For this card I used a floral window die and stamp set by Memory Box that was the gift with issue 97 of the Die-Cutting Essentials magazine. The die makes an image using tiny holes and cuts out the aperture inside the wreath. I die-cut it on a 5.5 x8.5 piece of heavy pink cardstock and then stitched it completely before trimming it down to the final 5.5-inch square to fit on a 6-inch square cardbase.
Using the needle, enlarge the holes before stitching. The larger flower petals and leaves were outline or chain stitched before filling in the centers of them using two strands of floss. The yellow stamens are French knots.
The accompanying sentiment stamps provided the “Thinking of You” was heat embossed directly to the back mat after determining the placement with the stitched frame. The frame was attached to the 6-inch square of patterned paper with thin foam squares.
If you enjoyed this stitched card, there are more stitched card posts on this blog site:
Staying off Santa’s naughty list can be a challenge sometimes. This fun shutter card featuring a retro Santa die-cut and papers is sure to bring back childhood memories of the holidays.
Based on a card in the Die-cutting Essentials, issue 82, by Sharon-Elaine Jones, the card uses the free dies and printable papers and sentiments from the magazine. I had to convert the template from 20cm x 30cm to fit an 8 ½ inches x 11 inches card base. It took me several tries to get the correct measurements and folds, but in the end I got there. (See template).
You will need to cut:
One rectangle from white cardstock 8 ½ inches x 3 ¾ inches for the card back
Six 1 ¾ inch squares from red cardstock
Two rectangles 1 ¾ inches x 1 3/8 inches from red cardstock
Two rectangles 3 3/8 inches x 4 ¼ inches from red cardstock
One rectangle 3 ½ inches x 4 ¼ inches from green cardstock
Two rectangles 3 inches x 1 ¾ inches from green cardstock
Two rectangles 2 ¾ inches x 1 ½ inches from white cardstock
One rectangle 3 1/3 inches x 4 inches from white cardstock (to be embossed)
One rectangle 3 ¼ inches x 4 inches from patterned paper
Two rectangle 1 1/3 inches x 1 1/2 inches from patterned paper
Six 1 ½ inch squares from patterned paper
Die-cut:
Six of the holly die from white cardstock
One of the Santa outline from white cardstock
One hat from white cardstock (Fussy cut just the fir trim and ball to be glued on to red hat.)
One beard, mustache and eyebrows from white cardstock
One hat from red cardstock
One of face, nose and mouth from pink cardstock (Using a watercolour pencil and water brush, color the cheeks and mouth pieces rosy pink. Then using a fine-tipped pencil or maker, highlight the eyes.)
Print and fussy cut from sentiments:
One oval sentiment topper
One rectangular Santa’s naughty list sentiment
To emboss the background of the Santa panel, lightly mist the white card stock (3 1/3 x 4 inches) with water before placing in embossing folder. This will allow the paper fibers to bend in the embossing folder rather than break and tear. Set emboss piece aside to dry before gluing onto red matting piece (1 3/8 x 1 ¾ inches).
Assembling Santa: Position the face piece on the Santa outline backing piece with the bread and hat over it. Mark position of face with pencil. Glue eyebrows on to face in indentations. Glue white fur pieces to red hat. Attach nose on top of mustache and mouth under it. Adhere face on to backing using pencil markings. Glue beard onto backing and just up to face. Attach hat over face matching it up with same shape on backing. Glue on mustache with nose and mouth attached. Glue assembled Santa onto embossed panel that was already glued to red mat.
Faux Embossing of Holly Panels: Glue three of the holly die cuts and three of the berries on to one of the white rectangles (2 ¾ x 1 ½ inches). Adhere white panel onto a green rectangle mat (3 x 1 ¾ inches). Repeat with another three holly die-cuts, white rectangle and green mat.
Other Panels: Glue the six square pattern papers on to six red square mats. Glue the two small pattern paper rectangles onto the two small red rectangle mats. Glue the large patterned paper rectangle to the large green mat and then glue the Santa’s naughty list sentiment onto the center of the patterned paper.
To Assemble Card: Take white card base that has been cut, scored and folded into shutter card and open-out flat. Glue red squares and rectangles in the areas shown in photo. The large rectangle for the card front will have its topper sentiment glued on after the squares have been glued down. Adhere the green rectangles into the appropriate spaces in the center of card base. Fold-up and glue large white rectangle piece to back of card. This back piece will be where you can write a personal message as well as helping stablish the card when opened and set on display.
Envelope: The card folds to fit inside a #10 business size envelope. To hint at what is inside the envelope, I stamped the flap with a sentiment “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” and below it a Santa’s sleigh with reindeer.
