Month: February 2023

All That Jazz

| ullycatdesigns

Needing a birthday card for a fun loving and jazz enthusiast gentleman who always supports concerts in the park, was the inspiration for this card.

It uses a variety of animals and scene dies as well as a pop-up bench by Karen Burniston. This was my first time using the Pear Blossom Press EZ-lights which are also available on the Karen Burniston website.

EZ-Lights:  To start the card, I had to plan out how the lights were to be installed knowing that the switch/battery piece had to be surrounded by foam strips and that I wanted lights on both the front of the card and inside the card. I don’t like to have wires going across the card-fold, so everything needed to be above the fold on this top-fold A7 (5×7-inch) card. (I also watched some assembly videos on using the EZ-Lights.) I made my front decorative panel and added decorative papers to the inside of my card base before poking the holes for the one light on the card front and two lights on the inside top panel.

Front Panel:  The front panel uses the fronds pattern plate cut from a dark green cardstock over a grass printed paper.

Lampposts:  These are cut using the street lantern pop-up die set using a glossy black piece of cardboard packaging which gives nice dimension as well as highlighting the embossed features of the dies. The edges of the lampposts I colored with black markers. For the lamp itself I used both clear vellum and golden parchment to allow the light to show through. (Assembly video)

Bench:  For the bench, I used the garden bench pop-up die set. I found a piece of glossy black paper that looks like metal, and I adhered it to some brown cardstock and then die-cut the bench. This pop-up is a glue-in pop-up, so I watched the assembly video several times to get the installation of the bench correct for this card. The monkeys are attached using foam squares.

Animals:  The jazz duo of a bass playing elephant and a giraffe playing the sax are from the safari animals die set with a beret cut down from an engineer’s cap and sunglasses from the three tiny accessories die sets. The musical instruments come from a die set from Doxie Craft Supply. The monkeys are from the monkey and lion die set. All the animals have stencils within the dies to add details like hoofs, eyes, mouths, ears and tails.

Bushes:  To create bush behind the bench, the large and small frond branches were cut from the landscape scene die set and inked with brown Distress ink. Three small fronds were used to cover up mistakes around the ground under the bench and for a decoration on the lower right corner.

Sentiments:  In order to turn on the lights two “Press me” labels were created -a yellow moon on the front and a green bush on the inside. The moon come from the landscape scene die set while the bush is the lion’s mane from the monkey and lion die set. A stamp was used for the “press me” stamped in brown ink.

“All that jazz” uses the mini alphabet die set. A strip of paper tape was used to provide a straight edge to line up the letters when adhered to the card front.

“Celebrate” and “Happy Birthday” are die sets also from Karen Burniston cut from yellow and tan cardstock.

This card is to be hand delivered, so no envelope.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope it provides inspiration and joy. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

  • Lawn Fawn –Clear Stamps – Push Here

Papers

  • Colored Cardstock Scraps
  • Black Glossy Cardboard Packaging
  • Keep It Simple – Back to Basics – 12×12 Double-Sided Cardstock – Jade Collection
  • The Paper Studio – Clear Vellum for Printers
  • Hunkydory Forever Florals – Autumn Days Printed Parchment
  • Park Lane – A7 White Card and Envelope

Pens & Inks

  • Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Medium – White
  • Pigma Micron 05 – Brown
  • Sharpie Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Point – Black
  • Sharpie Permanent Marker –Fine Point – Black and Light Green
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Inks – Vintage Photo
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Early Espresso

Adhesives

  • Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
  • Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
  • Scrapebook.com – Double-Sided Permanent Tape ¼-Inch Wide
  • Fun Stampers Journey – Journey Dots
  • Stampin’ Up – Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals (Foam Squares)
  • Queen & Co. – Foam Refill Scraps (Foam Tape)

Miscellaneous

Beach Wedding Card – part 2

| ullycatdesigns

A destination beach wedding can be fun. This card came with the design brief for a grandmother unable to attend her granddaughter’s beach wedding. It must reflect the beach theme, be unique and have a place to hold a monetary gift either as a gift card or check.

