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 a Make-It-Work Kinda Guy

So, my dear friend and SIL Jan had a birthday.  I made her a gorgeous set of cards and a box to hold them.  I was in a hurry, and never took pictures.

This is the part where I hang my head and shake it miserably.

HOWEVER!
I made her a birthday card, and I DID take pictures of THAT!

It looks like this--

Cute, right?  Those clouds, courtesy of my A*Muse Studio Clouds Duo dies are double layered--
A layer of vellum that is adhered on the inside of the card, and then the patterned paper that serves as an overlay.  There's also the flags, thanks to My Mind's Eye, and stamping (Studio G) and copic coloring, and some really nice leaf things I created with card stock, punches, and a bit of gold embossing powder.  Oh yeah, and those cute little photo corner things.  Jan bought me the punch, so of course, I had to use it on her card...

ANYWAY!
Those clouds should have NEVER looked like that.  Okay, okay, they look really nice and all....

BUT!  And this is a BIG but!  Not to be confused with my own big butt....but I digress...

The clouds were originally meant to be a reverse die cut, showing some lovely patterned paper (also MME) behind, as you opened the card.  However, my Dear Partner failed to understand the concept, and wrote his personal message ALL OVER the area that was supposed to be clouds!  ARGH, I say!  ARGH!!!!!!

Well, I stared at the dang thing for about 15 minutes before I came up with the solution.  I did make good use of the time, heaping copious amounts of guilt upon said DP.

When I finally did come up with the solution, I quickly got it all together, and was able to tuck it into DP's luggage.  Oh yes, did I mention the time crunch of the impending car to the airport that I had to beat?  No WONDER I didn't get to take photos of the card set and box I made her.

Anyway. she loved everything, and no one was the wiser...well, no one but my little frayed NERVES.

I guess it goes to show that things are RARELY really ruined, unless the dog or cat or kids get hold of them.  I have none of those at the moment, so no excuses for me!  A little creativity goes a long, long way!

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Thanksgiving to my US readers!!
All Best-
Richard

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

Updated: Mr Cardmaker is Spammed Out.

***UPDATE:
 Due to the fact that I, myself HATE word verification, as do so many of you, I have turned it back off.  Intead, I have enabled the comment moderator feature, so I'll read 'em before I post'em. 

Bleah, spammers. 
And, while I'm at it, Bleah, word verification people.  How about making it just a teensy bit easier to work together???


So sad to have to do it, but the word verification has been turned back on here at the ol' Blog.
Fifty spam messages in two days is my limit, I'm afraid.

Sorry to make commenting inconvenient again, but I hope you'll continue to do so!

Sorry, and thanks!
Cheers-
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

Blog love for Clearly Besotted Stamps!

Photo and Artwork Source:Stephanie Wincott

Hey Readers! 

The lovely and uber-talented Stephanie Wincott over at Stamping and Sharing has some amazing news!  She's started her own stamp line, and she's starting to sell them TOMORROW!  The line is called Clearly Besotted Stamps, and I have to tell you, she has some BEAUTIFUL things here! 

I have only seen a small number of her stamps in action, but she has some lovely samples on her blog right now, and there is MORE on her Pinterest page!  Please check out Stephanie and Clearly Besotted Stamps, and if you feel like it, send her some words of encouragement.  She ROCKS!!

PS...When you get to the Pinterest page, you'll immediately think there are no pins there, because of the way the page is organized.  SCROLL DOWN!  Don't miss her Signature Christmas set, and  her Twinkle Toes set, for the ballerina in your life! 
It looks like there are SO MANY sets on their way. I can't wait to see them ALL.

Thanks for stopping by and seeing me.  Now go see Stephanie!

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

Mr Cardmaker is a Revisiting Kinda Guy

So, I am really a big, big fan of banners and flags, when used as a celebratory sort of thing.  Bright colors in the wind, flashing in the sunshine, just makes my spirits soar!

I have the banner punch from SU!, and I really like it so much.  I have the banner basics stamp set too, and I do use it sometimes, but I tend to like to use DP when I do use the punch.

Anyway, for my youngest brother Joshua's birthday, I made this--

I have all kinds of fun stuff on this card! 

On the card base, I stamped with PTI Background Basics Medallions set, that really pretty (and SO easy to get great results from) medallion(duh) border at the bottom, and then rounded the bottom with a 1/2" corner rounder.  This is SU! More Mustard CS, btw.

