Mr Cardmaker is Present.

Keeping up with my challenge blogs is really fun, but I find that my day gets sucked up by the time I make the card, photograph it, edit the photo, and then compose a blog post about it.

Does anyone else find this happening to them, or am I just bad at time management?

Oh well, who needs clean laundry and mopped floors anyway?

I made a card to enter in the Merry Monday and Festive Friday challenges this week.  How's THAT for saving energy?  (Now let me tell you the story of how long it took to come up with the concept that fit both challenges...)




Well, I liked the woodsy look and dark green of the Friday inspiration, and the gift idea, of course from Monday's challenge...

I made this--

 

I started with a wood grained background, via some kraft card stock and an embossing folder.

I then found my very darkest green card stock (of which I had a teensy scrap left), trimmed and dry embossed it, wrapped it with dark red ribbon to make it "gifty",backed it with some gold card stock, and popped it onto the base with foam adhesive. I finished off my "gift" by hot gluing on a happy little bow.
Glossy accents spreads on ribbon, by the way. Ask me how I know that...

I returned to the woodsy idea by using two wood veneer pieces, one on top of the other, to dress things up a bit.  I painted the tree with some diluted gold ink to give some shine, yet let the wood grain show through.

A better look of that--

And one more view of the card--

I like the darker, rich look that I get from this card. I like that the wood veneer is the bright spot.

So, I think that just about does me in for challenges this week, but I never say never, so stay tuned.

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

Mr Cardmaker's Absence.



Making a sympathy card is really much more difficult that I expected.  It needs to be simple yet elegant, and peaceful. It takes thought and care, and reverence.

There's a big couple of messes in my trash can right now, where I really whiffed, trying to make this work.  Then I looked at the piece of watercolor paper that I was meaning to use on the inside of my card, and I finally found my idea.

White. Absence of color. Well, mostly.

I made this--

The watercolor blot with the gold was my starting point. I thought watercolor was soft and dreamy, and under the sentiment it just seemed exactly right. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink, and I think it is just lovely; a perfect size and font.

With no color to work with, I turned to texture. A simple, dry embossed white panel with a cluster of leaves "growing" out from under it; some adhered with foam adhesive. I worked with all watercolor paper, which is not pure white, and mounted everything onto a pure white base. I think the tiny bit of contrast is nice here.

The sequins are soft and mostly whitish, with just a blush in places to refer to the watercolor. I found they looked more restrained poking out from under the leaves, for the most part.

I had to make myself walk away from this card at least three times.  Restraint.....

One more view--

Thanks for stopping by.
All Best--
Richard


I am using this card in the CASology "Under" Challenge.

Mr Cardmaker is a Starmaker

Well, I managed to get in the doors of the now gone-but-not-forgotten Archivers store in my area just before  they closed a while back, and while it was WAY picked over, I found a few goodies.  One of them was a Sizzix star die set. 

I love stars.  They can be used for so many things, and they are so wonderfully strong and dynamic.  Great for men's cards, great for July 4, Christmas, New Years, baby cards...everything. 

I decided to enter a couple of challenges this week--

A Blog Named Hero Challenge #51 Spell it out for me!
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Go Boldly into Stamptember
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge-Anything goes STAMP


I made this--

 

 

Ok, so, I think this fits these challenges pretty well.  Bold, yes.  Lots of stamped words, yes. 

I used a beautiful Cosmo Cricket 8x8 pad called TV Dinner to make most of these stars, with some card stock ones thrown in too.  The recipe card is also cut from this pad.  So cute!

 

The stamps are from Paper Smooches Many Thanks.

 

Wouldn't this be great for someone who invited you to a dinner party?  Why, yes. Yes it would!

 

The inside looks like this (just not as wonky as the photo would show)--

 



I was pretty happy with this one, all in all. The dimension is really fun.

 

So, that's my card.

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best--
Richard

Early Halloween-y Fun! *NOW WITH PHOTO!*

We'll, keeping in the theme of challenges, I am entering the Simon Monday challenge blog, where the theme is Kraft and Halloween.   This is a quick post, because I am in Chicago with friends, and we're seeing Avenue Q tonight. Should be a blast!

Anyway, I made this--

This tag was a blast to make. Kraft card stock, lots of glitter adhered to dots of Scor-tape.  I have a roll of the 2" stuff, so my small circle punch works great with it.  My stamps are Studio G and Close to my Heart.  The top was done with a large scallop punch; I lined it up in the center, and it worked beautifully.

Ok, so that was great fun!  Off to have more!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best--
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Throwing Down

Well, the very first challenge I ever entered was a color challenge, and by virtue of a random pick, I WON. You can read about it HERE. Since that was AGES ago,I figured it was about time to try another one!

I am entering the Color Throwdown Challenge #307
I am also doing the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, where Anything Goes. 

For the color challenge, we were to use the Stampin Up colors, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, and Pacific Point. 
Yeah. Old Olive I have, but not the others....
Not to worry!  Get as close as you can, they said. Yay!

So, employing the closest I had, I made this--

Well, my yellow looks really green here, but I DID start with some Daffodil Delight and Tempting Turquoise cardstocks, and I tried to drag them toward the prescribed colors with my inks. Distress Inks Mustard Seed, and Salty Ocean really helped out here.

 

I have all kinds of die cuts going on here, as well as a Spellbinders embossing folder, and there are so many, I'll forgo naming them.  I do think my favorite part is the bright blue wood grained piece.  Reminds me of the TARDIS (yes, I'm a Doctor Who geek).

 

There's LOTS of tiny flecks of foam adhesive in here.

This shot can show you some of the dimension-

 

 

And then, I managed a non-blurry interior shot for a change--Mind you, I was holding it in one hand and shooting the photo with the other--

 

 

Well, THERE'S the yellow wheat.  Told ya.

 

This one took a good while, between composition, tiny flecks of foam, and even tinier dots of mono-multi adhesive, AND the sunflower that just never found the right spot. I am pretty happy with it, though, and it will definitely work for one of the fall birthdays coming up for me.

 

 





 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard

Mr Cardmaker Liked it, So He Put a Wreath on it

Well, if anything is going to get me onto the computer to write a post, it's a challenge!  This week, I am joining in with the Merry Monday challenge blog.  "Put a wreath on it" is what they asked for, and put a wreath on it I DID!

I made this--

 

 

I had coveted that Memory Box Catalina Wreath die for AGES, and I just LOVE it.  It is super detailed, so my metal shim REALLY helps cut it out, and even then, I had to do a tiny bit of snipping.

 

My background paper had that tiny bit of pool color in it, so I added to it with a Papertrey Ink sentiment stamp, and kept the color going with my wreath ,including the tiny bling. These are Heidi Swapp papers, I do believe, except for the wreath, which is an ancient DCWV pad. This is a 12x12 pad, and I am really digging how big the lettering is.

 

I REALLY wish the photo showed how shiny my sledding kid is, because I am PSYCHED about how I got it.  I used scraps of photo print paper!  Whoa! I was using my trimmer to trim some photos that I printed (which I NEVER do), and I really loved the shine of the paper.  I have yet to try to stamp or watercolor on it, but I LOVE it for this die cut.

 

I am also following the Festive Friday challenges, or trying to, anyway, so with any luck I will have a great stash of Christmas cards well before the rush of the season. That would be good.  This one doesn't fit in with their challenge at the moment, but I will get on the ball with them soon, I hope.

 

I'll leave you today with just a small detail of my card--

 

 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best-

Richard

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Mr Cardmaker is Feeling (Cutting) Edgy

Well, I'm back to join The Cutting Edge Challenge with their latest task.  I have so many photos edited, watermarked  and ready to go, I am hoping to get back up to my old self here on the blog.

The challenge was to follow this inspiration--



Isn't Kay's card just beautiful?  Well, I looked at it, and I broke it down to pieces-- Flowers, leaves, and sentiment, with a panel. 