Using Karen Burniston’s new February 2023 release which has a Beach Bar Add-ons set that converts her previously released Tiny House Pop-up into a topical hut with a thatched roof, I was able to make a beach village scene with a chapel and tiki bar hut. The new release also has a Beach Borders set that provided the flamingos and dancing crabs used on the back of the card. One other new die set in the release provides a 5×7 inch Crosshatch Rectangle and a Label used on the front of the card box.

See yesterday’s Beach Wedding Card – Part 1 for instructions on paper prep, chapel, tiki hut, flamingos and card back decorations.

Gift Card Bag:  The gift bag is cut from the same paper as the card base panels. The rectangle is approximately 5 inches wide by 4 inches tall. Fold the sides at 3/8-inch, 3/4-inch, 1 1/4-inches, 3 3/4-inches, 4 1/4-inches and 4 1/2-inches. Fold bottom 1/2-inch and measure the size of gift card and panel where it will go before trimming the top of the bag in a zig-zag pattern. Glue the three closed side tabs of bag to card panel.

Waves:  The waves are created using three corner-cut pieces of blue paper that are die-cut with the Long Nature Edges rolling hill with trees die. Trim off the trees. Using a white ink pad, rub the wave edges along ink pad edge to add the white foaming part of the waves. Glue waves over corner of card base cutting apart where the fold is on card base. Trim overhanging edges of blue paper.

Closure Band:  Because my decorative papers were thin paper, I used a sheet of double-sided adhesive to adhere the sand patterned paper to the cardstock before die-cutting the heart. The roof fringe die from the Beach Bar Tiny House Add-ons was used to cut eight fringe strips that are glued around the back edge of the heart.

The band is a 1 3/4-inch by 8 1/2-inch strip of cardstock loosely folded around the card with enough wiggle-room to slide it on and off the card. I glued the heart over the seam on the band. The back of the band is decorated with a flamingo border from the new Beach Borders set.

Box: I took two 8 1/2-inch by 11-inch sheets of brown kraft cardstock to make the box. The top is made from a 9 1/4-inch by 7 3/8-inch rectangle and the bottom is made from a 9 1/8-inch by 7 1/4-inch rectangle. Score 1-inch from all sides of each rectangle. Make tabs at the corners by cutting one side of the squares made by the transecting score lines. Glue tabs to inside.

Die-cut a label from the same cardstock using the crosshatch fancy label from the Rectangles and Labels Crosshatch set. This will be a place to put the bride and groom’s name and wedding date.

Because the card is a tight fit, the following method to add a ribbon will provide a way to pull the card out of the box and secure the box closed. Cut a ribbon 60 inches long. Place the center of the ribbon in the center of the bottom of the box with the ribbon running the length of the box.  Place card in the box. Place lid on the box with label tag over the top of the card.  

Flip box over and loop the ribbon over itself to form a cross. Flip box back over and tie a bow on the front to secure the box closed.

You now have a keepsake wedding card from a grandmother to her granddaughter that can be stored in its own box.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • The Paper Studio – 12 x12 inch Paper Pad – Beach House
  • Brown Kraft Cardstock – 8.5×11 inches
  • White, Black, Matte Gold, Blue and Pink Paper and Cardstock Scraps

Pens & Ink

  • Pigma – Mircon 01 – Black
  • Gelly Roll – Gel Pen – White
  • Staples – Liquid Stix – Hot Pink Chisel Nose Highlighter
  • Mechanical Pencil
  • Simon Says Stamp – Premium Pigment Ink – White

Miscellaneous

Beach Wedding Card – part 1

| ullycatdesigns

Beach Wedding Card – Part 1

Welcome to our Karen Burniston Products – KB Riley LLC February 2023 Release Blog Hop. (See details at the end of this post and blog list.)

A destination beach wedding can be fun. This card came with the design brief for a grandmother unable to attend her granddaughter’s beach wedding. It must reflect the beach theme, be unique and have a place to hold a monetary gift either as a gift card or check.

