Divinity Designs

Squeeze The Day!

| ullycatdesigns

Sometimes life keeps throwing lemons at people. I am always amazed at how individuals keep smiling through it all and even find time to do kind things for others as well. This is a card for those smiling individuals that know how to make lemonade out of what life throws at them.

Using the Vintage Lemon Twist papers by Simple Stories and the You Shine stamp set both in the Simon Says Stamp! July 2022 Card Kit of the Month, I crafted this card with dies from Karen Burniston, Divinity Designs, Crafter’s Companion, Made to Surprise and Oriental Trading.

The front of the card is made from the paper collection with Nuvo Drops, buttons and a tiny ribbon bow from my stash. A symmetry is a theme for this card. The back of the card is a collage of leftover pieces from making the rest of the card. (I decorated both the inside and outside of the card base because the card base was thin cardstock. I adhered the papers with double side tape and an occasional drop of glue.

I had the idea of a pitcher of lemonade pouring into a glass with a lemon slice as the inside interactive mechanism of the card. After looking at a number of Karen Burniston pop-up/interactive dies, I settled on the Mailbox Pop-Up after watching a video by Karen using the mechanism for a double spinner card which I adapted into a tilting pitcher. I cut from scrap cardstock, a template of the mailbox to know where to cut the square opening in my decorative scalloped circle (Made to Surprise). After trimming the lower lever mechanism off, I folded the piece as directed in the video and trimmed the small section off one edge that would not be covered by the scalloped circle.

Using clear vellum to resemble glass, I die cut two tumblers (Divinity Designs) and fitted a scrap of vellum behind the die-cut pale blue pitcher (Crafter’s Companion). Using a bright yellow marker, I colored the back side of the vellum as the lemonade. I always color the edges of exposed vellum with a black marker to make them more defined. From the backing paper from some adhesive sheets that I had saved because the paper had a shiny yellow surface, I cut some lemon slices (Divinity Designs) for the tumblers and pitcher.

The lemonade sentiment is from the You Shine stamp set and is heat embossed with black ink and clear embossing powder. Once heat embossed, I die cut the sentiment out with a wave oval die from oriental Trading. I cut a second oval of plain white cardstock as the sentiment for a personal message to be added.

Black backgrounds inside the card make the white scalloped circle and ovals pop. Small scraps of the yellow printed paper were used to balance out the inside decorations.

The card fits into an A2 size envelope which has been stamped on the front with a lemon slice and back flap with a whole lemon. the back flap image is colored with markers. All the stamps are from the Simon Says Stamp You Shine stamp set.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks

Papers

  • Pattern papers by Simple Stories – Vintage Lemon Twist
  • Clear vellum scraps
  • White cardstock scraps
  • Shiny yellow paper scraps
  • A2 white card base and envelope

Miscellaneous

You’re The Best!

| ullycatdesigns

Recently I received a Divinity Designs Mystery Bag for $29.95 and received three die sets, one stencil, one rubber stamp set and one embossing folder retailing for over $70 total. I decided to challenge myself to see what I could make with them. I add the Divinity Designs Thank You clear stamp set with matching Thank You die to my one brand challenge.

I cut several elements for this card in vellum. The balloons were cut from a strip of adhesive backed colored vellum that I folded and stuck to itself and then die cut the balloons. With blending alcohol markers I used the stencils within the dies to stencil the embossed designs onto the balloons. (I learn something when the ink on the heart balloon ran under the die, so I sprayed rubbing alcohol onto the vellum and it cleared the ink leaving an interesting faded ink look.) Baker’s twine was tied to the ends of the balloons and a dot of glue was used on the back side to secure the twine to the vellum.

For the beverage cup and domed lid, I cut them from clear vellum and inked the edges with a silver marker. From a white shimmer cardstock scrap, I cut the cup again and the whipped cream topping. The cup section I colored with a soft orange marker. The straw was cut from a piece of white cardstock I had drawn diagonal red stripes on with a red marker. The orange slice was cut from a bright orange scrap and outlined with a bright orange marker. To adhere the vellum cup I used a fine tipped glue bottle to line the edge of the cup before gluing to the orange cup that I had already glued the straw and orange slice to knowing that glue on vellum will be seen. The whipped cream topping was glued on top of the straw. For the vellum lid, the glue was applied to the lip that covers the cup.  The assembled cold orange drink was adhered to the pistachio inked rectangle with one layer of thin foam squares.

The white embossed fish background used the embossing folder from the mystery bag. My hope was to convey a night at a beach side carnival to say thanks. To add to the theme, I die-cut three Thank Yous from black shiny cardstock, and yellow and neon green cardstock scraps and staggered them to create the look of a neon sign.

To complete the card front I stamped, and heat embossed in black the sentiment “YOU’RE THE BEST” onto a white scrap of cardstock. I then ink blended the embossed piece with a large brush the pistachio Distress Ink. I trimmed the scrap down to a rectangle and cut a triangle from each end to make the banner.

The assembly of the card involved gluing the white and pistachio pieces to the A7 sized card base and then adhering the cup and balloons with foam squares. The cup had one layer of foam while the balloons had two layers. The three strands of the balloons’ baker’s twine was gathered and tied into a knot and glued in place on the card base. The sentiments were glued on last. Three glow-in-the-dark stars where added as bling.

To hint at the envelope’s contents, I stamped “JUST WANTED TO SAY” (from the Divinity Designs’ Thank You stamp set) in Memento’s London Fog gray ink to the back flap. I also stamped the Divinity Designs logo in the same ink on the back of the card and added my initials and year of creation.

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

Materials Used:

Dies & Embossing Folders

Stamps

Inks & Embossing Powders

Papers

  • White, yellow, orange and neon green card stock scraps
  • Clear vellum scraps
  • Xcut – Xtras Adhesive Vellum Sheets – purple, pink yellow
  • AC Cardstock – Kraft Cardstock – 5×7 in A7 card and envelope

Miscellaneous

Layered Crosses – Part 2

| ullycatdesigns

There is nothing like the burst of a sunrise from a dark morning sky.

Using five different shades of browns from tan to espresso cut one of each of the cross dies in each color. Lay out the various layers so that when assembled no cross has two of the same color.

Glue the layers together to form five crosses.

Cut a 4 1/4 x 11 inch piece of white cardstock. Score and fold at 7 3/4 inches (valley fold) and at 2 1/4 inches (valley fold).

With a sun rise stencil, orange ink and a sponge dauber, ink in the sun on the back panel. Next ink the sun rays with yellow ink.

Let ink dry before stamping the “He is risen” sentiment in black onto back panel, spacing so it is hiden when the card is closed.  On a white 2 x 4 1/4 inch piece of white paper stamp in black ink “Happy Easter.”  Glue white paper on the inside panel of the card.  (I used the paper to hide an inky mistake.)

In my stash I found some experiements I had done trying out the bokeh stenciling method to create an interesting background for the Apple Blossom butterly stamps.( I know I used Distress Oxide inks for the stenciling and some blue ink cubes from a Papercrafting Society box to stamp the butterflies.) These panels were cut down to 2 x 4 inch pieces and adhered to the front gatefold panels.

Position and then glue the cross to the left half of the closed card. 

To hint at the envelope’s contents, I stamped tulips onto the blue envelope with a yellow ink.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Stencils

Inks

Papers

  • Browns, tans and white card stock
  • White paper
  • A2 blue envelope

Miscellaneous

Layered Crosses – Part 1

| ullycatdesigns

Sunrise means a new day and new beginnings. Using Divinity Designs layered cross die set and a stenciled sunrise, I hope to convey this elated feeling of gladness in this z-fold Easter card.

Using five different shades of browns from tan to espresso cut one of each of the cross dies in each color. Lay out the various layers so that when assembled no cross has two of the same color.

Glue the layers together to form five crosses.

Cut a 4 1/4 x 11 inch piece of sky blue cardstock. Score and fold at 5 1/2 inches (valley fold) and at 2 1/4 inches (mountain fold).

With a sun rise stencil, orange ink and a sponge dauber, ink in the sun on the folded shut card. Ink the sun rays on the left side of folded card with yellow ink. Open up card and ink in all the sun rays on back panel using the inked sun half to lineup stencil.

Let ink dry before stamping the “He is risen” sentiment in black onto back panel, spacing so it is hiden when the card is closed.  On a white 2 x 4 inch piece of white paper stamp in black ink “Happy Easter.”  Glue white paper on the inside panel of the card.  Die-cut strips of green grass to adhere to the bottom of the stenciled sunrise panels of the card.

Position and then glue the cross to the left half of the closed card. 

To hint at the envelope’s contents, I stamped tulips onto the blue envelope with a yellow ink.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Stencils

  • Spellbinders – Fun Stampers Journey – Sunny Day Stencil 6”x6” – JM-0135

Inks

Papers

  • Blue, browns tans and green card stock
  • White paper
  • A2 blue envelope

Miscellaneous

Chevron Bag – Part II

| ullycatdesigns

Quick and clever gift bags for small treats were needed and the Divinity Designs Chevron Background die provided the visual pop required.

I cut three the background die three times from coordinating papers to make each of these bags. Then I placed each pattern paper pieces in separate bags so as not to lose any of the pieces especially the tiny triangles. I also kept the thin L-shaped scrap pieces from the edges of the die-cutting to be used as bag handles.

Next, I glued the frame onto a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch piece of thin white paper placing dots of glue at the zig-zag points and the outside frame. (You will see that I used scrap paper for the backing that had black printing on it knowing that it would be covered with a another backing paper.)

Then the fun part of deciding on the positioning of the different papers within the frame and making a duplicate frame as well.

(I found that laying out the chevron strips and gluing the strips in place from the bottom up worked well with the duplicate frame as a guide in case of the strips being mixed-up.)

Once the glue has dried, trim the backing paper overhang away from the frame on both pieces.

Depending on the size of your paper, you may have enough scrap pieces to make the sides and/or a bottom of the bag. (I found that using 4.5 x 6.5 inches sized paper made me use two additional pieces to cut the sides (2 1/4 inches by 5 1/4 inches) and a bottom piece of 2 1/4 inches by 4 1/2 inches.)

The bottom piece is scored at 1/8 inch on the long sides and 1/4 inch along one end of the piece while the other end is marked where it needs to be folded by holding the bottom piece up to the bottom edge of the chevron frame.

Scoring the long edges of the side pieces at 1/ 8 inch is the first step for marking the sides. Using a pencil and a ruler draw a pencil line down the center each side piece. Mark a dot at 1 1/2 inches from the bottom of the center line and draw a line from the center dot to each of the corner bottom edges to from a triangle. Erase the line that is in the center of the triangle. Score along the remaining pencil lines. Mountain fold the 1/8 inch edges. Valley fold the pencil line folds.

Glue the tabs of the bottom piece to the insides of the chevron pieces and side bottom pieces.

Glue the side tabs to one of the chevron pieces, using your finger to adhere the tabs to the front pierce. Glue the remaining side tabs using a long tool such as a pencil or pen to adhere the tabs to the back piece.

Glue the L-shape scraps to the inside of the chevron pieces. Then adhere two 3 7/8 inches by 5 1/8 inches pieces of white paper to cover the bottom and side tabs and handle ends on the inside of the chevron pieces.  If you have a piece of leftover decorative paper that will fit the bottom of the bag glue it into place as well.

Like this bag? Check out this week’s other bag.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • WRF Studio – Romance 4.5” x 6.5” Design Paper Pad (230gsm Heavyweight Cardstock)
  • White paper

Miscellaneous

Chevron Bag-Part I

| ullycatdesigns

Quick and clever gift bags for small treats were needed and the Divinity Designs Chevron Background die provided the visual pop required.

I cut three the background die three times from coordinating papers to make each of these bags. Then I placed each pattern paper pieces in separate bags so as not to lose any of the pieces especially the tiny triangles. I also kept the thin L-shaped scrap pieces from the edges of the die-cutting to be used as bag handles.

Next, I glued the frame onto a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch piece of thin white paper placing dots of glue at the zig-zag points and the outside frame. (You will see that I used scrap paper for the backing that had black printing on it knowing that it would be covered with a another backing paper.)

Then the fun part of deciding on the positioning of the different papers within the frame and making a duplicate frame as well.

(I found that laying out the chevron strips and gluing the strips in place from the bottom up worked well with the duplicate frame as a guide in case of the strips being mixed-up.)

Once the glue has dried, trim the backing paper overhang away from the frame on both pieces.

Depending on the size of your paper, you may have enough scrap pieces to make the sides and bottom of the bag. (I found that a 6 x6 inches piece allowed for one side piece of about 2 inches by 5 1/4 inches and a bottom piece of 2 inches by 4 1/2 inches.)

The bottom piece is scored at 1/8 inch on the long sides and 1/4 inch along one end of the piece while the other end is marked where it needs to be folded by holding the bottom piece up to the bottom edge of the chevron frame.

Scoring the long edges of the side pieces at 1/ 8 inch is the first step for marking the sides. Using a pencil and a ruler draw a pencil line down the center each side piece. Mark a dot at 1 1/2 inches from the bottom of the center line and draw a line from the center dot to each of the corner bottom edges to from a triangle. Erase the line that is in the center of the triangle. Score along the remaining pencil lines. Mountain fold the 1/8 inch edges. Valley fold the pencil line folds.

Glue the tabs of the bottom piece to the insides of the chevron pieces and side bottom pieces.

Glue the side tabs to one of the chevron pieces, using your finger to adhere the tabs to the front pierce. Glue the remaining side tabs using a long tool such as a pencil or pen to adhere the tabs to the back piece.

Glue the L-shape scraps to the inside of the chevron pieces. Then glue two 3 7/8 inches by 5 1/8 inches pieces of white paper to cover the bottom and side tabs and handle ends on the inside of the chevron pieces.  If you have a piece of leftover decorative paper that will fit the bottom of the bag glue it into place as well.

Don’t miss tomorrow’s bag from other other papers for a different look.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • WRF Studio – Romance 4.5” x 6.5” Design Paper Pad (230gsm Heavyweight Cardstock)
  • Lawn Fawn double-sided 6” x 6” patterned cardstock from my stash
  • White paper

Miscellaneous

Faux Leather Bag

| ullycatdesigns

A favorite leather bag has a certain smell and memories of all the fun times with friends and family. This little faux tooled leather bag can add to those memories.

Made with the tote die set by Divinity Designs, a crafting company based out of Ohio, the bag goes together relatively easily. I looked at the assembly video before making, but I assembled the bag mesh pockets a little differently.

Cut two each of the front/back, side, mesh pocket, handle, pocket pleat, front/back layer and handle layer from brown Kraft cardstock. Cut one each of front pocket flap, front pocket flap layer, pocket layer, and stitched belt buckle set from brown Kraft cardstock. Cut two front/back layers from brown paper. Cut one each of the buckle and pin from orange foil cardstock.

Using the tote embossing insert plate and your embossing sandwich for your die-cutting machine emboss the two front/back layers and pocket flap and pocket layers.

With an ink blending sponge, darken the edges of all pieces, especially the stitched areas with brown ink.  Rub the embossed layering pieces to highlight the “tooled” design.  Glue the layers onto their base pieces.

To assemble, I glued the mesh pocket tabs on to the side tabs first, bowing out the mesh pocket. Next, I adhered the bottom side tabs to the bottom rectangle of one of the front/back pieces. Glue the other bottom rectangle over the top of the first rectangle to hide the side tabs. Next adhere the side tabs to the front/back pieces. Take your time to hold the tabs in place until the glue sets.

Shape the handles by running them through your fingers to bend them into an arch shape. Glue rounded ends of on handle to the front of the bag. Repeat with handle for the back side of bag.

To assemble the front pocket, pleat the two pocket pleats and glue one tab to the inside of the front pocket tab. Repeat with the other pocket pleat. Fold the bottom tab of Front pocket over the ends of pleats and glue corners. Fold over the front pocket flap tab and glue its corners to the top pleat corners.  Glue assembled pocket to front of bag.  Thread large brown stitched belt piece through foil buckle and glue pin in place. Fold tiny stitched brown piece around larger piece as the loop that holds the belt tongue in place. Glue top of belt piece to pocket flap and loop tabs to pocket. This belt with hold the pocket flap securely closed.

I used some tiny star brads that I had in my stash to reinforce the handles to the bag. I punched the starter holds with an old ice pick or awl and a sanding block inside the bag. Once the brads were in place, I glued the front/back layer over the inside of the bag to hide the brads and side tabs.

All of the glued layers make for a study bag that measures 6 ¼ inches high x 5 inches wide and 2 inches deep.  I plan to gift a lovely scarf and earrings in this bag.

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

Dies

Ink

  • Ranger – Tim Holtz’s Distress Ink – Vintage Photo

Papers

  • Heavy weight 8 ½ inches x 11 inches brown cardstock
  • Brown kraft paper
  • Orange foil cardstock scraps

Additional Supplies:

Work Bench

| ullycatdesigns

WOrk Bench-inside

Not every dad has a work bench, but many do and the recipient of this Father’s Day card was a carpenter when his family was young.

Much of my inspiration for this card has come from a variety of Pinterest posts of 3D workbenches and some tool bench and tool box posts on Craftworld.com.

To make the bench, I stamped the Stampin’ Up hardwood stamp twice on light kraft paper. I cut the stamped pieces out to their edges of 5 inches x 5 ½ inches. Next, I scored down the long side at 1/2 inches, 2 ½ inches and 4 ½ inches. Using a pencil on the back side of the scored paper, I drew a line at 3 1/8 inches (5/8 inches below the 2 ½ inch score line). I also drew lines ½ inch parallel to the short edge from the 5-inch edge to the 3 1/-inch pencil line on each side. These pencil marks should form a smaller rectangle that needs to be cut out to from the lower center portion to form the table legs. Save the rectangle to cut two drawer fronts. I punched holes for black button shaped tiny brads to go thru to form the drawer pulls. (And then used foam tape to adhere the drawers to table front after it was all folded and glued to card.) Age the edges of drawers and table top with some Distress ink and a sponge or brush before gluing table into card.

Mean back to the table. All the score lines should be mountain folds with the woodgrain facing up and pencil marks hidden underneath. From the second stamped piece cut the lower shelf 2 ¾ inches by 5 ½ inches. And then score at ½ inches and 2 ½ inches down long side and make into mountain folds. Make pencil marks on back of each leg 3/8 from bottom foot flap. You will glue the edge of shelf at these marks. Once the shelf is glued on to legs the bench is ready to install on card. Mark the inside back of card at 3/8 inches and 2 inches from center fold. These marks are what you will use to glue the tale top and shelf flaps to on inside card back. Once the table is glued to card securely, glue the table leg flaps down.

Because I used dies by three different brands, none matched the others in scale, so I adapted the Divinity Designs pegboard and hooks to work with the tiny Tayored Expressions tools set. The picture frames are scraps from the table that I darkened with Distress inks. The tiny photos are of photos of the recipient’s family reduced in Photoshop to ¾ inches wide and printed on computer printer. The “Happy Father’s Day” was die cut from two die sets. Foam tape was used to adhere all items to the table top. All the tools were cut once from silver card and then again from colored or stamped card scrap to cut handles which were then glued onto silver base tools.

The front of the card was made using a mat of graph paper, a computer printed sentiment given to me by the card giver and the die cuts of hammer, nails and saw were from the larger set of tool dies by Sunny Studio.

WOrk Bench-Front-Envelope

I used the matching stamps from Sunny Studio to stamp the hammer and saw “x” on the envelope flap. The hammer was stamped first and then, using a post-it tape mask over the saw, I stamped the hammer.

Other Father’s Day cards on my blog

A Tool Box Father’s Day

A Fishing Father’s Day

A Father’s Day Waterfall Pop-Up

A Work Bench Father’s Day Card

In-Vested Father’s Day Card

Supplies used:

Dies

Stamps

Papers

  • AC Cardstock – 5 x 7 in set of 8 kraft cardstock cards & envelopes
  • Computer paper
  • Colored and silver matte metallic cardstock from my stash
  • Graph paper

Inks

Miscellaneous