Christmas

Santa Stop Here

| ullycatdesigns

Fur babies can enjoy the winter holidays as much as their human parents. This little pup doesn’t want Santa to forget her. She’s got her Santa hat and lights on her house as well as a sign asking Santa to stop.

The card front uses the dog from the Dog House Tiny House Add-Ons cut three times to make her stand out from the busy background paper. Dog bones from this set were also added to hint at what is to come on the inside.

To create the dog house, cut out and assemble a red Tiny House. (See assembly video.) I used the same red lightweight cardstock for the side panels from the add-ons. I choose not to ink the dies to print the siding lines, but rather to emboss them and then, using a white ink cube, to add a powdery dusting of snow.

For the colorful lights, use the lights from the Holiday House die set. (I used shimmer paper and colored them with fine-tipped markers.) The wreath is also from the Holiday House. Pup is added to the front of the dog house with a thick foam dot.

The snowy look on the roof was created by painting a thick coating of glitter gloss and using Effect Snow around the edges. To hold up the “Santa Stop Here” sign, a grassy strip from the Mushroom Tiny House Add-Ons set was cut, Effect Snowed, and glued to the card base and dog house. The sign is made from three of the school signs from the Church and School Tiny House Add-Ons set.

White octagons from the Bam Box Pop-Up die set are placed in opposing corners like snowballs for personal messages. Snowflake borders cut from shimmer paper using the Long Nature Edges 2 set.

Card backs are just as important as fronts. This one is decorated with left over strips.

The back flap of the envelope hints at what’s to come with the Santa capped pup.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Echo Park Paper Co. – 12 x 12 Double-Sided Cardstock – A Perfect Christmas by Lori Whitlock – Christmas Collage – APC135008
  • Red Light-Weight Cardstock – 8.5 x 11
  • Colored Cardstock Scraps
  • White A7 Envelope

Pens & Inks

  • Blue, Red, Yellow and Blue Fine-Tipped Markers
  • Gelly Roll 08 Pen – White
  • Pigma Micron 05 – Archival Ink .045mm – Dark Brown
  • American Crafts – Metallic Markers – Silver

Miscellaneous

Happy Christmas Basket

| ullycatdesigns

There is something magical about going to a Christmas Eve Candlelight church service on a frosty evening. That is the feeling this basket card is hoping to invoke.

This Christmas card features some of Karen Burniston’s December 2022 release die sets – Wide Woven Basket Box Card, Church School Tiny House Add-ons and Bam Box. All of the pieces were cut from two types of white cardstock with silver ink added to some pieces. Vellum was used behind the windows.

Church: The assembly of the church starts with the Tiny House base with its windows cut out while still flat. (Save the window frames to glue back into openings.) Cut rectangles of clear vellum to be glued on the inside of the church over the window openings. Trim excess vellum away from round window as needed. Coat the two roofs with glitter gloss. Coat window frames and door frame with glitter gloss. Using door die as a stencil, color door handles silver. Color the two crosses silver and glue together. Color the two halves of the tall charm holder on the church tower silver.

Assemble the tiny house as directed in assembly video. Don’t fold back bottom tabs, but rather trim off the tab on the house side, leaving the back or pointed side’s tab attached. Follow assembly video for the church tower. After adding the Bam Boxes, cut a rectangle to fit on the inside of the church to cover the other half of the church front. (This piece will stabilize the church when attached to the basket and will block light if you add LED lights.)

Wide Woven Basket: This die set makes it easy to create a rectangular pop-up basket. (Prior to this set you had to die cut an extra set of pieces to widen the basket sides and grass.

When used with the previously released Woven Basket Box Card, you cut two sets of the original size sides and two sets of the wide size sides. Follow the directions on the package or the assembly video to weave the basket and join the sides together. (I colored both sides of the ropes with silver metallic pen and then coated with a glitter gloss brush pen before attaching them.)

Adding Crossbars of Grass: The Wide Woven Basket Box Card includes the wide grass crossbars. (I cut four to make a full basket.) I trimmed away the grass leaves where the church would be. The front tab on the church is NOT attached to the crossbar, but rather acts as a guide for when the church and basket are folded closed.

Bam Boxes: To animate the basket when it comes out of the envelope and pops into shape, two small “Bam Boxes” were used. Watch the assembly video first. The church also uses two Bam Boxes. These easy to make rectangular boxes are powered by a small rubber band. (I used #8 size bands.) These go in diagonally opposite corners of the basket or church. Once glued in, the basket or church will only fold flat in one direction, so make sure both church and basket fold in the same direction. (I recommend using a heavy weight cardstock for bam boxes and letting each stage of gluing dry before moving onto the next step. I found that making a bunch of Bam Boxes at one time is useful for having some ready made to use on other projects.)

Tag, Bells, Holly and Berries: A tag is tied to the handle of the basket for a personal message. It is cut using the tag die from the Karen Burniston Tag Book die set. The bells are charms from the Church School Tiny House Add-ons colored with a silver gel pen. Karen Burniston’s Pattern Plate of Holly was coated a glitter gloss while the berries were colored with a silver gel pen. The holly leaves and berries were cut apart for decorations on the basket, tag and in the basket grass.

Sentiment: The “Happy Christmas” is from the Karen Burniston Word Set 3 -Holiday. It was cut three times from white, and the top layer was not weeded out of its original piece of cardstock while it was being colored with a silver gel pen. The three layers were glued together before being attached to the front of the basket.

Lights: I added an inexpensive string of LED fairy lights to the inside of the church. (You can find these at Dollartree and Poundland stores.) Because the lights restrict the movement of the Bam Boxes inside the church, the lights need to be removed to fold flat.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Brazzill – 12×12 Smooth Cardstock – Coconut Swirl
  • White Heavy Weight Cardstock

Pens & Brushes

  • American Crafts Metallic Marker – Silver
  • Gelly Roll – Gel Pen – Silver
  • Nuvo – Aqua Shimmer Brush Pen – Glitter Gloss

Miscellaneous

Gingerbread Holidays

| ullycatdesigns

Gingerbread is a sweet treat and holiday cards that smell of sweet baked goods make these two variations on gingerbread house pop-up cards a treat for the senses.

Karen Burniston’s Tiny House Pop-up die set and add-ons feature strong in these two cards. Primarily the Gingerbread add-ons are used, but the rounded door is from the Mushroom add-ons set.

The main difference to these two cards is the position of the two tabs that attach the tiny house to the card base and therefore, where the extension bar is attached on the house – front or back. The tree is a Winter Charm.

White hearts cut from the crosshatch hearts die set are places to write a personal message.

To give the cards their sweet scents, Nuvo Aroma Drops were used – red Strawberry Tart as the red candies on the roof and Vanilla Cupcake as light brown icing on the window panes and door frame.

Card backs are just as important as fronts. These are decorated with left over strips to mimic ribbon on gift boxes.

The envelope back hints at what’s to come when the card is opened. The stamps are from the same Lisa Horton Crafts Premium Magazine kit as the inside cookies and candy canes paper and front foiled paper sentiment topper.

Like the Tiny House? See more tiny house sets by clicking here.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Echo Park Paper Co. – 12 x12 Double-Sided Cardstock – I Love Christmas by Lori Whitlock – Here Comes Santa
  • Stampin’ Up – Doubled-Sided Cardstock from my stash –
  • Colored Cardstock Scraps
  • Pink A2 Envelope

Pens, Inks & Embellishment Drops

Miscellaneous

Santa’s Sleigh Pop-Up

| ullycatdesigns

A wet snowy night for Christmas Eve and Santa and his reindeer are feeling a bit blue with the weather, but whoever receives this card will be cheerfully surprised when Santa pops-up.

This is a slimline card version of a non-traditional color scheme Santa scene that I used on another project that will be unveiled during the sneak peak week of Karen Burniston’s December 2022 release.

To create the the inside pop-up scene, I used four of Karen Burniston’s previously released die sets – Sleigh Pop-Up, Christmas Animals and Gnome and Santa. I had to reverse the direction of the sleigh to make it work with the reindeer dies. The reindeer are each made up of two die cuts that are glued together at their antlers and have the face colored on the front side only, but with narrow strips of cardstock forming “U” shaped bases for the feet to be glued onto. Blue and white baker’s twine is glued on to the reindeer for the harness and reins.

The front sentiment and pine branches are all by Karen Burniston. The tiny bows are from the sleigh die set while the pine branch is from the Holiday Charms set.

Velvety flocked paper lines the inside of the card with crisp white snowflakes (from holiday charms and sleigh die sets) and a fancy edged label for a personal message finish the inside scene.

As per my usual, I like the back of the envelope to hint at what is to come. The stamps are by Paper Discovery.

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Recollections – Signature Especial 12×12 Foil Paper – Silver Glitter -220520
  • Spellbinders -8.5×11″ sheets of 100lb. Cardstock – Waterfall – CS-017
  • Stampin ‘Up – 12×12″ Specialty Vellum – Snowflakes
  • Stampin’ Up – 12×12″ Snowy White Velvet Sheets
  • Brazzill – 12×12″ Cardstock -Coconut Swirl
  • Pink, Black and Yellow Cardstock Scraps

Inks

  • Blue and Pink Fine-Tipped Markers
  • Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Silver -XPG#744
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink – Salty Ocean
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Blueberry Bushel

Stamps

  • Paper Discovery by Olga Direktorenko – A5 Clear Stamps – Rustic Christmas – Christmas Sentiments

Miscellaneous

Brr, It’s Cold Outside!

| ullycatdesigns

Sometimes it’s nice just to watch it snow with a warm cup of coffee or hot coco.

This fun mini-slim sized card is a blend of stenciled coffee cups and a die-cut snowflake collage pop-up. All the dies used are by Karen Burniston while the layered stencil is by Pretty Posh Pink. The coffee cups by both designers are similar in size and work well together.

I went through all my Karen Burniston die sets to find as many different single snowflakes as possible to use for the swirling collage mechanism inside the card. (I recommend watching the assembly video before starting your card. The video has useful tips and card base minimum sizes that will help you design your card.)

The sentiments all come from Karen Burniston’s Word Set 13 – Snow and include the shadow dies for the large words of “Brr!” and “Snow.” The mug and travel coffee cup inside are all die-cuts inked similar to the stenciled ones on the card front.

As with all my cards that are sent in an envelope, I have decorated the back flap with a hint of what’s inside. This time I stenciled a coffee mug on the flap.

See more coffee themed cards by clicking here.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stencils

  • Pretty Pink Posh – 6×6 Stencil – Layered Coffee Cups

Ink

  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Oxides – Festive Berries, Saltwater Taffy, Ground Espresso, Pumice Stone, Hickory Smoke, Mowed Lawn, Crushed Olive, Prize Ribbon and Tumbled Glass

Papers

  • Stampin’ Up – 6’ x6” Specialty Designer Series paper – Lights Aglow
  • Blue and White Medium Weight Cardstock
  • Simon Says Stamp – Mini Slimline envelope – Grocery Gag

Miscellaneous

Snow in review

| ullycatdesigns

Over the past few years, I’ve made a few cards featuring snow and thought it might be fun to review them again.

Early Christmas Cards

12 Days of Christmas Trees – Day 4

Let It Snow Shadow Box

Snowy Forest Day

A Snowy Drive with Santa

Warmish Winter Wishes

Santa Vintage Trifold

Winter is in the Air

Snow Days

Snowy Good Morning

Hillside Holiday Wishes

Silent Night in the Village

Winter Mail

Scandinavian Snowman

Meet The Snow Family

Meet the Snow Family – Baby Snow

| ullycatdesigns

This card is part of the Karen Burniston Design Team snowmen challenge for November.

Today, I’m show you how to Baby Snow.

Baby Snow is comprised of the Mini Ball Pop-Up and the Bitty Ball Pop-Up with his coal features and scarf from the Snowman Add-Ons. His smaller carrot nose and stick arms are from the Snowman Twist Circle set while his cap is custom made.

Cut two of the Bitty Ball halves and two of the Mini Ball halves. (I was able to get all the pieces from a single sheet of 8.5×11 inch cardstock.) I find watching the assembly videos for the balls very useful. (Bitty Balls, Mini-Balls) Numbering the order of gluing the tabs is useful for the assemble of the balls. I cut all the trapezoid panels from an embossed white cardstock. And the ball halves are cut from a 100 lb. smooth white cardstock.

Assemble the balls as shown on videos, including a brad in the bottom of the Bitty Ball. (I didn’t have a brad when I made Baby Snow, so I improvised with a pipe-cleaner. I works, thin wire would be a better choice as the pipecleander adds bulk to the bottom of the card.)

Add facial features to the mini ball. The hat is one half mini ball cut in red, embossed with a knitted pattern embossing fold, and then trimmed down to fit the head. Once glued on, a three snowflake pom-pom was added to the top.

The scarf pieces are glued to the top of the Bitty ball edges and a full-size hexagon is traced using the die to cover the top of the body.

The ear flap and bill of the hat were free handed pieces cut first from scrap paper and once correct size traced onto the red cardstock and fussy cut. Some red and white twine was added when gluing on the ear flaps.

Once the decorations are complete attach Baby Snow to the card base.

Learn more about how each member of the Snow Family was created in these blogs:

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Spellbinders – 100 lb cardstock – Waterfall
  • Hot Off the Press – Black Suede
  • Hot off the Press – Black Glitter Cardstock
  • Blue, orange, brown, red and white cardstock scraps
  • Recollections – 8.5×11 White gold shimmer cardstock
  • Staples – 8.5×11 Printable glitter paper

Miscellaneous

Meet the Snow Family – Mama Snow

| ullycatdesigns

This card is part of the Karen Burniston Design Team snowmen challenge for November.

Today, I’m show you how to make Mama Snow.

Mama Snow is comprised of all three balls – the Mini Ball Pop-Up, the Bitty Ball Pop-Up and the Surprise Ball Pop-Up with all her facial features, hat and stick arms from the Snowman Add-Ons. Her cape is made from the Mini Ball and Bitty Ball dies and her hat is cut down from the Snowman Add-ons set.

I find watching the assembly videos for the balls very useful. (Bitty Balls, Mini-Balls and Surprise Balls) Numbering the order of gluing the tabs is useful for the assemble of the balls. I cut all the trapezoid panels from an embossed white cardstock. And the ball halves are cut from a 100 lb. smooth white cardstock.

Assemble the base Surprise Ball in all white with a brad threaded through the bottom hole. The middle and head balls are of graduating size and are decorated with the blue cape and collar pieces before assembling.

The blue cape is made by cutting one half of a Mini Ball in blue and trimming as shown in the photos. I glued it to the bottom of the ball first before assembling the ball. (Note that one panel of blue was cut off and the corners facing the missing panel were curved and not glued down. The missing panel area is where the mouth will be for the face.)

The cape is cut using the same blue cardstock using one half of a Bitty Ball. Cut a thin stripe out of the front of the cape and curve the bottom corners. Glue down stick arms to sides of Bitty Ball. Glue all of the cape to the top of the bitty ball, except for the curved corners.

Glue on facial features of coal eyes and mouth cut from glitter cardstock and an orange carrot nose. Docorate the cape and collar with snowflakes.

To assemble the hat, trim the tall top piece down to about 1/2 inch above the tab. Decorate brim with snowflakes from Snowman Add-Ons, Snowman Twist Circle or Snowman set.  Glue top of hat flap through the slot in brim. Glue hat onto top of head. Cut a piece of ribbon long enough to go over hat brim and under the head plus 2 inches. Glue middle of ribbon to top of hat and them flatten head and glue ends of ribbon to the bottom of head ball. (You will need this slack in the ribbon to allow the ball to fold flat.)

Now you can glue the three balls together to make Mama Snow. I glued the ribbon bow on after I had assembled her to get the correct placement.

You can now added her to the card base using the brad.

Learn more about how each member of the Snow Family was created in these blogs:

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Spellbinders – 100 lb. cardstock – Waterfall
  • Hot Off the Press – Black Suede
  • Hot off the Press – Black Glitter Cardstock
  • Blue, orange, brown, and white cardstock scraps
  • Staples – 8.5×11 Printable glitter paper

Miscellaneous

Meet The Snow Family

| ullycatdesigns

This card is part of the Karen Burniston Design Team snowmen challenge for November.

Today, I’ll introduce you to the Snow Family and then each of the next three days, I’ll explain how I made each member of the family.

In her August release, Karen Burniston has come out with some additional die sets that make putting together snowpeople so easy. An add-on character set includes the top hat and band, carrot nose, large and small circles for eyes, mouth and buttons, as well as stick arms and a large snowflake. The Double-Ups for the all the pop-up balls have the side trapezoids linked together to cut 6 pieces all at once, so with the original individual trapezoid dies, you can cut all 12 side panels in one pass.

I started with a pale blue card base of made up of two 6x 6 1/2 inch pieces. I scored the extra 1/2 inch at 1/2  and 1/4 inch to make tabs with a gusset to glue each piece to a central 6 x 6 inch square.

The decorative papers are 5 ¾ x 5 ¾ inches. (Flap assembly video) I cut the the flap from pale blue cardstock and two decorative panels from scraps of the decorative papers.  Off the back of the center section is where the flap is glued.

The flap dies set cuts six washers of which three are glued together for each of the circle brad cover. Glue the front decorative panel onto the flap. Using a sharp piercing tool, punch a hole in the center of the flap.

Glue the washers over the hole. I used a needle and thread to pull the twine through the hole leaving knot on underside of flap. Pull brad legs through hole and bend the legs onto the back of the flap and glue the twine in place on back of flap.

Glue the back decorative panel over the twine knot.  Cover back of card and flap tab with decorative paper.

Glue the front decorative papers to the card front. Mark the center of the front of the card base and pierce, glue the next two washers. Thread another brad through the hole Then thread the brad legs into the hole in the bottom of the bottom all of a snow person. (It is easier to add just the bottom ball and then build the snowperson onto this ball once it is attached to the card base.)

Once all the snowpeople base balls are attached to the card base and decorative papers cover the brad legs or wires, decorations can be added to the outside of the card panels.

The card is too thick to be mailed in any standard envelope to mail.

Learn more about How each member of the Snow Family was created in these blogs:

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Spellbinders – 100 lb cardstock – Waterfall
  • Hot Off the Press – Black Suede
  • Hot off the Press – Black Glitter Cardstock
  • Blue, orange, brown, and white cardstock scraps
  • Recollections – 8.5×11 White gold shimmer cardstock
  • Staples – 8.5×11 Printable glitter paper

Miscellaneous