Flowers

Bee-utiful Flowery Painting

| ullycatdesigns

Bees, fresh paint and tulips seem like harbingers of Spring as we humans come out of winter hibernation.  I had some of the paint brush die sets from the Spellbinder’s Paint Your World Collection by Vicky Papaioannou as well as the Picket Fence Studio’s I Bee Fierce stamp set by Nicole Peterson on my crafting desk and thought they went well together. 

Having die-cut four sets of paint brushes from three of the die sets, I set about assembling the brushes noting that the handle pieces are not interchangeable, but all three sets have the same bristles die. I glued one layer of bristles to the back of each handle and another layer of bristles to the back of the silver band. Next, I studied the packaging for decorative ideas on the placement of the tulips within the bristles. I glued in place the leaves and flowers once I had figured out their placement in the two layers of bristles. I decided to ink blend some pink Distress Ink onto white cardstock scraps before die-cutting the paint drips.  I applied glue the silver band layer just on the back of the band and then placed it on top of the handle layer matching up the two lines on the band with the lines on the handle. Once the paint drips were dry, they were glued to the back of the assembled paint brushes.

Following the design rule of odd numbers of elements, I knew I had to stamp three elements to make the card front flow. Another design trick is to suggest movement by placing things on the diagonal.

I stamped the front, back and inside of the card before I adhered the paint brushes to the card. Stamping is easy when you use a stamping platform with stamping tool to help apply even pressure to the stamps. The back of the card is stamped using a Technique Tuesday stamp set.

The front sentiment is “I am little but I bee fierce,” while the inside says, “Be like the bee… fly despite the risks.” The back of the card states “This is a random act of cardiness.”

The envelope back was stamped with another sentiment from the Picket Fence set as well as the smaller bee. It says “that hum you hear is the sound of the mighty bee recreating our world with love, song and perseverance.”

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks & Pigments

  • Ranger – Jim Holtz’s Distress Oxide Ink – Abandon Coral
  • Memento Fade-Resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Nuvo Highly Pigmented Watercolour Pencil – Golden Canary

Papers

  • Heavyweight white cardstock
  • Colored cardstock scraps
  • Coated cardstock from junk mail
  • Silver mirrored cardstock from packaging
  • Brown #10 business envelope

Miscellaneous

Olga’s Garden

| ullycatdesigns

Olga Direktorenko is the creative designer behind the Paper Discovery brand sold by Craftstash out of the UK and carried by Paper Wishes in the USA. I love her dimensional dies sets that often feel like creating a doll’s house or miniature scenes.

On Craftworld, she talks of her garden with vegetables and Ukrainian sunflowers in one of her video demos. This card is my first time out using her Garden Delight dies which are copyrighted in 2021. I purchased them from Paper Wishes.

The side dies cut and score accordion folds that easily create tunnel-like cards. Her garden accessories allow for fun details, but like doll house accessories, not all are on the same scale. I placed the wheelbarrow in the middle layer because I felt it was of a larger scale than the picket fence.

I colored the garden frame using colored papers. The flowered vines reminded me of purple morning glories common in the USA. I cut the frame die, several times in several colors to fussy cut and glue the vines, flowers, birds, rope, bird houses and ladder on to the white base frame.

For the sunflowers have two flower head dies and are intended to be glued on top of each other with the petals alternating to create a full flower. Using a black gel pen, I colored the seed heads that are embossed with the die.

The white lattice background is glued to some blue patterned paper recycled from an envelope.

The sentiment “Hello Sunshine” is a die-cut from Sue Wilson of Creative Expressions. (While there are stamps that go with the Garden Delights collection there are no sentiments.)

This card will collapse to fit into a 5 inch by 7 inch envelope.

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

Dies

Inks

  • Black gel pen

Papers

  • White cardstock
  • Colored cardstock and paper scraps (recycled envelopes and junk mail)
  • Blue patterned scrap paper (inside of envelope)
  • Hunkydory mirri card from the oxidized metals collection

Additional Supplies:

  • We R Memory Keepers – Quickstik Tool
  • Low tack tape

Sending Violet Hugs

| ullycatdesigns

In the language of flowers, violets mean remembrance. Sometimes there aren’t words to express the comfort a hug can bring when someone is suffering a loss.  This card is meant to be up-lifting and offering comfort and hope.

Using recent PoppyStamps Flower Field Tall Curve Border, Penelope Pinpoint Frame and Sending Hugs Poe Script dies to create this card front, I used the solid green back of a striped A2 card base to be the background to the lattice work. Thin foam squares were used to raise the lattice frame off the green card base. (Dies-R-Us often stocks PoppyStamps dies as well as other name brand dies and stamps at discounted prices. The links under the Materials Used section links to Dies-R-Us.)

Scrap white cardstock was ink blended on both sides to create the die-cut violets. Four times the flower border was cut with the two glued to the front of the white lattice work frame.  The remaining borders were cut apart and the petals were bent to curl upward. These flowers were glued at the center to the base border flowers using a hand-held stylus with a tiny round tip to move and push the flower centers down into the glue. A dot of yellow Nuvo Drops completed the center of each flower.

The “Sending Hugs” was die cut from matte gold cardstock which was found on cookie packaging.

The inside sentiment “Happiness blooms from within” is from a new stamp set by PoppyStamps – Colorful Life. Another sentiment, “Bloom and Grow,” is from the same sent and is stamped in a gold ink on the envelope flap.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

  • PoppyStamps – Clear Stamp Set – Colorful Life – CL509

Inks

  • Ranger – Jim Holtz’s Distress Oxide Ink – Chipped Sapphire, Shaded Lilac, Dusty Concord, Stormy Sky, Prize Ribbon
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Crumb Cake

Papers

  • Lightweight white cardstock
  • Matte gold cardstock
  • A2 green striped card base and white envelope

Miscellaneous

Flowery Birthday Wishes

| ullycatdesigns

Inspiration for this flowery card with bling came from the LDRS website for the single layer use of coverplate II and a recent workshop with Donna Butler for the sentiment banners layout. My go-to-bling comes from my Buttons Galore & More stash of shaker element mixes. (Many of their mixes are limited – editions, so order early when you browse their website and see a mix you love.)

I choose to cut a yellow and a green flowered coverplate so that I could cut out the yellow flowers and glue them onto the green. Next, I used an orange marker to color the centers of the flowers. (The orange flatback shiny gems do not show up well in the photos, but they do add some sparkle to the card.)

In my stash was a teal-colored card base which I glued the coverplate to using a fine-tipped glue bottle. The back of the card was decorated with left-over strips from die-cutting.

The banner sentiments were ones I had hot foiled during a batch foiling session.  The inside sentiment comes from a PoppyStamps clear stamp set and was stamped onto adhesive-backed yellow vellum using Staz-on black ink. (I used a heat tool to speed-up the drying time of the Staz-on ink before I adhered the vellum to the inside of the card.)

The back flap of the envelope is stamped in green ink with a cluster of flowers hinting at what is to come inside the envelope.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

  • PoppyStamps – Clear Stamp Set – Colorful Life – CL509
  • All Seasons Wreath Clear Stamp Set designed by Clare Buswell- free gift in Cardmaking & Papercraft, issue 190

Inks

  • StazOn – Solvent Ink – Jet Black
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Pear Pizzazz
  • Crayola blending markers

Foiling

Papers

  • Orange, green and yellow scrap cardstock
  • Lightweight pale yellow and neon green cardstock
  • Xcut – Xtras Adhesive Vellum Sheets – Yellow
  • A2 teal card base and white envelope

Miscellaneous

Dancing Animals

| ullycatdesigns

Nothing says “Hello Spring” like dancing bunnies and newly hatched baby ducks. These two cute interactive cards were made with the Spellbinders Spring Together with Lever Pull Cutting Dies set.

This is a great set of dies to use up those small pieces of cardstock scraps for the animals. I used a bluish opal polish on the eggshell to give it some luster. (I watched the assembly video for this die set before making these cards.)

The levers/mechanism pieces are cut twice and glued together to be sturdy.  For the Hello Spring sentiment, the words were cut twice from white and once from purple and then glued together.

The printed leafy mat was cut an 1/8 of an inch smaller than the solid green card base and the floral top background is 1/4 of an inch smaller than the card base. Once the position of the lever mechanism was decided, the line slit and pull-tab notch were cut on the floral layer. The notches were then cut on the leafy green mat and cardbase using the floral layer to line up the notches.

The thin trimmings of the mat layer were used as lever guides using dots of glue at the ends of the strips.

Two additional brads are used to attach the slotted levers to the floral background.  Foam strips were placed on the back to raise up the mechanism from the matting layer.  The leafy green mat layer was glued directly to the card base.

Using the decorative scraps trimmed from the front card layers, the backs of the cards were finished.

The back flaps of the cards’ envelopes were stamped with a bunny stamp from Craft Consortium.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

  • Spellbinders – March 2021 Large Die of the Month set Spring Together with Lever Pull Cutting Dies – DOML-MAR21

Stamping

  • Craft Consortium -English Garden Clear Stamps by Hackney & Co.
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Pear Pizzazz

Papers

  • Park Lane – 8.5in x11 in 100# smooth white core cardstock – Watercolor Floral
  • Colored cardstock scraps
  • A2 green card base and envelope

Miscellaneous

Flowery Thanks

| ullycatdesigns

Iris, cosmos and cornflowers stitched around a golden “THANKS” makes for a simple, but heartfelt thank you.

I used another stitched flower die from Spellbinders, this time the Small Die of the Month for April 2021. The die comes with separate letters to die cut the word “THANKS” as well as the larger background die cut with stitching holes.  Using very heavy pale blue cardstock, I die-cut the large piece to be stitched. I had a piece of junk mail that had large sections of matte gold and I die-cut the letters from that.

The larger flower petals and leaves were outline or chain stitched before filling in the centers of them using three strands of floss. The yellow stamens are French knots. While I knotted the floss ends when starting, I finished the flowers on the back side by adding dots of glue to seal the thread ends and add dimension to the stitched frame.

After gluing the gold letters on the front of the stitched piece, I added foam squares with glue to back side of the stitched piece behind the letters and attached to the front of the card base. The card base is an 8 x8 inches sheet of heavy white card stock folded in half using a scoring board.

If you enjoyed this stitched card, there are two more stitched card posts this week as well as pervious stitched cards:

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Scrap heavy blue and matte gold cardstock
  • 8 x8 inch heavy weight white cardstock

Miscellaneous

  • Blues, purples and green embroidery floss
  • Large eyed needle
  • Foam squares
  • Scoring board and tool

Stitched Flowers for a Spring Birthday

| ullycatdesigns

Luscious purple, blue and lavender flowers, stitched with shiny embroidery floss hoovering over a raised matte gold Happy Birthday make for a simple yet elegant card.

I used a stitched flower die from Spellbinders that originally was part of their Large Die of the Month Club but is now available to everyone via their on-line shop. Initially I die-cut into an 8.5 x 5.5 inches sheet of pale blue heavy cardstock that was in my stash. I stitched it completely before trimming it down to the final 4.5 x 5.75 inches to fit on a 5 x 6 inches card base.

The larger flower petals and leaves were outline or chain stitched before filling in the centers of them using three strands of floss. The yellow stamens are French knots. While I knotted the floss ends when starting, I finished the flowers on the back side by adding dots of glue to seal the thread ends and add dimension to the stitched frame.

The Poppy Stamps “Happy Birthday – Poe Script” sentiment was cut three times from a gold piece of junk mail and glued together. The words were glued directly to the card base after determining the placement with the stitched frame. The frame was attached to the card base with thick foam squares.

If you enjoyed this stitched card, there are two more stitched card posts this week as well as pervious stitched cards:

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Scrap heavy blue and matte gold cardstock
  • A7 white card base and envelope

Miscellaneous

Spring Is In The Air

| ullycatdesigns

Hello, it’s Sue of the Dies R Us Design Team and today we are making a spring time pop-up card for a gardener using Karen Burniston dies.

Cut the two printed papers to 4 15/16 inches x 7 inches. Position them inside the card base so that there is a gap between the papers where the fold can be seen. Using removable tape, tape them together and place the chair die with the nibs over the fold.

Run taped papers with die through die-cutting machine. Cut chair, arms and seat from woodgrain paper. (I aged the chair with white ink pad rubbed over the grain.)

Glue printed papers inside card base, adding matching scraps of papers to cover the brown spaces let where chair is cut away. Fold woodgrain chair folds as shown on packaging. Glue wood grain chair to patterned paper chair matching up the seat, back, arms and leg pieces. Train the chair to pop-up by opening and closing card a few times.

Decorate card with the garden charm set cutting off the charm loops. (I dirtied-up the tools and gloves with brown ink.) The pink flowers are made with the flowers from the Tiny Trees Pop-Up set.

Fold up all the petals on the flowers and then glue a smaller flower on top of a larger flower. Add a yellow Nuvo Drop center to flower. Let dry overnight before gluing on to card.

The front of the card is made with scrap rectangles of green patterned paper with another watering can cut on the back side of the mirror cardstock and rounded with my fingers so that it pours from the left. The sentiment is a also a Karen Burniston die.

Hope this fun card has put a smile on your face and provided some inspiration for your crafting. 😊

See more chair cards below:

Dies from Dies R Us:

Additional Supplies Used:

Don’t forget to come join in the fun at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog. There’s a new challenge theme offered on the 1st and 15th of each month and one lucky randomly drawn winner will receive a gift voucher prize to the Dies R Us Store.  

 For your convenience, all the important Dies R Us links are provided below.

click below for:

STORE

CHALLENGE BLOG

FACEBOOK

INSPIRATION BLOG

FRIENDS OF DIES R US PINTEREST PAGE