New Year

Celebrate a Poppin’ 2023!

| ullycatdesigns

It is the Karen Burniston Design Challenge for January 2023 featuring pop-ups using a rubber band!

For this New Year’s card, I featured Karen Burniston’s Surprise Cube Pop-Up in a slimline card.

For the pop-up cubes I watched the assembly video before starting. Because I used specialty printed cardstock and mirror cardstock all of which have slick finishes, I had to glue, clamp, wait for glue to dry before moving onto the next step. Double-sided tape ended up working better on these cardstocks. I decorated the sides while the main pieces were still flat.

I cut two sets of the numbers for “2023” from a scrap of matte gold paper. These were glued on the top and sides of the cubes once I had glued the cubes to the card base.

The card base is custom made from two pieces of the patterned specialty cardstock. The front piece is 4 x 8 3/4 inches while the back piece is 6 x 8 3/4 inches. The back piece is scored at 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch, 5 1/4 inches and 5 1/2 inches.

The front piece is glued under the back’s tab. When closed, the back piece’s front tab wraps over the front’s bottom edge. Two bands hold the card shut. Instructions to slide the bands off are on the back of the bands.

“Celebrate” is the front sentiment that hints at what’s to come when the card is opened. I used the largest of all the “Happy”s in Karen Burniston’s dies. It comes from the Happy Birthday die set. The champagne bottle comes from the Wine Charms set while the clicking champagne glasses are from the Wedding Charms set. The bubbly effects of the popping cork and from the glasses were made with a gold gel pen. Some holographic strands of tinsel finish off the decorations inside.

There is space behind the cubes to write a personal message and then place the loose tinsel strands over it.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Hunkydory  – A4 size – Adorable Scorable Pattern Pack – Heavy Cardstock- Festive Foils
  • Tonic Studios – 8.5’x11” Craft Perfect Mirror Cardstock – Seafoam Green
  • Joy Craft – Mirror Cardstock – Dark Green
  • Yellow Cardstock
  • Matte Gold Paper Scrap

Miscellaneous

Holiday Card for A Bookworm

| ullycatdesigns

This is a holiday card for a booklover. It features the Bookworm and Bam Box dies from Karen Burniston’s December 2022 release. It also uses previously released die sets of the Fireplace Pop-up die set , Fireplace Extras 2 and Family Room die set.

Card Base:  The card base is an A6 size (4.5 x 6.25 inches) with a top fold. Decorative papers as well as the fireplace pop-up mechanism are glued to the base.

Bookworm and books:  The bookworm set comes with all the dies to create a bespeckled worm that fits on the sofa from the Karen Burniston Family Room die set. (See assembly video.) The book dies allow for creating books from most angles including open books. (I added book spines to the top of the fireplace and a stack of books to the base of the sofa hidden by the blanket.)

Bam Box:  The bam box is a rubber band powered spring box that allows the sofa to pop-up. Watch the assembly video before making. Heavy weight cardstock is recommended and allowing glue to dry at each step will make for the best working bam box.

Sofa:  A bam box is covered with the sofa from the Karen Burniston Family Room die set. The back of the sofa is just the seat portion left flat. I cut a rectangle to cover the front base of the sofa and hid the bam box. The pillows are attached as per assembly video directions. The bookworm is attached to the pillows with foam dots as is the stack of books to the base. The blanket is tucked around the worm’s body and attached under the foam square. (When laying out the position of the sofa in the card, I found that the lamp was too tall to be in the card when it was closed, so it was eliminated in the final card.)

Fireplace and accessories:  For the fireplace cut two of the fireplace brick front – one in white and one in black as well as two of the lined mantle/hearth pieces – one white and one gray. The black brick is colored with a white crayon and the fire and logs are also cut twice.

To assemble the fireplace, watch the assembly video first. You will need to attach the gray hearth and black brick pieces to the card base before adding the mechanism. There are two fireplace extra sets. I used the one with the clock, plant and basket of logs. The tiny pop-up mechanisms for the objects on top of the mantel are from the fireplace die set. The basket of logs is on a foam dot. I also add strips of white cardstock to the wall on either side of the fireplace as floor moldings.

Rugs and Wall Decoration:  Using patterned papers that suggest wallpaper or carpeting make this type of card pop. The picture molding strips above the fireplace are scraps trimmed off the patterned paper and the reverse side used. The large green oval rug is cut the second largest oval crosshatch die. The small white oval with a red heart is the cut out from the picture frame. It can be used to write a personal message.

Card Front
Card Back

Sentiments:  On the front of the card Karen Burniston’s Merry Christmas and its shadow are cut from contracting colors of patterned papers used on the inside of the card. The Happy New Year framed inside the card over the fireplace is a computer-generated sentiment. The frame is from the slim frames die set.

I used leftovers from decorating the inside of the card to complete the outside panels of the card which are covered using the reverse sides of the decorative papers used on the inside.

Envelope: The back flap of the envelope has a bookworm attached at the head to the flap and a stripe of double-sided tape on the back of its body for when the envelope is sealed.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Echo Park Paper Co. – 12 x12 Double-sided coated cardstock – A Perfect Christmas by Lori Whitlock – Berry Merry Christmas – APC135003
  • Echo Park Paper Co. – 12 x12 Double-sided coated cardstock – The Story of Christmas by Lori Whitlock – Flowers – TSC94003
  • Colored scraps of cardstock
  • Computer and color printer
  • Park Lane Paperie – A6 Textured Card and Envelope – Ivory

Pens, Crayons & Inks

  • Green, Red and Black Fine-Tipped Markers
  • Gelly Roll 08 Pen – White
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink – Walnut Stain
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Crayon – White

Miscellaneous

Celebrate 2021! – Part 2

| ullycatdesigns

A new year is almost here and the celebration of it should be festive even if we can’t celebrate together.

This card is made with the “Let’s Celebrate!” die set from Die-cutting Essentials issue 72 and the “Fabulous Fizz” stamp set from Simply Cards & Papercrafts issue 212, along with a pre-cut and scored 5 inches x 6 ½ inches card base and envelope.

Mirror card is used as the background that peaks through the die cute sentiment on this card. The card front, after it was covered in a patterned paper, was trimmed to 4 ¾ inches x 6 ¼ inches so that the mirror card border would show. When the word “Celebrate” was cut out the waste from the loops was saved and glued on to the mirror card. The year 2021 was cut from mirror card and glued to the front of the card.

Inside the sentiment was stamped with Versamark Watermark ink and heat embossed with a matte gold embossing powder from Ranger. The confetti was heat embossed with gold tinsel embossing powder.

To add interest to the mirror card inside, a champagne glass was cut from vellum and the glue applied to mimic a liquid filled glass. Bubble made from Glossy Accents were added over the glass.

The closed card, after the glossy accents had dried for several hours, was rolled between cutting plates on a die cutting machine to emboss the “Celebrate” and “2021” into the mirror card.

The back flap of the envelop was also heat embossed with clear gold sparkle confetti to hint at the celebration to come.  The card could be filled with sequins when being placed in the envelope to add to the card recipient’s experience. (In my case, knowing the recipient will not appreciate the mess to clean up, I am omitting this step.)

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

You can see Celebrate 2021! – Part 1 by clicking here.

Materials Used:

Stamps/Dies

Inks/Embossing Powders

Papers

Miscellaneous

Celebrate 2021!

| ullycatdesigns

A new year is coming and the celebration of it should be festive.

This card is made with the “Let’s Celebrate!” die set from Die-cutting Essentials issue 72 and the “Fabulous Fizz” stamp set from Simply Cards & Papercrafts issue 212.

A piece of double-sided patterned cardstock measuring 8 ¾ inches x 8 inches was folded in half to make a slimline card measuring 4 inches by 8 ¾ inches. Next the “celebrate” die cut the word from the front of the card (with both the word and the waste pies from the letter loops were saved.) It was cut again from mirror cardstock. The single die to cut the splash design was used six times to create a sense of pizzaz to the feeling of celebration. Because of my limited amount of mirror card, the shiny side of a 3 ¼ inches by 8 ¾ inches piece of mirror card was adhered to the underside of the die cut front of the card base. The “celebrate” die cut from mirror card was glued into the opening left from the die cut on the card front. The leftovers from the patterned paper were paper pieced in the openings. The year 2021 was also die cut from mirror card and glued in place.

Because the inside of the card is a patterned paper, a decorative label was cut from white card stock and a larger frame for it from mirror card stock.  Using an anti-static pad to dust the white label before being stamped with Versamark watermark ink and then a matte gold embossing powder was applied and heat set. The white label and its mirror card frame were then glued in place on the card base.

Two different colors of embossing power were used on the decorative fireworks and confetti stamped on the white back side of the large mirror card glued to the backside of the card front. These decorations were stamped, and heat embossed in three phases – left fireworks – gold tinsel confetti – right fireworks.

The back flap of the envelop was also heat embossed with the gold tinsel confetti to hint at the celebration to come.  The card could be filled with sequins when being placed in the envelope to add to the card recipient’s experience. (In my case, knowing the recipient will not appreciate the mess to clean up, I am omitting this step.)

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

You can view Celebration 2021! – art 2 by clicking here.

Materials Used:

Stamps/Dies

Inks/Embossing Powders

Papers

  • Joy Craft Mirror Cardstock
  • First Edition – 12 in x 12in Gem Effect Premium Paper Pad – Storyteller – FEPAD137
  • #10 Business Envelope from my stash

Miscellaneous