Danny's Cards Blog

Just over a month ago Cricut released the Cricut Mug Press. At first, the mug press seems potentially baffling: a heat transfer system that can make mug designs. But after just a month with my mug press, I'm obsessed. Unlike the Cricut Joy which took a few months for me to figure out why it was worthy of a purchased, the mug press immediately makes sense. But what makes it special? What does it do different? Let's find out. Going Beyond Vinyl If you own a Cricut, your probably no stranger to vinyl. I've put it on everything from wooden signs, to glassware, to mugs and even made a chess board and chess pieces. Vinyl is it's own level of fascinating. But vinyl is also tricky. It is often a multi-step process with weeding, transfer paper and a lot of crossed fingers and deep breathing. And none of that vinyl is machine washable. Mugs and glassware must all be hand-washed unless you want your beautiful designs to quickly become botched. But the Cricut Mug Press changes the ...

Over on CASology , the word of the day revolved around comfort. While I love all the many fanciful layers that my Anna Griffin cards provide, something about a clean and simple design often comes off more eye catching. Here is the cue card: I don't do a ton of Clean and Simple. That said, when I do, I usually sift through my stamps and pull out my copic markers, which is exactly what I did. This was the Hero Arts stamp se t I ended up using: When I saw the stamps, it was as if each parent of the animal was providing comfort to the little one. It was the perfect set of parents to children cards, which you so rarely see.  I actually had a couple of issues with the stamping process, so I pulled out my black pen and filled in any areas that didn't come out correct. Anyway, here were the three cards I ended up making: I'm neither the best stamper nor the best colorer, but overall, I'm happy with these cards. I posted them to Facebook just yesterday and the elephant card imm...

Over on AAA Birthday , the challenge set forth is one of my favorite challenges. Making cards in a shape. While I don't do this too often, there's no doubt that cards that are not conventionally shaped are always eye catching. Here is the full challenge: Just this week I acquired my all new Anna Griffin Hot Air Balloon Easel die , so I quickly got to work. When the card is laying flat, it looks like this: But with the card unfolding, it suddenly pops up and looks like this: What I love is that easel cards or individual shaped cards can often take forever to make. Not these, which clocked in around the 45 minute mark. Using vibrant colors, it really gave that Hot Air Balloon feel. What the camera doesn't capture is the gold diamonds I placed in between the top section. Those gold glimmery sections also give this card another dimension. And because I can never make one of anything, here's another with a totally different color combination. I used the rainbow cutouts from ...