Encouragement

A Small Album of Encouragement to Chase Away the Winter Blues

| ullycatdesigns

This mini album was made for Craft Roulette #195 whose parameters included Project type of Encouragement, calm colors, stuffed element and ticket(s).

I have made one other journal similar to this one in a virtual workshop by Kim Hein from Art Impressions using their Mini Journal Template and stamps. In thinking about the layout, I decided that I wanted a positive affirmation for the center back page and all the interleaving pages to it to be wintery and joyful. The theme is chasing the winter blues away.

Watch a painting tutorial before coloring any of the watercolor pieces.

Window Journal Cover:  Using the window frame and window arch dies from the Mini Journal template set, cut the arch opening into the left album cover and two of the window frames from white cardstock.

Cut a piece of clear acetate/plastic slightly larger than the window frame. Using narrow double-sided tape on the backside of one window frame, adhere the frame to the acetate piece. (Hint: If the double-sided tape is wider than the frame, peel off the backing paper and fold the tape over on itself to fit the frame.) Trim off the excess acetate around the frame. Add double sided tape to the back of the acetate and adhere over the cover opening. Attach the second frame to the back of the cover over the opening.

Room Scene Journal Cover:  Stamp onto patterned paper the chair from the Matchbook Den stamp and die set. Cut out using the matching die and trim off the tab with scissors. Stamp the fireplace onto watercolor paper using a alcohol based ink and color using water-soluble inks with a water brush. Die cut fireplace and trim off tabs. Die cut picture frame and color with ink. Write the word “JOY” in the frame’s picture area with a fine-tipped blue marker. Cut a scalloped edge rectangle from a wallpaper-like patterned paper using die from the Mini Journal Template set. Assemble room scene onto the right cover panel.

Pocket of Encouragement and Ticket Pages: The blue ticket was computer generated. The yellow tags with affirming statements were from my stash of batch foiling using Spellbinder Glimmer System products. A large needle was used to pierce and thread the embroidery floss through the tags. The scalloped background piece and white lacy pocket were die cut using dies from the Mini Journal Template set.

Joy and Snowman Twister Pages: Stamp the fronts and backs of the twister Joy and snowman using the Mini Christmas Twister stamp and die set. Watercolor them. (I used glitter gloss and glitter brush markers on the twisters.) Watch a twister assembly video before assembling. Die cut two of the rectangles from patterned paper for each page using the large straight edge rectangle die in the Mini Journal Template set. Position the decorative papers onto the white page base pieces making sure not to cover the tabs. Secure the papers to page with removable tape and tape in place the smaller of the twister oval dies. Die cut through all three layers. (I had to recut the bottom layer of decorative paper, but the impression of the die was there to show me the position.) Glue patterned paper to page. (I die cut two oval frames for the “JOY” page using the two twister oval dies. They made the opening too thick to get good action with the twister, so I had to trim some of the notch away. I would not use frames unless they were from very thin paper.)

Snowman and House Pages: Using the WC Snow Globe stamp and die set, stamp the house and snowman on to 2×2 1/2-inch rectangles of watercolor paper. (I watercolored the images after viewing a number of the Art Impression painting videos.) Use the frame die in the Mini Journal Template set to cut out the images. (You can use the rest of the image that is die cut as I did with the house, or die cut a frame from decorative paper as I did with the snowman.)

Little Birds Pages:  Die cut two scalloped circles using the die from the Mini Journal Template set. Stamp two birds from the Matchbook Garden set. Watercolor as shown in the opening video of this blog post. Using two of the oval cut outs from the patterned papers used for the Joy Twister page, and two scalloped rectangles of patterned paper, assemble the two bird pages. Stamp and die-cut the “hello Sunshine” banner from the Matchbook Garden set to place on the back center page.

Back Message and Ribbon Closure: I computer generated the back cover sentiment and used dies from the Mini Journal Template set to cut it out, frame and mat it. This panel is glued over the 24-inch piece of ribbon to hold it in place. Trim ribbon as needed once tied into a bow.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

  • Art Impressions – Steel Dies – Mini Journal Template – 5718
  • Art Impressions – Steel Dies – Mini Christmas Twister Set – 5815
  • Art Impressions – Steel Dies – Matchbook Den Set – 5322

Stamps

  • Art Impressions – Clear Stamps – Mini Christmas Twister Set – 5815
  • Art Impressions – Clear Stamps – Matchbook Den Set – 5322
  • Art Impressions – Clear Stamps – Matchbook Garden – 5444
  • Art Impressions – Clear Stamps – WC Snow Globe Set – 5791

Foiling Plates

  • Spellbinders – Glimmer Hot Foil Plate – Mini Everyday Sentiments

Papers

  • Art Impressions – 6×6 Double-Sided 80lb Cardstock – Mini Journal Series -Mini PP -5835
  • Studio Light – 6×6 inch/15.2×15.2 cm Single-Sided Papers – Let it Snow
  • Master’s Touch – Watercolor Cold-Press Surface, Acid-Free Paper- 140lb/300gsm
  • White Cardstock

Ink

  • StazOn – Solvent Ink – Jet Black
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink- Walnut Stain, Salvaged Patina, Salty ocean, Prize Ribbon, Mowed Lawn, Fossilized Amber, Forest Moss, Fired Brick and Black Soot
  • Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof White
  • Scrapbook.com – Glitter Brush Marker – Frosty Blue
  • Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Tip – Turquoise
  • Pigma – Mircon 01 Fine Tip Pen – Black
  • Nuvo – Aqua Shimmer – Glitter Gloss

Adhesives

  • Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
  • Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
  • Scor-Tape – Double-Sided Tape -1/8-inch wide

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Bone Folder
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Water Brushes
  • Craft Mat
  • Scissors
  • Spellbinders – Glimmer Hot Foil System
  • Large Needle

Miscellaneous

  • Gingham Ribbon – 5/8-inch wide – Blue
  • Embroidery Floss – Blue #824, Yellow #3822, Green #906

Autumn Thinking of You Card

| ullycatdesigns

Crisp, colorful leaves gently falling off tree branches sometimes bring bitter-sweet emotions. A.A. Milne’s characters of Winnie-the-Pooh and Eeyore the donkey are playful reminders that fun can be had even in the worst of times.

For this card I used stamps and papers from Impression Obsession featuring E. H. Shepard’s Winnie-the-Pooh and Eeyore along with leaves and sentiments designed by Dina Kowal. The images were stamped in black ink and then colored with watercolor pencils. (I elected not to water brush the coloring.) Next the colored images were fussy cut. Additional leaves were stamped on some of the matted papers used on the card front and fussy cut.

The design principle of three is floated with the leaves throughout the card. Notice that the heart shaped leaf is always pointing to where your eye should flow. Leftover paper scraps were used to decorate the card back.

For the envelope back, leaves and a quote from Elizabeth Lawrence about taking time to watch the leaves turn colors, are stamped in black ink and colored with permanent markers.

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

Materials Used:

Stamps

  • Impression Obsession – Clear Stamps designed by Dina Kowal – Pooh Window – CL1138

Papers

  • Impression Obsession – 6×6 Double-Sided Paper Pad – Classic Pooh – PP004
  • Park Lane Paperie – A6 Cardbase and Envelope – Ivory

Ink

  • StazOn – Solvent Ink – Jet Black
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Watercolor Pencil- Antique Linen, Barn Door, Fired Brick, Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint, Rusty Hinge, Spice Marmalade and Walnut Stain
  • Pigma – Mircon 01 Fine Tip Pen – Black
  • Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Tip – Orange and Brown
  • Stampin’ Up – Stampin’ Write Dual Tipped Marker – Chocolate Chip

Adhesives

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Cloth
  • Scissors

We’re Off To See The Wizard!

| ullycatdesigns

Sometimes it just feels like we’re off to see the Wizard of Oz to get all our problems solved. But what we learn as we traverse the road, it’s the people we meet along the way that mean more to us than the real issue.

This is a card to let the friends you meet along the journey know you appreciate them. It uses stamps and dies by Riley and Company to recreate the characters from the movie, The Wizard of Oz. Riley of course is a moose, so it’s moose in OZ costumes.

I stamped Riley four times and then stamped the costumes for the Tin Man, Lion, Scarecrow and Dorothy from the two Oz Dress-Up sets and Toto too. Watercolor pencils were used to color the individual pieces before die-cutting out the colored pieces. I found that cutting apart the bodies made it easier to assemble the costumed moose allowing for feet and arms to be positioned in more interesting ways. (The dies cut very close to the stamped images and are very easy to line-up.)

