CRX

A Stately Home for the Holidays

| ullycatdesigns

Victorian mansions of Italianate design fit so well into the Currier and Ives world of 19th Century images of Christmas, suggesting the warm and good cheer to be found inside such homes.

This card was made with Anna Griffin dies and stamps as well as printed card base and envelope.

While the mansion is intended to be used as a Halloween haunted house, the tower and arched windows reminded me of numerous red brick houses in the Midwestern United States. I cut the house twice from red cardstock, once from cream colored cardstock, and once from slate gray cardstock. Using the detailed window dies, I cut just enough of the different windows to match the various windows on the house from cream cardstock. From one of the red houses, I cut the porch walls with stairs attached, pillars, porch roof and tower above. I adhered the tower with thin foam squares and the porch brick walls with thick foam squares onto the other red house. From the cream-colored house, I cut the top porch wall decorations, front steps, porch pillars and porch roof. These were glued onto the red house.  From the slate gray house, I cut all the roof pieces including the porch roof. These were glued on to the base bouse. From the cream-colored house, I cut the eaves trim and tower fence railings. These railings and the top roof railings I colored with a gold metallic marker. The cream window frames were the last bits glued on to the house base.

Using the outline die of the Halloween house die, I cut a yellow patterned paper back for the house and glued the house onto it. 

For the Christmas wreaths and evergreen trees, I used dies from the Holiday Home Ease Card dies. Tiny scraps of patterned and textured papers add life to these wee decorations.

To turn the beautifully foiled card base into a slider card, I measured the finished house and lightly traced around the shape to know here the slider easel needed to be cut into the card base. (See this earlier slider card blog for more details.) The slider arm was cut using the door outline die from the Slimline Door die set and trimmed to fit the card base. A small hole punch was used to have a place to tie a ribbon pull onto the slider card which is hidden when the card is closed. A thumb hole was cut through both layers of the closed card base at the card top in the center using a 1-inch hole punch.

Before assembling the card, the sentiments were stamped with watermark ink and heat embossed on a cream piece of paper for the “Merry Christmas” and “Happy New Year” on to the top of the slider arm.

To assemble, the slider arm was glued to the backside of the lower tab of the slider easel. Next, using two layers of double-sided tape on the inside of the card base, along the two sides and bottom of the slider frame, the card was adhered shut.

The house was attached to the slider easel with foam pads on the front half of the easel. Ribbon was tied to the slider arm as well as a tiny tag saying “PULL” to ensure good CRX. (For more on good CRX see earlier blogs.)

Envelopes should never be left plain. They are the first hint as to what is inside. For this card I used a holly sprig stamped in dark green ink to set the Victorian mood of the card to come.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this blog post, please like it and follow the blog. 😊

Click here for a list of other house cards on my blog.

Dies:

Stamps

Inks & Embossing Powders

  • VersaMark – Watermark Stamp Pad
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Tranquil Tide
  • Nuvo Embossing Powder – Crimson Gloss
  • CraftStash – Gold Embossing Powder – from 2020 Advent Calendar
  • Gold metallic marker

Papers

  • Colored and white cardstock
  • Pattered paper from Mrs. Sparkle paper pads
  • Card base and envelope from Anna Griffin’s Present Pop-Up Card Making Kit

Additional Supplies:

A Valentine for a Baseball Fan

| ullycatdesigns

What kind of Valentine’s Day card do you give to a baseball fan during a time of COVID-19? A triple heart slider in their team’s colors.

This card is the fourth of a series of Split-Slider Slimlines.

Card base is cut from heavy black cardstock. It is a rectangle 8 5/8 inches x 7 inches and folded in half to form a 3 ½ inch x 8 5/8 inches card base. The slider arm and easel panel template was printed also on heavy black card stock.

Split-Slider: This split slider is based off Spellbinders Large Die of the Month for January 2021.  The three mini easels were drawn and cut based off the three heart openings in the slimline die. (You can download a template for the horizontal split slider in the Materials Used section below.) The slider arm is horizontal rather than vertical as previous cards were. (Hint: Rectangular easels that will slide under the heart frames eliminate a catchpoint for the easel.)

You can glue the easel panel to the back of the lacy panel as long as you don’t glue the easel tab area at the bottom of the heart frames. Just put glue around the outer edge of the lacy panel.

