Danny's Cards Blog

I mentioned yesterday in my Koala Cards post that I had a huge win with an abundance of clearance stamps at Hobby Lobby. These stamps come from Tracey Hey , but my Hobby Lobby had them for a mere $2.49! Anyway, I was super excited by these pretty big stamps, but I knew the tactic had to be different as A2 size would be too small for these huge stamps. I made these cards for two distinct challenges. Over on Making the Cards they had this sketch challenge: And here's my interpretation of that challenge: I've never really done this type of coloring before where you don't color the whole image, and it wasn't until assembly that I ended up happy with how it looked. All cards were colored using Copic Markers. For the second card, I went with Sweet Sketch Wednesday's sketch challenge.  I don't make too many square cards so it was nice to be challenged in a different way. I went into my scrap box and used an assortment of circle scraps to complete the sketch: In my f...

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...

While perusing Facebook, I saw a post today that caught my eye. The only Facebook card groups I am still apart of are JOANN Loves Papercrafters and a handful of Melody Lane and Cricut groups. The Anna Griffin Facebook groups are too filled with toxicity from the various mods. Today on Joann's, Anthony M showcased a fantastic blending technique with a bricks embossing folder using Distress Oxide. You can watch his full tutorial here .  Blending always looked like next level work. It's something I've avoided for about five years since I started my papercrafting journey. Today, thanks to Anthony, I took the plunge and invested in some distress oxides and an assortment of blending brushes. I used a variety of colors but the main stamp and die set I used were Tim Holtz's Cat Chat . All the coloring of the stamps were done with Copic Markers. I made four cards and assembled them after an assortment of sketches found on a variety of blogs. So without further ado: The simple sk...

Sometimes you make a card, and then you think the link party ended and you're like, "okay, I'm going to restructure this and turn it into a sketch challenge," and then you realize that not only was the first challenge still having its link party, but so is the second challenge. This is a long way of saying, this card is made for two challenges. I originally thought the link party ended at CAS Colours & Sketches ... turns out I was wrong. Their challenge was to use the following colors: Then, over on Try Stampin' on Tuesday they gave us this wonderful sketch: I mentioned yesterday that I purchased a random donation box from Stampin' Up. In it was this  Brutus Monroe  stamp set. I used the stamp from that and pulled out my Copic Coloring markers. And here's the end result: Overall, I'm really happy with the design. I don't make a ton of horizontal A2 cards, so that was nice from a visual standpoint. So a 2-for-1, which is not something I normal...

Over on Tuesday Morning Sketches , they had one of the most fun sketches I've done in a while. Let's take a look: What I loved was the sort of parallelism that occurred between the semicircles. I recently acquired a stamp set from Brutus Monroe out of a random box I purchased from Stampin' Up. I'm completely unfamiliar with Brutus Monroe products, but after stamping with these, I'm a huge fan. They stamp clean and easy, and all the details pop evenly. I settled on the owl as a center piece. From there I thought about a tree bark background, and then I embossed a circle with leaves. I used a foil leaf background to offset the tree, and voila, here's my end result: I used an assortment of Copic Markers to color in the owl. I even did a little bit of shading around the owl's forehead, his arms and his belly. Overall, I'm thrilled with how he came out. If you enjoy what you see, be sure to hit the SUBSCRIBE button at the top to see new posts. Please follow ...

In some great news, I was the featured creator on Making the Cards for challenge #25. Be sure to check out their site for some great inspiration and feel free to leave comments on their blog acknowledging some fantastic work! Over on AAA Cards , they had a challenge of Along the Edge. This means making a nice Clean and Simple card with the edge used as a way to enhance the overall look of the card. Here's the challenge in question: The optional twist had me utilizing Dry Embossing. I have a ton of embossing folders so I knew this would be a perfect challenge for me.  The card I'm submitting to the challenge is this bee card. I was inspired by the various bug cards I've been making and this hive like embossing folder I owned. This stamp came from Jillibean . Here's the result: I loved the way the card looked so much with the edge embossed and the stamp off to the side, that I ended up making a few more. The follow cards use Sweet Kawaii Design stamps: And here's th...

Another day, another acknowledgement. While there wasn't a ton of competition, my Bendy Card was a top pick over on Try Stampin' on Tuesday . Another win! Anyway, onto today's post. If you're anything like me, when you're making a card you stamp out and cut out a whole bunch of extra pieces. This happens a lot with me because I'm not the best stamper in the world. Depending on the brand of stamps, some are more prone to smudging or uneven stamping, and other times my technique falters and the stamp just looks terrible.  In any case, I showcased my Ladybug card just a few days ago, but I stamped so many different elements, I couldn't help but go back and make a few more ladybug cards. When I stumbled upon Inkspirational's spots and dots challenge , I knew I could have a lot of fun with these stamps again. So let's take a look at the challenge: What I did for the card to make the spots of the ladybug pop out was twofold. First, I found a dotted embos...

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 the Making the Cards Challenge Blog , the designers chose three elements that we had to work with. The elements we had to include were Flowers, Ladybugs and Sunshine. Take a look at the challenge board: I actually knew what Ladybugs I would use which come from Lawn Fawn . But I was convinced I had a particular sunshine embossing folder. I didn't. Thankfully, I had another sunshine embossing folder from Park Lane . As for the flowers, I used Anna Griffin's Mini Flower and Foliage set. I've been recently working on my Copic Coloring skill, so I'm hoping that came through. So take a look at my creation: And here are a few more shots so you can see the dimension of the piece. If you enjoy what you see, be sure to hit the SUBSCRIBE button at the top to see new posts. Please follow me on Instagram  @DannysCards ; you can now also find me on  Facebook . Thank you so much for reading! Check out these other Copic Colored Cards by me: Baked with Love Cards Christmas Kick...