Candles

Spooky Parlor

| ullycatdesigns

Halloween can be spooky and fun. Using the new Halloween themed dies along with the new fireplace pop-up and extras sets in the August 2022 release by Karen Burniston, made making this card fun from start to finish.

(Watch the assembly video before starting your card.) The pop-up fireplace is a bit different from other fireplace pop-ups that cut directly into the card base.  For this fireplace, the pop-up mechanism is a separate glue in piece that could be used with other covers than the fireplace. With two sets of fireplace and room decor accessories, making a cute room scene is a snap. The same die is used for the mantel and the heath. I cut them from brown and black cardstock respectively and used black ink on mantel to age it and a white shimmer watercolor crayon on the black hearth to similar slate. The white shimmer crayon was also used on the fireplace brick to highlight the embossed brick.

There are lots of great Halloween themed dies in this release. The large bat, skeleton, small pumpkins and bow tie cat are all from the Skeleton Bat set. (I cut the handles off the pumpkins and used one to make the bat smile.) The slim pattern plates were used on the front and back of the card. (I find that the weight of the front and back of the card need to be equal or the back heavier for the pop-up fireplace to work properly.) For the spiders and webs on the card front I used a pearlescent vellum. On the flurry of bats on the back, I used a white gel pen to dot eyes on all the bats.

To make the candles and clock on the mantel pop-up along with the planters, cat and skeleton on the floor stand up, I used the tiny pop-up strip from the fireplace set. When folded into a cube, the pop-up mechanism has a long side and a short side with allow you to have different dimensions for your objects on the mantel and floor. The Fireplace Extras 1 is Christmas themed. I used the candles from this set. Fireplace Extras 2 has more everyday items like the clock, planter, picture frames and fireplace fender or fence that I used. (I couldn’t resist putting some skeletons in the picture frames!)

If you notice the vellum spider web and dangling spider in the fireplace, they are from the previously released Halloween Scene set. I cut one of the dangling boots in the fireplace set down to use as a base to glue a piece of thread to and then the spider.

I used previously released sentiments for the card front and inside. “Boo!” is from Halloween Elements and the “Happy Halloween” is its own set.

The card was made with a 5×7 inch kraft card base that fits into an A7 kraft envelope stamped with my favorite dancing skeleton.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Hot off the Press – Paper Pizazz – Heart Flourish Black – HOTP-10407
  • Hot off the Press – Black Glitter Cardstock
  • The Paper Studio – Everyday Kraft 12×12 paper pad
  • American Crafts – 12×12 paper – 348962 (skeleton parts)
  • Orange, brown, red, silver, black and white cardstock and clear vellum scraps
  • Upcycled packaging – coated gray spackled cardstock
  • Lawn Fawn – Pearlescent Vellum 8.5×11 – LF2088
  • American Crafts – 5 x7 Kraft card & A7 envelope

Pens, Crayons, Inks & Coatings

  • Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Point – Black
  • Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen– 08 -White
  • Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen– 06 -Black
  • Hello Hobby – Fineliner Pens – .04 mm tip – Red
  • Recollections – Watercolor Crayons – White
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink – Vintage Photo and Black Soot
  • Memento – Fade-Resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Nuvo – Aqua Shimmer – 882 – Glitter Glass

Stamps

Miscellaneous

Holiday House Luminaria

| ullycatdesigns

Colorful holiday lights fill up the long winter nights. This little holiday house luminaria would be perfect as a holiday table decoration or a child’s nightlight. (Note: Use battery powered candles only.)

Made with Karen Burniston’s recent release of her holiday house die set, this 3-inch tall by 2 ½ inch cube has slight modifications made to original two-dimensional design. I cut four of each of the die pieces, (except for the smaller house shape and door pieces, of which I cut two each.) I stenciled the roof pieces and brick pieces first and then assembled two houses exactly as shown on the package with one modification, I used a craft knife to cut out the windows on the red house piece.

