Tonic Studios

Celebrate a Poppin’ 2023!

| ullycatdesigns

It is the Karen Burniston Design Challenge for January 2023 featuring pop-ups using a rubber band!

For this New Year’s card, I featured Karen Burniston’s Surprise Cube Pop-Up in a slimline card.

For the pop-up cubes I watched the assembly video before starting. Because I used specialty printed cardstock and mirror cardstock all of which have slick finishes, I had to glue, clamp, wait for glue to dry before moving onto the next step. Double-sided tape ended up working better on these cardstocks. I decorated the sides while the main pieces were still flat.

I cut two sets of the numbers for “2023” from a scrap of matte gold paper. These were glued on the top and sides of the cubes once I had glued the cubes to the card base.

The card base is custom made from two pieces of the patterned specialty cardstock. The front piece is 4 x 8 3/4 inches while the back piece is 6 x 8 3/4 inches. The back piece is scored at 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch, 5 1/4 inches and 5 1/2 inches.

The front piece is glued under the back’s tab. When closed, the back piece’s front tab wraps over the front’s bottom edge. Two bands hold the card shut. Instructions to slide the bands off are on the back of the bands.

“Celebrate” is the front sentiment that hints at what’s to come when the card is opened. I used the largest of all the “Happy”s in Karen Burniston’s dies. It comes from the Happy Birthday die set. The champagne bottle comes from the Wine Charms set while the clicking champagne glasses are from the Wedding Charms set. The bubbly effects of the popping cork and from the glasses were made with a gold gel pen. Some holographic strands of tinsel finish off the decorations inside.

There is space behind the cubes to write a personal message and then place the loose tinsel strands over it.

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

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Hunkydory  – A4 size – Adorable Scorable Pattern Pack – Heavy Cardstock- Festive Foils
  • Tonic Studios – 8.5’x11” Craft Perfect Mirror Cardstock – Seafoam Green
  • Joy Craft – Mirror Cardstock – Dark Green
  • Yellow Cardstock
  • Matte Gold Paper Scrap

Miscellaneous

Holly Jolly Santa Greetings

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What a jolly feeling the “Ho Ho Ho” of Santa brings to anyone who hears or sees it. This 3D snow globe designed by Becca Feeken for Spellbinders makes you hear the jolly old elf.

This was my first time using these die sets. I focused on using just four colors of red, green, white and gold and mostly mirror or foiled cardstock.

My Santa and tree are based off of the picture on the packaging using Nuvo Drops instead of jewels. I die cut several layers of the Santa and tree using up scraps to fussy cut the various pieces of the scene which are glued onto a red base. The belt and boots are colored with a fined-tipped black permanent marker. The belt buckle is a freehanded square of gold paper.

The holly leaves are fussy cut and glued onto the sentiment and front layers. The red berries are red glitter glue. I added a thin green stripe at the bottom of the front layer for interest.

As is my style, I stamped the back of the envelope with hints of what’s inside using red and green ink and Christmas sentiment stamps from Paper Discovery. I used a new stamping tool with my stamping platform for an even and easy stamped image. I highly recommend the Stampendable Stamping Tool.

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

Dies:

Stamps & Ink

Papers

Additional Supplies Used:

A Tiger Thank You

| ullycatdesigns

What kind of a thank you card do you make for someone who has sent an amazing gift and loves tigers? You make them a four-panel card that can act as a candle shade or screen.

Tonic Studios Tropical Rainforest silhouette die set was a perfect match for the card that cats as something more than a card. I had seen on Pinterest a lantern made from some of the Tonic Studios other forest silhouette dies sets and knew from my experience of making a house luminary Christmas card, that this die set would be easy to make a four-panel card/candle shade.

I cut four vellum panels and then using three shades of green cardstock and a sheet of brown, I cut the silhouette frames using the lightest shades for the front panels and the darkest as the panels at the back. I cut the panel with the tiger and toucan bird from white scrap cardstock and colored with markers. Next, I fussy cut them and glued in place on their panel. I also cut and colored a butterfly from white cardstock scrap.

The vellum panels were laid out in a row and taped together using clear removable tape on the back side of the vellum. Next the silhouette panels were glued on to the vellum.

As a finishing touch, I die cut the words “Thank You” to glue to card. Next, I pieced together from words in the same Moonstone word die set the name of the recipient. The card fits into a mini slim envelope.

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

If you enjoyed this Luminary card, check out some of my other luminaria:

The First Sign of Spring – Crocus Tealight

Victorian Trim House Luminaria

Holiday House Luminaria

House Luminary

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

Inks

Miscellaneous

House Luminary

| ullycatdesigns

Building off of the red four-square house, this four-panel card becomes a wrap-around screen for a battery powered candle. This is the seventh 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 four times and glued together. The snowy pieces are cut from glitter paper.

Papers Used: The house is cut from a dark red cardstock with the windows and porch posts cut from cream. Note that two matting layers to each house panel – one pale yellow and one on heavy weight white cardstock. The red, cream and pale yellow come from monotone color packs of cardstock by Recollections.

Once again, peach organza ribbon to create some sparkly interest at the windows of the house. I masked off the front door with sticky notes and used Walnut Stain Distress ink to darken the door and frame. A wreath cut with a Tonic Studios die set to complete the door. (See Day 2 for details.)

Once the four houses were assembled, I glued together the pale yellow and white matting layers and then used the solid house die to trace where the windows needed to be cut out on to the pale yellow with a pencil. Because the tracing was inside the window, I had to cut 1/8 inch away from the outer edge of the pencil lines to make the window opening as large or slightly larger than the die cut window openings. I used a metal ruler and a craft knife to do this.

Once all the window openings were cut, I could glue the house fronts on to their matting layer panels. Lining the four completed panels up, I then used clear tape to hinge the panels together.

The panels can accordion fold to fit in an A2 envelope which I stamped with a greeting since the card has no greeting on it. I expect this will be a hand delivered card with a boxed candle.

Free PDF of display instructions.

house-luminariaDownload

See more house luminaria:

Victorian Trim House Luminaria

Holiday House Luminaria

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

An Old-Time Christmas Parlor

2019 – 12 Days of Christmas Trees

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

  • Kaisercraft – Clear Stamps – Sentiments -Traditional – CS313

Paper

Ink

Miscellaneous

Santa Delivers to the Tropics

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How does Santa deliver presents to places where there is no snow for his sleigh? I think he goes in his trusted vintage white convertible with Rudolph to those tropical places. This is the sixth house card in my series of “A Week of Christmas Houses” using Poppy Stamps 2020 Winter House Pop-Up Easel die set.

This double easel card is designed as a slimline card to fit a #10 envelope. The car and Santa are part of the Spellbinders’ Sunday Drive collection.

I found both the Poppy Stamps and Spellbinders sets easy to use following the images on the packaging but recommend having a pair of tweezers handy to glue and place the tiny details. I also recommend having a small container or bag to put your die cut pieces into as you cut them out. They are quite easy to lose on your workspace or get dropped onto the floor.

To make sure the Fired Brick Distress ink I used under the Ho Ho Ho did not bleed onto the white car, I clear heat embossed the piece which adds some texture and shine to the license plate.

Because both die sets for this card are designed to represent snow and cold weather, I had to modify the die cut pieces. For Santa, I cut the sleeve off his shirt and used colored papers to have him wearing a more causal tropical shirt and created his arm by tracing around the outside of the skeleton’s arm in another add-on set for the Sunday Drive collection. On the house I trimmed off any of the snow on rooflines and used the poinsettia flowers from the Sunday Drive collection to plant in front of the house. To fit in a #10 envelope the tiny tips of the roof edge had to be trimmed off the card base.

Once again, I used peach organza ribbon to create some interest at the windows of the house. The door and roofs are inked dark with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. The door wreath is from the Tonic Studios set and the palm tree towering over the house is from a Karen Burniston pop-up die set. Nuvo drops were used for the doorknob and flower centers.

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.

Finished off the card by stamping its envelope with some hints as to what’s inside using a “Magical Christmas Wishes” sentiment in dark green ink.

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

Other Sunday Drive cards:

Sunday Drive Celebration

A Snowy Sunday Drive with Santa

Santa Bauble

Santa Delivers to the Tropics

Being Spooky

Driving into a Spooky Sunset

The Best is Yet to Come

Hoppy Spring!

SUPPLIES:

Dies

Stamps

Papers

Ink/Embossing Powder

Miscellaneous

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