Christmas

Vintage Christmas

| ullycatdesigns

What fun to be a child with a new toy or two to play with on Christmas morning. This card takes its inspiration from a BoBunny paper pad and matching die-cut pieces as well as a recent release of Karen Burniston’s Flip Frame Pop-up die set.

I found the Flip Frame Pop-Up easy to assemble, but strongly suggest practicing with scrap paper the gluing placement of the mechanism and frame before gluing with your good paper. (Here is the assembly video.)

I cut the flip frame from dark green mirror card and used some scrap green pattern pieces to hide the white side of the mechanism so that the mechanism strip blends into the background.

The cream-colored doily is for writing a personal message, but it does give the feel that the open card is a tabletop with a picture frame of a loved one.

The front is decorated with pictures cut from the paper pad and the little boy is a die-cut from the BoBunny set that is adhered with foam squares. A ribbon was the final dimensional element to tie the little girl to the boy and the opened gift box.

The card base is made entirely from two papers from the BoBunny paper pad. The inside sentiment and snowflake are from the coordinating die cuts set.

As is my style, I stamped the envelope flap with an older Kaisercraft stamp sentiment to set the mood for the card.

Hope this card makes you remember your childhood Christmases.

SUPPLIES

Dies

Stamps

  • Kaisercraft – Clear Stamps – Sentiments -Traditional – CS313

Ink

Paper

Miscellaneous

© Sue Small-Kreider 2020

Naughty or Nice?

| ullycatdesigns

What pops down a chimney and out a fireplace? Santa Kitten!

These cute little kittens jumped out at me while in a Tuesday Morning store. They are on cellophane treat bags. I realized that they were the correct size for one of Karen Burniston’s interactive dies – the Pop ‘n Swap.

While I would classify this card as a prototype, what I wanted to share is to show how you can make a shallow box like structure to create a fireplace over the pop ’n swap mechanism. Watch Karen Burniston’s assembly video to learn how to put together this mechanism.

For this slimline card, I cut a piece of heavy black cardstock 8 ½ x 8 inches and scored at 4 inches and folded in half to create the card base. (The card needs to be at least 4 inches wide since the mechanism folded flat is 4 inches wide.) Next, I cut from the front top of the card base a rectangle 2 ½ x 4 inches to allow the Santa kitten to show over the chimney top.

The inside shallow box is a 5 3/4 inches tall by 4 7/8 inches wide rectangle of red cardstock. I scored at ¼ inch, 1 inch and 4 inches. (Because the mechanism is ¾ inches tall, the box side is ¾ inches deep.) All the folds are mountain folds. The narrow tab goes towards the right edge of the card while the wide tab goes towards the inside fold.  I glued my mechanism in first, and then using removable tape, I played with the positioning of the box and marked with pencil its placement before removing the box. I cut the widow to show the kitten inside the fireplace, by laying the fireplace frame over the mechanism and seeing where the kitten would best show. Next, I placed  a loop of removable tape on the fireplace and positioned the box back into place and got the fireplace to stick to the inside of the box. With the fireplace stuck I removed the box and traced the opening of the fireplace onto the back of the box. With a metal ruler and craft knife, I cut the opening slightly larger than the pencil marks. Now the box is ready to be permanently glued in place. Glue the kittens in place next on the mechanism arms, cutting any corners that show beyond the kittens.

For decorating of the fireplace and mantel refer to my An Old-Time Christmas post. The brick is stenciled on the chimney panel before cutting it for the front. The fireplace was stenciled once the opening was cut for the fireplace, but before the box was glued permanently in place.

I tried a new-to-me product from Cosmic Shimmer called Fluffy Stuff. It is a thick paint-like substance that you can add dimension with for snow. You use a heat gun to get it to bubble up. I tried adding it to the front of the card after I assembled the card and in the heating of the card, I ended up heating the cellophane of the top kitten which shrunk a little. My recommendation is to add the Fluffy Stuff to your front panel before it is glued on to the card so that you can heat it and left it dry for 24 hours before gluing in place. (Here is a video that shows Fluffy Stuff being demonstrated on the Beebaab Youtube channel.)

If you have read this far, I’ll let you in on a secret. There is a free down of the “Naughty or Nice” sentiment in the supplies list.

Hope this card makes you smile.

SUPPLIES

Dies

Stamps/Stencils

Inks/Colors

Paper

naughty-or-niceDownload

Miscellaneous

© Sue Small-Kreider 2020

Warmish Winter Wishes

| ullycatdesigns

Sending warm wishes for the holiday season is what this card is all about.

It is a simple card made with pre-printed white snowflakes on brown kraft paper card, holographic snowflake glitter and red stamped images adhered with foam squares.

I made 24 of these cards in one day. The stamping was done first using a Tim Holtz stamping platform by Tonic Studios. I had cut 8 ½ x11 inch white cardstock into 4 ¼ x 5 ½ inch pieces to make it easy to stamp two sets of images per piece and never have to move the stamps, except to stamp the two sentiments and the fox on the envelope flaps.

I fussy cut the images and placed tiny and large foam squares from my stash on the backs of the images.

Once the cut images were adhered to the card fronts, I glued the snowflake glitter to the cards matching up with the centers of the printed snowflakes.

SUPPLIES

Stamps

Ink

Paper

Miscellaneous

Day 1 of Mini Challenge – Winter Joys

| ullycatdesigns

I set myself a challenge to make five cards with the Autumn Days stamp set from the most recent Simply Cards and Papercrafts magazine. I made a number of backgrounds using fall colors, but I also did two with the pine branches and berries in greens and red for the winter holidays.

I did a design that I’ve used in the past of positioning the pine branches in a circular wreath-like fashion with the red berries as accents. The vertical card I inadvertently turned two of the branches in opposing direction in the corners and had to cover the stem bases with red berries. The “Joy” toppers are circular scraps from my greens scrap bin that where gold heat embossed and adhered with foam pads.

The inside sentiment comes from an older Kaisercraft stamp set, while the “Joy” came from a Love Cardmaking magazine stamp set.  I stamped the pinecone stamp from Autumn Days on the envelope flap in brown ink.

I thank Mandy78 from Craftworld.com for the idea of a mini challenge for myself.

DAY 1 – Winter Joys

DAY 2 – Looking Up and Letting Go

DAY 3 – N is for Nuts

DAY 4 – Autumn Leaves and Letting Go

Supplies:

Stamps

Dies

Papers

Inks/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous

House Luminary

| ullycatdesigns

Building off of the red four-square house, this four-panel card becomes a wrap-around screen for a battery powered candle. This is the seventh house card in my series of “A Week of Christmas Houses” using Poppy Stamps 2020 Winter House Pop-Up Easel die set.

The house goes together easily by looking at the photos on the Poppy Stamps packaging. It does involve a lot of die cutting as there is only one die of each window type.  (I cut lots of the small pieces and store the extras in a tiny plastic bags that I keep with the die set.) To add depth to the porch and dormer windows I cut those pieces four times and glued together. The snowy pieces are cut from glitter paper.

Papers Used: The house is cut from a dark red cardstock with the windows and porch posts cut from cream. Note that two matting layers to each house panel – one pale yellow and one on heavy weight white cardstock. The red, cream and pale yellow come from monotone color packs of cardstock by Recollections.

Once again, peach organza ribbon to create some sparkly interest at the windows of the house. I masked off the front door with sticky notes and used Walnut Stain Distress ink to darken the door and frame. A wreath cut with a Tonic Studios die set to complete the door. (See Day 2 for details.)

Once the four houses were assembled, I glued together the pale yellow and white matting layers and then used the solid house die to trace where the windows needed to be cut out on to the pale yellow with a pencil. Because the tracing was inside the window, I had to cut 1/8 inch away from the outer edge of the pencil lines to make the window opening as large or slightly larger than the die cut window openings. I used a metal ruler and a craft knife to do this.

Once all the window openings were cut, I could glue the house fronts on to their matting layer panels. Lining the four completed panels up, I then used clear tape to hinge the panels together.

The panels can accordion fold to fit in an A2 envelope which I stamped with a greeting since the card has no greeting on it. I expect this will be a hand delivered card with a boxed candle.

Free PDF of display instructions.

house-luminariaDownload

See more house luminaria:

Victorian Trim House Luminaria

Holiday House Luminaria

See the more the series of “A Week of Christmas Houses”

Day 1 – From Our House to Your House

Day 2 – Santa is Coming

Day 3 – A Baby is Coming

Day 4 –Keeping the Home Fires Burning

Day 5 – Red Four-Square

Day 6 – Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Day 7 – House Luminary

An Old-Time Christmas Parlor

2019 – 12 Days of Christmas Trees

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

  • Kaisercraft – Clear Stamps – Sentiments -Traditional – CS313

Paper

Ink

Miscellaneous

Santa Delivers to the Tropics

| ullycatdesigns

How does Santa deliver presents to places where there is no snow for his sleigh? I think he goes in his trusted vintage white convertible with Rudolph to those tropical places. This is the sixth house card in my series of “A Week of Christmas Houses” using Poppy Stamps 2020 Winter House Pop-Up Easel die set.

This double easel card is designed as a slimline card to fit a #10 envelope. The car and Santa are part of the Spellbinders’ Sunday Drive collection.

I found both the Poppy Stamps and Spellbinders sets easy to use following the images on the packaging but recommend having a pair of tweezers handy to glue and place the tiny details. I also recommend having a small container or bag to put your die cut pieces into as you cut them out. They are quite easy to lose on your workspace or get dropped onto the floor.

To make sure the Fired Brick Distress ink I used under the Ho Ho Ho did not bleed onto the white car, I clear heat embossed the piece which adds some texture and shine to the license plate.

Because both die sets for this card are designed to represent snow and cold weather, I had to modify the die cut pieces. For Santa, I cut the sleeve off his shirt and used colored papers to have him wearing a more causal tropical shirt and created his arm by tracing around the outside of the skeleton’s arm in another add-on set for the Sunday Drive collection. On the house I trimmed off any of the snow on rooflines and used the poinsettia flowers from the Sunday Drive collection to plant in front of the house. To fit in a #10 envelope the tiny tips of the roof edge had to be trimmed off the card base.

Once again, I used peach organza ribbon to create some interest at the windows of the house. The door and roofs are inked dark with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. The door wreath is from the Tonic Studios set and the palm tree towering over the house is from a Karen Burniston pop-up die set. Nuvo drops were used for the doorknob and flower centers.

The welcome mat, which acts as the easel stop, was stamped and heat embossed using a stamp from a retired Stampin’ Up set. I used a blend of Ranger Black Sparkle and Recollections Ebony Detail Embossing powders that give the welcome mat a snowy sparkle. Once heat embossed, the mat was weathered using Antique Linen Distress Ink on a sponge dauber and cut out with the coordinating die. Foam squares where used to adhere the mat to card and make it tall enough to act as an easel stop.

The “Merry Christmas” is cut from heavy black cardstock glued down.  A personal message can be written behind the house.

Finished off the card by stamping its envelope with some hints as to what’s inside using a “Magical Christmas Wishes” sentiment in dark green ink.

See the more the series of “A Week of Christmas Houses”

Day 1 – From Our House to Your House

Day 2 – Santa is Coming

Day 3 – A Baby is Coming

Day 4 –Keeping the Home Fires Burning

Day 5 – Red Four-Square

Day 6 – Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Day 7 – House Luminary

2019 – 12 Days of Christmas Trees

Other Sunday Drive cards:

Sunday Drive Celebration

A Snowy Sunday Drive with Santa

Santa Bauble

Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Being Spooky

Driving into a Spooky Sunset

The Best is Yet to Come

Hoppy Spring!

SUPPLIES:

Dies

Stamps

Papers

Ink/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous

Red Four-Square

| ullycatdesigns

The candles are lit in the windows to welcome you home to a house reminiscent of a red-brick four-square house popular in the early 20th century America. This is the fifth house card in my series of “A Week of Christmas Houses” using Poppy Stamps 2020 Winter House Pop-Up Easel die set.

The house goes together easily by looking at the photos on the Poppy Stamps packaging. It does involve a lot of die cutting as there is only one die of each window type.  (I cut lots of the small pieces and store the extras in a tiny plastic bags that I keep with the die set.) To add depth to the porch and dormer windows I cut those pieces twice and glued together. The snowy pieces are cut from glitter paper and some of the window frames and siding have Nuvo Glitter Drops used thinly to give the illusion of melted snow.

Papers Used: The house is cut from a dark red cardstock with the windows and porch posts cut from shiny cream which is recycled from an old store-bought card. The red, dark blue and pale yellow come from monotone color packs of cardstock by Recollections. Note that there is a dark blue outline layer of the house that provides the window inside color as well as framing the outside edge of the house.

I masked off the front door with sticky notes and used Vintage Photo Distress ink to darken the door and frame. A tiny drop of gold Nuvo Crystal Drops for the doorknob and a wreath cut with a Tonic Studios die set, complete the door. A fir tree is also cut from the Tonic set.

The windows all have tiny white candles cut from a thin white scrap and flames are cut from an orange envelope in my stash. I used the appropriately  named Candlelight – Spectrum Noir Sparkle Glitter Ink to put a dot of glow behind each candle on the dark blue layer. (The second floor center window seems to have a draft.) Click here to see more photos of how the candles were made.

The welcome mat, which acts as the easel stop, was stamped and heat embossed using a stamp from a retired Stampin’ Up set. I used a blend of Ranger Black Sparkle and Recollections Ebony Detail Embossing powders that give the welcome mat a snowy sparkle. Once heat embossed, the mat was weathered using Antique Linen Distress Ink on a sponge dauber and cut out with the coordinating die. Foam squares where used to adhere the mat to card and make it tall enough to act as an easel stop.

The ”Merry Christmas” is cut from heavy black cardstock glued down.  A personal message can be written behind the house

I used two stamps on the envelope flap. I stamped Season’s in red and then masked it with a sticky note and stamped the greetings circle (which has a different sentiment in its center) in dark green.

See the more the series of “A Week of Christmas Houses”

Day 1 – From Our House to Your House

Day 2 – Santa is Coming

Day 3 – A Baby is Coming

Day 4 –Keeping the Home Fires Burning

Day 5 – Red Four-Square

Day 6 – Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Day 7 – House-Luminary

2019 – 12 Days of Christmas Trees

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

Paper

Ink/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous

Keep the Home Fires Burning

| ullycatdesigns

Coming home to a house glowing warm with the smell of wood smoke in the air. What more could one want for the holidays? This card is the fourth house card in my series of “A Week of Christmas Houses” using Poppy Stamps 2020 Winter House Pop-Up Easel die set.

Blue house Slider-side

The card is a slight deviation from the die set’s easel card. This card uses a DIY slider base with the ribbon smoke and chimney as the pull tab. The house still is an easel card, but one that is operated by a slider tab. (A good video on DIY slider easel cards is by Maggi Harding.)

The house is cut from heavy card stock in a pale blue that has been in my stash from a card kit. The dark blue and pale yellow come from monotone color packs of cardstock by Recollections. Note that there is a pale-yellow outline layer of the house that provides the window inside color as well as framing the outside edge of the house. The card base is cut from heavy weight white cardstock and white glitter paper.

This card goes together easily by looking at the photos on the Poppy Stamps packaging. It does involve a lot of die cutting as there is only one die of each window type.  (I cut lots of the small pieces and store the extras in a tiny plastic bags that I keep with the die set.) To add depth to the porch and dormer windows I cut those pieces twice and glued together. The snowy pieces are cut from glitter paper and some of the window frames and siding have Nuvo Glitter Drops used thinly to give the illusion of melted snow.

I masked off the front door with sticky notes and used Salty Ocean Distress ink to darken the door and frame. A tiny drop of gold Nuvo Crystal Drops for the doorknob and a wreath cut with a Tonic Studios die set, complete the door.

Blue house Slider-welcome mat CU

The welcome mat was stamped and heat embossed using a stamp from a retired Stampin’ Up set. I used a blend of Ranger Black Sparkle and Recollections Ebony Detail Embossing powders that give the welcome mat a snowy sparkle. Once heat embossed, the mat was weathered using Antique Linen Distress Ink on a sponge dauber and cut out with the coordinating die. Foam tape was used to adhere the mat to the sliding tab.

The windows all have a piece of pale blue organza ribbon taped behind the window frames to give the shine of glass and the rosy glow comes from some shading with Fossilized Amber Distress Ink on the pale-yellow cardstock. The boy and woman decorating a Christmas trees that can be seen in the windows are from an older Tonic Studios Toy Emporium die set. Also, from the Tonic set is the outside fir tree and door wreath.

