Danny's Cards Blog

Update: This card was picked as Cupcake Inspirations Sweet Pick! Over on Cupcake Inspirations , the designers gave us a color challenge. As you may have seen from my last few posts, I'm obsessed with my Cricut Maker 3, so any new cards I've been making have been reliant on my new piece of hardware. The color challenge was as follows: I've sort of been on an animal kick. Something about the layering of animals with cardstock to create dimension always looks good to me. I talked about in my last post how I wanted to make an owl card but ultimately went with a llama instead. Today I got to live out my owl fantasy. I found an owl on Cricut Design Space but changed the colors to fit the challenge. I also wanted this to be way bigger than the tiny Twinchie card from yesterday . Here was the result: A simple but very effective card. What I love about this card is it's an "I love you" card with a much younger aesthetic. I could see giving this to a niece or nephew, j...

Over on AAA Birthday they had the most unusual challenge this week. The challenge involved using a twinchie. What's a twinchie you ask? They describe it as "a square, circle or hexagon up to 2" (5cm)."  Here's the challenge in question: I recently acquired my Cricut Maker 3, and so I've really taken time away from Stamping and Die Cutting to utilize my new Maker. I knew I wanted to layer some image of some kind. Originally I was thinking of a mandala-effect on an animal. I looked at owls and bears and frogs and a whole menagerie of other animals. But when I stumbled upon this llama I knew I had to do it. So here is my end result: The layering created an almost stamp like appearance. It's actually quite striking. Here's the card standing upright. I'm loving the return to a Cricut product to make cards that feel impossible otherwise. If you enjoy what you see, be sure to hit the SUBSCRIBE button at the top to see new posts. Please follow me on Inst...

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 the Here Is a Place to Start blog, they offered up a unique Create Your Own Challenge . I'm familiar with many Tic-Tac-Toe boards, but there is even more flexibility in this challenge. Let's take a look at the challenge and what I ended up using: At work, one of my dear coworkers is abandoning me (author and coffee aficionado of NYC Undergrounds ) So I wanted to make her a Wishing You All the Best card. She's also going to travel the world, so I used some mixed media paper I acquired which has postcards layered. I also cut and embossed a 3D embellishment from Anna Griffin's Anniversary Frame Dies . Here were the two cards I ended up making: Very simple cards, but happy how they came out. 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! UPDATE: This card was selected by Here is a Place to Start  as a Ris...

This week I combined the Happy Little Stampers  and the Inkspirational Challenge , the challenge from Happy Little Stampers was "Anything Goes with Dies" and on Inkspirational it was Slimeline Cards. These are my favorite challenges because I get to utilize different dies and revisit dies I haven't used in forever. Here were the challenge titles: I ended up using my Anna Griffin Slimline Concentric Dies for the very first time. I love making Slimline cards. The large shape make them look so elegant, so I was excited to get to work with this. I created two cards, largely the same but with a different sentiment in the center. Here they are: For the first card, I utilized a simple sentiment of "wishing you good luck." I think the square offset it nicely. I used 3D adhesive dots to really give the center a nice dimension. As for the center card, it was nearly identical. The only difference is the sentiment in the center which is circular which helps make the ovals ...

Over on the Just Us Girls Challenge Blog , the challenge this week was simple: No Stamping. They invited us to "use dies, stickers, ephemera, mixed media techniques, watercolouring... anything and everything that does *not* include stamping." One of my coworkers is getting married June 27th, and so I went to work. I immediately pulled out my Gothic 3D Concentric Frame Dies . I love these dies, but I want to differentiate the card from what I had done before. I recently acquired the 12x12 Perfect Palette Metallic Paper  and utilized the pink which gave these cards a fresher appeal. For my first card I layered the dies and added a few flower embellishments in opposite parallel. For my second card, I created another symmetrical card but utilized a more flower background to make the flowers pop. I was really happy with how these cards came out. What isn't captured in photos is how the metallic paper catches the light.  If you enjoy what you see, be sure to hit the SUBSCRIBE b...

I recently just finished my bodybuilding experience, so I finally found some time for cards. I recently acquired Anna Griffin's Rocking Card Dies , but I really didn't know what to make with them. Inspiration struck when I found TGIF Challenges: Color Challenge . This week's color challenge was as follows: I loved the simplicity of the color scheme. I didn't quite know how the set would come out, but a hope and a prayer later, I ended up with two cards. The good news: The Rocking Card Dies are easy to use. Each card takes about 30-45 minutes to complete. A few quick passes, and assembly is a cinch. I do worry about longevity. On the second card, the weight seemed to be a bit more and it appeared as if the card was deflating a little. Not enough to ruin the effect, but I do wonder how the card will stand up over time. Still, it's such an interesting design, that I can't be upset with it. So here are the results: All the details really pop. This card was fairly li...