pop-up card

Time for Tea

| ullycatdesigns

This card was made for Craft Roulette #164 whose parameters included a slimline card, tea party colors, a word element and a hand-drawn line.

I started with an 8 1/2 x 3 3/4 inch top fold slimline white cardbase. The word element “TEA” is die-cut into the front decorative paper which comes from Graphic 45’s Alice’s Tea Party Collection. “Time for” was hand-drawn as was the required line below it.

To pop-up the inside scene, I used Karen Burniston’s Little Labels Pop-Up. The stamped and water-colored mice having a fun party are drawn by Anita Jeram.

I popped-out the mouse spooning sugar with a double layer of foam squares.

Just like the inside background panels, the card back was decorated with two stripes of decorative papers taped together and the die-cut using the largest crosshatch rectangle from Karen Burniston’s Long Rectangles-Crosshatch. The cut outs of “TEA” from the front panel were glued onto the back .

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

  • Colorado Craft Company – Clear Stamps & Dies – Tea Time Fun by Anita Jeram

Papers

  • Graphic 45 – 12×12 Double-Sided Paper Pad – Alice’s Tea Part Collection
  • Stampin’ Up – Thick Basic White Cardstock

Ink

  • Memento – Fade-Resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Watercolor Pencils – Set 2
  • Pigma – Mircon 01 Fine Tip Pen – Black
  • American Crafts – Metallic Marker – Silver

Adhesives

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Cloth
  • Scissors

Hats Off To You!

| ullycatdesigns

It’s graduation season and the Craft Roulette Episode 161 gave me the idea for this commissioned card for a high school graduate with the Dutch door cardbase, hats, campfire colors and book page element.

All of the dies used are by Karen Burniston. They include the Heart Collage Pop-Up (for the mechanism), Book Worm and Tiny Accessories 2 (both for graduation caps.) The hands and printed sentiments come from a Simon Says Stamp set called Hats off Grad.

Cardbase: Using a T-ruler and pencil, mark the measurements shown on the photo below on an 8 1/2″ x 11” sheet of heavyweight light blue cardstock. Trim off excess rectangles and then score and fold with metal ruler, scoring tool and Teflon folder. Erase pencil marks. Using a small corner punch, round all six corners.

Hat Mechanism: Watch the assembly videos on the Heart Collage Pop-Up page before die-cutting the mechanism piece from light blue cardstock matching the cardbase. Adhere to top fold as directed in assembly videos. Using a stencil and white ink, stencil clouds over the top inside of card, going over the mechanism. Cut out and assemble a number of graduation caps from Book Worm set (small caps) and from the Tiny Accessories 2 (large caps.)

Money Holder: Take a 3” x 4” piece of white copier paper and score along the short side 1/2″ from the edge.  Score both long sides at 1/4″, 1/2″ and 3/4″. Accordion-style fold the long sides and then fold short side under to form a gusseted pocket. Using a small circle punch, cut a half circle at top of pocket as a finger hold.

Sentiments: The large die-cut sentiments all come from the same Karen Burniston Word Set 8. “Congrats” was cut once from navy blue and once from orange – the high school’s colors. The two phrases were cut from navy blue and then their dies were traced on the outside on orange cardstock and fussy cut to create shadows for the words. The graduate’s name was die-cut using Karen Burniston’s Mini Alphabet set and lined up on card using removable paper tape.

Decorations: The high school logo was printed from the school website on light gray and white cardstock for the front and back of the card. (Because I could not find my Hats Off Grad stamp set, I had to print an image from photos of another card I had made using the stamp set.) The “Finally Done! Hats Off to You!” sentiment was fussy cut along with the hands which were glued to the sentiment before being glued to the card base.  Five hearts and two diplomas were added to the hat mechanism and background die cut from the Tiny Accessories 2 set. The math book on the money holder was die cut from the Book Worm set. The labels for a personal message are from two coordinating sets – Label Charm Pop-Up and Crosshatch Rectangles and Labels.

Envelope: The card fits into an A2 envelope. I like to hint at what’s inside the envelope, so a small graduation cap was glued to the back envelope flap.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps & Stencils

  • Simon Says Stamp! -Clear Stamp and Matching Dies-Hats off Grad -sss102120
  • Favorite Things – Clear Stamps – Free-010 Hand Stamped
  • Craftin Desert Divas – 6×6 Stencil – Clouds and Paths

Papers

  • Navy Blue, Orange, White and Gray Cardstock
  • White Copier Paper
  • A2 Light Blue Envelope

Ink

  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Oxide- Tea Dye
  • Memento – Fad-resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Simon Says Stamp – Premium Pigment Ink – White
  • Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Medium – Black
  • Computer Printer

Adhesives

Tools

  • We R Memories – QuickStick
  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Cloth
  • Sponge Dauber
  • Heat Tool
  • Craft Mat
  • Scissors
  • Metal Ruler
  • Scoring Tool
  • Scoring Board
  • Teflon Pencil Tipped Folder
  • Clear T-Ruler
  • ¾” Circle Punch
  • Small Corner Punch
  • Removable Paper Tape
  • Pencil
  • Sand Eraser

Miscellaneous

  • Fun Stampers Journey – Twine – Teal Blue

Just Because You’re Sweet!

| ullycatdesigns

This card was made for Craft Roulette #162 whose parameters included a matchbook card, flowering field colors, a bird and woodgrain.

For the pop-up card on the purchased printed cardbase, I used Karen Burniston’s Frame Pull Pop-Up die set and branches and leaves from her Tree Pop-Up die set.

I followed the basic assembly video instructions for the Frame pull Pop-up using the packaging image as my design inspiration. Before I attached the mechanism to the card, I glued an inch long strip to the bottom and folded it over to form the lip of the matchbook.

Because the green background seemed bland, I covered it with a glitter gloss for some sparkle.

The blue birds were colored with markers while the tree leaves were cut from spotted green paper. I used some pink border scraps for the pink inside the woodgrain frames. The frames were embossed then die-cut and finally inked with a darker brown ink using the stenciling feature on the dies.

The sentiment comes from two of Karen Burniston’s die sets – Word Set 15- Just Because and You’re Sweet!

For the envelope’s back flap, I used a flower from a Bright Rosa stamp set stamped with pink ink.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

  • Bright Rosa by Paula Pascual – Fern Die and Stamps – from Simply Cards & Papercrafts Magazine issue 202

Papers

  • Lawn Fawn – 6×6 Double-Sided Paper Pad – Spiffy Speckles
  • Green, Blue and Brown Cardstock
  • Green Spotted Scrap
  • Printed A2 Cardbase and Envelope

Ink

  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink- Walnut Stain
  • Simon Says Stamp – Pawsitively Saturated Ink – Sweets
  • Sharpie – Ultra Fine Tipped Marker- Racey Red and Orange
  • Staples – Liquid Stix – Neon Orange Chisel Nose Highlighter
  • Nuvo – Aqua Shimmer Bruch Pen – Glitter Gloss

Adhesives

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • We R Memories – QuickStick
  • We R Memories – Scoring Board and Trimmer
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Cloth
  • Sponge Dauber
  • Craft Mat
  • Scissors
  • Ruler

Vintage Christmas Cards – Room Scene

| ullycatdesigns

Recently I came across some family Christmas cards I had designed with the help of my father who owned a letterpress printing press and had cuts (think metal stamps on wooden blocks similar to rubber stamps on wood blocks) made of my drawings. The printing press held an 8×10-inch frame which held the cuts and metal type (letters). Paper was hand-fed into the press which had an electric motor connected with a leather belt which turned the press wheel. From about age 8 and on I earned pocket money running the press to add people’s names to their store-bought Christmas cards, “From the Desk of” notepads and other small print jobs from family and friends.

The five cards that I am sharing this week were created before the computer drawing program Auto-CAD was widely available to individuals. (I know we didn’t have access to digital type fonts that Apple computers offered around that time.) I used rulers, India ink pens and protractors to draw the pop-ups.

In 1985 I designed a pop-up room scene featuring a fireplace tabletop Christmas tree and a cat. I used rub-ons that were popular at the time to created graphics. All the straight lines were rub-ons as well as the letters on the garlands. I used a plastic drawing template for the circles and arcs. The cat was a sticker that had been reduced on a photocopier.

These postcards were hand-colored with watercolors and markers.

On the back of the postcard was the first of my CRX drawings that showed how the finished pop-up should look along with cutting and folding instructions.

I believe this was the last of the family designed Christmas cards as my father discovered Graphics3, a family-owned printing business in Jupiter, Florida that made 3D pop-up cards and began ordering from cards from them.

Here are other vintage Christmas cards:

  • Room Scene

Vintage Christmas Cards – Sleigh

| ullycatdesigns

Recently I came across some family Christmas cards I had designed with the help of my father who owned a letterpress printing press and had cuts (think metal stamps on wooden blocks similar to rubber stamps on wood blocks) made of my drawings. The printing press held an 8×10-inch frame which held the cuts and metal type (letters). Paper was hand-fed into the press which had an electric motor connected with a leather belt which turned the press wheel. From about age 8 and on I earned pocket money running the press to add people’s names to their store-bought Christmas cards, “From the Desk of” notepads and other small print jobs from family and friends.

The five cards that I am sharing this week were created before the computer drawing program Auto-CAD was widely available to individuals. (I know we didn’t have access to digital type fonts that Apple computers offered around that time.) I used rulers, India ink pens and protractors to draw the pop-ups.

My siblings and I think the sleigh postcard was created around 1984 using an image found in a Dover Publications clip art book. (We didn’t document our source as it was an image in the public domain.)

The sleigh was manipulated on a photocopying machine. The image was cut-out twice and one image flipped on its back side and traced with an ink pen. A ruler and protractor were used to create the rectangular shapes and tabs that connected the sides. Rub-on lines were used to create the various thickness of lines and perfect corners.

The instructions, title and tab letters were printed using hand-set type and the cut and pasted onto the drawing. (You can see one of the “F” tabs shows the overlap of paper covering the line.)

These postcards were hand-colored using red makers. We printed 400+ of these cards starting in October.

A few of our friends said they had cut and assembled the sleigh.

Here are other vintage Christmas cards:

  • Sleigh

Vintage Christmas Cards – Fireplace

| ullycatdesigns

Recently I came across some family Christmas cards I had designed with the help of my father who owned a letterpress printing press and had cuts (think metal stamps on wooden blocks similar to rubber stamps on wood blocks) made of my drawings. The printing press held an 8×10-inch frame which held the cuts and metal type (letters). Paper was hand-fed into the press which had an electric motor connected with a leather belt which turned the press wheel. From about age 8 and on I earned pocket money running the press to add people’s names to their store-bought Christmas cards, “From the Desk of” notepads and other small print jobs from family and friends.

The five cards that I am sharing this week were created before the computer drawing program Auto-CAD was widely available to individuals. (I know we didn’t have access to digital type fonts that Apple computers offered around that time.) I used rulers, India ink pens and protractors to draw the pop-ups.

For the 1983 stand alone fireplace, I know I was influenced by the cardboard fake fireplaces that were popular Christmas decorations in my childhood. The mantel design may have come from family homes or other 1920’s bungalow style homes with brick fireplaces. It is a more complex assembly with many smaller pieces. I remember printing the instructions and tab names with hand-set type and then cutting and pasting them onto the drawing, before sending it all off to be made into a metal cut.

My father had a little more experience with creating the colors using rub-on sheets of dots to create the coloring of sections of the drawing. Using a photocopying machine, he reduced the size of the dots to make them more intense and he did a reverse of the dots and space in between for the fire. Then he had three cuts made – one for the black drawing, one for the green stockings and mantel greenery and the last one for the red bricks and fire.

For one postcard, it took four runs through the printing press. We printed 400+ of these cards starting in October.

A few of our friends said they had cut and assembled the tiny fireplace adding the suggest string loop to make it a Christmas ornament.

Here are other vintage Christmas cards:

  • Fireplace

Vintage Christmas Cards – House Box

| ullycatdesigns

Recently I came across some family Christmas cards I had designed with the help of my father who owned a letterpress printing press and had cuts (think metal stamps on wooden blocks similar to rubber stamps on wood blocks) made of my drawings. The printing press held an 8×10-inch frame which held the cuts and metal type (letters). Paper was hand-fed into the press which had an electric motor connected with a leather belt which turned the press wheel. From about age 8 and on I earned pocket money running the press to add people’s names to their store-bought Christmas cards, “From the Desk of” notepads and other small print jobs from family and friends.

The five cards that I am sharing this week were created before the computer drawing program Auto-CAD was widely available to individuals. (I know we didn’t have access to digital type fonts that Apple computers offered around that time.) I used rulers, India ink pens and protractors to draw the pop-ups.

The 1982 “From Our House To Your House” house box postcard was an outgrowth of my fascination with creating house boxes. I had been introduced to box making in a high school commercial art class where I created a blue and white farmhouse box for perfume. At college I expanded on the farmhouse box design by creating a cardboard embossing plate to add raised clapboard siding and roof shingles that was run through an intaglio press. In 1981 I had completed an internship at a historic house museum which was a red brick Victorian house.

The challenge with creating a house box on a postcard was how much would fit on a 5 3/4-inch x 3 3/4-inch postcard. I drew the box on an 8 1/2-inch x 11-inch sheet of paper and used a photocopying machine to reduce it in size.

My father was experimenting with a new technique for him using rub-on sheets of dots to create the coloring of sections of the drawing. He had three cuts made – one for the black drawing, one for the green roof, door wreath and greenery and the last one for the red bricks.

For one postcard, it took four runs through the printing press. We printed 400+ of these cards starting in October.

A few of our friends said they had cut and assembled the wee house box adding the suggest string loop.

Here are other vintage Christmas cards:

  • House Box

Mother’s Day Keepsake Card

| ullycatdesigns

Recently I received a commission to make a Mother’s Day card that was to have all four of her children’s birthdays and names on it. The recipient likes gardening, traditionally receives flowers on Mother’s Day to plant in her garden and may soon be moving to a new home.

I began by looking through my paper stash and settled on a Graphic 45 paper collection that featured flowers of the months.  Karen Burniston’s Waterfall Card dies made it easy to create four different waterfall panels. It was the backgrounds panels for the card that were a bit more difficult since I had already cut into the papers for other projects. I ended up piecing together stripes of the flowers from the various months needed for the front of the card and a patchwork for the inside top panel. For the inside bottom panel that the waterfall rests on, I made stripes of the ribbon from the various flower papers. The card back is a whole piece of flowered cardstock.

Having reviewed the waterfall assembly video, I knew that a 5×7 (A7 size) card base with a top fold could accommodate the waterfall. For the hidden message of “love you,” I used the words from Karen Burniston’s Words Set 13 to die-cut into the decorative panel that goes to the pull strip. The background papers had all been adhered to the purchased card base when I die cut the finger semi-circle into the card base bottom panel. Having assembled the waterfall mechanism, I then stapled it onto the card base as shown in the assembly video.

For the customization of the names and birthdays, I used the postage stamp ephemera pieces from the paper collection for the month and then added the names and dates using Karen Burniston’s Mini Alphabet and Numbers die set.

Card Back

Ribbon can hide a multiple of small mistakes and liven up a card. On this card it softens the staples on the back of the card and brightens up the card front. The front sentiment is Karen Burniston’s “Happy Mother’s Day” which includes a shadow background die in the set. The white label inside can be used for a personal message and is cut using the largest of the fancy labels in the Crosshatch Rectangles and Labels die set.

The envelope uses more of the flowered paper for the back flap.

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Graphic 45 – 12×12 Double-Sided Paper – Flower Market Collection
  • DCWV – Textured Cardstock Stack 12×12 – Brights
  • Black Cardstock
  • Park Lane Paperie – A7 Card Base and Envelope – White

Pens

  • Pigma Micronn – Archival Ink – 01 Tip – Black
  • Sharpie – Permanent Marker -Ultra Fine Point – Black

Adhesives

Tools

Miscellaneous

  • Yellow Organza 3/4-Inch Wide Ribbon

Mother’s Day Flower Cart Pop-Up Card

| ullycatdesigns

Flowers for Mother’s Day is traditional. A pop-up flower cart just adds to the fun.

This card uses Karen Burniston’s pop-stand mechanism die to make the market cart builder dies by Honey Bee Stamps really stand-up in an otherwise flat card.

Card Base:  I watched a variety of videos on how to use the market cart dies as well as the assembly video for the Christmas Trees Pop Stand before I decided on an A2 (5 ½ x 4 1/4-inch) top fold card base. The inside of the cardbase was blended with green and black inks over the fold and then covered with two panels of green printed paper. I used the cart die to mark where the two pop-stands needed to be and die-cut them one at a time. I then covered the four holes created in the card base with small scrapes of the green paper adhered to the back of the card base. Finally, I covered the outside of the card base with green paper.

Cart:  I cut two of all the cart pieces – wheels in black and a pink foil, cart base and shelf from a heavy pink cardstock, roof and cart trim from lightweight cream cardstock. There is a coordinating stencil for the roof and cart trim stripes which I used with a bright pink ink and sponger tool. The same ink was also used on the cart’s handles and posts. The two shelf pieces were glued one on top the other so that the tabs were on both sides. Taking one of the cart base pieces, I turned it over and glued a wheel, trim piece and the top edge of the roof onto the cart base. Under the roof I placed three foam squares to add dimension to the roof. I repeated the adhering of cart pieces on to the other cart base’s front side. The shelf piece was folded in half along the slot line and then glued to the back sides of the cart base pieces making sure the cart pieces all lined up when pressed flat. The top edge of the roofs was glued next. Finally, the pop-stand tabs were glued to the back of the cart’s two legs and two wheels.

Flowers:  Cutting two sets of the three kinds of flowers and leaves from colored cardstock scraps, I used markers and gel pens to color the embossing of the wee flowers. The edges of the leaves were inked with black. The six pails were cut from some silver holographic junk mail scrap. A Quickstik or pick-up tool is very useful when assembling these flowers. An inch long strip of cardstock was stuck through the fold in the cart shelf and glued to the shelf underside. The two rose pails were glued on either side of the strip. The other flower pails were glued to the cart legs and wheels to cover up the pop-stand tabs.

Sentiment and Labels: “Happy Mother’s Day” is a die cut sentiment that comes with a shadow die. Both pieces were cut from cream cardstock. The sentiment was inked with bright pink ink before being glued to the shadow piece. Labels were cut from cream and pink cardstock using the dies in the Crosshatch Rectangles and Labels die set.

Decorations: I used the green paper’s decorative borders to create fence-like borders on the card front and inside, as well as using smaller snips of the border on the card back and envelope. The envelope and card back snips have a heart drawn with a black gel pen.

See other flower stand cards:

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope this inspires you and makes you smile. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Stencils

  • Honey Bee Stamps – Coordinating stencil -Market Cart -HBSL-085

Papers

  • Hot Off The Press – 12×12 Single-Sided Paper -Apple Green
  • Bazzill – 8.5×11 Heavy Cardstock – Cotton Candy
  • Bazzill – 12×12 Heavy Cardstock – Travertine
  • Black, Red and Cream Cardstock Scraps
  • A2 Green Envelope

Ink

  • Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink- Abandon Coral, Mowed Lawn and Black Soot
  • Sharpie -Permanent marker- Ultra Fine Tip -Racey Red
  • Gel Pen – Hot Pink and Black
  • Pigma Micron – 05 – Brown

Adhesives

Tools