CommUNITY: Inspiration from Richard Breaks

Hi friends! Today we are here with an installment of our monthly series, CommUNITY, where we share artwork from artists who we'd love for you to get to know. CommUNITY is about embracing and honoring the creativity of individuals who are often underrepresented. By sharing art from a diverse group of creators, we hope to not only bring inspiration to this papercrafting community we all love so much, but also support and empower individuals to be their authentic selves as they create and share. Look for a new CommUNITY guest artist right here on the blog each month. Today our amazing guest is Richard Breaks!

Greetings! I’m Richard Breaks, and I’ve been making cards since 2009. My style is as changeable as the wind, but no doubt you’ll probably find lots of ink blending and die cuts on the majority of my work. I was recently asked to be a guest artist/teacher teamed with Jennifer McGuire at Online Card Classes, and I’ve been honored to be asked to guest design for several online groups. I can be found on Instagram @rlbreaks.



I was inspired to create a multicultural and multiracial style card when I saw the Together Window Fancy Die. I watercolored the die cut grasping hands cut from Bristol smooth cardstock in different skin tones. I thought the sentiment from We Stand With You by the Stamping Village was ideal, and it inspired me to use the ocean scene from the Color Layering Waves stamp set in the center of my design.

I layered the die cut panel on top of my ocean scene, using foam adhesive under the hands to give some dimension. I layered two pieces of patterned paper from my stash to frame my panel, and that was that!



Growing up in the 60s and 70s, I often saw beautiful busts of Queen Nefertiti decorating my parents’ friends’ homes. Archeologists had recently found this bust with an almost perfect paint job still intact, and she was just gorgeous with her dark skin and brightly colored headdress. I loved studying the colors and shapes. When she appeared in the Museum Busts Fancy Dies, I knew she was perfect for this project.

For my card, I decided to reimagine her in marble, thinking such a distinctive shape would carry the day. I shadowed her with colors from my background. I blended my background panel with the shades of purple and pink with spatters of white to create an evening sky. I again used the Color Layering Waves set to add die cut clouds. To create a classical setting, I die cut and colored columns from Museum Columns Fancy Dies. I used a brick stencil to create a place for the columns to sit, and nestled Nefertiti in between. My sentiment comes from United as One from the Unity Collection. I liked it with the strong standing images used here. Just a tiny bit of sparkle pen adds some something-something to the scene.

Richard, thank you so much for sharing your beautiful projects and talent with us today!

Thanks for stopping by,

Click on products to shop:

DI943 Together Window Fancy Die (C) |... HA ] DF042 Museum Busts Fancy Dies (D) |... HA ] DF043 Museum Columns Fancy Dies (D) |... HA ] CM476 United as One | Hero Arts HA ] TSV0520 We Stand With You | Hero Arts HA ] CM316 Color Layering Waves | Hero Arts HA ]