of the card sets I made using the instructions from the video class I won.  I changed up the design a bit, because that's what I do.  Those pictures will be coming up soon!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

'Tis the Season to Break into a Cold Sweat

It's COMING!!  CHRISTMAS is COMING!!!!  Are you ready?  Are your cards started?  Designed?  Have you even shopped for the STAMPS and paper and envelopes yet?  WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE????

Oh, sorry.  Whew.    Just a minor freak out there.  But really, it IS time to at least let your brain start to wander into Christmas mode, just a little bit.  Many of my blog friends are full force already.  I can't.  Nope.  Can't do it.  I have five Autumn birthdays to create for, and I host Thanksgiving, so...

Ok, trying to make myself breathe after that last statement.  If I am not WELL on my way by Thanksgiving.....Head between my knees. Brown paper bag time. 

However!  I do have TWO, count them, TWO Christmas cards done!  I made them for sketch challenges that I did NOT enter, for some reason or other.

I made this--

This is a 4"x4" card on GinaK Designs Kraft card stock.  The papers are by My Mind's Eye, and the sentiment stamp is by Stampendous, the Holiday Home set.

To assemble this, I adhered the background piece (DCWV, embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder)and layered the biggest flag on top of that.  Then I used foam tape to pop the red and green flags off of the surface.

 I used Distress Inks to do the Sentiment oval, and I backed it with a scalloped oval made with glitter paper from DCWV's Linen stack.  They are put together with more foam tape, and even MORE foam tape is used to add it to the card front.

The snowflake is from a scrap of white glitter paper, punched with a Martha punch, and the button is one from my very old stash.  That went on with a mini Zots glue dot.

Then I made this--

This started with a piece of Beige card stock from the same DCWV Linen stack.  Same paper from MME is adhered to it, and the same glitter paper makes the scalloped oval.  I am sensing a THEME here, folks!!

The image is from Stampin'Up!, the SNow Much Fun set, and I used my Copics to color this cutie in.

As you can see, I am NO Copic expert!

The snowflakes here are PTI white shimmer paper, and the bling is from the dollar bin somewhere.  The ribbon is from Michael's.  The bow turned out like that because I didn't cut enough ribbon, but I kind of like it!

So, that's a start anyway.  Maybe these will inspire me (and even you) to get a move on!!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is in Autumn Heaven

Autumn is my favorite time of year.  Not so surprising, really.  How could you NOT love the colors, the smells, the crisp air? 
Now, I once knew a man who got depressed when autumn came.  When I asked him about it, he said it was because "it only means that winter is coming."  Terribly unfortunate for him, to have that reaction to such a beautiful time of year. 

Anyway, I decided to do some autumn cards, and I came up with a Thanksgiving (or just a thank you) card that I am really happy with. 

I made this--

 

This card's inspiration comes from the little gold colored panel.  I started with a piece of cream cardstock, and hand colored it with a direct to paper technique, using Mostly Mustard and Crumb Cake inks (SU).  Then I ran it through the Cuttlebug in an embossing folder, and re inked it with more crumbcake ink, hitting only the raised portions.

 

I backed it with a panel of gray card stock , colored with more crumbcake ink and edged with Memento Espresso Truffle ink, and added some white brads that I colored to look cream with a copic marker (E53).

 

The background was stamped with my Inkadinkadoo flourish stamps in Versamark ink, then wet embossed in clear embossing powder.  Then, more crumbcake ink to make it all pop.

 

The leaves were the super fun part for me.  I grabbed scraps of designer paper AND the piece of scrap paper that was under the cardstock I did my hand coloring on, and punched leaves with my Fiskars leaf punch. 

The scrap leaf looks like this--

 

 

 

I did MORE direct to paper on the rest of the leaves, making them bright but streaky and worn looking.  Doing the direct to paper AFTER punching helped to give the edges more presence, and I didn't have to go back and add edging on each leaf with a sponge dauber later.

 

They looked just a bit flat to me, so I grabbed my Delicata gold ink, and hit them all with that.  WOW! what a difference!  Lots of life, and a wonderful little shimmer and glow. 

 

I curled the leaves around a pencil, with some edges going forward, and some going back, and I adhered them by adding tape only to the places where the leaf hit the surface, so lots of edges were loose, and lots of texture was visible. 

 

The label was made with memento Espresso Truffle ink on a stamp by inkadinkadoo, and punched with an SU punch.  I punched a second label out of Kraft card stock, edged it in the same ink, and cut it in half to add a backing to the sentiment piece. That was added with some foam tape for some dimension.

Here's a close-up of that--

 

 

 

All in all, I really like this one, especially because of the shiny stuff! 

 

I hope your autumn is a beautiful one, and that you are getting wonderful inspiration from Nature at its finest!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard

 

Supplies:  Cardstock-GinaKDesigns, Bazzill Basics; Embellishments- Recollections(brads)Ink-Tsukineko Memento and Delicata, Stampin'Up, Studio G, Copic Marker;  Papers, Me & My big Ideas, My Mind's Eye;  Stamps- Inkadinkadoo;  Tools-Stampin' Up and FIskars punches, Scor Buddy, Cuttlebug machine and embossing folder.

 

 

 





Mr Cardmaker CASEs Himself

A couple of years ago, in my "early days" of cardmaking, I saw a video about using the masking technique, and decided to try it out with my shiny new stamps and $1 Studio G ink pads. 
I made this--

This was made with Inkadinkadoo Flowers and Stampendous Happy Everything sets, and I am sure this is on discount card stock, with DCWV paper as the mat.  I thought this was kind of cute, especially for a beginner.

Now, as a semi-beginner, I decided that I really liked the way it all turned out, so I went back to it and tried to see what else I could come up with.

So, I made this--

So, immediately I notice that my new, homemade lightbox is working pretty well!  Boo-yah!

I like this well enough, and I think there is at least SOME progress being made. 

I still have DCWV paper on there, but I have graduated to much better SU and PTI card stock. 

Surprisingly, my StudioG stamp pads still have some ink, and I LOVE the colors and coverage.
 
The bottom of the card is punched with an EK Success punch, and if you look closely, you can see the white dots on the inside of the card.  I could NOT get a good shot of the thing closed.

The pearls are from Kaisercraft, and the ribbon is the LAST of my roll from AC Moore.  No ACM in MI, and I am sad that I can't find any more of this stuff.  Wah.

So, what do you think?  Any progress happening here (other than my photography skills), or was I better as a newbie?

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful weekend!
All Best-
Richard

Some Call Me Mr. Mojo

No, not really.  I was able to get myself a bit of mojo though, in time to put together a card for Mojo Monday 261.    That sketch looks like this--

I made a card for my SIL Andrea, who is having a birthday with a ZERO in it!  Maybe it'l be lucky for me over at Mojo Monday.

I made this--

I went out on a limb and substituted my circle of leaves for the large circle in the sketch.  Gotta take some chances, sometimes!

This is on GinaK Designs Pure Luxury Kraft card stock. with random bits of very old card stock used in the other elements.  The leaves are Punched with an EK Tools punch from  scraps (mostly from Me & My Big Ideas), that I inked up using a "direct to paper" method.  I also curled up some of the edges of the leaves.
This picture doesn't show it, but they're all coated with some Brilliant gold Delicata ink, so they're really sort of glitzy.  I wish the picture was better at showing that, because it's sort of the best part.  *sigh*....

The gold flag started as textured white card stock, that I ran through my Cuttlebug with an embossing folder, then inked with both sponge daubers and "direct to paper" on the raised surfaces.

I stamped the sentiment in Memento Espresso Truffle ink with a stamp from GKD Enjoy the Sunshine set, and stamped flourishes from inkadinkadoo, then cut it out with a Spellbinders Nestabilities die.  I stamped the flourishes both in Crumb Cake ink from Stampin' Up, and more Delicata ink.

The backgrounds stamp is from Ditto, and I got that pup at Michael's for $1.99!!  Love that!  The ribbon is from the dollar bin at Michael's too.  The button is an old one, and the twine is some random stuff from AC Moore.

This is actually the THIRD in a series using that embossing folder.  I made two others, that are more, Autumn/Thanksgiving themed.  I'll show you more of those next time. 

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best--
Richard

Poppies, Baby!

I have fallen in love with my aqua painter.  It's true.  That thing can make magic, Baby!

It does, however take some time and patience, just like me.

Anyway, I made this--

I made this card by stamping Inkadinkado Flowers all over my background (SU Wild Wasabi), with both Stayz-on and Versamark inks.  Then I masked and stamped more flowers onto a piece of white cards stock, added a few leaves, and hand drew some stems.  I made the stems look hairy, 'cause that's the way poppies grow.

I also stamped another poppy onto another scrap piece of white cs.  That one turned out to be the one popped off the edge there.

I had so much fun painting these with my aqua painter.  The key is to go in very light to start, but also, not so terribly wet!  I imagine if I had used watercolor paper it would have been somewhat easier.  I have some, and I'll try it.  This are not watercolor paints.  They are inks from my ink pads.  I pressed color out onto my stamping acrylic blocks, and went from there.  There are several reds, some orange and some golds.  Didn't pay attention to which inks I used.  Sorry.

I probably made a mess in the upper part  of the background of the painted piece, or I didn't like the negative space, so I snipped around the images, and used foam tape to pop up that piece onto a piece of My Mind's Eye DP.  Then I used more foam tape to adhere the lone poppy.  I painted him while still attached to the scrap I stamped him on, and snipped him out later, btw.  I can see from this photo, I need to hit the edges with my black marker!  That whole deal went on a double mat of red and blue.

The flag pieces (is that what we call them, instead of banners?) are all scraps and a skinny piece of red ribbon from The Paper Source.  The sentiment is from Everything Happy by Stampendous.

This took SUPER long to paint, mostly because I was LOVING doing it.  Plus, the thing's gotta DRY!  This would never make it into my collection of  samples that I am making to sell.  However, my SIL is having a birthday in October, as is my own sister, so somebody will probably get this one.

Hey, thanks for stopping by today!
All Best-
Richard

This is Only a Test-er Card

So, I have been musing this idea of making sellable cards, and I have been trying to design something that I can recreate easily.  Of course, making something that people will want to buy would be good, too.

Anyway-  The samples begin.

I made this--

I used my Cloud Duo dies from A*Muse Studio, and cut several clouds from white card stock scraps.
One of them became the shape I used to sponge clouds onto my 4"x5" piece of PTI white cs.  I used Memento Cantelope ink for the clouds.  I then used a sponge dauber with some blue ink (was it Memento Summer Sky, maybe?) on the clouds, but they totally didn't work with the background, so I used the cantelope on top of it.  You don't usually see green clouds, but living in the Midwest, you see some crazy colored clouds during tornado season, so I kept on going!
I stamped the sentiment (from SU) twice, in order to get that shadowed effect.

The grass is on SU designer series paper, and was cut with a grass die, again from A*Muse Studio.  I cut about 1/2" from the bottom of my card front, and only adhered the bottom of my grass strip to the bottom of the inside of the card.  Then I tucked the edge of the card front behind the grass.  I think it's a fun way to hold the card shut.  Here's a detail of the card flap, opened--

To finish everything up, I adhered the clouds in place with some adhesive and some foam tape, mounted the white piece onto some old wild wasabi stock, and adhered it to the card base. (the base is made from, I think, PTI Summer Sunrise.  I have a multicolor pack from them, and I think it is that)

Okay--
SO the reason I sort of like this one is that doing the background and the clouds was FAST and EASY.  I also think the grass idea is different, and people might like that.  I can also play with other colors, like melon mambo and different grays and pinks and blues.

SO!  Feedback me up, dear reader!  I need some help!  How much would you pay for this (in the days when you weren't doing it yourself, that is)?

More samples to come!  I should be very pro-blogger-ific this week!

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

Mr Cardmaker is an Anniversary Guy

Twenty-one years today.  That's how long I've been with my DP, Charlie.  Last year, for the Big Twenty, we went to PARIS!!!  Ooh, la la, fo' sho'!!  This year, after moving to Michigan, and all the MIL health drama (which always comes with EXPENSE, don'tcha know), we are staying home and having a nice dinner out.  Can't wait!  

We are not big gifts-for-anniversaries people, although I did get a lovely bunch of irises this morning.  I made him a card (as you do).

It looks like this--

So, while in Paris last year, I picked up these SWEET little Moulin Rouge windmill paperclip things while at Montmartre.  I THOUGHT I had gotten Eiffel Tower ones.  I planned this card to have a nice wire Eiffel Tower clip on it.  THAT'S why I have the cityscape right there with the natural environment.....Bleh.
Anyway, he got the idea, and he really liked this card.  It TOTALLY reminded him of Paris, which is what I was going for, so I guess it all worked out in the end.

This windmill moulin actually started out not so ROUGE, and not nearly so sparkly.  It actually started out as a plain, paperclip colored moulin.  I went after it with my R29 Lipstick Red Copic marker, which I dried with my heat tool.  Then I pounced my Versamark pad onto it and covered it with my holographic embossing powder, which I reheated to make it stick.  Warning--I DID get some red ink on my Versamark pad during this.  Hopefully, it won't transfer.

So, to make the card, I started with a base of PTI orange zest cardstock.  Added a layer of a sort of rust colored cs, then a piece of My Mind's Eye Out of the Blue DP.  I like the sky and the balloons!
I used an old script background stamp with some SU crumbcake ink to "french" it up a bit.
I punched a circle of yellow dp scrap to make a sun, using a Studio G $1 stamp, and red and orange inks.
I used Jillibean Soup's You Move Me set to get the skyline.  I sort of twisted this stamp around when I put it on my acrylic block, in order to get a wavy line.  I fussy cut it out and then adhered it to a piece of DP (with the trees ) that I hand cut into a wavy line.  Before I attached the to one another, I die cut some grass from some Old Olive (SU) dsp, and pieced that around the edge.  after putting all that together, I popped it off the surface with some foam tape.  Then I added the paper clip.

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.  I also curved it as I attached it to my acrylic block, so I could follow the shape of my sun.  That took care of the outside.

I wrote a lovely personal message on the inside.  I can't show you all of that.  What I can show you is the rest of the sentiment and what I did with it.

It looks like this--WAY magnified.

This was about 2"x3" in real life.  The sentiment is, again, PTI, but the "happy anniversary" is by Stampin' Up.
I used the same papers and background stamp, but I also fussy cut balloons out from the BACK of the DP used for the background, and I used an A*Muse Studio cloud duo die to cut out a cloud.  I used the die to trace around in order to make the outline around the die cut, so it would look a bit more like the clouds on the dp (see the front of the card).  I recreated the hill and the grass, and mounted it on a scrap of dotted paper.

So, that's my card.  Hope you like it.

PS--I have a light box now!  I am hoping it will greatly improve the quality of my card pics.  I made it myself, from a storage bin, some clip lamps, a poster board, and some white fabric. 

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is a Begging for Advice Guy

So, here's the plan--

• I design a bunch of samples that I think I can recreate in a great number.  Birthday, Holiday, Wedding, etc...Maybe even some boxed sets would work here.
• I make a presentation book of these samples, and take them to boutiques and gift stores in my area.
• I send copies of these samples to gift stores in the resort areas to my north.
• People are (at least) mildly wowed, and order my cards, give me cash, and I get to do what I love and make money at the same time.

So, what am I missing here??  HELP Mr. Cardmaker.  There have to be THOUSANDS of things that I missed in this very sketchy plan, including things like angel policies (which really could be made simpler, folks!  And WHY doesn't everyone make a stamp that says "© mycompanyname" for this purpose??), marketing plans, production schedules, yadda, yadda, yadda....

ANY and ALL advice would be SO appreciated!

But back to cards and stuff--

My dear friend, Miss Betty Ann Grove, former star of the Broadway stage, had a birthday this past Sunday.  I made her this--

This is a pretty simple card, for the most part.  I used almost all SU! card stocks and DPs, with the exception of the light green piece.  That, I believe is by Fiskars, and I bought a single sheet of it ages ago. 

The fun stuff happening here is all the die cutting I did.  I cut the oval (Spellbinders Classic Ovals), and then the grass with A*Muse Studio's grass die.

Then it begins to get tricky! 

I used a Spellbinders Wonky Rectangles die to start the cut of my "hill" piece.  This was done by sticking just one edge under the cutting bar, and leaving the rest out of the way.  It didn't make a big enough cut, so I grabbed the oval die that I used for the yellow piece and used it to make the second "bump".  there was a tiny portion that didn't connect the two, so a quick snip with my Cutterbee snips took care of that.

I would NEVER have been able to make such clean cuts with my snips.  I definitely like how that happened to work out.  It definitely makes your dies work in a MUCH more flexible way!

Since I was going crazy with my dies, I used the wonky rectangle die to cut the white piece for my sentiment.  It had to work on this a while, because I was not thrilled with the results I was getting, but it all finally worked out pretty well.  I stamped it with a Think Big stamp from PTI with Memento Dandelion ink, and then edged the piece with a foam applicator in Memento Cantaloupe.

I used a Jenny Bowlin for Fiskars punch to make my bird from some pink DP, and adhered it to my sentiment, which I then popped up with some foam tape.

To finish up, I ran some blue card stock through the Cuttlebug with my swirls embossing folder, layered that on a piece of pink DP, and put the whole thing on a green card base.  Last but not least, I added some bling in the form of some sweet little felt and rhinestone flowers I got from the dollar bins at Michaels.

This is a fun card for a birthday, but I'm thinking I could also do this for Easter, or just as a spring card, since these colors certainly fit the bill. 

Thanks so much for stopping by, and a BIG thanks in advance for the advice you have!
All Best-
Richard

A Little Digital Never Hurt Nobody

The other week, my DP Charlie had a wicked cold and had to fly off to Boston for the week.
 
I decided to make him a QUICK get well card before he left. 

This is not as easy as it sounds.  Trying to help a sickie pack, make sure he has the proper medications with him, and hope that he's pumped with a good enough antihistamine that his head doesn't explode in mid flight doesn't give you a whole lot of time to be super creative. 

However!  I sallied forth, and somehow managed to come up with this--

This is a 7Gypsies stamp, and the dots are by A*Muse Studio, from the Tini Time set.
The cardstock is SU! River Rock and the red is from The Paper Co. The DP is from PB&J, by Basic Grey.  I hand drew the black lines and shadows on the letters with a fine tipped Sharpie, and the ribbon is from AC Moore.  I chose to do the red and green because of the sort of "sickly" sensation it gives, and I thought the wavy and uneven lines, as well as the dots sort of give images of illness (at least, it does in my twisted mind!)

The best part, though is on the inside, where I ran over to my computer and typed out this sentiment in Word--

This font was free from kevinandamanda.com.  Check them out!  I LOVE this font, and I thought the dots over the O was so funny!  It reminds me of seeing spots before your eyes.  I used 80# cardstock so it would go through the printer.  It's not exactly perfect in spacing, but I WAS in a rush, and I actually have no clue how to make sure the spacing is right while on my computer. 
If anyone out there has any clues about that, please let me know.  I really like making up my own inside sentiments, but have steered away from it because of my limited knowledge there.

He loved the card, and I had fun, even if I did have to rush it a bit.

Meanwhile, I had a birthday, and made some thank you cards.  I used the same 7Gypsies stamp, so I thought I would show you now.

I made this--

So, as you can see, WICKED simple.  I used Baja Breeze card stock from SU! as my base, cut to 8 1/2 x 4 1/4 and I ran the front through the cuttlebug with an embossing folder.
Now, this can be a tricky thing, because the embossing makes your card front SHRINK a tiny bit.  Be prepared to trim a tiny bit off the card back when you go to fold it over.

 I then did a layer of DP, this is from My Mind's Eye.  I made over a dozen of these, and the DP changed on each of them, but they all came from the same paper pack.  I mounted this onto my base with foam tape. To this, I added a square of SU! Chocolate Chip card stock which I dry embossed with a different embossing folder.  Both folders have square patterns, so I think they work pretty well together.
I topped that with my sentiment on white cs, which I edged with Distress Inks Antique Linen.  I can't remember which green ink I stamped the sentiment in, but I think it might be ColorBox Chalk ink.

Like I said, simple simple.I think that there are just enough touches to show that care and planning was put in, but I was able to make many of them quickly.

Hey! 
I am thinking about trying to start a cardmaking and SELLING business.  I am sort of weirded out about it, and can use ALL sorts of advice!  If you can help, or know someone who can, please let me know.

So, that's what I've been up to!
Thanks so much for stopping by.  I really appreciate you!
All Best-
Richard