Then I cut a piece of blue CS, Stamped the sentiment (GinaK Designs, Follow Your Dreams)in Night of Navy ink (SU!), and added the strip of DP (American Crafts Patterned Paper, the Play set) at the bottom.  I cut some clouds with A*Muse Studio Clouds Duo die, and Then cut the long banners from SU! Designer series paper, in both the Brights and Royals collections.  I used my SU! heart punch to do the hearts.

I arranged the banners and clouds, then adhered them.  Some I attached to the card stock, some I popped up with foam tape.  The hearts are adhered with the foam tape.  Last, I wound some red and white bakers' twine (Paper Source) around a couple of times, adhered the blue piece, and called it a day.

At this point, I thought it looked okay, so I put it aside.

THEN!

When I went to add my message and send it, I thought it looked kind of flat.  I remembered the additional layers I did on my Fourth of July card (seen HERE), and decided that I could beef this puppy up, too.

That's when I decided to add a heap more banner triangles to this project.  I went into my scraps and chose different papers than the ones I used on the card already.  (These are mostly DCWV, and AC papers, with one Fiskars paper, I think.)  I grabbed my banner punch and went to town, arranging the pieces as I went to look like the breeze had caught them.

I cut another length of red and white bakers' twine, and, using more foam tape, adhered the pieces to the card.

I am happy about this second shift of creativity.

I have decided to take a look at some previous cards that I am holding onto, and seeing if there aren't some other missed opportunities to add some wow factor.

I'll let you know if I come up with anything!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr. Cardmaker is (sort of) Finding Some Mojo.

You may have noticed a lack of postings of late. 

Mr. Cardmaker has been a busy, tired, and burned out puppy. 

My wonderful MIL had a mild heart event that required some stent work.   About a week afterward, she fell several times, requiring stitches, a hospital stay, many drugs, a pacemaker (!) and a month at a rehab facility.  Guess who was at every stage of all that activity  (as was the in-and-out services of most of the rest of the family)?

You guessed.

Well, she is in a new home, doing MUCH better (if we could make sure she was using her cane, we'd all feel better), and I have had a moment to get a touch of rest under my belt.

SO!  Expect some postings to happen.


I was going to play along with this weeks Mojo Monday challenge.  However, I did not pay close enough attention to the sketch, so I think I will not enter after all.  I like the card, though, so I decided to share it with you.

I made this--

I bought these stamps at a new (to me) shop I found in a nearby town.  They are by Claudine Hellmuth Studio, and the set is called "So Retro."  I wet embossed the phone image with black embossing powder, and used my aqua painter and black and Mostly Mustard inks to color it in.
The base is a loose piece of gray cardstock I've had from my first supply shopping trip at AC Moore, and the DP is My Mind's Eye.  The ribbon is a one dollar special.
I used a sponge dauber to do the edges of all the paper pieces in black, and I used a stamp from Pennant Parade by SU! for the greeting.

I used my Corner Chomper to round some edges, and used an EK Success punch to do the scalloped edge on the DP.

This was simple, and fun.  I really like the stamps!  I will get to many more projects with those puppies!

I think I will give that Mojo Monday challenge another shot.  Stay Tuned.

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker Is Challenging

Well, as promised, I was host of the Free for All Friday Challenge over at GinaK Designs during the span of July 13-20.  I did a "Man Style" challenge, asking the participants to come up with a card for an adult male, as opposed to a boy.  It was SO much fun, and SO many people joined in!  SEVENTY-TWO, you heard me, 72 entries!!  Everyone did amazing work, and I was really happy to be host.

I made two samples for this challenge, using GKD Follow your Dreams set by Theresa Momber.
They look like this--

I used DP from MME, and card stock from GKD.  My die cuts were done with Spellbinders dies, and the embossing folder is a Cuttlebug folder.
I colored the dragonflies with colored pencils, and also used the pencils to do some detailing on the trees, reeds, and other images. 

I took some ink and lots of water and flicked some speckles onto the first card with a paintbrush.  As my shadowy photos can show you, I used copious amounts of foam tape to pop up different elements on both cards.

I'll use one of these for my dad's birthday next week.  I love it when timing works out like that!

Sorry to be away for so long.  My MIL had some serious health issues this week, and I have been at both hospital and rehab center for almost two weeks now.  Hope to be free to post more in the coming days!

Thanks for stopping by! 
All Best-
Richard

Birthdays by the Shore

 I am hosting the Free For All Friday Challenge at GinaK Designs on Friday, July 13! 

Come play with us!!



Back at the end of May, my Aunt Lauri had a birthday.  She is a particular favorite of mine, and she is a big collector of shells and all things beachy. 

I thought this would be appropriate for her--

One day I am going to get myself a REAL photo set-up, I swear. 

This is a kraft card base, made from GinaK Designs 120# base-weight card stock.  The clouds is a DCWV photo paper.  I have done other cards with the blue sky in the past, but this is the sepia version of that paper.  I used yellow swiss dot SU Designer series paper, and a scrap of blue dp that I have had for a million years, and have lost the label to.  The stamps are from GKD, the Gifts from the Sea set by Melanie Meunchinger.  This is one of my go-to sets, for sure. 

The die used to make the pull tab and the "open" and arrow stamps are all PTI.  Under the tab is a lovely sentiment as well.  I should have marked down what it was that I stamped there, because my addled brain has forgotten what it was!  Oh, great...

Anyway, the shells are all stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa ink, and there are touches of hand coloring here and there.  I smooch spritzed them for a bit of shimmer, and then adhered them with some foam tape.  The bling and ribbon is from AC Moore.

The pull-tab set up requires some strong tape to make sure things don't fall apart on you when you pull the tab.  I find 1/8" Scor-tape is the best for this.

Now, notice the missed opportunity for genius here.  PLANNING would have made all the difference.  See how the ribbon goes across, and you can see the blue paper going over it?  Now, IF I had planned, I would have seen that if I had increased the size of the blue strip (by, what, 1/8 of an inch ?), I could have had a seamless transition going on.  ARGH!  The things we notice in hindsight.  SIGH...

Note to self.  Maybe flying by the seat of one's pant isn't always the way to go.  Think about it.

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Having a Sneaky Peeky Moment

Ok, so here's the thing.  I was contacted by Lori McAree at GinaK Designs this week, and she asked me to host the Free for all Friday challenge FOR THIS FRIDAY!!!  That's Friday the 13th.  Ooooooo.  Spooky.  Of course I said yes.  My Momma raised no dope. 

I am doing a masculine card challenge.  I have read that many people have problems doing a masculine card, so more practice will be a good thing.  I think strong shapes and lines, and a minimum of soft and shiny embellishments, as well as your color choices are key to making a card for a guy.

It took me all day to come up with a sample for this thing, and I actually came up with TWO.  I have a sneak peek  of one of them for you today.

It looks a little like this--

Oh yeah, there's all kinda stuff going on here.
To go to the GinaK Designs StampTV challenge page, click HERE.
I will be there early Friday morning.  The challenges are fun, and they give PRIZES, too! 
Hope to see some of your work there!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker Shows His Colors

Well, it's that time of year where we show off our red, white, and blue, and go see all the sparkly things in the sky.  My cousin Gerry is having a birthday on the 6th, so I made him a seasonal card.

It looks like this--

I used a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"white card base made from PTI card stock, and layered a 4 1/8"x 5 3/8" piece of SU striped designer series paper on it.  I then made six panels 1 5/8"x4", and used the side with the dots first.  I adhered them them on top of the stripes.  Then I took my Fiskars star punch and punched random stars, keeping some on and some off the edge of the panels.  I then layered those over the dots pieces with foam tape.  I used my white gel pen to make dots and stitch lines on the dotted paper inside the stars. 
To make the stripes, I used my wavy slider die from PTI's Movers and Shakers die sets to cut two different red shades of card stock from my scrap bin.  I inked up my Swiss dot cuttlebug embossing folder with some white chalk ink, and ran the pieces through the Cuttlebug.  To adhere them, I tucked one edge under the first panel, stuck them down, and then trimmed the ends that went over the edge of the card with my paper snips.  Then, deciding that the red Swiss dots wanted some pop, I ran a foam dauber with some red ink across each of the stripes really lightly; I really wanted most of the ink on the dots more than the stripe itself.
I punched some more stars, this time with a red and white dot paper that I got in a grab bag (I think it's Basic Gray).  These got popped up with foam tape, and trimmed to fit inside the panels.
I added some star shaped rhinestones that I had left over from my winter card projects, and there it is.
I didn't take a picture of it, but I added a red and a blue star to the side of my happy birthday sentiment.  This one is in the mail today!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a TERRIFIC Independence Day!

