Birthday

A Gardening Birthday

| ullycatdesigns

The love of being outdoors and helping plants grow is what being a green thumb is all about. This is a birthday card for a lovely lady whose happy place is working with her plants.

Using Karen Burniston’s August 2022 release of the Label Charm Pop-Up die set makes it easy to add a hanging water can charm from her previously released Garden Charms set.  The double-sided papers are all from Craft Consortium’s Hackney & Co.’s Gardeners Delight collection. Watch an assembly video for a charm pop-up card before starting the card.

For the card base I used an 11 x 4.25-inch piece of patterned paper (strawberries on front and dark gray with flowers on the back.) With the pivot label dies, I like to use double-sided tape to adhere the decorative backing paper. If you put tape around the edges and pull back the tape’s backing paper at the corners only, you can re-position the decorative backing paper until it fits and then pull the all the tape’s backing paper.

Fold the card base in half and place the pivot label die in the center of the card front. Tape in place with removable tape and open the card base out to die-cut.  (Save the cut-out waste pieces to use as decorations for other parts of your card.)

Cut three of the label die from the patterned paper. Tape two of the labels together and then die-cut the oval from it. Trim the tab off one of the oval frames. Glue the tab from the solid label to one of the oval frames then glue the other oval frame to cover up the tab.  Punch a hole for the charm to hang from (The die has a hole to use a stencil.) I reverse cut the watering can to pour to the right from silver card stock. The metal jump ring I used has a rhinestone dangle. I find it easier to attach the jump ring with the charm to the oval frame before I glue the label and oval frame into the card.

Now to decorate the card. I had garden charms left from another project where I had “dirtied-up” the tools and gloves with brown ink dabbed on with a small finger sponge dauber.  The tiny hearts are from the heart eyeglasses in the Tiny Accessories 2 set. The plant is from the Garden Charms set. I used the cut-out waste pieces from the front pivot label to frame the inside label with slicing patterned with solid color pieces.

I felt the inside of the card need more decorative elements, so I cut strips of flowers from the Long Nature Edges 2 set from white and used yellow Nuvo drops to make them into strawberry blossoms. (Remember to let the Nuvo Drops dry at least 16-24 hours before gluing them into the card. They will stick to each other until totally dry.)

The Sentiments come from the Garden Charms set and Word set 2.  The various white labels are part of the Label Charms Pop-Up set as are the white outline flowers on the front of the card.

Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

Inks

  • Ranger – Tim Holtz’s Distress Ink – Vintage Photo
  • Fine-tipped green marker

Miscellaneous

You’re the G.O.A.T.

| ullycatdesigns

While being told that you’re the G.O.A.T. may sound bad, it really means You’re the Greatest Of All Time. In my family of sports players, being told you’re the G.O.A.T. after a game is common, so letting Dad know he’s the G.O.A.T. is a fun thing. This card could be used for birthdays or Father’s Day.

In challenging myself to use Karen Burniston’s Little Labels Pop-up in a vertical position, I saw the labels as shelves for trophies. Some of my inspiration comes from Sam Calcott of Mixed Up Crafts when she makes her tower cards.

I started with a 7 x 8 inches rectangle of dark blue heavy cardstock.  The side panels are made up of two panels per side. Because of my limited amount of the dark blue cardstock, I cut two panels of 3.5 x 8 inches and two more panels 4 x 8 inches. (I recommend cutting four panels of 4 x8 inches rather than having to use washi tape to attach the front panels.) Score the 4 x 8 panels at 3.5 inches to make a long tab.

Cut decorative panels ¼ inches smaller thane the base panels. Glue side panels to large base. Adhere decorative panels to card base inside panels.

If you haven’t already die-cut your inside decorative labels and trophies do so now. (I find some of the best, thick foiled silvers and golds are on personal care and food packaging such as cookie/biscuit packets.)

Also, cut and assemble all letters need for the inside sentiment. (I sort mine in a tiny bag, so I don’t lose any letters.) Die cut two of the Little Labels Pop-ups. Space out the placement of the pop-up labels and sentiment. (While I adhered my sentiment after I installed the pop-up labels, it might be easier to add the letters first and then the pop-ups.)

