Work Bench

| ullycatdesigns

WOrk Bench-inside

Not every dad has a work bench, but many do and the recipient of this Father’s Day card was a carpenter when his family was young.

Much of my inspiration for this card has come from a variety of Pinterest posts of 3D workbenches and some tool bench and tool box posts on Craftworld.com.

To make the bench, I stamped the Stampin’ Up hardwood stamp twice on light kraft paper. I cut the stamped pieces out to their edges of 5 inches x 5 ½ inches. Next, I scored down the long side at 1/2 inches, 2 ½ inches and 4 ½ inches. Using a pencil on the back side of the scored paper, I drew a line at 3 1/8 inches (5/8 inches below the 2 ½ inch score line). I also drew lines ½ inch parallel to the short edge from the 5-inch edge to the 3 1/-inch pencil line on each side. These pencil marks should form a smaller rectangle that needs to be cut out to from the lower center portion to form the table legs. Save the rectangle to cut two drawer fronts. I punched holes for black button shaped tiny brads to go thru to form the drawer pulls. (And then used foam tape to adhere the drawers to table front after it was all folded and glued to card.) Age the edges of drawers and table top with some Distress ink and a sponge or brush before gluing table into card.

Mean back to the table. All the score lines should be mountain folds with the woodgrain facing up and pencil marks hidden underneath. From the second stamped piece cut the lower shelf 2 ¾ inches by 5 ½ inches. And then score at ½ inches and 2 ½ inches down long side and make into mountain folds. Make pencil marks on back of each leg 3/8 from bottom foot flap. You will glue the edge of shelf at these marks. Once the shelf is glued on to legs the bench is ready to install on card. Mark the inside back of card at 3/8 inches and 2 inches from center fold. These marks are what you will use to glue the tale top and shelf flaps to on inside card back. Once the table is glued to card securely, glue the table leg flaps down.

Because I used dies by three different brands, none matched the others in scale, so I adapted the Divinity Designs pegboard and hooks to work with the tiny Tayored Expressions tools set. The picture frames are scraps from the table that I darkened with Distress inks. The tiny photos are of photos of the recipient’s family reduced in Photoshop to ¾ inches wide and printed on computer printer. The “Happy Father’s Day” was die cut from two die sets. Foam tape was used to adhere all items to the table top. All the tools were cut once from silver card and then again from colored or stamped card scrap to cut handles which were then glued onto silver base tools.

The front of the card was made using a mat of graph paper, a computer printed sentiment given to me by the card giver and the die cuts of hammer, nails and saw were from the larger set of tool dies by Sunny Studio.

WOrk Bench-Front-Envelope

I used the matching stamps from Sunny Studio to stamp the hammer and saw “x” on the envelope flap. The hammer was stamped first and then, using a post-it tape mask over the saw, I stamped the hammer.

Other Father’s Day cards on my blog

A Tool Box Father’s Day

A Fishing Father’s Day

A Father’s Day Waterfall Pop-Up

A Work Bench Father’s Day Card

In-Vested Father’s Day Card

Supplies used:

Dies

Stamps

Papers

  • AC Cardstock – 5 x 7 in set of 8 kraft cardstock cards & envelopes
  • Computer paper
  • Colored and silver matte metallic cardstock from my stash
  • Graph paper

Inks

Miscellaneous

The Rainy Season

| ullycatdesigns

Frogs and Splashes

Where I live it gets so hot and humid that in the summer, that it just has to rain for a few minutes to get it out of its system. Sometimes it even rains with the sun shining.

This card was made as a test of my new die called “Splashing Puddles” by Memory Box. It reminded me of the light rain and the tree frogs chanting.

I began with a stripe printed card as the base. I die cut the puddles and placed washi tape on the back of the raindrops and then sprinkled blue glitter on the front sticky side to make them sparkle. The frogs I had left over from another card, so added them hopping about in the rain. The “Hi” sentiment I picked because it was tiny and seemed to fit into the design best. I spotted it with the tips of markers just as I had colored the frogs but tried to match the raindrops in color. The final touch was some gold foiled washi tape I found in my stash.

Hope the card brings a smile to you.

 

Materials

Dies:

Papers:

  • DCWV – Strips Box of Cards – 40 A2 Printed Textured Cards & Envelops
  • Pale blue cardstock from my stash

Inks:

Miscellaneous:

  • PVA Glue – Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue
  • Washi Tape from my stash
  • Non-toxic Sparkling Glitter by Advantus Corp – Blue Mix – SUL54634

Hats off to the Grad

| ullycatdesigns

Hats Off - Front-envelope

For many graduates of 2020, there were few opportunities to collectively toss their caps in the air and celebrate their accomplishments together.  This card is for the class of 2020!

The wait for this stamp and die set was worth it. The quintuple slider dies make a quick and interactive card that has the graduates’ caps moving up and down.

Hats Off - Front-down

To start, I used a stencil to ink in a cloudy background that ends with tiny confetti being stamped in blue up to the bottom of the slider slits (as if the confetti was falling out of the caps.) Next, I stamped the arms and caps using a black ink that dries fast and doesn’t bleed if watercolored over. Using the colors of the graduate’s college, a pale blue, I colored the caps and gowns using watercolor pencils and a thin tipped waterbrush.

Hats Off - Front-center

Next, I did all my die cutting of elements using the matching dies and the squarish quintuple slider. In my test card, I had placed the die that cuts the slots into the background card, upside down. So, making sure that I had all the slots lined up at the top end of my background and using the slider die as a guide to know where the position the slot cutting die, I cut the slots. (Watch the assembly video to see how the alignment is done.)

Hats Off - Front-up

To assemble the slider mechanism, I suggestion watching another assembly video to understand how the slider flaps wrap around the slots and how best to keep the flaps aligned. Once the tiny foam squares are adhered to the flaps, the decorating of the card can begin. (Don’t forget to add some hint that the slider tab needs to be pulled up by adding a die cut arrow which is included in the slider die set.)

Hats Off - inside

I found some scrap printable glitter paper in my stash and stamped the main sentiment directly on to it.  For an added touch, I stamped “Hats off to you!” near the top front, and inside the card, I stamped “Good luck on your new adventure!” both in black. I decided the inside needed something else, so I stamped in blue above the good luck a tiny rolled diploma.

IMG_8234

The back flap of the envelope had a cap stamped in blue to give a hint as to what was inside.

 

Materials Used:

Stamps/Dies/Stencils

Inks/Watercolors

Papers

Miscellaneous

 

Seaside Vacation

| ullycatdesigns

Seaside vacation - front

Need a break? Jump-into this vacation card and get away, hear the waves gentling coming ashore, the occasional seabird crying out overhead, smell the sea air and feel the grit of the sand beneath your feet.

This fun, A7 sized card came from my desire to make a nautical themed card from my stash of underwater, fishy, and nautical stamps, dies, papers and embossing folders. The papers and embossed/inked background came from one of early papercrafting magazines I purchased – Love Cardmaking issue 4 and its the “By the Shore” embossing folder, stamps and digi papers. I love these papers and have used them for to make a number of cards in years past. Two small stamp sets from Prima Marketing’s Seashore collection at some point made their way into my stash, but never used. Some new to me Stampin’ Up inkpads gave me the excuse to try stamping the small nautical stamps.

After pulling together all the various elements that I might use and having noticed a trend of shapes being layered askew on card fronts, I decided to try the trend. I played with the layout and began by gluing the blue background over the front and back of card. Next, I glued edges of inked embossing folder piece and trimmed off the overlaps that went off the edges. The top is wrapped over the fold and glued on the back.

Seaside vacation - front-cu

Using two different thicknesses of foam squares/dimenisionals, I adhered the stamped pieces to the front. The rectangular card needed somethings to hide the fact the rope border didn’t fully meet-up at the corners. In digging around in my elements caddy, I found some K & Company die-cut sea life images which were all too big for my purposes, but on the packaging were just the right size of images which I fussy cut and adhered to the rope corners. The addition of a puffy orange starfish and a foiled rising sun sticker and, voila, the front was finished.

I had one tiny multi-colored masked and stamped image with the word “Enjoy” which I glued inside the card.  The blue paper on the back of the card didn’t come completely down to the bottom edge so I pieced together a sandy beach to complete the card.

Seaside vacation -inside-envelope

The sailing ship was stamped in blue ink on the back of the envelope.

Go Dogs Go

| ullycatdesigns

GoDOGSgo-Front-cu

Go Dogs Go, the classic P.D. Eastman book that so many American children in the 1960s and 70s learned to read with, was the inspiration for this card using Lia Griffith’s 2017 Party Time stamp set for Fiskars.

I had stamped, water colored and fussy cut the cars and dogs and set them aside until I figured out how to use them.  I had thought about making an interactive card with them, but in playing with layouts for a slider type card, I decided I liked the flat glued down look on the brilliant blue cardstock better.

GoDOGSgo-all

Cut two pieces of blue cardstock 9 inches x 4 inches (230 mm x100 mm) and a third piece 9 ½ inches x 4 inches (240 mmx 100 mm). Using a scoring board, I scored the longest piece down both short sides at ¼ inch (5 mm) from edge to form the flaps to glue to the other two pieces.

GoDOGSgo-middle

Once the card was glued together, I laid out the position of the cars and pendants. I used the banner and sentiment from the stamp set for the “Go dogs Go” banner and then using a stamping platform, stamped my favorite Happy Birthday stamp on the last panel.

GoDOGSgo-last

Supplies

Stamps

Inks/Watercolors

Paper

Miscellaneous

 

A Veggie Thank You

| ullycatdesigns

Veggies-front

A very veggie tale of how this card developed. I had received some new stamps and had tested them out. The background stamp was begging to be used and I had a test strip of the garden stamps floating around on my desktop, and thought they were a good mix.

I fussy cut the garden stamps and glued all the pieces except the banner on to the background using glue dots. Next, I adhered the banner using foam squares. The card front still needed something, so I added Nuvo drops in black. I thought the top right corner needed a tad more black, but I ended-up smearing it a bit.

A day or so later I needed a thank you card and thought this card front would work well on a craft card base with matching envelope. So adhered front to card with double-sided tape. Then I stamped the ‘Thank You” sentiment inside and the peas on the envelope flap.

Veggies-inside-envelope

E-Z-peas-z. The card was finished.

I want to give a special shout-out to my Stampin’ Up demonstrator and friend, Donna Butler, for all her help in learning to how to stamp well.

Materials Used:

Stamps

Inks

Papers

  • A2 Brown craft paper card base and envelope purchased from Target
  • White cardstock

Miscellaneous

Balloons and Flowers Pop-Up

| ullycatdesigns

Hot Air Balloon-side view

My challenge to make a sweet and up-lifting birthday card for someone who was not happy about celebrating her birthday alone. I had the “Flying High” Craftwork Cards paper collection which has muted neon colors along with pinks and turquoise blue. It is cheery with it has hot air balloons and loads of cute die-cuts and foiled sentiments.

I decided on a box pop-up and used the low and wide shape of the Lawn Fawn Scalloped Box die set which fits into an A2 envelope. Th box was cut from the second darkest pink shade of lightweight cardstock in the Recollection’s Pink Buttons paper pack.

Hot Air Balloon-flat

I punched out the flower die-cuts and shaped them with my fingers and adhered pearls and dots embellishments to their centers. Next, I adhered the flowers to long strips of clear acetate from leftover packaging.

Hot Air Balloon-CU

I assembled the box following the video instructions by Kelly Marie, using strips of clear acetate for the crossbars adhering them in place with clear tape which bends well. All the decorative papers are from one sheet of paper from the “Flying High” collection as well as all the decorations.

The finished card folds flat. A small hot air balloon from the Tim Holtz Collection Little Things stamp set was stamped on the back flap of the envelope.

Hot Air Balloon-open

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks

Papers

Miscellaneous

Stick-on pearls and dots from Dollar Tree and

A Trout Fishing Kind of Day

| ullycatdesigns

After 63 years of marriage and numerous fishing and mountain trips, I knew this couple deserved a special anniversary card that evoked all the things they love.

Hot Air Balloons-front

Hunkydory’s Moments in Time “Love is In the Air” die set and matching paper pad had the perfect pop-up card with a pond, mountains, hot air balloons and a couple taking it all in siting at the edge of the pond. The die took a couple of passes through a die cutting machine and then the tricky part of working all the folds. This die is one of the less intricate dies in the Moments in Time series but using a paper piercing tool helped with shaping all the trees on the mountains and puffing out the clouds. There is an instruction sheet on the Hunkydory’s website that is useful when doing the folding.

Hot Air Balloons-inside Wide

The front of the card’s paper and label topper came from the “Flying High” Craftwork Cards paper collection. “On Your Special Day” die cut sentiment is from Creative Dies by Sue Wilson and the jumping trout is from Stampin’Up’s “Best Catch” stamp set stamped in brown ink and fussy cut and adhered with foam pads.

Hot Air Balloons-inside

The inside “Happy Anniversary” sentiment was cut from two die sets in the Gemini Expressions series by Crafter’s Companion. The additional bird on flower and best wishes banner came from the aforementioned “Flying High” paper collection. The back side of the card is finished with more of the paper from the front.

Hot Air Balloons-back

The front and back flap of the envelop are stamped with images that give a hint of what the card is inside.

 

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks

Papers

Miscellaneous

Hot Air Balloons-inside CU

Soda Shaker

| ullycatdesigns

Soda Shaker - Front Close up

Who hasn’t watched the bubbles in a carbonated drink rise to the top of a bottle? I was inspired to create this soda shaker by some pink seed beads that I found in my stash.

I picked a chevron striped pink card base and some printed cherry paper. First, I cut the card base in half separating the front from the back. I next cut the cherry print to match the inside dimensions of the front of the card. Then, using removable tape, I secured the front of the card to the cherry print making sure the edges all met up. Using the Bottles and Bubbles Framelits dies from Stampin’ Up, I cut the bottles out of both the card front and cherry print.

Soda Shaker - inside

After separating the card front and cherry print, I cut two pieces of clear acetate smaller than the dimensions of the card front, but large enough to cover the bottle cut-outs. Using double-sided tape I adhered the acetate to the back side of the card front and cherry print.

I cut two of each straws from red and white chevron striped paper and snipped each straw below the bend. I glued the straight straw pieces to the back side of the acetate and the bend straw parts to the front of the card front and cherry print to make the straws look like they were inside the bottles.

soda shaker-front CU

Normally I would have used craft foam to cut out the negative of the shaker, but I didn’t have any on hand. So, I cut out eight of each of the bottles from white cardstock, rough cut a ¼ inch frame around each piece and glued them together. Next, I aligned the frames to the acetate covered back of the card front and glued in place. Using foam tape, I filled in the space between the edge of the card front and the bottle frames. Let the glue dry for a few hours so the glitter and beads won’t stick to the edges of the bottle.

Soda Shaker -spine

Before fill the bottles, I used an anti-static pad to wipe down the acetate inside the bottles  Using my fingers and tweezers to fill the bottles with pinches of glitter and the three colors of seed beads, I was careful not to fill them too full. Next, I peeled back the foam tape backing papers, applied tiny bits of glue to the bottle frames and matched the cherry print card up to the bottle frames. A shaker card was born.

Soda Shaker - outside spine

I had cut the card base apart because the thickness of the shaker front would not have allowed the card to close properly. I used clear tape on the inside to tape the shaker front to the card back. Next, I cut a polka-dotted print paper to cover the inside card back and add sturdiness to it.  It was adhered with double-sided tape. Polka-dotted washi tape was used both on the outside spine of the card and on the inside of the card to frame the inside back and to cover unsightly edges. The finished card has the feel of a school composition book.

soda shaker-front CU

Using scrapes of red paper from an old Christmas envelop, I first stamped the bottle label sentiments with Versa Mark ink and the white heat embossed them. Next using the label dies in the Bottles and Bubbles die set, the labels were cut out. Glue was used to adhere the labels.

Soda Shaker - inside CU

With plenty of space inside the card to write a personal message this card is ready to be Happy Mail.

Supplies used:

Dies

Stamps

Papers

Inks and Embossing Powders

Miscellaneous