Spellbinders

Thank You To Our Mail Carrier

| ullycatdesigns

For all the packages and envelopes that our mail carrier has so carefully placed in our mail box or placed by our front door, I wanted to say thank you to her. So, a mail truck thank you ornament was created.

I primarily used Spellbinder’s Food Truck and Sunday Drive collection dies to create this mail truck.

I cut two of the food truck die from an 8.5 x 11-inch sheet of white cardstock. I next cut panels that were 2.75 inches wide and scored at 3/8 inches on each side. (See downloadable PDF file of templates.)

mail-truck-piecesDownload

The top of the windshield strip is .25 inches tall which is not on the template. The front panel is scored across at .875 inches and the side tabs are cut away. This forms the front slanted hood.

Glue all the panels to one of the truck pieces as shown in the photo making sure that all panels are parallel to each other and tabs are all on the inside of the truck.

Glue up a mail carrier using people dies from the Sunday Drive collection (I used the Sunday Sunset Drive for this and freehand cut the hat which our mail carrier wears.) Attach mail carrier to seat panel. (It is easier at this point to letters and packages to the seat panel at this point than to add them once the truck side is attached to the panels.)

Glue the panels to the second truck piece starting at the front and working towards the back.

The roof panels as shown on the template have tow holes punched into them for a string to tie them shut and form a loop to hang the truck from.  I had to notch my tabs to fit over the cab panel. You could avoid this by attaching the roof panels first and then the other panels.

The truck is designed to fold flat, so allow enough string to allow for it being flat.

I decorated the truck using the circle dies in the Food Truck set and the steering wheel from the Sunday Drive set. The strips were cut from some scrap strips of red and blue papers. The headlights and taillights use the smallest circle die from the Food truck set. (I used yellow glitter cardstock for the headlights.)

The “US MAIL” on the sides and the “THANK YOU” on the back were cut using Karen Burniston’s Mini Alphabet.  (I cut three “O”s glued together to make a slider on the string to help keep the roof shut.)

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Snow in review

| ullycatdesigns

Over the past few years, I’ve made a few cards featuring snow and thought it might be fun to review them again.

Early Christmas Cards

12 Days of Christmas Trees – Day 4

Let It Snow Shadow Box

Snowy Forest Day

A Snowy Drive with Santa

Warmish Winter Wishes

Santa Vintage Trifold

Winter is in the Air

Snow Days

Snowy Good Morning

Hillside Holiday Wishes

Silent Night in the Village

Winter Mail

Scandinavian Snowman

Meet The Snow Family

All Wrapped Up In You

| ullycatdesigns

My spouse and I joke that neither of us can remember our wedding anniversary. We know it is in late October but we always have to look it up. This year I decided to just make a sweet Halloween card for my spouse for our anniversary.

I used the Spellbinders’ Dancin Mummy dies as well as the stamp set from the Boo Dance Party collection to make the card. The card base is a mini-slimline card made from double-sided cardstock from a 2013 Martha Stewart 12 x 12 paper pad called Gothic Manor. The legs swing on circle foam dot.

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Bee-utiful Flowery Painting

| ullycatdesigns

Bees, fresh paint and tulips seem like harbingers of Spring as we humans come out of winter hibernation.  I had some of the paint brush die sets from the Spellbinder’s Paint Your World Collection by Vicky Papaioannou as well as the Picket Fence Studio’s I Bee Fierce stamp set by Nicole Peterson on my crafting desk and thought they went well together. 

Having die-cut four sets of paint brushes from three of the die sets, I set about assembling the brushes noting that the handle pieces are not interchangeable, but all three sets have the same bristles die. I glued one layer of bristles to the back of each handle and another layer of bristles to the back of the silver band. Next, I studied the packaging for decorative ideas on the placement of the tulips within the bristles. I glued in place the leaves and flowers once I had figured out their placement in the two layers of bristles. I decided to ink blend some pink Distress Ink onto white cardstock scraps before die-cutting the paint drips.  I applied glue the silver band layer just on the back of the band and then placed it on top of the handle layer matching up the two lines on the band with the lines on the handle. Once the paint drips were dry, they were glued to the back of the assembled paint brushes.

Following the design rule of odd numbers of elements, I knew I had to stamp three elements to make the card front flow. Another design trick is to suggest movement by placing things on the diagonal.

I stamped the front, back and inside of the card before I adhered the paint brushes to the card. Stamping is easy when you use a stamping platform with stamping tool to help apply even pressure to the stamps. The back of the card is stamped using a Technique Tuesday stamp set.

The front sentiment is “I am little but I bee fierce,” while the inside says, “Be like the bee… fly despite the risks.” The back of the card states “This is a random act of cardiness.”

The envelope back was stamped with another sentiment from the Picket Fence set as well as the smaller bee. It says “that hum you hear is the sound of the mighty bee recreating our world with love, song and perseverance.”

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Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks & Pigments

  • Ranger – Jim Holtz’s Distress Oxide Ink – Abandon Coral
  • Memento Fade-Resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Nuvo Highly Pigmented Watercolour Pencil – Golden Canary

Papers

  • Heavyweight white cardstock
  • Colored cardstock scraps
  • Coated cardstock from junk mail
  • Silver mirrored cardstock from packaging
  • Brown #10 business envelope

Miscellaneous

Sunny and Flowery Thanks

| ullycatdesigns

Bright yellow and orange flowers stitched around a golden “THANKS” makes for a sunny thank you.

I stitched the flowery THANKS die from Spellbinders again when I needed a special thank you card. This time picking warm colors. 

The larger flower petals and leaves were outline or chain stitched before filling in the centers of them using three strands of floss. The black flower centers 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.

After gluing the gold letters cut on the front of the stitched piece, I added foam squares with glue to back side of the stitched piece behind the letters and attached to the front of the card base. The card base is an 8 x 8 inches sheet of heavy orange card stock folded in half.

This card was for someone leaving one position to start a new job, so the flap of the envelop is stamped in a gold ink stating “start of something new.”

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Like this stitched card? Here are other stitched cards:

·  Flowery Thanks

·  Stitched Flowers for a Spring Birthday

·  Stitched Flowers for a Summer Birthday

·  Stitched Valentine

·  Shine Bright

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Heavy yellow cardstock
  • Scrap matte gold cardstock
  • 8 x8 inch heavy weight orange cardstock

Stamps and Inks

  • Scrapbook.com -Wordfetti Oh So Happy Clear Stamps
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Crumb Cake

Miscellaneous

  • Yellows, oranges and black embroidery floss
  • Large eyed needle
  • Foam squares

Who Is Door Dancing?

| ullycatdesigns

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Hoppy Day the dancing bunny of spring.

Interactive cards are fun and creating one with layers adds to the excitement. Hints of Easter baskets filled with eggs flank a blue door that when opened, reveals a cute white bunny that will dance when the pull tab is moved back and forth.

Both the doorway and bunny are craft die sets by Spellbinders. The doorway is the Open House Door Base using the door mat from the Open House Spring die set. (I have found that you can save on bundles from Scrapbook.com for the Spellbinder’s Open House collection.) For the dancing bunny, the March 2021 Large Die of the Month set Spring Together with Lever Pull die set was used. (I watched the assembly video for this die set before making this card.)

Die-cut the door from blue cardstock and then die cut the windows from the door. Using the door, mark its placement with pencil and then cut the three sides using a metal straight edge and craft knife. Trace the window placement from blue door to pink door and die cut the windows.

Die cut four door windows and a transom window from white cardstock. Use the large transom window die to cut window opening in the pink card front.  Adhere the vellum to back of pink card and then glue white window frame into window opening and onto vellum.  The door windows are created by sandwiching the vellum between the blue and pink doors. Glue the white door window frames to the front of blue and back of pink doors.

Cut two of the mail slots and four of the doorknobs from silver foil cardstock. Adhere the mail slots to each side of the door and three doorknobs to the front blue side and one knob to the pink side of door. Mark the door opening with pencil onto the background paper. This will let you figure out the placement of the bunny.

Once the lever pieces are double cut and glued together for strength, they can be linked used tiny brads. Using the assembled level to position the line die, cut the slit for the mechanism to slip into the backing paper.  Thread the level through the slot and add additional brads to affix the mechanism to front of card.

Adhere the bunny body first with foam strips and then the head. Cut the semi-circle notch on the top and background layers of the card as well as the card base before assembling the card front.

Using foam strips adhere the pink card with door to background piece avoiding the lever mechanism.

The door mat is colored brown cardstock with Aged Mahogany Distressed Ink with a black backing for the letters. Die-cut the half-circle for the pull lever on the card base before adhering front layered piece to card base.

The Easter baskets used the large eggshell from the Spring Together set with green foliage from the Open House Spring die set and freehand eggs and handles. The flowers are finished with dots of Nuvo Drops and a pink flower sequin.

Decorate the back of the card with scrap pieces.

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Click here to see more dancing animals using these dies.

Click here to see see another door card using these dies.

Click here to see other door cards.

Materials Used:

Dies

  • Spellbinders – Open House Door Base Cutting Dies – S4-1131
  • Spellbinders – Open House Spring Cutting Dies – S4-1181
  • Spellbinders – March 2021 Large Die of the Month set Spring Together with Lever Pull Cutting Dies – DOML-MAR21

Stamping

  • Simon Says Stamp – So Talkative Clear Stamp Set – sss202385
  • Craft Consortium -English Garden Clear Stamps by Hackney & Co.
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Pear Pizzazz
  • Simon Says Stamp – Pawsitively Saturated Ink – Sunbeam
  • Ranger – Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Aged Mahogany

Papers

  • Craftwork Cards- Flying High 8×8” Paper Pad
  • Colored cardstock scraps
  • Clear vellum scraps
  • A7 white card base and envelope

Miscellaneous

Layered Crosses – Part 2

| ullycatdesigns

There is nothing like the burst of a sunrise from a dark morning sky.

Using five different shades of browns from tan to espresso cut one of each of the cross dies in each color. Lay out the various layers so that when assembled no cross has two of the same color.

Glue the layers together to form five crosses.

Cut a 4 1/4 x 11 inch piece of white cardstock. Score and fold at 7 3/4 inches (valley fold) and at 2 1/4 inches (valley fold).

With a sun rise stencil, orange ink and a sponge dauber, ink in the sun on the back panel. Next ink the sun rays with yellow ink.

Let ink dry before stamping the “He is risen” sentiment in black onto back panel, spacing so it is hiden when the card is closed.  On a white 2 x 4 1/4 inch piece of white paper stamp in black ink “Happy Easter.”  Glue white paper on the inside panel of the card.  (I used the paper to hide an inky mistake.)

In my stash I found some experiements I had done trying out the bokeh stenciling method to create an interesting background for the Apple Blossom butterly stamps.( I know I used Distress Oxide inks for the stenciling and some blue ink cubes from a Papercrafting Society box to stamp the butterflies.) These panels were cut down to 2 x 4 inch pieces and adhered to the front gatefold panels.

Position and then glue the cross to the left half of the closed card. 

To hint at the envelope’s contents, I stamped tulips onto the blue envelope with a yellow ink.

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Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Stencils

Inks

Papers

  • Browns, tans and white card stock
  • White paper
  • A2 blue envelope

Miscellaneous

Layered Crosses – Part 1

| ullycatdesigns

Sunrise means a new day and new beginnings. Using Divinity Designs layered cross die set and a stenciled sunrise, I hope to convey this elated feeling of gladness in this z-fold Easter card.

Using five different shades of browns from tan to espresso cut one of each of the cross dies in each color. Lay out the various layers so that when assembled no cross has two of the same color.

Glue the layers together to form five crosses.

Cut a 4 1/4 x 11 inch piece of sky blue cardstock. Score and fold at 5 1/2 inches (valley fold) and at 2 1/4 inches (mountain fold).

With a sun rise stencil, orange ink and a sponge dauber, ink in the sun on the folded shut card. Ink the sun rays on the left side of folded card with yellow ink. Open up card and ink in all the sun rays on back panel using the inked sun half to lineup stencil.

Let ink dry before stamping the “He is risen” sentiment in black onto back panel, spacing so it is hiden when the card is closed.  On a white 2 x 4 inch piece of white paper stamp in black ink “Happy Easter.”  Glue white paper on the inside panel of the card.  Die-cut strips of green grass to adhere to the bottom of the stenciled sunrise panels of the card.

Position and then glue the cross to the left half of the closed card. 

To hint at the envelope’s contents, I stamped tulips onto the blue envelope with a yellow ink.

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Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Stencils

  • Spellbinders – Fun Stampers Journey – Sunny Day Stencil 6”x6” – JM-0135

Inks

Papers

  • Blue, browns tans and green card stock
  • White paper
  • A2 blue envelope

Miscellaneous

Dancing Animals

| ullycatdesigns

Nothing says “Hello Spring” like dancing bunnies and newly hatched baby ducks. These two cute interactive cards were made with the Spellbinders Spring Together with Lever Pull Cutting Dies set.

This is a great set of dies to use up those small pieces of cardstock scraps for the animals. I used a bluish opal polish on the eggshell to give it some luster. (I watched the assembly video for this die set before making these cards.)

The levers/mechanism pieces are cut twice and glued together to be sturdy.  For the Hello Spring sentiment, the words were cut twice from white and once from purple and then glued together.

The printed leafy mat was cut an 1/8 of an inch smaller than the solid green card base and the floral top background is 1/4 of an inch smaller than the card base. Once the position of the lever mechanism was decided, the line slit and pull-tab notch were cut on the floral layer. The notches were then cut on the leafy green mat and cardbase using the floral layer to line up the notches.

The thin trimmings of the mat layer were used as lever guides using dots of glue at the ends of the strips.

Two additional brads are used to attach the slotted levers to the floral background.  Foam strips were placed on the back to raise up the mechanism from the matting layer.  The leafy green mat layer was glued directly to the card base.

Using the decorative scraps trimmed from the front card layers, the backs of the cards were finished.

The back flaps of the cards’ envelopes were stamped with a bunny stamp from Craft Consortium.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

  • Spellbinders – March 2021 Large Die of the Month set Spring Together with Lever Pull Cutting Dies – DOML-MAR21

Stamping

  • Craft Consortium -English Garden Clear Stamps by Hackney & Co.
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Pear Pizzazz

Papers

  • Park Lane – 8.5in x11 in 100# smooth white core cardstock – Watercolor Floral
  • Colored cardstock scraps
  • A2 green card base and envelope

Miscellaneous