Christmas

Baking For The Holidays

| ullycatdesigns

It’s time for the Karen Burniston June 2024 Design Team Challenge with the theme of using border dies.

I wanted to get a jump on my end-of-the-year holiday cards by making a baking themed card with pies and gingerbread men from the Baking Borders and Christmas Borders 1 set. The rolling pin and chef’s hat are also in the Baking Borders set. Additional die sets used were:  Oven Pop-Up, Tiny Gnomes, and the Fancy Label Accordion. (A 1 3/4-inch square die was used from the Frame Pull Pop-Up set, but any 1 3/4-inch square die could be used. This was the one I had handy.)

Watch my tutorial YouTube video to see how the card was made.

(TIP: Access the assembly videos for any of the dies used by clicking on the die link and scrolling towards the bottom of the linked page for the video.)

Cardbase: Cut three of the largest die in the Fancy Label Accordion set from a butterscotch-colored heavy cardstock. Work the scored fold-lines.  Wait to until after making and attaching the oven shaker to glue the frames together.

Shaker Oven: Cut ten ovens from red cardstock and two additional ovens from coated red cardstock using the oven die from the Oven Pop-Up set. Trim off stove top section on all 12 pieces. From the two coated cardstock stove top pieces, trim off the back where knobs go and save. Layout oven with stove back on one panel of the cardbase. Mark the outside edges of oven lightly with pencil. Center 1 3/4-inch square die within the oven square and die cut. (You may want to use a ruler to find the center of the fancy label and center the die left to right with the center line. The die will be below the true center up and down because of the stove back piece.)

Glue five of the plain cardstock oven pieces to either side of the cardbase over the square opening. This will form the shaker base. Cut two 2-inch square pieces of clear acetate/plastic.  Attach one piece of acetate/plastic with double-sided tape to the top of stacked oven pieces. Turn over and fill shaker with confetti and tiny cookie shapes from the Oven Pop-Up set. Attach the second piece of acetate/plastic with double-sided tape to seal up the oven shaker.

Cut two 1 1/2-inch square pieces of clear acetate/plastic. Adhere to the back of oven doors on the remaining two coated oven pieces using double-sided tape. With more double-sided tape added to the outer edges of the oven pieces, attach them over the shaker acetate/plastic. Glue the stove back with knobs attached to the cardbase above the ovens on both sides.

Pies, Gingerbread Men and Rolling Pins: Cut two strips of pie bases from the Baking Borders set. Color one strip all red .(I used a red glitter brush.) Color four orange and four baked apple yellow on the other strip. Cut out four of each of the pie tops. Ink the pie top to look like browned crusts with maybe some burnt tips of the crusts. Glue lattice pie crust to apple yellow pies, the open ring crust onto the pumpkin orange pies and the flower shaped crusts onto the red pies. Cut all the pies into separate circular pieces. Glue pies to the top and bottom of the front and back panel frames of the card base.

Cut two strips of gingerbread men using the die in the Christmas Borders 1 set. Using a white gel pen with a fine tip, trace the icing onto the men using the stencil feature of the die. Cut men apart and glue to sides of the front and back panel frames of the card base.

Cut two strips of the rolling pins from a kraft colored cardstock using the die from the Baking Borders set. With a red fine-tipped marker stencil on the hearts and color all the handles. Trim the strips to fit the top and bottom of the middle panel frame. Save one of the leftover rolling pins for the chef to hold.

Chef: From the Tiny Gnomes set, cut two of the body piece and one mustache from white cardstock. From flesh colored cardstock cut the head, nose and hands. From black cardstock cut the shoes. With a fine tipped pen, trace the eyes using the stencil feature of the head die. Color the mustache brown or gray. Cut one chef’s hat from white using the die in the Baking Borders set. Using the rolling pin die to stencil a red heart onto the chef’s hat.

To assemble, cut one body piece to have an apron in the center and an arm on either side. (See video for visuals of this.) Glue apron onto other body piece and then head. Added mustache then nose to head. Glue arms onto back of body wide enough to hold a rolling pin. Glue rolling pin to end of arms and then add hands on top of rolling pin handles. Attach shoes and hat.

Sentiments: “Happy Holidays” comes from Word Set 3-Holidays. The labels behind it and the chef are from the decorator dies in the Fancy Label Accordion set. Personal messages can be written on the back of the panels.

Envelope: The card fits into an A7 size envelope decorated with leftover pies and rolling pins on the back flap.

___________________________________

Thank you for experiencing this blog post.

I hope this inspires you and makes you smile.

Please like and leave comments 😊

___________________________________

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Fun Stampers Journey – 8.5×11 inch Cardstock – Cranberry Bliss & Oatmeal Cookie
  • Grafix – 8.5×11 Dura-Lar Acetate .005 – Clear Film
  • Keep It Simple – 6×9 Double-Sided Coated Cardstock – Back to Basics – Ruby
  • My Favorite Things – 8.5×11 inch 110 lb. Cardstock – Butterscotch
  • Stampin’ Up –8.5×11 inch Cardstock – Copper Clay
  • Silver Foil Cardstock
  • Browns, Tan and White Cardstock

Ink

  • Creative Craft Products – Dual Tip Alcohol Markers -mWG1 – Warm Grey
  • Pigma – Mircon 01 Fine Tip Pen – Black
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink- Antique Linen & Gathered Twigs
  • Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Medium – White
  • Scrapbook.com – Glitter Brush Marker – Orange Juice, Red Shimmer and Sunshine Yellow
  • Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Tip – Black & Red

Adhesives

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Bone Folder
  • Stamping Blocks used as paperweights
  • Scissors
  • Pencil
  • We R Memories – QuickStick
  • Ruler
  • Pencil
  • Tombow – Mono – Sand Eraser -512A
  • Craft Mat
  • Craft Clips
  • This Calls for Confetti – It’s No Secret Anti-Static Powder Tool

Miscellaneous

  • This Calls for Confetti – Gen Xer – Dazzle Dots

A Reindeer Dog Christmas Card

| ullycatdesigns

I have a neighbor who has the happiest small dog that when I saw this PoppyStamps die set, I thought of this dog in his winter vest.

I cut all the pieces from cardstock in my scrap bin. I think the patterned papers are from Photoplay while the other solids are a mixture of weights and textures.

Using a prescored A2 card base in my stash that is green outside and white inside, the die cuts were glued in place including all the sentiments. Strips were added to the front and back of the card and envelope flap for decoration.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

  • PoppyStamps – Craft Die – Peace Love and Belly Rubs -2594
  • PoppyStamps – Craft Die – Lavish Merry Christmas -2590
  • PoppyStamps – Craft Die – Holiday Corgi -2572

Paper

  • Photoplay – Tulla & Norbert’s Christmas Party 6×6 paper Pad
  • Craft Consortium – A4 Solids Double-Sided Paper Pad – Candy Christmas – Reds
  • Multi-Colored Cardstock Scraps

Ink

  • Pigma – Mircon 01 Fine Tip Pen – Black
  • Pigma – Mircon 01 Fine Tip Pen –Brown

Adhesives

  • Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
  • Fine-Tip Glue Bottle

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Bone Folder
  • Scissors
  • Stamping Blocks as paper weights

Winter Bag Bear

| ullycatdesigns

Needing something cute to put a gift card in with a winter theme, I quickly created this mini gift bag with a polar bear holding a heart.

Karen Burniston’s December 2023 release includes the Mini Gift Bag die set that makes a collapsing bag that will hold a gift card and fit in the palm of your hand.

If you use a patterned paper that doesn’t have a design with a distinct up and down to it, you can cut the entire bag from a 6×6 piece of paper.

I use red vellum to cut a heart with the heart die in the set.  The bear is from the Winter Animals set and the tiny heart he holds comes from the Safari Animals sets.

For the bag handles, I used 1/4-inch wide organza ribbon tied as a loop for each side with the knots hidden inside the bag.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Ink N’ Splatter – 6×6 Double-Sided Paper Pad – Winter Blues
  • The Paper Studio – 8.5×11-inch – Red Vellum
  • White, Red and Gray Cardstock

Ink

Adhesives

Tools

Miscellaneous

  • Blue Organza Ribbon – 1/4-inch wide

Bagged and Tagged

| ullycatdesigns

Beautiful holiday papers inspired this gift card holder/Christmas card.

It uses two of the new die sets in Karen Burniston’s December 2023 release – Mini Gift Bag and Topper Tags.

Cardbase: Cut two tags using the largest die in the topper tags set from decorative paper. From the same double-sided paper cut a strip 5×1/2-inch and fold lengthwise in half for the card hinge. Glue the hinge to the tag edges to form the inside of the card. Tie ribbon through the tag hole on each side of the card.

Card Front
Card Back

Gift Bag: Plan out what images you want to see on the mini gift bag when it is attached. Center the larger of the two bag dies using the square opening over your desired image making sure the top flat die edge with holes is at the top of your image. (I have a few upside-down paper bags in my stash.) Assemble bag as shown on the packaging. Glue the flat side of the bag to the inside of the card. Add the ribbon handle by threading ribbon through the holes and knotting it inside the bag.

Sentiments: The main sentiments of “Merry & Bright,” “Merry Christmas,” and “Warm Wishes” are all on the decorative cardstock. The white tag label inside for a personal message is cut from smallest tag in the tag set and uses the heart hole protector also in the set.

Envelope: The tag card easily fits into a #10 business envelope.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Graphic 45 – 8×8 Double-Sided Paper Pad – Warm Winter Wishes
  • White and Red Cardstock
  • #10 Business Envelope – Kraft

Adhesives

Tools

Miscellaneous

  • Red Organza Ribbon – 1/4-inch wide

12 Days of Christmas Gift Bags Tree

| ullycatdesigns

Need a fun way to give gift cards? Make a gift bag tree.

I used the new Mini Gift Bag die set by Karen Burniston to make 12 bags using patterned papers from a 12 Days of Christmas collection. You could use a jewelry tree or any other style of tree that would hold a number of bags. I made my own tree from foam core board and clear glitter. I plan to add gift cards, candy, crafting supplies and jewelry to my mini gift bags.

Bags: Cut out the bag pieces using the two bag dies for each bag. (If you use pattern paper with a design that has a top and bottom make sure the flat top of the die with the holes is at the top of your paper’s design top too.) Train the folds of the pieces. (I start with the tabs and fold that goes across near the bottom of the bag and then do the diagonal folds on the side that make the bag bottom fold up.) Fold the large back piece as directed on packaging and then add glue to the long side tabs. Glue front onto tabs. Fold in the tabs on bag bottom and glue shut. (You could use narrow double-sided tape instead of glue.) Let glue dry before adding ribbon or cording for handles. (I threaded the cording through the holes and tied knots to hold the cording inside the bag.) Using the Mini Alphabet and Numbers set, I glued gold numbers onto the front and backs of the bags.

Tree: Trace two of the trees from the downloadable pattern below onto foam core. (Pattern was cut from an 8.5×11-inch sheet of paper.) On one tree I made the slit go from the middle up and the other tree the slit go from the middle down. Using a craft knife cut out the trees. Fit the two trees together and adjust the fit by trimming off bits of the slits as needed. Use white paint (I used gesso) to cover any pen or pencil marks. Place the tree on a large sheet of paper to catch extra glitter. Cover a section of the tree with glue and sprinkle clear glitter over the tree to cover. Use the large sheet of paper to put extra glitter back into its container. Repeat gluing and glittering a new section until tree is covered with glitter.

tree-patternDownload

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Crafter’s Companion – 6×6 Double-Sided Paper Pad – 12 Days of Christmas
  • Matte Gold Cardstock
  • White Foam Core Board

Ink

  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Early Espresso
  • Memento – Fade-Resistant Dye ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink- Walnut Stain
  • Dark Green Fine Tipped Marker
  • Farber-Castell – Pitt Artist Pen- Bullet Nib – White-101 Marker – Snow
  • Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Tip – Black
  • Pigma – Mircon 01 Fine Tip Pen – Black
  • Recollections Opaque Marker – Snow
  • Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Medium – White
  • Nuvo – Aqua Shimmer – Glitter Gloss

Adhesives

Tools

Miscellaneous

  • Cording – Thin Gold and Thick Gold/Green/Red
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz Distress – Rock Candy Clear Glitter

Under the Christmas Tree

| ullycatdesigns

Welcome to our Karen Burniston Products – KB Riley LLC December 2023 Release Blog Hop. (See details at the end of this post for blog list.) The Design Team have come together with Karen today for a fun blog hop to celebrate the release of 7 new dies. Sneak peeks of the new release started last week, and the dies are available to order NOW!

For this fun and interactive Christmas card with two mini ornaments that can go on the recipient’s own Christmas tree, I combined two of the new die sets in Karen Burniston’s December 2023 release – Topper Tags and Raising Platform Pop-Up. I also used previously released sets – Small Script -Christmas, Pattern Plate – Holly and Holiday Charms – to decorate the card.

(PLEASE NOTE: While the video shows both the raising platform installed going up and a second card with it going down, this tutorial will focus only on the assembly of the platform raising UP. You can create a down version by turning the mechanism so the points of the mechanism arms point down.)

Cardbase: Cut two of the largest tags from the Topper Tags set from decorative paper that you want for your card outside. Repeat with another paper for the card inside. (Note: I had to piece one of my card fronts because I was shy about an inch with the red paper.) Cut a strip of decorative outside paper 1/2-inch by 2-inches, fold lengthwise in half and glue inside the front card tags to form a hinge. Glue the inside pieces over the hinge and match-up the tag edges.

Raising Platform: The Raising Platform Pop-Up has two main pieces – the mechanism and the label. Cut one of the L-shaped mechanism pieces from decorative paper. (I cut two diamond shaped pieces to cover the inside of back arm.) Train all the folds and follow the package directions only putting glue on the triangle I marked with an “x.”

Cut from white cardstock the largest of the labels in the set. Fold in half and burnish with a bone folder for a crisp fold. Glue the folded label into the mechanism. (This can be a fiddly bit making sure the mechanism’s triangular tab edges are matching the label’s folded edge.) Test the opening of the mechanism to see if all is aligned and opening as desired before gluing into the card. Be sure to point the tips of the mechanism arms up when installing in the card, as they point to the direction that the platform will move. (Please note this method of installing the mechanism will not allow the mechanism to open totally flat. Karen’s assembly video has an alternate installation method that will allow for a flat opening of the card.)

Tree Branches: Cut two 1-inch by 2 1/4-inch rectangles from a green paper. Fold the rectangles in half lengthwise and glue together. Glue the strips to either side of the white label’s back. Cut six branches from the Holiday Charms Set from a green paper (I used a green and white patterned paper that gives the effect of snow on the branches.) Glue two branches to each strip making sure they don’t extend outside of the card when closed. Snip the remaining two branches into smaller pieces to decorate the top of the label.

Ornaments:  The ornaments come from the Holiday Charms set. Cut two of both the circle and ornament topper piece for each ornament from foil cardstock Glue the circles back-to-back and then attach the ornament toppers onto the circle with them connecting back-to-back at their upper loop. You can add the snow flake decoration as I did on the one card or leave the shiny ornaments as they are.

Decorations: When using patterned paper collections that have journaling cards and other cut-out decorative elements, I use them to decorate. From the Topper Tags set I used the flower hole protectors both inside and out. The foiled holly leaves and berries comes from the Holly Pattern Plate trimmed regrouped.

Sentiments: Using the Small Script – Christmas word set, cut just the words “Christmas greetings” from red foil cardstock and adhere to the white label. (While you could adhere the words to the label before folding it. I find the mechanism works better when applying the words over the fold.)

Envelope: These large tag cards with their tied ribbons will fit nicely into #10 business envelopes.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Graphic 45 – 8×8 Double-Sided Paper Collection – ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas
  • The Paper Studio – 4.5in x 6.5in Single-Sided Textured Paper Pad – Old World Winter
  • Silver, Gold, Red and Green Foil Cardstock
  • White Cardstock
  • #10 Business Envelopes – White

Adhesives

Tools

Miscellaneous

  • Red Organza Ribbon – 1/4-Inch Wide
  • Red and Green Bakers Twine

GIVEAWAY:

To celebrate the release Karen Burniston and each of the Karen Burniston – KB Riley LLC Design Team members will be giving away a $25 Gift Certificate to some lucky person who comments on our blog posts, so make sure you join the hop and comment on everyone’s blog post. Winners will be randomly chosen from ALL of the blog hop comments received on our blog posts by Monday,18th December 2023. Lots of chances to win some goodies, so just leave a comment on this post or any other blog hop posts to enter! Don’t forget to leave some way for us to contact you, in case you are a lucky winner!

Karen Burniston – https://karenburniston.typepad.com/i_am_not_lefthanded/2023/12/karen-burniston-december-2023-blog-hop.html

Lois Bak – https://clownmomcreations.blogspot.com/2023/12/karen-burniston-new-release.html

Sue Small-Kreider – YOU ARE HERE

Frances Byrne – https://stampowl.blogspot.com/2023/12/karen-burniston-kb-riley-llc-december.html

Jennifer Webster – https://www.jlwebstercreations.com/2023/12/karen-burniston-kb-riley-llc-december.html

Fran Sabad – https://fransabad.com/cards/december-release-blog-hop-and-give-away/

Suzanne Smit – https://knutselsuus.blogspot.com/2023/12/kb-riley-llc-december-2023-release-blog.html

Nicky Foden – https://mymessycraftroomme.wordpress.com/?p=6397&preview=true

Sandy Diller – https://sandydiller.blogspot.com/2023/12/new-release-blog-hop.html

Naughty or Nice?

| ullycatdesigns

It’s the Karen Burniston design team challenge for December 2023 with the theme of “Naughty or Nice” using Christmas stockings and the idea that naughty persons get coal in their stockings while people who have been good/nice will get presents and sweet treats in their stockings.

