To make the cake I used some textured iridescent cardstock which had a slick surface to it that only allowed double-sided tape to be used as an adhesive. I watched the assembly video before putting together the cake. The easiest way to assemble the flamingo cake is to stick together each layer, adhering the flamingo border as you go, and then putting together the full cake. (I used a strip of 1/4-inch wide double-sided tape along the bottom strip of flamingos doubled-over to adhere the birds to the cake.)
The Rectangle and Labels set has a variety of fancy label shapes that I used as mats on the front of the card as well as the inside for a personal greeting space and the cake tray.
(I did use one extra fancy label from the Label Charms Pop-Up set for the top layer on the inside of the cardbecause the shinny paper was recycled junk mail with words that needed to be covered up.)
For the inside decorations I put dots of glue in a random pattern and sprinkled large glitter over them. The “Happy Birthday” sentiment and it’s shadow are also by Karen Burniston. The front sentiment was computer generated.
I like to decorate the backs of my cards with leftover pieces. The envelope flap has a die-cut of the large flamingo charm with its loop trimmed off.
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope it gives you inspiration and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊
I started with a 3.5-inch by 11-inch rectangle and folded the card at 6-inches to make a 3.5×6-inch top-fold card base.
Watch assembly video before die cutting the Adirondack Chair into the card base. I marked on the backside of the sand print paper (3.5×8.5-inches) where slits need to be cut to cover the background where the chair is cut from the cardstock. (I cut the top edge of the sand print paper with a wavy sand dune vibe.) Adhere the sky-blue paper at the top of inside of the card base above chair. Slip the sand print paper with slits into place and glue.
Die-cut the chair again from wood gran cardstock making sure the grain goes from top to bottom of the chair and armrests. Cut just the seat of the chair with the woodgrain going sideways the length of the boards. Glue the woodgrain pieces onto the card base chair.
Adhere the ocean wave paper (3.5x11inch) to the outside of the card base. Die-cut sentiments from the new Happy Hour word set and assemble. (I cut the Happy Hour twice in different pinks.) Layout the words on the front of the folded card base before adhering.
The shell and crab elements are from the new Sea Charms set while the fruity drink is from the previously released Happy Hour Charms set. I used a thin foam square cut in half to adhere the drink to the chair.
I find it fun to decorate the backs of cards with something small and whimsical. The jelly fish charm from the Sea Charms is cut from vellum and glued over a purple stenciled body.
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope it inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊
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Making sure your loved-one, who is far away, feels love at Valentine’s Day, is what this card is all about. It uses two new die sets from Karen Burniston’s February 2023 release along with some previously released sentiments and collage decorations.
I started with a 10-inch by 7-inch rectangle and folded in half to make a 5-inch by 10-inch cardbase.
Next, I die-cut all my mats and decorative frames from patterned papers using the crosshatch rectangles from the new Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch. For the scalloped frame I used white copier paper and heavier white cardstock to cut all the labels and twist mechanism two flag arms. The small, scalloped rectangles and flag arms are dies in the Little Twist Panel Pop-Up die set.
Because my decorative papers were thin paper, I used a sheet of double-sided adhesive to adhere the paper to a piece of cardstock. I did this for the twisting mechanism and the folded panel that is glued to the twisting mechanism. Before I die-cut my Little Twist Panel Pop-Up, I watched the assembly video for the pop-up mechanism.
Using double-sided tape, I covered the inside and outside card panels with coordinating paper mats. (My favorite technique for using double-sided tape is to place around the edge of the card, lift the ends of the tape so corners are sticky, position the covering paper, you can shift the top paper a bit before you pull all the tape backing paper strips. See tutorial post,)
Fold all the scored lines of mechanism piece as directed in video. Using a ruler mark the center of the cardbase fold with a pencil. Glue one side of mechanism to cardbase lining-up the mechanism’s center hole with the pencil mark making sure the folded score lines of the mechanism arms line up with the casebase fold. Fold mechanism shut and glue other side to cardbase.
The center heart is cut from the Heart Collage Pop-Up set in two pieces. Slide solid heart into slotted heart and glue the back halves to the mountain fold of the folded panel mechanism making sure that the panel slots are not blocked by heart. Following the video assembly instructions, insert the two flag arms into the slots on the folded panel. Glue the flag tabs onto the back of the other flag. Adhere the panel to the twisting mechanism as directed in assembly video. Test and train the mechanism how to fold inside the card.
The card front is simply decorated with the scalloped frame which is glued only on the straight edge inside of the frame.
To have a white shadow behind the die-cut “Happy Valentine’s Day,” Trace the outer edge of the word die with pencil and fussy cut the shadow.Two tiny hearts from the Sending Love die set complete the front.
The inside decorations include more tiny hearts in corners of the decorative panels as well as two hot air balloons carrying hearts. The balloons are from the Balloon Collage Add-Ons and the hearts on strings are from the Little Twist Panel Pop-Up. The balloons are adhered to the card with foam dimensionals. “Sending Love” sentiment is its own die set. There are two scalloped white labels are from the Little Twist Panel Pop-Up to write a personal message.
As with all my cards that are sent in an envelope, I have decorated the back flap with scalloped heart from the Heart Collage Pop-Up set. The card is A7 envelope.
Standing in waist-high water at the beach letting the waves bounce you up and down is a fun childhood past-time. This card is reminiscent of those sunny, seashore visits. It uses a variety of new beach themed dies from Karen Burniston’s February 2023 release along with some new labels and frames that coordinated with the previously released Label Charm Pop-Up set. This 3.5 x 8.5-inch card is a quick make and easily fits in a #10 business envelope.
I started with a 3.5-inch by 8.5-inch rectangle and scored an additional 3.5-inch by 6-inch rectangle at .25-inch to form a tab along the short end. Glue this tab to the back of the large rectangle to form the card base.
Using double-sided tape, I covered the inside and outside panels with coordinating papers. (My favorite technique for using double-sided tape is to place around the edge of the card, lift the ends of the tape so corners are sticky, position the covering paper, you can shift the top paper a bit before you pull all the tape backing paper strips. See tutorial post)
Before I die-cut my Label Charm Pop-Up pivot panel into my card base, I watched the assembly video for the die and cut out the accompanying tabbed frame and label. I also cut out a large frame to edge the front aperture of the pivot panel. I centered the pivot label charm pop-up die over the front of my card and die cut through all three layers of paper and cardstock. Because of its thickness, I ran it through my die cutting machine twice.
Decorate the oval charm with shells from the new Sea Charms set. (I daubed a pale-yellow ink- Antique Linen on the oval charm and dotted with a gold gel pen to give the look of sand. Then I glued on stenciled shells to both sides of the oval charm.) Attach the decorated charm to the oval frame with a jump ring before assembling the pop-out elements of this card. (My jump ring had a rhinestone dangle.)
Fold the charm frame and attached label together as they will go into the card. Place a drop of glue on the frame’s tab and adhere to the back side of the card front label. Glue the blue label to the inside card back panel.
To decorate the card, I used the dancing tiny crabs from the new Beach Borders set. There are eye holes in the die that make it easy to take a white gel pen to stencil in the eyes. I added mouths for fun.
“Enjoy the Waves” come from a coordinating sentiment strip in the paper pad. “At the Beach” is die cut using the new Word Set 16 -Beach Happy Hour.
As with all my cards that are sent in an envelope, I have decorated the back flap with some dancing blue crabs to hint at what’s inside. This is #10 business envelope.
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊
I love playing with the mechanical pop-up mechanisms designed by Karen Burniston. Her Facebook page Karen Burniston Pop-Up Peeps is a place for people to post their projects using her dies. Many talented people post wonderful and creative cards and projects. One such person is John Watterson who has created several cards featuring pirates using Karen Burniston dies. His work is the inspiration for this card, and I give him all credit for the pirate figures and pirate sail. I took inspiration for the crow’s nest from him as well.
Backgrounds: For the blue skies background on the card front, I took a piece of sky-blue cardstock and inked it using a cloud stencil, white ink and a small blending brush. Because the front scene is of a ship’s crow’s nest the viewpoint would be closer to the sky and sun, so everything would look bigger. The inside sky what also done with the white ink and just the blending brush for a more distant look of the clouds and sun. The suns are just one sun made from the Landscape Scene cut in half and the glued to the corners and trimmed again.
Rigging and Crow’s Nest: I raided my jewelry making supplies for some brown cord to make the rigging going up the main mast. The crow’s nest is made from the larger cupcake holder from the Cupcake Pop-Up set with thin strips of the same brown paper woven through the slits and glued. I used my fingers to put a curve in the crow’s nest.
Pirate Crew: (Click here to see John Watterson’s marooned pirate post.) While John’s pirate is on a deserted island and dancing a jig, my pirate crew are scouting the waters from the crow’s nest. I used the Monkey die set for the body and head of my pirates, took the beard from the Gnome and Santa set, and the bandana head covering from Tiny Accessories 1. The pants I fussy cut by tracing around the legs and body and cutting a bit wider than the pencils lines. The pirate is glued to the back of the crow’s nest and then adhered to the mast with foam tape.
Pirate Captain: (Click here to see John Watterson’s pirate captain post.) John’s pirate captain of a spotted dog and a black cat in a basket ship. I followed john’s lead using the Gnome and Santa dies for the head, beard, coat and boots. Since John made his own hat, I did similar but used the bowler hat from the Tiny Accessories 1 for its base. The hat is cut from suede paper that I brushed with a white opaque marker to age it. I also used the eye patch from this Tiny Accessories set. The ship’s wheel is from the Cruise Charms and attached to the captain with small foam squares. His hands are from the Gnome set but glued to the wheel. I also added some white gel pen to the beard to make it stand out. My final touch was to add a parrot to the captain’s shoulder using one of the birds from the Tiny Tree set. The captain is glued to the top platform on the mini pops platform.
Ship: The ship is based on two pop-up mechanisms – the Bam Box and the Mini Pops Pop-Up set and two of the smallest crosshatch long rectangles. The main deck base and mast are cut from a 6 1/2 x 3 1/4 inch piece of double-sided woodgrain cardstock scored and folded at 2 7/8 for the center fold using the tiered platform from the Mini Pops set. (The longer side of the cardstock is the top of the platform.) Train the large platform and top platform to pop-up as shown in the assembly video, but leave the two outer platforms as part of the base.
The main deck is a custom fitted piece cut from one of the crosshatch rectangles. And added after the bam box and its deck have been attached and tested.
The other crosshatch rectangle is folded in half and a bam box glued to the inside just at the fold. (Bam Box assembly video) (The bam box needs to fold out, away from the main deck platform so make sure to attach the box with the arched tab on top with the rubber band side next to the rectangle.) This piece now becomes the bow or front of the ship. Position the tip of the bam box so it just touches the main deck platform. Test to see that the bam box will fold down correctly before gluing in place and that the triangular point of the bow is in the center of the main deck. Cut a 90-degree triangle from the wood grain cardstock that has 2-inch sides. Trim to fit as the deck covering the bam box.
Train the bam box to open and close checking for catchpoints and trimming triangle as needed.
You will need to cut two diagonal tabs in the base bottom to hold the ship sides in place once the card is open.
Attach the main deck to its platform. Trim the back of the base to form a center mast, leaving a back railing at the height of the ship sides or taller. Trim the bottom of the base to 1/8 inch around the ship sides. Add waves to bottom of shop sides. The ship is now ready to be attached to the cardbase. Add waves to hide ship base.
Raft: The raft is a place to write a personal message. It was made by using the thinnest die in the Long Rectangles die set to cut the planks which were trim down to approximately 3 1/4 inches. Bamboo cord was used to lash the planks together with the ends taped to the backside of the planks. Foam squares adhere the raft to the card. The stamped sentiment was fussy cut and attached to the fancy label which was cut using a die from the Label Charm Pop-Up set.
Shark & Waves: By using a wave patterned paper, creating the ocean was easy. The waves under the ship and at the horizon line at the card’s center fold were cut using the Tropical Scene dies from light blue cardstock and inked with white ink. The gentler light blue waves in the corners were the off cuts from the waves. The shark is cut from gray cardstock and a scrap of white for his teeth using the Sea Animals set.
Sentiments: The pirate birthday sentiments are rubber stamps by Crackerbox Stamps and were stamped in brown ink and fussy cut. Thick foam tape was used to pop the sentiments on the front of the card, while double-sided tape was used for adhering “Happy Birthday” to the raft inside.
Envelope: While this card is designed as an 8 3/4 x 3 3/4 inch slimline card, its thickness of 1/2 inches makes it too thick to mail in a regular envelope and would need its own box or padded envelope.
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope it provides inspiration and joy. Please like and leave comments 😊
Need a fun card? Make a tower card with a honeycomb paper feature. Using products purchased from Craftstash, this card was quick to make. The flamingo and green leaves are from a Creative Craft Products bundle which includes the dies and honeycomb paper.
The card base is made with the Terrific Tower die by Sam Calcott of Made to Surprise that creates an art deco feel for this elegant display card. The front sentiment was computer generated.
.The back of the card features a die-cut “Happy Birthday” by Chole’s Creative Cards.
The card will fit in an A5 size (7 x 5 inches) envelope that has a die-cut flamingo from Karen Burniston’s Beach Charms on its back flap.
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Center Layer: Cut one of the second smallest of the plain edged hexagon in the Hexagons Crosshatch set of red 65 lb. cardstock. Cut six of the hearts in the Circle Charm Pop-Up set in red 65 lb. cardstock. Cut 12 strips 1-inch by 1/4 inch in red 65 lb. cardstock. (Strips need one squared off end that will be visible when the card is open.) Cut in white cardstock “love you” from Word Set 13.
Adhere “love you” sentiment onto hexagon parallel to a straight edge. Glue squared ends of strips to back side of the rounded tops of hearts. (Each heart should have two strips.) Place heart face up over an edge of hexagon and fold under the attached strips and glue to the underside of the hexagon. Make sure the top of the heart is just at the edge of the hexagon and not overhanging. (Overhanging hearts will make catchpoints that will be hard to open when flower is assembled.) Repeat with the next five hearts.
Fold hearts closed and test for catchpoints. Adjust attached hearts as needed to eliminate catchpoints.
Middle Layer: Cut one of the second largest of the plain edged hexagons in the Hexagons Crosshatch set in Pomegranate 100 lb. cardstock. Cut six of the smaller crosshatch heart in the Heart Crosshatch set in Pomegranate cardstock. Cut 12 strips 1-inch by 1/4 inch in Pomegranate cardstock. (Strips need one squared off end that will be visible when the card is open.)
Using thin foam squares, adhere center layer hexagon onto middle hexagon with points of smaller hexagon pointing towards the middle of each straight edge on larger hexagon. Glue squared ends of strips to back side of the rounded tops of hearts. (Each heart should have two strips.) Place heart face up over an edge of hexagon and fold under the attached strips and glue to the underside of the hexagon. Make sure the top of the heart is just at the edge of the hexagon and not overhanging. (Overhanging hearts will make catchpoints that will be hard to open when flower is assembled.) Repeat with the next five hearts.
Fold hearts closed and test for catchpoints. Adjust attached hearts as needed to eliminate catchpoints.
Outer Layer: Cut two of the largest hexagon in the Hexagons Crosshatch set – one red dotted Swiss and one white. Cut six of the scalloped heart in the Heart Crosshatch set in red dotted Swiss. Cut 12 strips 1-inch by 1/4 inch in red dotted Swiss. (Strips need one squared off end that will be visible when the card is open.)
Using thicker foam squares, adhere middle layer hexagon onto largest hexagon with points of smaller hexagon pointing towards the middle of each straight edge on larger hexagon. Glue squared ends of strips to back side of the rounded tops of hearts. (Each heart should have two strips.) Place heart face up over an edge of hexagon and fold under the attached strips and glue to the underside of the hexagon. Make sure the top of the heart is just at the edge of the hexagon and not overhanging. (Overhanging hearts will make catchpoints that will be hard to open when flower is assembled.) Repeat with the next five hearts.
Fold hearts closed and test for catchpoints. Adjust attached hearts as needed to eliminate catchpoints.
Glue white hexagon over the back of the red hexagon to cover-up strips and to provide a space to write a personal message.
Closing Band: Cut one strip of 12 inches by 3/4 inch in striped cardstock. Wrap loosely around widest part of closed flower. (Make such you can slide off the closed band before gluing closed.)
On white cardstock, trace around the “Happy Valentine’s Day” die to create a shadow for the words. Fussy cut the shadow. Die-cut the sentiment in red and use a pokey tool to weed out the words. Glue to shadow. Adhere the shadowed words to band.
The card will fit in an A2 size (4 3/8 x 5 3/4 inches) envelope. It may require extra US postage for its thickness.
This is a quick fussy cut string of hearts using Karen Burniston’s Landscape Rectangle Accordion die. The large red hearts and smallest dark pink hearts are from the Hearts-Crosshatch set while the medium size pale pink hearts and hearts with sentiments and arrow are from the Love Charms set. (I used a purple gel pen to highlight the candy heart sentiments.)
Below is a PDF file which you can download for a basic template of how to fussy cut the panels which are connected by the smallest hearts.
In cleaning up my craft room after the holidays, I came across a purchased Valentine I’d been sent many years ago with a stitched see-thru pouch with beads, sequins and the words “daughter,” sweet” and “valentine.” I decided to upcycle the card base with the pouch attached for a new Valentine.
The card base was an A6 size (5×6.5 inches). Ivory pearlescent on the outside and red on the inside. There were some tears of white on the inside where a sentiment sheet had been removed. (I hid the tears with red gingham ribbon adhered with double-sided tape.)
Using Karen Burniston’s Twist Panel Pop-Up and Heart Pivot Panels along with some of her word set dies, I recreated the card using two sheets of double-sided, printed cardstock from Craft Consortium.
Because I opted for an 8 x6 1/4-inches cardstock insert, I had to use a craft knife with a metal ruler to cut the ends of the mechanism arms free from the insert. I also die-cut a third arm from the insert cardstock which I cut-in half twice to make four strips to cover the red card base where the insert mechanism arms are cut from.
The assembly of the end panels and heart pivot panels were done as per the assembly video. Cutting the decorative hearts from the intricate paisley cardstock makes for a somewhat non-traditional Valentine.
The sentiments inside were both cut from white cardstock but finished differently. The “love you” was also cut from a red glossy magazine page and glued off-set with the white underneath. The “Happy Valentine’s Day” had a shadow added underneath it. The shadow is cut by tracing the outside of the sentiment die on the back side of the decorative cardstock and fussy cutting. The white scalloped rectangle is cut using a decorative panel die from the Twist Panel Pop-Up set. It serves as a place for a personal message.
The outside of the card was decorated with leftover scraps of decorative cardstock and a die-cut heart I had in my stash. Because I changed the orientation of the card from a side-fold to a top-fold, I secured the see-thru pouch with glue dots and added tiny hearts to reflect the orientation.
The card will fit in an A6 size envelope. (I used an A7 envelope as I was out of A6s.) It may require extra US postage for its thickness.
Ully Cat's World 