To cut the windows I used two of the window frame pieces to decide on placement and then I traced with a pencil around them. Using a metal ruler and craft knife I cut an 1/16 inch inside the pencil marks, so that the window frames would still have an edge to glue onto the red house. For the sides of the house without a door, I made sure the tops of the windows lined up with the tops on the front and back of the house. (HINT: If you are going to make a lot of these houses, make templates from heavy cardstock to trace where the window cut-outs would be.) Glue strips of vellum to the back side of the house pieces to act as window glass.

I cut the snowy roof edging and string of lights from white shimmer paper. The lights were colored using markers before assembling the house. The snow on the ground around the house were scraps from the die cutting of the roof edging pieces.

To assemble, trim the roof sides to be the same as the house sides. Next, lay all the pieces side by side and tape them together on the back side.

The roof top is a 3-inch by 3-inch square that was stenciled moving the roof die across the square. Using a score board score ¼ inch from all four sides of the square. Snip on of one the scored sides of the tiny squares to form tabs. Fold on all four score lines to form a square tray shape. You can push this tray up inside the house cube. No glue needed.

The house and roof will fold to mail in an A2 envelope.

Thank you for reading about this little house. Please like and leave a comment. 😊

Links to other luminaria and houses:

Victorian Trim House Luminaria

House Luminary

Victorian Christmas Parlor

Also see the series of “A Week of Christmas Houses”

Day 1 – From Our House to Your House

Day 2 – Santa is Coming

Day 3 – A Baby is Coming

Day 4 –Keeping the Home Fires Burning

Day 5 – Red Four-Square

Day 6 – Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Day 7 – House Luminary

SUPPLIES

Dies/Punches

Ink

Paper

Miscellaneous

Shine Bright

| ullycatdesigns

Sometimes simple is best. This embroidery floss filled-tree card has a simple message and design – Shine!

This is a first try at the new Spellbinder’s Large -Die-of-the-Month for November 2020 which has three designs to cut the holes and then using needle and thread to fill-in the designs. I used the full six strands of embroidery floss but think next time I might try three or four strands for the light circles. I followed the assembly video for the die set taping off my loose ends of threads.

Once the tree was stitched, I cut down the blue scrap piece I had die-cut the tree onto 3 7/8 x 3 5/8 inches. Using foam adhesive strips, I adhered the tree onto a green piece of mirror car that was 4 3/8 x 4 1/8 inches. These layers were then placed on a 6 x 5 inches sheet of patterned paper by Craft Consortium that had been adhered to a 6 ½ x 5 inches white card base.

Using a foiled sentiment, I had in my sentiments stash, I set the theme of shing bright for the card. (I like to do my foiling of sentiments in large groups to save time later.)

The inside sentiment is one my favorites from an old Kaisercraft stamp set. I tried a new tinsel embossing powder with it.

For the envelope flap, I used a new embossing folder that has big round dots, much like the candle glow circles stitched on the card.

Hope this card makes you smile.

SUPPLIES

Dies/Foiling Plates/Embossing Folders

Stamps

  • Kaisercraft – Clear Stamps – Sentiments -Traditional – CS313

Ink/Embossing Powder

Paper

Miscellaneous

© Sue Small-Kreider 2020

House Luminary

| ullycatdesigns

Building off of the red four-square house, this four-panel card becomes a wrap-around screen for a battery powered candle. This is the seventh house card in my series of “A Week of Christmas Houses” using Poppy Stamps 2020 Winter House Pop-Up Easel die set.

The house goes together easily by looking at the photos on the Poppy Stamps packaging. It does involve a lot of die cutting as there is only one die of each window type.  (I cut lots of the small pieces and store the extras in a tiny plastic bags that I keep with the die set.) To add depth to the porch and dormer windows I cut those pieces four times and glued together. The snowy pieces are cut from glitter paper.

Papers Used: The house is cut from a dark red cardstock with the windows and porch posts cut from cream. Note that two matting layers to each house panel – one pale yellow and one on heavy weight white cardstock. The red, cream and pale yellow come from monotone color packs of cardstock by Recollections.

Once again, peach organza ribbon to create some sparkly interest at the windows of the house. I masked off the front door with sticky notes and used Walnut Stain Distress ink to darken the door and frame. A wreath cut with a Tonic Studios die set to complete the door. (See Day 2 for details.)

Once the four houses were assembled, I glued together the pale yellow and white matting layers and then used the solid house die to trace where the windows needed to be cut out on to the pale yellow with a pencil. Because the tracing was inside the window, I had to cut 1/8 inch away from the outer edge of the pencil lines to make the window opening as large or slightly larger than the die cut window openings. I used a metal ruler and a craft knife to do this.

Once all the window openings were cut, I could glue the house fronts on to their matting layer panels. Lining the four completed panels up, I then used clear tape to hinge the panels together.

The panels can accordion fold to fit in an A2 envelope which I stamped with a greeting since the card has no greeting on it. I expect this will be a hand delivered card with a boxed candle.

Free PDF of display instructions.

house-luminariaDownload

See more house luminaria:

Victorian Trim House Luminaria

Holiday House Luminaria

See the more the series of “A Week of Christmas Houses”

Day 1 – From Our House to Your House

Day 2 – Santa is Coming

Day 3 – A Baby is Coming

Day 4 –Keeping the Home Fires Burning

Day 5 – Red Four-Square

Day 6 – Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Day 7 – House Luminary

An Old-Time Christmas Parlor

2019 – 12 Days of Christmas Trees

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

  • Kaisercraft – Clear Stamps – Sentiments -Traditional – CS313

Paper

Ink

Miscellaneous

Red Four-Square

| ullycatdesigns

The candles are lit in the windows to welcome you home to a house reminiscent of a red-brick four-square house popular in the early 20th century America. This is the fifth house card in my series of “A Week of Christmas Houses” using Poppy Stamps 2020 Winter House Pop-Up Easel die set.

The house goes together easily by looking at the photos on the Poppy Stamps packaging. It does involve a lot of die cutting as there is only one die of each window type.  (I cut lots of the small pieces and store the extras in a tiny plastic bags that I keep with the die set.) To add depth to the porch and dormer windows I cut those pieces twice and glued together. The snowy pieces are cut from glitter paper and some of the window frames and siding have Nuvo Glitter Drops used thinly to give the illusion of melted snow.

Papers Used: The house is cut from a dark red cardstock with the windows and porch posts cut from shiny cream which is recycled from an old store-bought card. The red, dark blue and pale yellow come from monotone color packs of cardstock by Recollections. Note that there is a dark blue outline layer of the house that provides the window inside color as well as framing the outside edge of the house.

I masked off the front door with sticky notes and used Vintage Photo Distress ink to darken the door and frame. A tiny drop of gold Nuvo Crystal Drops for the doorknob and a wreath cut with a Tonic Studios die set, complete the door. A fir tree is also cut from the Tonic set.

The windows all have tiny white candles cut from a thin white scrap and flames are cut from an orange envelope in my stash. I used the appropriately  named Candlelight – Spectrum Noir Sparkle Glitter Ink to put a dot of glow behind each candle on the dark blue layer. (The second floor center window seems to have a draft.) Click here to see more photos of how the candles were made.

The welcome mat, which acts as the easel stop, was stamped and heat embossed using a stamp from a retired Stampin’ Up set. I used a blend of Ranger Black Sparkle and Recollections Ebony Detail Embossing powders that give the welcome mat a snowy sparkle. Once heat embossed, the mat was weathered using Antique Linen Distress Ink on a sponge dauber and cut out with the coordinating die. Foam squares where used to adhere the mat to card and make it tall enough to act as an easel stop.

The ”Merry Christmas” is cut from heavy black cardstock glued down.  A personal message can be written behind the house

I used two stamps on the envelope flap. I stamped Season’s in red and then masked it with a sticky note and stamped the greetings circle (which has a different sentiment in its center) in dark green.

See the more the series of “A Week of Christmas Houses”

Day 1 – From Our House to Your House

Day 2 – Santa is Coming

Day 3 – A Baby is Coming

Day 4 –Keeping the Home Fires Burning

Day 5 – Red Four-Square

Day 6 – Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Day 7 – House-Luminary

2019 – 12 Days of Christmas Trees

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

Paper

Ink/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous

Santa is Coming Tonight

| ullycatdesigns

Santa is coming-open-wide

It’s Christmas Eve and the candles are lit in the windows to welcome Santa. This is the second house card in my series of “A Week of Christmas Houses” using Poppy Stamps 2020 Winter House Pop-Up Easel die set.

The house goes together easily by looking at the photos on the Poppy Stamps packaging. It does involve a lot of die cutting as there is only one die of each window type.  (I cut lots of the small pieces and store the extras in a tiny plastic bags that I keep with the die set.) To add depth to the porch and dormer windows I cut those pieces twice and glued together. The snowy pieces are cut from glitter paper and some of the window frames and siding have Nuvo Glitter Drops used thinly to give the illusion of melted snow.

Santa is coming-Side view

Papers Used: The house is cut from Bazzill heavy card stock in a 2014 color of Gold Coin. The dark blue, red and pale yellow come from monotone color packs of cardstock by Recollections. Note that there is a dark blue outline layer of the house that provides the window inside color as well as framing the outside edge of the house.

Santa is coming-inking door

I masked off the front door with sticky notes and used Walnut Stain Distress ink to darken the door and frame. A tiny drop of gold Nuvo Crystal Drops for the doorknob (which wasn’t put on yet in the photo) and a wreath made from green scraps and a piece of red embroidery floss, complete the door. Greenery was cut from food boxes to get the thickness using a greenery die by Christina Griffiths and snipped into smaller pieces and glued to a wreath shape cut freehand.

Santa is coming-windows-CU

The windows all have tiny white candles cut from a thin white scrap and flames are cut from an orange envelope in my stash. I used the appropriately  named Candlelight – Spectrum Noir Sparkle Glitter Ink to put a dot of glow behind each candle on the dark blue layer.

Santa is coming-Candles

I stamped Santa Sleigh on white cardstock and colored with colored pencils. I cut a strip of clear plastic packaging to sandwich between Santa and another piece of white cardstock. Before I glued the strip, laid-out the position of the house, Santa and the plastic strip on a slimline envelope to make sure all would fit inside the envelope.

Santa is coming-laying out

Other than having to trim a bit off each side of the eaves on the white card base, all fit.

Santa is coming-triming card base

I made pencil marks to note where the plastic would go on the backsides of the dark blue layer and Santa. The plastic is sandwiched between the blue layer of the house and the white card base layers.

Santa is coming-Santa gluing

The welcome mat, which acts as the easel stop, was stamped and heat embossed using a stamp from a retired Stampin’ Up set. I used a blend of Ranger Black Sparkle and Recollections Ebony Detail Embossing powders that give the welcome mat a snowy sparkle. Once heat embossed, the mat was weathered using Antique Linen Distress Ink on a sponge dauber and cut out with the coordinating die. Foam pads where used to adhere the mat to card and make it tall enough to act as an easel stop.

The ”Merry Christmas” is cut from heavy black cardstock glued down.  A personal message can be written behind the house

The envelope was stamped in read on cream envelope using vintage Disney stamps.

Santa is coming-card-envelope

See the more the series of “A Week of Christmas Houses”

Day 1 – From Our House to Your House

Day 2 – Santa is Coming

Day 3 – A Baby is Coming

Day 4 – Keep the Home Fires Burning

Day 5 – Red Four Square

Day 6 – Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Day 7 – House Luminary

2019 – 12 Days of Christmas Trees

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

Paper

Ink/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous