Sun

RAINBOW connection pop-up birthday card

| ullycatdesigns

It’s Sneak Peek Week for Karen Burniston’s June 2025 release of ten new dies and five new clear stamps. For this rainbow connection slimline birthday card, I used several of the new sets including Arch Pop-Up, Leaping Animals and Rainbow Add-Ons die sets and Rainbow Greetings stamp set.

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

Cardbase:  An 8×8.75-inch rectangle of white cardstock was scored and folded into a side-fold 4×8.75 size slimline card.  Thin decorative papers were used to cover the cardbase. The inside panels were cut using the largest die from the Long Rectangles – Crosshatch die set. (See video above for details on how they were cut and attached.)

Arch Pop-Up:  Cut out the two large arch dies in the Arch Pop-Up from solid 65-80lb. cardstock. Assemble as shown in the video above, adding the rainbow strips which were cut using double-sided adhesive tape. Attach the pop-up rainbow arch as shown in the video.

Frogs:  Cut four green, leaping frogs from the Leaping Animals die sets. Cut three green, sitting frogs from the Bayou Animals die set. With a white gel pen and frog dies as stencils, add spots and mouths to frogs. Using the eyes die from either animal set, cut four sets of eyes from white and stencil the black pupil of the eye and add a white gel pen dot onto them.

Sentiments:  All the sentiments were stamped using the Rainbow Greetings stamp set with in black ink. “Sprinkling a little Rainbow magic your way” and “Happy Birthday” were cut out using the smallest fancy label die in the Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch die set. Use the largest cloud die in the Rainbow Add-Ons set to cut out “Hello there.”

Envelope:  The card fits into #10 business (4.25x 9-inches) size envelope stamped with “Wishing you sunshine and rainbows” the back flap.

Here is a great reel on singing the Rainbow Connection song with Kermit – https://www.facebook.com/reel/531484342305953

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Thank you for experiencing this blog post.

I hope this inspires you and makes you smile.

Please like and leave comments 😊

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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.

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Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Papers

  • Concord & 9th – 8.5×11-inch Solid 80 lb Cardstock – Poppy, Marmalade, Buttercup, Clover, Peacock, Eggplant, Spout, Oceanside
  • Spellbinders – 8.5×11-inch 80 lb Cardstock – White
  • The Paper Studio – 8.5×11-inch Single-Sided Patterned Paper – Random Dot – Mint & Robin’s Egg Blue
  • #10 Business Envelope

Ink

Adhesives

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Paper Trimmer
  • Bone Folder
  • Score Board
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Blocks used as paperweights
  • Scissors
  • Pencil
  • Paper Masking Tape

Going Wild for a Double Rainbow Birthday!

| ullycatdesigns

It’s Day One of Sneak Peek Week for Karen Burniston’s June 2025 release of ten new dies and five new clear stamps. For this double rainbow birthday card, I used several of the new sets including Arch Pop-Up and Rainbow Add-Ons die sets and Rainbow Greetings stamp set. This card was also made using Craft Roulette #270’s parameters of an A7 card, 1980s colors, interjection!!!, and include an arch.

Cardbase:  I used an A7 (5×7-inch) purchased kraft cardbase and matching envelope. The front panel is covered with a 4.5×6.5 sheet of decorative paper.

Arch Pop-Up:  Cut out the two large arch dies in the Arch Pop-Up from solid 65-80lb. cardstock. Assemble the arch by gluing the two halves together and then adding the rainbow strips which were cut using double-sided adhesive tape and the Rainbow Add-Ons die set. Make a second arch. Trim off the bottom tabs of the second rainbow and fold the feet of the arch to form tabs of a similar size to what was cut-off. Glue the largest arch into the card first and add the second rainbow checking for catchpoints. Decorate with the rainbows with the sun and clouds in the Rainbow Add-Ons.

Animals:  The animals come from the previously released the Monkey and Lion and the Safari Animals die sets.

Sentiments:  Other than the die-cut “Go Wild!” all the sentiments were stamped using the Rainbow Greetings stamp set in black ink on white cardstock. Inside the card, “Wishing you sunshine and rainbows” was cut out using the smallest fancy label die in the Rectangles and Labels – Crosshatch die set with the larger crosshatch fancy label being used for the personal message label. On the card front, “Happy Birthday” was cut out using the oval die in the Lorna Label Pop-Up die set.

Envelope:  The card fits into A7 (5×7-inches) size envelope with the back flap covered with decorative paper.

__________________________

Thank you for experiencing this blog post.

I hope this inspires you and makes you smile.

Please like and leave comments 😊

__________________________

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

  • Concord & 9th – 8.5×11-inch Solid 80 lb Cardstock – Poppy, Marmalade, Buttercup, Clover, Peacock, Eggplant, Spout, Oceanside
  • Spellbinders – 8.5×11-inch 80 lb Cardstock – White
  • The Paper Studio – 12×12-inch Single-Sided Patterned Paper – B/W Mirrored Polka – Bright Yellow
  • A7 Cardbase & Envelope – Kraft

Ink

  • Memento – Fade Resistant Dye ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Pigma – Mircon 03 Fine Tip Pen – Black
  • Stampin’ Up – Stampin’ Write Dual Tipped Marker – Chocolate Chip

Adhesives

Tools

  • Die Cutting Machine
  • Paper Trimmer
  • Bone Folder
  • Score Board
  • Stamping Platform
  • LDRS – Stampendable Stamping Tool
  • Stamping Blocks used as paperweights
  • Scissors
  • Pencil
  • Paper Masking Tape

Blue Nose, the Pink Alligator

| ullycatdesigns

As young children my father would tell my siblings and I, stories about Blue Nose the pink alligator. They generally began with “Have you ever seen a pink alligator with a blue nose?” We would discuss how an alligator could live in the American Midwest where there is snow and ice as well as hot humid summers and how the alligator came to be pink and received his blue nose.  This card tells that story.

I used Karen Burniston’s Fancy Label Accordion die set for the card base and the alligator from her Bayou Animals set as well as other elements from a mixture of her designs.

The alligator is ingeniously designed using three pieces – the body, the tummy pad and the teeth/eyes piece. I colored the eye on the teeth piece while still in the dies with a fine-tipped black marker. Then gluing the teeth onto the back of the alligator head and slightly opening the teeth. To get the half asleep red sunburnt alligator, I used the oval that came out of the eye and cut it in half and glued it over the eyes. I glued the tummy pad in place, but it is tightly snug between the arms even without glue.

For the sunbathing scene, I used striped paper cut into a rectangle and then fringed the short edges to make it look like a beach towel. The sun is from the Tropical Scene set.

For swimming in a snowy frozen river, I only used the head of the alligator with large spec glitter paper for the water and white glitter paper snowflakes cut with dies from the Sleigh and Winter Charms sets. The background is a coated blue glitter cardstock. The decorative frame is from a frame set KB had previously released with another company.

The last panel with Blue Nose, the pink alligator, used the waste from the decorative Fancy Flourish frame. (I save the tiny swirls to add to shaker element mixes for variety.) The sky is inked with a tiny make-up brush and blue ink.

The back panels explain the story and use scraps from the front. Stitch marks decorate the back frames and are made using the die as a stencil with a white gel pen.

Because of its bulk, the card can be mailed in an A7 envelope.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Echo Park Paper Co. – 6×6 Paper Pad Double-sided Papers – Paradise Beach by Michelle Coleman
  • Recollections – 12×12 glitter cardstock -deep blue
  • Heavy teal blue cardstock
  • Orange, yellow, and white cardstock scraps
  • White litter card scrap
  • Coated baby blue glitter cardstock

Ink

Miscellaneous

HELLO Sunshine Flip

| ullycatdesigns

Everyone needs sunshine and the feeling that someone is thinking of them. This flippy flappy card uses dies by Lawn Fawn for the pop-up mechanism as well as the sunshine motifs.

When I began this card, I made a prototype card first to figure out how the mechanism worked.  I watched an assembly video and still got it wrong by putting assembling from the front instead of the back. (See photo below.) The pop-up ended up working, but the flap was too long. (I recommend watching the assembly video several times or assemble the mechanism going step by step with video.)

For my actual card I changed up some of the design to make the sunshine really pop. Adding some ink to the background die cut helps emphasize the sun rays . The sun frame is cut from yellow, and the back sun outline is cut from orange with its center circle taped into the hole in the inked background.

The “Hello Sunshine” sentiment is cut twice from a darker orange cardstock to add some dimension. A fine tipped glue bottle makes gluing the fine lines of the letters easy.

The pop-up sun face is adhered to a strip cut from some clear plastic packaging.

To give the card recipient a hint at what is inside the envelope, I stamped the back of the envelope with a background sun burst pattern stamp from Hero Arts using a brown ink onto an orange envelope.

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

Dies:

Stamps

Inks

  • Ranger – Distress Ink – Fossilized Amber
  • Memento – Fade-resistant Dye Ink – Rich Cocoa

Papers

  • Cardstock in various shades of yellow and orange
  • Heavy weight white cardstock
  • Orange A2 invitation envelope – Staples -Brights

Additional Supplies:

Sunshine Tower

| ullycatdesigns

Sunshine on a dreary dull day is the theme of this card meant to brighten someone’s mood.

I had gotten Sam Calcott’s Terrific Tower dies set and some new Buttons Galore shaker elements and know I wanted to combine them into one card.

(There isn’t a good assembly video for the Terrific Towers die set but there is a new release video that will give you some ideas how to make the tower card.)

Back side of tower card with space for a personal message.
Close-up of shaker

Using the Pink Fresh Studio slimline circle apertures dies with the My Favorite Things 2-inch circle shaker pouches works well. The only thing I had to do was to snip in between each scallop to allow the pouch to fit through. I cut the circles apart and rounded the corners. Had to use some teal mirror card to suggest water or sky. After gluing the teal mirror card and lemon-yellow layer together, I glued the shaker pouches to the lemon-yellow layer, filled the pouches and then glued the pale-yellow backing to each. (Remember to use an antic static pad to wipe the inside of pouch to cut down on the static cling of sequins to the plastic.)

The Towers die set comes with all the rectangular matting layer panels. The base card is cut in a grapefruit orange and the panels are in a pale yellow and a lemon yellow.

The stars/suns are made from the Made to Surprise Excellent Edges die set by cutting the bottom star from orange and the top from pale yellow. The tiny 3D red and pink flowers and greenery are decorative elements I had left over from another project and are cut from the Spellbinders 3D Fun Time Cruiser die set.

Finishing touches are the stamping of the sentiment and the back-envelope flap from the What the Doodle Sun stamp set.

Supplies:

Stamps

Dies/Punches

Papers

Inks

Miscellaneous