Danny's Cards Blog

I received my new Anna Griffin Bell Pop Out dies this week. I missed almost all of the Christmas in July work, so now here I am in August late to the parade. Thankfully, there are plenty of sketch challenges to get my inspiration going. Over on Atlantic Hearts , they provided a sketch that I thought I could work with. Here's the sketch in question: I went a different route than I usually go with a card like this. Normally, I would cut out squares and follow the sketch as closely as possible, but now that I own a Cricut Maker 3, I thought I would try something different. With Jingle Bells as my theme (because of the pop out), I decided to deboss my paper with my Maker 3 and then I found some bells I liked and cut them out and added a bow to give it a little dimension. Here's the end result: Of course, the real star of the show is in the inside of the card is the pop out. Here's a still of the pop out: But in case your curious, here's what the card looks like in action: T...

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...

Over on TIME OUT Challenges , the theme of the week was HUNGRY. I actually felt a bit stumped on what to do with this. I pulled out all my food stamps and food embellishments. I actually purchased a Bakery and Kitchen themed embossing folder, and with that, this became my focus. So here's the challenge: So this is the Cuttlebug Embossing Folders I used. And this is the, now out of print, Lori Whilock Stamp Set I used. I actually got this stamping set on clearance when my local AC Moore closed. It was the first time using both these sets. So I made two versions of the card. So wihout further ado: I colored the stamps with Copic markers and used 3D adhesive to give them a bit dimension. For this card, I kept the three elements fairly close together. One thing I've always struggled with is Copic Coloring. They're such fancy markers, but I never feel I do them justice. I ended up watching a tutorial by Mary Doodles that helped me out immensely.  And here's the second car...

Update: While the competition wasn't heavily entered, I'll take my wins where I can get them, my card was a top pick on Try Stampin' on Tuesday. Over on Try Stampin' on Tuesday , they had one of the hardest challenges I've seen in a long while. The challenge involved either utilizing a particular sketch or making a bendy card. I'm one always up for a challenge, so a bendy card it is... the only problem... I had no idea where to begin. Here's the challenge they set up for us: I was convinced there would be some type of design already premade on Design Space that would allow me to make a bendy card of some kind, but there was no such luck. I took a look at Melody Lane's Patreon and Lori Whitlock's shop, and alas, no luck. This mean I had to work from scratch. Now granted, I could make the card using traditional techniques, but when I looked up tutorials, the whole process looked a little too intimidating for me. I knew this could be done on Design Spa...