House

Back into the Swing of Things

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Back in the Swing -Inside-CU

Coming home after a long stay in the hospital deserves a cheerful card. Home Sweet Home may have a different meaning for those of us who have been fortunate enough to stay healthy during this year of COVID-19, but to a survivor it truly can be sweet.

Back in the Swing -front

The mechanical base for this card come from Karen Burniston’s House and Fence Pop-Up die set, as does the house. The fence, flowers, grass, tree and swinging girl come from the Xcut “Make Me” die set included in the Homemaker Die Cuts & Digi Stamps All-in-one Die & Digi Stamp Kit.

This is about the eighth time I have made this pop-up platform which is easy to use. I spent time exploring how to get the best embossing impression on the house by using fun foam to act as a shim. I inked the house and decoration on the tree and swinging girl with distress inks. The bushes are a scrap decorated with pink dots from the flowers.

Back in the Swing -Inside-wide

The front sentiment is another Karen Burniston die set which makes it quick and easy to create a stylized sentiment. The strawberry comes from the Park Lane paper pad as does the gingham tag inside the card.

I created the inside sentiment on the computer and used distress ink to color the background. If I were to print the sentiment again, I would ink the paper first and then print the words to minimize the black ink blurring.

The folded size of the card is 5 ½ inches by 5 ¾ inches. For interest, the bottom front edge is fussy cut along the printed scalloped edge.

Video is at https://spark.adobe.com/video/Ah8pNrimuXg8u.

Supplies

Dies

Paper

Inks

Miscellaneous

Stable Happy Mail

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7 Stable-front-opened

Everyone likes Happy Mail and this one is made for a family of horse lovers. After making a z-fold card using a gate and fencing, I envisioned this horse paddock card.

5 Stable-folded envelope

The card is designed to fit folded into a #10 slimline envelope.

I laid-out the fence first on a 2 ½ inch x 12-inch strip of textured cardstock folding it long-ways in half and then scored at 3 inches and 9 inches. Draw pencil lines for the fence posts at: 1/4 inch, 1 7/16 inches, 1 9/16 inches, 2 7/8 inches, 3 inches, 3 1/8 inches, 4 7/16 inches, 4 9/16 inches, 5 7/16 inches, 6 1/16 inches, 7 7/16 inches,, 7 9/16 inches, 8 7/8 inches, 9 inches,, 9 1/8 inches, 10 7/16 inches, 10 9/16 inches, and 11 ¾ inches. Next, I evenly spaced three boards long-ways and colored in the spaces to be cut out. Using an Xacto craft knife and metal ruler I cut out the colored spaces on the folded over strip measuring 1 ¼ x 12 inches. (I recommend coloring in the cutout spaces as it gets very confusing, and like me, you have to start over again.)  (If you have the Karen Burniston Farm Edges die set or another fence die set, you could piece together the fence rather than cutting it as I did.)

3 Stable-Fence cut

The last cutting is to trim one half of the endposts off (See photo). Once the fence is done being cut, glue the wrong sides together to form a sturdy fence. I used distress inks to color the fence.

4 Stable-Fence endpost

The stable doors are sized to fit the Karen Burniston horse die. I cut three horses and decorated them differently using a black fine tipped pen and watercolor pencils. (Watch the assembly video for decoration ideas and tips). The doors are loosely based of the retired Stampin’ Up barn door set. I cut pieces of woodgrain paper to form the trim pieces and glued. The sliding door hardware is from the Stampin’Up set. Because the door is smaller than the die set door, I had to do a modified cutting of the slots that the door slides on.  I followed the door assembly method described in this video by The Creativity Cave.

6 Stable-front-unopened

The sentiments are from the barn door set. You will need to cut two pieces of wood grained paper for the stable at 4 x6 inches. Once you have cut the door slots out of the front piece, and assembled the door, you can adhere the backing piece with the grain sided facing the back side of the front. (The grain will camouflage the slot cuts. Make sure you don’t glue your acetate door mechanism to the backing piece. Test your door before the glue dries if you need to make adjustments. Stamp and cut out your sentiments and adhere behind the doors. Glue one horse head to be peaking out from the stall door and the glue door onto stable.

7 Stable-front-opened

Glue the fence endposts to the front of the stable once the doors and decorations have been added to the front of the stable. Add the horses to your paddock by gluing one to the back of the front fence and the other by using a strip of clear plastic from packaging (It needs to be sturdier than acetate.) to glue the acetate in place, first glue one side the inside of the side fencing. Fold the paddock flat to one side and see where the plastic strip folded tab ends up on the fence and, then glue to that spot.

You can write your personal message on the back of the stable.

Supplies

Stamps/Dies

Inks/Watercolors

Paper

  • Textured 12 x12 off white card stock from my stash
  • All other papers were from my scrap bin

Miscellaneous

An Old-Time Christmas

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1 Parlor-Wide

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are credited with popularizing the idea that families need evergreen trees adorned with babbles and sweet treats at Christmas.  This fold-out parlor card is in that tradition.

1 Tree CU

Christmas Tree:  The tree frame and pop-up mechanism were made using Karen Burniston’s Christmas tree pop-up die set. I embossed thin copier paper with the saucer die from Karen Burniston’s Cup Pop Stand die set and then cut a circle of cardstock to back it. Using the tabs cutting die from the Christmas tree set, I cut tabs on the embossed saucer to make the tree skirt. Next, I assembled the tree (an assembly video is on the link to die set below) and decorated it using fir branches from the Gemini fireplace accessories pack, ornaments from the Gemini Yuletide treasures die set, and candy canes and gingerbread men from Sara Davis’ Frosty Christmas die set. (The ornaments have glitter glue, Nuvo Drops and Aqua Shimmer on them.) The two star pieces are cut twice from recycled foil from an envelope liner. Once the tree was decorated, it was attached to its brown tree stand and then glued to the tree skirt tabs. Placement on card was based off where the furniture and tree would be when the card was closed.  A portion of the tree skirt was trimmed to fit the card size.

1 Furniture wide

Furniture:  Using Karen Burniston’s Family Room Pop-up die set I altered the style of sofa and changed the chair into a table. I cut the base pop-up mechanism from clear acetate and made the chair arms lower by trimming some of the middle arm piece off and adhere the remaining sides together. Next, I embossed some blue cardstock with an embossing folder by Jennifer Ellory to create brocade fabric for the sofa. I used the sofa seat/back piece to cut the basic shape and then trimmed and added an additional sofa back piece cut from Olga Direktorenko’s Elegant Room sofa die. I made my own template for the brown base and legs of the sofa trying to mimic an empire style settee. A separate back sofa piece was also cut with the Elegant Room die. The Family Room die set has the cushions die and pop-out mechanism on the sofa seat. The tea table was created using the table die from the Elegant Room die set and a Spellbinder’s scalloped circle die for the tabletop. The plate was cut using Courtney Chilston’s Birthday Shadow box die set and the candy cane and gingerbread man were made as describe in the tree section above. Placement on card was based off where the furniture and tree would be when the card was closed.

Fireplace:  Using a recycled greeting card back in an off-white, cut the fireplace out using the Gemini Fireplace Concept die set. Because the die is designed to pop-up from a folded card, I had to cut the fireplace out with tabs at the back edge of mantle and the floor of the fireplace. I I also cut the trim pieces from the same card back and glued the pieces in place after scoring the tab folds. I also cut a rectangular piece of black cardstock to become the back of the fireplace. Taping the bottom of the black back to the floor tab. I cut two brick pattern pieces from the Gemini Yuletide Treasures die set and then I glued them to the black back piece and created smoke and soot on the brick by rubbing a Tim Holtz Distress Crayon over the bricks. The fire and logs were cut from the Gemini Fireplace Accessories Pack. The flames were cut from cardstock that I had blended two colors of Spectrum Noir Sparkle Glitter Ink on, let dry and then cut. The logs and flames were glued together and then placed in fireplace with foam squares.

1 fireplace decorated

Wallcovering:  The wallcovering was created using two embossing folders by Olga Direktorenko. The main piece with pillars and molding is the Elegant Room folder and the crown molding is from the Timeless Room folder. I masked the molding and rubbed Distress Ink over the wallpaper. The mirror (cut from recycle mirror card from a box) wreath, bows, holly and coal shuttle were also cut using the Fireplace Accessory Pack. The embossed “wings” on each side are from the Timeless Room embossing folder.

1 Front Door

Door: The Front of the folded-up card is an elegant Italianate styled door. I used Olga Direktorenko’s entire Elegant Door die and embossing folder set. The windows are wax paper over pale yellow card stock and red marker. The door hardware is cut from gold foil cardstock and gold gel pen. The wreaths were cut from recycled boxes using lawn Fawn’s mini wreath die set.

1 Greeting wngs folded

Greeting: The greeting is on the front of the second folded-side of this tri-fold card. Merry Christmas is cut from recycled red foil envelop liner using a Card Deco Essentials die. The gold lacy background was cut from foil card using Spellbinders Charming Christmas Boughs die set. The greeting is offset to left to allow room for a personal message.

1 Parlor close up

Supplies

Dies:

Embossing Folders:

Stamps & Inks:

Papers:

Miscellaneous:

A Party Without Cake

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cake shop front-cu

“A party with out cake is just a meeting” is the sentiment for this pop-up cake shop birthday card.  Made with Die-cutting Essentials Special Edition Issue 6 – Shop Front and Hunkydory Moonstone Shadow Box Frame – MSTONE076 die sets and papers from shop front kit, this scrumptious card is a fun little diorama style card.

cake shop front-medium

The shop front papers include interior scenes as well as signs and background papers.  I adhered the interior paper for the cake shop on to light weight cardstock and then fussy cut around the table shapes. Then I cut the shadow box outer frame and two inner frames. I played with spacing the three tables out on the frames looking through he window and door, before I adhered the tables to frames. I taped using double-sided tape the striped pink wallpaper to the back piece of cardstock for the shadowbox frame and then using foam tape placed the back table on the wallpapered panel. The front two tables were taped using transparent removable tape to the lower corners of the interior shadow box frames.

cake shop front-roof

Next, I worked on decorating the shop front cut from a textured red paper, and I cut a second shop front from cream colored cardstock and fussy cut the window frame and door out it.  The “sweet” sign on the door is a sticker. The mail flap is a piece of gold holographic card, and the doorknob is Nuvo Crystal Drops. The green bushes are cut from a food box and embossed with the embossing folder from the shop front kit and placed with foam tape. The doorstep is from paper kit. A clear piece of acetate was adhered to the back of the window after the shop front was adhered to shadow box frame with double-sided-tape. This helps with the folding of the card, so cakes don’t get caught in the window frame. Sign was cut from papers and then adhered to cream cardstock before being permanently on shop front.

cake shop front-full

The “Happy Birthday” top of the card was stamped, and heat embossed onto white card stock and the cut out with a tab on the bottom. Using makers to create polka dots and then adhered to shop roof. The same polka dot paper from the back was used to roof the shop. The back sentiment was also heat embossed and adhered to back with foam tape.

cake shop back

 

SUPPLIES USED:

Dies

Paper:

Embossing Folder:

Stamps and Ink:

Miscellaneous:

Let It Snow Shadow Box

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Shadowbox -frontShadow box cards can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make them. Let It Snow is of medium difficultly. This die set, along with strong double-sided tape, makes it quick to cut and assemble a four-panel shadow box with depth and character.  You can choose to color or not.

Shadowbox -materials

Step 1: Using the shadow box frame set, cut out one large box frame – your choice of oval or rectangle opening. See video on assembly of shadow boxes. (I used a shimmer pen on the blue panel as well as snow highlights on other panels.)

Step 2: Using both the smaller panel frame from shadow box die set and the four panels of winter scene diet set, cut one of each panel. (Because of the delicate detail of some of the dies and the score marks, you may have to use a precision metal cutting pad or make two passes through your die cutting machine.)

Step 3: Cut a piece of blue cardstock and a piece of white cardstock3 inches x 4 inches (76mm x 101mm). Using the snowy background die from the winter scene die set, die cut the snowy background onto the blue cardstock.

Step 4: Fold the tabs and sides of box and panels first one way and then the other way. Flatten to decorate.

Step 5: Flatten to decorate. Colored pencils, watercolors, or just some glitter pen gloss are some ways of decorating.

Step 6: Place double-sided strong tape on all panel flaps on the face-up side. Place double-sided tape on both front and back tab flaps of shadow box.

Shadowbox -snowy panel backStep 7: Assembly – start with blue background and peel off backing of one shadow box tab tape on inside of box. Line up long side of blue paper to folded edge of tab.

Shadowbox -back panelStep 8: Peel off tape on back panel same side as blue panel and line up with fold of shadowbox tab.  Shadowbox -all panelsRepeat with other three panels butting the edge of new panel up to folded edge of previous panel until all panels are adhered to inside of shadow box.

Shadowbox -front panelStep 9: Peel off tape on Front panel and line it up on opposite side of shadow box to be equal distance from front opening as other side of panel. Shadowbox -most panelsRepeat with remaining three panels.

Shadowbox -snowy backStep 10: Peel off tape on inside of shadow box tab and adhere blue panel.

Shadowbox -white backStep 11: Peel off tape on outside of shadow box tabs and adhere white card panel.

Shadowbox -frontStep 12: Decorate outside of shadow box as desired using sentiment die cuts from Winter Scene set.

 

SUPPLIES USED:

Dies

Paper

Miscellaneous

Autumn Blessings

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thanksgiving front

Autumn in much of North America is characterized by the browning, yellowing and sometimes reddening of leaves. The muted, earthy tones are part of the season.  Inspired by the “over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go” tune and by a Karen Burniston video on double pivot panel card, I made this Thanksgiving card.

To see video of this card, click here.

thanksgiving back

The card is designed to be displayed open. The personalized message can be written on the back cover.

thanksgiving inside

To see video of this card, click here.

SUPPLIES USED:

Dies

Paper:

 

Miscellaneous:

The Upside to Playing

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IMG_4989

The upside to playing with new materials is you don’t have to perfect, just have fun with the materials and be creative.  This little pop-up box card has gotten embellished when I’ve gotten some new materials. First, the brown box was just to test out the Lawn Fawn Scalloped Box die set. I had a jar full of tiny rubber stamps I gotten from one of the big craft store chains and used the “Hi!” “celebrate” and “smile” stamps to decorate the side flaps. A new box of neon colored pencils came into play around the stamps.

I set the box on my Inspiration Shelf and forgot about for several months until I got a new box of Prima watercolor pencils (the kind you color and then go over with a wet brush to blend the colors.) I needed something to color and found the Lawn Fawn Little Town Hillside die cut in my bits and pieces stash to color.

Again the box went back on the Inspiration Shelf until I got a tiny snow fall stamp which I tried out on the hillside. (Not sure of the brand or where it is on my crafting desk at this point.)

IMG_5141

My Inspiration Shelf of cards people have sent me, purchased or test cards like the box.

IMG_4989