Celebrating 66 Years of Marriage!

Recently I had the honor of creating a pop-up card celebrating a couple’s 66th wedding anniversary. Since there are no special designations for the 66th anniversary, I decided to go with silver, gold and sapphire blue as colors and balloons, stars, hearts and streamers as elements. My inspiration for the card came from a 50th anniversary card by Nicky Foden using Karen Burniston‘s Heart Collage Pop-Up, Balloon Collage Add-Ons and other dies.

Before I began, I read through Nicky’s blog on her card and watched Karen Burniston’s video on making a triple heart collage slimline pop-up card. I learned that I would need to trim down the outer mechanisms’ arms that will stick out of the card and continually test the placement of items to avoid catch points. The mechanism I used is the from the Heart Collage Pop-Up die set.

Cardbase: I used a medium weight white cardstock rectangle measuring 8 3/4 x 7 3/4-inches. When folded in half, the card measures 3 3/8 x 8 3/4-inches. Using the largest two dies from the Long Rectangles – Crosshatch die set, I cut frames from gold glitter cardstock and a large white rectangle to cover the front of the card. The frames went on the front and back of the card. For the inside of the card, I followed the dimensions of the largest die, but used a paper cutter to cut two panels of gold dotted acetate. (The acetate was too thick for the die to cut well.) While the glitter cardstock and white cardstock could be adhered using glue, the acetate required double sided-tape. Measuring the inside of the glitter frame on the back of the card, I cut a piece of acetate to fit the opening.

Mechanisms: Following Karen’s instructions on the placement of the mechanisms, I marked the locations with pencil on the inner fold. Making sure to line-up the pencil mark in the center hole of the mechanism and aligning the mechanism fold to the card fold, before I adhered one side of the mechanism to the card. Because of the acetate being used for the surface the mechanisms would adhered to, I used red backed super sticky double-sided tape. Once the mechanisms were in place and trained by opening and closing the card, I noted which arms stuck out of the card and trimmed them to fit inside the card.

Decorating: Die-cutting a number of balloons and stars from the Balloon Collage Add-Ons die set and ribbons with tiny hearts from the Border Blends – Trims, I hoped I had enough pieces to decorate the card. Watching Karen’s video one more time to see how the dimension pieces needed to be installed on the mechanisms, I stated with those balloons on the top arms. I worked from the tips of the arms and center mechanisms using balloons, testing for catch points before gluing in permanently. Next came stars and streamers (I cut the ribbon down into smaller streamers.) Finally the tiny hearts. I used double-sided tape to adhere anything to the front of the glitter cardstock or acetate on the cardbase.

Sentiment: To create the custom “Happy 66th Anniversary” sentiment on the front of the card, I used two die sets – Word Set 12- Anniversary and Numbers. The Numbers set comes with the “th” as well as “st”, “rd” and “nd”. For the label to write a personal message inside the card, I used white cardstock and my favorite crosshatch label die from the Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch set.

Envelope: The back of the envelope is decorated with ribbon bits and tiny hearts all cut from the Border Blends – Trims die set.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Hot off the Press– 8 1/2 x 11-inches Foil Cardstock – Fireworks Blue Holographic
  • Hot off the Press– 8 1/2 x 11-inches Foil Cardstock – Stars Silver Holographic
  • American Crafts – WE R – 8 1/2 x 11-inch Acetate – Chevron Dot – Gold
  • Gold and Silver Foil Cardstock
  • Gold Glitter Cardstock
  • White Medium Weight Cardstock
  • #10 Business Envelope – Kraft

Adhesives

Tools

Sending Love

It’s Sneak Peek week for Karen Burniston’s February 2023 release!

Making sure your loved-one, who is far away, feels love at Valentine’s Day, is what this card is all about. It uses two new die sets from Karen Burniston’s February 2023 release along with some previously released sentiments and collage decorations. 

I started with a 10-inch by 7-inch rectangle and folded in half to make a 5-inch by 10-inch cardbase.

Next, I die-cut all my mats and decorative frames from patterned papers using the crosshatch rectangles from the new Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch. For the scalloped frame I used white copier paper and heavier white cardstock to cut all the labels and twist mechanism two flag arms. The small, scalloped rectangles and flag arms are dies in the Little Twist Panel Pop-Up die set.

Because my decorative papers were thin paper, I used a sheet of double-sided adhesive to adhere the paper to a piece of cardstock. I did this for the twisting mechanism and the folded panel that is glued to the twisting mechanism. Before I die-cut my Little Twist Panel Pop-Up, I watched the assembly video for the pop-up mechanism.

Using double-sided tape, I covered the inside and outside card panels with coordinating paper mats. (My favorite technique for using double-sided tape is to place around the edge of the card, lift the ends of the tape so corners are sticky, position the covering paper, you can shift the top paper a bit before you pull all the tape backing paper strips. See tutorial post,)

Fold all the scored lines of mechanism piece as directed in video. Using a ruler mark the center of the cardbase fold with a pencil. Glue one side of mechanism to cardbase lining-up the mechanism’s center hole with the pencil mark making sure the folded score lines of the mechanism arms line up with the casebase fold. Fold mechanism shut and glue other side to cardbase.

The center heart is cut from the Heart Collage Pop-Up set in two pieces. Slide solid heart into slotted heart and glue the back halves to the mountain fold of the folded panel mechanism making sure that the panel slots are not blocked by heart. Following the video assembly instructions, insert the two flag arms into the slots on the folded panel. Glue the flag tabs onto the back of the other flag. Adhere the panel to the twisting mechanism as directed in assembly video. Test and train the mechanism how to fold inside the card.

The card front is simply decorated with the scalloped frame which is glued only on the straight edge inside of the frame.

To have a white shadow behind the die-cut “Happy Valentine’s Day,” Trace the outer edge of the word die with pencil and fussy cut the shadow.Two tiny hearts from the Sending Love die set complete the front.

The inside decorations include more tiny hearts in corners of the decorative panels as well as two hot air balloons carrying hearts. The balloons are from the Balloon Collage Add-Ons and the hearts on strings are from the Little Twist Panel Pop-Up. The balloons are adhered to the card with foam dimensionals. “Sending Love” sentiment is its own die set. There are two scalloped white labels are from the Little Twist Panel Pop-Up to write a personal message.

As with all my cards that are sent in an envelope, I have decorated the back flap with scalloped heart from the Heart Collage Pop-Up set. The card is A7 envelope.

You can see more Valentines by clicking here.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope it inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • American Crafts – The Color of Memories – 12 x 12 Printed Paper – Heart Flowers -320506
  • American Crafts – The Color of Memories – 12 x 12 Printed Paper – Tumbling Blocks -320330
  • White and Pink Cardstock & White Copier Paper Scraps
  • Fun Stampers Journey – 8.5 x 11 Cardstock – Banana Cream
  • A7 Envelope – Ivory

Miscellaneous

  • Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
  • Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
  • Scrapbook.com – Double-Sided Adhesive 1/4 Inch Tape
  • Clear Double-Sided Adhesive 8.5 x 11-Inch Sheets
  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Piercing Tool
  • Pencil
  • Sand Eraser
  • Baker’s Twine
  • Stampin’ Up – Foam Dimensionals

Sunday Drive Celebration

Whitecar-frontI was so excited when I received the Sunday Drive die set from Spellbinders. This classic convertible as seen from the rear has the possibilities for other cards besides being for birthdays. There is an add-on set that says “Hitched” with flowers and tin cans tied to bumper.

I found the set easy to use but recommend having a pair of tweezers handy to glue and place the tiny taillights, box-ribbon-bow, and tying-off balloon threads. I also recommend having a small container or bag to put your die cut pieces into as you cut them out. They are quite easy to lose on your workspace or get dropped onto the floor.

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All the pieces were cut from scraps in my stash. The silver matte card was one I had to use my embossing mat to get good definition on the bummer piece. I used metallic hologram papers from an old envelope for the balloons and glued them to white cardstock for the letters to show correctly.

These images are my first attempt at using the set.

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The inside sentiment is by Karen Burniston.

Other Sunday Drive cards:

Sunday Drive Celebration

A Snowy Sunday Drive with Santa

Santa Bauble

Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Being Spooky

Driving into a Spooky Sunset

The Best is Yet to Come

Hoppy Spring!

 

SUPPLIES:

Stamps/Dies

Papers

  • Scraps of card stock from stash
  • Matte silver cardstock
  • DCWV – Strips Box of Cards – 40 A2 Printed Textured Cards & Envelops

Inks/Watercolors

Miscellaneous

Be Adventurous!

IMG_5828Say yes to adventure. Chase your dreams.  Who knows where it will lead you?  This is a card that tries to capture all these sentiments and to celebrate achievement.

The inspiration for this card comes a desire to use all of my bicycle dies, but morphed into a card trying to only use one paper set (Chasing Dreams by Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper). The bicycle die set is by Simon Says Stamp and has the wheel as a separate die so you can cut the perfect tire from a separate color and has a separate basket die as well. The balloons, string of lights and banner flags are from one of my favorite die sets by Sizzix and Courtney Chilson. A fine tipped black marker was used to color the bike’s handles, pedals and balloon strings. A white gel pen was used to color in the balloons’ highlights.

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While the outside of the card is to suggest the current moment, the inside is to suggest how pleasant the future will be if you chase your dreams and say yes to adventure.

All of the pop-up, stamped, watercolored and die cut images come from the Hero Arts January 2019 My Monthly Hero kit. I had to cut off the top awning of the flower stand and lower it to fit inside the card.  I reinforced the back side of the stand with strips of scrap paper before attaching with double-sided tape.

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The tiered stand was inspired by a tiered pop up cake by Karen Burniston for Elizabeth Craft Designs. Since the die is no longer available, I had to improvise to create the right proportional shelves.

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The outside sentiments come from the paper stack while the inside sentiments are from two separate sets.  The “you’re wonderful” is stamped and embossed from the Hero Arts set and the ”Celebrate” is die-cut from Momenta Firefly’s Celebrate Happy Birthday die set.

 

SUPPLIES USED:

Dies

 

Stamps:

Paper:

Miscellaneous: