Hunkydory

Celebrate a Poppin’ 2023!

| ullycatdesigns

It is the Karen Burniston Design Challenge for January 2023 featuring pop-ups using a rubber band!

For this New Year’s card, I featured Karen Burniston’s Surprise Cube Pop-Up in a slimline card.

For the pop-up cubes I watched the assembly video before starting. Because I used specialty printed cardstock and mirror cardstock all of which have slick finishes, I had to glue, clamp, wait for glue to dry before moving onto the next step. Double-sided tape ended up working better on these cardstocks. I decorated the sides while the main pieces were still flat.

I cut two sets of the numbers for “2023” from a scrap of matte gold paper. These were glued on the top and sides of the cubes once I had glued the cubes to the card base.

The card base is custom made from two pieces of the patterned specialty cardstock. The front piece is 4 x 8 3/4 inches while the back piece is 6 x 8 3/4 inches. The back piece is scored at 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch, 5 1/4 inches and 5 1/2 inches.

The front piece is glued under the back’s tab. When closed, the back piece’s front tab wraps over the front’s bottom edge. Two bands hold the card shut. Instructions to slide the bands off are on the back of the bands.

“Celebrate” is the front sentiment that hints at what’s to come when the card is opened. I used the largest of all the “Happy”s in Karen Burniston’s dies. It comes from the Happy Birthday die set. The champagne bottle comes from the Wine Charms set while the clicking champagne glasses are from the Wedding Charms set. The bubbly effects of the popping cork and from the glasses were made with a gold gel pen. Some holographic strands of tinsel finish off the decorations inside.

There is space behind the cubes to write a personal message and then place the loose tinsel strands over it.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Hunkydory  – A4 size – Adorable Scorable Pattern Pack – Heavy Cardstock- Festive Foils
  • Tonic Studios – 8.5’x11” Craft Perfect Mirror Cardstock – Seafoam Green
  • Joy Craft – Mirror Cardstock – Dark Green
  • Yellow Cardstock
  • Matte Gold Paper Scrap

Miscellaneous

A Silent Night in the Village

| ullycatdesigns

A cold winter’s night looking out from a window safe and warm onto a sleepy village is the scene this card suggests with hints of happy Christmas memories and the main reason for looking forward to Christmas eve.

The card is a happy mix of papercrafting products from both the USA and UK. The decorative papers and Bethlehem stamps are from Hunkydory. (Christmas papers from Hunkydory sell-out quickly, so I purchase them when I first see them generally on Craftstash as they have the best shipping rates from the UK to the USA.) The window frame is a cut and embossing folder from Memory Box. (I fussy cut two of these window frames and glued together for stability. After cutting out the basic window opening from the patterned paper.) My village is made from the hero Arts Tri-fold Edge Village dies and colored with watercolor pencils. At the top of the window is a wreath cut from thick packaging cardboard using an older Lawn Fawn mini wreath die set. The village and patterned paper are layered with foam tape.

For sentiments on this card I heat embossed “Silent Night” from the Bethlehem stamp set onto vellum using my favorite gold embossing powder. Inside the card is a Christmas tree shaped sentiment by Tim Holtz from Stampers Anonymous. The card back features the Bethlehem stamp in Crumb Cake ink that is similar to gold.

The envelope flap is stamped with one of my favorite round Christmas stamps from the Love Cardmaking magazine in a dark green ink mimicking the wreath on the card.

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

Dies & Embossing Folder:

Stamps, Ink, Embossing Powder

Papers

  • Park Lane A7 card base and envelope
  • Hunkydory – Duo Designs Paper Pad 8×8 – All Wrapped up & Festive Foil
  • Hunkydory – Adorable Scorable pattern Pack – Snowflakes Splendour
  • White card stock
  • Clear vellum

Additional Supplies:

  • Nuvo Watercolour Pencils
  • Waterbrush
  • Foam tape

A Quick Thank You

| ullycatdesigns

Needing a unique and handcrafted Thank You card, I came up with this pop-in window card using double-sided patterned paper from Paper Heaven, the frame dies from the newest Die-cutting Essentials issue 75, and some word dies from Hunkydory’s Moonstone brand.

When the card is closed it look like a flat card, but when it opens, the window back mechanism opens and moves the window panel ¼ inch back from the card opening.

Because of the dark inside of the card, I cut two white labels from old envelope scraps in my stash to be able to write a message on them.

Need more ideas for Thank You cards?  Here is more inspiration:

Supplies:

Dies

Stamps

  • Inkadinkado – Clear Stamps – Modern Flower Flourish – 60-30380

Papers

Inks

  • Stampin’ Up – Blueberry Bushel

Miscellaneous

When Pigs Fly

| ullycatdesigns

In honor of all newly minted sixty-year-olds, this card is in tribute to you (whether you want to believe it or not.)

Flying Pig:  Bonnie Krebs has designed this delightful flying pig as one of Art Impressions Flutters cards. The set comes with dies to cut out the pig and the two wings as well as punching holes in the pull strip and cutting the slot for the pull arm. This pig and wings were stamped in permanent black ink and colored with watercolor pencils. The instructions on the packaging are good, but watching a video or two helps with the exact assembly using the tiny brads that are included in the stamp and die set and either twine or thread. The pull arm is a piece of heavy cardstock that is ¾ inch wide and at least 6 inches long. (You can trim the arm shorter once the card is assembled.)

Card base:  The foiled pink plaid card base is one from a boxed set of 50 cards and envelopes size A2. Once the pig was assembled onto its pull arm, a slot was cut using the slot die and the half circle finger hole was cut through the front and back of the card base. (I recommend laying-out and pencil marking where the inside insert papers will be and cutting the half circles on them, before you do the final assembly of the flying pig pull arm onto the card base.) The pig is adhered to the card front using tiny foam squares, once the pull arm is through the slot in the card base.

Front decorations – 60 and Pull Here:  The 60 was cut from a foiled chocolate box using dies designed to be birthday cake candles. The flame and stand were trimmed off the 6 and 0. Once the pull arm has been installed to the card base, trim it off to fit inside the card base and round the corners with a corner punch. Stamp or write “Pull” with a directional arrow. (The stamp used here was from Concord & 9th)

Inside:  With the flying pig mechanism installed, adhere the inside papers using double-side tape making sure to leave a gap for the pull arm to move through freely. Add the die-cut birthday sentiment using glue.

Envelope:  I stamped the back of the envelope with birthday cake stamp to set the stage for this milestone birthday card.

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

Supplies

Dies/Stamps

Ink

Paper

Miscellaneous

Happy Retirement

| ullycatdesigns
“Linda, Thank You For A Job Well Done“

A new year is coming and for those who are retire this year, 2021 will be a start of a new kind of life.

I needed to make a retirement card for a co-worker who announced her retirement two weeks before December 31, 2020.

Having a large collection of Hunkydory sentiment dies I was able to find all the words I needed except for the word “Done” which I pieced together from other words and placed on a piece of low tack tape to act as a transfer sheet while I added glue to the back and then adhered to the card.

“Wishing You A Happy Retirement“

I used paper and a color scheme I had recently used on another slimline card with a doubled-sided First Edition paper that had lines and dots on it that I could line up the words one. The inside sentiment was glued to a piece of vellum laid over the grid pattern on my craft mat to align the words. I personalized the front of the card by adding the individual’s name using some gold mirror card and a tiny Spellbinder’s alphabet die set.

A light blue organza ribbon was tied around the card and a bow tied on. A shiny flat back button was glued to the center of the bow.

The back flap of the envelop was also heat embossed with the gold to say thanks and to hint at the card inside. 

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

Materials Used:

Dies/Stamps

Inks/Embossing Powders

Papers

Miscellaneous

Santa Vintage Trifold

| ullycatdesigns

Sometimes we just need to believe that there once was a perfect Christmas Eve with Santa flying through the starry night.

This shimmering trifold Christmas card delivers on that idea. Based on the Spellbinders’ Christmas village vignette frame die set, the scene is set with Santa flying his sleigh through the air, over the tops of fir trees to the next house. Each screen frame holds another layer of the snowy scene.

To make this card, I cut three of the lacy frames from bright blue foil cardstock and three backing panels from shimmer cardstock. I waited to cut the center openings in each back panel knowing that they had to line up for the scene to work. To cut the front panel opening I place the blue frame over the back panel and lined-up the “Christmas Greetings” die based off the blue frame center. To cut the lower hill window from the center panel, I use the front panel to line up the lower hill die on to the shimmer side of the cardstock. Using the first two panels to position the back panel’s higher hill die, I used the same technique to cut the final window.

Assembling the card was easy, gluing the blue frames to the white shimmer side panels and using clear removable tape to join or hinge the panels together on the back side.

To decorate the scene, I die cut two large fir trees, five small fir trees, 12 holly springs, one house and one Santa’s sleigh from the scrap shimmer cardstock left from cutting the windows. (Hint: Always make sure you are cutting with the shimmer side of the cardstock up.) The shimmer card takes the water-soluble markers well giving the images a nice texture. Color can be layered-on allowing some shading. The trees on the center panel are glued with a tree on both front and backsides of the panel so that when folded shut they are visible. The back panel has a single layer of trees and house. I used a paper scrap from a Hunydory paper pad that had a starry night sky to be the backdrop for the final panel’s window.

Holly springs were colored and glued to the frame inside corners of all the panels, but only the top panel had red Nuvo drops added to the berries. Nuvo drops were also added to the circle parts of the blue frame on the top panel only.

Finished card when folded shut measures 5 x 4.5 inches (127 x 113 mm).

Thank you for reading about this card. Please like and leave a comment. 😊

If you enjoyed this tri-fold card, check out some of my other trifolds:

One In A Melon

Shabby Chic Trifold Card

Festive Foliage and Hearts – Trifold card

Sleepytime Dreams

SUPPLIES

Dies/Punches

Ink

Paper

Miscellaneous

Nativity Card with a Surprise

| ullycatdesigns

The Miracle of Christmas papers by Hunkydory have some amazing collages of the advent story in them. My inspiration for this slimline card front came from the collage and blending of two images from the Bitesize Book.

This is the third in a series of blogs about Christmas cards made from the 2020 Hunkydory paper collection entitled The Miracle of Christmas.

The inside of the card has insert paper from the Miracle of Christmas collection glued in two sections so that the card base center fold is left uncovered.

When the card is opened, a fussy cut image of Mary and Joseph with the Christ child in a manger pop-up. The stable from the image has also been cut out and glued to the inside. To make the image pop-up, tabs were cut out at the feet of each of the adult figures and folded back. Next the couple was folded in half as close to their center as possible. With the card half opened I laid-out the position of the figures so that their heads were in the bottom corner of the card making sure they would not be visible when the card was closed. Next, I put glue on one tab and pressed in place and them glued the other tab to the other side of card.

A greeting will be handwritten below the figures inside the card.

The envelope is stamped with a coordinating stamp to hint at what is inside.

Thank you for reading about this simple pop-up card using the Hunkdory papers. Click the like button at the bottom of the page if you like the card or leave me a comment.

You can view more cards in The Miracle of Christmas Papers Series by clinking the links below.

Post 1 – The Miracle of Christmas Papers

Post 2 – A Small Triptych Card

Post 3 – Nativity Card with a Surprise

SUPPLIES

Paper

Stamps

Ink

Miscellaneous

© Sue Small-Kreider 2020

A Small Triptych Card

| ullycatdesigns

Angels announced the coming of the newborn babe and in centuries old tradition of iconic triptychs this little card does similar with its gatefold doors opening to the simple stable under some palm trees on a starry night.

This is the second in a series of blogs about Christmas cards made from the 2020 Hunkydory paper collection entitled The Miracle of Christmas.

To create this card, I played with scrap paper cute to the size of the heavy colored card stock I was using. After deciding on a simple gate fold with the inside top and bottom folds cut and inverted, I fussy cut out all the printed paper elements. Knowing that the palm trees were going to be adhered with tiny foam squares cut to fit, I added the foam at one step in my preparations before assembly.

The measurements of the outer adorable scorable card is 5 ½ inches (140 mm) tall by 8 ¼ inches (252 mm) wide. It was scored at 2 1/8 inches (55 mm) and at 6 1/8 inches (158 mm).

The inside, light weight, navy blue cardstock is also 5 ½ inches (140 mm) tall by 8 ¼ inches (252 mm) wide. And scored at scored at a hair more than 2 1/8 inches (55 mm) and at a hair less than 6 1/8 inches (155 mm). The inside card needs to have a slightly smaller center than the outside card to fold properly at the two folds.  Using a T-topped ruler, I marked where the four cut lines should go (see downloadable template) and cut using a metal straight edge and craft knife. (You could use a sliding trimmer if you have one.)

triptych-templateDownload

To fold the inside piece, I first folded the card as a gatefold and then carefully aligning the inverted strips edges with card edges and made the inverted folds.

Decorating the inside of the card Involved cutting two strips of starry paper at 4 x 2 inches (100 x50 mm) and one 4 x 3 15/16 inches (100 x 98m) and gluing them so that the card fold were left exposed. The stable was glued down, and the foam padded palm trees adhered so as not to impede the card folds. Two stars were cut from the papers and the top on adhered with a foam square.

The outside decorations involved some reinforcement of the angels’ trumpets by gluing them onto scraps of the same paper. Once the paper decorations were added, Nuvo drops were added as stars by opening the card flat and allowing to dry flat.

The final sentiment was cut using an Impression Obsession die from an old cream envelope and glued to the back of the card.

I stamped the A2 envelope back with the Little Town of Bethlehem stamp using Crumb Cake Stampin’ Up ink which almost matches the gold Nuvo drops used on the card.

Thank you for reading about these cards.

The Miracle of Christmas Series

Post 1 – The Miracle of Christmas Papers

Post 2 – A Small Triptych Card

SUPPLIES

Paper

Dies

Stamps

Ink/Nuvo Drops

Miscellaneous

© Sue Small-Kreider 2020

The Miracle of Christmas Papers

| ullycatdesigns

Silent Night is humming in the background as the card recipient opens this gold stamp envelope and pulls out a card with a gold embossed “Silent Night” on it’s front.

This is the first in a series of blogs about Christmas cards made from the 2020 Hunkydory paper collection entitled The Miracle of Christmas.

These were my first two cards made from the collection and I was able to make two from each of the Adorable Scorable cardstock and insert papers. All have a gold heat embossed sentiment on vellum and adhered to the front with foam squares. I used double-sided tape to adhere all the papers to the card base. The red nativity also has a gold heat embossed inside sentiment from an older Kaisercraft stamp set while the Little Town of Bethlehem scene uses a sentiment cut from the paper pad.

I stamped all of the A2 envelope backs with the Little Town of Bethlehem stamp using Crumb Cake Stampin’ Up ink which almost matches the gold heat embossing powder used on the cards.

Thank you for reading about these cards.

The Miracle Of Christmas Series

Post 1 – The Miracle of Christmas Papers

Post 2 – A Small Triptych Card

SUPPLIES

Paper

Stamps

Ink

Miscellaneous

© Sue Small-Kreider 2020