Stitched Flowers for a Spring Birthday

Luscious purple, blue and lavender flowers, stitched with shiny embroidery floss hoovering over a raised matte gold Happy Birthday make for a simple yet elegant card.

I used a stitched flower die from Spellbinders that originally was part of their Large Die of the Month Club but is now available to everyone via their on-line shop. Initially I die-cut into an 8.5 x 5.5 inches sheet of pale blue heavy cardstock that was in my stash. I stitched it completely before trimming it down to the final 4.5 x 5.75 inches to fit on a 5 x 6 inches card base.

The larger flower petals and leaves were outline or chain stitched before filling in the centers of them using three strands of floss. The yellow stamens are French knots. While I knotted the floss ends when starting, I finished the flowers on the back side by adding dots of glue to seal the thread ends and add dimension to the stitched frame.

The Poppy Stamps “Happy Birthday – Poe Script” sentiment was cut three times from a gold piece of junk mail and glued together. The words were glued directly to the card base after determining the placement with the stitched frame. The frame was attached to the card base with thick foam squares.

If you enjoyed this stitched card, there are two more stitched card posts this week as well as pervious stitched cards:

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Scrap heavy blue and matte gold cardstock
  • A7 white card base and envelope

Miscellaneous

Mother and Daughter Cards

Mothers and daughters can be so alike and yet not see it.  Here are two cards made for a woman who has recently received a job promotion and a birthday card for her 13-year-old daughter.

Both cards are made using a Studio Light stamp and die set designed by Karin Joan called Betty. It is much like creating paper dolls. The main head and shoulders die cuts four individual pieces -head, 2 ears and the neck and shoulders. I laid out the position of the hair, ears, facial features stamps as well as the jewelry stamps before I did anything else. Next, I stamped and heat embossed the facial features.

The three hair dies can be combined in a multitude of ways to create different looks. Both the mother and daughter cards use the back full hair piece placed at different heights to create long or short hair. The front bangs pieces are different. The daughter’s hair is accentuated by a large bow.

The set comes with several collar line options. I have used the V-neck for the mother and the off-the-shoulder cut for the daughter. For jewelry on the mother, I’ve used a flower hair pin stamp for the earrings (stamped and heat embossed before the head was glued over the hair) and the heart and chain stamps for the necklace.

For the sentiment on the mother’s card, I used the sentiment stamp included in the Betty set to stamp and heat emboss the “She believed she could, so she did!” and die-cut the “Happy Birthday.” (The words on the stamp “so she did!” are so fine, I found that they didn’t heat emboss well, so I stamped that line in black ink and then cut it out and glued over the blurred embossed one.) Next the sentiment was die-cut using a scalloped stitched rectangle from Tutti Designs. For the daughter’s card, a Poppy Stamps “Happy Birthday” die was used.

Both cards used layered mats of printed papers on both the front and back covers. Inside the cards have been left blank for personal messages.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this blog post, please like it and follow the blog. 😊

Supplies Used:

Good Morning Farmstyle

Greetings it’s Sue here from the Dies R Us design team with a barn pop-up easel card.

Using PoppyStamps’ new Country Barn Pop Up Easel Set and lots of PoppyStamps’ Whittle animals and sun, this is an easy card to make.

Cut:

1 – largest barn die out of brown card stock

1 – middle barn die out of cream

1 – smallest barn die out of red (Save all the doors and windows cut out for the backing of the “X” frames)

2 – small “X” window from white

1 – doors “X” die out of white

1 – roof trim die out of white

1 – straight line out of white

Cut animals/sun and color with markers, black gel pen and Distress Ink.

Glue white “X” frames to doors and window cut outs to form doors. Glue on roof trim.

If you plan on having doors that open, ink blend the cream barn piece edges and door/window openings.  

Using clear tape, make hinges for all the doors and windows to open.

Position and glue cow to inside of barn. Glue barn to middle cream barn piece making sure not to glue any doors that are hinged to open. Glue flying chicken inside open barn door and other animals to front of barn.

Glue tab of brown base piece to back of cream piece. Test the barn in pop-up easel position. Using foam squares adhere green grass with eggs glued to them to the brown base to act as easel stops. Don’t have grass in front of the door that opens. Glue sun on to back of cream piece as if sun is rising behind the barn roof. (Make sure that sun top is no higher than the roof tip so card will fit in envelope.)

Stamp a sentiment on card base and back flap of envelope.

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

SUPPLIES Used from Dies R Us:

Other Supplies:

  • Red, brown, cream and white cardstock
  • Foam squares
  • Clear tape
  • Scrap green paper for grass
  • Staples – Invitation Brights 24 lb.- Gummed Envelope – 4 3/8 x 5 3/4 inches
  • Crayola Signature Brush & Detail Dual-ended Markers
  • Simply Made Crafts by Helen Griffin – Fun Sentiments Stamp Set
  • Vintage goat stamp
  • Stampin’ Up – Early Espresso ink pad
  • Ranger – Distress Ink – Vintage Photo
  • Sponge dauber
  • Stamping platform
  • Scissors

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

A July 4th Birthday

Today we are making a 3-dimensional ice cream sundae card to fit in a mini slimline envelope using dies from Dies R Us.

1. You will need:

  • One card base 11 inches x 3 3/8 inches from heavy white cardstock
  • One outside star paper 11 inches x 3 3/8 inches
  • One red and white strip inside back paper 4 3/4 inches x 3 3/8 inches
  • One wood-grained inside base paper 6 1/4 inches x 3 3/8 inches
  • One ice cream dish cut from vellum with details colored with white ink
  • Five ice cream scoops (I used 2 pinks, two white confetti and one chocolate)
  • Two chocolate toppings (I coated mine with a clear glaze to make it shiny)
  • One whipped cream topping (I used a shiny coated white scrap)
  • One red cherry (I cut from red card stock, added white gel pen accent, brown cardstock stem and coated with a clear glaze to make it shiny)
  • Two spoons (I cut mine from silver mirror cardstock)
  • Two sets of “You’re Sweet” sentiment – one red and one black or navy blue
  • Two sets of “Happy Birthday” sentiment – one white and one red
  • Stars and circles for hanging banner and decorations
  • One paper doily cut in half, 6 inches baker’s twine and clay red, white and blue confetti pieces

2. Fold the card base at 6 ¼ inches and place pop-up sundae die on fold per package instructions.

3. Follow the photos on working the folds. Start with bottom tier, then second tier and finally the two angled fold on first tier.

4. Glue narrow support piece to back of dish stem as marked in photo.

5. Glue white scrap to fill in rectangular hole in pop-up dish base, if covering with a vellum dish.

6. Place striped inside back and base papers behind/under card base and trace opening with pencil and cut out as shown in photo.

7. Adhere star paper to outside of card base.

8. Adhere inside striped papers to inside of card. Attach the cut-out sections as well.

9. Glue two scoops to pop-up dish and then add glue to back side of vellum dish where white inked decorations are so glue won’t show through vellum. Position vellum dish over pop-up dish base.

10. Attach ice cream scoops, toppings, cherry and one spoon to tiers, making sure that the movement of pop-up is not impaired by these decorations. Add clay confetti sprinkles.

11. Trim and fit a half paper doily under dish. Secure to base with dots of glue at three points.

12.Position and trim the other half of doily to front of card.

13. Glue the two sentiments together off-setting the darker shade in back to create a shadow effect.

14. Position and attach sentiments on front and inside card base.

15. Glue-up stars and circles banner on baker’s twine and glue in the corners over ice cream. Decorate with additional spoon, clay confetti sprinkles and paper stars.

Hope this sweet card has put a smile on your face and provided some inspiration for your crafting.

For another Ice Cream Sundae card I’ve made click here

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

SUPPLIES Used from Dies R Us:

Additional supplies used:

  • Ranger’s Glossy Accents
  • The Paper Studio – Crackled Stars 665976, Patriotic Woodgrain 847111 and XXl Stripe-Red/White 690587
  • The Paper Studio – Printable Vellum Paper – 8 1/2″ x 11″
  • Buttons Galore & More – Star Spangled Sprinkletez – NK114
  • BoBunny -I Heart Stars Stamp set – 121054444
  • Stampin’ Up Classic Stampin’ Pad – Dapper Denim ink
  • Taylored Expressions – Mini Slim Envelopes

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

A Sweet Spring Card

Hi, I’m Sue SK of Ully Cat’s World and a new member of the Dies R Us Design Team.

 This sweet spring card is a z-fold card that when flat fits in an A2 (4 3/8 in x 5 ¾ in) envelope.

It uses two dies – TuttiDesigns Easter Gate and PoppystampsHello Poe Script.

1.  Cut three gates from white cardstock, saving the waste pieces from between the fence pickets to use as fence rail extensions. (See bottom left gate).

2.  Trim arch and left flowers from gate/fence and save off-cuts from second die-cut.  

3.  Trim off areas of gate to make into fence. (Compare right fence to left gate.)

4.  Repeat steps 2 & 3 with third die-cut.

5.  Glue a fence section to each side of gate. Use the waste pieces as fence rail extensions and flowers to glue the pieces together.

 6.  Fold right side of fence as shown. 

7.  Color the flowers, vine and grass using fine tip markers.

8.  Taking one of the waste birds, trim off excess paper from feet and tail. Cut a wing from scrap and glue onto bird. Color bird.

9.  Glue bird’s eye back into gate piece and glue colored bird over bird on gate. Use fine tip pen to add dot to eye. Glue third scrap bird onto back of bird on gate.

10.  Glue the two waste arch/vine pieces to the back of gate arch. (Red outline) Add fence rails as needed to support where fence pieces were added to gate piece.

11.  Cut a blue piece of cardstock 10 inches x 4 inches. Score at 3 ¼ inches and 5 5/8 inches.

12.  Color the background to add grass using a green marker and clouds using white watercolor crayon.

13.  Die-cut two of the “Hello” sentiment in light and dark colors. Glue light on top of dark, off setting to create a shadow.

14.  Glue left side of fence to left side of card, matching bottom edges and left corner.

15.  Glue right small folded flower/fence section and fold card base onto glued section.

16.  Glue sentiment onto from of card.

Don’t forget to decorate your envelope and get more use out of your dies by using the off-cuts as stencils. 


17. 
Using the waste piece from under the arch and gate, tape closed the bird’s feet and tail. Stencil using ink and sponge dauber.


18. 
With a fine tip pen add details to the bird.

Hope this card brings a smile to your face and provides some inspiration to your crafting.

Click here to see more cards I’ve made with fences.

SUPPLIES Used from Dies R Us:

Tutti Designs - Dies - Easter Gate

Tutti Designs – Dies – Easter Gate

Poppystamps - Dies - Hello Poe Script

 Hello Sentiments

Cosmic Shimmer Specialist Acrylic Glue - 125mL

CosmicShimmer – Specialist Acrylic Glue – 125ml

Sizzix - Big Shot PLUS Machine Only - White and Gray + 10 BONUS DIES

Sizzix – Big Shot PLUS die cutting Machine

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

Driving into a Spooky Sunset

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 sliding bridge-fold card.

This card was a second prototype for trying new methods and materials for me. This was my second attempt at ink blending a setting sun sky using Distress Inks and blending sponges, so not as spotty as my first attempt, but not as smoothly blended as I would like. I made a stencil for the sun using scrap card.

The base of the card is 8 1/2 inches (21.6 cm) tall by 9 inches (22.7 cm) wide and scored at 4.5 cm, 8 cm, 15 cm and 18.5 cm. I cut the top corners diagonally from 9 cm down to the 8 cm scoring and the 15 cm scoring.

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.

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 on white copy paper and layered the pumpkin field to create a taller background image. I knew I wanted a road going down the middle of the card, and I cut a road from brown cardstock.

The sliding bridge is a mechanism under the car that involves a capital I piece and two folded rings.

The rings are glued to the folded edges of the card base around the I piece. The end stops of the I piece were adhered behind the car’s wheel wells and tires with foam pads.

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

For another Halloween slimline card using the same supplies see Being Spooky.

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!

© Sue Small-Kreider 2020

SUPPLIES

Dies:

Stamps:

Inks/Embossing Powder:

Nuvo Drops:

Miscellaneous:

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

Being Spooky

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

House Luminary

Building off of the red four-square house, this four-panel card becomes a wrap-around screen for a battery powered candle. This is the seventh house card in my series of “A Week of Christmas Houses” using Poppy Stamps 2020 Winter House Pop-Up Easel die set.

The house goes together easily by looking at the photos on the Poppy Stamps packaging. It does involve a lot of die cutting as there is only one die of each window type.  (I cut lots of the small pieces and store the extras in a tiny plastic bags that I keep with the die set.) To add depth to the porch and dormer windows I cut those pieces four times and glued together. The snowy pieces are cut from glitter paper.

Papers Used: The house is cut from a dark red cardstock with the windows and porch posts cut from cream. Note that two matting layers to each house panel – one pale yellow and one on heavy weight white cardstock. The red, cream and pale yellow come from monotone color packs of cardstock by Recollections.

