Crafty Friends

Crafty Friends are fun to have and making special cards for such friends is both challenging and rewarding. This slimline mini-sliders card was made for an animal lover who appreciates interactive cards.

Instead of using my split slider template for this 9 inches x 4 inches card, I hand drew the five mini sliders and cut using a craft knife and metal ruler. (I miss cut and ended up having to reinforce the narrow bars between the sliders with additional patterned cardstock bars.) The coated Dress My Craft patterned cardstock was my last sheet of this vintage leafy print, so I had to make the slider panel work. Assembly is very similar to the assembly of the split slider template.

The foliage and floral dies used to decorate are a mishmash of dies from my collection. The elephant is one that I had assembled when I made another elephant card.

The foiled sentiment strip is one I had made during batch foiling session a while back. I used a die from a different Glimmer plate set to die cut the decorative scalloped edges.

Scraps of holographic ribbon were added between sliders to add some subtle sparkle to the card.

Inside the card I added a vellum strip to hid some tears around the half circle cut for a finger grip on the pull panel. A personal note will be added inside.

I glued 1-inch circles on the two points where the card recipient needs to place their fingers to hold and pull the slider panel up. A CRX instruction sheet is enclosed with the card to explain how to use the card.

Stamped on the back flap of a #10 business sized envelope in blue ink is a small elephant from Bus Cubbies stamp set sitting under the sentiment “Hello Friend” from Hello Friend stamp set.

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

If you enjoyed this card, check-out my original Split-Slider Slimline Series:

Day 1 – Split Sea Slider

Day 2 – Cloud Dreams

Day 3 – Triple Hearts

Day 4 – A Valentine for A Baseball Fan

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks/Polish

Foiling

Papers

Miscellaneous

© Sue Small-Kreider 2021

A Valentine for a Baseball Fan

What kind of Valentine’s Day card do you give to a baseball fan during a time of COVID-19? A triple heart slider in their team’s colors.

This card is the fourth of a series of Split-Slider Slimlines.

Card base is cut from heavy black cardstock. It is a rectangle 8 5/8 inches x 7 inches and folded in half to form a 3 ½ inch x 8 5/8 inches card base. The slider arm and easel panel template was printed also on heavy black card stock.

Split-Slider: This split slider is based off Spellbinders Large Die of the Month for January 2021.  The three mini easels were drawn and cut based off the three heart openings in the slimline die. (You can download a template for the horizontal split slider in the Materials Used section below.) The slider arm is horizontal rather than vertical as previous cards were. (Hint: Rectangular easels that will slide under the heart frames eliminate a catchpoint for the easel.)

You can glue the easel panel to the back of the lacy panel as long as you don’t glue the easel tab area at the bottom of the heart frames. Just put glue around the outer edge of the lacy panel.

Because the top lacy panel is adhered on three sides to the card base and needs to be raised, I used foam tape strips to raise the panel. (I like Stampin’ Up’s foam adhesive strips because they are precut and narrow enough to fit along the edge of the lacy panel.) Adhere the easel tabs to the slider arm before removing the backing paper of the foam tape.

You may have to help fold the easels into the fully opened position the first time to train them. Once satisfied with the slider/easels’ movement, remove panel backing tape paper and adhere to card base lining up the lacy panel with the top fold edge of the card base. (Note: The top edge of the slider arm (the pull bar) should jut out over the card base so that fingers can easily pinch the bar and pull up.)

Pull-Bar: The long pull bar or top edge of the slider arm is reinforced with a thick cardstock strip. Three yellow arrows are glued to the pull bar and a white dot for the place to hold the card when pulling up the slider arm. (For good CRX – I add a slip of paper to the card when mailing to show how to open the card. PDF of slip download is in Materials Used.)

Decorating the Easels: Because I had cut the lacy panel three times, I had plenty of the heart cut outs. I used three yellow hearts to form the easel bases that are folded at the tip of the heart when adhered to the slider easel. Three more yellow hearts are glued only at the rounded tops to the easel base hearts.

Using foam squares I adhered stamped baseball equipment to the yellow hearts and placed a bat under them.

Make sure you don’t glue anything that will impede the easels from moving.

The foiled “Happy Valentine’s Day” sentiment and stamped “Take me out to the ball game” are adhered to the inside of the card with double sided tape.

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

If you enjoy reading about the card I make, please follow ullysworld489442913.com.

Split-Slider Slimline Series:

Day 1 – Split Sea Slider

Day 2 – Cloud Dreams

Day 3 – Triple Hearts

Day 4 – A Valentine for a Baseball Fan

Materials Used:

Template

Dies

Foiling

Stamping

  • Hampton Art – Graphic 45 – Cling Stamps No. 11
  • Fun Stampers Journey – Rubber Stamps – Winners – SS-0362
  • Hero Arts – mini ink pad from My Monthly Here Kit September 2020 – Cup 0’ Joe

Papers

Miscellaneous

© 2021 Sue Small-Kreider/Ully Cat Designs

Triple Hearts

Valentine’s Day is coming and a handmade card, reminiscent of folk art hearts and flowers, fancy chocolate boxes and old-fashioned lacy Valentines, maybe just the thing for your loved one.

This card is the third of a series of Split-Slider Slimlines.

Split-Slider: This split slider is based off Spellbinders Large Die of the Month for January 2021.  The three mini easels were drawn and cut based off the three heart openings in the slimline die. (See previous split slider posts for more detailed directions.) The slider arm is horizontal rather than vertical as previous cards were. (Hint: Cut rectangular easels that will slide under the heart frames to eliminate a catchpoint for the easel.)

You can glue the easel panel to the back of the lacy panel as long as you don’t glue the easel tab area at the bottom of the heart frames.

Because the top lacy panel is adhered on three sides to the card base and needs to be raised, I used foam tape strips to raise the panel. (I like Stampin’ Up’s foam adhesive strips because they are precut and narrow enough to fit along the edge of the lacy panel.) Adhere the easel tabs to the slider arm before removing the backing paper of the foam tape.

You may have to help fold the easels into the fully opened position the first time to train them. Once satisfied with the slider/easels’ movement, remove panel backing tape paper and adhere to card base.

Decorating the Easels: Because I had cut the lacy panel three times (once from lightweight cardstock and twice from heavy weight cardstock), I had plenty of the heart cut outs. I used the lightweight hearts so form the easel base that was folded at the tip of the heart when adhered to the slider easel. The decorated heavy weight hearts are glued only at the rounded tops to the easel base hearts.

I used flowers and greenery left from other projects on the outer hearts and then I foiled the center heart with a coordinating foiling plate from the Spellbinders Glimmer Plate of the Month for January 2021.

Make sure you don’t glue anything that will impede the easels from moving.

Pull-Bar: The long pull bar or top edge of the slider arm is reinforced with a thick cardstock strip. Three holes were punched, and ribbon looped through for pulls. (If I were to make this card again, I would make the card base narrower so no ribbon pulls would be needed. See free template download under Materials Listed)

The foiled “Happy Valentine’s Day” sentiment is attached with foam squares. Nuvo Glitter Drops were added to the lacy panel.

When sending this card, I would enclose a slip of paper with directions on how to open. (See split-slider CRX Sheet download.)

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

Split-Slider Slimline Series:

Day 1 – Split Sea Slider

Day 2 – Cloud Dreams

Day 3 – Triple Hearts

Day 4 – A Valentine for A Baseball Fan

Materials Used:

Dies

Foiling

Papers

Miscellaneous

© 2021 Sue Small-Kreider/Ully Cat Designs

Split Seas Slider

Life gets rough and choppy sometimes and life isn’t always smooth sailing. Sometimes our friends need to be encouraged to take a chance and try something new. This interactive card is for those times.

This card is the first of a series to use my Ully Cat Designs’ Split-Slider Slimline template.

Split-Slider: Print split-slider template (download under Materials Used) onto bright blue lightweight cardstock and then cut out the top panel and slider arm around the outer red cutting lines. (Note: The printed side of the cardstock will be the back of the panel and when assembled will not be seen.) Using a craft knife and a metal ruler, cut the top panel’s eight mini-easels on the red lines. Next, using a scoring tool, score the green and blue fold lines – green being valley folds and blue mountain folds.

Because the top panel is adhered on three sides to the card base and needs to be raised the thickness of the lightweight cardstock slider arm, place two layers of double-sided tape on the long sides and bottom of the panel making sure not to cover the red lines of the easels. A single layer of double-sided tape should be placed on each of the narrow tabs of the eight mini-easels. (If you are using tape that is wider than the tabs, trim off excess.)

To adhere the slider arm to the mini -easel tabs, first, using low-tack tape, tape the front side of the easels shut. (This will ensure that the easels are adhered to the slider arm in the shut/flat position.) Position the slider arm over the back of the panel, making sure there is at least an 1/8 inch/3 mm gap between the tape along the panel edges and the slider arm. Hold the slider arm in place and remove the backing tape on the lowest easel and adhere to the slider panel. Repeat removing tape backing and adhering each easel. Once slider arm is attached to easels, turn over and remove low-tack tape. Test the slider. You may have to help fold the easels into the fully opened position the first time to train them. Once satisfied with the slider/easels’ movement, remove panel backing tape paper and adhere to card base.

Decorating the Easels: For my die-cut lighthouse and boats, I used Distress Oxides and Inks to color the lighthouse and boat flags, a black gel pen for windows and a silver gel pen to color the anchor. The lightkeeper’s house is cut from a pattern paper and colored with pencil for the grey stone. The blue and white layered sea waves are cut freehand as is the rocky land masses for the three easels around the lighthouse. Make sure you don’t glue anything that will impede the easels from moving. (Note the 2nd & 4th waves on my card have been trimmed to allow the easel in front to operate.)

The gold heat embossed compass on the pull-tab of the slider arm, was stamped on a separate peace of cardstock, embossed and them fussy cut. The compass adds sturdiness to the pull-tab. (Depending on the thickness of your cardstock, you may want to add another circle on the bottom of the pull-tab as well.)

The “SEAS the Day” sentiment is attached with foam squares between two easels and is not adhered to any moving parts.

Inside Decorations: You can decorate as you would normally inside the card. Because of the dark card base, I used paper that looks like an old ship’s log, to stamp the inside sentiments “Enjoy life’s journal” and “We cannot control the wind, but we can direct the sails.”

The back flap of the envelope was stamped with a Sara Davies Nautical Collection sentiment “Adventure awaits” to hint at the enclosed card is about.

I enclose a slip of paper with instructions on how to open the card. (See split slider CRX sheet download below.)

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

Split-Slider Slimline Template Series:

Day 1 – Split Sea Slider

Day 2 – Cloud Dreams

Day 3 – Triple Hearts

Day 4 – A Valentine for A Baseball Fan

Materials Used:

Please note that this template is copyrighted, and Ully Cat Designs must be cited if you publish a card made using it.

Dies

Stamps

Inks/Embossing Powders

Papers

Miscellaneous

© 2021 Sue Small-Kreider/Ully Cat Designs