All Best-
Richard

More Summer Birthdays

I am really NOT a summer person.  I like the colors, and the sunshine and the long days, and all the flowers.  I DO NOT like the HEAT.  Re my last post about Michigan summers....yeah.....Not with this horrific heat wave we're having!  Lawdy, can we get us some SEPTEMBER already??

ANYHOW....

My nephew/godson Jared had his birthday, and I made him this card--

I was kind of digging this design, because the image happens at the bottom third of the card.  I don't think I find that happening most of the time. 

This card started with a base of SU card stock, with some layers of cut and punched MME Fine and Dandy Boy DP.  I did some detail with yellow and white twine from We R Memory Keepers.

I stamped Jenny Bowlin Studios seal stamp in two colors to create a sun on some SU daffodil delight cs, and circle cut it with a spellbinders die and my Cuttlebug. 

I die cut some clouds with my A*muse studio clouds duo die and sponged them with Memento cantalope ink to make them look like a sunrise, then popped them up with some foam tape.  That little kiss of aqua behind the sun is a circle sticker from Paper Source.

The truck is SU's Loads of Love set, and the dude and presents are from the Loads of Love extender set.  I hand drew the little swirls that look like exhaust/movement.  I stamped the truck both on the card stock and a piece of DP, then cut out the DP one and pieced it on top of the stamped image.  I used copics to color things in.  I mounted the whole thing on some random gray cs, and mounted it up with foam tape.

The inside looked like this--

Here I used sentiments from SU, both from the Loads of Love set (duh), and from Happiest Birthday Wishes (double duh)..
I repeated the use of that seal stamp to make my sun, and I used a piece of smashbook tape to help attach the blue banner piece.
I hand drew a border around the yellow cs with a superfine tipped marker.  I like how it personalizes it a little.

So-  That's my birthday card!

Thanks for stopping by!
Stay out of the heat, for heaven's sake.

All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker LOVES Summertime Birthdays

Boy, summer in Michigan is a BEE-YOU-TEE-FUL thing!  Warm, breezy days, lots of lakes around, gorgeous trees and flowers.   We have had a week of pretty hot days, but they come and GO, and then we have marvelous, open-the -window kind of weather for two more weeks.  I am a happy, happy cardmaking man.

Being in such a great mood, I am able to summon up my mojo and make a fun card for my little brother Daniel.  I think he's 16 now!  OMG.

I made this for him--

This started with a base of PTI Summer Sunrise card stock., which I stamped with Unity Stamp Co.'s Ippity stamp set, "Cuppy Cakes" in Memento Tangelo ink.

The next layer is MME's  Fine and Dandy Boy paper pad, with a backing of some of SU Marina Mist CS.  I stamped candles from Ditto by Studio G in SU Marina Mist ink.  I adhered these pieces to the base.

Then I stamped the receipt stamp from Jenny Bowlin Studio onto some PTI white CS, and stamped the Wishing You sentiment from PTI Simply You with Distress Ink festive berries (part of the 2011 Christmas ink bundle).  I stamped in black, then paper pieced more candles, and colored the flames with copic markers.  I also used a sponge dauber and some Memento Cantelope ink to make a glow around the flames. I hand drew the red line at the bottom with a red tombo marker, just to add a third bit of red (the sentiment, the red brad, and the red line).  Without any red in any of the papers, I thought I needed to make sure there was a big enough presence of red, so it wouldn't look like a mistake.

I added three brads from AC Moore.  The red one was actually green to start.  I dipped the head onto my versamark pad and then into red embossing powder, then heated it to get a red brad.  My first attempt there.  I think it needs work.  BTW--use tweezers or something to hold your brad when using your heat tool.  Trust me...  Anyway, that then got mounted onto a piece of patterned paper to wait for the next step.

I cut a 1.5" x 4.25" pice of numbered paper, adhered a small piece of turquoise ribbon to the back, and adhered it to the card.  Then I added some foam tape to the top layer and adhered it at an angle.  I like to carefully overlap some elements of the underneath layers when I do that.  You can see here I went off the edge a bit, measuring to make sure it would all fit into a regular A2 envelope.

That takes care of the front.  But my sentiment promises some more info....so I went inside...

I did this inside--

I cut a circle out of Marina Mist CS and stamped some candles and a Happy Birthday! (GKD Happy Camper set)on it with Stazon Black ink.  I adhered it to the inside, and then stamped lots more cupcakes around with more Memento Tangelo.  This ink is light enough on the orange card stock that I can write a message without it getting lost in all my images.

I like this card for Daniel, because it's fun without being juvenile. While these images and other items could be used for a younger kid, I think the layers and composition make it sophisticated enough for a teenager without being stuffy.

Next time I have another summer birthday card to share with you.   This one is for another teenager, my nephew, Jared.

I hope your summer is a terrific one, too!
Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker has a CASE of the Graduation Hooplas

SO after I made nephew Elliot's card, seen HERE,  I needed three more cards for my younger brother, my cousin, and another nephew.  Time was of the essence, so I made almost identical cards for them all.  They look like this--

This design started with a CASE of a card I saw on Pinterest.  You can see the original with all due credits HERE.  I liked the idea of the partial mortar board hat, and the tassel, so I ran with it.

I started with a white card stock base, 4.25"x 5.5".  I then added a piece of DCWR cloud paper, trimmed down to 4"x 5.25".
With a Jenny Bowlin Studio "seal" (looks like a sun to me) stamp, I stamped a sun on SU Dandelion Delight CS with two yellow shades of ink (sorry, I did not note which I used).  Then I found a Spellbinders circle die that fit it, and put it through my Cuttlebug.
I stamped the sentiment "You" (Papertrey Ink's Simply YOU set) on the sun with gray ink, and then stamped the center circle and the second part of the sentiment with black stazon ink, just to get that amazing crispness.  MUCH easier to read.  I cut the circle part out with a Fiskars circle punch, and adhered it with some foam tape. I attached the sun with some adhesive, making sure to overlap the open edges of the background piece.
To do the mortar board, I used some DCWR Brights cardstock stack green and cut a square, cut it in half diagonally, then rounded the corners with a 1/2" rounder punch.  I used some gray ink on a foam dauber to give some texture to the edges. 
I used a 1 1/2" x 1" piece of the same CS, as well as a scrap of yellow in the same size, and used my snips to create a fringed edge.  I rolled the uncut side around a piece of yellow cord, and made a tassel.  I attached the end of the cord to the underside of the mortar board, and adhered the whole shebang with foam tape.  I secured the tassel to the card front with a glue dot. and let the cord move around freely.
I felt like there was too much negative space at the bottom of the card, so I stamped some birds from Melanie Muenchinger's Gifts form the Sea set, by GKD.  I find myself going back to that stamp often!
I happened to have two graduates with green and yellow as their colors, so I did two of them.  The other one was red and white, with navy. 
I made this one--

This one is the same idea, different colors.  I decided to overlap the sun and the mortar board on this one, rather than have the sun overlap the outer edge.  They both work for me, I think  The red one has a more pronounced tassel.  That would probably change every time I make this card.

SO, graduations are over.  On to new adventures for these guys.  I, myself, am very proud of each of them.

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Searching

This week is graduation for Elliot, one of the nephews.  Everyone else has happened already.  I am BROKE, shelling out for gifties!  I DO love my nephews...

I made Elliot this card--

This is a really cool stamp from Stamps of Life.  I ran into this company at the MegaMeet in Novi, MI, and I really like some of their stuff!  I stamped this in Memento Paris Dusk ink onto PTI white card stock, and then mounted it onto some navy cardstock (probably SU Night of Navy).  That went onto a layered background, using DCWV Cotton Bloom paper (oval) Basic Grey Boxer paper (the blue piece) and My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Two Sunshine paper (the big houndstooth background piece.  The base is SU More Mustard (I think.  I also have a multicolor pack from PTI, and I may have used one of theirs).  All on a base of PTI white card stock.
I inked the edges of the puzzle piece with some Distress Ink Tea Stain, and I die cut the letters of his school initials with some sizzix dies, and used my glue pen to adhere them  That rhinestone is some random foundling.

The inside looks like this--

I used Spellbinders Labels Four and Labels Four Small dies with my old bud the Cuttlebug to do the center piece (Dollars to doughnuts there is some messed up stamping underneath it), and I used my pennant punch from SU to do the pennant pieces.  Stringing these puppies onto that twine was a pain in the butt, but it looks good, so, there that is.  The sentiments stamps are GinaK Designs and SU, and the twine is from Memory Keepers. 

So that's it!  Hope he likes it.

Thanks for stopping by! 
All Best--
Richard