Train Ride Through The Canadian Rockies

March 7, 2023March 1, 2023 | ullycatdesigns

It’s the Karen Burniston Design Team March 2023 Challenge and the theme is Vacation!

I’ve always wanted to take the train from Vancouver through the Canadian Rocky Mountains and this card pays tribute to that train trip using Karen Burniston’s Twist Panel Pop-Up and Train Pivot Panels.

First, I watched the assembly videos for Train Pivot Panel and the Twist Panel Pop-Up. (If I had been paying attention, I would have realized that when the train pivot panels installed on the twist panel mechanism would need a card base that has 6-inches from the fold to its outer edge. Hence my train engine juts out from the card bottom by 3/4-inch, and I had to hide it with ribbon.)

When adding the twist panel mechanism to card larger than 5-inches, I use a metal ruler and a craft knife to cut the ends of the arms free and I glue additional patterned paper behind the mechanism to hide the openings that the arms make. My patterned papers have 3-inch-tall scenes that I cut to go inside the card at the top and bottom of the twist mechanism to added depth for mountains the train is going through. The actual train panels are cut from coordinating paper of fir trees.

While the Canadian Rail trains are diesel trains rather than steam, I tried to make the train have the Canadian flag colors and I found a tiny red maple leaf sequin in my shaker elements stash. The train track comes from the Train Elements die set.

For the outside of my card, I created some maple leaf paper on my computer and printed it. The “Enjoy the ride” sentiment was released by Karen Burniston as part of the train themed dies. I used her Mini Alphabet to finish the sentiment. (I find using removable paper tape to line up the lettering works well with a t-ruler.)

For the card back, I used a vintage Canadian railway sticker and a heart sticker to hide the ribbon end.

A piercing tool (an ice pick) was used to poke the holes for the ribbon.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

Craft Consortium – Premium Quality Papers – 12” x 12” – In The Forest by Clare Therese
Colored cardstock scraps
Copy Paper
Paper Lane – 5 x7 white card

Inks

Sharpie Permanent Marker –Fine Point – Black

Miscellaneous

Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
Quickstik Too
Scrapbook.com – Double-Sided Adhesive 1/4 Inch Tape
Die Cutting Machine
Computer and Printer
Craft Knife
Piercing Tool
Pencil
Dollar Tree – Craft Clips
Removable Paper Tape
Red Organza 5/8 Inch Wide Ribbon
Kat Scrappiness – Shaker Elements – Shimmering Fallen Leaves

Mountain Train Ride

September 14, 2022September 10, 2022 | 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

Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
Die Cutting machine
Pokey tool
Scissors

A Cabin Father’s Day Card

June 13, 2022August 7, 2022 | ullycatdesigns

Designed for a gentleman who use to take his sons up to a mountain cabin in the 1960s, this card should help evoke memories of good father and son times.

The mechanism for this triple panel accordion card is by Karen Burniston. The 12-inch by 12- inch double-sided paper pad in the In The Forest Collection by Clare Therese for Craft Consortium has a page with three narrow panorama scenes that work for the main panels. The smaller framed animals are from the cover of the 6-inch by 6-inch pad of papers from the same collection while the wood grain paper is from the larger pad. The large panorama scenes were cut with scissors from the die-cut frames and glued to the woodgrain frames’ center panels that pivot.

To make the card frame sturdy the woodgrain paper was glued to the back of the scenic paper. I followed the assembly video for the accordion fold card. (I found it useful to layout the card and its decorative pieces before gluing as sometimes a tab that connects the various panels needs to be hidden by a decorative piece so the order of gluing all the tabs together needs to be thought through before assembly.)

For the black “Happy Father’s Day” I used another Karen Burniston die and glued it in place letting the edges of some letters overhang the panel but making sure they would not impede the pivot mechanism. The small white rectangle can be written on with a personal message and then glued to the card. It is cut with a rectangle die from another coordinating Karen Burniston die set.

The card fits into a mini slimline envelope which has been stamped on the front with pine trees in both green and brown ink. The back of the envelope has a trail signpost stamped in brown ink. The stamps are coordinating ones from the In The Forest Collection by Clare Therese for 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

Inks & Pigments

Stampin’Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Soft Suede and Tranquil Tide

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
Mini Slimline Envelope – white
Black and white cardstock scraps

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
Scissors

A Trout Fishing Kind of Day

May 18, 2020May 11, 2020 | ullycatdesigns

After 63 years of marriage and numerous fishing and mountain trips, I knew this couple deserved a special anniversary card that evoked all the things they love.

Hunkydory’s Moments in Time “Love is In the Air” die set and matching paper pad had the perfect pop-up card with a pond, mountains, hot air balloons and a couple taking it all in siting at the edge of the pond. The die took a couple of passes through a die cutting machine and then the tricky part of working all the folds. This die is one of the less intricate dies in the Moments in Time series but using a paper piercing tool helped with shaping all the trees on the mountains and puffing out the clouds. There is an instruction sheet on the Hunkydory’s website that is useful when doing the folding.

The front of the card’s paper and label topper came from the “Flying High” Craftwork Cards paper collection. “On Your Special Day” die cut sentiment is from Creative Dies by Sue Wilson and the jumping trout is from Stampin’Up’s “Best Catch” stamp set stamped in brown ink and fussy cut and adhered with foam pads.

The inside “Happy Anniversary” sentiment was cut from two die sets in the Gemini Expressions series by Crafter’s Companion. The additional bird on flower and best wishes banner came from the aforementioned “Flying High” paper collection. The back side of the card is finished with more of the paper from the front.