Using a download template that I had created for other cards using multiple sliders I first printed by yellow brick paper on medium weight white cardstock and then printed the template on the back of the yellow brick paper.

split-slider-templateDownload

I had to edit the template, x-ing out some sliders and moving two others by half an inch to accommodate the size of the moose.  Using a metal ruler and craft knife I cut the red lines around each slider and then scored the blue and green lines before folding the sliders.

Before assembling the card, I stamped the sentiments on to the card front and the interactive directions on to the pull tab of the main slider piece.

Double sided tape was added to the thin tabs on the five multi-sliders. To adhere the card front to the card back, I used narrow strips of foam tape along the sides and bottom edges. Place the main slider piece with the print side down to adhere the multi-slider panels to it. Making sure it can slide between the foam tape. Peel off foam tape backing and adhere the card back.

Turn to the front to train the multi-slider panels to slide open and close. Glue figures on to the panels.

Decorate the back of the card with scraps and you can write your personal message there.

As is my usual, I stamped the envelope flap back to hint as to what is inside. I used the ruby slippers and the “Where are my freakin’ ruby slippers when I need them?” which came-out upside-down and I think sets the card up nicely for the journey.

Hope you enjoyed the card and found inspiration from it.

Here are more split easel slider cards I’ve blogged about:

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks & Pigments

  • StazOn Solvent Ink – Jet Black
  • Ranger – Tim holtz – Distress Water Color Pencils – Sets 1, 2 & 3
  • American Crafts – Metallic Marker – Silver
  • Pigma Micron 01 – Black

Papers

  • Yellow Brick Road designed by Whimzwhirled
  • White Cardstock
  • #10 Business Envelope – Brown Craft

Miscellaneous

Mountain Train Ride

| ullycatdesigns

There is nothing so relaxing as a train ride through the mountains. Seeing the pine trees at the higher elevations and the babbling streams in the gullies. Hearing the chug-chug-chugging of the steam engine and experiencing the darkness of a mountain tunnel coming back into the sunlight.

In my challenge to myself to see how many different themed cards I can make with Karen Burniston’s new Fireplace die set; I decided on a mountain train tunnel with the mouth of the tunnel using the fireplace mechanism’s opening. All the dies used are by Karen Burniston.

I had made multiple train cars and engines for an earlier project. (Watch the assembly video for the trains.) The train tracks are from a train elements set and I cut 4 of them to have enough pieces to form the track I needed for the front and inside of the card. For the smoke from the smokestack, I turned the smallest cloud from the Outdoor Scene set on its side and glued inside the stack.

The front of the card uses curving hillside with large pine trees from the Outdoor Scene set and the treeless curving stitched edger from the Long Nature Edges set for the foothills. I shaded the hillside tope edges with a pale brown ink.

For the card’s sentiment, I double cut the large words “Enjoy” and “ride” once from brown and again from black so that I could offset them to create a shadow. The oval cuts out the word “THE” so it is backed with a scrap of black.

The inside of the card requires some practice laying out to get the right placement of the mountains, so they won’t stick out of the card when closed. (Watch the fireplace assembly video before laying out and assembling.) I used scrap pieces of brown lightweight cardstock to cut my crosshatch ovals. (Largest oval die in set was used.) I cut off the bottom of the ovals to have varying heights. The largest oval I turned over on the back, traced the mechanism opening onto and then die-cut the opening using the second to smallest to fit inside the penciled opening.

The smaller ovals are glued to the sides and behind the oval with the tunnel opening. I then adhered the fireplace mechanism as shown in assembly video and glued the mountains onto mechanism matching up the openings. Next, I pieced together the train tracks to come out of the tunnel and near the side of the mountains. Using the pop-up strip from the Fireplace die set and the two angled pop-ups from the Mini Pops set, played with placement of the pop-ups with the train pieces to set spacing.  Glue the pop-ups first and once their glue has set, then adhere the train pieces. (I bent the pop-ups at their original scored folds, but you might play with other folds and or strips to get a more realistic alignment of the train cars.)

The babbling stream is created from strips of patterned paper cut with the Long Nature Edges curving stitched edger. The diagonal placement adds drama to the card and space in the corner to write a personal message.

Leftover pieces from the train track as well as pieces from other card projects complete the back of the card.

As is my habit, I decorated the envelope back flap with additional train pieces to hint at what’s inside.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Colored, coated and glitter cardstock and patterned paper scraps
  • American Crafts – 5 x7 Kraft card & A7 envelope

Inks

  • Green fine-tipped marker
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz -Distress Ink – Antique Linen

Miscellaneous

Bee-utiful Flowery Painting

| ullycatdesigns

Bees, fresh paint and tulips seem like harbingers of Spring as we humans come out of winter hibernation.  I had some of the paint brush die sets from the Spellbinder’s Paint Your World Collection by Vicky Papaioannou as well as the Picket Fence Studio’s I Bee Fierce stamp set by Nicole Peterson on my crafting desk and thought they went well together. 

Having die-cut four sets of paint brushes from three of the die sets, I set about assembling the brushes noting that the handle pieces are not interchangeable, but all three sets have the same bristles die. I glued one layer of bristles to the back of each handle and another layer of bristles to the back of the silver band. Next, I studied the packaging for decorative ideas on the placement of the tulips within the bristles. I glued in place the leaves and flowers once I had figured out their placement in the two layers of bristles. I decided to ink blend some pink Distress Ink onto white cardstock scraps before die-cutting the paint drips.  I applied glue the silver band layer just on the back of the band and then placed it on top of the handle layer matching up the two lines on the band with the lines on the handle. Once the paint drips were dry, they were glued to the back of the assembled paint brushes.

Following the design rule of odd numbers of elements, I knew I had to stamp three elements to make the card front flow. Another design trick is to suggest movement by placing things on the diagonal.

I stamped the front, back and inside of the card before I adhered the paint brushes to the card. Stamping is easy when you use a stamping platform with stamping tool to help apply even pressure to the stamps. The back of the card is stamped using a Technique Tuesday stamp set.

The front sentiment is “I am little but I bee fierce,” while the inside says, “Be like the bee… fly despite the risks.” The back of the card states “This is a random act of cardiness.”

The envelope back was stamped with another sentiment from the Picket Fence set as well as the smaller bee. It says “that hum you hear is the sound of the mighty bee recreating our world with love, song and perseverance.”

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks & Pigments

  • Ranger – Jim Holtz’s Distress Oxide Ink – Abandon Coral
  • Memento Fade-Resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Nuvo Highly Pigmented Watercolour Pencil – Golden Canary

Papers

  • Heavyweight white cardstock
  • Colored cardstock scraps
  • Coated cardstock from junk mail
  • Silver mirrored cardstock from packaging
  • Brown #10 business envelope

Miscellaneous

Olga’s Garden

| ullycatdesigns

Olga Direktorenko is the creative designer behind the Paper Discovery brand sold by Craftstash out of the UK and carried by Paper Wishes in the USA. I love her dimensional dies sets that often feel like creating a doll’s house or miniature scenes.

On Craftworld, she talks of her garden with vegetables and Ukrainian sunflowers in one of her video demos. This card is my first time out using her Garden Delight dies which are copyrighted in 2021. I purchased them from Paper Wishes.

The side dies cut and score accordion folds that easily create tunnel-like cards. Her garden accessories allow for fun details, but like doll house accessories, not all are on the same scale. I placed the wheelbarrow in the middle layer because I felt it was of a larger scale than the picket fence.

I colored the garden frame using colored papers. The flowered vines reminded me of purple morning glories common in the USA. I cut the frame die, several times in several colors to fussy cut and glue the vines, flowers, birds, rope, bird houses and ladder on to the white base frame.

For the sunflowers have two flower head dies and are intended to be glued on top of each other with the petals alternating to create a full flower. Using a black gel pen, I colored the seed heads that are embossed with the die.

The white lattice background is glued to some blue patterned paper recycled from an envelope.

The sentiment “Hello Sunshine” is a die-cut from Sue Wilson of Creative Expressions. (While there are stamps that go with the Garden Delights collection there are no sentiments.)

This card will collapse to fit into a 5 inch by 7 inch envelope.

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

Dies

Inks

  • Black gel pen

Papers

  • White cardstock
  • Colored cardstock and paper scraps (recycled envelopes and junk mail)
  • Blue patterned scrap paper (inside of envelope)
  • Hunkydory mirri card from the oxidized metals collection

Additional Supplies:

  • We R Memory Keepers – Quickstik Tool
  • Low tack tape

Rainbow Wishes

| ullycatdesigns

Sometimes it is just fun to craft with others. I took the opportunity to attend a workshop by Donna Butler, a Stampin’ Up demonstrator recently. We made the following three cards using Stampin’ Up products in the Rainbow of Happiness collection.

Donna asked me to say she had cased her designs from Pinterest.

Bookbinder card front
Bookbinder card inside

This was my first bookbinding card.

Embossed mat card front
Embossed mat card inside

I like the use of designer paper scraps being used on the envelope flaps as a quick way to decorate.

Cloud card front
Cloud card inside

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

My Better Half

| ullycatdesigns

Sometimes you just need to let your partner know that they are the better half of yourself.

I needed to do just that and chose some of my partner’s favorite colors and the cute Lawn Fawn “Let’s Toast” stamp set with its add-on pull tab die set. The double-sided plaid papers are Becky Moore’s Say it with Stamps for Photoplay on a green A2 card base.

First, I stamped the images with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored the toaster with a silver metallic marker. Next, I covered the main body of the toaster with Glossy Accents.  The toast, butter pat and butter dish I colored with blending markers and watercolor pencils.

Because I had never used this Lawn Fawn pull tab mechanism before, I found a video to watch for the assembly. It was easy to assemble, but since I had fussy cut my stamped images, I had to trim down the tabs of the mechanism for the toast to be attached to and not show the edges of the tab.

For the pull tab top, I used a scrap of the green plaid cardstock to cover the portion of the tab that shows when the tab is pulled up matching the vertical plaid line. After this cover was glued down, I added the brown oval with the arrow cut-out and folded it to fit the cut-out notch of the cart rather than using the scored fold mark.

The sentiments were stamped with Versamark Watermark ink and heat embossed with a black detail embossing powder onto white scrap cardstock. The front sentiment was cut out as a banner and adhered to the card front with foam squares and the interior sentiment was cut close and glued in place with its matching images.

To hint at the envelope’s contents, I stamped two pieces of smiling toast onto the back flap with brown ink.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks & Embossing Powder

  • Memento – fade-resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black
  • VersaMark – Watermark Stamp Pad
  • Recollections – Detail Embossing Powder – Ebony
  • My Favorite Things – Premium Dye Ink – Milk Chocolate

Papers

  • Photoplay – Fall Plaids 6×6 paper Pad – Say it with Stamps by Becky Moore
  • White card stock scraps
  • A2 green card base and white envelope

Miscellaneous

HELLO Sunshine Flip

| ullycatdesigns

Everyone needs sunshine and the feeling that someone is thinking of them. This flippy flappy card uses dies by Lawn Fawn for the pop-up mechanism as well as the sunshine motifs.

When I began this card, I made a prototype card first to figure out how the mechanism worked.  I watched an assembly video and still got it wrong by putting assembling from the front instead of the back. (See photo below.) The pop-up ended up working, but the flap was too long. (I recommend watching the assembly video several times or assemble the mechanism going step by step with video.)

For my actual card I changed up some of the design to make the sunshine really pop. Adding some ink to the background die cut helps emphasize the sun rays . The sun frame is cut from yellow, and the back sun outline is cut from orange with its center circle taped into the hole in the inked background.

The “Hello Sunshine” sentiment is cut twice from a darker orange cardstock to add some dimension. A fine tipped glue bottle makes gluing the fine lines of the letters easy.

The pop-up sun face is adhered to a strip cut from some clear plastic packaging.

To give the card recipient a hint at what is inside the envelope, I stamped the back of the envelope with a background sun burst pattern stamp from Hero Arts using a brown ink onto an orange envelope.

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

Dies:

Stamps

Inks

  • Ranger – Distress Ink – Fossilized Amber
  • Memento – Fade-resistant Dye Ink – Rich Cocoa

Papers

  • Cardstock in various shades of yellow and orange
  • Heavy weight white cardstock
  • Orange A2 invitation envelope – Staples -Brights

Additional Supplies: