Ocean

Sandy Dunes Birthday Card

| ullycatdesigns

I just got the July 2025 Simon Says Stamp Card Kit with the theme of Windows on the World. Using the Landscapes stencil from the kit, made this sand dunes scene Birthday card.

Cardbase: Start with a 4.25 x 11-inch piece of cardstock and fold in half to form a side-fold A2 (4.25×5.5-inch) card.

Stenciled Scene: Using the stencil by sticking the 4.25×5.5-inch white cardstock panel through the water patterns slots, I worked my way from the bottom up to build water waves coming ashore, then the sand dunes and finally the cloudy sky. The water used the two darker shades of blue while the sky used the lightest blue. The stencil includes three birds in flight, which I stenciled on using a fine tipped black marker.

Sentiments:  All the sentiments come from the Through The Window stamp set.

Envelope:  The card fits into an A2 (4.25x 5.5-inches) size envelope stenciled with the three birds on the back flap.

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Thank you for experiencing this blog post.

I hope this inspires you and makes you smile.

Please like and leave comments 😊

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Disclaimer: Karen Burniston products are provided free of charge by the manufacturer for review and use. All other items were personally purchased. Compensated affiliate links used where or when possible, meaning I will receive a small percentage commission from these manufacturers at no cost to you. This will allow me to add more content to my YouTube channel and help out a lot. Thank you.

Materials Used:

Stencils

  • Simon Says Stamp! – 6×6-inch Plastic Stencil – Landscapes

Stamps

  • Craft Roulette – Clear Stamps – Through The Window

Papers

  • SpellBinders – 8.5×11-inch -100lb Cardstock – Raindrop
  • White Cardstock
  • Fraser Papers for William House – A2 Envelope – Genesis Text Husk Smooth

Ink

  • Memento – Fade Resistant Dye ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Pigma – Mircon 03 Fine Tip Pen – Black
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Azure Afternoon, Balmy Blue, Crumb Cake, Pacific Point

Adhesives

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Paper Trimmer
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Blocks used as paperweights
  • Scissors
  • Paper Masking Tape
  • We R Memories – QuickStick

Bon Voyage and Smooth Seas

| ullycatdesigns

It’s Sneak Peek Week for Karen Burniston’s January 2025 release of eight new dies and four new clear stamps sets. For this Bon Voyage card I used several of the new sets including: Ocean Edges and Cruise Ship Add-On along with the previously released Boat Pop-Up and Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch die sets and the new Cruise Greetings stamp set. The new release will be available on January 27, 2025.

Watch the process video to see how I made this card.

Cardbase: Using a 8.5×5.5-inch rectangle of double-sided patterned cardstock, fold rectangle in half to form a 4.25-inch wide by 5.5-inch tall side fold card. Decorate the inside with wavy ripples using the Ocean Edges dies. (I choose to let the cardbase paper pattern be one shade of the ocean waves while the other waves are cut from decorative cardstock with white water ripples on them. If you make several layers of waves the card will be very thick and hard to close. If this happens use the special die in the Cruise Ship Add-On set to cut two slots on either side of the fold to slide a paper clip through to hold the card open.)

Cruise Ship: Follow the directions to assemble the basic Boat Pop-Up (Assembly video at the bottom of the die set’s linked page.) Watch the video above for how to assemble the Cruise Ship Add-Ons. (I had an issue the first time I glued in the ship to the card. So, there are also tips on how to fix bent U-support pieces and ship’s tabs in the video.)

Sentiments: The inside stamped sentiments are from the Cruise Greetings stamp set and the fancy labels are the smaller label die in the Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch set. Decorative paper journaling cards are the outside card sentiments.

Envelope: The card fits into an A2 (4.25x 5.5-inches) size envelope with an anchor and chain glued to the back flap. The anchor is from the Cruise Add-Ons die set.

___________________________________

Thank you for experiencing this blog post.

I hope this inspires you and makes you smile.

Please like and leave comments 😊

___________________________________

Disclaimer: Karen Burniston products are provided free of charge by the manufacturer for review and use. All other items were personally purchased. Compensated affiliate links used where or when possible, meaning I will receive a small percentage commission from these manufacturers at no cost to you. This will allow me to add more content to my YouTube channel and help out a lot. Thank you.

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Papers

  • Carta Bella – 12×12 inch Double-Sided Cardstock – Bon Voyage – Bouy Bash
  • Carta Bella – 12×12 inch Double-Sided Cardstock – Bon Voyage – Journaling Cards
  • Bazzill – 8.5×11 Cardstock – Tiara -18-1002
  • Recollections – 8.5×11 65 lb. Cardstock – White
  • Blue and Yellow Cardstock
  • Fraser Papers for William House – A2 Envelope – Genesis Text Milkweed Smooth

Ink

Adhesives

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Paper Trimmer
  • Bone Folder
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Blocks used as paperweights
  • Scissors

Miscellaneous

  • Cotton Ball

Sailboat Pop-Up Card

| ullycatdesigns

It’s Sneak Peek Week for Karen Burniston’s June 2024 release of new dies and clear stamps. For this card of encouragement, I used several of the new sets including: Set Sail Borders, Sailboat Add-Ons, Boat Pop-Up and Just A Note Lorna Add-Ons die sets and the Sail Away clear stamp set. The new release will be available on July 1, 2024.

Watch the YouTube video below to learn how the card was made.

Sailboat Pop-Up: This pop-up is made with two die sets – the base is the Boat Pop-Up and the sails, pendant, railing, life preservers and anchor are all in the Sailboat Add-Ons set.

Cardbase: The card base is made up of two rectangles On 4 x8 1/2-inches and the other 4 x 8 3/4-inches. The longer piece is scored at 8 1/2-inches for the tab to glue to back of the other piece. The card front scene is made from waving water paper brushed with glitter gloss and Distress Oxide ink and a large blending brush. The birds are hand-drawn. The porpoise is from the Set Sail Borders die set. On the card back is a border of shells from the Set Sail Borders die set and colored with alcohol markers.

Sentiments: The card front “waving hello” is die-cut letters from the Mini Alphabet and the “hello” is from the Just A Note Lorna Add-Ons. The stamped sentiments inside the card are from the Sail Away stamp set. A white label inside is for a personal message and was cut from the Labels – Crosshatch die set.

Envelope:  The card fits into a #10 business envelope stamped with “Always take the scenic route” from the Sail Away stamp set.

___________________________________

Thank you for experiencing this blog post.

I hope this inspires you and makes you smile.

Please like and leave comments 😊

___________________________________

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Papers

  • Core’dinations – 12×12 inch Textured Cardstock – Antiqua
  • Honey Bee – 6×8.5 Double-Sided 65 lb. Cardstock – Grain and Grunge
  • The Paper Studio – 8.5×11 Printed Paper – Light Burlap
  • The Paper Studio – 12×12 Printed Paper – Water Waves
  • The Paper Studio – 8.5×11 Clear Vellum
  • Grey Cardboard Packaging
  • Blue, Gray, Orange and White Cardstock
  • #10 Business Envelope

Ink

  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Oxide – Tumbled Glass
  • StazOn – Solvent Ink – Jet Black
  • Spectrum Noir – Tri-Blends – Ice Blue, Light yellow, Pale Pink and Tan
  • Pigma – Mircon 01 Fine Tip Pen – Black
  • Nuvo – Aqua Shimmer – Glitter Gloss

Adhesives

Tools

Miscellaneous

  • Cream Colored 2-Ply Yarn

An Underwater Adventure

| ullycatdesigns

It’s Sneak Peek week for Karen Burniston’s February 2023 release!

Needing a card for a couple going on an oceanic ecological tour, I decided to create a luggage tag card with an underwater scene.

The card uses a variety of Karen Burniston dies including ones from her February 2023 release of beach themed dies.

For the card base I had some faux leather mermaid scales 8-inch wide ribbon that I die-cut two large tags from using the tag book pop-up die set. I next die-cut from some underwater background papers two more of the large tags. Having watched the assembly video for the tag book, I knew I needed to die-cut the hinge piece and attach it to the cardstock tags before I adhered them to the faux leather outer tags. (Because I wasn’t sure if the faux leather would adhere well with glue, I also used doubled-sided tape to attach the paper and fabric backed tag pieces.)

Wanting the jellyfish from the new sea charms set to look as if they were floating in the water, I cut the inside pivot mechanism from some medium weight clear plastic packaging. Because of its thickness the dies embossed the plastic but did not cut through the plastic. I used my surgical scissors to cut the mechanism out. Because of the see-thru quality of the plastic, I had to used double-sided tape to attach the inside panels together. To adhere the plastic to the paper lined inside of the card base, I used glue dots which look a little like air bubbles. (I adhered only one side of the mechanism until I was finished decorating the background with creatures and shells. Once satisfied that the background was complete, I adhered the remaining side of the mechanism.)

To decorate the card, I used the sea turtle from the sea animals set, the jellyfish, clam shell, crab and seahorse from the sea charms set, and the anchor, chain and “bon voyage” from the cruise charms set. The chain and jellyfish help hide the tabs the connect the pivot mechanism. (Because I used double-sided tape to adhere the decorations to the plastic, I had to push and prod the adhesives to hide behind the shapes, but some still sticks out. To made those bits of adhesive not interfere with the mechanism, I brushed anti-static powder over the areas to absorb the stickiness.)

On the front of the card, I used a spiral shell and jellyfish from the sea charms set along with the octopus from the ocean animals set and little sharks cut from the new beach borders die set. On the back of the card I cut a crosshatch rectangle panel using the first crosshatch rectangles set from leftover back ground paper and used the tiny sharks border again to edge it.

Because I hadn’t planned to add ribbon to the inside panel tags (the plastic was too thick to easily cut), used two ribbons -a narrow and a wide – on each of the card base’s two tags.

This card is to be hand delivered, so no envelope.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope it provides inspiration and joy. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Papercraft Society – Sam Calcott’s Underwater & Nautical Box – Background and Specialty Papers
  • Colored Cardstock Scraps
  • The Paper Studio – Clear Vellum For Printers
  • The Ribbon Boutique – Faux Leather 8-inches Wide Ribbon – Green/Blue
  • Clear Packaging – Medium Weight
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Inks – Abandon Coral

Pens & inks

Adhesives

Miscellaneous

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Piercing Tool
  • Scissors
  • Tweezers
  • Sponge Dauber
  • Kat Scrappiness – Telescopic Embossing Powder Tool with Retractable Brush
  • 3/4-Inch Wide Pale Blue Organza Ribbon
  • 1/4-Inch Wide Dark Blue Organza Ribbon

Under The Sea

| ullycatdesigns

Hi it’s Sue of Dies R Us design team with an underwater tunnel card.

The card uses three of the Memory Box Collage dies to create the gradually smaller frames that make up the tunnel of an underwater world of bubbles, seaweed and coral.  (You could use just one of the dies to cut the three frames and decorate each layer differently.)

I started with two different shades of cut 7 x 5 1/2 inches and scored at 1 inch, 2/3 inch and 1/3 inch from each edge. I cut a third shade of blue 7 x 4 1/2 inches and scored at 1/3 inch form both edges. Folded darkest at 1 inch scoring on both side. Folded the next two pieces at all of the scored lines.

Next I inked up the seaweed and tinted around the edges of the openings with two shades of green Distress inks.

While I cut and inked a number of decorative pieces from the Collage and School of Fish dies, I ended up only using a few them in this card. (I often cut and prepare extra decorative pieces in a batch fashion and keep with the dies to save time later.)

The octopus is a two piece die that lends itself to being on an Action Wobble Spring. By adhering the two parts together with a foam dot, the eight tentacles are at different levels. The spring comes with self-adhesive and is stuck to the back of the octopus’ head. A black pen colors his eye. (I found that adding an extra foam dot to the back of the spring made it so the octopus could be in front of the last frame of seaweed.)

To assemble the tunnel box, I took the card base with the shell front shown in a previous blog and adhered a printed paper to left inside of card base. Then with the sticky red double-sided tape to the left flap of the outside die-cut panel with the largest opening, I adhered it to the inside of the card. (I glued in placed a glitter net over the front of this panel before I adhered it inside the card.) Place red tape on both side flaps between the 1 inch and 2/3 inch score lines on both flaps. Attach the left flap to inside of first panel’s left flap lining up with 2/3 inch score line on first panel. Attach third panel to inside of second panel’s left flap lining up with 2/3 inch score line on second panel.

Adhere a background to the card base back inside before attaching the octopus. Peel tape on right flap of middle panel and adhere to inside of first panel at 2/3 inch score line. With octopus over the last panel, peel and adhere the right flap to inside of middle panel flap at 2/3 inch score line.

The inside sentiment was stamped on vellum and attached to the inside of the card with glue dots.

See the front of this card by going to One Shell of A Party

Hope this fun card has provided some inspiration for your crafting. 😊

SUPPLIES Used from Dies R Us:

Other Supplies:

  • Colored cardstock and clear vellum scraps
  • Three shades of blue sheets of card stock
  • Underwater patterned paper
  • 5 x 7 inches white card base
  • Foam squares
  • Red-backed, super sticky double-sided tape
  • Glue dots
  • Green and brown ink cubes
  • Tuxedo Black Memento dye ink
  • White glitter netting
  • 9 x6 inch catalog envelope
  • Sara Davies Nautical Collection stamp set from Simply Cards & Papercraft, issue 207
  • Stampin’ Up Dapper Denim ink pad

Don’t forget to come join in the fun at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog. There’s a new challenge theme offered on the 1st and 15th of each month and one lucky randomly drawn winner will receive a gift voucher prize to the Dies R Us Store.  

 For your convenience, all the important Dies R Us links are provided below.

click below for:

STORE

CHALLENGE BLOG

FACEBOOK

INSPIRATION BLOG

FRIENDS OF DIES R US PINTEREST PAGE

Sea of Joy

| ullycatdesigns

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Seahorses are so calming. Blues and greens with glittering air bubbles and starfish make you think of the slowly undulating water, with an occasional streak of sunlight peaking through.

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I based this card off of the colors in the printed paper from Love Cardmaking issue 4 and the Seahorses I had stamped using Hero Arts Color Layering Seahorse stamp set. Using a gate fold A7 base card and envelope from Park Lane allowed me to create the asymmetry of the opening by cutting the layered stack of print paper and seagreen textured paper using only the outer edge die of Tonic Studios for Scrapbook.com’s Paisley Edge Dot & Drop Die.

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Inside the card, I used the sentiment stamp from the Color Layering Seahorse stamp set on a white scrap of cardstock and tore the edges to suggest waves. By using three layers of red backed permanent tape I created the effect of the white card floating above the blue cardstock. The seashell is also stamped from the Hero Arts stamp set. The bubbles were from the Lawn Fawn Rub-A-Dub-Dub stamp set.  The envelope flap was all stamped using the Color Layering Seahorse stamp set.

Other Materials:

Textured cardstock by DCWV

Ink pads by Hampton Art

Ink pads by Craftsmart

Tombow Aqua Mono Liquid Glue

Tombow Mono Permanent Adhesive

Nuvo Crystal Drops – Metallic-Carmel Cream

Nuvo Glitter Drops – White Blizzard