Mr Cardmaker is Challenged

---This is my second posting for today!  Check out my other post below---

Hi Again!  I am posting yet another card so I can play  Use 10 Embellishments Challenge in the Moxie Fab World at, you guessed it, Moxie Fab World!

The title of the challenge is pretty self-explanatory, so I will just do the photo.

I made this--

 And, the embellishments are--
1-4- Rhinestones
5-6- stars
7- Bird
8- white floss
9- brown cord
10- ribbon


Kinda cuckoo, right??  This was a fun one to make!

Thanks for stopping by (again!)
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is a Calendar Guy

No, no pin up pics of me.  I know you're disappointed.  Your breakfast will thank me for being allowed to remain in your stomach, trust me.  =)

I made a couple of calendars!  Early last Spring, I went to a craft show, and hit the Stamps of Life booth, where I picked up a couple of stamp sets, including Calendar to Build.  I thought this was a cute font, and I liked all the little things you could play with to really liven up a calendar.

Well, as much as I like this stamp, the calendar was TOUGH to work with.  You're supposed to be able to shift the days back and forth to make the month start when it should.  That DOES work, but only in months with 31 days.  30 day months (or 28/29 day February) really fouls you up.  I worked like a fool trying to line stuff up for hours until I finally decided to just cut the stamp up.  Muuuuuch easier! 

 Anyway, here's what I came up with--

I used white card stock from Staples for this project.  I found nice, smooth heavy weight card stock on the shelf there, and it has been a good staple card stock for me.  I cut it to 3"x 3 1/4", just large enough to hold the calendar.  I did all my numbers stamping first, starting with the easy 31 day months, then making myself cuckoo with the 30 and 28 day months.  I won't go into all the machinations that I went through, but suffice to say it was not so much fun.
I then went back and added the days header over the numbers, and the month headers above that.  It took me a while to decide to do the year and the flourish and little architectural stamping, but it all looked kind of naked.  The flourish is from PTI Menorah Medley  and the architectural stamp is from Stampendous' Tiled Quad Cube.

After getting all of that done (WHEW!), I gathered them together, and held them tightly at the top.  I laid down a big fat bead of hot-melt glue, and then dipped the tops into it, making sure I hit all the surface of the edges with glue.  I then let that cool, and trimmed off any extra with my snips.  It looked kind of messy still, so I added a strip of my patterned paper to the top to make it look nicer.

Here's a more face-on view--

Originally, I had this great idea to bind them all together with brads.  I even pierced some holes with my paper piercer to get started.  However, my lettering in several of the months was too high on the card stock to make that work.  Wop, wop... Of course, I already had hole in my January, so I added the brads and twine anyway.  Unfortunately, it will be gone once January gets ripped off.  Oh well.  This is a prototype, and it's going to DP Charlie, and he won't mind.  Good lesson learned!
ALSO-- I am worried about what will happen in February when it's time to rip off that first sheet.  Will the hot-melt glue be too strong to tear, and mess up the whole thing??  Maybe some of you know a better glue to use, or can tell me everything's gonna be okay?  I will tell Charlie to use scissors, just to be sure, I guess.

Oh, the brads are from Michael's, and the twine is from We R Memory Keepers.  The ink is Iced Spruce Distress Ink.  I also used Ranger Archival black ink, and Memento London Fog ink on the leaves.

The background is a 4"x 4" piece of Pink Paisley DP, with a stamped die cut from PTI, the Harvest Berries set. It's mounted on TWO pieces of GinaK Designs 120# white card stock.  I placed one of the pieces in my Scor-pal, and scored about halfway up the center.  I then cut from about an inch to one side of the score line to the top of the score line to create a stand for the calendar.  It stood a bit too ramrod straight up and down for my taste, so I snipped just a teeny tiny sliver off of the bottom of the "foot" so it would lean back a bit.
That looks like this--

See that little line at the top of the foot there?  That's where I assembled the front onto the backing without looking at where things were.  That's why there's TWO pieces of card stock at the back. (dumb, dumb, dumb...)  Actually, I like how sturdy it is with the two pieces.  I recommend that.

I also made another one.  This is the first one, actually.  It looks like this--

This is made with My Mind's Eye paper, and I hand inked the purple.  The numbers dies are from PTI.

So, I am glad I worked out all, well, most, ok, several of my problems with these guys.
I found a free print out of a 2014 calendar online, so I can try more, and save them for next year.  If I do one or two a month, I'll have gifts or something to sell somewhere.  These are pretty time consuming, even with all the adjustments I made.  We'll see how it goes.

PS--I just read on a blog somewhere that not having a good supplies list was a real bummer for readers.  You'll notice I linked to most everything I used on these projects.  There has to be a better way to do this, as well, I think.  Today, I went and looked up each and every one of these items and made a link to them. (Ouch!)
Who has a better idea about this?  Is a supplies list even important to you??  Let me know your thoughts, please.

Thanks for stopping by today!
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 Keeps His Christmas (card) Promises

Well, I promised some Christmas cards.  Now, I promise not to show you all sixty of them.  That would be ridiculous, you know. 
However, I will show you a good handful. 

The majority of these are made with papers from My Mind's Eye, and with PTI dies.  There's also some Stampendous stamps, Stampin' Up stamps, papers, and inks, as well as my Martha Stewart branch punch and sizzix embossing folders. 

Let's start the show!

 

The glitter paper used on these cards is from Michael's.  This is super sturdy card stock (which is actually more like card BOARD) and actually, when I tried to use my dies on it, it really didn't work at first.  I solved the issue by peeling away half of the backing on the paper.  Once I got rid of some of the bulk, it worked just fine.

 These snowflake punches are from Stampin' Up and Martha Stewart.  The background paper is from Basic Gray.

Shimmer paper used in the die cut is by DCWV, the Shimmer Stack.

Photo corner punch from EK Success.

The silver swirly paper is from AC Papers.  The swirly stamp (in red) is from PTI.

The globe stamp is from Jillibean Soup.  

Peace ON Earth.  Get it?? 

 

 

This is the first batch.  I have more.  I STILL promise not to show you all sixty.  On account of that would be ridiculous.  And, on account of I still have to make about 8 more to reach sixty.

Back to work!

 

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

'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 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

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

Mr Cardmaker has an Announcement!

Well, the big news here is that Mr Cardmaker and his DP Charlie are MOVING!  We have a great opportunity to move out to Michigan, near Charlie's family.  He starts out there on April 1st!  We are headed out to Detroit this weekend to search out a house in the Bloomfield/Birmingham areas.  I am sad to be leaving my Boston-area stamping buddies, but whithersoever he goest.... It's been so much fun.  I hope I find some Michigan stamping buds, too, and that they are half as great as the gals I befriended here!

We'll be staying with Charlie's mom, and, of course, I can't go empty handed.  I was raised in the South, where you show up with something for your hostess.  Yes, you do.

I made these--

My apologies for the terrible pictures.  I could NOT get these things to stay closed to save my life, and it was impossible to get anything any better shot.

SO I made this little collection of cards and tags.  I used SCRAPS!  These are pieces of GinaK Designs Pure Luxury Cream card stock.  I basically went with the sizes that they were, scored (thanks, scor-pal) and folded them, then ran the fronts thru the Cuttlebug with a sizzix embossing folder. 

Then I got out some dp that I have had forever (and lost the cover of the pad, so I have no idea who made it) and my Labels 4 dies from Spellbinders, and went to town. One of the pieces is adhered directly to the cs, and one is popped up with foam tape.  It was tons of fun playing with the placement, and trimming off what was overhanging.  I just used my snips to do that.

The sentiments are from Stampendous, the Everything Happy set.  I like the font so much.I used my SU words window punch on some of them, and for those that didn't fit, I trimmed off the bottom of the card.  I stamped them in Memento Rich Cocoa, to go with the brown in the dp.

Some rhinestones from ACMoore finish them all off.  Because these are weird, random sizes, I don't have envelopes for them.  I have had the itch to make some, though, and if I get the time before we go on Friday, I may just have to give them a go.  I do still have more of that dp.  They ARE tags, for the most part, so if they don't get envelopes, I think it'll be okay.  They can be inserted inside a giftbox or something like that.

So, onward goes my plan to use ALL my stamps.  I also got rid of lots of scraps!

We could sure use a good thought from everyone out there, that we sell our condo here in Boston, and that we find some wonderful house to buy! 

And, hey, holler at me if you live in the Detroit area.  We can stamp together!

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best-
Richard

Mr. Cardmaker has been a Working Guy

Clearly, I have been conspicuously absent from the blog arena.  I have been a BUSY card maker!

I got some new, fun supplies from Stampin'Up!, and have been trying to put them to work.

I made these--

I ran this one thru the cuttlebug with a SU! Sizzix folder, and I tried to mask off the doily/snowflake.  Big fail!  I almost broke my Cuttlebug.  There is LESS embossing on the doily, but it definitely did NOT do what I wanted....

Let me say how happy I am that I do NOT have to send one person a thousand different cards, because it would surely kill me.  I am very happy to lots of variations on a theme!

These are all made with the Hello Doily stamp from SU!, and some white embossing powder.  I LOVE this stamp, and how much it fills up my card!  I cut around portions of the doily to give some emphasis in areas, but I rough cut them (as usual) because I think the doily would get lost without a tiny bit of framing.

I also did a touch of copic coloring in some of the letters. 

The sentiment is from Studio G in the cards above.  Below is from Stampendous, the Holiday Home set.

Here is where I switched from stamping on Melon Mambo, and instead moved to patterned paper.  I love the combinations!!  These papers are American Crafts, Dear Lizzie set.  The shimmer paper is all DCWV.  The little snowflake punch is Martha Stewart, and the big one is SU!

The Merry Christmas above is punched out with the words window punch from SU.  I use this a LOT this season.  That, and the modern labels punch.  I'll show you those cards soon!

The sentiment above is A*muse Studio.

The tags here are done with GinaK Designs All Occassions Tags set, and Spellbinders grommet tags dies.  The sentiment is SU! Teeny Tiny Wishes.  The tag and the sentiment are both wet embossed to punch them up.  That frame above is one of those happy accident moments, where I used a leftover scrap to make a rectangle and got a fun little frame.  These things make me grateful for my two-way glue pen.

As you can see, my sentiments DO get to floating around just a bit.  Oh well....

I have plenty more cards to go, and more to show you.  Stay tuned. 

Sorry for the brief amount of explanation here, gang, but I gotta get back to work!!! 

More later, as soon as I can get them photographed!!!

I hope your cards are going REALLY well, and that PANIC MODE hasn't settled in at your house.  (I am not QUITE there yet, but I hafta get OFF this computer!)

Thanks for stopping by! 

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



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