Birthday

One in a Melon

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When you are caught eating a melon at a farm stand you know you are one in a melon!

This cute little card is made from an Art Impressions Tryfolds by Bonnie Krebs. The set has six stamps and two dies that cut the apertures or windows in the farm stand and fruit stand.

I stamped the images on white cardstock with a permanent black ink that won’t run when wet and colored with watercolor pencils. Next I fussy cut the images.

The card base is made from two pieces blue gingham cardstock (5 ½ inches x 4 ¼ inches) and a piece of green gingham cardstock cut 6 inches x 4 ¼ inches. The green piece was scored and fold at ¼ inch on each end to form two tabs to glue the two blue pieces to form the tri-fold card.

I positioned my stamped, colored and cut out images following the layout on the packaging to determine the positioning of the front image. I traced the inside of the opening onto the card front and used the accompanying die to die cut the hole. Next, I glued the image in place on the front. I did the same for the middle image on the second flap, positioning the image so it shows through the aperture cut in the first image and then die-cutting the aperture. The final image was positioned, traced and then glue in place on the central panel.

The “Happy Birthday” is die-cut from green cardstock and glued in place.

Stamped on the back flap of an A2 slim envelope from Taylored Expressions is the sentiment from the stamp set “You’re one in a Melon!” green ink.

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

If you enjoyed this tri-fold card, check out some of my other trifolds:

Shabby Chic Trifold Card

Festive Foliage and Hearts – Trifold card

Santa Vintage Trifold

Sleepytime Dreams

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks/Watercolors

Papers

Miscellaneous

Shabby Chic Trifold Card

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How do you dress up an old stamp set? Add it to some distressed vintage-style floral papers and stamps and heat emboss the sentiment.

My creative mojo has been missing and to jump start it I tried stamping an older Art Impressions tri-fold stamp and die set and coloring it using watercolor pencils. Next, I fussy cut out the three images and went searching through my stash for some fun paper to make the card base from.

Because I had some mini slim envelopes in my stash, I made a 3 ¼ inch x 6-inch tri fold card from two pieces of heavy Dress My Craft cardstock that is printed only on one side. I cut one 3 ¼ inches x 12 inches piece of rose patterned card stock and a 3 ¼ inches x 6 ¼ inch piece of green leaves patterned card stock. The long rose piece I folded in half and the smaller leave piece I scored and fold ¼ inch in from one of the smaller sides. The ¼ inch tab was glued to the back of the fold rose piece to form a tri-fold card.

Because the inside of the card was plain white, I added pink vellum stripes to hide my seams inside and them covered the inside front and back panels with floral patterned paper from my stash which I believe was from Stampin’ Up.

I positioned my stamped, colored and cut out floral images following the layout on the packaging to determine the positioning of the front image. I traced the inside of the opening onto the card front and used the accompanying die to die cut the hole. Next, I glued the image in place on the front. I did the same for the middle image on the second flap, positioning the image so it shows through the aperture cut in the first image and then die-cutting the aperture. The final image was positioned, traced and then glue in place on the central panel.

Decorative patterned borders were stamped using several stamps from LeCrea Designs Lacy long stamp set. The “Happy Birthday” was gold heat embossed using a stamp from an older Apple Blossom stamp set.

Stamped on the back flap of a mini slim envelope from Taylored Expressions is the clover chain stamped in the same “Always Artichoke” green ink as the inside of the card.

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

If you enjoyed this tri-fold card, check out some of my other trifolds:

One In A Melon

Festive Foliage and Hearts – Trifold card

Santa Vintage Trifold

Sleepytime Dreams

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks/Embossing Powder/Watercolors

Papers

Miscellaneous

A Ship In -A Bottle Birthday

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Inspired by an image of a ship in a bottle, I set out to create a schooner in a bottle birthday card for a retired Navy officer.

Bottle:  Because I didn’t have a bottle die large enough or in the shape I desired, I made a template from a 9 inches x 4 inches scrap piece of paper folded long-ways and drew a bottle and cut it out. (See Materials Used list to download a bottle template.) Next, I traced the bottle onto my navy-blue card base (9 inches x 8 inches folded to 4 inches by 9 inches.) In order for the inside paper to match the outside bottle cut-out, I positioned the inside paper (8 ¾ inches by 3 ¾ inches) and taped it to the front with low tack tape. Using a craft knife, I cut out the bottle through both layers of paper. I cut two sheets of acetate 8 ½ inches x 3 ¾ inches for the “glass” of the bottle and set aside until the assembly of the card.

Ship:  I made the schooner stamp into a digital stamp that I could flip into a mirror image and slightly enlarge the size to fill the bottle better. You could still stamp the ship and using a mirror stamping technique to make a smaller ship. (Here is a video demonstrating the mirror stamping.) Once I had my two images stamped onto vellum, I fussy cut them out and glued them together where the sails and flags matched up since I knew the glue would show through the vellum. I also stamped the ship and its mirror image onto white copier paper and watercolored the flags. The sails and flags were fussy cut and using my fingers I curled them. Using tiny pieces of foam squares behind the sails and glue on the flags, they were adhered to the front and back sides of the vellum ship. I cut a small stand from green scrap for the stand on which the ship rests in the bottle.

Assembly of Card:  The baker’s twine was taped to the back side at the neck of the battle. Using double sided-tape I adhered one sheet of acetate to the back or inside of the bottle cut panel. Next, I glued the ship to its stand and then glued the stand to the inside/backside of the bottle cut-out. Again using double-sided tape, I glued the last sheet of acetate over the other piece of acetate sandwiching the ship in between. Finally, I adhered the inside paper over the acetate using double-sided tape. The lower inside piece was adhered in the same manner. I drew the lip and bottom of the bottle on the acetate with a black gel pen.

Sentiments:  The foiled sentiment strip was one I had made during a batch foiling session using up scraps. It was die-cut into a doted ribbon. The inside stamp sentiment and two sea gulls were placed so that the ship hid all but the one gull when the card is closed. It was easy to get the position correct using a stamping platform. The final embellishment to the front of the card is a tiny handwritten tag that says “FOR YOU” with a twine bow tied to it. The tag is adhered with a foam square.

As is my style, I stamped the back of the envelope with a sentiment and two gulls flying to hint as to what is inside.

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

Materials Used:

bottle-template-1Download

Stamps

Ink/Watercolors

Papers

Dies/Foiling Plates

Miscellaneous

There’s Always Room for Cake

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There is always room for indulgence on one’s birthday. This card is inspired by the Daisy Mae Designs bakery and sweet shops collection of stamps and stencils.

I created the gingham stenciled background with the striped stencil inked one way for the vertical stripes and then turned once to ink the horizontal stripes in coral ink. The doily is inked with the green pistachio through a stencil. The cake was stamped with a permanent black ink and then colored with watercolor pencils and mixed using a waterbrush.

Sentiments stamped on the front of the card come from the Daisy Mae stamp set while the inside sentiment is a Spellbinders’ foiling plate.

The envelope’s back flap was stamped using a mask to stamp just the fruit atop the cake and the spayed with gold mica mist.

Hope this card brings a smile to your face. 😊 Please like and leave a comment.

Supplies:

Stamps/Stencils

Inks/Watercolors

Papers

Foiling

Miscellaneous

You’re Absolutely Fabulous

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Isn’t it nice to hear “You’re absolutely fabulous!” We all need to hear this statement every now and then.

A wonderful way to say this, is to use the Hero Arts Stamp and Cut Dress Up set which includes this sentiment. This set is also fun for the crafter because you get to dress the figures using the skirt dies and you can stamp the bodice top onto patterned paper and fussy cut it out.

These two cards show the two different hairstyles and tops as well as two of the three skirts. The set come with two sets of legs (walking and close together) and four different facial expressions.

I colored the hair and shoes with watercolor pencils.

The sentiments are heat embossed in a shiny black with a red stamped heart on one of the cards.

I stamped the back of one envelope and heat embossed the other envelope with a shooting star.

Thank you for reading this post and I hope you enjoyed seeing these cards. Please like or comment on this post at the bottom of this post.

SUPPLIES

Dies:

Stamps:

Inks:

Embossing:

Paper:

Miscellaneous:

© Sue Small-Kreider 2020

Fishing Birthday Card – Teepee Style

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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

Autumn Birthday Card Teepee Style

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Autumn Teepee-front

This card was inspired by my curiosity about making a teepee card and for a Craftworld.com challenge to make an autumn birthday card. Video influences include Karen Burniston, Sam Calcott and Jennifer Mcguire’s takes on pop-up cards, teepee cards and peek-a-boo doors.

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 is based on three squares of 5 ¾ inches squares.)

I wanted to add something new to the teepee card concept and having just watch Jennifer McGuire’s video on Peek-A-Boo Doors, I decided to add some flaps using the smallest circle die in the Lawn Fawn circle flaps dies. Because I wanted to use the flaps as a platform to set a small animal on using a pop-out cube, I needed another layer of paper on the card over my card base. (My card used textured orange paper cut from 5 ½ inch squares.) I also cut two additional circle flaps from the same orange paper to inlay behind the flap door. 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.

Autumn Teepee-side

I fussy cut all of the card’s flat decorative critters and foliage form one page out of the Craftsmart Spiced Pumpkin paper pad. 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.

Autumn Teepee-back

The back side of the card has a white 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.

Autumn Teepee-envelope

Designed for a catalog envelope (9 inches x 6 inches), the card will fold flat to fit into the envelope. A small diagram is enclosed with the card so the recipient will know how to stand it up for display. The back flap of the envelope was stamped with a fox.

 

Supplies

Dies

Stamps/Ink

Paper

Miscellaneous

Autumn Forest Birthday

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Autumn Forest -inside

I am a paper hoarder and have been looking at this lovely set of forest animals Craft Consortium paper for months, taking it out thinking about what I could make from it. Putting it aside to see if the muse strikes.

A fall birthday for an animal lover became my muse. I used my favorite Lawn Fawn Scalloped Box Card Pop-up die set to cut the base and decorative squares for the card.  The papers are double-sided so I was able to mix and match the squared to be just flowers or flowers with the fox. I fussy cut the owl and oak leaves from another sheet in the collection. The birthday girl’s special day falls at that time of the year when some flowers are still blooming, but the occasional autumn leaf my drift down.

The main elements are cut from the inside covers of the 6×6 paper pad.

Autumn Forest-assembly -outside

Because I have made this box a lot, I have taken to use the largest stitched die in the set and extend cut a large square to make a stiffer back to the box and as a place to write a personal message.  To extend cut using a die cutting machine, simply place one edge of the die just off the edge of the cutting plat so it won’t cut when going through the machine.  Move the die to cut the other side of the square again placing the die edge just off the cutting plates. It may take you a few tries to master this technique, but once mastered you can expand the uses of your die collection.

To assemble the box I decorate the front and back sides of the flaps before I connect the tabs using red double-sided tape. (See assembly video) If you follow the steps in the video, you should have a perfect box.

Hot Foiling

I am just learning to do hot foiling using a Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foiling System. Having watched a number of videos on how to hot foil, I tried out a number of sentiments in rose gold foil. I used two of my first attempts on this card.

Autumn Forest -inside-CU

I used glue to adhere my elements on to the cross bars and a foam square to give some dimension to the owl.

Autumn Forest -front-Flat

When decorating always remember you can add elements to be seen only when folded closed.

Autumn Forest -back-Flat

If you want to have the full experience of opening up this card, click here to see video of the box card being opened.

https://spark.adobe.com/video/HnJo2aUX5ZHal

Supplies

Dies

Foiling

Paper

Miscellaneous

Go Dogs Go

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GoDOGSgo-Front-cu

Go Dogs Go, the classic P.D. Eastman book that so many American children in the 1960s and 70s learned to read with, was the inspiration for this card using Lia Griffith’s 2017 Party Time stamp set for Fiskars.

I had stamped, water colored and fussy cut the cars and dogs and set them aside until I figured out how to use them.  I had thought about making an interactive card with them, but in playing with layouts for a slider type card, I decided I liked the flat glued down look on the brilliant blue cardstock better.

GoDOGSgo-all

Cut two pieces of blue cardstock 9 inches x 4 inches (230 mm x100 mm) and a third piece 9 ½ inches x 4 inches (240 mmx 100 mm). Using a scoring board, I scored the longest piece down both short sides at ¼ inch (5 mm) from edge to form the flaps to glue to the other two pieces.

GoDOGSgo-middle

Once the card was glued together, I laid out the position of the cars and pendants. I used the banner and sentiment from the stamp set for the “Go dogs Go” banner and then using a stamping platform, stamped my favorite Happy Birthday stamp on the last panel.

GoDOGSgo-last

Supplies

Stamps

Inks/Watercolors

Paper

Miscellaneous