So, my brain went off, and we veered a bit to the left with the inspiration, but I came up with something I liked.

I made this--

So, DEFINITELY not anywhere NEAR where Kay is with the clean and simple thing, but I DO love my colors and ALL those die cuts!

This is done with WPlus9 dies and stamps, sentiment and card stock (mostly) by Stampin' Up.  The purple leaves behind the panel are done with a Sizzix die.

The background paper is from one of my first ever crafting purchases. (Meeeeeeemorieeeeeees, light the corners of my miiiiiiiiind....)

Thank goodness for these dies.  I would go cuckoo if I had to fussy cut all those tiny flowers!

This was a fun one, and it went to my VERY best high school friend, Karlah. We haven't seen each other in years, but my heart is with her always. We were totally inseparable, back in the day, and there is still dents in the restaurant booth were we sat drinking gallons of coffee and planning our amazing lives to come.

Thanks so much for stopping by! More to come, and SOON!
All Best--
Richard

Mr. Cardmaker has been Tagged

Today I'm entering the Tag You're it! challenge, and the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge.

This is the inspiration photo--

I just got the mini Distress Ink pads, set, 1-9, and I've been playing around with them a bit.
I pulled out my Jumbo Peony stamp from Stampendous, and got to work using some watercolor techniques.
I made this--

 

 

I black embossed my image, added water within the individual shapes in the flower, and then floated color in on top of the water.

There are so many colors in there, but Picked Raspberry, Scattered Straw, and Worn Lipstick are among the majority.  Tumbled Glass is the majority of the background. 

 

I worked this pretty hard, and I am really happy that I used watercolor paper instead of cardstock, or I'd have had a huge wet mess. 

 

The sentiment is also black embossed onto vellum, with tiny dots of glue used just behind the letters.

 

The tag is subtle here, but it seems to work.

 

This is my first time at this challenge blog, and I hope to get back here again!

 

PS--I have a new photo setup IN the craft room, instead of way down in the basement, so I am hoping to get back to the blog post haste!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best--

Richard

 



Mr Cardmaker is Dieing on the Edge

 

Well, if THAT isn't a provocative title, what is?

Playing with Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday Challenge again this week, and the challenge this time is to make a die cut border without using border dies.

I played around with several of my stamp and die sets, and finally came up with something that worked--

I made this--

The coloring got away from me on this baby, but I ultimately still like it.  I was able to take the flower die from the Rosie Posie die set, and maneuver it so I could get a good partial die cut just on the edge of my card base.  I cut away the remainder of the edge with my snips, and got these three flowers.  If you have this die set, you know this can be tricky, because the dies are all together on a rather sturdy sheet of metal, so separating them is not an easy task!

I stamped the flowers onto the shapes, and used markers to shade and highlight them.  That middle leaf is really bad.  I did coat everything with some clear Wink of Stella, but that doesn't help here because it doesn't photograph. Normally, I would just paste something over it, but as the sentiment is stamped right through it, I am sorta stuck with it.  Oh, well. I am going to go with, the old, "it's a handmade card, they're gonna love it anyway" idea, and just ignore that leaf.

The sentiment is from the Movers and Shakers stamp set.  Lots of fun pieces to play with and combine here.  It looks so great layering them over the flowers. And that leaf. (That LEAF! But, I'm ignoring that...)

The inside is also the right side of the card.  For that I used a piece of Crate Paper paper, and just went with it on the simple. 

Here's just a look at the opened card--

The left side of the card is some washi tape and a bit of satin ribbon.  A few clear sequins are the final touch. I like layering them just slightly over the text.  Fun, right?

So, there it is.  A leaf, with a nice card around it. (But, I'm ignoring that....)

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Papertrey Ink Make it Monday-- Rainbow Medallion

Well, after slowing WAY down on my blog posts, it is shocking to ME that I am getting two posts in in one day.  I did want to try my hand at this new Make it Monday challenge at Papertrey Ink, so here I am!

The challenge is to use a stamp to create a medallion, using rainbow ink colors, using the method that Dawn showed on her video.

Well, I came up with this--

This was made with the Harvest Berries stamp set, a big "go to" set for me. My PTI ink collection hasn't started yet, so I filled in with what I have, and added details with a Sakura sparkle pen.

I cut the doily with a PTI Dainty Doily die, from black card stock, and white embossed the sentiment from Framed Out #1 in white.

My tiny vellum butterflies are made with a tiny heart punch, cut on the fold to create the butterfly shape.  I love that technique!  Tiny dots of sparkle finish them off. 

I also used the sparkle pen to hand draw some squigglies around the leaves.  Why?  Because my hand slipped and created the first one, that's why. As this was already my THIRD attempt at this card, I was MAKING it work!

If I win this challenge, I think it's high time I get some PTI inkpads. 

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

Mr Cardmaker has that Friendly Flower Feeling

Well, my very wonderful crafty friend Michelle Woerner has been her SUPER generous self, and gifted me some things, which I am FINALLY able to use and enjoy.

Michelle is a Spellbinders gal, and the things she makes with these dies are, well, to die for. Bad pun, yes, but she really rocks it.

Anyway, I made this with some dies she shared with me--

This was cut on the fold of my Papertrey Ink card stock first, then again to make a card
front, because I am not a fan of looking at incomplete shapes that happen when you try to get the fold in. Personal quirk, we'll call that. 

Next came the same shape in some My Mind's Eye paper, which was adhered on the offset.

Then, to add a pop of brightness, I cut the next smaller size in white, and ran it through an embossing folder. Twice more with that shape, in some old SU designer series dotted paper, and then from a bright yellow piece of card stock from DCWV.  The last one got its center removed with the smallest die, and then was run through my swiss dots embossing folder. They all got put together with flat and dimensional adhesives, and attached to the card front. A bit of glue on a big ol' brown jewel and a tiny circle of designer paper that's been around for ages, and there you go. Oh wait. I did emboss that paper. Because, why not.

Lastly, I made a small banner with a SU die, and stamped "happy birthday" with an SU stamp onto it.

 

Inside, I stamped "happy day" from a Hero Arts set by the same name. Super simple.

 

 

Well, after all that, I realized that I didn't have an envelope that was going to work well with this. 

Happily, Himself got me the We R Memorykeepers' envelope punch this past Christmas, so I could take care of that. I dug into my old, old DCVW papers and came up with a piece of paper with yellow roses on it. Well, that doesn't mail so well. The USPS tends to want to be able to read things unhindered, you know. HOWEVER, the white back of the paper sure does work, and oh, what a pretty lining that would make!

 

It looks like this--

 

 

A while back, I found some liquid that you can use on your homemade envelopes to give them a "lickable sticky" once it dries. (That sounds like Lemony Snickett's second cousin, doesn't it?)  Went on like a charm, and it's all set to mail.

 

This was surprisingly easy to put together, once I decided what I was using. It helps that there was one main source to go to for the shapes, for sure, and I just love that this shape is very basic, yet super strong in design. I will have to return to this idea over and over!

 

Thanks so much, Michelle, for keeping me creating!

 

I am running out of things I have photographed--I will have to work on that!

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard

 





Mr Cardmaker is feeling Seasonal

Well, my good friend Lisa Minckler posted her FINISHED collection (yes ALL of them) of Christmas cards, so I thought I should spill the beans and show you what I have managed to come up with for Christmas so far.

You may have seen the Christmas tins I did, but I also came up with some cards. 
I was theoretically going to do some every month so I wouldn't go crazy in December.  Yeah, that....

Anyway!
They look like this--

My Charlie gifted me much of these supplies--The papers and the wood trees, and the two woods stamps. I think there are wood snowflakes waiting to be used, too.  Such a nice man, him.

Super simple stamping with just as simple punches.  The berries are my office punch!  I think all of us have that stamp, too....Love the gold cardstock and bokeh paper here.

 See the deer in this one below?  Such a lovely stamp.  I white embossed this, then rubbed some white ink on it to make it look "chalkboard-y."

 This one was so simple--Stamp image, stamp sentiment, add strip of paper.  Boom.

 I love the red on red hounds tooth paper  that the flair piece is on. It's just a strip, so you can write something above.  I have no idea whatsoever where that little tag came from.  ?????  Sure works here.
Oh, and yes, I did fix that ribbon.  OCD me, except when taking pictures, apparently.

 

 

Well, that's what I have so far.  I have MANY more to go, and I am hoping to get multiples of some of what I come up with next.  I will try to share some along the way, but as you know, the posts are fewer and farther between these days.  Hope springs eternal for the Cardmaking Man!

 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

All Best--

Richard

That Awkward Moment when the Rubber Band Snaps You Under the Chin...

I was never a big fan of those point birthday hats when I was a kid. The rubber band always hurt when it snapped under my chin, and I just could never get comfortable wearing it.

So, it's weird that I chose to make them the focus of this card. This was for my nephew Jared.
I made this--

This is a CASE of a card I saw on Pinterest.  I can't find it in my "almost a million" card pins, but suffice to say that I liked it, and I ran with it.

I used Stampin' Up's Banner punch and coordinating stamp set to make the hats, using clear embossing powder to give some texture. 
The paper is from Crate Paper, I believe, and the asterisk top-thingy is a die from Paper Smooches snowflakes dies.

The "scrabble" paper is popped up on foam tape, as are the hats, and the card stock squares are dry embossed in a Swiss dots folder, as you can see.

Another view--

And the inside-

The sentiment stamp is another Stampin' Up set. 

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Glad to See You

Well, it seems I am not dead after all.  I have actually been slightly creative, at moments. I have NOT had the motivation to drag my butt to the light box to photograph anything, though, and so here I sit with little to show for myself.

However!

I do have a card to share with you today, using a cute little die that I bought at Archivers' going out of business sale. They're these cute little glasses, and I don't even know who makes this die....Oh wait, here it is. Taylored Expressions, they're called Spectacles (imagine that). I don't know this company, but the dies are super cute. 

Anyway, I made this--

I used some WICKED old paper I had, which I believe is from My Mind's Eye. I cut the flower shapes with a Sizzix flower die, and the sentiment is from Wplus9 I think. (I really should keep notes....) I centered my die on the flowers in the paper to show them off, and I think that worked pretty well here.

The inside is kinda fun, too--

Same papers and stamp set, but here I die cut some clouds with my Amuse Studio Cloud Duo dies.  Clouds just make me happy.

So, that's my card. More to come!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

And Now for Something Totally Christmas

Well, I'm finally back in the blogosphere, here today to share some altered tins.  I am enjoying doing more 3D work, and I hope to get into doing some more.

This is the first one--

This is an emptied Tazo Tea tin from Starbucks.  I covered it with some Christmas Papers by Heidi Swapp that I picked up at Michael's after the holidays. 

I love the large scale chalkboard label, and I was given the idea to do the little banner by the strip of paper that was there to help seal the tin. 

Another view--

I really love the graphics of these papers.  I could do this stuff all day long!

The second one--

Same paper pad, same idea.  This was a tin that held cookies from Williams-Sonoma, so I had the little stripes at the top and bottom to help me along already.  I used a Papertrey Ink die cut border on this one (the lacy black piece), and mirrored the top tab idea from the tea tin. 

Another view of that one--

Great papers, right?  Love them!

I am now on the lookout for some great cheap (read free) tins.  This stuff is FUN!


Well, that's all I've got for now!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Well, There's That Calendar I Made....

So, as I paddle furiously, trying to catch up on posting about some of the things I have been making, I wanted to show you one of the two calendars I managed to get put together this year.

This one was for Charlie's mom--

Sorry about the photo quality.  I forgot to photograph it at home, and this was taken with my phone.

I decided to try my hand at mixing papers.  Clearly, not a HUGE effort on this one, but I am slow on the pickup on some of this stuff.

So, my first layer is a text sort of paper, with recipes and stuff.  I layered the blue floral on top of it, and then added that strip of weird green graphic paper on the left side.  Whoa, hold him back!  He's goin' CRAZY up in here!  Those got layered onto a green piece of cardstock, picking up the green in the paper, and that got put onto the base which is a blue that goes with the blue flowered paper.  In between I punched a white piece with a large scalloped punch, just for a bit of movement.

The 2014 is die cut from black card stock, and the 0 and 4 are popped up on foam adhesive.  I found a free download for the calendar itself, which I printed out.
I cut it into 12 pieces (for the 12 months), and used Elmer's to glue together the tops of the sheets, so it formed a pad.

The flower stacked die cuts, with a stamped die cut for one of the leaves, and another die cut leaf from a glitter paper that has been lingering for years in my scrap box.  Add the button as a flower center, and there it is.

I made one for Charlie, too, which I also forgot to photograph.  If I can remember to ask him to run it home for me, I'll show you that one someday.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Catching Up a Bit

Well, I have just been terrible about blogging this year so far, and it's almost MAY.  Boo, me!

 

I have been hanging onto this photo for a while now, and I wanted to share it. 

Nephew Elliot has his birthday in January, and he's a BIG ski buff.  He and his dad take a few skiing trips every year, and they have a bunch of ski jumping steel structures in their yard as well, so I would definitely say they are INTO it.

 

For Elliot's birthday, I made this--

 

 

 

I am always glad to come up with a snowy card for Elliot, because I already have all my things out from all my Christmas cards. 

 

I was given the skier stamp by my SIL Jan, who stamped for about 3 seconds years ago.  I guess the bug either bites, or it doesn't.  I stamped him in 5 different inks, going from lightest to darkest.  The first two don't read terribly different in this photo, but they do in real life.

I punched lots of snowflakes out of vellum, and used the edge with all the negative cuts as the base for the two layers to the left of the skiers.  I stacked up lots of vellum snowflakes with some white ones, and added some white Enamel Accents dots.  Snowstorm accomplished!

To mount the skier panel, I popped up just the left side with foam adhesive and adhered the right side right to the card surface.  I wanted it to look like the snow was bursting out of the card.  Whether or not that reads, I am not so sure.  I kinda dig it, though.

What I would do differently (in the event of a next time)--
1.  I would have trimmed the velum panels down to fit inside the borders of the skier panel.
2.  I would have done even more punching along the inside edge of the velum pieces, so no straight line was visible in the snowstorm.
3. More snowflakes! 

So, that's my card. 

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



Papertrey Ink Make it Monday-- Quilty Goodness

I was inspired to join in on Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday challenge this week.  I was however, in a weird spot, because it is mostly a paper challenge, and I have no decorative papers from PTI.  I DID have some scraps of red cardstock from PTI left over from my sample pack, but that's all.  I hope it's enough!  Happily I DO have a cover plate die that would work.

The challenge was to make paper look like a quilt, using a cover plate or embossing plate on top of a quilted paper pattern.


I made this--

I think it looks SO MUCH like a real quilt!    The cover plate die used as an embossing plate really makes the paper look like a top stitched quilt, I think.  Clever!  I liked these red pearls added, too, because they remind me of old fashioned quilting pins stuck into the fabric. 

I made this, too--(so I can enter TWICE!)

Same idea, different treatment with the red strip.  And, of course, now many quilting pins have the pearl tops on them (my Grammy was a quilter).

Here they are together--

This was  a fun thing to try!  Oh, I should mention that the solid blue squares are the card base.  Since I used white background papers in many cases, I decided that more color would be better!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

PS--I was only allowed to enter once, for some reason.  I am a bummed pup...

And Now for Something(s) Totally Different

Well, as the birthday madness keeps charging through, I have a couple more cards to share.

Nephew James is 22 this year, I think.  He's at U of F, and is going to go on to become a dentist, so there's much more school ahead for him. 
His cousin Sophia is 11, and is the only girl in this generation on my mom's side.  She is quite the little lady.

I made this for James--

Super simple and classic.  EVERYONE knows this stamp if they have even heard the words "Stampin' Up", so this is nothing new.  I am loving the Papertrey Ink sentiment from the Think Big Favorites line.  I ESPECIALLY love it in the gold embossing powder on the navy blue.  Classic.

For Sophia, I went in a very different direction--

This was done with papers from My Mind's Eye, the Quite Contrary collection.  I mixed some of the scrapbooking scaled papers with some of the smaller scaled 6x6 pad papers, added some stickers from this line, and used a sentiment from SU.  That little owl peeking out is so cute.  I have been hoarding those stickers forever.  I like the little hot pink pops of color, too.

So, that's it for the kids of April.  Today is my Charlie's birthday.  As soon as I get the pics lined up, I'll share his card, and I'll share the card set and birthday card I made for his mom, too.

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

April Showers Bring BIRTHDAYS, Apparently...

The nephews are a-comin'.  Well, their birthdays are, anyway.  I have one of their cards to share today.

I made this--

I love mixing up these random patterns.  I think this came out rather well, actually.  The majority of these papers are from Cosmo Cricket, and the retro patterns make me happy.  This one is for nephew Adam, who, at 19, just bought his first HOUSE.  I thought the household gizmo paper the that the sentiment is stamped on was good for the new homeowner.  I think the birthday check will buy a few of said gizmos, too.

Another view--

And, the inside--( I can NEVER get these to photograph correctly.  I just don't know what to do about that...)

Imagine this with much less yellow involved. 
I think as long as I use a black pen, this busy paper will still work out ok. 
So that's that.

Hey, we got a dog!  Our friend was in need of a home for his dad's dog.  His dad passed away, and his mom just couldn't manage Max, since she has some health issues.  So, we got to take him home with us!  So cute--

Meet Max!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Birthday Wonkies

Well, you know how nice and crisp and lovely a shaped card can be?  I love getting out my bigger dies and cutting shapes and making them into smaller sized greetings.

So, I made this--

This card was made with a Spellbinder's set called Jar Labels, which was a very generous gift from my friend Michelle Woerner, and Grommet Tags, also by Spellbinders.  The papers are from Basic Gray's Boxer collection, and the sentiment stamps are an old favorite from Stampendous, called Everything Happy.  Teeny-tiny words that are just lovely!

So, I am of the school that says you don't let the cut off part of a die cut show, so I cut a full piece to use as the card front.  You can see the fold on the back, but who cares about that?

I think this is a rather handsome card, even if it is small--as I'm typing this, it looks like the photo is just a tiny bit bigger than the actual card. 

Of course, you notice right away that the point on the bottom makes it so the card can't really sit on it's edge very well, at least, not without a bit of wonky factor.  Solution- Give the card AFTER a couple of Happy Birthday cocktails.  No one will EVER know the difference!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

It Must Be Spring, Because The Birthdays Are Upon Us

In our family, we have gluts of birthdays--March/April, then August (mine's the third, so's you know), then late October/early November.  It seems a wild whirlwind getting everyone on the list taken care of, and you STILL have to remember all the people who fall into those off times.  My side of the family is happy with a card (and a check for the children--who are now NOT children at all, but still stay on the payroll), but Charlie's side is BIG on birthdays.  Your birthday is your own personal holiday!

Luckily, lately, it's been my side of the family.  My much younger brother Chet had his birthday this month.

I made him this--

Chet is 20 (Oh. Em. Gee.).  I was going with young and bright, yet gender neutral enough for a twenty year old man.  Twenty.  Sheesh, I am old.  Yeah, I am just over 30 years older.  My dad is a wild man.  There are two more brothers beneath him, too!

ANYWAY--

I used a Papertrey Ink movers and shakers die and stamps for this card.  See the little zipper thing there?

Here's a close-up--

Under the zip strip it says, "a birthday as awesome as you are!"
I hope he finds the thing.  I AM sure he'll find the check.  He IS a twenty year old guy, after all... BEEN there!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard