Stamping

Elephants Say Thank You

| ullycatdesigns

A friend sent me wonderful rubber stamp set of marching elephants. This is my thank you card using the vintage stamps.

I had some handmade artisan papers that complimented the elephants and I used the paper as a background for the card front and then fussy cut the flowers and leaves from the leftover sections to create the card back and inside accents.

The elephants were stamped on grey cardstock with black ink and colored with markers. Nuvo Vintage Drops were added for accents to the floral coverings of the elephants.

Five fancy border frames were die-cut from marigold cardstock and glued together to provide dimension to the card and lift the large elephant off the face of the card.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

  • Recollections – Fancy borders cutting dies

Stamping

  • Crafter’s Companion – A Taste of India by Sheena Douglass – Rubber Stamp set – Marching Elephants
  • Memento Fade-Resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Crayola blending markers

Foiling

Papers

  • Bazzill 8.5×11 inches cardstock – Tiara
  • Park Lane – 12 x12 inch Premium Handmade Artisan Paper
  • Scrap blue and marigold cardstock
  • Xcut – Xtras Adhesive Vellum Sheets – Blue
  • A7 white card base and envelope

Miscellaneous

Thankful Wreath

| ullycatdesigns

I like making Thanksgiving Day cards for my family to let them know how thankful and blessed I feel to have them in my life.

This card was inspired by one that Nicky Gilburt made in Die-cutting Essentials, issue 81 using a hexagon base. I used a 3 ¼ inch circle die-cut base since I don’t own any hexagon dies and followed Nicky’s general instructions cutting apart the foliage corner die-cuts.

I colored the die-cuts with Distress oxide inks using sponge ink blender tools and a cotton swab for the tin acorn caps.

The thankful sentiment was die-cut three times (two orange and one yellow that was inked brown) and glued together with the top layer slightly off to have an orange shadow. (I find that using a fine tipped glue bottle really makes gluing tiny die-cuts easy.)

The top layer of large leaves, pumpkins and acorns were adhered with a variety of thickness foam squares and glue dots. The entire wreath is attached to the 5 x4 ¼ inch cardbase with thick foam squares. For the final elements, I used Nuvo drops for the red berries.

Inside an old LDRS autumn sentiment stamp was inked onto autumn leaves insert paper from the Sweater Weather foiled collection, Papercraft Essentials, issue 202.

To hint at what is inside the burnt orange envelope, I stamped the flap with a sentiment from this August’s Simply Cards & Papercraft, issue 220 and the pumpkin and leaves are from last year’s Simply Cards & Papercraft, issue 208 all in a brown ink from Memento.

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

Dies:

  • Autumn Wishes die set from Die-cutting Essentials, issue 81, September 2021

Stamps & Inks

  • Autumn Blessings from Simply Cards & Papercraft, issue 220, August 2021
  • Autumn Days from Simply Cards & Papercraft, issue 208, August 2020
  • LDRS Creative – Clear Stamps – Happy Fall Sentiments
  • Memento – Fade-Resistant Dye Ink Pad – Rich Cocoa
  • Ranger – Distress Oxides – Barn Door, Ground Espresso, Mowed lawn, Ripe persimmon, Rusty Hinge

Papers

  • Yellow and Orange cardstock from my stash
  • Insert paper from Sweater Weather foiled collection, Papercraft Essentials, issue 202, August 2021
  • A2 burnt orange envelope from Taylored Expressions

Additional Supplies:

  • Nuvo Vintage Drops – Postbox Red

When Pigs Fly

| ullycatdesigns

In honor of all newly minted sixty-year-olds, this card is in tribute to you (whether you want to believe it or not.)

Flying Pig:  Bonnie Krebs has designed this delightful flying pig as one of Art Impressions Flutters cards. The set comes with dies to cut out the pig and the two wings as well as punching holes in the pull strip and cutting the slot for the pull arm. This pig and wings were stamped in permanent black ink and colored with watercolor pencils. The instructions on the packaging are good, but watching a video or two helps with the exact assembly using the tiny brads that are included in the stamp and die set and either twine or thread. The pull arm is a piece of heavy cardstock that is ¾ inch wide and at least 6 inches long. (You can trim the arm shorter once the card is assembled.)

Card base:  The foiled pink plaid card base is one from a boxed set of 50 cards and envelopes size A2. Once the pig was assembled onto its pull arm, a slot was cut using the slot die and the half circle finger hole was cut through the front and back of the card base. (I recommend laying-out and pencil marking where the inside insert papers will be and cutting the half circles on them, before you do the final assembly of the flying pig pull arm onto the card base.) The pig is adhered to the card front using tiny foam squares, once the pull arm is through the slot in the card base.

Front decorations – 60 and Pull Here:  The 60 was cut from a foiled chocolate box using dies designed to be birthday cake candles. The flame and stand were trimmed off the 6 and 0. Once the pull arm has been installed to the card base, trim it off to fit inside the card base and round the corners with a corner punch. Stamp or write “Pull” with a directional arrow. (The stamp used here was from Concord & 9th)

Inside:  With the flying pig mechanism installed, adhere the inside papers using double-side tape making sure to leave a gap for the pull arm to move through freely. Add the die-cut birthday sentiment using glue.

Envelope:  I stamped the back of the envelope with birthday cake stamp to set the stage for this milestone birthday card.

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

Supplies

Dies/Stamps

Ink

Paper

Miscellaneous

Crafty Friends

| ullycatdesigns

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 Tea-riffic Card

| ullycatdesigns

A lovely crafting friend gifted me the February 2021 Papercraft Society Box 17 by Olga Direktarenko from which I drew inspiration and supplies. Other inspiration for this card came from @Loomanic’s post on Craftword.com for the cabinet legs and from Hero Arts use of peek-a-boo doors in their September 2019 kit of the month.

Olga Direktarenko is known for designing dies and stamps under her Paper Discovery brand that allow you to create scenes from rooms to dioramas. Her love of tea, books and old furniture were her inspiration for this kit.

All the pieces for the cabinet were die cut from some heavy brown, wood grained cardstock which then was covered with ink to age it. The doors were then taped on using clear tape on the back side of the cabinet. A second large cabinet piece was cut without cutting any of the doors from white cardstock and glued to the back of the wood grained piece. With the doors taped open with removable tape, the sentiments from behind the doors were stamped in brown ink.

In order to achieve the 3-D look of the cabinet shelves having depth, the cabinet is raised on foam squares while the backs of the three shelves are adhered to the blue patterned paper with double sided tape. The legs were added after the cabinet was adhered to the card front. Tiny pewter colored stick-on pearls from the Papercraft Society kit were added as decorative knobs for the cabinet doors.

The dishes were die cut first and then stamped using a stamping platform and removeable taped doubled up on itself to hold the tiny dishes in place to be stamped. The dishes were then shaped using a ball tipped shaping tool (often used to shape flower petals) on the foam back of the stamping platform. Foam squares were used to adhere the dishes to the cupboard shelves.

As a finishing touch to the front of the card, a stamped and fussy cut “You’re TEA-rrific” sentiment was attached to the top with foam squares. The inside of the card is stamped in China blue “But first tea” with a tea set.

Stamped on the back flap of the envelope in China blue ink is the same tea set stamped inside the card.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks

Papers

Miscellaneous

One in a Melon

| ullycatdesigns

When you are caught eating a melon at a farm stand you know you are one in a melon!

This cute little card is made from an Art Impressions Tryfolds by Bonnie Krebs. The set has six stamps and two dies that cut the apertures or windows in the farm stand and fruit stand.

I stamped the images on white cardstock with a permanent black ink that won’t run when wet and colored with watercolor pencils. Next I fussy cut the images.

The card base is made from two pieces blue gingham cardstock (5 ½ inches x 4 ¼ inches) and a piece of green gingham cardstock cut 6 inches x 4 ¼ inches. The green piece was scored and fold at ¼ inch on each end to form two tabs to glue the two blue pieces to form the tri-fold card.

I positioned my stamped, colored and cut out images following the layout on the packaging to determine the positioning of the front image. I traced the inside of the opening onto the card front and used the accompanying die to die cut the hole. Next, I glued the image in place on the front. I did the same for the middle image on the second flap, positioning the image so it shows through the aperture cut in the first image and then die-cutting the aperture. The final image was positioned, traced and then glue in place on the central panel.

The “Happy Birthday” is die-cut from green cardstock and glued in place.

Stamped on the back flap of an A2 slim envelope from Taylored Expressions is the sentiment from the stamp set “You’re one in a Melon!” green ink.

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

If you enjoyed this tri-fold card, check out some of my other trifolds:

Shabby Chic Trifold Card

Festive Foliage and Hearts – Trifold card

Santa Vintage Trifold

Sleepytime Dreams

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks/Watercolors

Papers

Miscellaneous

Shabby Chic Trifold Card

| ullycatdesigns

How do you dress up an old stamp set? Add it to some distressed vintage-style floral papers and stamps and heat emboss the sentiment.

My creative mojo has been missing and to jump start it I tried stamping an older Art Impressions tri-fold stamp and die set and coloring it using watercolor pencils. Next, I fussy cut out the three images and went searching through my stash for some fun paper to make the card base from.

Because I had some mini slim envelopes in my stash, I made a 3 ¼ inch x 6-inch tri fold card from two pieces of heavy Dress My Craft cardstock that is printed only on one side. I cut one 3 ¼ inches x 12 inches piece of rose patterned card stock and a 3 ¼ inches x 6 ¼ inch piece of green leaves patterned card stock. The long rose piece I folded in half and the smaller leave piece I scored and fold ¼ inch in from one of the smaller sides. The ¼ inch tab was glued to the back of the fold rose piece to form a tri-fold card.

Because the inside of the card was plain white, I added pink vellum stripes to hide my seams inside and them covered the inside front and back panels with floral patterned paper from my stash which I believe was from Stampin’ Up.

I positioned my stamped, colored and cut out floral images following the layout on the packaging to determine the positioning of the front image. I traced the inside of the opening onto the card front and used the accompanying die to die cut the hole. Next, I glued the image in place on the front. I did the same for the middle image on the second flap, positioning the image so it shows through the aperture cut in the first image and then die-cutting the aperture. The final image was positioned, traced and then glue in place on the central panel.

Decorative patterned borders were stamped using several stamps from LeCrea Designs Lacy long stamp set. The “Happy Birthday” was gold heat embossed using a stamp from an older Apple Blossom stamp set.

Stamped on the back flap of a mini slim envelope from Taylored Expressions is the clover chain stamped in the same “Always Artichoke” green ink as the inside of the card.

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

If you enjoyed this tri-fold card, check out some of my other trifolds:

One In A Melon

Festive Foliage and Hearts – Trifold card

Santa Vintage Trifold

Sleepytime Dreams

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks/Embossing Powder/Watercolors

Papers

Miscellaneous

A Ship In -A Bottle Birthday

| ullycatdesigns

Inspired by an image of a ship in a bottle, I set out to create a schooner in a bottle birthday card for a retired Navy officer.

Bottle:  Because I didn’t have a bottle die large enough or in the shape I desired, I made a template from a 9 inches x 4 inches scrap piece of paper folded long-ways and drew a bottle and cut it out. (See Materials Used list to download a bottle template.) Next, I traced the bottle onto my navy-blue card base (9 inches x 8 inches folded to 4 inches by 9 inches.) In order for the inside paper to match the outside bottle cut-out, I positioned the inside paper (8 ¾ inches by 3 ¾ inches) and taped it to the front with low tack tape. Using a craft knife, I cut out the bottle through both layers of paper. I cut two sheets of acetate 8 ½ inches x 3 ¾ inches for the “glass” of the bottle and set aside until the assembly of the card.

Ship:  I made the schooner stamp into a digital stamp that I could flip into a mirror image and slightly enlarge the size to fill the bottle better. You could still stamp the ship and using a mirror stamping technique to make a smaller ship. (Here is a video demonstrating the mirror stamping.) Once I had my two images stamped onto vellum, I fussy cut them out and glued them together where the sails and flags matched up since I knew the glue would show through the vellum. I also stamped the ship and its mirror image onto white copier paper and watercolored the flags. The sails and flags were fussy cut and using my fingers I curled them. Using tiny pieces of foam squares behind the sails and glue on the flags, they were adhered to the front and back sides of the vellum ship. I cut a small stand from green scrap for the stand on which the ship rests in the bottle.

Assembly of Card:  The baker’s twine was taped to the back side at the neck of the battle. Using double sided-tape I adhered one sheet of acetate to the back or inside of the bottle cut panel. Next, I glued the ship to its stand and then glued the stand to the inside/backside of the bottle cut-out. Again using double-sided tape, I glued the last sheet of acetate over the other piece of acetate sandwiching the ship in between. Finally, I adhered the inside paper over the acetate using double-sided tape. The lower inside piece was adhered in the same manner. I drew the lip and bottom of the bottle on the acetate with a black gel pen.

Sentiments:  The foiled sentiment strip was one I had made during a batch foiling session using up scraps. It was die-cut into a doted ribbon. The inside stamp sentiment and two sea gulls were placed so that the ship hid all but the one gull when the card is closed. It was easy to get the position correct using a stamping platform. The final embellishment to the front of the card is a tiny handwritten tag that says “FOR YOU” with a twine bow tied to it. The tag is adhered with a foam square.

As is my style, I stamped the back of the envelope with a sentiment and two gulls flying to hint as to what is inside.

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

Materials Used:

bottle-template-1Download

Stamps

Ink/Watercolors

Papers

Dies/Foiling Plates

Miscellaneous

There’s Always Room for Cake

| ullycatdesigns

There is always room for indulgence on one’s birthday. This card is inspired by the Daisy Mae Designs bakery and sweet shops collection of stamps and stencils.

I created the gingham stenciled background with the striped stencil inked one way for the vertical stripes and then turned once to ink the horizontal stripes in coral ink. The doily is inked with the green pistachio through a stencil. The cake was stamped with a permanent black ink and then colored with watercolor pencils and mixed using a waterbrush.

Sentiments stamped on the front of the card come from the Daisy Mae stamp set while the inside sentiment is a Spellbinders’ foiling plate.

The envelope’s back flap was stamped using a mask to stamp just the fruit atop the cake and the spayed with gold mica mist.

Hope this card brings a smile to your face. 😊 Please like and leave a comment.

Supplies:

Stamps/Stencils

Inks/Watercolors

Papers

Foiling

Miscellaneous