Hello Summer Two!

| ullycatdesigns

Gumballs and relaxing on the beach are somehow tied together in my memories of summer family vacations. This card incorporates some new crafting supplies that came into my crafting room.

The gumball machine is one I’ve been eyeing from Stampin’ Up for a while. The tropical background paper is from Scrapbook.com. “Hello Summer” die-cut is from Tutti Designs and has its various elements cut from colored scraps and glued to a whole brown die-cut.

To make the inside message more legible I used some colored adhesive backed vellum which Messed up on the stamping and covered with the stamped sentiment on blue cardstock.

The card fits into an A7 size envelope which has been stamped on the back with a gumball machine.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

  • Stampin’ Up – Dies – Gumball Machine – 157647

Stamps

  • Stampin’ Up – Photopolymer Stamp Set – Gumball Greetings -157646

Inks

  • StazOn Solvent Ink – Jet Black

Papers

  • Scrapbook Customs – 12×12 double-sided – Retro Tropical Islands -DS#30505b
  • Silver foiled cardstock from toothpaste box
  • Multicolors of paper scraps
  • Xcut – Xtras Adhesive Vellum Sheets- yellow
  • A7 brown craft paper card base and envelope

Shaker Elements

  • Stampin’ Up – Gumball Machine Shaker Domes – 158131
  • Stampin’ Up – Frosted Beads Assortment – 158132

Miscellaneous

Squeeze The Day!

| ullycatdesigns

Sometimes life keeps throwing lemons at people. I am always amazed at how individuals keep smiling through it all and even find time to do kind things for others as well. This is a card for those smiling individuals that know how to make lemonade out of what life throws at them.

Using the Vintage Lemon Twist papers by Simple Stories and the You Shine stamp set both in the Simon Says Stamp! July 2022 Card Kit of the Month, I crafted this card with dies from Karen Burniston, Divinity Designs, Crafter’s Companion, Made to Surprise and Oriental Trading.

The front of the card is made from the paper collection with Nuvo Drops, buttons and a tiny ribbon bow from my stash. A symmetry is a theme for this card. The back of the card is a collage of leftover pieces from making the rest of the card. (I decorated both the inside and outside of the card base because the card base was thin cardstock. I adhered the papers with double side tape and an occasional drop of glue.

I had the idea of a pitcher of lemonade pouring into a glass with a lemon slice as the inside interactive mechanism of the card. After looking at a number of Karen Burniston pop-up/interactive dies, I settled on the Mailbox Pop-Up after watching a video by Karen using the mechanism for a double spinner card which I adapted into a tilting pitcher. I cut from scrap cardstock, a template of the mailbox to know where to cut the square opening in my decorative scalloped circle (Made to Surprise). After trimming the lower lever mechanism off, I folded the piece as directed in the video and trimmed the small section off one edge that would not be covered by the scalloped circle.

Using clear vellum to resemble glass, I die cut two tumblers (Divinity Designs) and fitted a scrap of vellum behind the die-cut pale blue pitcher (Crafter’s Companion). Using a bright yellow marker, I colored the back side of the vellum as the lemonade. I always color the edges of exposed vellum with a black marker to make them more defined. From the backing paper from some adhesive sheets that I had saved because the paper had a shiny yellow surface, I cut some lemon slices (Divinity Designs) for the tumblers and pitcher.

The lemonade sentiment is from the You Shine stamp set and is heat embossed with black ink and clear embossing powder. Once heat embossed, I die cut the sentiment out with a wave oval die from oriental Trading. I cut a second oval of plain white cardstock as the sentiment for a personal message to be added.

Black backgrounds inside the card make the white scalloped circle and ovals pop. Small scraps of the yellow printed paper were used to balance out the inside decorations.

The card fits into an A2 size envelope which has been stamped on the front with a lemon slice and back flap with a whole lemon. the back flap image is colored with markers. All the stamps are from the Simon Says Stamp You Shine stamp set.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks

Papers

  • Pattern papers by Simple Stories – Vintage Lemon Twist
  • Clear vellum scraps
  • White cardstock scraps
  • Shiny yellow paper scraps
  • A2 white card base and envelope

Miscellaneous

Thank You For Being So Sweet

| ullycatdesigns

Queen & Co. make some delightful shaker card kits and this Candy Land one is no exception. The thing that I love about the company’s kits are the pre-cut foam shaker frames that simplify the effort needed to make a shaker card. The extra foam left over from the frames is ideal for popping some of the candies cut from the paper pad as additional decorations.

The dies have uses beyond shaker cards with some basic shapes of circles and ovals.

I filled the shaker with elements I collected over the years, and are not included in the kit.

To hint at the envelope’s contents, I stamped in a variety of colors the candy stamps from the set with the sentiment “goody, goody gumdrops!” on the back flap and more colorful candy on the front left edge of the envelope.

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

Materials Used:

Dies & Dies

  • Queen & Co. – Candy Land Kit

Inks

  • Memento – fade-resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Hero Arts – Hero Hues Reactive – Creamsicle, Blue Hawaii, Pool Party and Key Lime Fizz
  • Hero Arts – Dye Inks – Rose Hues -Cotton Candy, Pale Tomato and Bubble Gum

Papers

  • Queen & Co. –double-sided papers -6”x 6” Mat Stack – Candy Land
  • A2 floral card base and white envelope from American Crafts Boxed Cards – The Pier

Shaker Elements

  • Kat Scrappiness – Rainbow Dot Sprinkles
  • Buttons Galore & More – Sprinkletz – Pink It UP
  • Stamp Anniething Adornments – Jelly Dots – Blue and Red

Miscellaneous

A Golfing Minion Father’s Day Card

| ullycatdesigns

Making cards for loved ones requires a good idea and secrecy to make the card. For a dad who shares his love of golf with his children, is known to wear blue plaid shirts and loves green, this card’s concept came easily.

For the card base I cut two panels (6 1/4 inches x 3 1/4 inches and 6 1/2 inches by 3 1/4 inches) the longer piece I scored a 1/4 inch tab and glued the tab to the other panel. The tabbed piece is the top of the card.

I’ve used the platform from the House & Fence Pop-up by Karen Burniston a few times before and knew it would work to have Bob the Minion standup as well as provide a place to glue the green with the flag image.

The card needed some height, so I cut the middle section from another Karen Burniston die, the Little Labels Pop-up, and modified the width of the top tab. The blue labels at the top and bottom panels inside are also from the Little Labels set and are spaces to personalize the card.

All the images are stamped in a permanent ink and colored with makers and then fussy cut.

For the front die-cut “Happy Father’s Day” sentiment and its background shadow piece I used another die set by Karen Burniston. The small gold star is cut from a small scrap of gold foiled cardstock and glued it on top of the sentiment. The stamped golf images are from Crackerbox Stamps.

The card fits into a mini slimline envelope which has been stamped on the front with a golf ball on a tee. The back of the envelope has a humorous golfing sentiment along with the flag on the green. The stamps are all from Crackerbox Stamps.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks

  • Memento – fade-resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Crayola Signature Blending Markers
  • Brown fine-tipped marker
  • Silver gel pen

Papers

  • Pattern papers by Recollections
  • Black and white cardstock scraps

Miscellaneous

A Cabin Father’s Day Card

| ullycatdesigns

Designed for a gentleman who use to take his sons up to a mountain cabin in the 1960s, this card should help evoke memories of good father and son times.

The mechanism for this triple panel accordion card is by Karen Burniston. The 12-inch by 12- inch double-sided paper pad in the In The Forest Collection by Clare Therese for Craft Consortium has a page with three narrow panorama scenes that work for the main panels. The smaller framed animals are from the cover of the 6-inch by 6-inch pad of papers from the same collection while the wood grain paper is from the larger pad. The large panorama scenes were cut with scissors from the die-cut frames and glued to the woodgrain frames’ center panels that pivot.

To make the card frame sturdy the woodgrain paper was glued to the back of the scenic paper. I followed the assembly video for the accordion fold card. (I found it useful to layout the card and its decorative pieces before gluing as sometimes a tab that connects the various panels needs to be hidden by a decorative piece so the order of gluing all the tabs together needs to be thought through before assembly.)

For the black “Happy Father’s Day” I used another Karen Burniston die and glued it in place letting the edges of some letters overhang the panel but making sure they would not impede the pivot mechanism. The small white rectangle can be written on with a personal message and then glued to the card. It is cut with a rectangle die from another coordinating Karen Burniston die set.

The card fits into a mini slimline envelope which has been stamped on the front with pine trees in both green and brown ink. The back of the envelope has a trail signpost stamped in brown ink. The stamps are coordinating ones from the In The Forest Collection by Clare Therese for Craft Consortium.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

  • Craft Consortium – Clear Stamps – In The Forest by Clare Therese

Inks & Pigments

  • Stampin’Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Soft Suede and Tranquil Tide

Papers

  • Craft Consortium – Premium Quality Papers – 12” x 12” – In The Forest by Clare Therese
  • Craft Consortium – Premium Quality Papers – 6” x 6” – In The Forest by Clare Therese
  • Mini Slimline Envelope – white
  • Black and white cardstock scraps

Miscellaneous

Just Peachy

| ullycatdesigns

It is almost peach season where I live and there will be pop-up fruit stands on the side of the road with Georgia peaches for sale by the bushel.  To honor this up-coming season, I’ve made a peachy card using stamps and stencils by The Greetery from 2020.

If you have not used layered stencils before I highly recommend watching the demo video for the stencils and stamp set. There is a paper guide included in the set, but I would have missed learning about the etched markings on the stencils that helps to line-up the various layers.

I used three colors of ink to get the rosy glow on the peaches. Using a large blending brush, I inked blend first a layer of the Citrine yellow followed by a light brushing of Sunbeam orange and then for highlights, I brushed lightly Grapefruit Grove pink. I stamped the shading on with the Grapefruit Grove ink.

For the leaves, I used a base ink blending with a finger dauber of Pear Pizzazz light green and stamped the Emerald Green leaf highlights. The peach stems are stamped with a dark brown ink cube that was in my stash. I used the same brown ink to stamp the sentiments using the Just Peachy Sentiment stamps.

The stencils are designed for a 4 ¼ inch x 5 ½ inch card. I stenciled onto a scrape piece of white cardstock and trimmed down to 4 inches by 5 ½ inches, and then backed it with a 4 ½ inch by 6-inch green mat. These dimensions work well with the 5-inch x 6 ½ inch card base I used.

For the inside and back of the card, I stamped two tiny peaches which I fussy cut and glued in place. The sentiment words were fussy cut with the phrase “Hope you’re felling” edged with a green marker. Foam squares were used to adhere the words and add dimension to the card. A piece of gingham ribbon was glued to the back of the green mat before the entire card front was glued to the cardbase.

To hint at the envelope’s contents, I stamped in a small peach and a peach slice on the back flap and a tiny peach on the front of the envelope.

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

Materials Used:

Stamps

Inks

  • Crayola Signature Blending Markers

Papers

  • White and green card tock
  • A7 white card base and white envelope

Miscellaneous

A Train Lover’s Father’s Day

| ullycatdesigns

This is a card for the vintage train lover in your family. It has a steampunk meets art deco vibe.

Using a new die set by Anna Griffin, the Antique Train Slimeline Easel Dies, it came together quickly using just two types of cardstock, one sentiment die, a fine-tipped permanent marker and some gold glitter drops.

The die set cuts the easel base and the shadow outline of the train as two separate dies. I used a double-sided 180gsm weight cardstock from metal textures collection by Craft Consortium for these two pieces. The train is cut from Hunkydory’s oxidized metals collection of 220gsm mirror cardstock. Using the fine-tipped permanent marker to color the roofs and stacks of the mirror card train, I found I could also color a scrap of the mirror card and then cut the wheels and cow-catcher grate for added dimension.

After gluing the train to the gray shadow piece, I filled-in much of the void spaces on the train with the marker. With the train flat, I used some gold glitter glue or drops to create the wheel center caps.

The sentiment was cut three time – one in mirror cardstock and twice from thick black cardstock. The three layers were glued together and the words “Happy” and “Day” were colored with the black permanent marker.

To assemble the card, the easel base was folded on its score lines and glue placed on the long thin tab. The shadow backed train was then positioned over the card base centering the train within the card base’s outline. Pressure was applied to the tab to adhere the train back to the easel. The sentiment was glued on to the inside of the card once the position was established to have it hold the train in its open easel position.

The card fits into a #10 business envelope which has been stamped with VersaMark watermark ink using a bowler hat and sentiment “Hat’s off to you” stamps from Colorado Craft Company.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks & Pigments

  • VersaMark – Watermark Stamp Pad
  • Sharpie Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Point- Black

Papers

  • Craft Consortium – The Essential Craft Papers – 12” x 12” – Metal Textures
  • Hunkydory – Mirri Card Specials – Oxidised Metals Collection – A4
  • #10 Business Envelope – Brown

Miscellaneous

Sapphire 65th Anniversary

| ullycatdesigns

Sixty-five years together is a wonderful celebration. Traditionally, this wedding anniversary is blue sapphire. This card was for a long-distance celebration, so it has a pocket inside to tuck a gift.

When I start a card such as this one with a specific theme of sapphire blue, shiny and wedding-like, I pull all the materials I think might work such as blue mirror cardstock, white gold shimmer cardstock, 6 and 5 shaker elements with cutting dies, blue gems and gel dots, as well as heart dies, embossing folders and anniversary sentiments. I had a purchased card base made from pale gold pearlescence cardstock and came folded like an envelope with an inside pocket.

Using several embossing folders, I created some floral and heart textured pieces that became backgrounds and decorative elements for the card using white gold shimmer cardstock. I found I had coordinating heart dies by Sue Wilson that cut the lattice heart from shimmer cardstock and the vellum heart that the inside sentiment was stamped onto.

The “65” and “Happy Anniversary” needed to be cut from the blue mirror cardstock. Because of the intricacy of the sentiment die, I found I had to pass it through my die-cutting machine several times to ensure all was cut crisply.

To assemble, a panel of floral embossed shimmer cardstock was cut 1/4 inch smaller than the folded card base’s dimensions and adhered to the front of the card using double-sided tape. The blue sentiment die-cut was spot glued to the embossed panel. The lattice heart and numbers where glued together before being glued to the card flap.  The embossed heart was glued to the inside pocket.

For the inside sentiment, I stamped a white adhesive backed piece of vellum with the anniversary message using StazOn black ink. I waited overnight for the ink to dry before I die-cut the heart from the stamped vellum. Once I knew the positioning of the vellum heart inside the card, I peeled the top edge of the backing paper from the heart and adhered the top edge before peeling all of the backing off and pressing onto the card base.

Blue jelly dots and Nuvo drops were used to embellish the card. (I tried the new aroma scented Nuvo drops that has a mild floral scent. They caution that the scent will fade, so it won’t overpower the card receiver.)

The envelope back was stamped in blue with the “Wishing you Happiness on your special day” sentiment stamp from PoppyStamps.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Embossing Folders

Stamps

Inks & Pigments

  • StazOn Solvent Ink – Jet Black
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Blueberry Bushel

Papers

  • Recollections – Shimmer Cardstock 65 lb. 8.5in x 11 in– White Gold
  • Joy Craft Mirror Cardstock
  • Xcut – Xtras Adhesive Vellum Sheets – White
  • Mrs. Sparkle & Co. – A7 Shimmer All-in-One – Card and Envelope

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