Blue house Slider-chimney CU

The slider tab was first embossed using a brick stencil (See video by The Paper Boutique on dry embossing with stencils) and then inked with Fired Brick Distress Ink. To make the mortar lines standout, I used a white gel pen. I cut the chimney extra-long so I could fold it over and strengthen the pub tab and so I could punch a hole to thread the ribbon through and secure it to the back side.

Blue house Slider-pull tab CU

The “Season’s Greetings” was stamped in red and is revealed when the chimney tab is pulled up. A personal message can be written below the “From our home to yours” heat embossed sentiment on the tab below the chimney.  These stamps are from the Winter Woodland stamp set by Sheena Douglas. (NOTE: I would recommend stamping the revealed sentiments before assembling the card. I tried to do mine after assembling the slider and it was impossible to get a good enough impression to heat embossing the Season’s Greetings using a stamping platform.)

IMG_8568

I used another stamp from the Winter Woodland set on the envelope flap to give a hint about the chimney pull on the card.

See the more the series of “A Week of Christmas Houses”

Day 1 – From Our House to Your House

Day 2 – Santa is Coming

Day 3 – A Baby is Coming

Day 4 – Keep the Home Fires Burning

Day 5 – Red Four Square

Day 6 – Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Day 7 – House Luminary

2019 – 12 Days of Christmas Trees

Supplies

Dies/Stencils

Stamps

Paper

Ink/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous

A Baby is Coming

| ullycatdesigns

Baby is coming-Front envelope

Who doesn’t look forward to welcoming a new baby at Christmas? This card is the third house card in my series of “A Week of Christmas Houses” using Poppy Stamps 2020 Winter House Pop-Up Easel die set.

The house is cut from heavy card stock in a pale blue that has been in my stash from a card kit. The dark blue and pale yellow come from monotone color packs of cardstock by Recollections. Note that there is a pale-yellow outline layer of the house that provides the window inside color as well as framing the outside edge of the house. The card base is cut from heavy weight white cardstock.

This card goes together easily by looking at the photos on the Poppy Stamps packaging. It does involve a lot of die cutting as there is only one die of each window type.  (I cut lots of the small pieces and store the extras in a tiny plastic bags that I keep with the die set.) To add depth to the porch and dormer windows I cut those pieces twice and glued together. The snowy pieces are cut from glitter paper and some of the window frames and siding have Nuvo Glitter Drops used thinly to give the illusion of melted snow.

Baby is coming-Front open

I masked off the front door with sticky notes and used Salty Ocean Distress ink to darken the door and frame. A tiny drop of gold Nuvo Crystal Drops for the doorknob and a wreath cut with a Tonic Studios die set, complete the door.

The welcome mat, which acts as the easel stop, was stamped and heat embossed using a stamp from a retired Stampin’ Up set. I used a blend of Ranger Black Sparkle and Recollections Ebony Detail Embossing powders that give the welcome mat a snowy sparkle. Once heat embossed, the mat was weathered using Antique Linen Distress Ink on a sponge dauber and cut out with the coordinating die. Foam pads where used to adhere the mat to card and make it tall enough to act as an easel stop.

The windows all have a piece of pale blue organza ribbon taped behind the window frames to give the shine of glass and the rosy glow comes from some shading with Fossilized Amber Distress Ink on the pale-yellow cardstock. The rocking horse and woman decorating a Christmas tree that can be seen in the windows are from an older Tonic Studios Toy Emporium die set. Also from the Tonic set is the outside fir tree.

The ”Merry Christmas” is cut from heavy black cardstock glued down.  A personal message can be written behind the house

Baby is coming-Front envelope

I used two stamps on the envelope flap. I stamped Joy in green and then masked it with a sticky note and stamped the wishing you circle (which has a different sentiment in its center) in blue.

See the more the series of “A Week of Christmas Houses”

Day 1 – From Our House to Your House

Day 2 – Santa is Coming

Day 3 – A Baby is Coming

Day 4 – Keep the Home Fires Burning

Day 5 – Red Four Square

Day 6 – Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Day 7 – House Luminary

2019 – 12 Days of Christmas Trees

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

Paper

Ink/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous