birthday

One in a Melon

| ullycatdesigns

When you are caught eating a melon at a farm stand you know you are one in a melon!

This cute little card is made from an Art Impressions Tryfolds by Bonnie Krebs. The set has six stamps and two dies that cut the apertures or windows in the farm stand and fruit stand.

I stamped the images on white cardstock with a permanent black ink that won’t run when wet and colored with watercolor pencils. Next I fussy cut the images.

The card base is made from two pieces blue gingham cardstock (5 ½ inches x 4 ¼ inches) and a piece of green gingham cardstock cut 6 inches x 4 ¼ inches. The green piece was scored and fold at ¼ inch on each end to form two tabs to glue the two blue pieces to form the tri-fold card.

I positioned my stamped, colored and cut out images following the layout on the packaging to determine the positioning of the front image. I traced the inside of the opening onto the card front and used the accompanying die to die cut the hole. Next, I glued the image in place on the front. I did the same for the middle image on the second flap, positioning the image so it shows through the aperture cut in the first image and then die-cutting the aperture. The final image was positioned, traced and then glue in place on the central panel.

The “Happy Birthday” is die-cut from green cardstock and glued in place.

Stamped on the back flap of an A2 slim envelope from Taylored Expressions is the sentiment from the stamp set “You’re one in a Melon!” green ink.

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

If you enjoyed this tri-fold card, check out some of my other trifolds:

Shabby Chic Trifold Card

Festive Foliage and Hearts – Trifold card

Santa Vintage Trifold

Sleepytime Dreams

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks/Watercolors

Papers

Miscellaneous

Go Dogs Go

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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

 

When the Zoo Comes to You

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Zoo Bus -Front-CU

When the zoo comes to you it’s party time!  I was inspired by this adorable stamp and die set drawn by Bonnie Krebs for Art Impressions of a bus full of animals.

Zoo Bus -Front-CU-rightUsing Memento Tuxedo Black ink to stamp the images on white cardstock, I colored them with using watercolor pencils and a waterbrush. Once the colors were dry, I used a silver gel pen to color all the chrome trim on the bus and hubcaps. Using the matching dies, I cut the animals and bus out. I cut a second bus out to act as a backing for the bus. I had colored and cut a set of spare tires, so I cut away the tires on the colored bus so I could add dimension of the tires being beneath the bus.

Zoo Bus -Front-CU-leftNext I played with the placement of the animals in the bus and once satisfied with their placement, I glued them to the backside of the blue bus. For the cake rack and the monkey, I had to add small slips of cardstock for supports for the foam tape that adhered them to the bus frame. The koala bear was also foam taped to the back bus using the die cut door opening as my placement guides. The tires were glued flat to the backing bus’s wheels. (And while I toyed with the idea of making the wheels on the bus spin – mimicking the children’s song – I deciding against it.) Doubled sided foam bits from my stash were sandwiched between the two bus layers for dimension. Baker’s twine was taped to the back of the colored balloons and poked between the bus layers and glued.

Zoo Bus -Inside -WUsing Stampin’Up Dapper Denim blue ink I stamped both outside “For You on your birthday” sentiment on white cardstock and then the large “Happy Birthday” inside the card. The “For You” I heat embossed with sparkly snow embossing powder which added sparkle, but embossed clear.

Zoo Bus -Inside -CUOn the top inside panel I added another Art impression’s stamp of a tricycle riding elephant that I had colored and fussy cut out with its hat flying off.

Zoo Bus -Front-WThe completed card has the bus doors being able to be opened to shoe the koala bear.

Supplies:

Stamps/Dies

Papers

  • White light weight card stock from stash
  • DCWV – Strips Box of Cards – 40 A2 Printed Textured Cards & Envelops

Inks/Watercolors

Miscellaneous

Vintage Fan Birthday Wish

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Vintage greeting cards are charming. Using royalty-free images from Dover Publication’s Electronic Clip Art is a great way to use vintage images and resize them to fit your needs on a computer. I printed both flowery birthday images from a book with a CD-ROM called Treasury of Greeting Card Designs. The front fan image I printed on printable glitter cardstock. I put two of the same size of the smaller calling card image on regular white cardstock.

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Fussy cutting all the images was necessary. Of the two smaller images, I cut one fully out and the second one I only cut-out the calling card portion. The calling card is placed on foam squares to form the rest for the “easel” fan front.

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I traced the fussy cut fan onto a piece of white cardstock and cut it out for the card base. I covered the side of the base that would show when open with double-sided tape and then laid the plaid paper from the Victoria & Albert collection of fabric and wallpapers on top and fussy cut it. Next, I adhered the smaller image to the plaid side of card base positioning it so it would act as the easel rest. From the same plaid paper, I cut a 3.5-inch-wide strip folded in long-wise in half and using double-sided tape inside made a 1.25-inch-wide strip that was plaid on both sides.

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This strip I adhered using strong red double-sided tape to the backside of the fan image and then aliening it up with the bottom image, I attached the strip to the backside of the card base. Using the same technique of taping the backside of the fan image and the card base, I covered up the adhered plaid strip. Inside using plaid paper and the card base back with flowered paper again from the V&A collection.

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SUPPLIES USED:

Images:

Paper:

Miscellaneous:

Ride the Birthday Train

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train ride- inside

Get on board the Birthday Train!  This was my first attempt at using Karen Burniston’s Train Pivot Panels and companion Train Elements.  Having made other of KB’s pivot panels I found it an easy assembly. (If you haven’t made a pivot panel card before, please look at her assembly videos.)

train ride- front

I used bright primary colors for the card using lots of scraps bits for the words and tiny decoration pieces. “Enjoy” and “ride” are double cut from red and blue papers and off-set to give a shadow effect.  The card base is from Karen Burniston’s Circle Tag Book Pop-up.  The red grosgrain ribbon hides the tiny portion of train’s “cow catcher” and tracks that show beyond the rounded edge.

train ride- inside wide

Two pearl-like domed dots were used for the railroad crossing sign.(I removed these dots and replaced with red circles of cardstock when I sent the card to a two year old because of the fear he would try to eat them.) Bears are from KB’s Winter Animals die set.

Watch a Video of card

SUPPLIES USED:

Dies

Paper:

  • Cardstock scraps from my stash including black glitter cardstock for wheels

Miscellaneous:

A Party Without Cake

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cake shop front-cu

“A party with out cake is just a meeting” is the sentiment for this pop-up cake shop birthday card.  Made with Die-cutting Essentials Special Edition Issue 6 – Shop Front and Hunkydory Moonstone Shadow Box Frame – MSTONE076 die sets and papers from shop front kit, this scrumptious card is a fun little diorama style card.

cake shop front-medium

The shop front papers include interior scenes as well as signs and background papers.  I adhered the interior paper for the cake shop on to light weight cardstock and then fussy cut around the table shapes. Then I cut the shadow box outer frame and two inner frames. I played with spacing the three tables out on the frames looking through he window and door, before I adhered the tables to frames. I taped using double-sided tape the striped pink wallpaper to the back piece of cardstock for the shadowbox frame and then using foam tape placed the back table on the wallpapered panel. The front two tables were taped using transparent removable tape to the lower corners of the interior shadow box frames.

cake shop front-roof

Next, I worked on decorating the shop front cut from a textured red paper, and I cut a second shop front from cream colored cardstock and fussy cut the window frame and door out it.  The “sweet” sign on the door is a sticker. The mail flap is a piece of gold holographic card, and the doorknob is Nuvo Crystal Drops. The green bushes are cut from a food box and embossed with the embossing folder from the shop front kit and placed with foam tape. The doorstep is from paper kit. A clear piece of acetate was adhered to the back of the window after the shop front was adhered to shadow box frame with double-sided-tape. This helps with the folding of the card, so cakes don’t get caught in the window frame. Sign was cut from papers and then adhered to cream cardstock before being permanently on shop front.

cake shop front-full

The “Happy Birthday” top of the card was stamped, and heat embossed onto white card stock and the cut out with a tab on the bottom. Using makers to create polka dots and then adhered to shop roof. The same polka dot paper from the back was used to roof the shop. The back sentiment was also heat embossed and adhered to back with foam tape.

cake shop back

 

SUPPLIES USED:

Dies

Paper:

Embossing Folder:

Stamps and Ink:

Miscellaneous:

Postman’s Retirement Birthday

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Happy Mail! What better way to celebrate one’s birthday, than by retiring.

Retirement Bday-Front letters down

That’s what a family friend did recently when he retired after 30 years delivering mail.

Retirement Bday-Front letters halfway

This card was created using Concord & 9th’s Mail Drop die and stamp set. My husband wrote the messages on the letters since I did not have any stamps that would provide the sentiments we wanted in the small space we had to work with on the letters.

Retirement Bday-Front letters up

Inside I used an older Stampin’ Up “Happy Birthday” stamp.

Retirement Bday-inside

I used the mailbox lid stamp from Concord & 9th’s Mail Drop stamp set on the envelope flap.

Retirement Bday-Front envelope

SUPPLIES USED:

Dies

Stamps

Paper

Miscellaneous

Be Spontaneous!

| ullycatdesigns

BDay Party Ulta closeup-pop-up

Spontaneous birthday parties are wonderful, especially pop-up ones. This card’s inspiration came from experimenting with cutting multiple square wave frames and playing with shadow boxes. Once I realized the square wave frames fit the Karen Burniston Frame Pull Pop-Up top square, I knew I had to create a mini pop-up version of Courtney Chilston’s Birthday Shadow Box card.

BDay Party closeup-Front

Having made the Frame Pull Pop-up card before, I studied my practice card to make sure I remembered the assembly. (You can access the assembly video at here.) I remembered her advice to keep the top square flexible and not over decorated with stiff layers and used papers rather than cardstock to lay the background of colorful wave frames. I made sure the top edge did not have any overhanging edges of the frames that would catch when the card popped open.

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I had cut and assembled several sets of decorations from the Birthday Shadow Box card die set the last time I had made the card, so I only had to cut the cake and frosting and a circle for a plate from scrap cardstock in my stash. I found two shades of browns for the cake and used a white gel pen to added accents to the frosting. After gluing the cake together, I gently rounded the cake with my fingers to add depth to it as well as a Mini Dimensional foam dot to adhere it to the pop-up cube on the card. Double-sided red tape was used to attach the awning to the top of the pop-up.

BDay Party closeup-pop-up right

Decorations for the inside of the card all came from the Birthday Shadow Box set. The sentiment banner is a strip of thin cardstock stamped and embossed using Stampin’ Up Blow Out the Candles stamp set, VersaMark Watermark Stamp Pad and Ranger Black Sparkle Embossing Powder. The balloons stamped on the envelope flap are also from the Blow Out the Candles set. The die cut words on the pop-up come from Karen Burniston Word-Set-2-Birthday.

BDay Party -inside

 

SUPPLIES USED:

Dies

Stamps:

Paper:

Miscellaneous:

TZXT2727[1]

Happy Mail

| ullycatdesigns

happy Mail card envelop 1

Happy mail is when you get note from someone you haven’t heard from in a while. Happy mail is opening an envelope and getting good news.  Happy mail makes you smile.

I love getting interactive cards. Not only do they stand out as different, but they make me think that someone went to a lot of trouble to design and get the mechanics right on how it works. Concord & 9th’s new Mail Drop stamp and coordinating dies are happy mail for me.

happy Mail card envelop 2

I made this test card from the set as a birthday card, but the other phrases in the set allow for creativity and customization.  Getting the slit in the correct spot on both the envelope and the backing panel took several tries.  I recommend watching this video to get it right the first time.

Long Live Snail Mail!