One Christmas I got to experience Christmas in San Francisco with its hillside houses. Another Christmas I was driving through up-state New York on snowy streets where the houses are all on hillsides. This card evokes these memories for me.
It took several tries experimenting with the three dies in this Hero Arts die set. I finally figured out the positioning on an 11-inches by 5 3/8 inches card. The card is folded at 3 5/8 inches and 7 5/16 inches. I used a bone folder to burnish my folds.
The card sat on my desk for a few weeks until I found the right sentiment stamps. When my copy of Creative Stamping, issue 101 arrived with Lou Collins’ Text{ures} brand Seasonal Sentiments stamps, I knew they would be perfect when heat embossed in gold on the all-white card.
I remembered to wipe the card with an anti-static bag the first time I stamped and heat embossed the card, but I forgot to wipe the last panel before I stamped and there are a few tiny stray gold specks. (Moral of the story – always wipe the space that you will be applying embossing powder to before you stamp.)
To finish this clean and simple card, I chose a cream A2 size envelope and stamped the flap with the words “Happy Wishes” and heat embossed in gold. The stamps are from the same stamp set as the card.
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Dies
Hero Arts – Fancy Dies – Tri-fold Edge, Village
Stamps
Text{ures} by Lou Collins – Seasonal Sentiments from Creative Stamping, issue 101, November 2021
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.
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Staying off Santa’s naughty list can be a challenge sometimes. This fun shutter card featuring a retro Santa die-cut and papers is sure to bring back childhood memories of the holidays.
Based on a card in the Die-cutting Essentials, issue 82, by Sharon-Elaine Jones, the card uses the free dies and printable papers and sentiments from the magazine. I had to convert the template from 20cm x 30cm to fit an 8 ½ inches x 11 inches card base. It took me several tries to get the correct measurements and folds, but in the end I got there. (See template).
You will need to cut:
One rectangle from white cardstock 8 ½ inches x 3 ¾ inches for the card back
Six 1 ¾ inch squares from red cardstock
Two rectangles 1 ¾ inches x 1 3/8 inches from red cardstock
Two rectangles 3 3/8 inches x 4 ¼ inches from red cardstock
One rectangle 3 ½ inches x 4 ¼ inches from green cardstock
Two rectangles 3 inches x 1 ¾ inches from green cardstock
Two rectangles 2 ¾ inches x 1 ½ inches from white cardstock
One rectangle 3 1/3 inches x 4 inches from white cardstock (to be embossed)
One rectangle 3 ¼ inches x 4 inches from patterned paper
Two rectangle 1 1/3 inches x 1 1/2 inches from patterned paper
Six 1 ½ inch squares from patterned paper
Die-cut:
Six of the holly die from white cardstock
One of the Santa outline from white cardstock
One hat from white cardstock (Fussy cut just the fir trim and ball to be glued on to red hat.)
One beard, mustache and eyebrows from white cardstock
One hat from red cardstock
One of face, nose and mouth from pink cardstock (Using a watercolour pencil and water brush, color the cheeks and mouth pieces rosy pink. Then using a fine-tipped pencil or maker, highlight the eyes.)
Print and fussy cut from sentiments:
One oval sentiment topper
One rectangular Santa’s naughty list sentiment
To emboss the background of the Santa panel, lightly mist the white card stock (3 1/3 x 4 inches) with water before placing in embossing folder. This will allow the paper fibers to bend in the embossing folder rather than break and tear. Set emboss piece aside to dry before gluing onto red matting piece (1 3/8 x 1 ¾ inches).
Assembling Santa: Position the face piece on the Santa outline backing piece with the bread and hat over it. Mark position of face with pencil. Glue eyebrows on to face in indentations. Glue white fur pieces to red hat. Attach nose on top of mustache and mouth under it. Adhere face on to backing using pencil markings. Glue beard onto backing and just up to face. Attach hat over face matching it up with same shape on backing. Glue on mustache with nose and mouth attached. Glue assembled Santa onto embossed panel that was already glued to red mat.
Faux Embossing of Holly Panels: Glue three of the holly die cuts and three of the berries on to one of the white rectangles (2 ¾ x 1 ½ inches). Adhere white panel onto a green rectangle mat (3 x 1 ¾ inches). Repeat with another three holly die-cuts, white rectangle and green mat.
Other Panels: Glue the six square pattern papers on to six red square mats. Glue the two small pattern paper rectangles onto the two small red rectangle mats. Glue the large patterned paper rectangle to the large green mat and then glue the Santa’s naughty list sentiment onto the center of the patterned paper.
To Assemble Card: Take white card base that has been cut, scored and folded into shutter card and open-out flat. Glue red squares and rectangles in the areas shown in photo. The large rectangle for the card front will have its topper sentiment glued on after the squares have been glued down. Adhere the green rectangles into the appropriate spaces in the center of card base. Fold-up and glue large white rectangle piece to back of card. This back piece will be where you can write a personal message as well as helping stablish the card when opened and set on display.
Envelope: The card folds to fit inside a #10 business size envelope. To hint at what is inside the envelope, I stamped the flap with a sentiment “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” and below it a Santa’s sleigh with reindeer.
