The musings and offerings of a burgeoning greetings master

Thursday, June 30, 2016

MrCardmaker is Hostful

A couple of weeks ago, I had my friend Stephanie over for a day of card making. I would have loved to have made it a BIG event, with ALL my local crafty friends, but it was sort of last minute-ish, and it was mid-week, when lots of people are working, so...

Anyway, Stephanie is the gal who introduced me to card making about, wow, is it SEVEN years ago now? Well, all that time, and all that $$$ later, I was able to actually teach her a couple of new techniques, and we just had the very best time of it. 

We made these!


We started here--
 This one was SO fun and easy! I love, love, love ink blending, and rainbows, especially when it goes along with emboss/resist. Can't ever say no to a great big sentiment, either!

I made samples and kits for the two of us to grab and go with, and so I got to have two of everything when all was said and done! Lucky me! I am entering this card into Virginia's View color challenge, at the urging of the lovely Donna Mikasa!

The next one was really fast and easy, and made the most of a tiny scribble with a white gel pen--


This is a single panel, partially dry embossed, with a wet embossed sentiment. The birdy-butts are the white gel pen part...But you may have read about this one on THIS earlier post. I used white pencil on that one, but I like the pen better...

Now, I thought this one would be super simple as we did it, but explaining the smooshing technique is not as simple as I hoped--

I CASE-d this idea from Dawn McVey at Papertrey Ink, using this panel die as a background. (I went looking for the link for her doing this, and cannot find it, so if it was somebody else, please forgive me. Senior moments happen more often, these years...)There has to be a better way to move all the pieces back and forth than the way I did it, but the Press'n'Seal and I became close friends doing it all, so...
VERY different results every time you try this technique, so you CAN'T get bored.

These babies were awesome--



I had stamped and colored sheets and sheets of these birds a while back, so it was great to have them on hand to just grab. I love how a change of color story makes all the difference here...

THESE, however, were the BIG deal of the day--


I watched Kristina Werner do a watercolor version of a galaxy sky on her BLOG, and I just loved it.
I wanted to try it with Distress Inks and NOT as watercolor, but as ink blending instead, and I LOVE how these turned out. You will definitely wear out your arm doing  the black layer, but it's SO worth it!



There was a LOT of drying time involved, so we started early and worked the steps in between other cards. WELL worth the effort involved, I think. It's hard to see here, but the "blessed" die cut is done from white glitter paper, so there's tons of shine. The white spattered stars are KEY to making this technique work, as are the water splatters, so don't skip these steps.

I'm entering this card into Virginia's View as well, because COLOR!

And that was our day!
There's very little better than a day spent with friends, creating and laughing!
I need to set up a weekend day of this for more friends, SOON!

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


18 comments:

  1. What a fun day you had, and filled with so much incredible creativity! Richard, your coloring is just beautiful! Glad you had a good time, and made so many wonderful cards! Hmmm...you mention friends, creating and laughing - bet you had some good snacks too! Happy crafting Sir Richard!

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  2. Wonderful cards - but best of all is the time spent doing it together! Friends make life worth living!!
    Hugs!!

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  3. Lovely opportunity circling back with your card mentor and honoring her with your immense growth. So many marvelous cards. Loved the pop of white that constituted bird butts. Plus ... Bird butt! But your galaxy card is truly extraordinary. Time as in wine and stew makes for amazing results.

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  4. OOOOOOOOOOOH My!!! FAB cards!!!, GRABBED my attention! FAB FAB LOVE the Cosmic Blessed!!!!!! WIsh you guys were in my neighborhood! What fun!!!!!

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  5. Happy to see your creations, Richard! The colorful vibe is awesome! So glad that you join the fun over Virginia’s View “All about Colors” Challenge! WONDERFUL!

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  6. So happy I decided to pop over from Virginia's blog. These cards all look amazing. Looks like a day well spent. It must be great being able to meet up with crafty friends and sit down to create together. I don't know any cardmakers in my area (the beautiful island of Crete, Greece), but at least I can share my passion (or obsession lol) with this wonderful online crafting community.

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  7. Oh Richard...you're killing me. Where did you get all the patience? They are all beyond beautiful but my favorites would be the one with the white birdie butts, and the Blessed one. Magnificent! Thanks for sharing.

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  8. These all look amazing! I love each technique you've used! Beautiful!

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  9. What a fun and productive day you had with your friend. I love all the wonderful cards you created.

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  10. Wow! These are all awesome Richard! I have to agree though that those last ones with the galaxy background are superb!! Sounds like you had a fun and very product day with your friend! Thanks so much for your nice comment on my blog. Yes, it's been hard to keep up with everything and I had to let a few things go, to keep my sanity ;) Happy weekend!!

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  11. What a fantastic day you've had - wish I'd been there! Love all the cards but I have to say that anything involving birds here are my favorites.

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  12. what a nice time with another person to make card together
    and I loveeee so much the blessed card it is stunning
    and thanks for the link to the Video
    all the cards are adorable but your Blessed card makes me look more than twice it is a STUNNER
    love to visit your blog
    hope one day you like to visit my blog too
    and if you like to make another splatter card...join us at
    Creative with Stamps our new challenge it has also a nice price and the theme this month is splatter..here is the link to make you easy to find :)
    CWS

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  13. Hi Mr Cardmaker

    I found you through the Tag You're It Challenge .. .. I found your tag for Challenge #50 very striking and beautiful!

    Have just been looking at your blog and love your style and use of bright bold colours! What a treat to find you.

    Great cards in this post too. Love the inky blending. How lovely to spend time with a crafty pal!

    Have a good week.

    Love Jules xx

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  14. Your last card really came in to my dream Mr. Cardmaker...here I made one..and mention yourink too..dont be surprise if my friends visit here n leave some love too :)
    http://creativewithmonika.blogspot.de/2016/07/atsm-201-anything-goes-birthday-card.html?m=1

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  15. Look at these gorgeous creations! You have come a long way, Mister Cardmaker! This is the sign of a true pro when you can teach your former teacher a trick or two! :)

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  16. Love the Blessed galaxy - who makes that wonderful "blessed" die?

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  17. That galaxy is wonderful! And I love the Kraft one -- I looked at both the new version and the old one and this is definitely better. Love it. Wish you would do a video of the galaxy!

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  18. Awesome cards! Especially love the colorful mini bird crazy cards. :) Greetings from NH. :)

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