Using Karen Burniston’s new February 2023 release which has a Beach Bar Add-ons set that converts her previously released Tiny House Pop-up into a topical hut with a thatched roof, I was able to make a beach village scene with a chapel and tiki bar hut. The new release also has a Beach Borders set that provided the flamingos and dancing crabs used on the back of the card. One other new die set in the release provides a 5×7 inch Crosshatch Rectangle and a Label used on the fronts of the card and box.

Card Base: Cut a 10×7 inch cardstock rectangle and score at 2 1/2-inches and 7 1/2-inches. Fold the side panels inward to make a 5×7 inch gate-fold card base. Cut a 10×7 inch decorative paper rectangle and then cut into panels as shown below and adhere to inside of card. Cut similar panels of decorative paper for the outside of card. (My paper had a path of sand going diagonal through the center panel. This determined the path of the waves and placement of buildings on the card.)

Paper Prep: Because my decorative papers were thin paper, I used a sheet of double-sided adhesive to adhere the paper to a piece of cardstock before cutting out the roofs and tiny house pieces of for the chapel and tiki hut.

Chapel:  The assembly of the chapel starts with the Tiny House base with its windows and doorway cut out while still flat using the arched door from the Church School Tiny House Add-ons for the doorway and the rectangular door from the Tiny House Pop-Up for the windows.(Make sure you cut the front door from the gabled side with the bottom tab to make this building open in the direction shown.) I cut the bell from some silver foil packaging I’d saved.

Assemble the tiny house as directed in assembly video. Follow assembly video for the church tower. Add the roof fringe after the roofs are attached to their bases. I used four layers of fringe for the main roof and two layers for the tower roof. I trimmed the tower roof fringe to almost half. (Wait to adhere your buildings to your card until both are completed. It is a tight fit with the bell resting on top of the tiki hut when the are folded closed.)

Tiki Hut: Assemble the tiny house as directed in assembly video. Follow assembly video for the beach bar hut. I used three layers of fringe for the hut roof. The hut’s counters and their posts are cut from brown cardstock. The glasses are part of the Beach Bar Add-ons set which I colored the drink onto and glued to the window frames. There is a sand dune die that will let you add the flamingos or other decorations off the sides of the hut. (The sides must be the ones that have the bottom tabs that attach the hut to the card.)

Flamingos:  Each of the buildings has two flamingos attached. The Beach Bar Add-ons set has two different flamingos which come with a stencil feature to the dies to color their wings, eyes and legs. I used the bow tie from the Wedding Charms’ groom to make these flamingos into wedding guests.

Card Back:  A personal message can be written on the back of the card in the dancing blue crabs heart. The crabs are part of the Beach Borders set along with the flamingos used on the back of the closure band.

Card Front: The front two panels were first covered in blue paper and then a crosshatch frame was added to the outer edges. The frame was cut using the two largest dies in the Rectangles and Labels Crosshatch set.

See tomorrow’s Beach Wedding Card – Part 2 for instructions on making the gift bag, waves, closure band and box as well as the materials used list.

Welcome to our Karen Burniston Products – KB Riley LLC February Release Blog Hop. The Design Team have come together with Karen today for a fun blog hop to celebrate the release of 6 new dies. Sneak peeks of the new release started last week, and the dies are available to order NOW!

This release includes:

  • 1 new Charm die sets
  • 1 new Word set
  • 1 new Tiny House Add-Ons sets
  • 1 new Pop-up die sets
  • 1 new Crosshatch die sets
  • 1 new Border die set

Dies are available to order now on the website.

GIVEAWAY:

To celebrate the release Karen Burniston and each of the Karen Burniston – KB Riley LLC Design Team members will be giving away a $25 Gift Certificate to some lucky person who comments on our blog posts, so make sure you join the hop and comment on everyone’s blog post. Winners will be randomly chosen from ALL of the blog hop comments received on our blog posts by Monday, 27th of February 2023. Lots of chances to win some goodies, so just leave a comment on this post or any other blog hop posts to enter! Don’t forget to leave some way for us to contact you, in case you are a lucky winner!

Karen Burniston  

Lois Bak  

Sue Small-Kreider – YOU are HERE

Karen Aicken  

Jennifer Webster  

Frances Byrne  

Suzanne Smit  

Sandy Diller   

Fran Sabad   

Nicky Foden  

An Underwater Adventure

| ullycatdesigns

It’s Sneak Peek week for Karen Burniston’s February 2023 release!

Needing a card for a couple going on an oceanic ecological tour, I decided to create a luggage tag card with an underwater scene.

The card uses a variety of Karen Burniston dies including ones from her February 2023 release of beach themed dies.

For the card base I had some faux leather mermaid scales 8-inch wide ribbon that I die-cut two large tags from using the tag book pop-up die set. I next die-cut from some underwater background papers two more of the large tags. Having watched the assembly video for the tag book, I knew I needed to die-cut the hinge piece and attach it to the cardstock tags before I adhered them to the faux leather outer tags. (Because I wasn’t sure if the faux leather would adhere well with glue, I also used doubled-sided tape to attach the paper and fabric backed tag pieces.)

Wanting the jellyfish from the new sea charms set to look as if they were floating in the water, I cut the inside pivot mechanism from some medium weight clear plastic packaging. Because of its thickness the dies embossed the plastic but did not cut through the plastic. I used my surgical scissors to cut the mechanism out. Because of the see-thru quality of the plastic, I had to used double-sided tape to attach the inside panels together. To adhere the plastic to the paper lined inside of the card base, I used glue dots which look a little like air bubbles. (I adhered only one side of the mechanism until I was finished decorating the background with creatures and shells. Once satisfied that the background was complete, I adhered the remaining side of the mechanism.)

To decorate the card, I used the sea turtle from the sea animals set, the jellyfish, clam shell, crab and seahorse from the sea charms set, and the anchor, chain and “bon voyage” from the cruise charms set. The chain and jellyfish help hide the tabs the connect the pivot mechanism. (Because I used double-sided tape to adhere the decorations to the plastic, I had to push and prod the adhesives to hide behind the shapes, but some still sticks out. To made those bits of adhesive not interfere with the mechanism, I brushed anti-static powder over the areas to absorb the stickiness.)

On the front of the card, I used a spiral shell and jellyfish from the sea charms set along with the octopus from the ocean animals set and little sharks cut from the new beach borders die set. On the back of the card I cut a crosshatch rectangle panel using the first crosshatch rectangles set from leftover back ground paper and used the tiny sharks border again to edge it.

Because I hadn’t planned to add ribbon to the inside panel tags (the plastic was too thick to easily cut), used two ribbons -a narrow and a wide – on each of the card base’s two tags.

This card is to be hand delivered, so no envelope.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope it provides inspiration and joy. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Papercraft Society – Sam Calcott’s Underwater & Nautical Box – Background and Specialty Papers
  • Colored Cardstock Scraps
  • The Paper Studio – Clear Vellum For Printers
  • The Ribbon Boutique – Faux Leather 8-inches Wide Ribbon – Green/Blue
  • Clear Packaging – Medium Weight
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Inks – Abandon Coral

Pens & inks

Adhesives

Miscellaneous

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Piercing Tool
  • Scissors
  • Tweezers
  • Sponge Dauber
  • Kat Scrappiness – Telescopic Embossing Powder Tool with Retractable Brush
  • 3/4-Inch Wide Pale Blue Organza Ribbon
  • 1/4-Inch Wide Dark Blue Organza Ribbon

Flamingo Cake

| ullycatdesigns

It’s Sneak Peek week for Karen Burniston’s February 2023 release!

Some people are just flamazing. This is a card for one such lady.

The newest release by Karen Burniston has a Beach Borders die set featuring flamingos and a Rectangles and Labels Crosshatch set which were used on this card. The pop-up cake and the large flamingo are from previously released die sets.

To make the cake I used some textured iridescent cardstock which had a slick surface to it that only allowed double-sided tape to be used as an adhesive. I watched the assembly video before putting together the cake. The easiest way to assemble the flamingo cake is to stick together each layer, adhering the flamingo border as you go, and then putting together the full cake. (I used a strip of 1/4-inch wide double-sided tape along the bottom strip of flamingos doubled-over to adhere the birds to the cake.)

The Rectangle and Labels set has a variety of fancy label shapes that I used as mats on the front of the card as well as the inside for a personal greeting space and the cake tray.

(I did use one extra fancy label from the Label Charms Pop-Up set for the top layer on the inside of the card because the shinny paper was recycled junk mail with words that needed to be covered up.)

For the inside decorations I put dots of glue in a random pattern and sprinkled large glitter over them. The “Happy Birthday” sentiment and it’s shadow are also by Karen Burniston. The front sentiment was computer generated.

I like to decorate the backs of my cards with leftover pieces. The envelope flap has a die-cut of the large flamingo charm with its loop trimmed off.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope it gives you inspiration and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Holographic Textured Pink Cardstock
  • Black Cardstock
  • Various Shades of Pink Paper and Cardstock

Pens & Ink

Miscellaneous

Happy Hour at the Beach

| ullycatdesigns

It’s Sneak Peek week for Karen Burniston’s February 2023 release!

Every hour is happy hour at the beach is the sentiment of this mini-slimline card. It uses the new beach themed dies from Karen Burniston’s February 2023 release including Beach Borders, Word Set 16 – Beach Happy Hour, and Sea Charms.

I started with a 3.5-inch by 11-inch rectangle and folded the card at 6-inches to make a 3.5×6-inch top-fold card base.

Watch assembly video before die cutting the Adirondack Chair into the card base. I marked on the backside of the sand print paper (3.5×8.5-inches) where slits need to be cut to cover the background where the chair is cut from the cardstock. (I cut the top edge of the sand print paper with a wavy sand dune vibe.) Adhere the sky-blue paper at the top of inside of the card base above chair. Slip the sand print paper with slits into place and glue.

Die-cut the chair again from wood gran cardstock making sure the grain goes from top to bottom of the chair and armrests. Cut just the seat of the chair with the woodgrain going sideways the length of the boards. Glue the woodgrain pieces onto the card base chair.

Adhere the ocean wave paper (3.5x11inch) to the outside of the card base. Die-cut sentiments from the new Happy Hour word set and assemble. (I cut the Happy Hour twice in different pinks.) Layout the words on the front of the folded card base before adhering.

The shell and crab elements are from the new Sea Charms set while the fruity drink is from the previously released Happy Hour Charms set. I used a thin foam square cut in half to adhere the drink to the chair.

I find it fun to decorate the backs of cards with something small and whimsical. The jelly fish charm from the Sea Charms is cut from vellum and glued over a purple stenciled body.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope it inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

SEE other pop-up SEATING blog posts by clicking here.

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Park Lane Paperie – 12×12 Printed Paper – Nautical
  • The Paper Studio – 8.5×11 Printed Paper – Sand Photo
  • Honey Bee Stamps – 6×8.5 Double-Sided Premium Cardstock – Grain and Grunge
  • Pink, Magenta, Red, Orange, Purple, Brown and White Cardstock Scraps
  • Clear Vellum
  • Light Weight Cream Cardstock

Pens & Inks

Miscellaneous

Sending Love

| ullycatdesigns

It’s Sneak Peek week for Karen Burniston’s February 2023 release!

Making sure your loved-one, who is far away, feels love at Valentine’s Day, is what this card is all about. It uses two new die sets from Karen Burniston’s February 2023 release along with some previously released sentiments and collage decorations. 

I started with a 10-inch by 7-inch rectangle and folded in half to make a 5-inch by 10-inch cardbase.

Next, I die-cut all my mats and decorative frames from patterned papers using the crosshatch rectangles from the new Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch. For the scalloped frame I used white copier paper and heavier white cardstock to cut all the labels and twist mechanism two flag arms. The small, scalloped rectangles and flag arms are dies in the Little Twist Panel Pop-Up die set.

Because my decorative papers were thin paper, I used a sheet of double-sided adhesive to adhere the paper to a piece of cardstock. I did this for the twisting mechanism and the folded panel that is glued to the twisting mechanism. Before I die-cut my Little Twist Panel Pop-Up, I watched the assembly video for the pop-up mechanism.

Using double-sided tape, I covered the inside and outside card panels with coordinating paper mats. (My favorite technique for using double-sided tape is to place around the edge of the card, lift the ends of the tape so corners are sticky, position the covering paper, you can shift the top paper a bit before you pull all the tape backing paper strips. See tutorial post,)

Fold all the scored lines of mechanism piece as directed in video. Using a ruler mark the center of the cardbase fold with a pencil. Glue one side of mechanism to cardbase lining-up the mechanism’s center hole with the pencil mark making sure the folded score lines of the mechanism arms line up with the casebase fold. Fold mechanism shut and glue other side to cardbase.

The center heart is cut from the Heart Collage Pop-Up set in two pieces. Slide solid heart into slotted heart and glue the back halves to the mountain fold of the folded panel mechanism making sure that the panel slots are not blocked by heart. Following the video assembly instructions, insert the two flag arms into the slots on the folded panel. Glue the flag tabs onto the back of the other flag. Adhere the panel to the twisting mechanism as directed in assembly video. Test and train the mechanism how to fold inside the card.

The card front is simply decorated with the scalloped frame which is glued only on the straight edge inside of the frame.

To have a white shadow behind the die-cut “Happy Valentine’s Day,” Trace the outer edge of the word die with pencil and fussy cut the shadow.Two tiny hearts from the Sending Love die set complete the front.

The inside decorations include more tiny hearts in corners of the decorative panels as well as two hot air balloons carrying hearts. The balloons are from the Balloon Collage Add-Ons and the hearts on strings are from the Little Twist Panel Pop-Up. The balloons are adhered to the card with foam dimensionals. “Sending Love” sentiment is its own die set. There are two scalloped white labels are from the Little Twist Panel Pop-Up to write a personal message.

As with all my cards that are sent in an envelope, I have decorated the back flap with scalloped heart from the Heart Collage Pop-Up set. The card is A7 envelope.

You can see more Valentines by clicking here.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope it inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • American Crafts – The Color of Memories – 12 x 12 Printed Paper – Heart Flowers -320506
  • American Crafts – The Color of Memories – 12 x 12 Printed Paper – Tumbling Blocks -320330
  • White and Pink Cardstock & White Copier Paper Scraps
  • Fun Stampers Journey – 8.5 x 11 Cardstock – Banana Cream
  • A7 Envelope – Ivory

Miscellaneous

  • Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
  • Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
  • Scrapbook.com – Double-Sided Adhesive 1/4 Inch Tape
  • Clear Double-Sided Adhesive 8.5 x 11-Inch Sheets
  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Piercing Tool
  • Pencil
  • Sand Eraser
  • Baker’s Twine
  • Stampin’ Up – Foam Dimensionals

Enjoy The Waves At The Beach

| ullycatdesigns

It’s Sneak Peek week for Karen Burniston’s February 2023 release!

Standing in waist-high water at the beach letting the waves bounce you up and down is a fun childhood past-time. This card is reminiscent of those sunny, seashore visits. It uses a variety of new beach themed dies from Karen Burniston’s February 2023 release along with some new labels and frames that coordinated with the previously released Label Charm Pop-Up set.  This 3.5 x 8.5-inch card is a quick make and easily fits in a #10 business envelope. 

I started with a 3.5-inch by 8.5-inch rectangle and scored an additional 3.5-inch by 6-inch rectangle at .25-inch to form a tab along the short end. Glue this tab to the back of the large rectangle to form the card base.

Using double-sided tape, I covered the inside and outside panels with coordinating papers. (My favorite technique for using double-sided tape is to place around the edge of the card, lift the ends of the tape so corners are sticky, position the covering paper, you can shift the top paper a bit before you pull all the tape backing paper strips. See tutorial post)

Before I die-cut my Label Charm Pop-Up pivot panel into my card base, I watched the assembly video for the die and cut out the accompanying tabbed frame and label. I also cut out a large frame to edge the front aperture of the pivot panel.  I centered the pivot label charm pop-up die over the front of my card and die cut through all three layers of paper and cardstock. Because of its thickness, I ran it through my die cutting machine twice. 