Once again, peach organza ribbon to create some sparkly interest at the windows of the house. I masked off the front door with sticky notes and used Walnut Stain Distress ink to darken the door and frame. A wreath cut with a Tonic Studios die set to complete the door. (See Day 2 for details.)

Once the four houses were assembled, I glued together the pale yellow and white matting layers and then used the solid house die to trace where the windows needed to be cut out on to the pale yellow with a pencil. Because the tracing was inside the window, I had to cut 1/8 inch away from the outer edge of the pencil lines to make the window opening as large or slightly larger than the die cut window openings. I used a metal ruler and a craft knife to do this.

Once all the window openings were cut, I could glue the house fronts on to their matting layer panels. Lining the four completed panels up, I then used clear tape to hinge the panels together.

The panels can accordion fold to fit in an A2 envelope which I stamped with a greeting since the card has no greeting on it. I expect this will be a hand delivered card with a boxed candle.

Free PDF of display instructions.

See more house luminaria:

Victorian Trim House Luminaria

Holiday House Luminaria

See the more the series of “A Week of Christmas Houses”

Day 1 – From Our House to Your House

Day 2 – Santa is Coming

Day 3 – A Baby is Coming

Day 4 –Keeping the Home Fires Burning

Day 5 – Red Four-Square

Day 6 – Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Day 7 – House Luminary

An Old-Time Christmas Parlor

2019 – 12 Days of Christmas Trees

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

  • Kaisercraft – Clear Stamps – Sentiments -Traditional – CS313

Paper

Ink

Miscellaneous

Santa Delivers to the Tropics

How does Santa deliver presents to places where there is no snow for his sleigh? I think he goes in his trusted vintage white convertible with Rudolph to those tropical places. This is the sixth house card in my series of “A Week of Christmas Houses” using Poppy Stamps 2020 Winter House Pop-Up Easel die set.

This double easel card is designed as a slimline card to fit a #10 envelope. The car and Santa are part of the Spellbinders’ Sunday Drive collection.

I found both the Poppy Stamps and Spellbinders sets easy to use following the images on the packaging but recommend having a pair of tweezers handy to glue and place the tiny details. I also recommend having a small container or bag to put your die cut pieces into as you cut them out. They are quite easy to lose on your workspace or get dropped onto the floor.

To make sure the Fired Brick Distress ink I used under the Ho Ho Ho did not bleed onto the white car, I clear heat embossed the piece which adds some texture and shine to the license plate.

Because both die sets for this card are designed to represent snow and cold weather, I had to modify the die cut pieces. For Santa, I cut the sleeve off his shirt and used colored papers to have him wearing a more causal tropical shirt and created his arm by tracing around the outside of the skeleton’s arm in another add-on set for the Sunday Drive collection. On the house I trimmed off any of the snow on rooflines and used the poinsettia flowers from the Sunday Drive collection to plant in front of the house. To fit in a #10 envelope the tiny tips of the roof edge had to be trimmed off the card base.

Once again, I used peach organza ribbon to create some interest at the windows of the house. The door and roofs are inked dark with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. The door wreath is from the Tonic Studios set and the palm tree towering over the house is from a Karen Burniston pop-up die set. Nuvo drops were used for the doorknob and flower centers.

The welcome mat, which acts as the easel stop, was stamped and heat embossed using a stamp from a retired Stampin’ Up set. I used a blend of Ranger Black Sparkle and Recollections Ebony Detail Embossing powders that give the welcome mat a snowy sparkle. Once heat embossed, the mat was weathered using Antique Linen Distress Ink on a sponge dauber and cut out with the coordinating die. Foam squares where used to adhere the mat to card and make it tall enough to act as an easel stop.

The “Merry Christmas” is cut from heavy black cardstock glued down.  A personal message can be written behind the house.

Finished off the card by stamping its envelope with some hints as to what’s inside using a “Magical Christmas Wishes” sentiment in dark green ink.

See the more the series of “A Week of Christmas Houses”

Day 1 – From Our House to Your House

Day 2 – Santa is Coming

Day 3 – A Baby is Coming

Day 4 –Keeping the Home Fires Burning

Day 5 – Red Four-Square

Day 6 – Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Day 7 – House Luminary

2019 – 12 Days of Christmas Trees

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

Papers

Ink/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous