Danny's Cards Blog

I love all the October and November autumn colors, and I'm going to be devastated when Thanksgiving is over. Something about oranges, reds and browns just soothe my soul. I also, for some odd reason, love die cutting leaves. Foliage and flowers of any kind looks extraordinarily elegant to me. They were my first die cuts I invested in when I started die cutting, and they're still frequently my most used. Over on the Catch the Bug blog , they laid out a perfect autumnal November color challenge.  The centerpiece of the creation was the Anniversary Frame Dies from Anna Griffin. This is a die set I acquired a while back but have yet to use. Needless to say, the cut and emboss looked dazzling. Using the Seasonal Foliage Dies , I created a number of leaves and acorns, not quite sure where I was going.  What I realized during the assembly process was that the wood-like backgrounds served too much as a distraction. With some quick thinking, I pulled out some embossing folders and voil

Over on the Christmas Kickstart Challenge , the challenge this week was pink — all ranges of pink too. Of course, they did this for Breast Cancer Awareness Month , so anything that supports that cause is excellent. My mother is a survivor of Stage 4 Breast Cancer (nearly 20 years in remission!). She is an iron-fist of a lady, and it really goes to show you that you should never lose hope. Anyway, they also provided two photos to help with inspiration: For my first card, I used the pink bows as inspiration for Christmas: For both cards I used the Anna Griffin Christmas Box Cut and Emboss Folders . I then added ribbon all around the wreath and tied a pink bow to give it that full Christmas look. Using pink snowflake cardstock from Recollections and a craft background, and voila, this was it. I'm really happy with the results, but working with ribbon always feels like stressful as it is so much harder to adhere to paper.. For my second card, I used the gold plates as inspiration: I wa

Over on the Daring Cardmakers blog , they're celebrating Dictionary Day with a Dictionary Day challenge. The challenge stated the following, "I need very little persuasion to celebrate words - celebrate with us by using a dictionary definition, dictionary or book page or make words the focal point of your creation this week." I knew I had the perfect stamp to get this challenge started, and with pulling out my Maps, Texts, and Ledgers card pack , I got to work. Here were the results: This birthday sentiment, which defines what a birthday is, comes courtesy from Stampendous . By layering the different texts, and using a background with writing on it, the effect was exactly what I was hoping for. To give it a little elevation, I tied twine around the whole set to give it another dimension. And here's the card standing up: Overall, I'm very happy with the end result. I did this while in the midst of working on a Ruby anniversary card (40th!), which I will showcase l

This week over on the Color My Heart challenge, they gave us a wide range of nine colors. Like yesterday's Christmas Colour Challenge , I was excited to go into this challenge with Christmas on my mind. Additionally, my favorite color Toffee (or sometimes referred to as craft) made an appearance. Here were the colors that I could use: I made use of ballerina, blue bells, toffee and linen. Here was the card I made: I'm not usually one for religious iconography, but something about the trifold card was too cool. This is perfect for those who love their Three Wise Men cards. A tradition I know many people hold near and dear to their heart.  The die set is the Nativity Shadow Box Dies  from Anna Griffin. I actually created a backing to the card so that I could write a little message to the recipient. Rather than follow gender norms, I flipped the traditional man in blue, woman in pink. The choice was two fold, one was an element of surprise, but the other is Mary is often depicted

Over on the Christmas Card Throwdown , they served a delight color challenge that was perfect for Christmas inspiration. I was super amped to pull out all my brand new Christmas stuff after getting a plethora of items from HSN's Anna Griffin craft sale. At the top of my purchase was the 3D Christmas Ornaments , which are great not only as ornaments but as the front of a card. Here was the color combination the Christmas Card Throwdown gave: Of course, what makes this perfect is not the blue and white, rather it's the craft which is my favorite color to use for holiday cards. Here was my first attempt with the snowflake Christmas die. I love how intricate the snowflake looks, and even without the 3Dimensions, it's quite the die. Here it is at a different angle: It really does have quite the lift off the page. I'm definitely in love. The stamp set too was from Anna Griffin. It's the Holiday Layer Sentiment Stamps and Die set. I tried out another ornament, largely wit

