Month: August 2023

Holiday Hearth

| ullycatdesigns

This is the first card in the Fireplace Christmas Card series.

For this turn-of -the century fireplace easel card, Anna Griffin’s Holiday Hearth Easel die set is the star of the make along with some of her stamps and foiled embellishments.

Review the printed instruction sheet included in the fireplace die set before starting card.

Easel Base:  The easel base die cuts in one piece which I cut out in a heavy weight gray cardstock. I added a maroon carpet to the base using the fireplace outline die on a 6×6 inch piece of patterned paper.

Fireplace Mantelpiece:  The mantelpiece die cuts a detailed fireplace front. Because I used a double-sided cardstock that had different shades of green on each side, I was able to save the waste pieces and adhere them back inside the die-cut piece with the use of tape on the backside.

I die-cut the fireplace outline or back twice. Once from gray and once from light green. On the light green piece, I cut-off the bottom flap (and saved it to be stenciled in white to act as wallpaper above the mantel.) I also die-cut just the bottom flap of the fireplace in gray to become the hearthstone that will slide under the easel stopper. The green trimmed back piece was glued on top of the gray back piece. Next the bottom flap of the fireplace was adhered to bottom edge of the back piece and then covered with the gray hearthstone piece. Glue in black brick hearth and fire grate piece. Add glue to the back of the top fireplace tab and, with the entire fireplace flat, adhere to the back piece. Play with the positioning of the back piece on the easel base and then glue easel base tab to gray side of back piece.

Fireplace Grate with Fire:  For the back of the fireplace hearth, I cut a 3.75-inch square of black cardstock which I embossed with a brick wall embossing folder. The bricks were lightly colored with a white Distress Crayon and blended to make a smokey backdrop to the fire. The burning logs piece was cut twice from brown (logs) and once from red, yellow and orange (fire) respectively. I used tape and glue to assemble the fire and logs. To position the burning logs, open the card into the easel position and adhere the piece onto the bricks with foam squares. (When the card is closed flat, the burning logs will look slightly high inside the firebox.)

Decorations:  The die set comes with a stocking die as well as dies for holly and greenery garlands. I cut the stockings from three different decorative papers and then cut the just the cuffs from white cardstock having to do some fussy cut trimming after the die cutting. The garlands are cut from two different shades of green mirror/foil cardstock. The holly garland has red adhesive gems added along with a tiny red ribbon bow. The dark greenery garland is glued onto the mantel edge. All other decorations are adhered with foam squares. Two gold foil stars sit on the mantel shelf and a gold wrapped present sits on the floor. Both are from Anna’s Present Pop-Up Kit.

Sentiments:  A dimensional sentiment sticker from Anna’s Present Pop-Up Kit was popped-up on an additional layer of foam squares to allow the fireplace gray hearthstone to slide under and act as an easel stopper. A blank foiled sticker from the same kit was added to the card base for a personal message that will be hidden when the card is set-up as an easel. The red “Merry Christmas on the envelope flap and its green border are stamps from Anna’s Treasury of Stamps & Dies.

easel-card-sheet-2Download

CRX Sheet:  With many interactive cards, the recipient needs instructions on how to open and set-up the card. I create CRX sheets (card recipient experience) to include in the envelope. You can download for free the easel/double easel CRX sheet.

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

Other Fireplace Cards by designer/brand

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Embossing Folder

  • Altenew – Geometric 3D Embossing Folder 6×6 – Brick Wall – ALT6206

Stencils

  • Funky Fossil Designs – Windy Day

Papers

  • Craft Consortium – A4 Solids Double-Sided Paper Pad – Candy Christmas
  • Echo Park – 6×6 Double-Sided 65 lb Cardstock – Homegrown by Alisha Gordon & Kasie Fry
  • Reminisce – 6×6 Double-Sided Papers – Christmas Wishes
  • Light Green and Dark Green Mirror/Foil Cardstock
  • Black, Gray and White Cardstock
  • Anna Griffin – Present Pop-Up Kit – A7 Envelope – Ivory

Ink

  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Crayon – Picket Fence
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Cherry Cobbler and Emerald Envy
  • Craft Smart –Acid Free Ink Pad – White

Adhesives

  • Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
  • Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
  • Clear Tape
  • Foam Squares

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • We R Memories – QuickStick
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Cloth
  • Scissors
  • Fork

Miscellaneous

Butterfly Tree Pop-UP

| ullycatdesigns

This card was made for Craft Roulette #175 whose parameters included a 4.25-inch project, Craft Roulette colors, a night element and a bottom border.

For this pop-up butterfly tree in a box, I used Karen Burniston’s large Bam Box Pop-Up, Butterfly Collage Add-ons, and leaves from Fun Flowers and Twist Flower Pop-Up. The tag is from the Tag Book Pop-Up. (I have made a Christmas tree like this project. Click here to see blog post.)

Box: The box is made of double-sided decorative cardstock cut into two 12 x 4 inches rectangles scored and folded at 3 inches, 4 inches, 8 inches and 9 inches. The middle squares are glued together to form a cross. Using strips of decorative paper for pull ribbons glued to the middle of each flap, I glued the remainder of the strips as a bottom flap border. Two adhesive-backed hook and ladder fasteners are the closures.

Tree: Utilizing the Bam Box die set, I cut six of the bam box strips, 13 of the bam box decorative rectangles and three each of the largest two fancy circles in the set from green cardstock. Because I like to let the glue dry before adding the rubber bands to bam boxes, I glue in stages. (See assembly video located at the bottom of the linked page and source of tiny rubber bands.)

Glue the decorative panels to the sides of each bam box for added thickness. (By sides I mean the sides that have the diagonal flap beside them. Not the side that has the smiley face or its parallel side.) These will be the sides seen between the layers of circles.

To assemble the tree, mark in pencil the location of the bam boxes on the bottom of each circle except one of the largest. Glue bam boxes to bottoms of five circles. The sixth bam box will be the top and the leftover, large circle will be the bottom.

To finish the tree assembly, alternate the direction of the diagonal inside flaps of the bam boxes, so that they make a zig-zag pattern when looked at from the side. By alternating the direction, the bam boxes will fold flat, and the tree will flatten into an oval shape. Use glue to attach each level. Once the tree is assembled, close or flatten the tree to position it on to a 4-inch square of green decorative paper that acts as the base for when the tree is in the box. Glue the tree to the square base.

Butterflies: (Watch the video at the bottom the linked page before starting.) Using the Butterfly Collage Add-ons die set, die cut all the dies from one color of doubled sided paper. Repeat with three other colors of paper. Die cut from black all non-moving butterflies four times.

Assembling the non-moving butterflies, use the black pieces as the base that the trimmed colored paper wings are glued to. On the double-winged one bend the wings up from the black body.

To attach the butteries to the tree, play with the positioning of the fluttering large butterflies on the tree in the closed position. If the butterfly stays within the green square base, it can be glued in place. I found that the flutter butterfly piece with the slot cut into it needs to be the piece glued to the tree, making sure the slot is not obstructed so the other piece can freely flutter.

I used green leaves cut from the decorative base paper to fill-in areas of the circles that were too close to the square’s edge when closed. Add in non-moving butterflies checking their position when tree is closed and that they are not creating catchpoints for fluttering butterflies.

Tag: My favorite gift tag to use for sentiments is in the Tag Book Pop-Up set. I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment. Baker’s twine was used to tie the tag onto the pull-up loop.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope it has provided some inspiration.

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

  • Waffle Flower – Clear Stamps – Sweet Sentiments -271296

Papers

  • Stampin’ Up – 12 x12 Double-sided Designer Series Papers – Stargazing
  • Craft Consortium – A4 Solids Double-Sided Paper Pad – Candy Christmas
  • Green 110 lb. Cardstock
  • Black Cardstock Scraps

Ink

  • VersaMark – Watermark Stamp Pad

Embossing Poweder

  • Cosmic Shimmer – Detail Embossing Powder – Detail Bright Gold

Adhesives

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • We R Memories – QuickStick
  • We R Memories – Scoring Board and Trimmer
  • Bone Folder
  • Small Clips
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Cloth
  • Kat Scrappiness – Anti-Static Tool

Miscellaneous

Sleighing It Accordion Style

| ullycatdesigns

It’s time for the Karen Burniston Design Team Challenge for August 2023 with the theme of ACCORDION dies.

I choose to use the Fancy Label Accordion die with the sleigh from the Sleigh Pop-Up and reindeer from the Christmas Animals set as add-ons similar to the new Cupcake or Fence Add-ons for the Landscape Rectangle Accordion set. I also used the snowflake frames from the Fancy Winter Frames set.

There are several ways of assembling this accordion card – prepare frames and attach them all together and then add the sleigh and reindeer – OR – prepare frames (adding snowflake frames to fronts of accordion frames only), make all the animals, sleigh and gifts and assemble each panel as you go adding the back snowflake frame pieces after you attach the accordion frames. The latter is the method I choose to follow. Watch the assembly videos for the Fancy Label Accordion and the Fence Add-ons (located towards the bottom of the linked pages.)

Frames: Cut four accordion frames from the Fancy Label Accordion set from heavy white cardstock. With scissors cut off the sides of the fancy label to form a pivot post on each accordion frame. Cut a total of 16 snowflake frames pieces from the Fancy Winter Frames set from blue cardstock. (I sprayed my frames with mica spray to get the metallic shiny frames.) Brush the accordion frame sides and the pivot post with glitter gloss. (I recommend doing both sides of the frame at this stage.) Glue blue snowflake frames onto the fronts only of the accordion frames. (Watch assembly video for the Fancy Winter Frames.)