While I used Karen’s Fireplace Pop-Up and Fireplace Extras 1 dies I did not make it a pop-up, but I did have Santa’s boots swing in the fireplace.  Inside, two greenery wreaths pop-up using the Twist Flower Pop-up and Crosshatch Circles, Christmas Borders 2, Holiday Charms, Big Birthday Charms, Adirondack Chair Pop-Up and Small Script – Christmas were used for decorations and sentiments.

Before starting, I recommend watching the assembly videos of the pop-ups which are usually near the bottom of the linked pages for the various dies used.

Cardbase: I folded a 7 3/4-inch by 8 3/4-inch rectangle of white cardstock long-wise in half for the cardbase. Because my decorative papers were 4 1/2-inch by 6 1/2-inch, I centered the papers on each of the four panels.

Fireplace: The fireplace main piece was cut using white ink rubbed on the die before cutting. The mantel piece was die cut and folded in half and glued together to add dimension. Christmas decorations – candles, stockings, greenery, bows, fireplace guard and tools are all in the Fireplace Extras 1 set. I cut down the pail from the Adirondack Chair Pop-Up set to be a coal shuttle next to the fireplace. For the picture of Father Christmas, I fussy cut it from the decorative paper collection I used.

Santa’s Boots: The boots are cut from black and white cardstock using the dies in the Fireplace Pop-Up set. Use the tab atop the boots to attach red pants that were cut free-handed with a holed punched and widened to accommodate a small foam dot. The boots were coated with glitter gloss before attaching to the card. Follow the pictures above for order of assembly of fireplace and Santa’s pants and boots. The fireplace was attached with two layers of foam tape to be slightly taller than the foam dot so that the boots would swing freely.

Wreaths: Using the second largest crosshatch circle, I cut two from heavy white paper. The greenery was made by cutting off the fir needles from the branch piece in the Holiday Charms set. Stockings and their coal, teddy bear and candy cane come from the same charms set. The wrapped gift is from the Big Birthday Charms set.

Inside Pop-Up Mechanism: I added extension arms onto the Twist Flower Pop-up mechanism to form a “W” shape. (Watch this Halloween card video to see how to make the mechanism.) The circle wreaths were folded in half and glued to the two “V” arms, playing with the positioning of the circles so there are no catchpoints.

Borders: The inside border of candy canes comes from the Christmas Borders 2 die set while the coal comes from the Holiday Charms. For the back borders, the branch die from the Holiday Charms set was used. Leftover strips of decorative papers were added to the card front as borders.

Sentiments: Clear tape over red cardstock is the secret to the glossy script letters with plain white cardstock shadows. The sentiments all come from the Small Script – Christmas die set. On the front is “ho ho ho” with “Christmas greetings” inside the card.

Envelope: The stocking border from the Christmas Borders 2 set was cut from the same striped paper that was used on the fireplace stockings and glued to the back envelope flap to hint at what’s to come.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • The Paper Studio – 4.5in x 6.5in Single-Sided Textured Paper Pad – Old World Winter
  • Bazzill – 8.5×11 Embossed Polka Dots – Phoenix
  • My Colors – 12×12 Textured Metallic Cardstock – Black Bear
  • White and Black Cardstock
  • #10 Business Envelope

Ink

  • Craft Smart – White Ink Mini Cube
  • Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Tip – Red, Orange and Yellow
  • Pigma – Mircon 01 Fine Tip Pen – Black
  • Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Medium – White
  • Nuvo – Aqua Shimmer – Glitter Gloss

Adhesives

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • We R Memories – QuickStick
  • We R Memories – Scoring Board and Trimmer
  • Craft Mat
  • Scissors
  • Hole Punch – 1/4-inch
  • Clamping Reverse Tweezers

Sneak Peek – Bag and Box It Up!

| ullycatdesigns

It’s the start of SNEAK PEEK Week for Karen Burniston’s December 2023 Release. Today we’ll focus on the Mini Gift Bag and the Candy Heart Box die sets.

These bags and boxes go together quickly and have two main surfaces that allow for creative decorations. It doesn’t matter whether you use solid colored cardstock or decorative patterned papers, the bags are great fun for tucking in gift cards and other small items like jewelry, small toys, car keys, candy, or crafting supplies.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Tree
Valentine’s Day Candy Hearts Box and Mini Gift Bag – both fit a gift card
Tag Card with Mini Gift Bag to hold a gift card

Look for tutorials on these projects in the coming weeks.

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