The musings and offerings of a burgeoning greetings master

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

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

20 comments:

  1. This is great - I love the rich colors and textures in your papers and that bow - nice work! Thanks for joining us this week at Merry Monday!

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  2. Love the richness and depth of this! So glad you joined us at Festive Friday!

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  3. Wow Richard!! This is gorgeous!! I love the dark green embossed background and your layers and colors are amazing! So glad you joined us at Festive Friday! :)

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  4. LURVE this card! It has perfect balance, so satisfying to look at! How do you know that glossy accents spreads on ribbon, Rich? And you said, hot glue? I am not allowed to use a glue gun. Too many burns! I can't even style my hair with the curling iron without a burn! But I digress. The dark green "present" is awesome. I guess it would be tacky to scrap-lift your design and send you one at Christmas, huh! Hugs!

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  5. Fabulous card Richard, I love the great blend of colours and textures. Thank you for joining us for Merry Monday.

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  6. Love this dark green, Richard! And your embossed words are placed perfectly! Love the bow and the wood trims! Thanks for sharing this with us at Merry Monday!

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  7. Such a creative interpretation for this weeks challenge! I love the dark green embossing and your lovely details!

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  8. Richard, I love all of the embossing on this and especially that dark green with the red and wood veneer! This is wonderful.

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  10. Such a festive little bundle of holiday fun! Love the shape, love the texture!

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  11. Great combination of challenges! Looks fantastic!

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  12. Hello Richard!!! I realized from some Pinterest notices that for some reason I haven't been receiving your posts in my email!!! No good!!! Your card is perfect for both challenges!! Love the wood grain embossing of the kraft and that dark hunter color with the red ribbon!

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  13. What a beautiful card with a clever & cute little present! Thanks so much for playing with our Merry Monday challenge this week!

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  14. Gorgeous! Love all the embossing!! Thanks so much for playing along with us at Merry Monday.

    Deanne :)

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  15. Congrats on your win. Your card was so unique and I liked the wood veneer pieces, not to mention the embossing.

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  16. Richard what a cool card! I love all of the little details. I can totally appreciate the amount of time it takes to make a card, photograph, edit and compose a blog post! Well done. Congrats on the Merry Monday win, well deserved!

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  17. Richard, I have a blog set up and ready to go. I've never posted one card to it. I have a hard time just getting cards done. Photographing them and writing about them are just about beyond my time limits. I keep telling myself that I should try to post just once a week. How hard can it be? Well, you KNOW how hard it can be.

    I so appreciate everyone else's efforts that I feel like I should reciprocate. Very soon the boat comes out of the water and I will have my weekends back. Maybe, just maybe.....

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  18. Wow Richard! I love all the texture here. The embossing is so rich and crisp! Beautiful!

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Your comments mean so much. Thanks for taking the time!