Fireplace

Modern Holiday Hearth

| ullycatdesigns

This is the third card in the Fireplace Christmas Card series.

Modern, clean and simple design are what this holiday card is all about. Inspiration comes from Altenew’s Modern Fireplace die set which creates a layered fireplace with a traditional mantelpiece, herringbone brickwork and an embossed firebox. An add-on set of Mantel Décor -Winter offers the wreath, bow and candlesticks. The burning logs and grate are part of the Fireplace set.

Cardbase: I started with an A2 size kraft cardstock base (4.25 x 5.5 inches when closed) and covered the outsides two panels with patterned cardstock.

Fireplace: For the fireplace mantel, I used a textured metallic gray cardstock, cutting the mantel shelf piece twice and the main piece once. The mantel shelf I also cut once from a heavy cardboard piece of junk mail. With the herringbone brick layer, I used a terra cotta piece of cardstock covered with clear packing tape to die-cut the piece. A dark gray piece of cardstock was used for the firebox which was distressed with white water-soluble crayon. To assemble follow the directions on the video on the link page. I glued a strip of white copier paper between the firebox layer and the brick layer just at the top, to give the mantel shelf piece an additional place to be attached to besides the top edge of the mantel base.

I cut the two flames and log pieces from white cardstock and colored them with markers and glitter ink. After coloring, I glued the layering pieces together and added the tiny black grate.

Decorations: The decorations on the card are minimal with two tall candlesticks in teal blue with white candles. All of these pieces were cut once from a heavy cardboard piece of junk mail and a second time from colored cardstock. The wreath was cut once from a heavy cardboard piece of junk mail and colored with a red marker. The bow was cut twice from teal with the knot being fussy cut out of the second piece.

Sentiments: I stamped the “Holiday Fun” before I assembled the card onto the card front. The sentiment was part of an Altenew stamp set that came in a crafting magazine from 2020. Inside the card I used the same teal cardstock from the mantel decorations to die cut “Happy holidays.”

Envelope: For the flap of the envelope, I used Altenew’s Mini Brownstone stamp set with two shades of red ink and two shades of brown ink to stamp the suggestion of what the outside of the home looks like. I finished off the scene with a .01 mm black pen to create a tree, windowpanes, sidewalk and fence.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

Other Fireplace Cards by designer/brand        

   

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Papers

  • Crate Paper – 6×6 Single-Sided Patterned Paper Pad – Cool Kid
  • Spellbinders – 8.5×11 Cardstock 100 lb – Terra Cotta
  • Concord & 9th – 8.5×11 Cardstock 80 lb – Mushroom
  • Bazzill – 8.5×11 Textured Cardstock – Tiara -18-1002
  • Teal, White and Black Cardstock Scraps
  • A2 Cardbase and Envelope – Kraft

Ink

  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Cherry Cobler, Early Espresso, Misty Moonlight, Real Red, Soft Suede
  • Catherine Pooler – Premium Dye Ink- Party Collection – All That Jazz\
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Crayon – Picket Fence
  • Recollections – Watercolor Crayons – White
  • Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Tip – Black, Brown, Red
  • Pigma – Mircon 01 Fine Tip Pen – Black
  • Spectrum Noir – Sparkle Glitter Brush Pen – Firefly

Adhesives

  • Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
  • Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
  • Scor- Tape – Double-Sided Tape -1/8-inch wide

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • We R Memories – QuickStick
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Cloth
  • Scissors

Holiday Hearth

| ullycatdesigns

This is the first card in the Fireplace Christmas Card series.

For this turn-of -the century fireplace easel card, Anna Griffin’s Holiday Hearth Easel die set is the star of the make along with some of her stamps and foiled embellishments.

Review the printed instruction sheet included in the fireplace die set before starting card.

Easel Base:  The easel base die cuts in one piece which I cut out in a heavy weight gray cardstock. I added a maroon carpet to the base using the fireplace outline die on a 6×6 inch piece of patterned paper.

Fireplace Mantelpiece:  The mantelpiece die cuts a detailed fireplace front. Because I used a double-sided cardstock that had different shades of green on each side, I was able to save the waste pieces and adhere them back inside the die-cut piece with the use of tape on the backside.

I die-cut the fireplace outline or back twice. Once from gray and once from light green. On the light green piece, I cut-off the bottom flap (and saved it to be stenciled in white to act as wallpaper above the mantel.) I also die-cut just the bottom flap of the fireplace in gray to become the hearthstone that will slide under the easel stopper. The green trimmed back piece was glued on top of the gray back piece. Next the bottom flap of the fireplace was adhered to bottom edge of the back piece and then covered with the gray hearthstone piece. Glue in black brick hearth and fire grate piece. Add glue to the back of the top fireplace tab and, with the entire fireplace flat, adhere to the back piece. Play with the positioning of the back piece on the easel base and then glue easel base tab to gray side of back piece.

Fireplace Grate with Fire:  For the back of the fireplace hearth, I cut a 3.75-inch square of black cardstock which I embossed with a brick wall embossing folder. The bricks were lightly colored with a white Distress Crayon and blended to make a smokey backdrop to the fire. The burning logs piece was cut twice from brown (logs) and once from red, yellow and orange (fire) respectively. I used tape and glue to assemble the fire and logs. To position the burning logs, open the card into the easel position and adhere the piece onto the bricks with foam squares. (When the card is closed flat, the burning logs will look slightly high inside the firebox.)

Decorations:  The die set comes with a stocking die as well as dies for holly and greenery garlands. I cut the stockings from three different decorative papers and then cut the just the cuffs from white cardstock having to do some fussy cut trimming after the die cutting. The garlands are cut from two different shades of green mirror/foil cardstock. The holly garland has red adhesive gems added along with a tiny red ribbon bow. The dark greenery garland is glued onto the mantel edge. All other decorations are adhered with foam squares. Two gold foil stars sit on the mantel shelf and a gold wrapped present sits on the floor. Both are from Anna’s Present Pop-Up Kit.

Sentiments:  A dimensional sentiment sticker from Anna’s Present Pop-Up Kit was popped-up on an additional layer of foam squares to allow the fireplace gray hearthstone to slide under and act as an easel stopper. A blank foiled sticker from the same kit was added to the card base for a personal message that will be hidden when the card is set-up as an easel. The red “Merry Christmas on the envelope flap and its green border are stamps from Anna’s Treasury of Stamps & Dies.

easel-card-sheet-2Download

CRX Sheet:  With many interactive cards, the recipient needs instructions on how to open and set-up the card. I create CRX sheets (card recipient experience) to include in the envelope. You can download for free the easel/double easel CRX sheet.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

Other Fireplace Cards by designer/brand

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Embossing Folder

  • Altenew – Geometric 3D Embossing Folder 6×6 – Brick Wall – ALT6206

Stencils

  • Funky Fossil Designs – Windy Day

Papers

  • Craft Consortium – A4 Solids Double-Sided Paper Pad – Candy Christmas
  • Echo Park – 6×6 Double-Sided 65 lb Cardstock – Homegrown by Alisha Gordon & Kasie Fry
  • Reminisce – 6×6 Double-Sided Papers – Christmas Wishes
  • Light Green and Dark Green Mirror/Foil Cardstock
  • Black, Gray and White Cardstock
  • Anna Griffin – Present Pop-Up Kit – A7 Envelope – Ivory

Ink

  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Crayon – Picket Fence
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Cherry Cobbler and Emerald Envy
  • Craft Smart –Acid Free Ink Pad – White

Adhesives

  • Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
  • Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
  • Clear Tape
  • Foam Squares

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • We R Memories – QuickStick
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Cloth
  • Scissors
  • Fork

Miscellaneous

Vintage Christmas Cards – Room Scene

| ullycatdesigns

Recently I came across some family Christmas cards I had designed with the help of my father who owned a letterpress printing press and had cuts (think metal stamps on wooden blocks similar to rubber stamps on wood blocks) made of my drawings. The printing press held an 8×10-inch frame which held the cuts and metal type (letters). Paper was hand-fed into the press which had an electric motor connected with a leather belt which turned the press wheel. From about age 8 and on I earned pocket money running the press to add people’s names to their store-bought Christmas cards, “From the Desk of” notepads and other small print jobs from family and friends.

The five cards that I am sharing this week were created before the computer drawing program Auto-CAD was widely available to individuals. (I know we didn’t have access to digital type fonts that Apple computers offered around that time.) I used rulers, India ink pens and protractors to draw the pop-ups.

In 1985 I designed a pop-up room scene featuring a fireplace tabletop Christmas tree and a cat. I used rub-ons that were popular at the time to created graphics. All the straight lines were rub-ons as well as the letters on the garlands. I used a plastic drawing template for the circles and arcs. The cat was a sticker that had been reduced on a photocopier.

These postcards were hand-colored with watercolors and markers.

On the back of the postcard was the first of my CRX drawings that showed how the finished pop-up should look along with cutting and folding instructions.

I believe this was the last of the family designed Christmas cards as my father discovered Graphics3, a family-owned printing business in Jupiter, Florida that made 3D pop-up cards and began ordering from cards from them.

Here are other vintage Christmas cards:

  • Room Scene

Vintage Christmas Cards – Fireplace

| ullycatdesigns

Recently I came across some family Christmas cards I had designed with the help of my father who owned a letterpress printing press and had cuts (think metal stamps on wooden blocks similar to rubber stamps on wood blocks) made of my drawings. The printing press held an 8×10-inch frame which held the cuts and metal type (letters). Paper was hand-fed into the press which had an electric motor connected with a leather belt which turned the press wheel. From about age 8 and on I earned pocket money running the press to add people’s names to their store-bought Christmas cards, “From the Desk of” notepads and other small print jobs from family and friends.

The five cards that I am sharing this week were created before the computer drawing program Auto-CAD was widely available to individuals. (I know we didn’t have access to digital type fonts that Apple computers offered around that time.) I used rulers, India ink pens and protractors to draw the pop-ups.

For the 1983 stand alone fireplace, I know I was influenced by the cardboard fake fireplaces that were popular Christmas decorations in my childhood. The mantel design may have come from family homes or other 1920’s bungalow style homes with brick fireplaces. It is a more complex assembly with many smaller pieces. I remember printing the instructions and tab names with hand-set type and then cutting and pasting them onto the drawing, before sending it all off to be made into a metal cut.

My father had a little more experience with creating the colors using rub-on sheets of dots to create the coloring of sections of the drawing. Using a photocopying machine, he reduced the size of the dots to make them more intense and he did a reverse of the dots and space in between for the fire. Then he had three cuts made – one for the black drawing, one for the green stockings and mantel greenery and the last one for the red bricks and fire.

For one postcard, it took four runs through the printing press. We printed 400+ of these cards starting in October.

A few of our friends said they had cut and assembled the tiny fireplace adding the suggest string loop to make it a Christmas ornament.

Here are other vintage Christmas cards:

  • Fireplace

Holiday Card for A Bookworm

| ullycatdesigns

This is a holiday card for a booklover. It features the Bookworm and Bam Box dies from Karen Burniston’s December 2022 release. It also uses previously released die sets of the Fireplace Pop-up die set , Fireplace Extras 2 and Family Room die set.

Card Base:  The card base is an A6 size (4.5 x 6.25 inches) with a top fold. Decorative papers as well as the fireplace pop-up mechanism are glued to the base.

Bookworm and books:  The bookworm set comes with all the dies to create a bespeckled worm that fits on the sofa from the Karen Burniston Family Room die set. (See assembly video.) The book dies allow for creating books from most angles including open books. (I added book spines to the top of the fireplace and a stack of books to the base of the sofa hidden by the blanket.)

Bam Box:  The bam box is a rubber band powered spring box that allows the sofa to pop-up. Watch the assembly video before making. Heavy weight cardstock is recommended and allowing glue to dry at each step will make for the best working bam box.

Sofa:  A bam box is covered with the sofa from the Karen Burniston Family Room die set. The back of the sofa is just the seat portion left flat. I cut a rectangle to cover the front base of the sofa and hid the bam box. The pillows are attached as per assembly video directions. The bookworm is attached to the pillows with foam dots as is the stack of books to the base. The blanket is tucked around the worm’s body and attached under the foam square. (When laying out the position of the sofa in the card, I found that the lamp was too tall to be in the card when it was closed, so it was eliminated in the final card.)

Fireplace and accessories:  For the fireplace cut two of the fireplace brick front – one in white and one in black as well as two of the lined mantle/hearth pieces – one white and one gray. The black brick is colored with a white crayon and the fire and logs are also cut twice.

To assemble the fireplace, watch the assembly video first. You will need to attach the gray hearth and black brick pieces to the card base before adding the mechanism. There are two fireplace extra sets. I used the one with the clock, plant and basket of logs. The tiny pop-up mechanisms for the objects on top of the mantel are from the fireplace die set. The basket of logs is on a foam dot. I also add strips of white cardstock to the wall on either side of the fireplace as floor moldings.

Rugs and Wall Decoration:  Using patterned papers that suggest wallpaper or carpeting make this type of card pop. The picture molding strips above the fireplace are scraps trimmed off the patterned paper and the reverse side used. The large green oval rug is cut the second largest oval crosshatch die. The small white oval with a red heart is the cut out from the picture frame. It can be used to write a personal message.

Card Front
Card Back

Sentiments:  On the front of the card Karen Burniston’s Merry Christmas and its shadow are cut from contracting colors of patterned papers used on the inside of the card. The Happy New Year framed inside the card over the fireplace is a computer-generated sentiment. The frame is from the slim frames die set.

I used leftovers from decorating the inside of the card to complete the outside panels of the card which are covered using the reverse sides of the decorative papers used on the inside.

Envelope: The back flap of the envelope has a bookworm attached at the head to the flap and a stripe of double-sided tape on the back of its body for when the envelope is sealed.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Echo Park Paper Co. – 12 x12 Double-sided coated cardstock – A Perfect Christmas by Lori Whitlock – Berry Merry Christmas – APC135003
  • Echo Park Paper Co. – 12 x12 Double-sided coated cardstock – The Story of Christmas by Lori Whitlock – Flowers – TSC94003
  • Colored scraps of cardstock
  • Computer and color printer
  • Park Lane Paperie – A6 Textured Card and Envelope – Ivory

Pens, Crayons & Inks

  • Green, Red and Black Fine-Tipped Markers
  • Gelly Roll 08 Pen – White
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink – Walnut Stain
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Crayon – White

Miscellaneous

Where the Skeletons Live – Part 2

| ullycatdesigns

This special card was made for the October Halloween themed Karen Burniston Designer Team challenge.

When the wind goes “Woo!” and the leaves begin to stir, Halloween can’t be far off.  Last year I made a slimline Halloween card depicting a lonely cottage in the woods with a skeleton at the door. (Photo below) This year I have made the interior of the cottage.

Both cards use dies made by Karen Burniston. This year’s uses dies from her August 2022 release featuring a fireplace, skeletons, and mini-ball pop-up trapezoids, as well as, pattern plates of bats, spiders and webs.

