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 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.)
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.
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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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.
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.
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.)
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.)
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.
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 envelopeFront 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.
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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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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.
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The love of being outdoors and helping plants grow is what being a green thumb is all about. This is a birthday card for a lovely lady whose happy place is working with her plants.
For the card base I used an 11 x 4.25-inch piece of patterned paper (strawberries on front and dark gray with flowers on the back.) With the pivot label dies, I like to use double-sided tape to adhere the decorative backing paper. If you put tape around the edges and pull back the tape’s backing paper at the corners only, you can re-position the decorative backing paper until it fits and then pull the all the tape’s backing paper.
Fold the card base in half and place the pivot label die in the center of the card front. Tape in place with removable tape and open the card base out to die-cut. (Save the cut-out waste pieces to use as decorations for other parts of your card.)
Cut three of the label die from the patterned paper. Tape two of the labels together and then die-cut the oval from it. Trim the tab off one of the oval frames. Glue the tab from the solid label to one of the oval frames then glue the other oval frame to cover up the tab. Punch a hole for the charm to hang from (The die has a hole to use a stencil.) I reverse cut the watering can to pour to the right from silver card stock. The metal jump ring I used has a rhinestone dangle. I find it easier to attach the jump ring with the charm to the oval frame before I glue the label and oval frame into the card.
Now to decorate the card. I had garden charms left from another project where I had “dirtied-up” the tools and gloves with brown ink dabbed on with a small finger sponge dauber. The tiny hearts are from the heart eyeglasses in the Tiny Accessories 2 set. The plant is from the Garden Charms set. I used the cut-out waste pieces from the front pivot label to frame the inside label with slicing patterned with solid color pieces.
I felt the inside of the card need more decorative elements, so I cut strips of flowers from the Long Nature Edges 2 set from white and used yellow Nuvo drops to make them into strawberry blossoms. (Remember to let the Nuvo Drops dry at least 16-24 hours before gluing them into the card. They will stick to each other until totally dry.)
The Sentiments come from the Garden Charms set and Word set 2. The various white labels are part of the Label Charms Pop-Up set as are the white outline flowers on the front of the card.
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Such a joyful little snowman enjoying the snowy cozy Scandinavian countryside.
In her newest release, Karen Burniston has come out with some additional die sets that make putting together this snowman a snap. 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 brown craft card base of 5 x 7 inches trimmed down to 5 x 6.5 inches. Next, the smaller side of the card was scored at 4.75 inches to form a gusset. Cut two of the Bitty Ball halves and two of the Mini Ball halves. I find watching the assembly videos for the balls very useful. (Bitty Balls, Mini-Balls) Numbering the order of gluing the tabs is useful for the assemble of the balls. I cut all the trapezoid panels from a white gold shimmer cardstock. And the ball halves are cut from a 100 lb. smooth white cardstock. Assemble the balls as shown on videos, including the brad in the bottom of the Bitty Ball.
The decorative papers are two layers. The measurements are listed in the photo. (Flap assembly video) I cut the the flap from another craft card blank and two decorative panels from scraps of the decorative papers. The flap dies set cuts six washers of which three are glued together for each of the flower 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 and flower over the hole. Thread the twine into the brad legs and pull the twine and brad legs through the hole. Bend the legs onto the back of the flap and glue the twine inplace on back of flap.
Glue the back decorative panel over the brad legs and twine. Glue flap tab to back of card base. 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 with pencil and pierce. Glue the second washer and flower over the hole. Thread another brad through the hole and fold the legs against inside of card. Glue the inside decorative papers to the card base covering the brad legs.
Adhere the snowman’s face. Glue the scarf pieces onto the bitty ball while flat. Cut a hexagon using the hexagon from the Surprize Ball Double-Up set or trace the center of the Bitty Ball die with a pencil and cut out. Assemble the top hat with a red hat band on front and back.
Mark the location of the hole to secure the snowman’s brad using the Bitty Ball die to fit within the card. Pierce the hole and thread the snowman brad through the hole. bend the brad legs to the back of the card. Glue the back decorative paper and white message label to cover the brad legs. Glue the hat onto snowman.
Decorate the front of the card using the faces from the Snowman, and Gnome and Santa sets Add the sentiment of “Merry Christmas” to inside. Large snowflakes are from the Snowman add-on set.
The card fits into an A7 envelope for hand delivery, but I would put the card in a padded envelope to mail.
Ully Cat's World 