Mr Cardmaker is Back on the Boards

Yesterday, I told you about the Pinterest inspiration that led me to make this card.

The inspiration piece looks like this--


and it comes form THIS BLOG. (Give credit where it's due! Thanks, Heike!)

Well, I made another one. That cake just got into my brain....
I made this--

And it HAD to be CHOCOLATE, right? I'm pretty sure you're with me on this.

BALLOONS! How fun! I love these PTI Balloon images. Nothing as wonderful as a big, fat, bright, round balloon. And cake. Don't forget the chocolate cake.
My cake is fussy cut and popped up on the front there, and totally coated with Glossy Accents.
The star is a separate stamp, but it's fussy cut and Glossy Accented, too.

Maybe this view is better--

Oh, and the inside--

The cake is brown, but it's pretty dark and looks black in this photo...
I went outside the lines on those candle flames, thinking they'd look like "glow." I think it worked!

Chalk up another birthday card for the stash!

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

Mr Cardmaker DOES Love His Pinterest Boards

Oh, Laws, the HOURS of my life spent on Pinterest would fill many a mayfly's lifetimes.
I just love looking at pretty things, and I especially love it when pretty things also serve as inspiration. Or, should I say "Pinspiration?"

Anyway, in a moment of need, I went into one of my many boards at the aforementioned Pinterest, and I saw a great photo that fueled my creative fire.

From THIS BLOG--

I found this--


 Isn't this nice? SO pretty! (thanks for the inspiration, Heike!)

Anyway, what I took away with me into my craft room from this pic was two things--
1. The popped up, yet small central image.
2. The "stuff going on behind.

Now, I didn't take the photo into the craft room with me, because I wasn't really looking to do a copy of it or anything. I just saw a couple of ideas, and ran with them.
I made two cards, one I'll share with you today, and one I'll share tomorrow. 

I made this--

 So, as you can see, I went bigger and broader with the idea. I started with the butterflies, double and triple time stamped, then added the splatters to make the background. Neutral, yet active, right?
I then moved onto my central element, which was SUPPOSED to be a tiny cluster of flowers, but somehow ended up a big bouquet. Ah, well, I DO love me some flowers...
I added lots of Glossy Accents to the blooms to give them some shine and texture. I particularly like the "nubbly" texture the hyacinths ended up with. I also added just a couple of gems. Because shiny!

The inside--

 I have been experimenting with the idea of trying to put the inside sentiment in relatively the same place as the outside sentiment. What do you think? Is this a thing, or am I cuckoo?

Oh yeah. I scored these Papertrey Ink Butterflies (which I am SO in love with) on Ebay. MUCH more to come with these butterflies.  Stay tuned.

One more view, so you can see more of the Glossy Accents textures--

So, tomorrow, I'll show you another version, a touch closer to the inspiration piece, but still pretty big and bold.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Jonesing For Coffee and Spring, aka Coffee Lovers' Spring Blog Hop

Is it Spring YET?? Nope. Snow's still pretty, and the temps are more than 20 most days now, so I'll be happy with that for the moment.

Well, I had such a great time playing with last Autumn's Coffee Lovers' Blog Hop, that when it came time to join in for the Spring hop, I jumped right in!

You can check out my Fall card HERE.

Anyway, this time I really wanted something bright and sunny; something that said SPRING!

I came up with this--

Coffee grows on plants, right?
And, I DID say bright, right? WOWZA.

I won this Lawn Fawn stamp set during the Fall blog hop, so I really wanted to use it for this one.
I did add some other stamps in with them, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

I have no idea where this idea for a coffee cup tree came from, but it came quickly, and I figured it's best not to argue with inspiration sometimes.

I used Distress Inks in several pinks and yellows to give my mugs some color, and used Glossy Accents on the "coffee" to add some shine.
These mugs remind me of the decorated coffee cups my grandmother used to have. I was lucky to find leaf stamps in my stash that matched the die cut leaves almost exactly, and I used the "steam" stamp it create the idea of a flower stamen on each of the mugs. 
And white dots, because I do them now. White dots are cool.

Coffee cups as flowers! Get it?
Is this thing on??

And, some blended inks for the inside--(on the sentiment)

Is that tiny heart CUTE?! I'm counting the moments before I lose that thing....

And one last look--

I'm so glad that this Coffee Lovers' Blog Hop has continued. Congrats and thanks to Amy and Chaitali!
I hope PLAN to be back for the next one!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best--
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Leaping, Baby

I find the "Leap Year Baby" thing to be a crazy thing. There are these people wandering around who only get a real birthday every four years, when February 29 decides to appear on the calendar.

Gilbert and Sullivan based a whole operetta about it in Pirates of Penzance, and I feel like it was very nice of them to give these people at least that. Kevin Kline, Rex Smith, Angela Lansbury, and Linda Ronstadt did a really pretty and fun movie version of it some years ago.



You can see the song here! http://youtu.be/XXhJKzI1u48


ANYWAY--

My friend Mark is one of these folks. His wife, Lina, contacted me, and asked me to come up with something to celebrate his "sort-of" birthday this weekend.

I made this--

I went to my new favorite stamps and got out my little "Peter Lorre" chick.  I decided he needed to see if he could drag a wayward (yet glamorous) "29" and a happy birthday message into February, before March 1 could get in and muck things up for him.

Looks like he's got his work cut out for him, doesn't it?

About ten seconds into discussing what Lina had in mind for this card, I knew EXACTLY where I was going with it.
I had the BEST time, stacking up the date tags and decking out that "29" with both gold and silver embossing.

I went with my trick of making those HUGE eyeballs shiny with some Glossy Accents, and added in the beak, because, well, because shiny!
I managed some extra shine by using embossing the months in silver and gold powders, too, and by clear embossing the "happy" die cut.

Lots of fun with Distress Inks, and lots of gold and brown scraps from the stash.

Oh, and inside--

I stacked up the sentiment in such a way that Lina could hand write in a "sort of" after the word "happy' or in front of "wishes", if she feels like it, or she can just leave it as is. Our friend the chick is light enough to write on top of, I think.

Mr Cardmaker is Warming Up Leftovers

I am sure that I'm not alone in this one--
You wander through your craft space, maybe even just to clean it up (HA! That made me laugh), and you come upon a leftover doo-dad of something that you used to make another project.
WHAM! Lightning bolt!
Drop the laundry, or vacuum, or small child, or whatever, and sit down and get to work.

SO, do you remember this tag from a while ago?

 

See the "smile" die cut? Well, I stumbled on the negative of it, and I got whammied with the lightning bolt. No small children got hurt here, I swear, but I did lose an hour or so making a card.

 

I made this--

 

The little chads from inside the L and E were long gone, but I was NOT to be deterred by such trivial things! My Sakura glitter pen helped pull me through there. 

 

I found a $1.00 star punch at JoAnn's last weekend, and I put that and my 1/16" hole punch to work on the yellow panel. That tiny hole punch REALLY was inspired, I must say. I normally would have reached for a stamp or a white gel pen here; now I get to see more green poke through.

 

 

 

More stars, some flag banners, some sentiments.  I added more glitter pen to one of the flags to make that have a place to repeat, and the white enamel dots help point up the white embossed sentiment.

I don't have a pink-edged circle punch or dies, but they would've made the red circle fit in perfectly. (Something for the shopping list!)

 

You may also notice there is no black on this card, just browns (even the dark embossing powder!).

I felt like it brought all the brighter colors into a more masculine place, and with all the boys in my family, I need as many masculine cards as I can get.

 

 

This was a quick, pretty simple card. And LOOK! I cleaned up that one really small, insignificant scrap of paper from my craft room floor! That counts as cleaning, right?

 

So, just a quick one for today!

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

All Best--

Richard