Stampin’ Up

Red Four-Square

| ullycatdesigns

The candles are lit in the windows to welcome you home to a house reminiscent of a red-brick four-square house popular in the early 20th century America. This is the fifth 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 a dark red cardstock with the windows and porch posts cut from shiny cream which is recycled from an old store-bought card. The red, dark blue 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 Vintage Photo Distress ink to darken the door and frame. A tiny drop of gold Nuvo Crystal Drops for the doorknob and a wreath cut with a Tonic Studios die set, complete the door. A fir tree is also cut from the Tonic set.

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. (The second floor center window seems to have a draft.) Click here to see more photos of how the candles were made.

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

I used two stamps on the envelope flap. I stamped Season’s in red and then masked it with a sticky note and stamped the greetings circle (which has a different sentiment in its center) in dark green.

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

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

Paper

Ink/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous

A Baby is Coming

| ullycatdesigns

Baby is coming-Front envelope

Who doesn’t look forward to welcoming a new baby at Christmas? This card is the third house card in my series of “A Week of Christmas Houses” using Poppy Stamps 2020 Winter House Pop-Up Easel die set.

The house is cut from heavy card stock in a pale blue that has been in my stash from a card kit. The dark blue and pale yellow come from monotone color packs of cardstock by Recollections. Note that there is a pale-yellow outline layer of the house that provides the window inside color as well as framing the outside edge of the house. The card base is cut from heavy weight white cardstock.

This card 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.

Baby is coming-Front open

I masked off the front door with sticky notes and used Salty Ocean Distress ink to darken the door and frame. A tiny drop of gold Nuvo Crystal Drops for the doorknob and a wreath cut with a Tonic Studios die set, complete the door.

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 windows all have a piece of pale blue organza ribbon taped behind the window frames to give the shine of glass and the rosy glow comes from some shading with Fossilized Amber Distress Ink on the pale-yellow cardstock. The rocking horse and woman decorating a Christmas tree that can be seen in the windows are from an older Tonic Studios Toy Emporium die set. Also from the Tonic set is the outside fir tree.

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

Baby is coming-Front envelope

I used two stamps on the envelope flap. I stamped Joy in green and then masked it with a sticky note and stamped the wishing you circle (which has a different sentiment in its center) in blue.

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 – Keep 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

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

Paper

Ink/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous

Santa is Coming Tonight

| ullycatdesigns

Santa is coming-open-wide

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.

Santa is coming-Side view

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.

Santa is coming-inking door

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.

Santa is coming-windows-CU

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.

Santa is coming-Candles

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.

Santa is coming-laying out

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

Santa is coming-triming card base

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.

Santa is coming-Santa gluing

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.

Santa is coming-card-envelope

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 – Keep 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

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

Paper

Ink/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous

From Our House to Your House

| ullycatdesigns

Snowy house -house CU

It’s a cold and blustery day where snow is covering everything. You’ve walked to your neighbor’s house down the lane to drop off a bit of Christmas cheer and now you’re walking back to your home all aglow in the afternoon sun. How lovely and welcoming it looks with its bright paint underneath all the snow.

This is the feeling I hope the recipient of this card will have when they open and display the card.

Snowy house -front

This is the first house card in my series of “A Week of Christmas Houses” using Poppy Stamps 2020 Winter House Pop-Up Easel die set.

The card 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.

Snowy house -easel

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 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.

Snowy house -door CU

The welcome mat, which acts as the easel stop, was stamped and heat embossed using a stamp from a retired Stampin’ Up set. Once heat embossed, it was weathered using Antique Linen Distress Ink on a sponge dauber.

The windows all have a piece of peach organza ribbon taped behind the window frames to give the shine of glass and the rosy glow of sunlight.

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

Snowy house -inside

The house is cut from Bazzill heavy card stock in a 2014 color of Gold Coin. The red and pale yellow come from monotone color packs of cardstock by Recollections. Note that there is a pale-yellow outline layer of the house that provides the window inside color as well as framing the outside edge of the house.

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 – Keep 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

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

  • Stampin’ Up – At Home with You – stamps & die set 143681 (Retired)

Paper

Ink/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous

Stable Happy Mail

| ullycatdesigns

7 Stable-front-opened

Everyone likes Happy Mail and this one is made for a family of horse lovers. After making a z-fold card using a gate and fencing, I envisioned this horse paddock card.

5 Stable-folded envelope

The card is designed to fit folded into a #10 slimline envelope.

I laid-out the fence first on a 2 ½ inch x 12-inch strip of textured cardstock folding it long-ways in half and then scored at 3 inches and 9 inches. Draw pencil lines for the fence posts at: 1/4 inch, 1 7/16 inches, 1 9/16 inches, 2 7/8 inches, 3 inches, 3 1/8 inches, 4 7/16 inches, 4 9/16 inches, 5 7/16 inches, 6 1/16 inches, 7 7/16 inches,, 7 9/16 inches, 8 7/8 inches, 9 inches,, 9 1/8 inches, 10 7/16 inches, 10 9/16 inches, and 11 ¾ inches. Next, I evenly spaced three boards long-ways and colored in the spaces to be cut out. Using an Xacto craft knife and metal ruler I cut out the colored spaces on the folded over strip measuring 1 ¼ x 12 inches. (I recommend coloring in the cutout spaces as it gets very confusing, and like me, you have to start over again.)  (If you have the Karen Burniston Farm Edges die set or another fence die set, you could piece together the fence rather than cutting it as I did.)

3 Stable-Fence cut

The last cutting is to trim one half of the endposts off (See photo). Once the fence is done being cut, glue the wrong sides together to form a sturdy fence. I used distress inks to color the fence.

4 Stable-Fence endpost

The stable doors are sized to fit the Karen Burniston horse die. I cut three horses and decorated them differently using a black fine tipped pen and watercolor pencils. (Watch the assembly video for decoration ideas and tips). The doors are loosely based of the retired Stampin’ Up barn door set. I cut pieces of woodgrain paper to form the trim pieces and glued. The sliding door hardware is from the Stampin’Up set. Because the door is smaller than the die set door, I had to do a modified cutting of the slots that the door slides on.  I followed the door assembly method described in this video by The Creativity Cave.

6 Stable-front-unopened

The sentiments are from the barn door set. You will need to cut two pieces of wood grained paper for the stable at 4 x6 inches. Once you have cut the door slots out of the front piece, and assembled the door, you can adhere the backing piece with the grain sided facing the back side of the front. (The grain will camouflage the slot cuts. Make sure you don’t glue your acetate door mechanism to the backing piece. Test your door before the glue dries if you need to make adjustments. Stamp and cut out your sentiments and adhere behind the doors. Glue one horse head to be peaking out from the stall door and the glue door onto stable.

7 Stable-front-opened

Glue the fence endposts to the front of the stable once the doors and decorations have been added to the front of the stable. Add the horses to your paddock by gluing one to the back of the front fence and the other by using a strip of clear plastic from packaging (It needs to be sturdier than acetate.) to glue the acetate in place, first glue one side the inside of the side fencing. Fold the paddock flat to one side and see where the plastic strip folded tab ends up on the fence and, then glue to that spot.

You can write your personal message on the back of the stable.

Supplies

Stamps/Dies

Inks/Watercolors

Paper

  • Textured 12 x12 off white card stock from my stash
  • All other papers were from my scrap bin

Miscellaneous

Garden Gate and A Curious Kitty

| ullycatdesigns

Garden Gate -Front Cat -bird

An idyllic summer morning with birds singing, a kitten roaming about the garden and the prospect of a cup of tea and good long chat with a friend are what this card reminds me of when I see it.

My friend challenged me to make something special with my new Stampin’ Up stamp and die sets. (So this card is for you, Donna.)

I had seen on Pinterest cards using the Garden Gateway die to create a z-fold card with a fenced in garden. This was my inspiration and starting point.

Garden Gate -side open CU

Fence and Gate: I cut two of the arched gateway and four of just the garden gate without the arch.  Using a craft knife, I trimmed off the cross-piece sections on the small gates and the middle hinge to get the gate to look like a fence. Next, I tried laying out the fence knowing it had to be 11 inches (278mm) long because my card base was 4 inches by 11 inches (102mm x278mm).  I had scored and folded my card base in the middle and then the left side I folded in half to make the z-fold. I needed the gate to be right of the front quarter-fold section on the card base. I wanted the folded corner of the fence at the right of the gate to be at the mid-section of the timed gate. I cut and pieced the fence gluing large end posts over large end posts. I trimmed off the far-right end post as it was too long. The arch seemed to bend too easily, so, I took the second arched gate and glued it to the back of the fence and gate for added strength.

Garden Gate -side open

Card Base Background: I stamped the tree and bistro table and chairs from the Joanna Sheen stamp set and tried a grass stamp with green distress ink but ended up using the grass stencil in the Joanna Sheen set to do the grass. Using a fingertip dauber sponge, I smoothed out the grass. The clouds on the blue cardstock were made with a white Distress Crayon that was slightly blurred with a water brush.

Garden Gate -Front open CU

Garden: I stamped the flowers, kitten and bird on the leftover white cardstock I had leftover from die-cutting the gate and fence pieces. Using watercolor pencils and a waterbrush, I colored the stamped images.  After getting the fence glued together and the folds made to create the garden, I glued the fence sections to the front and back of card base, making sure the free standing fence sections don’t accidentally get glued to anything. I decorated the outside of the fence with flowers making sure the gate could open. For the flowers inside the garden, I attached them with folded pieces of clear acetate. The placement of the inside flowers needs to be done so the card will fold flat so using glue to adjust their placement is useful.

Garden Gate -Front folded

Sentiments: I stamped the sentiments last, using a blue ink. I tried to center the two sentiments on the back so that they were framed by the arch of the gate when closed or opened.

Garden Gate -Envelope Folded

Envelope: The back flap of the envelope was stamped first with the bird stamp in blue on a sticky note, cut out and stuck as a mask over the stamped bird on the envelope flap. Next, I stamped small flowers over the masked bird in green. Once the mask was removed, it looks like the bird is standing amid the flowers.

Garden Gate -Envelope CU

Supplies

Stamps

Inks/Watercolors

Paper

Miscellaneous

A Veggie Thank You

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Veggies-front

A very veggie tale of how this card developed. I had received some new stamps and had tested them out. The background stamp was begging to be used and I had a test strip of the garden stamps floating around on my desktop, and thought they were a good mix.

I fussy cut the garden stamps and glued all the pieces except the banner on to the background using glue dots. Next, I adhered the banner using foam squares. The card front still needed something, so I added Nuvo drops in black. I thought the top right corner needed a tad more black, but I ended-up smearing it a bit.

A day or so later I needed a thank you card and thought this card front would work well on a craft card base with matching envelope. So adhered front to card with double-sided tape. Then I stamped the ‘Thank You” sentiment inside and the peas on the envelope flap.

Veggies-inside-envelope

E-Z-peas-z. The card was finished.

I want to give a special shout-out to my Stampin’ Up demonstrator and friend, Donna Butler, for all her help in learning to how to stamp well.

Materials Used:

Stamps

Inks

Papers

  • A2 Brown craft paper card base and envelope purchased from Target
  • White cardstock

Miscellaneous

A Trout Fishing Kind of Day

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After 63 years of marriage and numerous fishing and mountain trips, I knew this couple deserved a special anniversary card that evoked all the things they love.

Hot Air Balloons-front

Hunkydory’s Moments in Time “Love is In the Air” die set and matching paper pad had the perfect pop-up card with a pond, mountains, hot air balloons and a couple taking it all in siting at the edge of the pond. The die took a couple of passes through a die cutting machine and then the tricky part of working all the folds. This die is one of the less intricate dies in the Moments in Time series but using a paper piercing tool helped with shaping all the trees on the mountains and puffing out the clouds. There is an instruction sheet on the Hunkydory’s website that is useful when doing the folding.

Hot Air Balloons-inside Wide

The front of the card’s paper and label topper came from the “Flying High” Craftwork Cards paper collection. “On Your Special Day” die cut sentiment is from Creative Dies by Sue Wilson and the jumping trout is from Stampin’Up’s “Best Catch” stamp set stamped in brown ink and fussy cut and adhered with foam pads.

Hot Air Balloons-inside

The inside “Happy Anniversary” sentiment was cut from two die sets in the Gemini Expressions series by Crafter’s Companion. The additional bird on flower and best wishes banner came from the aforementioned “Flying High” paper collection. The back side of the card is finished with more of the paper from the front.

Hot Air Balloons-back

The front and back flap of the envelop are stamped with images that give a hint of what the card is inside.

 

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks

Papers

Miscellaneous

Hot Air Balloons-inside CU

Soda Shaker

| ullycatdesigns

Soda Shaker - Front Close up

Who hasn’t watched the bubbles in a carbonated drink rise to the top of a bottle? I was inspired to create this soda shaker by some pink seed beads that I found in my stash.

I picked a chevron striped pink card base and some printed cherry paper. First, I cut the card base in half separating the front from the back. I next cut the cherry print to match the inside dimensions of the front of the card. Then, using removable tape, I secured the front of the card to the cherry print making sure the edges all met up. Using the Bottles and Bubbles Framelits dies from Stampin’ Up, I cut the bottles out of both the card front and cherry print.

Soda Shaker - inside

After separating the card front and cherry print, I cut two pieces of clear acetate smaller than the dimensions of the card front, but large enough to cover the bottle cut-outs. Using double-sided tape I adhered the acetate to the back side of the card front and cherry print.

I cut two of each straws from red and white chevron striped paper and snipped each straw below the bend. I glued the straight straw pieces to the back side of the acetate and the bend straw parts to the front of the card front and cherry print to make the straws look like they were inside the bottles.

soda shaker-front CU

Normally I would have used craft foam to cut out the negative of the shaker, but I didn’t have any on hand. So, I cut out eight of each of the bottles from white cardstock, rough cut a ¼ inch frame around each piece and glued them together. Next, I aligned the frames to the acetate covered back of the card front and glued in place. Using foam tape, I filled in the space between the edge of the card front and the bottle frames. Let the glue dry for a few hours so the glitter and beads won’t stick to the edges of the bottle.

Soda Shaker -spine

Before fill the bottles, I used an anti-static pad to wipe down the acetate inside the bottles  Using my fingers and tweezers to fill the bottles with pinches of glitter and the three colors of seed beads, I was careful not to fill them too full. Next, I peeled back the foam tape backing papers, applied tiny bits of glue to the bottle frames and matched the cherry print card up to the bottle frames. A shaker card was born.

Soda Shaker - outside spine

I had cut the card base apart because the thickness of the shaker front would not have allowed the card to close properly. I used clear tape on the inside to tape the shaker front to the card back. Next, I cut a polka-dotted print paper to cover the inside card back and add sturdiness to it.  It was adhered with double-sided tape. Polka-dotted washi tape was used both on the outside spine of the card and on the inside of the card to frame the inside back and to cover unsightly edges. The finished card has the feel of a school composition book.

soda shaker-front CU

Using scrapes of red paper from an old Christmas envelop, I first stamped the bottle label sentiments with Versa Mark ink and the white heat embossed them. Next using the label dies in the Bottles and Bubbles die set, the labels were cut out. Glue was used to adhere the labels.

Soda Shaker - inside CU

With plenty of space inside the card to write a personal message this card is ready to be Happy Mail.

Supplies used:

Dies

Stamps

Papers

Inks and Embossing Powders

Miscellaneous