Because the top lacy panel is adhered on three sides to the card base and needs to be raised, I used foam tape strips to raise the panel. (I like Stampin’ Up’s foam adhesive strips because they are precut and narrow enough to fit along the edge of the lacy panel.) Adhere the easel tabs to the slider arm before removing the backing paper of the foam tape.

You may have to help fold the easels into the fully opened position the first time to train them. Once satisfied with the slider/easels’ movement, remove panel backing tape paper and adhere to card base lining up the lacy panel with the top fold edge of the card base. (Note: The top edge of the slider arm (the pull bar) should jut out over the card base so that fingers can easily pinch the bar and pull up.)

Pull-Bar: The long pull bar or top edge of the slider arm is reinforced with a thick cardstock strip. Three yellow arrows are glued to the pull bar and a white dot for the place to hold the card when pulling up the slider arm. (For good CRX – I add a slip of paper to the card when mailing to show how to open the card. PDF of slip download is in Materials Used.)

Decorating the Easels: Because I had cut the lacy panel three times, I had plenty of the heart cut outs. I used three yellow hearts to form the easel bases that are folded at the tip of the heart when adhered to the slider easel. Three more yellow hearts are glued only at the rounded tops to the easel base hearts.

Using foam squares I adhered stamped baseball equipment to the yellow hearts and placed a bat under them.

Make sure you don’t glue anything that will impede the easels from moving.

The foiled “Happy Valentine’s Day” sentiment and stamped “Take me out to the ball game” are adhered to the inside of the card with double sided tape.

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

If you enjoy reading about the card I make, please follow ullysworld489442913.com.

Split-Slider Slimline Series:

Day 1 – Split Sea Slider

Day 2 – Cloud Dreams

Day 3 – Triple Hearts

Day 4 – A Valentine for a Baseball Fan

Materials Used:

Template

triple-heart-slider-templateDownload
split-slider-crx-sheetDownload

Dies

Foiling

Stamping

  • Hampton Art – Graphic 45 – Cling Stamps No. 11
  • Fun Stampers Journey – Rubber Stamps – Winners – SS-0362
  • Hero Arts – mini ink pad from My Monthly Here Kit September 2020 – Cup 0’ Joe

Papers

Miscellaneous

© 2021 Sue Small-Kreider/Ully Cat Designs

Congrats, Grad!

| ullycatdesigns

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!

I used the Simon Says Stamp Hat’s Off Grad stamp and die set along with the Quintuple Slider dies to make an interactive card that has the graduates’ caps moving up and down.

To start, I used a stencil to ink (Salty Ocean) a cloudy background with tiny confetti being stamped in Dapper Denim blue up to just below the bottom of the slider slits (as if the confetti was falling out of the caps.) The bold sentiments were stamped with Versamark ink and heat embossed with gold embossing powder.

Next, I stamped the arms and caps using a black ink (Tuxedo Black) that dries fast and doesn’t bleed if water colored. Using the colors of the graduate’s college, a dark blue, I colored the caps and gowns using watercolor pencils and a thin tipped waterbrush.

Inside the card base I stamped two of the smaller text sentiments included in the set – “The tassel was worth the hassle” and “Good luck on your new adventure” – in Blueberry Bushel blue.

Next, I did all my die cutting of elements using the matching dies, circle arrow and the squarish quintuple slider. On 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.)

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 (I cut a square in half to fit the slider flaps) are adhered to the flaps, the decorating of the card can begin. (CRX – Don’t forget to add some hint that the slider tab needs to be pulled up by adding a die cut circle arrow which is included in the slider die set.)

I used two shades of blue cardstock to mat the slider mechanism. I found that I needed to cut a circle notch from all layers of the four layers of cardstock. I started by folding back the top of the slider once I had aligned the circle arrow die up on the background top layer and cut the circle out. Next, I took the two blue layers which I had glued together and aligned the top background layer over the blue mats and used a pencil to mark where the circle die should go. Cut these two layers and trim the top of the cut area to make a “U” shaped notch in blue layers. Position the blue mats over the card base and using a pencil to mark and then cut the circle from card base. Adhere the blue layers to card base with double-sided tape. Adhere the top mechanism using foam tape on sides and bottom. Leave top of mechanism layer free so slider can move up and down.

The back flap of the envelope has a diploma stamped in Blueberry Bushel blue to give a hint as to what was inside.

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

Materials Used:

Stamps/Dies/Stencils

Inks/Watercolors

Papers

Miscellaneous

CRX – Card Recipient Experience Part II

| ullycatdesigns

CRX – Card Recipient Experience is a topic I’ve written on before. (CRX-Card Recipient Experience) Today I am including some some free downloads to help you with your interactive cards being displayed as you intended them to be displayed.

Santa Delivers to the Tropics …………………………………………………………………… Red Four Square

You’ve made a beautiful easel or double easel card that you fold into its envelope and mail off to your friend. When your friend opens the envelope and tries to open the easel card as if it were a tent fold card, it makes no sense or worse the card gets torn. To alleviate this problem why not include a small drawing of how the easel card opens and stands in the envelope as the first things your friend will see when they open the envelope.

easel-card-sheetDownload

Autumn Birthday teepee card

Teepee cards can be hard to figure out how the are to be displayed without an image of the finished card.

teepee-card-instruction-sheetDownload

House Luminary

Four panel cards with elements to allow light to shine through such as a house luminaria card can be displayed several ways – as a zig-zag or as a box around a battery powered candle.

house-luminaria-1Download

Split Slider -Vertical………………………………………… Split Slider – Horizontal

split-slider-crx-sheet-1Download

I hope this helps you as you go forward with your interactive card making. Please like and write a comment to let me know what other types of CRX issues you’ve had.

© Sue Small-Kreider 2021

Fishing Birthday Card – Teepee Style

| ullycatdesigns

This card was created to compliment an autumn birthday teepee card I had made earlier which was done in oranges and browns.  This one plays off the orange by using the contrasting color of blue with accents of browns and green. The recipient likes to fish so I used a fishing stamp set by Stampin’ Up and papers from my storage box of “masculine papers” (brands listed under supplies.)

Teepee cards-so named because of the shape, are easy cards to construct from three squares of cardstock that are all the same. You score each diagonally from one point to the opposite point and fold in half to form a triangle. Then you glue one of the squares to the left side triangle and another square to the right side of the triangle/center square. I recommend watch Sam Calcott’s Mixed up Crafts video for a step by step. (My card base is made up of three 5 ¾ inches squares of double-sided paper by Craft Consortium.) I cut three 5 ½ inch squares of green paper by Graphic 45 and then diagonally cut the square to get the 5 triangles I needed for the middle mat layer.

Once again, I want to have peek-a-boo-doors on the teepee card, so I added two flaps using the smallest and the medium circle dies in the Lawn Fawn circle flaps dies set cut into the top layer of triangular cut paper. Because I wanted to use the doors as platforms to set a hook and a large fish on, I used pop-out cubes to make them stand away from the card base.(My card used patterned blue paper by Authentique cut from 5 ¼ inch squares.) I also cut two additional circle flaps from the same blue paper to cover the back sides of the flap doors and squares to inlay behind the flap door matching the pattern. The pop-up cube to support an object is common, but I really learned the power of it from Karen Burniston’s Frame Pull Pop-up.

I fussy cut all of the card’s stamped images and sentiments after I had use watercolor pencils to color them. The happy Birthday rosette is made from a foiled topper from a card kit and ribbon gathered by needle and thread and then glued to the back of the topper.

The back side of the card has a cream-colored triangle for a personal message. The card is secured with a hook and loop square glued to one corner of the back flap and the connecting triangle.

I intended to have this card fold flat to fit inside a catalog envelope (9 inches x 6 inches) but I put the fisherman with his long pole and fishing line on the wrong panel. (Yes, it is real fishing line glued between two layers of the stamped fisherman and pole). The fisherman and the fish should have been where the other is, so that when folded flat the overlap lays on the cream panel so it will fit into a 9 x 6 inch envelope. But this card will be mailed in a larger padded envelope with a small diagram so the recipient will know how to stand it up for display and for good CRX. The back of the envelope is stamped with a fish.

Supplies

Dies

Stamps/Ink

Paper

Miscellaneous

  • PVA Glue – Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue
  • Hook and loop tape
  • Foam squares
  • Metallic organza ribbon from my stash
  • Zebco – OmniFlex – 20 lb. 9.1 kg Line – monofilament fishing line
  • Needle and thread

CRX – Card Recipient Experience

| ullycatdesigns

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