To adhere the letters, line them up on a grid background and place removable tape over them. (I used Post-it Note yellow tape.) I trimmed the tape down to make it easy to line up the bottom edge with the pencil line I drew on the card. I added glue to the back of one word’s letters and then placed them onto the card, pressed down to adhere and then peeling off the tape.

I watched Karen Burniston’s assembly video before I glued in my pop-up labels. (I find reviewing the videos help me before I make a mistake using my special papers.) You need at least 3.5 inches of width to close one pop-up labels panel, unless you stager the panels, you will need at least 7 inches width to close the card.  Add decorations to pop-up labels.

If you cut all the side panels at 4 x 8 inches, then fold the ½ inch tab and glue panel to other side panels. If you end up needing to tape your front panels, use the widest washi tape you have. Mine was 2 inches wide.

I used Karen Burniston’s Mini Alphabet for the inside sentiment and her original alphabet for the larger outside letters as well as parts taken from two other sentiment dies – “You’re Sweet” and “Enjoy the Ride.” I saved the tiny circles and scraps from the arms and lid of the trophies to decorate the front of the card. The goat is also a Karen Burniston die.

The belly band or belt that holds the card closed is made from scrapes and leftover pieces from other projects. This is intended as a presentation card to be hand delivered as it is too big for most standard size envelopes.

Label on back is a place to add a personal message.

Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Heavy weight dark blue and pale blue cardstock
  • Patterned papers from my stash
  • Silver and gold packaging
  • Holographic silver and gold scraps
  • Black and white cardstock scraps
  • White gold shimmer cardstock

Miscellaneous

A Persian Sunrise Birthday Card

| ullycatdesigns

Trying a new die set sometimes means looking at the manufacturer’s blog for ideas on ways to use it. I looked at the LDRS blog for inspiration. The idea of ink blending a piece of cardstock in sunrise colors seemed appropriate.

Using a piece of white cardstock larger than the 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches coverplate dies, I ink blended six lighter/darker shades of pink, purple and blue Distress Oxides inks with sponge daubers. Next I cut the  blended cardstock using Coverplate III, saving the large cutouts to be inserted later. Using Opal Blaze Polishes, I rubbed three shades of the polished sheen onto the die-cut frame, leaving the inserts plain. (The polishes tend to make the ink colors be a shade whiter and thus adding drama to the differences between the plain insert bold colors and the lustrous polished frames of the coverplate.)

For the Coverplate I, I used a non-shed glitter cardstock that had been in my stash (Sorry, I don’t know the brand.) I played with the positioning of the two layers of coverplates, until I settled on the most pleasing one for these materials.  Next, I re-inserted the leftover inserts from Coverplate III reversing the order to get the most contrasts between insert and frame ink colors. To back the layers, I used a very thick and fibrous, black cardstock (again from my stash, so I don’t know the brand.) The piece was then mounted on a pink card base and the back of the card decorated with scraps left from die-cutting the two coverplates.

For the front sentiment, I went through my stash of foiled greetings that I do from batch foiling on scrap pieces. The rose gold foiled piece on dark blue is attached to the card from with foam tape to make it float above the background.

The inside sentiment is from a new stamp set by PoppyStamps. It is stamped on adhesive backed blue vellum with black StazOn ink. (I used StazOn ink because vellum sometimes is hard to get ink to dry on. StazOn as its name implies will stay on most surfaces that are hard to ink.)

The final touches to the card front were adding some bling with flat back gems from my stash of Buttons Galore & More shaker element mixes. (Many of their mixes are limited editions, so order early when you browse their website and see a mix you love.)

The envelope flap was stamped with another sentiment from the PoppyStamps set with a pink to purple ombre ink.

Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

  • PoppyStamps – Clear Stamp Set – Colorful Life – CL509

Inks

  • Ranger – Jim Holtz’s Distress Oxide Ink – Spun Sugar, Festive Berries, Shaded Lilac, Dusty Concord, Tumbled, Prize Ribbon
  • StazOn – Solvent Ink – Jet Black
  • Recollections – Ombre Ink Pad Pink to Purple

Foiling

Papers

  • Blue scrap cardstock
  • Lightweight white cardstock
  • Thick black cardstock
  • Pinkish lavender glitter cardstock
  • Xcut – Xtras Adhesive Vellum Sheets – Blue
  • A2 pink card base and white envelope

Miscellaneous

Flowery Birthday Wishes

| ullycatdesigns

Inspiration for this flowery card with bling came from the LDRS website for the single layer use of coverplate II and a recent workshop with Donna Butler for the sentiment banners layout. My go-to-bling comes from my Buttons Galore & More stash of shaker element mixes. (Many of their mixes are limited – editions, so order early when you browse their website and see a mix you love.)

I choose to cut a yellow and a green flowered coverplate so that I could cut out the yellow flowers and glue them onto the green. Next, I used an orange marker to color the centers of the flowers. (The orange flatback shiny gems do not show up well in the photos, but they do add some sparkle to the card.)

In my stash was a teal-colored card base which I glued the coverplate to using a fine-tipped glue bottle. The back of the card was decorated with left-over strips from die-cutting.

The banner sentiments were ones I had hot foiled during a batch foiling session.  The inside sentiment comes from a PoppyStamps clear stamp set and was stamped onto adhesive-backed yellow vellum using Staz-on black ink. (I used a heat tool to speed-up the drying time of the Staz-on ink before I adhered the vellum to the inside of the card.)

The back flap of the envelope is stamped in green ink with a cluster of flowers hinting at what is to come inside the envelope.

Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

  • PoppyStamps – Clear Stamp Set – Colorful Life – CL509
  • All Seasons Wreath Clear Stamp Set designed by Clare Buswell- free gift in Cardmaking & Papercraft, issue 190

Inks

  • StazOn – Solvent Ink – Jet Black
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Pear Pizzazz
  • Crayola blending markers

Foiling

Papers

  • Orange, green and yellow scrap cardstock
  • Lightweight pale yellow and neon green cardstock
  • Xcut – Xtras Adhesive Vellum Sheets – Yellow
  • A2 teal card base and white envelope

Miscellaneous

Stitched Flowers for a Summer Birthday

| ullycatdesigns

Bright yellow and orange flowers, stitched with shiny embroidery floss hoovering over a raised matte gold Happy Birthday make for a fun and cheery card.

I used a stitched flower die from Spellbinders that originally was part of their Large Die of the Month Club but is now available to everyone via their on-line shop. Initially I die-cut into an 8.5 x 5.5 inches sheet of pale-yellow heavy cardstock that was in my stash. I stitched it completely before trimming it down to the final 4.5 x 5.75 inches to fit on a 5 x 6 inches card base.

The larger flower petals and leaves were outline or chain stitched before filling in the centers of them using three strands of floss. The black stamens are French knots. While I knotted the floss ends when starting, I finished the flowers on the back side by adding dots of glue to seal the thread ends and add dimension to the stitched frame.

The Poppy Stamps “Happy Birthday – Poe Script” sentiment was cut three times from a gold piece of junk mail and glued together. The words were glued directly to the card base after determining the placement with the stitched frame. The frame was attached to the card base with thick foam squares.

For the envelope, I stamped the back with an older rubber stamp from Fun Stampers Journey using my favorite gold-like ink from Stampin’ Up called Crumb Cake.

If you enjoyed this stitched card, there are two more stitched card posts this week as well as pervious stitched cards:

Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

  • Fun Stampers Journey – Button Bliss – AT-0096

Ink

  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Crumb Cake

Papers

  • Scrap heavy yellow and matte gold cardstock
  • A7 white card base and envelope

Miscellaneous

Stitched Flowers for a Spring Birthday

| ullycatdesigns

Luscious purple, blue and lavender flowers, stitched with shiny embroidery floss hoovering over a raised matte gold Happy Birthday make for a simple yet elegant card.

I used a stitched flower die from Spellbinders that originally was part of their Large Die of the Month Club but is now available to everyone via their on-line shop. Initially I die-cut into an 8.5 x 5.5 inches sheet of pale blue heavy cardstock that was in my stash. I stitched it completely before trimming it down to the final 4.5 x 5.75 inches to fit on a 5 x 6 inches card base.

The larger flower petals and leaves were outline or chain stitched before filling in the centers of them using three strands of floss. The yellow stamens are French knots. While I knotted the floss ends when starting, I finished the flowers on the back side by adding dots of glue to seal the thread ends and add dimension to the stitched frame.

The Poppy Stamps “Happy Birthday – Poe Script” sentiment was cut three times from a gold piece of junk mail and glued together. The words were glued directly to the card base after determining the placement with the stitched frame. The frame was attached to the card base with thick foam squares.

If you enjoyed this stitched card, there are two more stitched card posts this week as well as pervious stitched cards:

Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Scrap heavy blue and matte gold cardstock
  • A7 white card base and envelope

Miscellaneous

The Best Baking Birthday Card

| ullycatdesigns

Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, icons of British baking and favorites of the person this card is made for, have been hosts for The Great British Baking Show from 2010-2016.

This stand-up U-fold card with crossbars is reminiscent of an old Aga stove. The card uses Paper Discovery by Olga Direktorenko’s Cosy Kitchen collection of dies, stamps, embossing folder and papers. Paper Discovery is a brand from Craftstash-UK or Craftstash-USA

Stove Doors: I wanted the oven doors to have the look of enameled iron, so I cut set of blue doors. (Save the out-cut of door openings for stamping and stove knobs for later) I cut a tiny white circle for the oven gauge and glued it in place on the one door. Next I covered all but the hinges on the doors with Glossy Accents gel and let them dry overnight. Once they were dry, I cut and glued the silver latch and hinges on to them before gluing them on to the doors I had already glued to the stove.

Tile Backsplash: I cut the tiled back splash from white card stock and brushed a light coat of Glossy Accents over the rows of tiles, avoiding the deep embossed grooves between tiles.

Glass Jars of Fruit: To achieve the look of glass, stamp and color on white cardstock using permanent inks when dry cove with a thick layer of Glossy Accents. When dry curve around your finger or pen to create the curved glass effect.

Dresser: Cut one and use an embossing sandwich for your die-cutting machine to emboss the details into the cardstock. Cut a 1/4 inch x 4 1/2 inches strip of white cardstock for the shelve crossbar. Using an ink blending tool color the crossbar and dresser to bring out the embossed details using a yellow ink. (Don’t ink where the stove is as you will be stamping there.)

Oven Stamping: Using the stove out-cut from cutting the stove doors, trace with pencil where the door openings are onto the dresser back. Remove stove out-cut and using a stamping platform stamp sentiments or baking trays in oven openings. (I masked off the other openings that the rolling pin handles and baking pan that would cover with yellow paper tape.)

Stove Assembly: Cut another stove from blue cardstock. Glue all the doors to the backs of the “enameled’ doors from first step.  Glue the stove front to dresser matching up stamped images with the door openings.  Adhere two layers of the blue stove knob cut-outs to top of stove. (This will add some dimension to make the knobs be raised up from stove front.) Cut from silver mirror cardstock the knobs, thin line trim, door hardware, stove burners and utensil rack. Glue silver hardware onto doors and knobs and silver trim in place.  Glue door hinges into place on to stove front being careful not to get glue onto stamped images. Once glue is dry, fold doors back to crease hinges. Cut a 1/2 inch x 4 1/2 inches strip of blue cardstock for the stove burners crossbar.  Glue dresser on to card base after the shelf and burners step.

U-Fold Card Base: Cut a 6 3/8 inches x 6 15/16 inches rectangle from heavy white cardstock. Score on a scoreboard at 1 inch, 1 1/2 inches, 5 7/16 inches and 5 15/16 inches and fold the outer folds as mountain folds and the inner folds as valley folds. This should create a U-shaped card base.

Wallpaper: Cut pieces of your decorative “wallpaper” to fit the top half of each of the card base’s sections. Allow for black space over the folds. Glue decorative pieces in place. (Note: It might make the crossbars stronger if you glued the narrow inside strips of decorative paper on after the crossbars are attached, but before the dresser is glued in place.)

Wainscoting: Using the kitchen background embossing folder, emboss the wainscoting and floor from a piece of cardstock that is at least 7 inches x 3 inches. Using an ink blending tool, color the wainscoting and floor with yellow ink to match the dresser. Cut pieces to cover the lower half of the card base (two 1-inch panels of wainscoting and first row of floor tile and one 3 7/8 inches x 3 /4 inch of two rows of floor tile and bottom edge of wainscoting.) Glue the two 1-inch panels to the side sections of card base. Cut a 3 7/8 inches x 2 1/2 inches piece of blue cardstock to be glued in place as the back of the stove.  With the card base open in the U-shape, position the dresser with stove over the opening and mark with a pencil where the shelf and stove burner crossbars should go on the narrow inside walls. Adhere the large blue stove back to the card base using the pencil mark for the stove burner crossbar for positioning. Glue remaining strip of flooring with wainscoting at the bottom of the stove back.

Shelf and Burners: Stamp color and cut out herb pot, utensils and kettle. With tiny dots of glue, attach the utensils to the silver rack and add tiny piece of foam squares to the back of the rack and utensils. Attach the kettle to the from of a stove burner. Fold 1/4 inch tabs blue crossbar at each end. Using scraps of blue, attach the burners to the blue crossbar centering them over the stove knobs. Glue the backsplash tile onto the card base above the burners. Adhere the utensil rack above the tile backsplash.  Assemble the shelf and its contents in the same manor as the stove burners crossbar. Glue in place to card base using pencil marks. 

Birthday Banner: Stamp onto a 3-inch x 5/8-inch paper strip a sentiment from the Simply Food stamp set.  Cut notches on ends of strip and fold into a ribbon banner. Glue ends of ribbon to top of dresser.

Envelope: I used a 6 x 9 inches envelope for this card that folds flat into 5 3 /4 inches x 6 3/8 inches. The stamps are from the baking set of stamps.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this blog post, please like it and follow the blog. 😊

Dies

Embossing Folders

Stamps

Inks

  • Memento – fade-resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black, Rich Coco
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz’s Distress Ink – Salt Ocean, Fossilized Amber
  • Silver metallic pen
  • Silver gel pen
  • Crayola Signature Brush & Detail Dual-ended Markers

Papers

Additional Supplies:

Tiered Cupcakes

| ullycatdesigns

Cards for tiered birthdays (as in 29 again and again) can be fun to make when you add in a pop-up element like a third tiny cupcake.

This card was inspired by the Karen Burniston Mission Poppable for August 2021 to use her Parcel Pop-Up die set. In addition to that die set, I used her Cupcake Pop-Up, the sentiments of “You’re Sweet” and “Happy Birthday,” and the candle from the Cake Pop-Up.

The double side paper is from Echo Park which is an older set designed by Lori Whitlock called Happiness is Homemade. Because the heavy cardstock is double-sided, it cut down on heavy layers of decorative papers.

I assembled the parcel pop-up as shown in Karen’s assembly video But I did not put on the decorative square front panel or flap. I also used a longer strip as the pop-up arm so that it would be tall enough to be seen behind the cupcake pop-up which was cut from a scrap piece of card stock and cut with tabs at the top and bottom to attached to card base and the parcel mechanism front.

The sentiments are cut once from pink glitter cardstock and once from glossy white paper (backside of some packaging). The white is just slightly seen so that the red on red stands out on the “You’re Sweet.”  I used a topper from the paper set that had an oval design and the used an oval die to cut it out to frame the cupcake.

Because the card is a slimline size card to fit in a No. 10 business envelope, I needed a large white paper doily to fill the bottom half of the card and allow for a space to write a personal message.

The back of the envelope is stamped with a watermelon colored ink using a cupcake and “Made with love” stamps from Simply Made Crafts.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this blog post, please like it and follow the blog. 😊

Dies:

Stamps & Ink

Papers

  • Echo Park – Happiness is Homemade by Lori Whitlock
  • Glitter paper – pink and white from my stash
  • Dotted paper from my stash
  • No. 10 Business Envelope – Neenah Social – Bare White Techweave

Additional Supplies Used: