My spouse and I joke that neither of us can remember our wedding anniversary. We know it is in late October but we always have to look it up. This year I decided to just make a sweet Halloween card for my spouse for our anniversary.
I used the Spellbinders’ Dancin Mummy dies as well as the stamp set from the Boo Dance Party collection to make the card. The card base is a mini-slimline card made from double-sided cardstock from a 2013 Martha Stewart 12 x 12 paper pad called Gothic Manor. The legs swing on circle foam dot.
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Pop-up ball cards always remind me of the jack-in-the-box toy when you open them and something pops up to make you smile. This pop-up ghost card was designed for a three-year-old boy for Halloween.
The card front and easel base are my design. (You can download the full-size scan I made of the ghost card front for free.)
I traced the ghost onto a 12 x 12 inch sheet of cardstock twice. Next, I cut the cardstock between the ghosts and fold the card stock at the top of the ghost’s head and cut out two layers of the ghost leaving the top of the ghost’s head attached as a fold.
This will be the card base and easel prop. The second ghost I cut all the way around and used the largest oval die from the Karen Burniston Bitty Ball die set to cut out the eyes for the card front ghost.
I traced the easel piece as well as the whole ghost back onto black cardstock and cut both pieces out. The easel back piece needs to be glued so that when the white ghost card front is glued onto easel flap the eyes show through as black.
(Don’t glue the whole black ghost shape onto the back of the card until after the pop-up balls have been attached to the card base. This piece hides the brad legs.)
For the pop-up ghost inside I covered two mini pop-up balls (made using dies by Karen Burniston) with four layers of cheesecloth cut into a 6-inch circle and glued to the top pop-up ball. (Follow the assembly video for the pop-up balls.) Cut all pieces from white cardstock. Cut two black eyes using the same oval die used for card front ghost.
I made a band to hold the card closed from a leftover piece of white cardstock. The “BOO!” on the ghost as well as the band sentiment are by Karen Burniston from the two Halloween die sets listed below.
The card fits into a 6 x 9 inch envelope. I stamped the front and back of the envelope with ghost stamps by Julie Ebersole.
I often add a CRX slip that helps the card recipient know how to open the interactive card. (You can download the sheet with four slips on it. for free.)
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Pop-up ball cards always remind me of the jack-in-the-box toy when you open them and something pops up to make you smile. This pop-up pumpkin card was designed for a baby’s first Halloween.
The card front pumpkin and easel base are a die set by Anna Griffin and the pop-up pumpkin inside is made using dies by Karen Burniston.
I often add a CRX slip that helps the card recipient know how to open the interactive card. (You can download the sheet with four slips on it. for free.)
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These two cards are for a 12-year-old girl and her 14-year-old brother. The card sender requested that they be money holders as well as interactive Halloween cards.
Both cards are variations of previous Halloween cards I’ve done this year, but with money holders. They also show how adding a second Karen Burniston pop-up mechanism and reversing the direction of it can really make a card jump for joy or reveal hidden treasure.
The original card called Witchy Shoes and this card are made with dies and papers from Queen & Co. Halloween collections – Fright Fest (shoes, pumpkin & papers) and Witch Hat die.
The money holder is an orange jack-o-lantern Trick or Treat pail intended as a shaker, but I taped the pumpkin frame to the center cutout and used the matching foam frame behind the jack-o-lantern, cutting off the top bar, so rolled paper money could be placed in it.
The envelope uses image stamps by Tim Holtz and sentiment stamps From Queen & Co.
Card front and front of envelope
For the Open If You Dare card I based it off the card Do What Brings You Joy using two of the pop-up mechanisms from the Katherine Label Pop-Up die set by Karen Burniston (assembly video). I reversed the direction of one of the mechanisms to make them move away from each other.
The ghosts and spiderwebs are from the Queen & Co Halloween Foundation Dies and the Paper Studio checkerboard brown craft paper has been in my stash for a while.
The Trick or Treat bag is a rectangle that was accordion folded at the sides and the bottom edge folded up into a tab. The edge of the bag was cut with pinking shears and then the bag was stamped in black using a stamp by Tim Holtz.
Card back
All other stamps used on the card are from the Queen & Co Fright Fest collection.
Envelope back
The envelope uses image stamps by Tim Holtz and sentiment stamps From Queen & Co. and Peebles.
Sometimes there are crafting elements that just take you under their spell and make you play with them.
Queen & Co. Halloween shaker kits have me under their spell This card is made up of elements from two kits – Fright Fest (shoes and papers) and Witch Hat. These kits have the dies, foam shaker frames and acetate windows. Some come with the shaker elements (I added to them from my stash) and/or matching paper (Fright Fest for this card.)
Card Base: There are three pieces that need to be cut and assembled to make the card base. Lightweight to medium weight cardstock is ideal as there will be decorative papers glued to all sides of the card which will strengthen the base. Cut one piece 6×12 inches and fold at center into a 6×6 card. Cut two 6 x 6 1/4 inch squares. Score and fold 1/4 inch to make the squares into 6 x 6 inches.
Cut nine decorative papers 6×6 inches to cover the inside and outside of the card. (Three of the same pattern for the inside walls and three of the same pattern for the outside walls, two of the inside floor and one for the Back of the card.)
Glue the thinnest of the papers that will cover the side squares and cut the windows into these pieces using the six-trapezoid cutting die from the Mini Ball Pop-up Double-Ups. Use the side panels to mark the location to cut the window in the thickest of the decorative papers. Glue all the decorative papers onto the side squares. Glue the flaps on to the top half of the folded card base. Glue the remaining decorative papers onto the card base. (I made a mistake when I glued the decorative bat pattern plate onto the orange back of the card and ended up with them upside down. The glue set before I noticed my mistake.)
Fireplace: Watch the assembly video before assembling. Cut one of the fireplace fronts and a rectangle the size of the fireplace front. Emboss them both to show the bricks. Use a white crayon to highlight the bricks on both pieces. Trim the rectangle to be a 1/8 inch shorter on each side. Turn the rectangle upside down and glue to the back wall of the card base. Die cut and emboss one health/mantel in a stone color. Color the heath stone and glue to the floor of the card base. Glue the fireplace mechanism as directed in the assembly video to the fireplace back.
Die cut a partial patterned plate of spiders and webs of vellum. Separate some webs and spiders. To decorate the fireplace and other parts of the room. (I used some thin foam squares to make the mantel standout over a web.)
Floor Flap: Take the remaining floor square of decorative paper and cut it in half. I had to match the pattern on my card’s floor. (Because I glued two pieces together, I was able to attach a ribbon loop to act as a pull tab for the floor flap.) The flap is cut to stop just at the fireplace heath. Use STRONG clear tape to attach the flap to the card base floor. (I made the mistake of using removable tape which broke when the card was being opened by the card recipient.)
Furniture: Watch the assembly video for the furniture before assembling. (Once I had assembled the sofa and chair, used double-sided removable tape to find the best placement of the furniture on the floor flap so that when closed no parts of the furniture can be seen. Also, you may want to temporarily tape a skeleton to the back o the furniture as you figure out the placement of the furniture.)
Skeletons: Cut nine whole skeletons and the heads of three more. Use the die as a stencil to color the skeletons faces with a fine-tipped black marker. Use the tiny accessories die sets to dress out the skeletons. For the seated skeletons, bend them at the hips. Glue an extra head piece to the back if the skeleton if the marker has bled through. Glue the seated skeletons to the pop-ups on the sofa and chair and the feet to the seat. You can raise an arm to the armrest as well. Glue other skeletons to walls, fireplace, window frames and backs of furniture. (I used double-sided, removable tape to do a layout of the skeletons before gluing them, to make sure they didn’t hinder any mechanism.)
Banner: The “Happy Halloween” banner is made from black glitter cardstock and thinner orange and yellow papers. The mini alphabet die set and the flag bunting from the Twist Panel Pop-Up die set are used to cut the banner pieces. Two strands of baker’s twine are threaded with the letters.
Envelope: While the card is 6 x 6 inches, its thickness makes it too thick to fit into a stand envelope. An envelop was created from a 12 x12 inch sheet of double-sided paper from the Martha Stewart paper pad. The center point of each edge was marked in pencil, scored and folded using a metal straight edge. The seams were glued and a Velco fastener covered with a flat back gem.
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Card Base with Window: Starting with a 10 x 7 inch piece of cardstock, scored and folded in half to create a 5 x 7 inch top folded card base. Position the Mini-Ball Double-Ups die so that it will look good from the outside as well as the inside next to the fireplace. The orientation of the widow will be up-side down from what is on the opposite side of the card. Die-cut the window with the card open on a die-cutting machine. (This is the only time you’ll need a wide platform die-cutting machine. If you only have a 6-inch-wide machine you can cut you card base in half, cut your window and glue a strip of paper as the card hinge.)
Cut “logs” from wood grain paper, ink the edges to create roundness and glue in place both on the outside of the card and the inside wall. Cut thinner strips of the woodgrain paper for the floor of the cabin, ink edges and glue in place alternating the seams as a real floor would be installed. (I had left over pieces of woodgrain paper from cutting Karen Burniston’s Landscape Rectangle Accordion that I used to frame the window.)
Fireplace: Watch the assembly video before assembling. Cut TWO of the fireplace fronts and emboss them both to show the bricks. I tried several different crayons until I found a three color-mixed crayon in the Crayola True-to-Life series of crayons that blended brown, black and burnt orange to color the bricks.
I glued one of the brick fireplace fronts upside down as the back wall of the fireplace. Next is the hearth piece colored to be sooty sandstone that glued to the floor of the card.
I find it easier to attach anything hanging from the fireplace mechanism before I install the mechanism. After experimenting with how best to attach the pot from the Good Luck Charms set, I ended with gluing the charm circle loop to the part of the mechanism where the Santa boots would dangle. I glued some flames to the bottom of the pot to make the fire be all around the pot. The pot moves a little when opening and closing the card.
Glue together the fire and logs and then attach the cube-like pop-up strip into the card base and attach the fire. Glue the fireplace mechanism into card base. Then attach brick fireplace front and mantel. I use thin foam squares to attach the mantel to the brick fireplace front.
Accessories: Fireplace tools and fender are from the Fireplace Extras 1 set. The lantern is cut from silver holographic cardstock colored with black permanent marker using the small lantern die from the Camping Charms set. The fish is also cut using a die from the camping charms and uses shimmer cardstock with distress inks. The metal plate the fish is on uses the circle from the snowman set. The rugs are from the oval crosshatch set and the deer head is the Christmas animals set on a plaque cut from the smallest crosshatch labels’ set covered in Glossy Accents. The only die that is not Karen Burniston is the fishing rod by Tayored Expressions.
Sentiments: “Happy Birthday” is a single die while “DAD” is double cut from the large alphabet dies from green and black and then slightly over-laid for a shadow effect.
Back of envelopeFront of envelope
Envelope: A brown kraft paper envelope completes the card with stamped images from the companion stamps of the patterned papers by Craft Consortium.
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Moose Riley and pup Simon have decided to do an old-style, silent video using signs to give some birthday greetings which pop-up when you pull the tab. They wanted to show off all their dress-up accessories in the stamp set, so each image has different accessories – from balloons to glasses, ties and hats.
My card base is a top fold mini slimline card, I cut in two pieces (3×6 inches and 3×6 ¼ inches) scored and folded the longer piece into a tab to be glued over the other piece.
To make the scenes change, I’ve use Karen Burniston’s Waterfall Card die set which makes it very easy to create a flip-book style card without having to do a lot of math. (Watch the assembly video before assembling.)
I’ve added two small mini-pop-up cubes behind each image. You can use any of the small pop-up tabs from other sets such as the Frame Pull-Pop-up. (I cut mine from a thin strip of matching paper about ¼ x 1 ¼ inches, folded into five sections of ¼ inch long. Glue fifth section as a tab to make cube.)
I’ve added a zig-zag border to one of the pages to help hid the small bit of moose antler that sticks out on the left side.
Leftover dress-up accessories were used to decorate the envelope flap hinting at what’s inside.
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Lost treasure, pirates, tropical islands, “Arrrr…,” stories of Long John Silver and Jack Sparrow and International Talk Like a Pirate Day, which happens to be today, September 19, 2022, are what today’s card is all about. (And maybe a little Snoopy too.)
I just love little Skellie, the skeleton from Karen Burniston’s new fall 2022 release of dies. Influenced by the many talented designers on KB’s design team, who have used Skellie as a variety of characters, I had to have him as a pirate popping up in a treasurer chest of gold coins, sword aloft. The Tiny Accessories Set 1 provide the eye patch, sword and head scarf to turn Skellie into a pirate.
The treasure chest is its own set of dies that play well with the Parcel Pop-Up mechanism. I viewed both the assembly videos for the Treasure Chest and the Parcel Pop-Up before making the card. Having worked with 19th century traveling trunks, I know that many had decorative paper lining the inside of them, so I chose a patterned kraft paper using the plain side to be wood embossed side (I used the ink the die method from Karen’s videowith a brown ink cube) and the patterned side for inside the trunk. The trim is a mirrored brown cardstock with the raised circles colored with a fine-tipped permanent marker.
For the front of the card, I used the side palm trees from the Palm Tree Pop-Up and the wavy sand from the Long Nature Edges set. The Long nature Edges stitched hills die cuts two sets of hills, so the second piece is used inside the card instead of the sand pile die that comes with the Treasure Chest set. Shells inked pink from the Tropical Scene die set complete the front of the card and a starfish on the back of the card for fun. The small island with palm trees inside the card are also from this set.
I’ve been wanting to use my pirate sentiment stamps for some time, and this was the card for them. The “Happy Birthday” that comes with the stamp set is small, so I went with KB’s larger sentiment die and shadow die.
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