Watermelon Shaker Truck

| ullycatdesigns

Watermelon Truck -front-CU

Cold watermelon on a hot summer’s day – what could be better? How about a shaker card of a watermelon truck.

This card was the first I’ve made from Queen & Co. complete card kits. The kits come with dies, self-adhesive foam/acetate shakers, shaker fillers, stamps and 6×6 paper pads. The instructions are straightforward and easy to understand.

I have augmented the kits with some tiny watermelon slices I had on hand as well as the Lawn Fawn ants and watermelon stamp set.

The kits add to the possibilities of my Spellbinders Sunday Drive and Truck Large Die of the Month -OCT18 as the accessories are in a similar scale to all the vehicle sets.

The envelope was stamped with the Lawn Fawn stamps while the card sentiment is from the Special Delivery kit and was heat embossed in glossy black.

Watermelon Truck -card envelope

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

Paper

Inks

Miscellaneous

Autumn Birthday Card Teepee Style

| ullycatdesigns

Autumn Teepee-front

This card was inspired by my curiosity about making a teepee card and for a Craftworld.com challenge to make an autumn birthday card. Video influences include Karen Burniston, Sam Calcott and Jennifer Mcguire’s takes on pop-up cards, teepee cards and peek-a-boo doors.

Teepee cards-so named because of the shape, are easy cards to construct from three squares of cardstock that are all the same. You score each diagonally from one point to the opposite point and fold in half to form a triangle. Then you glue one of the squares to the left side triangle and another square to the right side of the triangle/center square. I recommend watch Sam Calcott’s Mixed up Crafts video for a step by step. (My card is based on three squares of 5 ¾ inches squares.)

I wanted to add something new to the teepee card concept and having just watch Jennifer McGuire’s video on Peek-A-Boo Doors, I decided to add some flaps using the smallest circle die in the Lawn Fawn circle flaps dies. Because I wanted to use the flaps as a platform to set a small animal on using a pop-out cube, I needed another layer of paper on the card over my card base. (My card used textured orange paper cut from 5 ½ inch squares.) I also cut two additional circle flaps from the same orange paper to inlay behind the flap door. The pop-up cube to support an object is common, but I really learned the power of it from Karen Burniston’s Frame Pull Pop-up.

Autumn Teepee-side

I fussy cut all of the card’s flat decorative critters and foliage form one page out of the Craftsmart Spiced Pumpkin paper pad. The happy Birthday rosette is made from a foiled topper from a card kit and ribbon gathered by needle and thread and then glued to the back of the topper.

Autumn Teepee-back

The back side of the card has a white triangle for a personal message. The card is secured with a hook and loop square glued to one corner of the back flap and the connecting triangle.

Autumn Teepee-envelope

Designed for a catalog envelope (9 inches x 6 inches), the card will fold flat to fit into the envelope. A small diagram is enclosed with the card so the recipient will know how to stand it up for display. The back flap of the envelope was stamped with a fox.

 

Supplies

Dies

Stamps/Ink

Paper

Miscellaneous

Back into the Swing of Things

| ullycatdesigns

Back in the Swing -Inside-CU

Coming home after a long stay in the hospital deserves a cheerful card. Home Sweet Home may have a different meaning for those of us who have been fortunate enough to stay healthy during this year of COVID-19, but to a survivor it truly can be sweet.

Back in the Swing -front

The mechanical base for this card come from Karen Burniston’s House and Fence Pop-Up die set, as does the house. The fence, flowers, grass, tree and swinging girl come from the Xcut “Make Me” die set included in the Homemaker Die Cuts & Digi Stamps All-in-one Die & Digi Stamp Kit.

This is about the eighth time I have made this pop-up platform which is easy to use. I spent time exploring how to get the best embossing impression on the house by using fun foam to act as a shim. I inked the house and decoration on the tree and swinging girl with distress inks. The bushes are a scrap decorated with pink dots from the flowers.

Back in the Swing -Inside-wide

The front sentiment is another Karen Burniston die set which makes it quick and easy to create a stylized sentiment. The strawberry comes from the Park Lane paper pad as does the gingham tag inside the card.

I created the inside sentiment on the computer and used distress ink to color the background. If I were to print the sentiment again, I would ink the paper first and then print the words to minimize the black ink blurring.

The folded size of the card is 5 ½ inches by 5 ¾ inches. For interest, the bottom front edge is fussy cut along the printed scalloped edge.

Video is at https://spark.adobe.com/video/Ah8pNrimuXg8u.

Supplies

Dies

Paper

Inks

Miscellaneous

Autumn Forest Birthday

| ullycatdesigns

Autumn Forest -inside

I am a paper hoarder and have been looking at this lovely set of forest animals Craft Consortium paper for months, taking it out thinking about what I could make from it. Putting it aside to see if the muse strikes.

A fall birthday for an animal lover became my muse. I used my favorite Lawn Fawn Scalloped Box Card Pop-up die set to cut the base and decorative squares for the card.  The papers are double-sided so I was able to mix and match the squared to be just flowers or flowers with the fox. I fussy cut the owl and oak leaves from another sheet in the collection. The birthday girl’s special day falls at that time of the year when some flowers are still blooming, but the occasional autumn leaf my drift down.

The main elements are cut from the inside covers of the 6×6 paper pad.

Autumn Forest-assembly -outside

Because I have made this box a lot, I have taken to use the largest stitched die in the set and extend cut a large square to make a stiffer back to the box and as a place to write a personal message.  To extend cut using a die cutting machine, simply place one edge of the die just off the edge of the cutting plat so it won’t cut when going through the machine.  Move the die to cut the other side of the square again placing the die edge just off the cutting plates. It may take you a few tries to master this technique, but once mastered you can expand the uses of your die collection.

To assemble the box I decorate the front and back sides of the flaps before I connect the tabs using red double-sided tape. (See assembly video) If you follow the steps in the video, you should have a perfect box.

Hot Foiling

I am just learning to do hot foiling using a Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foiling System. Having watched a number of videos on how to hot foil, I tried out a number of sentiments in rose gold foil. I used two of my first attempts on this card.

Autumn Forest -inside-CU

I used glue to adhere my elements on to the cross bars and a foam square to give some dimension to the owl.

Autumn Forest -front-Flat

When decorating always remember you can add elements to be seen only when folded closed.

Autumn Forest -back-Flat

If you want to have the full experience of opening up this card, click here to see video of the box card being opened.

https://spark.adobe.com/video/HnJo2aUX5ZHal

Supplies

Dies

Foiling

Paper

Miscellaneous

Stable Happy Mail

| ullycatdesigns

7 Stable-front-opened

Everyone likes Happy Mail and this one is made for a family of horse lovers. After making a z-fold card using a gate and fencing, I envisioned this horse paddock card.

5 Stable-folded envelope

The card is designed to fit folded into a #10 slimline envelope.

I laid-out the fence first on a 2 ½ inch x 12-inch strip of textured cardstock folding it long-ways in half and then scored at 3 inches and 9 inches. Draw pencil lines for the fence posts at: 1/4 inch, 1 7/16 inches, 1 9/16 inches, 2 7/8 inches, 3 inches, 3 1/8 inches, 4 7/16 inches, 4 9/16 inches, 5 7/16 inches, 6 1/16 inches, 7 7/16 inches,, 7 9/16 inches, 8 7/8 inches, 9 inches,, 9 1/8 inches, 10 7/16 inches, 10 9/16 inches, and 11 ¾ inches. Next, I evenly spaced three boards long-ways and colored in the spaces to be cut out. Using an Xacto craft knife and metal ruler I cut out the colored spaces on the folded over strip measuring 1 ¼ x 12 inches. (I recommend coloring in the cutout spaces as it gets very confusing, and like me, you have to start over again.)  (If you have the Karen Burniston Farm Edges die set or another fence die set, you could piece together the fence rather than cutting it as I did.)

3 Stable-Fence cut

The last cutting is to trim one half of the endposts off (See photo). Once the fence is done being cut, glue the wrong sides together to form a sturdy fence. I used distress inks to color the fence.

4 Stable-Fence endpost

The stable doors are sized to fit the Karen Burniston horse die. I cut three horses and decorated them differently using a black fine tipped pen and watercolor pencils. (Watch the assembly video for decoration ideas and tips). The doors are loosely based of the retired Stampin’ Up barn door set. I cut pieces of woodgrain paper to form the trim pieces and glued. The sliding door hardware is from the Stampin’Up set. Because the door is smaller than the die set door, I had to do a modified cutting of the slots that the door slides on.  I followed the door assembly method described in this video by The Creativity Cave.

6 Stable-front-unopened

The sentiments are from the barn door set. You will need to cut two pieces of wood grained paper for the stable at 4 x6 inches. Once you have cut the door slots out of the front piece, and assembled the door, you can adhere the backing piece with the grain sided facing the back side of the front. (The grain will camouflage the slot cuts. Make sure you don’t glue your acetate door mechanism to the backing piece. Test your door before the glue dries if you need to make adjustments. Stamp and cut out your sentiments and adhere behind the doors. Glue one horse head to be peaking out from the stall door and the glue door onto stable.

7 Stable-front-opened

Glue the fence endposts to the front of the stable once the doors and decorations have been added to the front of the stable. Add the horses to your paddock by gluing one to the back of the front fence and the other by using a strip of clear plastic from packaging (It needs to be sturdier than acetate.) to glue the acetate in place, first glue one side the inside of the side fencing. Fold the paddock flat to one side and see where the plastic strip folded tab ends up on the fence and, then glue to that spot.

You can write your personal message on the back of the stable.

Supplies

Stamps/Dies

Inks/Watercolors

Paper

  • Textured 12 x12 off white card stock from my stash
  • All other papers were from my scrap bin

Miscellaneous

Garden Gate and A Curious Kitty

| ullycatdesigns

Garden Gate -Front Cat -bird

An idyllic summer morning with birds singing, a kitten roaming about the garden and the prospect of a cup of tea and good long chat with a friend are what this card reminds me of when I see it.

My friend challenged me to make something special with my new Stampin’ Up stamp and die sets. (So this card is for you, Donna.)

I had seen on Pinterest cards using the Garden Gateway die to create a z-fold card with a fenced in garden. This was my inspiration and starting point.

Garden Gate -side open CU

Fence and Gate: I cut two of the arched gateway and four of just the garden gate without the arch.  Using a craft knife, I trimmed off the cross-piece sections on the small gates and the middle hinge to get the gate to look like a fence. Next, I tried laying out the fence knowing it had to be 11 inches (278mm) long because my card base was 4 inches by 11 inches (102mm x278mm).  I had scored and folded my card base in the middle and then the left side I folded in half to make the z-fold. I needed the gate to be right of the front quarter-fold section on the card base. I wanted the folded corner of the fence at the right of the gate to be at the mid-section of the timed gate. I cut and pieced the fence gluing large end posts over large end posts. I trimmed off the far-right end post as it was too long. The arch seemed to bend too easily, so, I took the second arched gate and glued it to the back of the fence and gate for added strength.

Garden Gate -side open

Card Base Background: I stamped the tree and bistro table and chairs from the Joanna Sheen stamp set and tried a grass stamp with green distress ink but ended up using the grass stencil in the Joanna Sheen set to do the grass. Using a fingertip dauber sponge, I smoothed out the grass. The clouds on the blue cardstock were made with a white Distress Crayon that was slightly blurred with a water brush.

Garden Gate -Front open CU

Garden: I stamped the flowers, kitten and bird on the leftover white cardstock I had leftover from die-cutting the gate and fence pieces. Using watercolor pencils and a waterbrush, I colored the stamped images.  After getting the fence glued together and the folds made to create the garden, I glued the fence sections to the front and back of card base, making sure the free standing fence sections don’t accidentally get glued to anything. I decorated the outside of the fence with flowers making sure the gate could open. For the flowers inside the garden, I attached them with folded pieces of clear acetate. The placement of the inside flowers needs to be done so the card will fold flat so using glue to adjust their placement is useful.

Garden Gate -Front folded

Sentiments: I stamped the sentiments last, using a blue ink. I tried to center the two sentiments on the back so that they were framed by the arch of the gate when closed or opened.

Garden Gate -Envelope Folded

Envelope: The back flap of the envelope was stamped first with the bird stamp in blue on a sticky note, cut out and stuck as a mask over the stamped bird on the envelope flap. Next, I stamped small flowers over the masked bird in green. Once the mask was removed, it looks like the bird is standing amid the flowers.

Garden Gate -Envelope CU

Supplies

Stamps

Inks/Watercolors

Paper

Miscellaneous

Happy Hello

| ullycatdesigns

Happy Diamond -inside

Experimenting with new folds and materials, discovering items hidden in your stash and having the internet go down all played a role in the making of this triple diamond gate fold card.

Backgrounds

When our internet went down one morning, I decided to experiment with my gelli plate to make some back grounds. I rounded up all my red inks and thought to play that way, but in the process of looking for the gelli plate, I found some forgotten rubber stamps on a roller. I had to try them out and before I knew it I had stamped all my cardstock. I did try to make some background prints using the backs of the stamped sheets. I only opened up one ink in a watermelon color.

Also in the morning I had made a bunch of washi tape flowers from cut petals from Park Lane and the V&A Collection, layering them onto wax paper to use at some future time.

Happy Diamond -Front

In the afternoon, I decided to try and remember how Sam Calcott on her Mixed-Up Crafts You-Tube video had made her version of a triple diamond gate fold card. Without the internet, I had to improvise, but with only one mistake, I figured it out. The key is to divide the long ways portion of card into 10 even rectangles, but I advise to watch the video for exact details and how to fold. (I used 8.5 inches x 11 inches paper. Sam used 12 inches x12 inches paper)

Happy Diamond -Back

Once folded, I began to decide on decorations. The one rolled stamp design was just the right width of the card folds, so I cut the diamond shape first by tracing it on the paper.  Using the scrapes of the stamped paper I decorated the washi tape flower centers and the belly band. For the “Hello” sentiment, I cut down a printed tag to fit.

There is space on the back side of the diamond to write a personal message.

Hoping this card brightens your day. 😊

Materials Used:

Stamps

Inks

Papers

Miscellaneous