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Dies & Embossing Folder:
Retro Santa from Die-cutting Essentials, issue 82, October 2021
Cut & Emboss Baubles from Papercraft Essentials, issue 192, November 2020
I like making Thanksgiving Day cards for my family to let them know how thankful and blessed I feel to have them in my life.
This card was inspired by one that Nicky Gilburt made in Die-cutting Essentials, issue 81 using a hexagon base. I used a 3 ¼ inch circle die-cut base since I don’t own any hexagon dies and followed Nicky’s general instructions cutting apart the foliage corner die-cuts.
I colored the die-cuts with Distress oxide inks using sponge ink blender tools and a cotton swab for the tin acorn caps.
The thankful sentiment was die-cut three times (two orange and one yellow that was inked brown) and glued together with the top layer slightly off to have an orange shadow. (I find that using a fine tipped glue bottle really makes gluing tiny die-cuts easy.)
The top layer of large leaves, pumpkins and acorns were adhered with a variety of thickness foam squares and glue dots. The entire wreath is attached to the 5 x4 ¼ inch cardbase with thick foam squares. For the final elements, I used Nuvo drops for the red berries.
Inside an old LDRS autumn sentiment stamp was inked onto autumn leaves insert paper from the Sweater Weather foiled collection, Papercraft Essentials, issue 202.
To hint at what is inside the burnt orange envelope, I stamped the flap with a sentiment from this August’s Simply Cards & Papercraft, issue 220 and the pumpkin and leaves are from last year’s Simply Cards & Papercraft, issue 208 all in a brown ink from Memento.
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this blog post, please like it and follow the blog. 😊
Dies:
Autumn Wishes die set from Die-cutting Essentials, issue 81, September 2021
Stamps & Inks
Autumn Blessings from Simply Cards & Papercraft, issue 220, August 2021
Autumn Days from Simply Cards & Papercraft, issue 208, August 2020
LDRS Creative – Clear Stamps – Happy Fall Sentiments
Memento – Fade-Resistant Dye Ink Pad – Rich Cocoa
Ranger – Distress Oxides – Barn Door, Ground Espresso, Mowed lawn, Ripe persimmon, Rusty Hinge
Papers
Yellow and Orange cardstock from my stash
Insert paper from Sweater Weather foiled collection, Papercraft Essentials, issue 202, August 2021
A2 burnt orange envelope from Taylored Expressions
Weddings can be times of great joy. This wedding card inspired by traditions from India is a brightly colored card using a flower mandala as its centerpiece in marigold colors.
The marigold petals are three die-cut layers using the free die set from Die-cutting Essentials Issue 78.
To create the card base, I used a 7-inch tall by 12 inches wide piece of double-sided cardstock. The piece is scored and folded at 1 inch, 3 ½ inches, 8 ½ inches and 11 inches.
The inside sentiment was printed digitally onto printable 8 1/2 x 11 inch vellum and adhered with glue dots.
Needing a unique and handcrafted Thank You card, I came up with this pop-in window card using double-sided patterned paper from Paper Heaven, the frame dies from the newest Die-cutting Essentials issue 75, and some word dies from Hunkydory’s Moonstone brand.
When the card is closed it look like a flat card, but when it opens, the window back mechanism opens and moves the window panel ¼ inch back from the card opening.
Because of the dark inside of the card, I cut two white labels from old envelope scraps in my stash to be able to write a message on them.
Need more ideas for Thank You cards? Here is more inspiration:
When the crocus start blooming in their purples and yellows, spring can not be far behind. This tall tealight holder is reminder that spring is coming.
Th intricate die cut is a design by Christina Griffiths of Card Making Magic that was the free gift in Die-cutting Essentials issue 73. The pentagon base is from a Tonic Craft Kit 25. Colored vellum panels behind the die-cut cardstock sides defuse light.
Materials: Cut two 5 inches x 6 ¾ inches (12.5 cm x 17 cm) rectangles, one 2 ¾ inches x 6 ¾ inches (7 cm x 17 cm) rectangle from heavy white cardstock, and five vellum rectangles 2 ¼ inches x 6 ¼ inches (5.5 cm x 15.75 cm). Die-cut a sixth panel from scrap cardstock to use as a stencil. Die-cut one pentagon from heavy white cardstock.
Die-cut Sides: Score all three white rectangles along all four sides at ¼ inch (3 cm). On the two larger rectangles score down the center at 2 ½ inches (6.25 cm). Place die centered inside score lines on all five sections and cut. (Hint: Because this an intricate die, you may need to add cardstock shims to get a good sharp cut throughout the die. I rolled the die through three times to cut the thick cardstock.) Using fine tipped scissors or a craft knife and metal ruler, trim off the attached top and bottom pieces of the die-cut.
Vellum Panels: Tape a vellum panel to the front of the stencil and turn the vellum and stencil over to color the crocus flowers through the stencil onto the backside of the vellum. Once all panels are colored, glue to the back of the die-cut panels. Once glued, touch-up the coloring on the backside of the panel. (Hint: Depending on what type of markers are used to color the vellum, ink can transfer to the white cardstock, so coloring the backside away from the cardstock is best.)
Assembly: Trim away the squares created by the score lines on the white cardstock pieces and cut the tab corners off as shown in photograph. Fold the two double panel pieces down the center score line and burnish with a folding tool. Fold the five bottom tabs and burnish. Fold and burnish the six long side tabs.
With two of the panels lying flat on your work surface, align the panels and glue the two tabs together. Pinch until the glue sets. Repeat until all but the last set of tabs are glued. Allow glue to dry. Gently fold the glued sides and burnish by pinching the sides together to have crisp folds. Glue the final tabs laying panels flat and reaching in, to pinch tabs until glue sets. Allow glue to dry. Fold and burnish the last corner. Drop pentagon base into center of holder and work under the three seams. Glue tabs to bottom of pentagon.
Add your battery powered tealight. (Note: because this light holder is made from flammable paper, do not use candles with real flames.)
Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave a comment. 😊
A new year is almost here and the celebration of it should be festive even if we can’t celebrate together.
This card is made with the “Let’s Celebrate!” die set from Die-cutting Essentials issue 72 and the “Fabulous Fizz” stamp set from Simply Cards & Papercrafts issue 212, along with a pre-cut and scored 5 inches x 6 ½ inches card base and envelope.
Mirror card is used as the background that peaks through the die cute sentiment on this card. The card front, after it was covered in a patterned paper, was trimmed to 4 ¾ inches x 6 ¼ inches so that the mirror card border would show. When the word “Celebrate” was cut out the waste from the loops was saved and glued on to the mirror card. The year 2021 was cut from mirror card and glued to the front of the card.
Inside the sentiment was stamped with Versamark Watermark ink and heat embossed with a matte gold embossing powder from Ranger. The confetti was heat embossed with gold tinsel embossing powder.
To add interest to the mirror card inside, a champagne glass was cut from vellum and the glue applied to mimic a liquid filled glass. Bubble made from Glossy Accents were added over the glass.
The closed card, after the glossy accents had dried for several hours, was rolled between cutting plates on a die cutting machine to emboss the “Celebrate” and “2021” into the mirror card.
The back flap of the envelop was also heat embossed with clear gold sparkle confetti to hint at the celebration to come. The card could be filled with sequins when being placed in the envelope to add to the card recipient’s experience. (In my case, knowing the recipient will not appreciate the mess to clean up, I am omitting this step.)
Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊
A new year is coming and the celebration of it should be festive.
This card is made with the “Let’s Celebrate!” die set from Die-cutting Essentials issue 72 and the “Fabulous Fizz” stamp set from Simply Cards & Papercrafts issue 212.
A piece of double-sided patterned cardstock measuring 8 ¾ inches x 8 inches was folded in half to make a slimline card measuring 4 inches by 8 ¾ inches. Next the “celebrate” die cut the word from the front of the card (with both the word and the waste pies from the letter loops were saved.) It was cut again from mirror cardstock. The single die to cut the splash design was used six times to create a sense of pizzaz to the feeling of celebration. Because of my limited amount of mirror card, the shiny side of a 3 ¼ inches by 8 ¾ inches piece of mirror card was adhered to the underside of the die cut front of the card base. The “celebrate” die cut from mirror card was glued into the opening left from the die cut on the card front. The leftovers from the patterned paper were paper pieced in the openings. The year 2021 was also die cut from mirror card and glued in place.
Because the inside of the card is a patterned paper, a decorative label was cut from white card stock and a larger frame for it from mirror card stock. Using an anti-static pad to dust the white label before being stamped with Versamark watermark ink and then a matte gold embossing powder was applied and heat set. The white label and its mirror card frame were then glued in place on the card base.
Two different colors of embossing power were used on the decorative fireworks and confetti stamped on the white back side of the large mirror card glued to the backside of the card front. These decorations were stamped, and heat embossed in three phases – left fireworks – gold tinsel confetti – right fireworks.
The back flap of the envelop was also heat embossed with the gold tinsel confetti to hint at the celebration to come. The card could be filled with sequins when being placed in the envelope to add to the card recipient’s experience. (In my case, knowing the recipient will not appreciate the mess to clean up, I am omitting this step.)
Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave a comment. 😊
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Other than having to trim a bit off each side of the eaves on the white card base, all fit.
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.
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.
Ully Cat's World 