Sleigh Bells Pop-Up Christmas Card

October 1, 2025October 1, 2025 | ullycatdesigns

There’s a new mini release of five new stamp sets from Karen Burniston. For this card I’ve used the new Christmas Wishes sentiment stamps along with previously released die sets – Sleigh Pop-Up, Christmas Animals, Oval Frames Pop-Up, Gnome and Santa, Labels -Crosshatch, Squares- Crosshatch and Church & School Tiny House Add-Ons.

Watch the video below to learn how I made this card.

Cardbase: Start with an 11×4.25-inch rectangle of kraft colored cardstock. Score and fold at 5.5-inches to form an A2 (4.25×5.5-inch) side-fold card. Cover the four panels with decorative papers.

Santa, Reindeer and Sleigh: Watch the assembly videos at the bottom of each of the dies’ linked pages. Santa was made using the Gnome and Santa die set and has the possibility to have his face stamped using the new Fun Faces stamp set. The reindeer were made using the Christmas Animals die set and made on the reverse side of normal die cut. (See the video above to learn how the harness was made.) Using just the sleigh die from the Sleigh Pop-Up, cut once in white and again in silver, Use the stencil die to emboss the sleigh body. Trim off the runner on the white embossed piece and ink with red. Place the red sleigh body slightly offset on top of the silver to give sleigh some dimension.

Pop-Up Platform: Use only the largest die in the Oval Frames Pop-Up set to cut from cream cardstock. train the folds as directed in the die’s assembly video (located at the bottom of the linked page.) Using a glitter paste, add a thin coat to the main platform and let dry before gluing the sleigh onto it. Follow the steps in the video above for the order to glue the various pieces into the card.

Sentiments: All the sentiments were stamped in black ink using the Christmas Wishes stamps set. They were cut using the smallest plain die from the Labels -Crosshatch set. For the card front a square decorative paper background and two silver bells were made using the Squares – Crosshatch and Church and School Tiny House Add-Ons die sets.

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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:

Dies

Stamps

Papers

Stamperia – 8×8-inches Double-Sided Paper – Classic Christmas
Stampin’ Up – 8.5×11-inches Cardstock – Tea Room
Stampin’ Up – 12×12-inches Specialty Designer Series Paper – Season of Elegance
Black, Browns, Kraft, Pink, Red, Silver and White Cardstock

Ink

Cricut – Metallic Marker – Medium Tip 1.0 – Silver
Memento – Fade Resistant Dye ink – Tuxedo Black
OLO – Marker – RVO.1 – Cotton Candy
Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink – Lumberjack Plaid
Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Medium – White
Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Fine Point – Green
Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Point – Black

Adhesives

Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
Double-Sided Tape – 1/8-inch wide

Tools

Die Cutting Machine
Paper Trimmer
Stamping Platform
LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
Stamping Blocks used as paperweights
Palette Knife
Scissors
Altenew- Small Blending Brush Set (Flat Bristles)
Paper Masking Tape

Miscellaneous

Red and White Baker’s Twine – 12-inches
Nuvo – Glimmer Paste – Moonstone

Zoyfold Winter Birthday Card

December 18, 2024December 18, 2024 | ullycatdesigns

This card was made for Craft Roulette #245 whose parameters included a tri-panel card, North or South Pole colors, holiday floral and snowflake(s). (I added the personal challenge of making a zoyfold card.)

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

Details and supplies used are below.

Cardbase: The cardbase is really a blend of two cardbases together. The larger card is a 5×7-inch landscape/horizontal z-fold card with an almost square 4 1/8 x 4 1/4-inch card for a joyfold card Hence the newly coined card fold – the zoyfold (The term was coined by Mary Gunn Funn and Irene “Hattrick” Smith on the Craft Roulette Members Show #244.) Watch the video for assembly instructions.

Sentiments: All sentiments” When Snow is falling, Crafts are calling,” “You’re so cool,” and Happy Brrrthday to you.” are from the Karen Burniston Winter hugs stamp set. The “So I made this cool card” stamped on the card back with my signature is also from the same stamp set.

Envelope: The card fits into an A7 (5x 7-inch) size envelope. “HBD” for Happy Birthday is stamped on the envelope flap using a Craft Roulette stamp.

___________________________________

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

Karen Burniston in cahoots with Riley and Company – Clear Stamps – Winter Hugs
Craft Roulette – Clear Stamps – Funn Sentiments #01

Papers

Bazzill – 8.5×11 Cardstock – Evening Surf
Park Lane Paperie – 6×6 Cardstock – Silver Holographic
PinkFresh Studio – 8.5×11 Essential Glitter Cardstock 250 GSM – Glacier
The Paper Studio – 8.5×11 65 lb. Cardstock – White
Matte Silver Envelope – Upcycled
Pale Gray 8.5×11 60 lb. Cardstock

Black, Red, White and Yellow Cardstock
Recollections – A7 Envelope – Cream

Ink

Memento – Fade Resistant Dye ink – Tuxedo Black
Pigma – Mircon 01 Fine Tip Pen – Black
Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Medium – White

Adhesives

Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
Double-Sided Tape – 1/2-inch wide
Glue Dots

Tools

Die Cutting Machine
Paper Trimmer
Bone Folder
Score Board
Stamping Platform
LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
Stamping Blocks used as paperweights
Scissors
Pencil
T-Ruler
Glue Eraser
Paper Masking Tape
We R Memories – QuickStick

Miscellaneous

Iridescent White Ric-Rac

Sleighing It Accordion Style

August 1, 2023July 31, 2023 | ullycatdesigns

It’s time for the Karen Burniston Design Team Challenge for August 2023 with the theme of ACCORDION dies.

I choose to use the Fancy Label Accordion die with the sleigh from the Sleigh Pop-Up and reindeer from the Christmas Animals set as add-ons similar to the new Cupcake or Fence Add-ons for the Landscape Rectangle Accordion set. I also used the snowflake frames from the Fancy Winter Frames set.

There are several ways of assembling this accordion card – prepare frames and attach them all together and then add the sleigh and reindeer – OR – prepare frames (adding snowflake frames to fronts of accordion frames only), make all the animals, sleigh and gifts and assemble each panel as you go adding the back snowflake frame pieces after you attach the accordion frames. The latter is the method I choose to follow. Watch the assembly videos for the Fancy Label Accordion and the Fence Add-ons (located towards the bottom of the linked pages.)

Frames: Cut four accordion frames from the Fancy Label Accordion set from heavy white cardstock. With scissors cut off the sides of the fancy label to form a pivot post on each accordion frame. Cut a total of 16 snowflake frames pieces from the Fancy Winter Frames set from blue cardstock. (I sprayed my frames with mica spray to get the metallic shiny frames.) Brush the accordion frame sides and the pivot post with glitter gloss. (I recommend doing both sides of the frame at this stage.) Glue blue snowflake frames onto the fronts only of the accordion frames. (Watch assembly video for the Fancy Winter Frames.)

Sleigh: Using red cardstock cut two sleighs. (If using decorative cardstock with a different pattern on each side, cut one red in reverse.) Cut two more of the lower portions, of the sleigh from silver foil cardstock making sure one is the reverse of the other. Fussy cut off just the sleigh runners. Glue runners to red sleigh bases.

Gifts: From the Sleigh Pop-Up set, cut a total of six gift boxes and four bows, making sure you have pairs of matching papers for each box and bow. (I used a glitter marker to add some accents to the bows.) Play with the layout of where the packages and bear will go in the sleigh and still fit inside the accordion frame.

Bear: Cut two bears from white cardstock and two of the tummy and nose pieces from gray using the Winter Animals set. Cut from red two hats and scarves and two pompoms from white. Assemble as shown on the package. Use the main die to stencil the pink ears and black eyes, and the nose die to draw the mouth and nose in black. Assemble with the hat covering the opposite ear from the other bear.

Reindeer: Cut 12 reindeer from brown cardstock and 12 pairs of antlers from darker brown cardstock using the Christmas Animals die set. With a fine tipped black marker use the reindeer die as a stencil to color hooves and faces of the six of the deer and a white gel pen to color the ears. Repeat with the remaining six reindeer, but on the reverse side. Color all the tail as shown on package with white gel pen. Glue on antlers to one set of six reindeer. You will glue the remaining six pairs of antlers on when you assemble the card matching up the fronts and backs of them. (I made one reindeer have a red nose by using red Nuvo drops.) Cut six strips of red cardstock 6-inchs long and 1/4-inches wide for the sleigh shafts that the reindeer will be harnessed to.

Assembly: Play with the layout of where the packages and bear will go in the sleigh and still fit inside the accordion frame. Glue the packages and bear to the back of sleigh. Start with the first frame and position the sleigh so that the front curling tip of sleigh is just inside the frame and a small portion of the back of the sleigh is over the other side of the accordion frame. (I placed my sleigh so that the shaft that will connect the sleigh to the reindeer will be approximately in the middle of the frame.) Glue the frame tab to the second frame. ( I used crafting clips to hold the frames together until the glue set-up.

Flipping the two frames over, I glued a shaft onto the back of the sleigh making sure it was long enough to reach the edge of the next frame. Next, before I glued the blue frames on , I brushed all the accordion frame sides with a glitter gloss then I attached the blue snowflake frames to the back sides of the accordion frames covering over where the tab is. Use weights to keep the frames from curling as the glue dries.

Cut two pieces of baker’s twine 6-inches long and ten pieces 5-inches long. (Use the 6-inch piece of twine for the rein deer that attach to the sleigh.) To make the harness on the reindeer start with the end of the twine on the back side going over the neck and back under the belly. Glue the end and bend to back of reindeer. Pull twine around the front of the animal and with a dot of glue, adhere the twine to the rear end of the reindeer. Glue the lead reindeer to to the second frame and glue the end of the harness twine to where it will be covered with the reindeer with with a 6-inch harness. Adhere second reindeer and wrap end of twine around the bear’s paw.

Add the next two frames following the same instructions for the second frame and reindeer. (In hindsight, I think it may be easier to assemble all the accordion frames together, adding one sleigh and attaching all the shaft pieces together. Then you can start adding the reindeer starting with Rudolph in the front, gluing down his twine harness, and adding the next reindeer and so on with each frame.)

When all the frames have been added with blue frames on both sides and front side of reindeer added, flip over and cut off the unused tab on fourth frame. Glue red shafts to the back side of shafts. (This covers the different patterned paper for my card, but also adds some strength to the folding mechanism.)

Glue the packages to the backs of the first packages matching them up. Then adhere the bear. Finally glue the sleigh in place matching up the edges and runner swirls. Use clips to keep the pieces in place until the glue dries.

Glue the remaining reindeer in place. Train all the folds. (I decided that the back side of the reindeer would look better with faces so I stenciled them on after the card was assemble.)

This card will easily fit into an A7 envelope, but it is thick, so a padded envelope or hand delivery is recommended.

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

Click here to see other Accordion cards

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

My Mind’s Eye – 6×6 Double-Sided Paper Pad – Cozy Christmas
White, Brown, Gray, and Light Blue Cardstock
A7 ivory Envelope

Ink

Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Fine Tip – Pink
Sharpie – Permanent Marker – Ultra Fine Tip – Black
Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Medium – White
Nuvo – Glitter Marker – Fired Brick – 193
Nuvo – Aqua Shimmer – Glitter Gloss
Nuvo – Mica Mist – Nebula Blue

Adhesives

Tools

Die Cutting Machine
We R Memories – QuickStick
Scissors

Miscellaneous

Baker’s Twine – Red/White
Nuvo – Vintage Drops – Postbox Red

Vintage Christmas Cards – Sleigh

May 11, 2023May 12, 2023 | 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:

NO L Tree

House Box

Fireplace

Sleigh

Room Scene

Santa’s Sleigh Pop-Up

November 30, 2022November 27, 2022 | ullycatdesigns

A wet snowy night for Christmas Eve and Santa and his reindeer are feeling a bit blue with the weather, but whoever receives this card will be cheerfully surprised when Santa pops-up.

This is a slimline card version of a non-traditional color scheme Santa scene that I used on another project that will be unveiled during the sneak peak week of Karen Burniston’s December 2022 release.

To create the the inside pop-up scene, I used four of Karen Burniston’s previously released die sets – Sleigh Pop-Up, Christmas Animals and Gnome and Santa. I had to reverse the direction of the sleigh to make it work with the reindeer dies. The reindeer are each made up of two die cuts that are glued together at their antlers and have the face colored on the front side only, but with narrow strips of cardstock forming “U” shaped bases for the feet to be glued onto. Blue and white baker’s twine is glued on to the reindeer for the harness and reins.

The front sentiment and pine branches are all by Karen Burniston. The tiny bows are from the sleigh die set while the pine branch is from the Holiday Charms set.

Velvety flocked paper lines the inside of the card with crisp white snowflakes (from holiday charms and sleigh die sets) and a fancy edged label for a personal message finish the inside scene.

As per my usual, I like the back of the envelope to hint at what is to come. The stamps are by Paper Discovery.

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

Recollections – Signature Especial 12×12 Foil Paper – Silver Glitter -220520
Spellbinders -8.5×11″ sheets of 100lb. Cardstock – Waterfall – CS-017
Stampin ‘Up – 12×12″ Specialty Vellum – Snowflakes
Stampin’ Up – 12×12″ Snowy White Velvet Sheets
Brazzill – 12×12″ Cardstock -Coconut Swirl
Pink, Black and Yellow Cardstock Scraps

Inks

Blue and Pink Fine-Tipped Markers
Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen – Silver -XPG#744
Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink – Salty Ocean
Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Blueberry Bushel

Stamps

Paper Discovery by Olga Direktorenko – A5 Clear Stamps – Rustic Christmas – Christmas Sentiments

Miscellaneous

Neutral PH Adhesive by LINECO
Fine-Tip Glue Bottle
Die Cutting machine
Pokey tool
Sponge Dauber
Stamping Platform
Stampable Stamping Tool

Santa is Coming Tonight

August 13, 2020September 3, 2020 | ullycatdesigns

It’s Christmas Eve and the candles are lit in the windows to welcome Santa. This is the second 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 twice and glued together. The snowy pieces are cut from glitter paper and some of the window frames and siding have Nuvo Glitter Drops used thinly to give the illusion of melted snow.

Papers Used: The house is cut from Bazzill heavy card stock in a 2014 color of Gold Coin. The dark blue, red and pale yellow come from monotone color packs of cardstock by Recollections. Note that there is a dark blue outline layer of the house that provides the window inside color as well as framing the outside edge 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 tiny drop of gold Nuvo Crystal Drops for the doorknob (which wasn’t put on yet in the photo) and a wreath made from green scraps and a piece of red embroidery floss, complete the door. Greenery was cut from food boxes to get the thickness using a greenery die by Christina Griffiths and snipped into smaller pieces and glued to a wreath shape cut freehand.

The windows all have tiny white candles cut from a thin white scrap and flames are cut from an orange envelope in my stash. I used the appropriately named Candlelight – Spectrum Noir Sparkle Glitter Ink to put a dot of glow behind each candle on the dark blue layer.

I stamped Santa Sleigh on white cardstock and colored with colored pencils. I cut a strip of clear plastic packaging to sandwich between Santa and another piece of white cardstock. Before I glued the strip, laid-out the position of the house, Santa and the plastic strip on a slimline envelope to make sure all would fit inside the envelope.

Other than having to trim a bit off each side of the eaves on the white card base, all fit.

I made pencil marks to note where the plastic would go on the backsides of the dark blue layer and Santa. The plastic is sandwiched between the blue layer of the house and the white card base layers.

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 pads 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

The envelope was stamped in read on cream envelope using vintage Disney stamps.