Interactive cards

Meet the Snow Family – Mama Snow

| ullycatdesigns

This card is part of the Karen Burniston Design Team snowmen challenge for November.

Today, I’m show you how to make Mama Snow.

Mama Snow is comprised of all three balls – the Mini Ball Pop-Up, the Bitty Ball Pop-Up and the Surprise Ball Pop-Up with all her facial features, hat and stick arms from the Snowman Add-Ons. Her cape is made from the Mini Ball and Bitty Ball dies and her hat is cut down from the Snowman Add-ons set.

I find watching the assembly videos for the balls very useful. (Bitty Balls, Mini-Balls and Surprise Balls) Numbering the order of gluing the tabs is useful for the assemble of the balls. I cut all the trapezoid panels from an embossed white cardstock. And the ball halves are cut from a 100 lb. smooth white cardstock.

Assemble the base Surprise Ball in all white with a brad threaded through the bottom hole. The middle and head balls are of graduating size and are decorated with the blue cape and collar pieces before assembling.

The blue cape is made by cutting one half of a Mini Ball in blue and trimming as shown in the photos. I glued it to the bottom of the ball first before assembling the ball. (Note that one panel of blue was cut off and the corners facing the missing panel were curved and not glued down. The missing panel area is where the mouth will be for the face.)

The cape is cut using the same blue cardstock using one half of a Bitty Ball. Cut a thin stripe out of the front of the cape and curve the bottom corners. Glue down stick arms to sides of Bitty Ball. Glue all of the cape to the top of the bitty ball, except for the curved corners.

Glue on facial features of coal eyes and mouth cut from glitter cardstock and an orange carrot nose. Docorate the cape and collar with snowflakes.

To assemble the hat, trim the tall top piece down to about 1/2 inch above the tab. Decorate brim with snowflakes from Snowman Add-Ons, Snowman Twist Circle or Snowman set.  Glue top of hat flap through the slot in brim. Glue hat onto top of head. Cut a piece of ribbon long enough to go over hat brim and under the head plus 2 inches. Glue middle of ribbon to top of hat and them flatten head and glue ends of ribbon to the bottom of head ball. (You will need this slack in the ribbon to allow the ball to fold flat.)

Now you can glue the three balls together to make Mama Snow. I glued the ribbon bow on after I had assembled her to get the correct placement.

You can now added her to the card base using the brad.

Learn more about how each member of the Snow Family was created in these blogs:

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Spellbinders – 100 lb. cardstock – Waterfall
  • Hot Off the Press – Black Suede
  • Hot off the Press – Black Glitter Cardstock
  • Blue, orange, brown, and white cardstock scraps
  • Staples – 8.5×11 Printable glitter paper

Miscellaneous

Meet The Snow Family

| ullycatdesigns

This card is part of the Karen Burniston Design Team snowmen challenge for November.

Today, I’ll introduce you to the Snow Family and then each of the next three days, I’ll explain how I made each member of the family.

In her August release, Karen Burniston has come out with some additional die sets that make putting together snowpeople so easy. An add-on character set includes the top hat and band, carrot nose, large and small circles for eyes, mouth and buttons, as well as stick arms and a large snowflake. The Double-Ups for the all the pop-up balls have the side trapezoids linked together to cut 6 pieces all at once, so with the original individual trapezoid dies, you can cut all 12 side panels in one pass.

I started with a pale blue card base of made up of two 6x 6 1/2 inch pieces. I scored the extra 1/2 inch at 1/2  and 1/4 inch to make tabs with a gusset to glue each piece to a central 6 x 6 inch square.

The decorative papers are 5 ¾ x 5 ¾ inches. (Flap assembly video) I cut the the flap from pale blue cardstock and two decorative panels from scraps of the decorative papers.  Off the back of the center section is where the flap is glued.

The flap dies set cuts six washers of which three are glued together for each of the circle brad cover. Glue the front decorative panel onto the flap. Using a sharp piercing tool, punch a hole in the center of the flap.

Glue the washers over the hole. I used a needle and thread to pull the twine through the hole leaving knot on underside of flap. Pull brad legs through hole and bend the legs onto the back of the flap and glue the twine in place on back of flap.

Glue the back decorative panel over the twine knot.  Cover back of card and flap tab with decorative paper.

Glue the front decorative papers to the card front. Mark the center of the front of the card base and pierce, glue the next two washers. Thread another brad through the hole Then thread the brad legs into the hole in the bottom of the bottom all of a snow person. (It is easier to add just the bottom ball and then build the snowperson onto this ball once it is attached to the card base.)

Once all the snowpeople base balls are attached to the card base and decorative papers cover the brad legs or wires, decorations can be added to the outside of the card panels.

The card is too thick to be mailed in any standard envelope to mail.

Learn more about How each member of the Snow Family was created in these blogs:

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Spellbinders – 100 lb cardstock – Waterfall
  • Hot Off the Press – Black Suede
  • Hot off the Press – Black Glitter Cardstock
  • Blue, orange, brown, and white cardstock scraps
  • Recollections – 8.5×11 White gold shimmer cardstock
  • Staples – 8.5×11 Printable glitter paper

Miscellaneous

All Wrapped Up In You

| ullycatdesigns

My spouse and I joke that neither of us can remember our wedding anniversary. We know it is in late October but we always have to look it up. This year I decided to just make a sweet Halloween card for my spouse for our anniversary.

I used the Spellbinders’ Dancin Mummy dies as well as the stamp set from the Boo Dance Party collection to make the card. The card base is a mini-slimline card made from double-sided cardstock from a 2013 Martha Stewart 12 x 12 paper pad called Gothic Manor. The legs swing on circle foam dot.

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Pop-Up Ghost Card

| ullycatdesigns

Pop-up ball cards always remind me of the jack-in-the-box toy when you open them and something pops up to make you smile. This pop-up ghost card was designed for a three-year-old boy for Halloween.

The card front and easel base are my design. (You can download the full-size scan I made of the ghost card front for free.)

ghost-card-designDownload

I traced the ghost onto a 12 x 12 inch sheet of cardstock twice. Next, I cut the cardstock between the ghosts and fold the card stock at the top of the ghost’s head and cut out two layers of the ghost leaving the top of the ghost’s head attached as a fold.

This will be the card base and easel prop.  The second ghost I cut all the way around and used the largest oval die from the Karen Burniston Bitty Ball die set to cut out the eyes for the card front ghost.

I traced the easel piece as well as the whole ghost back onto black cardstock and cut both pieces out. The easel back piece needs to be glued so that when the white ghost card front is glued onto easel flap the eyes show through as black.

(Don’t glue the whole black ghost shape onto the back of the card until after the pop-up balls have been attached to the card base. This piece hides the brad legs.)

For the pop-up ghost inside I covered two mini pop-up balls (made using dies by Karen Burniston) with four layers of cheesecloth cut into a 6-inch circle and glued to the top pop-up ball. (Follow the assembly video for the pop-up balls.) Cut all pieces from white cardstock. Cut two black eyes using the same oval die used for card front ghost.

I made a band to hold the card closed from a leftover piece of white cardstock. The “BOO!” on the ghost as well as the band sentiment are by Karen Burniston from the two Halloween die sets listed below.

The card fits into a 6 x 9 inch envelope. I stamped the front and back of the envelope with ghost stamps by Julie Ebersole.

easel-pop-up-ball-card-sheetDownload

I often add a CRX slip that helps the card recipient know how to open the interactive card. (You can download the sheet with four slips on it. for free.)

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Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks

  • Memento Fade-resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black

Papers

  • Brazzill –12 x12 Inch Cardstock – Coconut Swirl
  • Heavy Black Cardstock
  • 6” x 9” Envelope – White

Miscellaneous

  • Cosmic Shimmer – Specialist Acrylic Glue – 125ml
  • Sizzix – Big Shot PLUS die cutting Machine
  • Fineline 20 Gauge Applicator & Bottle
  • LDRS Creative – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamp Cleaning Cloth
  • Poking Tool
  • Cheese Cloth – 6 inch Circle
  • Brad with Long Legs

Interactive Money Holder Halloween Cards

| ullycatdesigns

These two cards are for a 12-year-old girl and her 14-year-old brother. The card sender requested that they be money holders as well as interactive Halloween cards.

Both cards are variations of previous Halloween cards I’ve done this year, but with money holders. They also show how adding a second Karen Burniston pop-up mechanism and reversing the direction of it can really make a card jump for joy or reveal hidden treasure.

The original card called Witchy Shoes and this card are made with dies and papers from Queen & Co. Halloween collections – Fright Fest (shoes, pumpkin & papers) and Witch Hat die.

The money holder is an orange jack-o-lantern Trick or Treat pail intended as a shaker, but I taped the pumpkin frame to the center cutout and used the matching foam frame behind the jack-o-lantern, cutting off the top bar, so rolled paper money could be placed in it.

I added two pop-up mechanisms by Karen Burniston from her Spinner Square Pop-ups die set to make the legs move.(Assembly video). I reversed the direction of one of the mechanisms to make them move away from each other.

Envelope back

The envelope uses image stamps by Tim Holtz and sentiment stamps From Queen & Co.

Card front and front of envelope

For the Open If You Dare card I based it off the card Do What Brings You Joy using two of the pop-up mechanisms from the Katherine Label Pop-Up die set by Karen Burniston (assembly video). I reversed the direction of one of the mechanisms to make them move away from each other.

The ghosts and spiderwebs are from the Queen & Co Halloween Foundation Dies and the Paper Studio checkerboard brown craft paper has been in my stash for a while.

The Trick or Treat bag is a rectangle that was accordion folded at the sides and the bottom edge folded up into a tab. The edge of the bag was cut with pinking shears and then the bag was stamped in black using a stamp by Tim Holtz.

Card back

All other stamps used on the card are from the Queen & Co Fright Fest collection.

Envelope back

The envelope uses image stamps by Tim Holtz and sentiment stamps From Queen & Co. and Peebles.

If you enjoyed these cards, check out other creative cards on the Facebook page Karen Burniston Pop-Up Peeps.

Witchy Shoes

| ullycatdesigns

Sometimes there are crafting elements that just take you under their spell and make you play with them.

Queen & Co. Halloween shaker kits have me under their spell This card is made up of elements from two kits – Fright Fest (shoes and papers) and Witch Hat. These kits have the dies, foam shaker frames and acetate windows. Some come with the shaker elements (I added to them from my stash) and/or matching paper (Fright Fest for this card.)

I added two pop-up mechanisms by Karen Burniston from her Spinner Square Pop-ups die set to make the legs move.

The card took less than 2 hours to make.

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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

A Riley & Simon Birthday Flip-Book Pop-up

| ullycatdesigns

It’s Stamp-tember at Simon Says Stamp and today it’s Riley & Co’s turn to team up with them.

Moose Riley and pup Simon have decided to do an old-style, silent video using signs to give some birthday greetings which pop-up when you pull the tab.  They wanted to show off all their dress-up accessories in the stamp set, so each image has different accessories – from balloons to glasses, ties and hats.

My card base is a top fold mini slimline card, I cut in two pieces (3×6 inches and 3×6 ¼ inches) scored and folded the longer piece into a tab to be glued over the other piece.

To make the scenes change, I’ve use Karen Burniston’s Waterfall Card die set which makes it very easy to create a flip-book style card without having to do a lot of math. (Watch the assembly video before assembling.)

I’ve added two small mini-pop-up cubes behind each image. You can use any of the small pop-up tabs from other sets such as the Frame Pull-Pop-up. (I cut mine from a thin strip of matching paper about ¼ x 1 ¼ inches, folded into five sections of ¼ inch long. Glue fifth section as a tab to make cube.)

I’ve added a zig-zag border to one of the pages to help hid the small bit of moose antler that sticks out on the left side.

Leftover dress-up accessories were used to decorate the envelope flap hinting at what’s inside.

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Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

Stamps

Miscellaneous

Mountain Train Ride

| ullycatdesigns

There is nothing so relaxing as a train ride through the mountains. Seeing the pine trees at the higher elevations and the babbling streams in the gullies. Hearing the chug-chug-chugging of the steam engine and experiencing the darkness of a mountain tunnel coming back into the sunlight.

In my challenge to myself to see how many different themed cards I can make with Karen Burniston’s new Fireplace die set; I decided on a mountain train tunnel with the mouth of the tunnel using the fireplace mechanism’s opening. All the dies used are by Karen Burniston.

I had made multiple train cars and engines for an earlier project. (Watch the assembly video for the trains.) The train tracks are from a train elements set and I cut 4 of them to have enough pieces to form the track I needed for the front and inside of the card. For the smoke from the smokestack, I turned the smallest cloud from the Outdoor Scene set on its side and glued inside the stack.

The front of the card uses curving hillside with large pine trees from the Outdoor Scene set and the treeless curving stitched edger from the Long Nature Edges set for the foothills. I shaded the hillside tope edges with a pale brown ink.

For the card’s sentiment, I double cut the large words “Enjoy” and “ride” once from brown and again from black so that I could offset them to create a shadow. The oval cuts out the word “THE” so it is backed with a scrap of black.

The inside of the card requires some practice laying out to get the right placement of the mountains, so they won’t stick out of the card when closed. (Watch the fireplace assembly video before laying out and assembling.) I used scrap pieces of brown lightweight cardstock to cut my crosshatch ovals. (Largest oval die in set was used.) I cut off the bottom of the ovals to have varying heights. The largest oval I turned over on the back, traced the mechanism opening onto and then die-cut the opening using the second to smallest to fit inside the penciled opening.

The smaller ovals are glued to the sides and behind the oval with the tunnel opening. I then adhered the fireplace mechanism as shown in assembly video and glued the mountains onto mechanism matching up the openings. Next, I pieced together the train tracks to come out of the tunnel and near the side of the mountains. Using the pop-up strip from the Fireplace die set and the two angled pop-ups from the Mini Pops set, played with placement of the pop-ups with the train pieces to set spacing.  Glue the pop-ups first and once their glue has set, then adhere the train pieces. (I bent the pop-ups at their original scored folds, but you might play with other folds and or strips to get a more realistic alignment of the train cars.)

The babbling stream is created from strips of patterned paper cut with the Long Nature Edges curving stitched edger. The diagonal placement adds drama to the card and space in the corner to write a personal message.

Leftover pieces from the train track as well as pieces from other card projects complete the back of the card.

As is my habit, I decorated the envelope back flap with additional train pieces to hint at what’s inside.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Colored, coated and glitter cardstock and patterned paper scraps
  • American Crafts – 5 x7 Kraft card & A7 envelope

Inks

  • Green fine-tipped marker
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz -Distress Ink – Antique Linen

Miscellaneous