Danny's Cards Blog

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...

This week The Card Concept showcased another inspiration photo. As soon as I saw this week's photo, I knew exactly which paper pads to grab and get to work because this week's image was none other than a seashell image: I love nothing more than mermaid-like cards. If anything, in my craft room in the back there's an overabundance of ocean and mermaid themed craft items. Something about the configuration of the sea shells made it clear that I didn't want to make anything too over-embellished. Instead, I thought elegance and clean layers.  So this is my clean and layered  sea-inspired card.  I used my Mermaid Coast paper pad to create the base, then I used the same paper pad to layer the mermaid gold and again for the main circle. The just for you  and the various sea shells were made using my colop e-mark printer . I found the wooden seahorse at Michael's in the clearance section and glued it on to give the card a little extra dimension and texture.  As always,...

This week I took a look at the website The House That Stamps Built . For their Wednesday challenge, they gave out this sketch design: Link to Sketch Challenge It's a pretty popular silhouette, so it was easy to get inspiration with this design. I recently received my brand new  United as One Stamp set from Hero Arts . I wanted to make sure that diversity was embodied through my card, so I used paper from Capitol Chic Designs which is a stationary and planner company that celebrates diversity (and is run by a Black entrepreneur).  So with that in mind, here was my entry for this challenge: I used 3D adhesive dots to make the heart pop a little. I'm really happy with the results. And I never make cards in one, so I made a second version with a different stamp from the same Hero Arts collection. What I love about the stamp set is the versatility of the hands. It's the first time that I've seen Black representation explicitly on a stamp set. I settled on the Are you OK? ph...

In my quest to get better stamped images, I stumble across Sizzix's Stamper's Secret Weapon. This is an item that many people say they can't live without. Me - I'm not so sure. I generally don't have issues with stamping, and learning to use the Stamper's Secret Weapon is a trick all its own. So what is it? Available on Amazon  for around $12.99, the actual product is a foam mat that measures 12in x 10.5in x  0.5in. The mat feels both firm, but squishes down nicely. Does it work? Without a doubt. Once you learn that you don't need to apply the same pressure you applied before. I was working on a card for Mother's Day. The actual big image looked great: The image came out rather striking. When it came to text, my end result was a bit different: Notice how the A in the upper left is totally smeared. Now I could have had too much ink, but that's never been an issue before. I chalk a portion of the blame up to applying too much pressure...