Month: September 2020

Sunshine Tower

| ullycatdesigns

Sunshine on a dreary dull day is the theme of this card meant to brighten someone’s mood.

I had gotten Sam Calcott’s Terrific Tower dies set and some new Buttons Galore shaker elements and know I wanted to combine them into one card.

(There isn’t a good assembly video for the Terrific Towers die set but there is a new release video that will give you some ideas how to make the tower card.)

Back side of tower card with space for a personal message.
Close-up of shaker

Using the Pink Fresh Studio slimline circle apertures dies with the My Favorite Things 2-inch circle shaker pouches works well. The only thing I had to do was to snip in between each scallop to allow the pouch to fit through. I cut the circles apart and rounded the corners. Had to use some teal mirror card to suggest water or sky. After gluing the teal mirror card and lemon-yellow layer together, I glued the shaker pouches to the lemon-yellow layer, filled the pouches and then glued the pale-yellow backing to each. (Remember to use an antic static pad to wipe the inside of pouch to cut down on the static cling of sequins to the plastic.)

The Towers die set comes with all the rectangular matting layer panels. The base card is cut in a grapefruit orange and the panels are in a pale yellow and a lemon yellow.

The stars/suns are made from the Made to Surprise Excellent Edges die set by cutting the bottom star from orange and the top from pale yellow. The tiny 3D red and pink flowers and greenery are decorative elements I had left over from another project and are cut from the Spellbinders 3D Fun Time Cruiser die set.

Finishing touches are the stamping of the sentiment and the back-envelope flap from the What the Doodle Sun stamp set.

Supplies:

Stamps

Dies/Punches

Papers

Inks

Miscellaneous

Driving into a Spooky Sunset

| ullycatdesigns

Halloween in the USA often means corn mazes and pumpkin patches as well as dressing up on Halloween evening and going to a party. I have tried to combine these things into a single slimline sliding bridge-fold card.

This card was a second prototype for trying new methods and materials for me. This was my second attempt at ink blending a setting sun sky using Distress Inks and blending sponges, so not as spotty as my first attempt, but not as smoothly blended as I would like. I made a stencil for the sun using scrap card.

The base of the card is 8 1/2 inches (21.6 cm) tall by 9 inches (22.7 cm) wide and scored at 4.5 cm, 8 cm, 15 cm and 18.5 cm. I cut the top corners diagonally from 9 cm down to the 8 cm scoring and the 15 cm scoring.

The small ghosts and bats lurking on the inside panel are die-cut pieces – the bats from the Halloween Sunday Drive and the “Squeaker Ghosts” by Poppy Stamps.

I used the Hero Arts September 2020 My Monthly Hero Kit to stamp the layered image of a field of pumpkins with a corn filed in the background. The kit includes five mini cubes of ink needed to stamp each layer as well as the layered stamps and sentiment stamps. Dies to cut out a few of the images and several sheets of glitter paper round out the kits. (You need to order early the monthly kits as they sell out fast. Hero Arts is one of the few companies that lets you order a single kit without taking out a subscription.)

I stamped four of the images on white copy paper and layered the pumpkin field to create a taller background image. I knew I wanted a road going down the middle of the card, and I cut a road from brown cardstock.

The sliding bridge is a mechanism under the car that involves a capital I piece and two folded rings.

The rings are glued to the folded edges of the card base around the I piece. The end stops of the I piece were adhered behind the car’s wheel wells and tires with foam pads.

The car driven by a white glitter paper skeleton with a glow-in-the-dark pink haired witch with glow-the-the-dark green skin, is die cut suing Spellbinder’s Sunday Drive car die set with the Halloween Sunday Drive add-on set. The car body was cut from white cardstock and then covered with Black Soot Distress ink. The taillights are Nuvo Glow Drops Neon – Shocking Pink and silver matt cardstock. Two glitter cardstock die cut skulls are in the car’s luggage rack. The brown folded down roof is colored cardstock heat embossed with clear embossing powder to get a faux leather look. The shiny hat bands on the two hats are made with Nuvo Glow Drops Neon – Blue Crush.

The sentiment and stamps used on the envelope flap are all from the Hero Arts kit stamped in Memento tuxedo Black and the wheel in the Hero Arts brown ink cube.

For another Halloween slimline card using the same supplies see Being Spooky.

Other Sunday Drive cards:

Sunday Drive Celebration

A Snowy Sunday Drive with Santa

Santa Bauble

Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Being Spooky

Driving into a Spooky Sunset

The Best is Yet to Come

Hoppy Spring!

© Sue Small-Kreider 2020

SUPPLIES

Dies:

Stamps:

Inks/Embossing Powder:

Nuvo Drops:

Miscellaneous:

  • Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue
  • White computer paper
  • White cardstock
  • Colored cardstock scraps from stash
  • Foam pads
  • American Crafts – Metallic Marker – M – Silver -62212

Being Spooky

| ullycatdesigns

Halloween in the USA often means corn mazes and pumpkin patches as well as dressing up on Halloween evening and going to a party. I have tried to combine these things into a single slimline z-fold card.

This card was my prototype for trying new methods and materials for me. I had never ink blended a setting sun sky using Distress Inks and blending sponges, so my sky is a bit “spotty.” I experimented with using Nuvo drops to cover an entire surface (car, witch’s hair and neck.) I like the effect that Nuvo drop spread thin has on small die cut pieces but getting an even coating on large pieces was difficult. I think using a glow in the dark embossing powder would work better for the car.

I used the Hero Arts September 2020 My Monthly Hero Kit to stamp the layered image of a field of pumpkins with a corn filed in the background. The kit includes five mini cubes of ink needed to stamp each layer as well as the layered stamps and sentiment stamps. Dies to cut out a few of the images and several sheets of glitter paper round out the kits. (You need to order early the monthly kits as they sell out fast. Hero Arts is one of the few companies that lets you order a single kit without taking out a subscription.)

I stamped four of the images and layered the pumpkin field to create a taller background image. I knew I wanted a road going down the middle of the card, but in hindsight, I have the perspective all off for the angle of the road. The road is made of three pieces of black cardstock. The design of the car is for the card to be standing open in a z-fold position, so you can read the “Happy Halloween.”

The base of the card is 8 5/8 inches tall by 7 5/8 inches wide and folded at 1 7/8 inches and 3 ¾ inches.

The car driven by a white glitter paper skeleton with a glow-in-the-dark pink haired witch with glow-the-the-dark green skin, is die cut suing Spellbinder’s Sunday Drive car die set with the Halloween Sunday Drive add-on set. The car body was cut from white cardstock and then covered with the Nuvo Glow Drops Neon – Sour Apple. The taillights are Nuvo Glow Drops Neon – Shocking Pink and silver matt cardstock. Two glitter cardstock die cut skulls are in the car’s luggage rack. The brown folded down roof is colored cardstock heat embossed with clear embossing powder to get a faux leather look. The shiny hat bands on the two hats are made with Nuvo Glow Drops Neon – Blue Crush.

The small ghosts and bats lurking on the inside panel are die-cut pieces – the bats from the Halloween Sunday Drive and the “Squeaker Ghosts” by Poppy Stamps.

The sentiment and stamps used on the envelope flap are all from the Hearo Arts kit stamped in Memento tuxedo Black and the wheel in the Hero Arts brown ink cube.

For another interactive Halloween slimline card using the same supplies see Driving into a Spooky Sunset (Set to be released on September 25).

Other Sunday Drive cards:

Sunday Drive Celebration

A Snowy Sunday Drive with Santa

Santa Bauble

Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Being Spooky

Driving into a Spooky Sunset

The Best is Yet to Come

Hoppy Spring!

SUPPLIES

Dies:

Stamps:

Inks/Embossing Powder:

Nuvo Drops:

Miscellaneous:

  • Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue
  • White computer paper
  • White cardstock
  • Colored cardstock scraps from stash
  • American Crafts – Metallic Marker – M – Silver -62212

Day 4 of Mini Challenge – Autumn Leaves and Letting Go

| ullycatdesigns

This is the fourth and final day of the challenge I set myself to make five cards with the Autumn Days stamp set from the most recent Simply Cards and Papercrafts magazine.

There was a terrible rain storm going on outside when I started stamping with the Autumn Days stamp set from the most recent Simply Cards and Papercrafts magazine. I made a number of backgrounds using a color palette ranging from a mustard yellow to a muddy red. This card uses one made with the tiny individual leaf stamps and the pile of leaves stamp.

The sentiment was heat embossed in a shiny black on light orange cardstock, fussy cut and raised up with foam pads.

Using a large sycamore leaf stamp, I stamped the envelope flap in brown ink.

This will make a lovely Thanksgiving card with plenty of space inside for a personal note.

DAY 1 – Winter Joys

DAY 2 – Looking Up and Letting Go

DAY 3 – N is for Nuts

Day 4 – Autumn Leaves and Letting Go

Supplies:

Stamps

Papers

Inks/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous

Day 3 of Mini Challenge – N is for Nuts

| ullycatdesigns

This was a quick card for my post to The Alphabet Game on Craftworld.com for the letter N and the third day in my challenge to myself to make five cards from the Autumn Days stamp set from the most recent Simply Cards and Papercrafts magazine. I had recently gotten two slimline panel circle dies that I also wanted to try out. I grabbed the darkest, what I thought was brown embossing powder from my stash, but when I heated it up it was this lovely smooth gold. (I need to write Craftstash to find out what brand of powder this is, as I highly recommend it for its smooth detail.)

After heat embossing the acorns, I used a brown watercolor pencil waterbrush to color them.

I cut the center circle out of the card base and placed the stamped/embossed sentiment on the inside. This will make a lovely Thanksgiving card with plenty of space inside for a personal note.

The envelope is stamped with brown ink on its back flap.

DAY 1 – Winter Joys

DAY 2 – Looking Up and Letting Go

DAY 3 – N is for Nuts

DAY 4 – Autumn Leaves and Letting Go

Supplies:

Dies

Stamps

Papers

Inks/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous

Day 2 of Mini Challenge – Looking Up and Letting Go

| ullycatdesigns

Walking in the woods you smell the crisp fall air and looking up see the falling leaves swirling down from the treetops. This is the memory I hope this card evokes.

This is Day 2 of the challenge I set myself to make five cards with the Autumn Days stamp set from the most recent Simply Cards and Papercrafts magazine.

I had stamped a bunch of backgrounds with the Autumn Days stamp set from the most recent Simply Cards and Papercrafts magazine a color palette ranging from a bright yellow to a muddy red. This card uses one made with the tiny individual leaf stamps and the single tree stamp. The background was inspired by a card I had seen on Craftworld.com by Mandy78.

The sentiment and leaves were heat embossed in a shiny black on several shades of orange cardstock, fussy cut and adhered with foam pads.

This will make a lovely Thanksgiving card with plenty of space inside for a personal note.

Using a large sycamore leaf stamp, I stamped the envelope flap in brown ink.

DAY 1 – Winter Joys

DAY 2 – Looking Up and Letting Go

DAY 3 – N is for Nuts

DAY 4 – Autumn Leaves and Letting Go

Supplies:

Stamps

Papers

Inks/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous

Day 1 of Mini Challenge – Winter Joys

| ullycatdesigns

I set myself a challenge to make five cards with the Autumn Days stamp set from the most recent Simply Cards and Papercrafts magazine. I made a number of backgrounds using fall colors, but I also did two with the pine branches and berries in greens and red for the winter holidays.

I did a design that I’ve used in the past of positioning the pine branches in a circular wreath-like fashion with the red berries as accents. The vertical card I inadvertently turned two of the branches in opposing direction in the corners and had to cover the stem bases with red berries. The “Joy” toppers are circular scraps from my greens scrap bin that where gold heat embossed and adhered with foam pads.

The inside sentiment comes from an older Kaisercraft stamp set, while the “Joy” came from a Love Cardmaking magazine stamp set.  I stamped the pinecone stamp from Autumn Days on the envelope flap in brown ink.

I thank Mandy78 from Craftworld.com for the idea of a mini challenge for myself.

DAY 1 – Winter Joys

DAY 2 – Looking Up and Letting Go

DAY 3 – N is for Nuts

DAY 4 – Autumn Leaves and Letting Go

Supplies:

Stamps

Dies

Papers

Inks/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

| ullycatdesigns

Love this little black cat three-layer stamp by Kat Scrapiness that comes with some great sentiments like the Toil and Trouble one that gives it, its name. I had purchased the Pop-Out die and the Gina Marie Designs Mosaic Triangle Edge Circle dies along with The Toil & Trouble stamp and matching die set all during Kat Scrapiness’ Labor Day sale. I hadn’t planned on combining them, but the more I looked and dreamed about the “Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble” I saw a bubbling, steaming cauldron with the steam opening up into an aerial view of a shaker card showing of the cauldron’s contents.

I found in my stash the fabulous Buttons Galore & More’s Creepy Sparkleletz shaker elements to which I added some green and iridescent sequins and the tiny black and green triangles off-cuts from the mosaic circle frames I cut for the cauldron.

The background of the shaker cauldron is a lime green square of cardstock that I daubed Cracked Pistachio and Fired Brick Distress inks and then spritzed with water to blend. I dried and stamped with Versamark Watermark ink an older bubble background stamp by Hunkydory. The final touch to the background was to stamp “BOO” in the center of the square.

To create the white steam of the cauldron, I took cream cardstock and stamped in grey ink the same bubble background mentioned earlier. Next, I embossed the cardstock using an older Darice embossing folder. (I may have used one too many shims when I embossed, as it almost cut through the card in places.) I centered and taped the Pop-Out die inside the circle die and then die-cut, in one pass, the circle of steam that opens in six triangles to reveal the cauldron’s shaker contents. I free-hand cut a spoon handle that is used to open-up the steam or “stir the pot.”

I tried several inks to stamp the cat but ended up using the cat with just black ink – having lightly stamped each layer to create the shadows. The sentiments, both inside and on the front, are first stamped with the bubble stamp in grey ink then the sentiment in black Memento ink. (I was not paying attention to which ink I was putting on the inside as I moved the background stamp around and inadvertently used the black Memento at the bottom section.)

To finish off the card front, I used a retired Taylored Expressions “Little Bits” spider web die set to cut from vellum the corner decorations including a tiny black spider. I found a bit of spider ribbon that leads the reader to the sentiment.

As it is my style to stamp an image or sentiment that hints at what’s inside, I stamped a witches’ hat (because I have no cauldron stamp) and the phrase “The most Spooktacular night of the year” on the envelope flap. These stamps are from My Mind’s Eye.

To send the card, I will add a hand-written note instructing the recipient “To stir the cauldron using the black handled sticking out of the steam to find out what’s shake’n.”

Supplies:

Dies/Embossing Folders

Stamps

Papers

Inks

Miscellaneous

Fishing Birthday Card – Teepee Style

| ullycatdesigns

This card was created to compliment an autumn birthday teepee card I had made earlier which was done in oranges and browns.  This one plays off the orange by using the contrasting color of blue with accents of browns and green. The recipient likes to fish so I used a fishing stamp set by Stampin’ Up and papers from my storage box of “masculine papers” (brands listed under supplies.)

Teepee cards-so named because of the shape, are easy cards to construct from three squares of cardstock that are all the same. You score each diagonally from one point to the opposite point and fold in half to form a triangle. Then you glue one of the squares to the left side triangle and another square to the right side of the triangle/center square. I recommend watch Sam Calcott’s Mixed up Crafts video for a step by step. (My card base is made up of three 5 ¾ inches squares of double-sided paper by Craft Consortium.) I cut three 5 ½ inch squares of green paper by Graphic 45 and then diagonally cut the square to get the 5 triangles I needed for the middle mat layer.

Once again, I want to have peek-a-boo-doors on the teepee card, so I added two flaps using the smallest and the medium circle dies in the Lawn Fawn circle flaps dies set cut into the top layer of triangular cut paper. Because I wanted to use the doors as platforms to set a hook and a large fish on, I used pop-out cubes to make them stand away from the card base.(My card used patterned blue paper by Authentique cut from 5 ¼ inch squares.) I also cut two additional circle flaps from the same blue paper to cover the back sides of the flap doors and squares to inlay behind the flap door matching the pattern. The pop-up cube to support an object is common, but I really learned the power of it from Karen Burniston’s Frame Pull Pop-up.

I fussy cut all of the card’s stamped images and sentiments after I had use watercolor pencils to color them. The happy Birthday rosette is made from a foiled topper from a card kit and ribbon gathered by needle and thread and then glued to the back of the topper.

The back side of the card has a cream-colored triangle for a personal message. The card is secured with a hook and loop square glued to one corner of the back flap and the connecting triangle.

I intended to have this card fold flat to fit inside a catalog envelope (9 inches x 6 inches) but I put the fisherman with his long pole and fishing line on the wrong panel. (Yes, it is real fishing line glued between two layers of the stamped fisherman and pole). The fisherman and the fish should have been where the other is, so that when folded flat the overlap lays on the cream panel so it will fit into a 9 x 6 inch envelope. But this card will be mailed in a larger padded envelope with a small diagram so the recipient will know how to stand it up for display and for good CRX. The back of the envelope is stamped with a fish.

Supplies

Dies

Stamps/Ink

Paper

Miscellaneous

  • PVA Glue – Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue
  • Hook and loop tape
  • Foam squares
  • Metallic organza ribbon from my stash
  • Zebco – OmniFlex – 20 lb. 9.1 kg Line – monofilament fishing line
  • Needle and thread