Card Base: There are three pieces that need to be cut and assembled to make the card base. Lightweight to medium weight cardstock is ideal as there will be decorative papers glued to all sides of the card which will strengthen the base. Cut one piece 6×12 inches and fold at center into a 6×6 card. Cut two 6 x 6 1/4 inch squares. Score and fold 1/4 inch to make the squares into 6 x 6 inches. 

Cut nine decorative papers 6×6 inches to cover the inside and outside of the card. (Three of the same pattern for the inside walls and three of the same pattern for the outside walls, two of the inside floor and one for the Back of the card.)

Glue the thinnest of the papers that will cover the side squares and cut the windows into these pieces using the six-trapezoid cutting die from the Mini Ball Pop-up Double-Ups. Use the side panels to mark the location to cut the window in the thickest of the decorative papers. Glue all the decorative papers onto the side squares. Glue the flaps on to the top half of the folded card base. Glue the remaining decorative papers onto the card base. (I made a mistake when I glued the decorative bat pattern plate onto the orange back of the card and ended up with them upside down. The glue set before I noticed my mistake.)

Fireplace:  Watch the assembly video before assembling. Cut one of the fireplace fronts and a rectangle the size of the fireplace front. Emboss them both to show the bricks. Use a white crayon to highlight the bricks on both pieces. Trim the rectangle to be a 1/8 inch shorter on each side. Turn the rectangle upside down and glue to the back wall of the card base. Die cut and emboss one health/mantel in a stone color. Color the heath stone and glue to the floor of the card base. Glue the fireplace mechanism as directed in the assembly video to the fireplace back.

Die cut a partial patterned plate of spiders and webs of vellum. Separate some webs and spiders. To decorate the fireplace and other parts of the room. (I used some thin foam squares to make the mantel standout over a web.)

Floor Flap:  Take the remaining floor square of decorative paper and cut it in half. I had to match the pattern on my card’s floor. (Because I glued two pieces together, I was able to attach a ribbon loop to act as a pull tab for the floor flap.) The flap is cut to stop just at the fireplace heath. Use STRONG clear tape to attach the flap to the card base floor. (I made the mistake of using removable tape which broke when the card was being opened by the card recipient.)

Furniture:  Watch the assembly video for the furniture before assembling. (Once I had assembled the sofa and chair, used double-sided removable tape to find the best placement of the furniture on the floor flap so that when closed no parts of the furniture can be seen. Also, you may want to temporarily tape a skeleton to the back o the furniture as you figure out the placement of the furniture.)

Skeletons:  Cut nine whole skeletons and the heads of three more. Use the die as a stencil to color the skeletons faces with a fine-tipped black marker. Use the tiny accessories die sets to dress out the skeletons. For the seated skeletons, bend them at the hips. Glue an extra head piece to the back if the skeleton if the marker has bled through. Glue the seated skeletons to the pop-ups on the sofa and chair and the feet to the seat. You can raise an arm to the armrest as well. Glue other skeletons to walls, fireplace, window frames and backs of furniture. (I used double-sided, removable tape to do a layout of the skeletons before gluing them, to make sure they didn’t hinder any mechanism.)

Banner: The “Happy Halloween” banner is made from black glitter cardstock and thinner orange and yellow papers. The mini alphabet die set and the flag bunting from the Twist Panel Pop-Up die set are used to cut the banner pieces. Two strands of baker’s twine are threaded with the letters.

Envelope:  While the card is 6 x 6 inches, its thickness makes it too thick to fit into a stand envelope. An envelop was created from a 12 x12 inch sheet of double-sided paper from the Martha Stewart paper pad. The center point of each edge was marked in pencil, scored and folded using a metal straight edge.  The seams were glued and a Velco fastener covered with a flat back gem.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Hot off the Press – Black Glitter Cardstock
  • American Crafts – Peebles – Spooky – 12 x12 Double-sided – Candy Toss – 736981
  • EKSuccess – Martha Stewart Crafts – 12×12 Double-sided Paper Pad – Gothic Manor – 48-20301
  • Graphic 45 – 8×8 Double-sided Paper Pad -Midnight Tales Collection – Hocus Pocus and Full Moon
  • Orange, brown, black and white cardstock scraps
  • Upcycled packaging – matte gold
  • Lawn Fawn – Pearlescent Vellum 8.5×11 – LF2088
  • Brazzill – 12×12 cardstock -Coconut Swirl

Pens, Crayons, Inks & Coatings

  • Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Point – Black
  • Recollections – Watercolor Crayons – White and Orange
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink – Walnut Stain

Miscellaneous

A Hunting Cabin Birthday

| ullycatdesigns

A cabin in the woods, good times with friends and family are what this card is about.

This simple log cabin scene pop-up card uses Karen Burniston’s new fireplace die set and a die designed to cut out trapazoids for pop-up balls, but here I use it to cut a 6-pane window.

Card Base with Window: Starting with a 10 x 7 inch piece of cardstock, scored and folded in half to create a 5 x 7 inch top folded card base. Position the Mini-Ball Double-Ups die so that it will look good from the outside as well as the inside next to the fireplace. The orientation of the widow will be up-side down from what is on the opposite side of the card. Die-cut the window with the card open on a die-cutting machine. (This is the only time you’ll need a wide platform die-cutting machine. If you only have a 6-inch-wide machine you can cut you card base in half, cut your window and glue a strip of paper as the card hinge.)

Cut “logs” from wood grain paper, ink the edges to create roundness and glue in place both on the outside of the card and the inside wall. Cut thinner strips of the woodgrain paper for the floor of the cabin, ink edges and glue in place alternating the seams as a real floor would be installed. (I had left over pieces of woodgrain paper from cutting Karen Burniston’s Landscape Rectangle Accordion that I used to frame the window.)

The back of the card is covered with leftover pieces from this and other cards made from the Craft Consortium papers In The Forest by Clare Therese.

Fireplace:  Watch the assembly video before assembling. Cut TWO of the fireplace fronts and emboss them both to show the bricks.  I tried several different crayons until I found a three color-mixed crayon in the Crayola True-to-Life series of crayons that blended brown, black and burnt orange to color the bricks.

I glued one of the brick fireplace fronts upside down as the back wall of the fireplace. Next is the hearth piece colored to be sooty sandstone that glued to the floor of the card.

I find it easier to attach anything hanging from the fireplace mechanism before I install the mechanism. After experimenting with how best to attach the pot from the Good Luck Charms set, I ended with gluing the charm circle loop to the part of the mechanism where the Santa boots would dangle. I glued some flames to the bottom of the pot to make the fire be all around the pot. The pot moves a little when opening and closing the card.

Glue together the fire and logs and then attach the cube-like pop-up strip into the card base and attach the fire. Glue the fireplace mechanism into card base. Then attach brick fireplace front and mantel. I use thin foam squares to attach the mantel to the brick fireplace front.

Accessories:  Fireplace tools and fender are from the Fireplace Extras 1 set. The lantern is cut from silver holographic cardstock colored with black permanent marker using the small lantern die from the Camping Charms set. The fish is also cut using a die from the camping charms and uses shimmer cardstock with distress inks. The metal plate the fish is on uses the circle from the snowman set. The rugs are from the oval crosshatch set and the deer head is the Christmas animals set on a plaque cut from the smallest crosshatch labels’ set covered in Glossy Accents. The only die that is not Karen Burniston is the fishing rod by Tayored Expressions.

Card Front:  Large tree is from the Christmas trees pop-up set with the center tree inked with Mowed Lawn Distress ink. The inked small trees are from the evergreen pivot panels set. The wee birds are from the tiny trees pop-up set and the turkey is from the feathered animals set.

Sentiments:  “Happy Birthday” is a single die while “DAD” is double cut from the large alphabet dies from green and black and then slightly over-laid for a shadow effect.

Back of envelope
Front of envelope

Envelope:  A brown kraft paper envelope completes the card with stamped images from the companion stamps of the patterned papers by Craft Consortium.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

  • Craft Consortium – Clear Stamps – In The Forest by Clare Therese

Papers

  • Craft Consortium – Premium Quality Papers – 12” x 12” – In The Forest by Clare Therese
  • Craft Consortium – Premium Quality Papers – 6” x 6” – In The Forest by Clare Therese
  • American Crafts – Peebles – Spooky – 12 x12 Double-sided – Candy Toss – 736981
  • Colored Cardstock Scraps
  • Park Lane – 6×6 Paper Pad – Silver Holographic
  • 100 lb. Yellow cardstock 7 x 10 inches
  • American Crafts- A7 Envelope – Brown Kraft Paper

Pens, Crayons, Inks & Coatings

  • Sharpie – Permanent Marker –Fine Point – Black
  • Gelly Roll 08 Pen – White
  • Pigma Micron 05 – Archival Ink .045mm – Dark Brown
  • Crayola – True to Life Crayons -Grand Canyon
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink – Mowed Lawn, Fired Brick, Black Soot, and Walnut Stain
  • Ranger – Glossy Accents
  • Nuvo – Aqua Shimmer – Glitter Gloss
  • Stampin’Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Early Espresso

Miscellaneous

Staying Out of The Doghouse

| ullycatdesigns

Pets are great companions and always eager to greet us when we come home. This card is for a pet to their owner who is recuperating from an illness.

For this card, I’ve used two die sets from the August 2022 release by Karen Burniston – Fireplace Pop-Up and Word Set 15 – Just Because. The fireplace is the lower half of the doghouse with half a crosshatch square for the roof.  (I highly recommend watching the assembly video for the fireplace before starting the card.)

The fireplace mechanism is also used to make the doghouse pop-up. You need to adhere it first before assembling the doghouse. You will need a 5×7 inch card base.

To make the doghouse, I cut the medium crosshatched square diagonally to have a triangle. You should glue the triangle onto the fireplace base so that the height of the house is 4.5 inches high. (I had to trim off the tip of the house to fit into the card when assembled onto the mechanism.)

I cut strips of the blue cardstock to become siding on the house. Start gluing strips on at the bottom and overlap them to cover the house, trimming the siding on the triangle to fit the slatted roof eaves.

Use the cut out from the fireplace to make a sign for the doghouse. Using a brown ink, rubbing ink on a sponge from the bottom to top to weather the house.

To create the eaves, use the medium crosshatch square with the next size down square to cut a square frame. Then snip at opposite corners to from two crosshatch eves that cane be glued together and then glued over the eaves and siding on the house.

Glue the house to the mechanism matching up the opening.  Decorate with grass, clouds, sun from various nature decorative die sets by Karen Burniston. The puppy and dog dish with bone are from her Cat and Dog set. (See assembly video for the dog.) They are made to pop-up away from the house using the small pop-up mechanism from the fireplace set. (You could also angle them using KB’s Mini Pops Pop-Up die set.)

The sentiments are from two die sets – Word Set 15 – Just Because and Word Set 10 – Thinking of You.

For the front of the card, I used a rectangle of plaid paper cut a half-inch smaller than the card dimension and used a fine tipped black marker and metal ruler to draw two lines around the paper to frame it. White stich marks were added to the plaid paper with a white gel pen.

The sentiment is another of Karen Burniston’s die sets called Home Sweet Home. The grass and dog were left over from the inside of the card and the hearts are from the “Os” in the front sentiment.

The envelope flap is stamped with a Lawn Fawn stamp with dogs and other critters to hint at what’s to come inside.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Colored cardstock and patterned paper scraps
  • 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
  • Memento – Fade-Resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz -Distress Ink – Vintage Photo

Stamps

  • Lawn Fawn – Simply Celebrate Critters

Miscellaneous

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.

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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