Danny's Cards Blog

My local Hobby Lobby had a blowout sale on a number of stamps, and I loaded up (which means tons of inspiration for the next few weeks). I was excited about these koala stamps thatwere so charming from first sight. The stamps come from Art Impressions , but my Hobby Lobby had these marked down on clearance for $3.49. I made these koala cards for two distinct challenges. Let's take a look. The first challenge is courtesy of The Color Throwdown blog. Here were the colors they wanted makers to use: And here's what I did with the red, blue, green and grey. I used Copic Markers to color in the koala. The background is a basic cuttlebug brand emboss folder. For my second card, I used Paper Craft Crew's sketch. I used the exact same stamp, but without color restrictions, I made a far more eclectic card. Here's the sketch: And here's the card I made based on the sketch: Using 3D Dot adhesives, this card ended up with a lot of dimension. Here's another view of the card...

Over on the Just Us Girls challenge blog , the task this week was quite monochromatic. Let's take a look at the challenge: I can't say that I've ever worked with just black and white for a card. While no doubt I probably inadvertently made a card with this scheme, I can't say I've gone out of my way to enhance only black and white (I know I've definitely grey scaled before).  It was my dear friend Melinda's birthday. For her birthday I made her and her husband Mah Jongg t-shirts using HTV. I was thrilled with the results: Melinda is the kind of person who loves handmade cards, so I went into this challenge with her in mind. I also have recently fallen in love with Z fold cards (see my vintage masculine Z-Card here ). I pulled out my Sizzix Circle Thinlits and my Recollections Black and White Paper and got to work. Here are the results: So the interesting thing with a Z-fold card is how it unfolds in so many dimensions. Here is the front and back layer. Her...

Before I get to my card this week, I'm happy to announce my owl card was Cupcake Inspirations Sweet Pick! Great news. It's been a few months since I've had a recognized card, and this card felt like something wholly unique, so... yay! Over on the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog, designers got an array of fantastic choices for designing cards. Let's take a look at this surprising board: I didn't actually know where to begin. In truth, I don't have a ton of Alphabet Stamps; and I've never assembled a card with Staples before--so those two would be tough. From there it was just a matter of whether I was going to go with a Chevron pattern or a Peony card. Judging from the title of this post, I think you can figure out where I went. The order of the day was Sequins, Peony and Orange. It took me a while, but I did find a peony stamp.  Now I've been working on my Copic Coloring for the last week, so I was excited to get to work on these cards. I'm going to onc...

Over on Hero Arts , they had a unique challenge which pushed designers to make an interactive card. I've made a number of interactive cards that have used an assortment of moveable items, springs and sparkles. But as my last few posts keep talking about, I'm trying to get the most out of my new Cricut Maker 3. Before I get into what I made, here was the challenge in question: So I upgraded from the Explore Air 2 to the Maker 3, and one of the reasons was all of the different blades. In truth, I haven't found a good reason to use all of the blades just yet, but one blade I've fallen in love with is the perforation blade. This blade can make small cuts so that you can pop open items or create raffle tickets. I'm in love with the blade, but I hadn't quite pushed into making a full blown card using the blade... that is, until now. I wanted to make a card where it would make sense with what you're revealing. I settled on the idea of a treasure chest. From there, ...

Over on AAA Birthday , they released one of the easiest challenges in a while; simply, use flowers! And it just so happened that I recently received a request from the Spanish teacher at my school. She asked that I make two Feliz Cumpleanos birthday cards, and (no joke here) she said, "use lots of flowers. They love flowers." So here's AAA Birthday's challenge: And talk about kismet because HSN finally delivered my Anna Griffin Mini Flower and Foliage Die Set . I immediately got to work and so here are the two results: I have to say, I just adore how these flowers came out. I used some old flower cardstock from a Michael's Hot Buy pad and the Feliz Cumpleanos sentiment was made using my Cricut Joy. The background blue die cut was made using an Anna Griffin die set, but that set seems to longer be available for purchase. For my second card, I used the same Mini Flower set: For the background die cut I used the 3D Decorative Layer Dies . Again, the Feliz Cumpleanos ...

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 ...

Over on Cupcake Inspirations , they showcased three colors to use as a source of inspiration. They were giving major honeycomb vibes with this set of colors: For some reason, the yellow, brown and black really felt masculine to me. Like many cardmakers, I struggled with masculine cards, but recently I acquired Anna Griffin's Calligraphic Sentiment dies . I thought these dies, would really help make the colors pop. Slimline was on the dock for today, and so here is what I made: Everything about this made me happy. I background emboss folder really help give it that masculine edge. To give it just a little more texture, I also added four black dots at each corner. Super thrilled with the results.  My less successful attempt followed: While it still looked good, I was less thrilled with how flimsy the paper felt after going through with the emboss paper. If I decide to go with this flower paisley folder again, I'm going to need to back it up with even more 3D dot adhesives. Defini...

Over on Freshly Made Sketches blog , they offered a very simple and elegant sketch this week that I liberally applied my ideas to. This sketch is the kind of classic design that creators really can all in on: The shape was perfect. Ultimately, I took the design and also added to the bottom right corner as a sort of parallel to the top left design. Here was the result: I used my Anna Griffin Floral 3D cut for the flowers and leaves. The background is a Darice Script Emboss Folder , and I finished up the piece with a button to give it a little extra texture.  And remember, if you like what you see, be sure to hit the SUBSCRIBE button at the top to see new posts. And be sure to follow me on Instagram  @DannysCards Related posts: St. Patrick's Day Cards: Inspired by... Challenge Global Design Project #275: Lovely Envelope Cards Color Week Challenge #567: Notable Note Cards Try Stampin' Challenge #486: Smash the Patriarchy Cards Daring Cardmakers Dictionary Day Entry: Defining Bir...

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 voi...