Cards

Autumn Blessings

| ullycatdesigns

thanksgiving front

Autumn in much of North America is characterized by the browning, yellowing and sometimes reddening of leaves. The muted, earthy tones are part of the season.  Inspired by the “over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go” tune and by a Karen Burniston video on double pivot panel card, I made this Thanksgiving card.

To see video of this card, click here.

thanksgiving back

The card is designed to be displayed open. The personalized message can be written on the back cover.

thanksgiving inside

To see video of this card, click here.

SUPPLIES USED:

Dies

Paper:

 

Miscellaneous:

Butterfly Halloween

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Angela Poole’s Flutterings -Butterfly die set is the basis of this card. This was the first time I had made this die set.  I used a heavy black cardstock from my stash to cut the main pieces of the butterfly mechanism and lightweight orange cardstock scrap for the backing pieces. I watched Angela’s two videos on the assembly of the butterfly card, before attempting my assembly. I used red double-sided tape to adhere the main mechanism piece to the card base. (I cut out a rectangle in the glitter card so that the tape could stick to a smooth card base for a stronger hold.) The lacy wings kept getting caught-up in the movement, so I used tiny dots of glue to adhere them to the orange backing of the wings.

butterfly-open

The orange ribbon was added to make the pull tab easier to pull.  It opens the wings to reveal a Happy Halloween with tiny pumpkin, both stamped from an older planner stamp set in my stash.

All-in-all a relatively easy interactive mechanism to assemble, but possibly the placement of the body hinders the closing of the wings, a long with their catching on each other’s lacy edges. I’ll have to experiment some with the die set and assembly.

You can view a video of the wings in motion by clicking here.

Simple with a Twist

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Farm House BDay-inside CU2

Inspiration can be as simple as seeing something that reminds you of another thing. It was a simple as that when I looked at the 6 x6 paper pad in Prima’s Spring Farm House collection.  I saw the 12 rectangular images on one page and my mind wondered if they were the same size as the photo frames in Karen Burniston’s Photo Collage Pop-Up die. They were close enough in size to make the mechanism work.

The mechanism is where the twist comes in to play. It has four arms that you can attach flat images to that explode out as you open the card. From the folded close position, the mechanism twists out to display the images. (I watched KB’s assembly video several times to understand how the mechanism works and its assembly before I made my test mechanism to play with and keep stored with the die set.)

Farm House BDay-inside closing

It was trial and error when placing the images on the four arms. I used a tape runner as recommended in the assembly video to place the images, test the placement when folded up, move the image several times, rub off adhesive and start over with the placement.

Farm House BDay-inside W

For the front of the card I used on of the journaling postcards that I trimmed down and glued a die-cut “Happy Birthday.”

Farm House BDay-Front

 

SUPPLIES USED:

Dies

Stamps

Paper

Miscellaneous

Bendi-Shadow Boxes

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Swing Tree-front

Bendi-Shadow Boxes are quick to make when using a scene building die set. I built this tree swing example in under 2 hours from design, locating materials from scrap paper stash to die-cutting all the pieces to assembly, using the Xcut “Make Me” die set included in the Homemaker Die Cuts & Digi Stamps All-in-one Die & Digi Stamp Kit.

I cut two pieces of card stock 5 1/2 inches x 4 1/4 inches for the outside pieces and one piece 5 inches x 4 1/4 inches for the inside layer. Next I scored the two outer pieces at 1/4 inch, 3/8 inch, 5 3/8 inches and 5 1/4 inches on each piece. The score marks closest to the inside are mountain folds and the score marks closes to the outside are valley folds.

Swing Tree-Assembly 3

Next I laid-out my two rectangular nesting dies and decided on the size cuts I wanted for my shadow box openings on one of the 5 1/2 inch outer pieces and the 5 inch middle piece.  I used the largest die on the front outside layer. After cutting the front layer, I used it as a template to place the next size smaller die on the 5 inch middle layer.

I decorated my layers before I assembled the layers together. (I did use some foam tape for the grass in front of the fence for an extra layer of dimension.)

Swing Tree-Assembly 1

Using 1/8 inch red double-sided sticky tape, I ran strips down the inside edges of the outer two pieces.

Swing Tree-Assembly 2

Peeling only the left back layer red tape, I lined up the inside layer left edge to the back piece left edge and pressed together. I did the same for the back, right edge and the front edges – doing one edge at-a-time for the most control over alignment of edges.

Because the outer layers are longer than the inside layer, they bow out some which allows the card to stand-up.

Swing Tree-3 layers

Here is another example of a bendi-shadow card.

 

Swing Tree-front

SUPPLIES USED:

Dies

 

Paper:

 

 

Miscellaneous:

 

Be Adventurous!

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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:

Potted Flowers Greetings

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IMG_5805

A colorful archway of potted plants looking into shaded shelves of plants. What could be more inviting on a hot summer’s day than the cool retreat into a shaded, colorful paradise?

The shadow frames were die cut using the three rectangles from Sizzix’s Courtney Chilston’s Birthday Shadow Box Thinlits set from a set of blue cardstock that progressively gets darker as it goes backwards, just as the light and shades would looking through a doorway on a sunny day.

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This card was created using Poppy Stamps’ Spring Pots Shelves, Spring Pots Frame and Tiny Frogs dies. Two full die cuts were made from each of the pots dies – one in white/cream cardstock and one in green. The green die cuts had the rectangular frame cut away from the vine on the frame and the green shelves had the two shelves separated.  Using colorful scrapes, additional dies cuts were made of pots and flower blooms.  (Hint: Use wax paper over these intricate dies. They will peel off from the back side of the cardstock and take many of the tiny dots and squiggles with them as you peel. Use a poking tool for the rest.)

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The green die cuts were glued onto the white/cream die cuts and the colorful pots and blooms were glued down.  Using some scrap brown kraft-paper, two narrow strips were cut and glued over the separated pots to form two new shelves that were a quarter of an inch longer on each side.

Stampin’ Up’s “Hello There” stamp and coordinating corner stamp complete the front of the card.  (I suggest stamping first before assembling the card.)  The inside sentiment is die cut from a Karen Burniston Word set.

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Foam tape was used between the four layers placing the tape near the cut out rectangle so that foam layers are not directly above each other so that the card will meet the .25” maximum thickness of U.S. Postal Service.

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SUPPLIES USED:

Dies

Poppy Stamps 2174-Spring Pots Shelves

Poppy Stamps 2173 Spring Pots Frame

Poppy Stamps 1781 Tiny Frogs

Sizzix 663581 Courtney Chilston’s Birthday Shadow Box

Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley & Co. 1002 Word Set 1- Greetings

 

Stamps:

Stampin’Up 147464 Around The Corner

 

Miscellaneous:

Wax Paper

Scotch Foam Tape

Tombow Aqua Mono Liquid Glue

Crayola Signature Brush & Detail Dual-ended Markers

Paris in Springtime

| ullycatdesigns

IMG_5767IMG_5742

What a romantic image of Paris !  When I received the two dies that I used on this card, I looked at the packaging images for ideas for colors and layout and then did some modification to the easel mechanism.

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Changing the frame from a hanging charm to a larger flat panel on an easel was as simple as using ½ inch wide, red-sticky-permanent double-sided tape to hold in place the rectangle piece that was cut out for the frame.  And adhering the flat panel to the easel.

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Because the flat panel is larger than the original frame pull tab, I had to add an extension tab. I used clear removable tape to smooth over the catching point where the extension level changes. In order to be able to fit the card in an A2 envelope, I punched a hole and tied a ribbon to the tab as a pull grip.

Pull Here

But how does the card recipient know to pull the ribbon?  Read my last post on CRX.

IMG_5767

Paris Easel Card

Paris in the Springtime Die set from Die Cutting essentials  issue 49

Karen Burniston’s Pop It Ups for Elizabeth Craft Designs 1104-Hanging Charm Pull Tab die set

“Pull Here” stamp from Concord and Ninth’s Mail Drop Stamp Collection

 

CRX – Card Recipient Experience

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You create the most delightful card that moves went you pull a slider or you create a box card that folds flat, and the recipient of the card gets it in the mail and has no idea how to make it work.  This is not the ideal card recipient experience (CRX) you want.

In the web designers world, they talk about User Experience (UX). For us in the not so digital field of card designers, we need to think about CRX or how we let our users know how to operate the card if the recipient is not use to receiving interactive cards.

Arrows indicating direction to pull a slider tab are common.  Including a diagram of how a box card should look when completed is simple enough. Or you can get creative and string a “pull here” tag on a thread that can be removed once used.

A great card is both beautiful to the eye of the beholder and easily explained if it involves moving parts.

Dies/Stamps Used:

You’re In My Thoughts Box of Flowers

Lawn Fawn Scalloped Box Card Pop-Up

Build -A-Bouquet Stamp Collection for Papercrafter magazine issue 118 

Stamped in black ink and colored with Crayola Signature Brush & Detail Dual-ended Markers

Tea and Tulips Box of Flowers

Lawn Fawn Scalloped Box Card Pop-Up

Stampin’ Up’s Tearoom Copper Vinyl Stickers

Stampin’ Up’s Tea Room Specialty Designer Series Paper

Tea Room Memories & More Card Pack.

Shaded Tulip Stamp & Layer set by Susan Bates for Papercraft Inspirations magazine, issue 182

CraftSmart and Hampton Art mini ink pads.

Paris Easel Card

Paris in the Springtime Die set from Die Cutting essentials  issue 49

Karen Burniston’s Pop It Ups for Elizabeth Craft Designs 1104-Hanging Charm Pull Tab die set

“Pull Here” stamp from Concord and Ninth’s Mail Drop Stamp Collection

Two Fish, One Fish

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Fish bowl 4

Two fish, one fish, is that a cat I see?

This is meant as a fun card. Ever since I saw the Die-cutting essentials magazine issue 36 Underwater Friends die set, I have been planning to make some sort of interactive card with it.

Fish bowl 2 - Copy

Finding the Karen Burniston Pop It Ups’ Oval landscape Accordion -1108 die set by Elizabeth Craft Designs gave me the idea on how to proceed to tell a story through a card.

Fish bowl 1 - Copy

First there are two fish. Then there is one fish. then there is a cat’s face watching intently.

Fish bowl 5 - Copy

Did the cat do anything beyond watching? What do you think happened?

Fishbowl-envelope

The cat’s face has a slit at the top and bottom so that it can slip off the pivot points and be signed or a greeting added.  I used Grafix Dura-Lar .005 Clear Film, an archival polyester film to die cut 3 of the accordion sections. I then die cut 6 of the blue cardstock accordion sections and then all the fish and greenery pieces. I used a combination of Tombow Aqua Mono Liquid Glue for around the blue oval frames because I could easily clean-up any messes with a damp paper towel. I used Tombow Multi Mono Liquid Glue for adhering the blue frames to the clear film because it needed to be a strong adherence for a sturdy frame.