Interactive cards

Naughty or Nice?

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What pops down a chimney and out a fireplace? Santa Kitten!

These cute little kittens jumped out at me while in a Tuesday Morning store. They are on cellophane treat bags. I realized that they were the correct size for one of Karen Burniston’s interactive dies – the Pop ‘n Swap.

While I would classify this card as a prototype, what I wanted to share is to show how you can make a shallow box like structure to create a fireplace over the pop ’n swap mechanism. Watch Karen Burniston’s assembly video to learn how to put together this mechanism.

For this slimline card, I cut a piece of heavy black cardstock 8 ½ x 8 inches and scored at 4 inches and folded in half to create the card base. (The card needs to be at least 4 inches wide since the mechanism folded flat is 4 inches wide.) Next, I cut from the front top of the card base a rectangle 2 ½ x 4 inches to allow the Santa kitten to show over the chimney top.

The inside shallow box is a 5 3/4 inches tall by 4 7/8 inches wide rectangle of red cardstock. I scored at ¼ inch, 1 inch and 4 inches. (Because the mechanism is ¾ inches tall, the box side is ¾ inches deep.) All the folds are mountain folds. The narrow tab goes towards the right edge of the card while the wide tab goes towards the inside fold.  I glued my mechanism in first, and then using removable tape, I played with the positioning of the box and marked with pencil its placement before removing the box. I cut the widow to show the kitten inside the fireplace, by laying the fireplace frame over the mechanism and seeing where the kitten would best show. Next, I placed  a loop of removable tape on the fireplace and positioned the box back into place and got the fireplace to stick to the inside of the box. With the fireplace stuck I removed the box and traced the opening of the fireplace onto the back of the box. With a metal ruler and craft knife, I cut the opening slightly larger than the pencil marks. Now the box is ready to be permanently glued in place. Glue the kittens in place next on the mechanism arms, cutting any corners that show beyond the kittens.

For decorating of the fireplace and mantel refer to my An Old-Time Christmas post. The brick is stenciled on the chimney panel before cutting it for the front. The fireplace was stenciled once the opening was cut for the fireplace, but before the box was glued permanently in place.

I tried a new-to-me product from Cosmic Shimmer called Fluffy Stuff. It is a thick paint-like substance that you can add dimension with for snow. You use a heat gun to get it to bubble up. I tried adding it to the front of the card after I assembled the card and in the heating of the card, I ended up heating the cellophane of the top kitten which shrunk a little. My recommendation is to add the Fluffy Stuff to your front panel before it is glued on to the card so that you can heat it and left it dry for 24 hours before gluing in place. (Here is a video that shows Fluffy Stuff being demonstrated on the Beebaab Youtube channel.)

If you have read this far, I’ll let you in on a secret. There is a free down of the “Naughty or Nice” sentiment in the supplies list.

Hope this card makes you smile.

SUPPLIES

Dies

Stamps/Stencils

Inks/Colors

Paper

naughty-or-niceDownload

Miscellaneous

© Sue Small-Kreider 2020

Being Spooky

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Halloween in the USA often means corn mazes and pumpkin patches as well as dressing up on Halloween evening and going to a party. I have tried to combine these things into a single slimline z-fold card.

This card was my prototype for trying new methods and materials for me. I had never ink blended a setting sun sky using Distress Inks and blending sponges, so my sky is a bit “spotty.” I experimented with using Nuvo drops to cover an entire surface (car, witch’s hair and neck.) I like the effect that Nuvo drop spread thin has on small die cut pieces but getting an even coating on large pieces was difficult. I think using a glow in the dark embossing powder would work better for the car.

I used the Hero Arts September 2020 My Monthly Hero Kit to stamp the layered image of a field of pumpkins with a corn filed in the background. The kit includes five mini cubes of ink needed to stamp each layer as well as the layered stamps and sentiment stamps. Dies to cut out a few of the images and several sheets of glitter paper round out the kits. (You need to order early the monthly kits as they sell out fast. Hero Arts is one of the few companies that lets you order a single kit without taking out a subscription.)

I stamped four of the images and layered the pumpkin field to create a taller background image. I knew I wanted a road going down the middle of the card, but in hindsight, I have the perspective all off for the angle of the road. The road is made of three pieces of black cardstock. The design of the car is for the card to be standing open in a z-fold position, so you can read the “Happy Halloween.”

The base of the card is 8 5/8 inches tall by 7 5/8 inches wide and folded at 1 7/8 inches and 3 ¾ inches.

The car driven by a white glitter paper skeleton with a glow-in-the-dark pink haired witch with glow-the-the-dark green skin, is die cut suing Spellbinder’s Sunday Drive car die set with the Halloween Sunday Drive add-on set. The car body was cut from white cardstock and then covered with the Nuvo Glow Drops Neon – Sour Apple. The taillights are Nuvo Glow Drops Neon – Shocking Pink and silver matt cardstock. Two glitter cardstock die cut skulls are in the car’s luggage rack. The brown folded down roof is colored cardstock heat embossed with clear embossing powder to get a faux leather look. The shiny hat bands on the two hats are made with Nuvo Glow Drops Neon – Blue Crush.

The small ghosts and bats lurking on the inside panel are die-cut pieces – the bats from the Halloween Sunday Drive and the “Squeaker Ghosts” by Poppy Stamps.

The sentiment and stamps used on the envelope flap are all from the Hearo Arts kit stamped in Memento tuxedo Black and the wheel in the Hero Arts brown ink cube.

For another interactive Halloween slimline card using the same supplies see Driving into a Spooky Sunset (Set to be released on September 25).

Other Sunday Drive cards:

Sunday Drive Celebration

A Snowy Sunday Drive with Santa

Santa Bauble

Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Being Spooky

Driving into a Spooky Sunset

The Best is Yet to Come

Hoppy Spring!

SUPPLIES

Dies:

Stamps:

Inks/Embossing Powder:

Nuvo Drops:

Miscellaneous:

  • Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue
  • White computer paper
  • White cardstock
  • Colored cardstock scraps from stash
  • American Crafts – Metallic Marker – M – Silver -62212

Hats off to the Grad

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Hats Off - Front-envelope

For many graduates of 2020, there were few opportunities to collectively toss their caps in the air and celebrate their accomplishments together.  This card is for the class of 2020!

The wait for this stamp and die set was worth it. The quintuple slider dies make a quick and interactive card that has the graduates’ caps moving up and down.

Hats Off - Front-down

To start, I used a stencil to ink in a cloudy background that ends with tiny confetti being stamped in blue up to the bottom of the slider slits (as if the confetti was falling out of the caps.) Next, I stamped the arms and caps using a black ink that dries fast and doesn’t bleed if watercolored over. Using the colors of the graduate’s college, a pale blue, I colored the caps and gowns using watercolor pencils and a thin tipped waterbrush.

Hats Off - Front-center

Next, I did all my die cutting of elements using the matching dies and the squarish quintuple slider. In my test card, I had placed the die that cuts the slots into the background card, upside down. So, making sure that I had all the slots lined up at the top end of my background and using the slider die as a guide to know where the position the slot cutting die, I cut the slots. (Watch the assembly video to see how the alignment is done.)

Hats Off - Front-up

To assemble the slider mechanism, I suggestion watching another assembly video to understand how the slider flaps wrap around the slots and how best to keep the flaps aligned. Once the tiny foam squares are adhered to the flaps, the decorating of the card can begin. (Don’t forget to add some hint that the slider tab needs to be pulled up by adding a die cut arrow which is included in the slider die set.)

Hats Off - inside

I found some scrap printable glitter paper in my stash and stamped the main sentiment directly on to it.  For an added touch, I stamped “Hats off to you!” near the top front, and inside the card, I stamped “Good luck on your new adventure!” both in black. I decided the inside needed something else, so I stamped in blue above the good luck a tiny rolled diploma.

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The back flap of the envelope had a cap stamped in blue to give a hint as to what was inside.

 

Materials Used:

Stamps/Dies/Stencils

Inks/Watercolors

Papers

Miscellaneous

 

The Upside to Playing

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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.)

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

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Flutterflies for Birthdays

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Butterfly time flies card outside

This was my first attempt at using the Uchi’s Design Animation Card DC101.  The animation comes from the opening of the card that pulls the black bars of the grid strip plastic sheet across the dragonfly stamps to make them flutter. I recommend watching the videos on the Uchi’s website before trying to assemble the card.

Items Used:

  • Uchi’s Design Animation Card DC101  – Butterfly die, window die and mechanism
  • Motion Crafts by Uchi’s Design distributed by American Crafts – Dragonfly stamps
  • Layered flowers – “Card Making Magic” by Christina Griffiths from Die-cutting Essentials Issue 37
  • Birthday – Die-cutting Essentials Issue 36
  • happy – Reflections Cutting templates
  • Ebony Black Gloss Nuvo Crystal Drops
  • Blue Babe Gloss Nuvo Crystal Drops
  • Tombow Mono Aqua Liquid Glue
  • Scrap paper and cardstock

Brighten Someone’s Day

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What do you send someone who can’t have visitors, flowers or food?

  A pop-up box full of spring flowers.

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I like using the Lawn Fawn Scalloped Box Card Pop-Up as a base for any kind of thinking of you card.  It is different from most store bought cards and it allows for a variety of possibilities.

For this card I used Stampin’ Up’s Tearoom Copper Vinyl Stickers to decorate the card sides and envelope.  I used papers/cards from Stampin’ Up’s Tea Room Specialty Designer Series Paper  and  Tea Room Memories & More Card Pack.        

The flowers are from the shaded tulip Stamp & Layer set by Susan Bates for Papercraft Inspirations magazine, issue 182  Stamped using CraftSmart and Hampton Art mini ink pads.

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New Dies!

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There is nothing so exciting to a papercrafter as new materials and dies arriving in the mail! I managed to have two such boxes (Karen Burniston and Taylored Expressions) and a raffle goodie basket full of Stampin’Up papers, stickers, cards, inks and stamps all sitting on my crafting table at the same time.

Below is the split personality card that evolved from all these fun items.

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I used:

Karen Burniston  in cahoots with Riley and Company dies:        karenburniston.com

  • 1043 – Fancy Label Accordian
  • 1044 Fancy Flourish Frames  (These fit nicely over the tabs connecting the frames together and blend the three different colored cardstock.)

Taylored Expressions dies:         www.tayloredexpressions.com

  • TE600 – Golf Ball & Tee
  • TE1089 – Hole in One

Stampin’Up:       www.stampinup.com

  • TeaRoom Memories & More Card Pack
  • Tea Room Copper Vinyl Stickers
  • Baker’s Twine – Bermuda Bay
  • A Nice Cuppa Stamp Set

Cardstock from my stash in

  • Bold Teal Blue
  • Pale Blue
  • Bold Green
  • Pale Green
  • White

Hampton Art’s Pale Blue Ink Pad

CraftSmart’s Light Blue Ink Pad

Tombow Aqua Mono Liquid Glue