Mr Cardmaker is Ready for His Big Break

I know we all have our mojo-free periods.  No energy to create, we force things, we hate everything we make, yadda, yadda, yadda....Oh, and that'll be me, over here, raising my hand to say, "Yup.  That's me."

A good friend of mine always has maintained that those times are our brains and spirits gearing up to have a big breakthrough, which will take you to a new and better creative place.  As this has borne true for me in the past , I have taken this on as part of my creed as well.
So, ok.....  Let's get ON with it, already, shall we???  Sheesh...

Hey, what do YOU do to break your Mojo-free moments?  Any great ideas out there??  SHARE, please!

Anyway--

If you made it through the pitiful post about THIS CARD, (for which, I offer up my apologies) you may remember the whole thing started with eight card bases I put together in order to finish up some paper from My Mind's Eye that I had been hoarding.  A sad end to that particular card base, I must say.  It never did anything bad to anyone....

HOWEVER!!

I had seven more to work with.  One became Charlie's Valentine.  I will share that later.  (It's not bad.  Not bad at all)

The remaining six made it out alive!!!  Aren't you glad this story has a happy ending?!

I have this really sweet stamp set from Papertrey Ink (PTI), called Funky Florals, which they GAVE you if you spent $100.00 at their online store.  I had a wonderful gift certificate from Christmas, and was able to get in on this deal.  They do not sell this, btw, and I am actually not sure if there are any left.  Be worth a check, however.

I used the stamps to make these--

Isn't his SOOOOO much better than the other thing?  I love that sentiment, and the flowers are so fun and pretty. 

PTI sells coordinating dies (from the Notched Flowers stamp set) that also go with this stamp set, but they rapidly sold out of them.  What I found, however, is that I could easily use my Nestabilities dies to cut the basic circle, and then my snips made easy work of the notches.  You just follow the image.  DUH!  There are no leaves in this set, so I used the leaf stamps and dies from the Rosie Posie set (also PTI).

When I adhered the flowers, I used foam adhesive, and put the medium flower on a 1/8" foam dot, while the other two flowers are on 1/16" foam.  I like the extra dimension.

I think my favorite part is the little "giggle of bling" that I sprayed across the bottom.  I like the mix of pearls and gems here, and the lighthearted placement.

Oh, I should mention that these are 4"x 5 1/2", and not the standard A2.  I wanted a little extra room to allow some of the leaves and flowers to go off the edge a bit, and still fit in a regular envelope.

I will decide later whether these go solo or as a set.  I am pretty happy about they way these came out, though!

I am back to a low mojo period after making these, however.  I threw three cards away this week.  *SIGH*  That's 3+ hours down the tubes.  It happens, I know, and then it goes away.  I am READY for it to go away now, thank you.

I think I will go dig out a favorite card, and either CASE myself, or just do the same thing in a new colorway or something.  That should get the juices pumping!

PTI is doing a "black background" blog hop on the 25th.  I made some COOL things for that, and I have been saving them for this.  Stay tuned for that!

Hey, thanks for stopping by.  I so apreciate you putting up with my ravings.
Have a great, creative, and love-filled day!

All Best--
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is having a Yummy Casadia

Well, I couldn't be happier.  I was put into the roster for Wida Miller's awesome Casadia (A CASE + an Idea) at Beachorado.  I am in a line of VERY good company, and we are all working off a super cute card by Laura Bassen..

This is Laura's card--



and waaaaaay down the line, I was given this card to CASE by Jaclyn Miller--

.....NICE, Right???

So, here's MY take on that one--

This circle card was cut with Spellbinders dies, and the letters are PTI dies.  The hearts are a Stampin'Up punch, cut from paper that I coated with clear embossing powder for some shine.  Sadly, that doesn't play in this photo.  they are also popped up with some foam adhesive.  The black card stock was run through the Cuttlebug with a hounds tooth embossing folder.  Cute and mostly simple.  It did take me three tries to get something I really liked.

 CASEing is not for the faint of heart.  You really want to honor the idea you're working with, but at the same time, you want to make it your own.  However, it is SO much fun, and so rewarding when you finally rise from the work table triumphant!!
I love the word "hiya"; don't you?   It immediately makes me feel chummy and welcomed.  I use it whenever possible in real life.

Just so you get an idea, I figured I'd leave you with a peek at my prior iterations.  They just didn't blow my skirt up, if you know what I mean.  The first one loses impact because the letters are too diffused, and the second is better than just okay, but just not really a home run, either.

They look like this--

So, that's my story.  Check out the rest of Casadia's projects, and stay tuned for more to come.  Somebody is CASEing me next!

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker Averts(?) Disaster

So, as promised, I have a card that probably should have hit the heap.  I started poorly, had a bad initial execution, and many mishaps along the way.  I'm not even sure I shouldn't let this poor thing rest in peace after all of this after all.  BUT!  I promised to show you, and show you I will!

I made this--

OK, so I started this whole sordid affair by making several card bases with these really lovely papers from My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary set.  These are the 12''X12" pages, which have a larger scale and more texture than their 6"x6" pad counterparts.  These were gifted to me a while ago, and I ran across them and felt the need to work with them.

So, my initial idea was to cut a large panel out of the base, and then fill it back in with the leaf idea that you see in the photo.  The leaves were going to span the space, and be nice and lacy, and magically hide the second part of the sentiment, so it would be a surprise when you opened the card. Or some rot like that.

......Yeah.

SO--

I did all of this inside--

THIS part is not so bad. I actually kinda dig it.  The idea here was for the stamped leaves to appear behind the die cut ones on the front with the die cuts on the inside tying it all together, yadda, yadda, yadda. 

The lower sentiments were the big surprise.  They would be hidden from view through the cunning use of ginko leaves! 

SO, I die cut out a nice long rectangle from the front.  Crooked.  Nice. This is probably the REAL first indication to toss the thing.  I made 8 card bases with this paper, however, and I had no more paper.  Time to get creative if I wanted to make a set of these things.
I managed to re cut it and straighten it out well enough.
But, then I realized that the hole was WAY too big; the leaves would not cover the sentiment in the way I had envisioned it.  Even if I did do some serious magic with some leaf die cuts, once you went to write in the card, you would have NO PLACE TO WRITE.  I had ENOUGH of that nonsense when I made THIS CARD!

OK, so this is about the point where I really should've tossed the thing.  Well, the second time I should've tossed it.  I am NOT someone who gives in so easily, however.  I sallied forth!

So, I knew I had to fill in some of that gaping hole I made.  I dug out the first die cut that I did, and cut off the top.  Now, because I had cut it incorrectly the first time, and then recut the hole, the die cut was too small to properly fill the hole.  *SIGH*

But wait!  I can SUSPEND the little bugger in the space!  Yes!  (Right?)

So, I die cut and stamped these pretty ginko leaves from PTI.  Then I painstakingly placed them across the span of the card front, lovingly adhering them to the little panel.  Bleah.  Bor. Ing.

Make a, a.......A what?  OK, a  frame!  Okay, not enough! Now what? Uh...... DOILIES, of course!

Now, the nice thing about the doilies, is that if you attack them with a two-way glue pen, they just about perfectly melt into the paper you're adhering them to.  It's AWESOME, really!
I also attached a BIG piece of doily behind ye olde panel and the space it left around it, so the message that will finally (hopefully) be written inside is well hidden from the outside.  Oh, and what the heck, throw some dang rhinestones on the thing.  Razzle-dazzle, baby!!  Maybe the shine will temporarily BLIND them or something!  yeah, yeah, that's it.....

Well, anyway.  I now have a card.  A. Card.  If you think I was going to go through all of that to make a set of eight of these monsters, you are more cuckoo than I am.  Like I said, this thing may YET hit the heap.

Can you believe that you actually READ all of that?  I LIVED it!  What a nightmare....

I said I would show it to you.  So.  You've seen it.  And that's the story.  You know sometimes you go through all of that crazy nonsense, and it comes out a masterpiece.  And, sometimes, it comes out junk.  The jury's still out on this one.  It happens like that.  When in doubt, try to work it out a little.  If it starts to happen, keep going.  If it doesn't save yourself and TOSS THE DANG THING.
Sometimes, though, it's like a train wreck.  You just can't turn away from it.  Good thing I'm NOT a surgeon, for so many, many reasons.

Thanks for stopping by, and staying with me through this ordeal.  If ever you should get this in your mailbox, think of your poor, crazy friend Mr Cardmaker, and, please, be kind.

All Best!
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Following Orders

Today's card is actually something I'm making MONEY on!!  My MIL asked me to make her a set of thank you cards, and so I came up with twelve cards for her.  I used some Stampin' Up DSP that I had around for a while, and used it for my jumping off point.  

I made twelve of these--

Now, this was originally supposed to be something simple.  Yeah.  I guess you could call them that.  I should get a sketchbook or something, I think.  Proportion seems to be my achilles' heel.  I just kept looking at all that RED (which is a color I like, mind you) and I guess I freaked out and went a bit haywire with doo-dads.
Then the white at the top bugged me.  A hand drawn line worked there.  Then I had to have one at the bottom.

Don't you like that open font on the sentiment?  That's from GinaK Designs, Theresa Momber's Follow Your Dreams set.  Me likey.

Anyway, they FINALLY got to looking okay.  Some days, it hardly seems worth it all....
Except for the CA$H part.  MIL Dearest insists on paying me (as do I, btw).  What would you charge for a dozen of these??

Wait 'til I show you my next card, and the disaster that almost happened there.  If nothing else, I AM learning how to save a card from the trash bin.

Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Challenged

---This is my second posting for today!  Check out my other post below---

Hi Again!  I am posting yet another card so I can play  Use 10 Embellishments Challenge in the Moxie Fab World at, you guessed it, Moxie Fab World!

The title of the challenge is pretty self-explanatory, so I will just do the photo.

I made this--

 And, the embellishments are--
1-4- Rhinestones
5-6- stars
7- Bird
8- white floss
9- brown cord
10- ribbon


Kinda cuckoo, right??  This was a fun one to make!

Thanks for stopping by (again!)
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is Black and White with a Pop

Hey guys!

Today I am showing a card I made for my friend Janeen, who is on the job hunt.  I can't think of  a much more Unfun thing to do, so I hope this cheers her up a bit. 

I made her this--

I love the Cuttlebug folder I used.  I swiped the raised portions with my white pigment ink pad and let it dry overnight.  The background is stamped with my Jenny Bowlin receipt stamp, and the sentiment is SU.  The brads make a real impact on all that clockworks, I think.  I added just a pop of pink, and I think it really says  "girl at work."  To me it does, anyway!    And, just to be sure it stays feminine, a little black and white baker's twine bow on the sentiment flag.

So that's it.  I was planning to enter this at Simon Says Stamp, for their challenge, but I missed the deadline.  *SIGH*...
UPDATE!  I am a DOPE!  I did NOT miss the deadline.....Read the WORDS, Richard!!!!
Anyway, I think Janeen will be happy about it.  Who doesn't love snail mail, anyway?

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy Thursday!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker is a Calendar Guy

No, no pin up pics of me.  I know you're disappointed.  Your breakfast will thank me for being allowed to remain in your stomach, trust me.  =)

I made a couple of calendars!  Early last Spring, I went to a craft show, and hit the Stamps of Life booth, where I picked up a couple of stamp sets, including Calendar to Build.  I thought this was a cute font, and I liked all the little things you could play with to really liven up a calendar.

Well, as much as I like this stamp, the calendar was TOUGH to work with.  You're supposed to be able to shift the days back and forth to make the month start when it should.  That DOES work, but only in months with 31 days.  30 day months (or 28/29 day February) really fouls you up.  I worked like a fool trying to line stuff up for hours until I finally decided to just cut the stamp up.  Muuuuuch easier! 

 Anyway, here's what I came up with--

I used white card stock from Staples for this project.  I found nice, smooth heavy weight card stock on the shelf there, and it has been a good staple card stock for me.  I cut it to 3"x 3 1/4", just large enough to hold the calendar.  I did all my numbers stamping first, starting with the easy 31 day months, then making myself cuckoo with the 30 and 28 day months.  I won't go into all the machinations that I went through, but suffice to say it was not so much fun.
I then went back and added the days header over the numbers, and the month headers above that.  It took me a while to decide to do the year and the flourish and little architectural stamping, but it all looked kind of naked.  The flourish is from PTI Menorah Medley  and the architectural stamp is from Stampendous' Tiled Quad Cube.

After getting all of that done (WHEW!), I gathered them together, and held them tightly at the top.  I laid down a big fat bead of hot-melt glue, and then dipped the tops into it, making sure I hit all the surface of the edges with glue.  I then let that cool, and trimmed off any extra with my snips.  It looked kind of messy still, so I added a strip of my patterned paper to the top to make it look nicer.

Here's a more face-on view--

Originally, I had this great idea to bind them all together with brads.  I even pierced some holes with my paper piercer to get started.  However, my lettering in several of the months was too high on the card stock to make that work.  Wop, wop... Of course, I already had hole in my January, so I added the brads and twine anyway.  Unfortunately, it will be gone once January gets ripped off.  Oh well.  This is a prototype, and it's going to DP Charlie, and he won't mind.  Good lesson learned!
ALSO-- I am worried about what will happen in February when it's time to rip off that first sheet.  Will the hot-melt glue be too strong to tear, and mess up the whole thing??  Maybe some of you know a better glue to use, or can tell me everything's gonna be okay?  I will tell Charlie to use scissors, just to be sure, I guess.

Oh, the brads are from Michael's, and the twine is from We R Memory Keepers.  The ink is Iced Spruce Distress Ink.  I also used Ranger Archival black ink, and Memento London Fog ink on the leaves.

The background is a 4"x 4" piece of Pink Paisley DP, with a stamped die cut from PTI, the Harvest Berries set. It's mounted on TWO pieces of GinaK Designs 120# white card stock.  I placed one of the pieces in my Scor-pal, and scored about halfway up the center.  I then cut from about an inch to one side of the score line to the top of the score line to create a stand for the calendar.  It stood a bit too ramrod straight up and down for my taste, so I snipped just a teeny tiny sliver off of the bottom of the "foot" so it would lean back a bit.
That looks like this--

See that little line at the top of the foot there?  That's where I assembled the front onto the backing without looking at where things were.  That's why there's TWO pieces of card stock at the back. (dumb, dumb, dumb...)  Actually, I like how sturdy it is with the two pieces.  I recommend that.

I also made another one.  This is the first one, actually.  It looks like this--

This is made with My Mind's Eye paper, and I hand inked the purple.  The numbers dies are from PTI.

So, I am glad I worked out all, well, most, ok, several of my problems with these guys.
I found a free print out of a 2014 calendar online, so I can try more, and save them for next year.  If I do one or two a month, I'll have gifts or something to sell somewhere.  These are pretty time consuming, even with all the adjustments I made.  We'll see how it goes.

PS--I just read on a blog somewhere that not having a good supplies list was a real bummer for readers.  You'll notice I linked to most everything I used on these projects.  There has to be a better way to do this, as well, I think.  Today, I went and looked up each and every one of these items and made a link to them. (Ouch!)
Who has a better idea about this?  Is a supplies list even important to you??  Let me know your thoughts, please.

Thanks for stopping by today!
All Best-
Richard

Mr. Cardmaker is Getting (Senti)Mental

Last week was a big one for taking down and storing all the shiny Christmas goodness that makes the house so warm and pretty for the holidays.  Boy, does your house look as lonely and boring as mine after you put everything away?  Boo, hiss...

Anyhow, I did start the year with a card project, but it has taken until now for me to get the photos ready to post.
Nephew Elliot has his 19th birthday (don't EVEN get me started on THAT span of time) on Friday, and the family gathered this past Friday to celebrate, since he's back to college this week.  He's the big skier in the family.  (You may have seen THIS POST last January for him,and if you haven't, check it out!).  I try to make him a card that has snow and thoughts of skiing in it, even if there are no actual skis to be found.

I made this--

This started with a 4"x4"  piece of Stampin'Up cajun craze striped  DSP, with a circle out of the middle using a Spellbinders die.  I then cut a slightly smaller circle out of a 4"x4" piece of light blue paper from the rack at AC Moore.  I think it's a Bazzill Basics sheet.  Those two pieces were layered together.
Then I cut a piece of Nearly Navy DSP (again, SU)to 4"x4", and stamped with a snowflake die from PTI's In the Meadow set, and I heat embossed it with some holographic embossing powder from Paper Source.


I tore some scraps of white shimmer cardstock for PTI into strips, leaving lots of high and low places in each strip.I highlighted them with some Stickles, and when it dried, I layered them onto the blue piece, using glue and foam adhesive.  I just found a set of two mini punches at Target, and I used the tree punch to create the tiny trees.  I added snow to each tree with my handy-dandy white gel pen.  I added those to the scene with glue and more foam adhesive.  Then I added the circle cut pieces with foam adhesive, to act as a frame for my winter scene. That was all then layered onto a 4 1/4"x 4 1/4" piece of chocolate brown piece of card stock.

To do the clouds, I took scraps of two different shades of gray card stock, as well as some silver glitter paper (from Michael's), and die cut several clouds with my A*Muse Studio Cloud Duo dies.  I sponged some gray ink onto the bottoms of the clouds, and added some Stickles for more shine.  I adhered some clouds to the blue sky, and some to the outer circles, using both glue and more foam adhesive.  I like that the glitter clouds are just peeking out, showing off their "silver lining!"  Last, I added some snowflakes punched out of vanilla DCWV glitter paper with my new Martha Stewart snowflake punch-around-the-page set.  I like this one, because it punches two different sized snowflakes!

The sentiment is taken from PTI's Winter Penguin set, and that is stamped in black Archival Ink onto some of the lighter gray card stock, and layered onto a circle of brown card stock.  I used my Sakura glitter pen to trace a shiny outline around the gray piece, then I adhered the whole thing to the card front, and then adhered THAT to a white card base.

So, sort of elegant, fun and shiny, right?  Well, I just can't leave good enough alone.

I had to mix it up a bit, by adding my own special brand of irreverence to the inside.

I did this--

I did the (ahem) sentiment on my computer, and printed it out on some card stock.  I cut it into a strip, and layered it onto scraps of paper used on the front of the card, then cut it all out with a Labels Four die from Spellbinders.I edged it just a touch, and then adhered it to the inside of the card.

Elliot liked this card a whole bunch, though I am not sure he appreciated the jokester in me so much.  Some people get me, and some don't.  Oh well.  I got a million of 'em, folks!

All in all, a pretty good way to kick off 2013's card making.

Hey, thanks for stopping by.  I hope you got some inspiration, and maybe a laugh.
All Best to you in 2013!
Richard

Supplies:
Card stock and paper-  Stampin'Up, DCWV, Bazzill Basics.
Ink-  Versamark, Ranger Archival Ink, Memento London Fog, sakura white gel pen and clear glitter pen
Tools-  Cuttlebug, Spellbinders dies (Small and Large Circles, Labels Four), A*Muse Studio Cloud Duo dies, Martha Stewart punch-around-the-page snowflakes punch, scor-pal, marvy embossing heat tool.
Other-- tape runner, foam adhesive, Paper Source holographic embossing powder.

Mr Cardmaker is Happy and Grateful

I hope your Christmas Day was all you hoped it would be.  We were home, Charlie's mom joined us on Christmas Eve, and spent the night with us.  Charlie made a wonderful beouf bourgignon, and I ate like a starveling. 
And, we had SNOW!  Now, I know to many of you, that's like saying "and we got the Black Plague!", but I grew up in Florida, and even after being north of there for 30 years, I have never once had Christmas snow (that's any considerable snowfall either on Christmas OR Christmas Eve).  Never once before THIS year, that is!  How Great can Christmas snow be, especially when everyone you need to have at your house is already there??

Christmas Day was bright and sunny, but cold, so the snow didn't melt.  Charlie went nuts on gifts, as usual, and I got some beautiful things; most notably, a nice, big, fat, juicy gift certificate to PTI!!  I almost ditched the rest of the day to shop! (I did manage to control myself, however!)  Yes, that puppy has been spent, btw....

I made a stuffed pork loin for Christmas dinner, with roasted potato wedges and a yummy, rich spinach casserole.  As usual, all of my cooking skills evaporate on Christmas Day.  I have no explanation for this phenomenon, but it never fails.  I just need to quit cooking on Christmas, I think.  The pork was blah as blah gets. No flavor, dry, and just blah.  Nobody really cared, I think.  Just frustrating, because I am usually a pretty good cook.  Oh well.  Just food.

So, that's my day.

To thank people who were kind enough to send us gifts, I made some thank you cards.
They look like this--

I masked the sides of this card with post-it notes, and used a sponge to fill in the center with Broken China Distress Ink.  I stamped the sentiment with black Archival Ink, using a stamp from the first set I ever bought.  All I can remember about it is it came from AC Moore.  I then removed the masks, and used several snowflakes from my new Martha Stewart snowflake set (that I grabbed at a 70% off sale at Michael's) in different inks.  I used my new (thanks, Charlie) Fiskars stamp positioner to make it easy to do several of these at the same time.  The shiny ones were stamped in Versamark, and embossed with holographic embossing powder.  I added some gems, and stamped "Thank you for the gift" from PTI's In the Meadow set on the inside.  Round the corners, and off you go!

Here's a closer look, showing the color change-ups--

Well, that's my report of "What I did on my Holiday."  Hope yours was wonderful and that one of your gifts was increased creativity!
I'm posting these on CAS-ual Friday's CFC84 challenge blog.  Wish me luck!

Happy New Year!
Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Merry Merry Christmas!!

Wishing everyone out there in the Blogisphere a wonderful Christmas, with everything you could ever wish for.  I got a great gift certificate to PTI!  Can't WAIT to go shopping!

So, as a last minute decoration, I made this--

 Apparently, I cannot take a still photo to save my life.  Anyway, I made this banner.  I did the letters with my computer and punched them out, used a scallop circle die from Spellbinders for the glittered piece, and folded up some rosettes with some ancient pad of paper I got at the Goodwill for a dollar.  I stamped the letter pieces with some red snowflakes, and added some green and blue punched flakes as a finishing touch.  It's all held together with red and white baker's twine.

And, just a little detail.

Enjoy your day!!
Merry Merry!!
All Best-
Richard

As Long as It's Festive, It's All Good

The last batch of Christmas cards I have to show you are a weirdly mixed bunch.  Some I think are just fine, and I really like them, while others are just, well, weird. 

Have you ever seen the M&Ms print ad for holiday M&Ms where they show the yellow guy and his all yellow Christmas room, and they say something like "some colors are just wrong for Christmas?"  (That is NOT the right quote, but you get the idea.)
Well, I decided I wanted to challenge that idea, since I am a big fan of non-traditional Xmas colors, and I came up with this--

Now, I actually HAD the image and the everything with the red border already made for another project that I ended up trashing.  I thought the snowguy was pretty cute, so I saved him.  Anyway, I grabbed a 4.25"x11" piece of yellow card stock, folded it in half, and then trimmed two inches off of the bottom of the front of the card, which I then border punched.  Then, to the inside, I adhered a 3" piece of red dotted paper, scalloped at the top (which doesn't show when closed),then stamped the pine cone branch-y thing (SU Lovely as a Tree), adhered the snowguy, and added the snowflakes.

 

The outcome?  Yeah....Yellow is really NOT the best choice for Xmas colors.  I think it's a nice and cheery card, but.....yeah.....

 

SO!  I grabbed my SU Loads of Love set, which is so cute, and something I like to use paper piecing on.  That truck can look so cool with the right paper!

I made this with it--

 

Now, I have the Time for a Tree stampin around wheel.  Not too much opportunity to use that one, but it's made to coordinate with this stamp set, so I used it to make my background.  I kinda need to re ink the thing, but I got lazy.  I think it looks ok.  So, I used some Old Olive DSP  to paper piece this truck.  The first stamping was done on black cs, and I stamped in Versamark and white embossed, for some good, BLACK tires!  Makes for shiny rims, too!

The tree is from the Lovely as a Tree set, and I decked it out with some pearls.  The border is done with Martha's branch punch from two different papers, which got stuck down with some help from my two-way glue pen.

This one is cute, but way too much work, I think.  Good for a family with lots of guys!

 

THEN!  One evening, I while perusing FaceBook, I ran across a post form my friend Jennifer Ingle (AKA Jingle) saying she got Martha Stewart Christmas things 70% off at Michaels, one day only!

Well, it was ten minutes to 8pm, and they closed at 10.  I live about 15 minutes away from Michaels, but you KNOW I grabbed my keys and ran out the door! 

I got some lovely washi tapes, and some snowflake stamps.  I WANTED some punches, but, alas, they were gone.  Wah.  However, I took my tapes, and I made these--

 

I used my SU Snow Much Fun set to stamp the cute snowguy, and then used inks and my aqua painter to fill him in.  My white ink is Colorbox's white pigment ink, and it has a wild look to it with the aqua painter.  Reminds me of that movie and book, The Snowman.

This one I'm not so sure of.  The bow is a great stamp from a show I went to in early December, and I cannot remember who makes it.  I stamped it in grey ink, then aqua painted it with red.  The water diluted it to a pink, but I didn't mind that so much.  I hit it with some stickles at the end to liven it up.

The sentiment is PTI.

 

So, also from the company I can't remember, I got this cool snow globe stamp.  I paired it with my Winter Penguin from PTI, and got this--

 

Cute, right?  Paper is from MME.  Somebody sells a die that does the folded flag thing I have here, but I just eyeballed it.

 

The last one was a happy accident card, that came about while I was making a little notebook to house punch templates from all my punches.  I wanted something I could hold over images and sentiments, to see if they'd fit.  I was getting quite the pile of white punch outs, so I decided to put them to work!

I came up with this--

 





 

The notebook pages were just barely off-white, so I mounted them with lots of foam adhesive onto a white piece of CS.  That's got a border of beige, and that's on an ecru cardbase.  I white embossed a small sentiment onto a tiny piece (PTI) and added some rhinestones.  I think this is pretty interesting to look at, myself.

 

SO! Those are my samples for this holiday.  I am working on a rosette banner, and if I ever finish it, I will show that to you!  I am going to take a break until after Christmas, I think, so I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard

 

Mr Cardmaker is Having an Affair

I have a real love affair with stamp sets that have coordinating dies.  I say love affair, because I also have a crazy, nut-case addiction to punches, and it's just not like that with the stamp/die thing.  I REALLY love these things.  Like, really.  ANd, I am super selective with what I do and what I buy with these things.

This year, I bought PTI's In the Meadow set, and the dies that went with it.  I loved these the moment I saw them.  I also bought a set of two Sizzix embossing folders somewhere, and I really liked those SO much as well.  oh yeah, and the PTI Wonderful Words Holiday stamps and dies too.

Anyway, I put them to good use, I think. 

I made these--

 Doesn't that sledder look like he's flying? 
To make the letters pop, I used white pigment ink direct from the pad, rubbing ever so gently over the raised portions.  I did it on the snowflakes in the blue card above, as well.  The branches are done with Martha Stewart's branch punch, and the birds are actually die cuts!  The snow is torn shimmer paper.

The snowflakes are so pretty in this set.  The tree is stamped onto its die cut.  All the figures in these die cuts are from a pewter colored shimmer paper by DCWV.

 

The green version of the sledder.

This one is just stamping, with no die cuts.  The tree is done in Versamark, and embossed with MS gold glitter embossing powder, then topped with VersaPEN around the edges and re-embossed with holographic embossing powder.  The snowflakes are in gold embossing powder and white pigment ink.  The photo doesn't do this justice.  It was one of my faves!

 

 



 

Another fave.  This embossing folder really blows my skirt up.  The aqua shimmer paper die cut against the the River Rock  card stock, and the placement of the sentiment stamp....me likey.

The white is popped off the surface with foam adhesive, as is the feeding deer, to push him into the foreground a bit.  So is the word "peace."

 

So, what's NOT to love about these stamps and dies?  See what I mean??

 

Well, it is snowing like crazy out my window right now, and everything is gorgeous.  What a solstice! 

 

I don't have much more to share, and I am out of here for the weekend.  I'll share the last of my cards soon! 

 

Happy Solstice, everyone.  Welcome back to the sun!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard

Mr. Cardmaker is Getting Tryp-y With It

My sister-in-law Susie is a very clever gal.  She finds the most clever cards to send us, and she even makes them every once in a while too! 

She sent us a very clever card with her initial cut out of it.  I can't find it, otherwise I'd show it to you.  Anyway, it inspired me to make a couple of these things. 

I made this--

So, nice, cute, whatever.  This is done with a Recollections set for the light strings, and a Sizzix stocking stamp and die duo set.  The glitter paper is from Michael's.I used a red spica pen for the stripes on the stocking, and the top are there is flocked, using my Glossy accents and some Funky Flock from The Rubber Cafe.  The sprigs are pieces from a snowflake I punched with a SU punch, and there's a punched red dot with a dollar bin pearl, as well.

 

 

But this is just the beginning!  Looks kind of small, right?  Well, this is how it looks when you open it!

 



Ok, I didn't get a great shot.  But, it's THREE panels.  I used a 4 1/4"x 5 1/2" piece of white card stock, and I scored it on my Scor-Pal on the marks with the little arrows on them.  These are just shy of 3 3/4" and just past 7 1/4".  If you don't have a Scor-Pal, you can probably just play with it a bit before you make your creases. 

I used my Cuttlebug and a Spellbinders Wonky Rectangles die to cut and emboss the front panel.
Then, I took some post-its with all over adhesive and masked two panels on the other surfaces.
I stamped the lights, and colored them with copics.  Then I grabbed my Glossy Accents and coated the lights to give them some shine.  When that dried, I took some Memento Bamboo Leaves ink and a blending tool, and colored the front surface of the card.  I added my sentiment on the third panel, and left the middle one plain, for a handwritten message.

For the panel that shows through the front opening, I cut a piece of glitter paper that covered the back of the middle panel, and adhered it.  Then I added my stocking.

This makes such a cool effect, when the image disappears as you open the card. 

But wait!  There's more.  I got fancy with the next one.
I made this--

This is exactly the same idea, only with a die from PTI's In the Meadow set.  I stamped and gold embossed some of my many many snowflake stamps onto a green glitter sheet from DCWV, and I used a Stampendous holly stamp to do the surface of the card.  I hand painted the berries with red ink and my aqua painter, and topped them with Glossy Accents.

The inside of this one looks like this--(sorry for the blur.  This would NOT photograph well, for some reason.)
Here you can see the masking and the center panel.  That sentiment is from PTI as well.
I somehow screwed up something on the front panel, so I tried to fix it with a mask and more ink.  I think it worked out pretty well, all in all.

This turns out to be much smaller than a regular A2 card.  I may figure out the proper dimensions to make one that is a larger size, but I really like the fun you can have with this.  I would probably stay with an 11"x whatever  size, though, if you're going to use your Scor-Pal to do the EASY scoring.

SO, two more of the sixty.  Hope you got some ideas.  Hey, you know, this is just about small enough that if you did a small hole through all the layers and tied a string or ribbon through them, you could have a seriously cool gift tag, as well.  Try it!

More to come! 
Thanks for stopping by!
All Best-
Richard

Mr Cardmaker Keeps His Christmas (card) Promises

Well, I promised some Christmas cards.  Now, I promise not to show you all sixty of them.  That would be ridiculous, you know. 
However, I will show you a good handful. 

The majority of these are made with papers from My Mind's Eye, and with PTI dies.  There's also some Stampendous stamps, Stampin' Up stamps, papers, and inks, as well as my Martha Stewart branch punch and sizzix embossing folders. 

Let's start the show!

 

The glitter paper used on these cards is from Michael's.  This is super sturdy card stock (which is actually more like card BOARD) and actually, when I tried to use my dies on it, it really didn't work at first.  I solved the issue by peeling away half of the backing on the paper.  Once I got rid of some of the bulk, it worked just fine.

 These snowflake punches are from Stampin' Up and Martha Stewart.  The background paper is from Basic Gray.

Shimmer paper used in the die cut is by DCWV, the Shimmer Stack.

Photo corner punch from EK Success.

The silver swirly paper is from AC Papers.  The swirly stamp (in red) is from PTI.

The globe stamp is from Jillibean Soup.  

Peace ON Earth.  Get it?? 

 

 

This is the first batch.  I have more.  I STILL promise not to show you all sixty.  On account of that would be ridiculous.  And, on account of I still have to make about 8 more to reach sixty.

Back to work!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard

 



Mr Cardmaker Has the BEST Friends & My Blog Hop with Melanie

Well, this is my first posting since my WONDERFUL stint as Moxie Fabber of the Week over at Moxie Fab World.  I can't begin to describe how wonderful it was to get so much love and support from all of you, both here at my blog and at MFW.  I am one grateful card maker.  Welcome, welcome to my new followers, as well as my dear, regular dropper-inners!

Well, my very greatly talented friend Melanie Muenchinger has been at being her very sweet self again, and she has gifted me not one, but THREE of her fabulous stamps sets that she designed for GinaK Designs.  I could not be more thrilled about that!  I have been in the throws of Christmasing up my house, and, of course, SHOPPING (grrrrr), but I was able to IMMEDIATELY drop it all and come up with a thank you/Christmas card for her.  I am ashamed that she will see it here before she gets it into her own hands, but she is a great lady of immense forgiving capabilities, I am certain.

And, we're HOPPING! (and we're hopping, and we're hopping......oh, sorry.) On to the inserted verbage....

It's a Happy Holiday Hop! Becky and Melanie thought it would be great fun to team up for a little Holiday Hop today. Today we are showcasing Becky's new set, "Warm Woolen Mittens" along with Becky's new cut file "Grand Banners" and "Grand Banners - Winter Sentiments" and Melanie's newest set, "Lots of Letters" as well as some of her other recent favorites. Joining us are some dynamic designers that will knock your socks off with their beautiful work today! Make sure you visit everyone's blog to leave a comment and be entered to win a clear "I do!" and "Beyond Baskets" stamp set! A winner will be announced Thursday. Now on to today's projects!

Here's the list of crafters that you can drop in on to check it all out--

                               Melanie Muenchinger 

Becky Oehlers (Illustrator of Warm Woolen Mittens)

Beate Johns

JJ Bolton

Laurie Schmidlin

Latisha Yoast

Michelle Woerner

Richard Breaks

Vera Yates

Tosh Leyendekker

 

And now, back to me!

I made this--

This card was made with Melanie's beautiful Stately Flowers series.  This is from the 5th collection in this series, and I have to say, I have not seen a better mistletoe.  Period.  I am clearly smitten with it.
Now, the set comes with TWO versions of this mistletoe, one larger than the other, plus an extra set of berries, which, as you can see here, I have put to work. 

I stamped all over my 4 1/4"x 5 1/2" SU River Rock card stock with the large image in Versamark ink, and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I also stamped all my berries on a separate piece of River Rock, and embossed them as well. 

After fussy cutting all of the berries, I took my Memento Delicata gold ink pad, pressed it onto an acrylic block, and used my aqua painter to "watercolor" all of the berries.  I purposely made some of the berries more opaque than others, to add depth.  Berries don't usually all ripen at the same moment anyway, right?  So, some reality to my fantasy!

The Merry Christmas sentiment (THANK YOU for adding that to the set, Melanie!) is stamped onto a scrap of ecru colored paper in versamark, and then heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  I punched it with my large circle punch, inked the edges with River Rock ink, and adhered it to the bottom of my card, then trimmed it with snips.  I added the ribbon (winnings from Stampendous), and adhered the card stock to a white, top-folding A2 card base.

With all of that done, I could place my berries.  I used tiny pieces of dimensional foam to pop each of them off of the surface, spacing them out nicely as I went along.  Don't tell anyone, but some of them mask imperfections that may or may not be there during the stamping process.  I plead the fifth on that one...

Sadly, pictures tend to ruin the glossy, shiny finishes on so many cards.  This is really nice and shiny though, I promise!

So, that's my card.  Now that I have it made and PHOTOGRAPHED (my least favorite part of blogging) it, I can get it out to Melanie! 

Do you make your holiday thank you cards?  Or are you just spent after making your Holiday Greeting cards?  I still have to make a good amount of cards this week.  I'd better get to work!

Thanks for stopping by! 
All Best-
Richard