What I love about the Joy of Sets blog is that there Tic Tac Toe challenges are just that, a challenge. While other card making blogs give variations on the same color, emboss, and ribbon styles, Joy of Sets often offers unique counterpoints that make card creating tricky in its own right. Take a look at October's challenge: Unique ideas like silhouette, checks, script, torn and stitches means you can't rely on the conventional. I won't lie, I'm waiting for my new card die set to come so I can make my across the bottom: Ribbon, Window and Glitter.  As it stood, I was a bit perplexed, and I decided that my Cricut Joy might actually be the way to go for this. While originally I felt more tepid towards my Cricut Joy, in recent months, I pull it out when I need a card quickly. I knew the diagonal black, silhouette and glitter would be the perfect way to go. So here were the results: I wish you could actually see the card in motion, as the glitter cardstock captures ever

The grand reveal of Cricut's new foil system was exactly what people were looking for. When the We R Memory Keepers Foil quill system was released, it was seen as revolutionary. Foiling cards with lettering and mandalas quickly made even the most generic card look vibrant. But the system was also clunky. It took time to warm up, had three different pressure sensitive pens and the pressure applied was questionable leaving a less than desirable effect. For me, the We R Memories Foil Quill was nothing but a waste of money as the idea never quite translated to my cards correctly. Great in theory, but like other We R Memory  Keepers items, it misses the mark. Cricut promised us a new foil system without the need of heat and with new pressure technology. It sounds promising.  In practice, the release of the Foil Transfer Kit was a bit of a disaster. Obtaining the product seemed next to impossible except for the few who did get it. Cricut continues to have fulfillment issues with many peo

Over on the Daring Cardmakers , they had one of my favorite challenges I've seen in a long time. Rather than give you a sketch or a color coordinating design, they gave us a photo to help serve as inspiration with the requirement that you use at least 3 elements from the image. Here was the photo in question: It's really quite the photo. From the autumnal colors to the braided sweater, to books, leaves, glasses, tea, and candles, there was just so much to latch onto. During a recent trip to Michael's, I was scouring the clearance section and stumbled upon a beautiful coffee stamp set from Inkadinkado . $3.97 for a stamp set that usually costs $15. I knew between this photo and this coffee set, I'd create a winning combination. Here was the end result: The elements I chose were the book, leaf and coffee. I used my Maps, Texts and Ledgers paper set and my Cuttlebug Seasonal Foliage die set . I also stamped the coffee set on a wood background for that extra dimension. Her

At DannysCards.com, we're in the midst of Halloween extravaganza. Over on The Color Throwdown blog , the challenge was focused around the perfect set of fall colors. Here were the colors for their newest challenge: Immediately, I knew I was going to pull out my brand new bat and pumpkin dies. The results were a bit mixed, but the bat card came out better than expected. Here were the results: By embossing the background and using 3D dot adhesives, the card ended up with more dimension than I expected. Here's the card from a different angle: The Halloween Bats Metal Dies  are available from Michaels.com. My original plan for this challenge was this pumpkin concoction. The results were solid, but it lacked the depth of the bat card. I would describe it as ho-hum. I'm going to have find a different way to utilize these pumpkins. I tried to off-set the pumpkins to give it another layer. Here you can see the 3D dot adhesives working overtime: These pumpkin dies are also availabl

Here at DannysCards.com, I am not known for my clean and simple designs. Most of my designs usually fiddle with more pieces than I can imagine, mixing mediums and layering. But this week AAA Cards offered a unique challenge: One layer and coffee -- which reminded me, I knew I had a coffee card stamp set I've never used before. I also went through some other stamps and found a latte cup sketch stamp. Earlier this year (around May), I invested in a ton of Copic markers. I've yet to find my purchase worthwhile until this AAA Cards blog challenge. It really allowed me to color in new and dynamic ways.  For my first submission, I worked on this stamp from Tim Holtz . I've only ever used this card in conjunction with its accompanying emboss folder, so it was nice to see it stand alone. For my second card (non-submission), I took the same stamp and colored it. But I decided to speckle around it to give a little more depth. For the next round of cards, I used a stamp set from Jill