Month: October 2020

Vintage Christmas

| ullycatdesigns

What fun to be a child with a new toy or two to play with on Christmas morning. This card takes its inspiration from a BoBunny paper pad and matching die-cut pieces as well as a recent release of Karen Burniston’s Flip Frame Pop-up die set.

I found the Flip Frame Pop-Up easy to assemble, but strongly suggest practicing with scrap paper the gluing placement of the mechanism and frame before gluing with your good paper. (Here is the assembly video.)

I cut the flip frame from dark green mirror card and used some scrap green pattern pieces to hide the white side of the mechanism so that the mechanism strip blends into the background.

The cream-colored doily is for writing a personal message, but it does give the feel that the open card is a tabletop with a picture frame of a loved one.

The front is decorated with pictures cut from the paper pad and the little boy is a die-cut from the BoBunny set that is adhered with foam squares. A ribbon was the final dimensional element to tie the little girl to the boy and the opened gift box.

The card base is made entirely from two papers from the BoBunny paper pad. The inside sentiment and snowflake are from the coordinating die cuts set.

As is my style, I stamped the envelope flap with an older Kaisercraft stamp sentiment to set the mood for the card.

Hope this card makes you remember your childhood Christmases.

SUPPLIES

Dies

Stamps

  • Kaisercraft – Clear Stamps – Sentiments -Traditional – CS313

Ink

Paper

Miscellaneous

© Sue Small-Kreider 2020

Naughty or Nice?

| ullycatdesigns

What pops down a chimney and out a fireplace? Santa Kitten!

These cute little kittens jumped out at me while in a Tuesday Morning store. They are on cellophane treat bags. I realized that they were the correct size for one of Karen Burniston’s interactive dies – the Pop ‘n Swap.

While I would classify this card as a prototype, what I wanted to share is to show how you can make a shallow box like structure to create a fireplace over the pop ’n swap mechanism. Watch Karen Burniston’s assembly video to learn how to put together this mechanism.

For this slimline card, I cut a piece of heavy black cardstock 8 ½ x 8 inches and scored at 4 inches and folded in half to create the card base. (The card needs to be at least 4 inches wide since the mechanism folded flat is 4 inches wide.) Next, I cut from the front top of the card base a rectangle 2 ½ x 4 inches to allow the Santa kitten to show over the chimney top.

The inside shallow box is a 5 3/4 inches tall by 4 7/8 inches wide rectangle of red cardstock. I scored at ¼ inch, 1 inch and 4 inches. (Because the mechanism is ¾ inches tall, the box side is ¾ inches deep.) All the folds are mountain folds. The narrow tab goes towards the right edge of the card while the wide tab goes towards the inside fold.  I glued my mechanism in first, and then using removable tape, I played with the positioning of the box and marked with pencil its placement before removing the box. I cut the widow to show the kitten inside the fireplace, by laying the fireplace frame over the mechanism and seeing where the kitten would best show. Next, I placed  a loop of removable tape on the fireplace and positioned the box back into place and got the fireplace to stick to the inside of the box. With the fireplace stuck I removed the box and traced the opening of the fireplace onto the back of the box. With a metal ruler and craft knife, I cut the opening slightly larger than the pencil marks. Now the box is ready to be permanently glued in place. Glue the kittens in place next on the mechanism arms, cutting any corners that show beyond the kittens.

For decorating of the fireplace and mantel refer to my An Old-Time Christmas post. The brick is stenciled on the chimney panel before cutting it for the front. The fireplace was stenciled once the opening was cut for the fireplace, but before the box was glued permanently in place.

I tried a new-to-me product from Cosmic Shimmer called Fluffy Stuff. It is a thick paint-like substance that you can add dimension with for snow. You use a heat gun to get it to bubble up. I tried adding it to the front of the card after I assembled the card and in the heating of the card, I ended up heating the cellophane of the top kitten which shrunk a little. My recommendation is to add the Fluffy Stuff to your front panel before it is glued on to the card so that you can heat it and left it dry for 24 hours before gluing in place. (Here is a video that shows Fluffy Stuff being demonstrated on the Beebaab Youtube channel.)

If you have read this far, I’ll let you in on a secret. There is a free down of the “Naughty or Nice” sentiment in the supplies list.

Hope this card makes you smile.

SUPPLIES

Dies

Stamps/Stencils

Inks/Colors

Paper

naughty-or-niceDownload

Miscellaneous

© Sue Small-Kreider 2020

The Best is Yet to Come

| ullycatdesigns


“You’re not getting older, you’re getting better” was the inspiration for this anniversary card for a “better” couple. I used one of my favorite Spellbinder’s die set – Sunday Drive along with one of it’s add-on sets  – Sunday Sunset Drive.

To create the rainbow oval I hot foiled the Spellbinder’s Essential Glimmer Ovals and then the sentiment above from a Spellbinders Glimmer of the Month sentiment set. (Spellbinders has great clubs of the month that get you the newest dies/glimmer plates before they are released to the general public and/or get sold out, plus discounts on other products like the Journey Platinum and Sapphire Mini die cutting machines that I use. The Mini I got for 75% off.)

The heart and star are some die cuts that have been in my stash for years most like cut from punches and junk mail.

To assemble the car and passengers I looked at the pictures on the packaging, but you could watch an assembly video too. The License plate was cut from white glitter paper. The taillights are Nuvo Glow Drops Neon – Shocking Pink and silver matte cardstock. I used Watercolor pencils on the passengers’ skin and hair. I added the yellow ribbon scarf to create the illusion of motion following the direction of the woman’s hair. (I was also thinking of an old Audrey Hepburn movie of her in a small sports car with a scarf blowing in the wind.)

Because I don’t own matching glimmer plate or stamp that would compliment the typeface of the front sentiment, I used die cut letters from gold mirror card and another of the license plates from the Sunday Sunset Drive set.

As is my style I stamped the back of the envelope with a hint of what is inside using an older BoBunny hearts stamp in red.

This card feels like one a husband might give to his wife as they near retirement.

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:

Foiling:

Stamps:

Coloring:

Paper:

Miscellaneous:

© Sue Small-Kreider 2020

Color My World

| ullycatdesigns

This bland little art portfolio opens to a world of color to express how my spouse makes me feel and to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

I borrowed the idea of making a portfolio case from Bibi Cameron’s blog post for the Spellbinders Large die of the month set for August 2020. I think you could probably use most any 3D frames set to make this portfolio such as Helen Griffin’s Simply Made Terrific Terrarium die set.

The corners, closing strap, buckle and tag, I used from the Karen Burniston’s Purse Pop-up die set. The tubes of paint are also part of the Spellbinder’s set.

I heat embossed the two different stamped sentiments using two colors of embossing powder.

SUPPLIES

Dies

Stamps

Ink/ Embossing Powders

Paper

  • Cream colored stock from my stash
  • Colored cardstock scraps from stash

Miscellaneous

Bounty of the Season

| ullycatdesigns

“May the bounty of the season fill your heart and home” is the message of this layered Thanksgiving card. It uses the October 2020 Large Die of the Month by Spellbinders as well as a variety of other brands’ elements to make a 6 ½ x 5 inches card with matching envelope.

I started by using an older Tim Holtz brick stencil with his fired brick Distress Ink on a 6 x 4 ½ inches brick red cardstock. I went through my paper scrap bins for the paper that I cut the rest of the scene’s elements, much of it coming from junk mail advertisements and envelopes. The brass letter slot and doorknob where from a candy box.

The window was cut twice from white and black cardstock and pieced together. All the white elements were cut from shiny coated packaging. Several years ago, I employed a tiny Fiskars oak leaf punch to cut the colorful leaves from junk mail. The leaves were used to make the door wreath which uses the wreath from the die set as a base. The welcome mat is cut from a brown craft paper.

By laying out the doorway pieces on the stenciled red panel I knew where to glue the bottom step piece and then the left column, red door and right column followed by the top piece. (I recommend watching the assembly video to understand how the pieces all go together.) A sticky tip tool is especially useful in assembling this doorway scene’s tiny pieces.

After the glue on the front panel was dry, I took a soft glue eraser to the white sections to erase the glue smudges.

I stamped the inside sentiment using paper masks (from sticky note paper) to allow only the intended sections to be stamped using three colors. The order of stamping was light to darkest ink – orange, green, brown. I placed a fussy-cut mask of the pumpkin after the orange layer was stamped which is hard to see in the photos showing what I masked for each stamping layer. Before I stamped the sentiment stamp in brown, I removed the pumpkin vine stamp from the stamping platform.

As is my style, I like to stamp the envelope flap with a hint of what’s inside.

SUPPLIES

Dies/Punches

Stamps/Stencils

Ink

Paper

Miscellaneous

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

| ullycatdesigns

Sometimes you don’t need to answer that question.

This little artist trading card’s inspiration came from the Rubberneck sentiment stamp, which was stamped, and heat embossed in white on a My Mind’s Eye paper scrap that was die-cut using a stitched die.

The chicken is from an animal die set by Karen Burniston. All parts were cut from scraps in my stash – textured, off-white card for body. The eyes and red wattle are marker through the die stencil slots. To add definition, the edges of the body were distressed with black soot ink.

Hope this ATC makes you smile.

SUPPLIES

Dies

Stamps/Stencils

Ink/Embossing Powder

Paper

Miscellaneous

Warmish Winter Wishes

| ullycatdesigns

Sending warm wishes for the holiday season is what this card is all about.

It is a simple card made with pre-printed white snowflakes on brown kraft paper card, holographic snowflake glitter and red stamped images adhered with foam squares.

I made 24 of these cards in one day. The stamping was done first using a Tim Holtz stamping platform by Tonic Studios. I had cut 8 ½ x11 inch white cardstock into 4 ¼ x 5 ½ inch pieces to make it easy to stamp two sets of images per piece and never have to move the stamps, except to stamp the two sentiments and the fox on the envelope flaps.

I fussy cut the images and placed tiny and large foam squares from my stash on the backs of the images.

Once the cut images were adhered to the card fronts, I glued the snowflake glitter to the cards matching up with the centers of the printed snowflakes.

SUPPLIES

Stamps

Ink

Paper

Miscellaneous