Interactive Money Holder Halloween Cards

These two cards are for a 12-year-old girl and her 14-year-old brother. The card sender requested that they be money holders as well as interactive Halloween cards.

Both cards are variations of previous Halloween cards I’ve done this year, but with money holders. They also show how adding a second Karen Burniston pop-up mechanism and reversing the direction of it can really make a card jump for joy or reveal hidden treasure.

The original card called Witchy Shoes and this card are made with dies and papers from Queen & Co. Halloween collections – Fright Fest (shoes, pumpkin & papers) and Witch Hat die.

The money holder is an orange jack-o-lantern Trick or Treat pail intended as a shaker, but I taped the pumpkin frame to the center cutout and used the matching foam frame behind the jack-o-lantern, cutting off the top bar, so rolled paper money could be placed in it.

I added two pop-up mechanisms by Karen Burniston from her Spinner Square Pop-ups die set to make the legs move.(Assembly video). I reversed the direction of one of the mechanisms to make them move away from each other.

Envelope back

The envelope uses image stamps by Tim Holtz and sentiment stamps From Queen & Co.

Card front and front of envelope

For the Open If You Dare card I based it off the card Do What Brings You Joy using two of the pop-up mechanisms from the Katherine Label Pop-Up die set by Karen Burniston (assembly video). I reversed the direction of one of the mechanisms to make them move away from each other.

The ghosts and spiderwebs are from the Queen & Co Halloween Foundation Dies and the Paper Studio checkerboard brown craft paper has been in my stash for a while.

The Trick or Treat bag is a rectangle that was accordion folded at the sides and the bottom edge folded up into a tab. The edge of the bag was cut with pinking shears and then the bag was stamped in black using a stamp by Tim Holtz.

Card back

All other stamps used on the card are from the Queen & Co Fright Fest collection.

Envelope back

The envelope uses image stamps by Tim Holtz and sentiment stamps From Queen & Co. and Peebles.

If you enjoyed these cards, check out other creative cards on the Facebook page Karen Burniston Pop-Up Peeps.

A Silent Night in the Village

A cold winter’s night looking out from a window safe and warm onto a sleepy village is the scene this card suggests with hints of happy Christmas memories and the main reason for looking forward to Christmas eve.

The card is a happy mix of papercrafting products from both the USA and UK. The decorative papers and Bethlehem stamps are from Hunkydory. (Christmas papers from Hunkydory sell-out quickly, so I purchase them when I first see them generally on Craftstash as they have the best shipping rates from the UK to the USA.) The window frame is a cut and embossing folder from Memory Box. (I fussy cut two of these window frames and glued together for stability. After cutting out the basic window opening from the patterned paper.) My village is made from the hero Arts Tri-fold Edge Village dies and colored with watercolor pencils. At the top of the window is a wreath cut from thick packaging cardboard using an older Lawn Fawn mini wreath die set. The village and patterned paper are layered with foam tape.

For sentiments on this card I heat embossed “Silent Night” from the Bethlehem stamp set onto vellum using my favorite gold embossing powder. Inside the card is a Christmas tree shaped sentiment by Tim Holtz from Stampers Anonymous. The card back features the Bethlehem stamp in Crumb Cake ink that is similar to gold.

The envelope flap is stamped with one of my favorite round Christmas stamps from the Love Cardmaking magazine in a dark green ink mimicking the wreath on the card.

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

Dies & Embossing Folder:

Stamps, Ink, Embossing Powder

Papers

  • Park Lane A7 card base and envelope
  • Hunkydory – Duo Designs Paper Pad 8×8 – All Wrapped up & Festive Foil
  • Hunkydory – Adorable Scorable pattern Pack – Snowflakes Splendour
  • White card stock
  • Clear vellum

Additional Supplies:

  • Nuvo Watercolour Pencils
  • Waterbrush
  • Foam tape

Naughty or Nice?

What pops down a chimney and out a fireplace? Santa Kitten!

These cute little kittens jumped out at me while in a Tuesday Morning store. They are on cellophane treat bags. I realized that they were the correct size for one of Karen Burniston’s interactive dies – the Pop ‘n Swap.

While I would classify this card as a prototype, what I wanted to share is to show how you can make a shallow box like structure to create a fireplace over the pop ’n swap mechanism. Watch Karen Burniston’s assembly video to learn how to put together this mechanism.

For this slimline card, I cut a piece of heavy black cardstock 8 ½ x 8 inches and scored at 4 inches and folded in half to create the card base. (The card needs to be at least 4 inches wide since the mechanism folded flat is 4 inches wide.) Next, I cut from the front top of the card base a rectangle 2 ½ x 4 inches to allow the Santa kitten to show over the chimney top.

The inside shallow box is a 5 3/4 inches tall by 4 7/8 inches wide rectangle of red cardstock. I scored at ¼ inch, 1 inch and 4 inches. (Because the mechanism is ¾ inches tall, the box side is ¾ inches deep.) All the folds are mountain folds. The narrow tab goes towards the right edge of the card while the wide tab goes towards the inside fold.  I glued my mechanism in first, and then using removable tape, I played with the positioning of the box and marked with pencil its placement before removing the box. I cut the widow to show the kitten inside the fireplace, by laying the fireplace frame over the mechanism and seeing where the kitten would best show. Next, I placed  a loop of removable tape on the fireplace and positioned the box back into place and got the fireplace to stick to the inside of the box. With the fireplace stuck I removed the box and traced the opening of the fireplace onto the back of the box. With a metal ruler and craft knife, I cut the opening slightly larger than the pencil marks. Now the box is ready to be permanently glued in place. Glue the kittens in place next on the mechanism arms, cutting any corners that show beyond the kittens.

For decorating of the fireplace and mantel refer to my An Old-Time Christmas post. The brick is stenciled on the chimney panel before cutting it for the front. The fireplace was stenciled once the opening was cut for the fireplace, but before the box was glued permanently in place.

I tried a new-to-me product from Cosmic Shimmer called Fluffy Stuff. It is a thick paint-like substance that you can add dimension with for snow. You use a heat gun to get it to bubble up. I tried adding it to the front of the card after I assembled the card and in the heating of the card, I ended up heating the cellophane of the top kitten which shrunk a little. My recommendation is to add the Fluffy Stuff to your front panel before it is glued on to the card so that you can heat it and left it dry for 24 hours before gluing in place. (Here is a video that shows Fluffy Stuff being demonstrated on the Beebaab Youtube channel.)

If you have read this far, I’ll let you in on a secret. There is a free down of the “Naughty or Nice” sentiment in the supplies list.

Hope this card makes you smile.

SUPPLIES

Dies

Stamps/Stencils

Inks/Colors

Paper

Miscellaneous

© Sue Small-Kreider 2020

Bounty of the Season

“May the bounty of the season fill your heart and home” is the message of this layered Thanksgiving card. It uses the October 2020 Large Die of the Month by Spellbinders as well as a variety of other brands’ elements to make a 6 ½ x 5 inches card with matching envelope.

I started by using an older Tim Holtz brick stencil with his fired brick Distress Ink on a 6 x 4 ½ inches brick red cardstock. I went through my paper scrap bins for the paper that I cut the rest of the scene’s elements, much of it coming from junk mail advertisements and envelopes. The brass letter slot and doorknob where from a candy box.

The window was cut twice from white and black cardstock and pieced together. All the white elements were cut from shiny coated packaging. Several years ago, I employed a tiny Fiskars oak leaf punch to cut the colorful leaves from junk mail. The leaves were used to make the door wreath which uses the wreath from the die set as a base. The welcome mat is cut from a brown craft paper.

By laying out the doorway pieces on the stenciled red panel I knew where to glue the bottom step piece and then the left column, red door and right column followed by the top piece. (I recommend watching the assembly video to understand how the pieces all go together.) A sticky tip tool is especially useful in assembling this doorway scene’s tiny pieces.

After the glue on the front panel was dry, I took a soft glue eraser to the white sections to erase the glue smudges.

I stamped the inside sentiment using paper masks (from sticky note paper) to allow only the intended sections to be stamped using three colors. The order of stamping was light to darkest ink – orange, green, brown. I placed a fussy-cut mask of the pumpkin after the orange layer was stamped which is hard to see in the photos showing what I masked for each stamping layer. Before I stamped the sentiment stamp in brown, I removed the pumpkin vine stamp from the stamping platform.

As is my style, I like to stamp the envelope flap with a hint of what’s inside.

SUPPLIES

Dies/Punches

Stamps/Stencils

Ink

Paper

Miscellaneous