Happy Halloween

Here's a really quick update with this year's Halloween cards. The Frankenstein and skeleton are mounted using  a spring that allows them to wobble back and forth when you play with them. They are based on inking the results of a dry embossing folder.


Here are a couple new birthday cards as well. The lily is watercolored tombo marker and the clocks are basic distress ink blending using a blending pad.


As always, click on the image if you like the card to get the directions.

Temperatures seem to be dropping by a few degrees a day here so I thought I better hurry up and post this fall card before it feels like winter all of a sudden.

I've choosen to make it a get well/difficulty card but the stamp set comes with a number of other sayings.

Click on the image for full directions if you want to know more.

Latest New Cards

Here's an update on the cards I've put up since my lost post here. As always just click on the card image to go to the direction for that cards.

	Masculine distress ink card that uses soda cans.
	This clever stamp is combined inside with "Wisking you a Happy Birthday".
	Intricate 5x7 card the combines fabric, die cutting, ribbon, markers and distress.

New Cards

Here are some new cards I put up on the website today. As always, if you like them, click on the images for full directions including the exact stamps used, paper sizes and marker colors.

The beauty of nature

Here's a fairly straight forward 7x5 card I did with some of the new stamps I got at a rubber stamp convention this summer. The edge underneath the mountains is also a new Spellbinders Edgibilities die. The mountains have been colored with 4 shades of  nuetral gray Copic markers with a little bit of warm gray mixed in a few places. Rather than try and make a scene with the mountains, I opted to cut them out and mount them on dark blue cardstock since the words speak about the beauty of nature and giant mountain peaks are awe inspiring examples of nature that dwarf anything man has built.

As always, click on the images for full directions including the stamps used and paper sizes.

Swing Card

Just a quick post that I put up a new card a few minutes ago. This a swing card = as you pull it open the image in the middle swings around and changes.

Click the card if you want to read the directions I posted on how to make it.

3 new cards

Here's a bunch of new cards I have done since my last post here.

First, I been playing with waterfall cards. These are cards where you pull the bottom tab and the images on the paper flip up and then tuck under revealing a short paper animation.

Here's a get well card example. This should appear in animated form. If not, you may need to view the original post on the blogger web site.

I have several other sets to make cards like this. Here's one of the Halloween themed one I've posted:

There are several more still to post and a flip card but it takes a bit of work to pull the images into an aligned animated gif so I've skipped ahead and posted this get well teddy bear card I made yesterday:

If you want to know more about how to make a particular card, just click on it to get the full directions from my web site.

Catching up

I've been spending a little more time on web site maintenance and home repairs recently than on making and posting cards but here are the last batch of cards, most of them in the last week or two. Also, just a heads up that the last updated index on my website got shaken up a bit and older cards are now more recently updated because I fixed some html mistakes and a few spelling mistakes that my new editing tool found.

This is a HoneyPOP card. When you open it there is a honeycomb shape inside. There is nice picture of the inside of the card in the full directions.

5x7 card I made playing with a stamp set I had never used and some scraps.

Relatively easy Flower Soft card. You just need a branch stamp, some Spellbinders dies and a background stamp to make it a little more interesting.

Deja vu in pink.

This is a glitter card. I stamped the flourish and traced with glue and covered it with black glitter. The butterfly was covered with a brushable glitter glu and then glittered with a fine glitter.

If you are interested in reading more about any of the cards above, click on the image for full directions.

Birthday Definition cards

Here's two more cards. They are the same design but by changing the color choices and adding some glitter I turned the male version into a female version. If you are struggling to make male cards, a lot of times you can do the same thing with a feminine card design.

         

Click on either image if you want to see the detailed directions.

New design - if you didn't notice it yet

If you haven't noticed on my website yet, here is a new card design I posted but have been remise about getting out there on the blogs.

	This the masculine version. The background stamp is a line pattern and none of the main colors are feminine.
	This the feminine version. Purple is just not a guy color for the most part and swirling heart pattern adds to that feeling.
	This the neutral version. The main colors are neutral or even lean toward being earthy guy colors but the swirling hearts are more feminine.

As always, click on any of the images to see the larger versions or the full directions.

New HoneyPOP Cupcake Card

I found a leftover HoneyPOP cupcake from my previous card and you can't let a cupcake go to waste so I whipped up this new card design using it.


Outside Front

Inside of Opened Card


As always, click on the images for full directions if you want to know more about to make them from my website.

HoneyPOP Happy Birthday Cupcake

Here's a really cool card I made using one of the Inky Antics HoneyPOP birthday sets. I figured out how to mount the honeycomb on the outside using magnets on one side so it can be enjoyed and displayed with the cupcake open but can still go into a regular envelope.

Also I have a special request to make. Inky Antics is having a special contest on Facebook this month, giving away $25 worth of Inky credits to the HoneyPOP card that gets the most likes, so if you have a Facebook account and like the HoneyPOP cards I have made, please hop over there (https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Inky-Antics/147604798605457) and like my cards so I can win some more stamps.



As always, click on the image if you are interesting in reading the full directions.

HoneyPOP Hoppy Easter Card

Here's the outside front of my second Easter card. This one uses the same stamp set plus another one and the honeycomb paper.


Opening the card, opens the honeycomb paper to reveal this surprise inside. The inside here is mostly following the standard pattern established by the set.


As always, click on an image for the full directions and supplies.

Carrots For You Easter Card

Here's the first of two new Easter cards I created using Inky Antics' new HoneyPOP stamp sets. This one doesn't use the HoneyPOP paper but the next one does. I'm still working on the post and web page for the other card that does use the new HoneyPOP paper. Stay tuned, I hope to post it tomorrow night but Easter in nearing so I thought I would get what is done out tonight.



As always, click on the card for full directions.

Easter Card

Here's another Easter card using the same cross stamp as my last Easter card post as well as a background stamp from the same set. The cross image is colored with Copic markers, including the gold. This time the card is a 5x7 because the cross image is so large you have to make the card a little bigger to be able to add the additional elements.


Like all my posts, just click on the card image if you want the know more about the stamps, colors or want to see the full directions and bigger images.

Delicate Bike

Here's an any occassion card I made using a delicate bike pedistal stamp. It's a little different than what I would have normally done but I was trying to be different and not have white showing on the front of this card. The bike is heat embossed and the gold paper is actually paint dabber. Complete directions are available by clicking on the image if you want to learn more about how is was made.

This week's cards

Just a quick post with the cards that went up on the website this week. First up are two cards based on a watering can image. The first one is a 5 x 7 card and the second one is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 if you are wondering why the watering cans are different sizes. I scale all my card images to the same size so they fit into the template I am using for the directions on the website.

   
I've been working on making and getting some Easter cards up on the site before Easter this year. Here's the first one of 2011. You could probably use this one for other religious events as well like christenings or baptisms.


If any of them interest you, just click on the image to get the directions.

Another Funny Card

Here's another funny card from the same stamp set.



Inside it reads, "The odds of getting any money out of it are about a million to one."

Perfect for someone who likes to play the lottery or to whom you don't normally send a gift.

The really interesting thing on the card is the paper on left hand side. I made that by stamping out all the numbers in different colors to create a paper that was inspired by the balls they use for the actual drawing. I used more stamp pad ink colors on this card doing that than I have ever used on a single card. Can you guess how many? They are all listed on the directions of course - just click on the image. Has anyone ever used more?

Funny Cruise Card

Here is a funny card I made using on a retired Stampin' Up! stamp set.






This version was done with Copic markers. There is another version on the main direction page as well where I used colored pencils and Gamsol (oderless mineral spirits). Just click on the image for the the directions.

The inside of the cards reads, "Will you pick up my mail while I'm gone?" Perfect for that cruise lover in the family.

Happy St Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is a difficult event for cardmaking because most people aren't going to be giving out too many cards except maybe to a few special people. This means I am not usually going to get a lot of use out of whatever I buy for the event. Ok, a good portion of what's in my craft room has never seen any use but will one day (don't laugh you know its true of yours as well), so maybe that's not the best criteria but you know, whatever you get, you are going to make a few cards for that year and then probably never it use again because you already made them one with that stamp or cut out.

This year I found a super cheap and easy solution to that problem. A. C. Moore had a big pack of Nicole St Patrick's Day stickers for $1.00 that inspired me to make this year's design. I started with the stickers in mind and found paper that matched the sticker colors and then worked out a paper layout that made the card be more sophisticated than just putting down some stickers.

The top and bottom yellow sections had a bunch of small shamrocks stamped in them in a light green to step it up further but for some reason the scanner totally missed them. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until today after I had the images cropped and straightened and ready for posting so rather than delaying them and having a Happy Belated St Patrick's Day post, here are my cards for this year:

As always, click on the card image for the full directions from my website.

Happy St Patrick's Day!