Sleigh: Using red cardstock cut two sleighs. (If using decorative cardstock with a different pattern on each side, cut one red in reverse.) Cut two more of the lower portions, of the sleigh from silver foil cardstock making sure one is the reverse of the other. Fussy cut off just the sleigh runners. Glue runners to red sleigh bases.

Gifts: From the Sleigh Pop-Up set, cut a total of six gift boxes and four bows, making sure you have pairs of matching papers for each box and bow. (I used a glitter marker to add some accents to the bows.) Play with the layout of where the packages and bear will go in the sleigh and still fit inside the accordion frame.

Bear: Cut two bears from white cardstock and two of the tummy and nose pieces from gray using the Winter Animals set. Cut from red two hats and scarves and two pompoms from white. Assemble as shown on the package. Use the main die to stencil the pink ears and black eyes, and the nose die to draw the mouth and nose in black. Assemble with the hat covering the opposite ear from the other bear.

Reindeer: Cut 12 reindeer from brown cardstock and 12 pairs of antlers from darker brown cardstock using the Christmas Animals die set. With a fine tipped black marker use the reindeer die as a stencil to color hooves and faces of the six of the deer and a white gel pen to color the ears. Repeat with the remaining six reindeer, but on the reverse side. Color all the tail as shown on package with white gel pen. Glue on antlers to one set of six reindeer. You will glue the remaining six pairs of antlers on when you assemble the card matching up the fronts and backs of them. (I made one reindeer have a red nose by using red Nuvo drops.) Cut six strips of red cardstock 6-inchs long and 1/4-inches wide for the sleigh shafts that the reindeer will be harnessed to.

Assembly: Play with the layout of where the packages and bear will go in the sleigh and still fit inside the accordion frame. Glue the packages and bear to the back of sleigh. Start with the first frame and position the sleigh so that the front curling tip of sleigh is just inside the frame and a small portion of the back of the sleigh is over the other side of the accordion frame. (I placed my sleigh so that the shaft that will connect the sleigh to the reindeer will be approximately in the middle of the frame.) Glue the frame tab to the second frame. ( I used crafting clips to hold the frames together until the glue set-up.

Flipping the two frames over, I glued a shaft onto the back of the sleigh making sure it was long enough to reach the edge of the next frame. Next, before I glued the blue frames on , I brushed all the accordion frame sides with a glitter gloss then I attached the blue snowflake frames to the back sides of the accordion frames covering over where the tab is. Use weights to keep the frames from curling as the glue dries.

Cut two pieces of baker’s twine 6-inches long and ten pieces 5-inches long. (Use the 6-inch piece of twine for the rein deer that attach to the sleigh.) To make the harness on the reindeer start with the end of the twine on the back side going over the neck and back under the belly. Glue the end and bend to back of reindeer. Pull twine around the front of the animal and with a dot of glue, adhere the twine to the rear end of the reindeer. Glue the lead reindeer to to the second frame and glue the end of the harness twine to where it will be covered with the reindeer with with a 6-inch harness. Adhere second reindeer and wrap end of twine around the bear’s paw.

Add the next two frames following the same instructions for the second frame and reindeer. (In hindsight, I think it may be easier to assemble all the accordion frames together, adding one sleigh and attaching all the shaft pieces together. Then you can start adding the reindeer starting with Rudolph in the front, gluing down his twine harness, and adding the next reindeer and so on with each frame.)

When all the frames have been added with blue frames on both sides and front side of reindeer added, flip over and cut off the unused tab on fourth frame. Glue red shafts to the back side of shafts. (This covers the different patterned paper for my card, but also adds some strength to the folding mechanism.)

Glue the packages to the backs of the first packages matching them up. Then adhere the bear. Finally glue the sleigh in place matching up the edges and runner swirls. Use clips to keep the pieces in place until the glue dries.

Glue the remaining reindeer in place. Train all the folds. (I decided that the back side of the reindeer would look better with faces so I stenciled them on after the card was assemble.)

This card will easily fit into an A7 envelope, but it is thick, so a padded envelope or hand delivery is recommended.

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

Click here to see other Accordion cards

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • My Mind’s Eye – 6×6 Double-Sided Paper Pad – Cozy Christmas
  • White, Brown, Gray, and Light Blue Cardstock
  • A7 ivory Envelope

Ink

  • Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Fine Tip – Pink
  • Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Tip – Black
  • Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Medium – White
  • Nuvo – Glitter Marker – Fired Brick – 193
  • Nuvo – Aqua Shimmer – Glitter Gloss
  • Nuvo – Mica Mist – Nebula Blue

Adhesives

Tools

Miscellaneous

  • Baker’s Twine – Red/White
  • Nuvo – Vintage Drops – Postbox Red