Besides the frame, there are two additional labels that will fit inside the pivot panel and back tabbed label. For this card, I used the smallest of the new labels with the largest dotted border label from the original set.

Decorate the oval charm with shells from the new Sea Charms set. (I daubed a pale-yellow ink- Antique Linen on the oval charm and dotted with a gold gel pen to give the look of sand. Then I glued on stenciled shells to both sides of the oval charm.) Attach the decorated charm to the oval frame with a jump ring before assembling the pop-out elements of this card. (My jump ring had a rhinestone dangle.)

Fold the charm frame and attached label together as they will go into the card. Place a drop of glue on the frame’s tab and adhere to the back side of the card front label. Glue the blue label to the inside card back panel.

To decorate the card, I used the dancing tiny crabs from the new Beach Borders set. There are eye holes in the die that make it easy to take a white gel pen to stencil in the eyes. I added mouths for fun.

“Enjoy the Waves” come from a coordinating sentiment strip in the paper pad. “At the Beach” is die cut using the new Word Set 16 -Beach Happy Hour.

As with all my cards that are sent in an envelope, I have decorated the back flap with some dancing blue crabs to hint at what’s inside. This is #10 business envelope.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Park Lane Paperie – 12×12 Printed Cardstock – Nautical
  • Fun Stampers Journey – 8.5 x 11 Card Stock – Pumpkin Bread
  • Navy Blue and White cardstock scraps
  • Light weight white cardstock
  • #10 Business Envelope – Craft Paper

Pens & Inks

Miscellaneous

A Pirate Ship Birthday

| ullycatdesigns

I love playing with the mechanical pop-up mechanisms designed by Karen Burniston. Her Facebook page Karen Burniston Pop-Up Peeps is a place for people to post their projects using her dies. Many talented people post wonderful and creative cards and projects. One such person is John Watterson who has created several cards featuring pirates using Karen Burniston dies. His work is the inspiration for this card, and I give him all credit for the pirate figures and pirate sail. I took inspiration for the crow’s nest from him as well.

Backgrounds:  For the blue skies background on the card front, I took a piece of sky-blue cardstock and inked it using a cloud stencil, white ink and a small blending brush. Because the front scene is of a ship’s crow’s nest the viewpoint would be closer to the sky and sun, so everything would look bigger. The inside sky what also done with the white ink and just the blending brush for a more distant look of the clouds and sun. The suns are just one sun made from the Landscape Scene cut in half and the glued to the corners and trimmed again.

Rigging and Crow’s Nest:  I raided my jewelry making supplies for some brown cord to make the rigging going up the main mast. The crow’s nest is made from the larger cupcake holder from the Cupcake Pop-Up set with thin strips of the same brown paper woven through the slits and glued. I used my fingers to put a curve in the crow’s nest.

Pirate Crew:  (Click here to see John Watterson’s marooned pirate post.) While John’s pirate is on a deserted island and dancing a jig, my pirate crew are scouting the waters from the crow’s nest. I used the Monkey die set for the body and head of my pirates, took the beard from the Gnome and Santa set, and the bandana head covering from Tiny Accessories 1. The pants I fussy cut by tracing around the legs and body and cutting a bit wider than the pencils lines. The pirate is glued to the back of the crow’s nest and then adhered to the mast with foam tape.

Pirate Captain:  (Click here to see John Watterson’s pirate captain post.) John’s pirate captain sails with a spotted dog and a black cat in a basket ship. I followed John’s lead using the Gnome and Santa dies for the head, beard, coat and boots. Since John made his own hat, I did similar but used the bowler hat from the Tiny Accessories 1 for its base. The hat is cut from suede paper that I brushed with a white opaque marker to age it. I also used the eye patch from this Tiny Accessories set. The ship’s wheel is from the Cruise Charms and attached to the captain with small foam squares. His hands are from the Gnome set but glued to the wheel. I also added some white gel pen to the beard to make it stand out. My final touch was to add a parrot to the captain’s shoulder using one of the birds from the Tiny Tree set. The captain is glued to the top platform on the mini pops platform.

Ship:  The ship is based on two pop-up mechanisms – the Bam Box and the Mini Pops Pop-Up set and two of the smallest crosshatch long rectangles. The main deck base and mast are cut from a 6 1/2 x 3 1/4 inch piece of double-sided woodgrain cardstock scored and folded at 2 7/8 for the center fold using the tiered platform from the Mini Pops set. (The longer side of the cardstock is the top of the platform.) Train the large platform and top platform to pop-up as shown in the assembly video, but leave the two outer platforms as part of the base.

The main deck is a custom fitted piece cut from one of the crosshatch rectangles. And added after the bam box and its deck have been attached and tested.

The other crosshatch rectangle is folded in half and a bam box glued to the inside just at the fold. (Bam Box assembly video) (The bam box needs to fold out, away from the main deck platform so make sure to attach the box with the arched tab on top with the rubber band side next to the rectangle.) This piece now becomes the bow or front of the ship. Position the tip of the bam box so it just touches the main deck platform. Test to see that the bam box will fold down correctly before gluing in place and that the triangular point of the bow is in the center of the main deck. Cut a 90-degree triangle from the wood grain cardstock that has 2-inch sides. Trim to fit as the deck covering the bam box.

Train the bam box to open and close checking for catchpoints and trimming triangle as needed.

You will need to cut two diagonal tabs in the base bottom to hold the ship sides in place once the card is open.

Attach the main deck to its platform. Trim the back of the base to form a center mast, leaving a back railing at the height of the ship sides or taller. Trim the bottom of the base to 1/8 inch around the ship sides. Add waves to bottom of shop sides. The ship is now ready to be attached to the cardbase. Add waves to hide ship base.

Raft:  The raft is a place to write a personal message. It was made by using the thinnest die in the Long Rectangles die set to cut the planks which were trim down to approximately 3 1/4 inches. Bamboo cord was used to lash the planks together with the ends taped to the backside of the planks. Foam squares adhere the raft to the card. The stamped sentiment was fussy cut and attached to the fancy label which was cut using a die from the Label Charm Pop-Up set.

Shark & Waves:  By using a wave patterned paper, creating the ocean was easy. The waves under the ship and at the horizon line at the card’s center fold were cut using the Tropical Scene dies from light blue cardstock and inked with white ink. The gentler light blue waves in the corners were the off cuts from the waves. The shark is cut from gray cardstock and a scrap of white for his teeth using the Sea Animals set.

Sentiments:  The pirate birthday sentiments are rubber stamps by Crackerbox Stamps and were stamped in brown ink and fussy cut. Thick foam tape was used to pop the sentiments on the front of the card, while double-sided tape was used for adhering “Happy Birthday” to the raft inside.

Envelope:  While this card is designed as an 8 3/4 x 3 3/4 inch slimline card, its thickness of 1/2 inches makes it too thick to mail in a regular envelope and would need its own box or padded envelope.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope it provides inspiration and joy. Please like and leave comments 😊

Supplies Used:

Dies

Stamps

  • Crackerbox Stamps – Arrr Pirate Sayings set of 4

Papers

  • Colored Cardstock and Packaging Scraps
  • Hot Off the Press – Black Suede

Pens & Inks

  • Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Medium – White
  • Sharpie Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Point – Black
  • Green, Orange and Yellow Fine-Tipped Markers
  • Crafter’s Square – Metallic Marker – Gold – .05 in (1.2 mm)
  • Recollections Opaque Marker – Snow
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Early Espresso
  • Simon Says Stamp – Premium Pigment Ink – White

Adhesives

Tools

  • Quickstik Tool
  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Scissors
  • Craft Knife
  • Tweezers
  • Pencil
  • T-Ruler
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS Creative – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Simon Says Stamp – Blending Brush – Small
  • Craftin Desert Diva – Cloud and Pathway Stencil

Miscellaneous

•     Darice – Bamboo Cord