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Dies & Embossing Folder:
Retro Santa from Die-cutting Essentials, issue 82, October 2021
Cut & Emboss Baubles from Papercraft Essentials, issue 192, November 2020
All is calm, all is bright until you shake-up the snow globe. This traditional style snow globe easel card is made with PoppyStamps/Memory Box die set with the sentiment coming from a Tonic Studios die.
This was my first go at using these dies, so I followed the package example for the assembly and easel stopper (three holly berries placed on top of tiny foam circles with holly leaves cut from thin paper.) My green base card stock was lightweight, so I double cut the base and glued together before burnishing the fold lines.
The background white circle was ink blended use a sky-blue ink and a large blending brush. Next, I spritzed with circle once with a white ink spray. The snowy ground is a specialty handmade paper I’ve had for a while. For the cabin, I used a yellow scrap for the house outline/windows. Its roof is more of the specialty textured paper. I like the variety of fir and hardwood trees in this set which can easily be cut from various shades of green and brown scraps. The scene was laid-out and then glued to together before spraying the whole scene with white ink spray a few times.
For the woodgrain globe base, I used some heat embossed stamped woodgrain paper I had made for another project. (Click here to learn more about the paper.) I cut two of the thin trim piece from gold foil cardstock and trimmed one piece to fit the top of the woodgrain base.
To assemble the snow globe, there is a white globe outline die-cut that the assembled globe is glued onto and then the woodgrain base followed by the two gold trim pieces.
The sentiment was cut three times using the Tonic Studios die. The base layer is gold foil while the top layer is a thick red cardstock that was from some packaging that I had saved. I cut the tiny green holly leaves from a green paper.
Foam circles topped with the holly berries are used as the easel stop on the bottom card base with the holly leaves cut from thin dark green paper.
A personalized message can be written inside the card base. The card fits inside an A2 envelope (4 3/8 x 5 3/4 inches.) with its back flap stamped with stamps from the Winter Stags set by Stampendous! in a dark green ink.
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Can you smell the fresh baked gingerbread straight from the oven? This card is made for a child’s Christmas and depicts a gingerbread house complete with white sugar icing, cinnamon drops, peppermint drops and candy canes.
This was my first attempt making Karen Burniston’s Tiny House Pop-Up and I made some mistakes that created a catch point on a roof corner. (I highly recommend watching the assembly video to avoid some of my mistakes such as making the front door of the house on the end with the bottom attachment flaps and gluing the roof unevenly on top of the house.)
Overall, the Gingerbread Tiny House Add-ons set is easy to use with the Tiny House set. The cane canes and peppermint drops are tiny and may require tweezers to assemble. (I added Glossy Accents to the tops of the candy canes and peppermint drops to give them a shiny coating.) There are other decorative die pieces for gum drops and tiny dots in the set, but I opted to use some Nellie’s Effect Snow media for dimensional icing and Nuvo Drops for red cinnamon drops. (The Effect Snow made the roof curl up some creating more of a catchpoint on the roof corner.)
The card base is an A2 size card (5 ½ x 4 ¼ inches) made of heavy white cardstock and covered with patterned papers for smooth surfaces for the house to slide over. The sweets decorations are placed so that they don’t hinder the house mechanism opening.
Merry Christmas has a shadow die cut background of patterned paper and all the sentiments are cut from red paper so there are less chances of creating catchpoints. (I used some fancy nested label dies to create areas for a personal message.)
As is my style, I stamped the back of the envelope with hints of what’s inside using two colors of ink and a gingerbread house stamp set from Hero Arts.
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Other cards that use the Tiny House Pop-up die Set
What North American children hasn’t hoped for a school closing day due to a snowstorm. This is a card celebrating a snowy day in lighthearted pastels. Karen Burniston dies are used for the card.
To make this A2 size card, cut a rectangle 4 ¼ x 11 inches of pink heavy cardstock and fold in in the middle to make a 4 ½ inches tall by 5 ½ inches wide card base. Cut four decorative paper panels at 4 x 5 ¼ inches. Adhere these panels to front, back and insides of the card base.
It is easiest to die cut all the pieces you will need to make both the inside and outside snowmen at the same time so that they are similar in colors and papers used. Also cut three circles or other label shapes on which to mount your sentiments. (For the personalized message circle, I added a smaller white circle.) Think about using contrasting colors for your words and their backgrounds. (I used blue to make the mostly white with snowflake paper I used for the words standout.)
After watching the assembly video on the inside snowman assemble as directed. Once the snowman is adhered to the card base, you can begin to decorate the card. (I used a sled die-cut from Memory Box to add to the snow time activities.) Remember to balance out the position of decorations from one side of the card to the other. There are two different snowflakes in the two snowmen die sets by Karen Burniston. They make wonderful filler decorations for the card.
Because I could not make up my mind on which stamp to use on the back of the envelope, I stamped two envelopes with hints as to the card’s theme. The word cloud is from Stampendous while the snowman is from Art Impressions.
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Cards for tiered birthdays (as in 29 again and again) can be fun to make when you add in a pop-up element like a third tiny cupcake.
This card was inspired by the Karen Burniston Mission Poppable for August 2021 to use her Parcel Pop-Up die set. In addition to that die set, I used her Cupcake Pop-Up, the sentiments of “You’re Sweet” and “Happy Birthday,” and the candle from the Cake Pop-Up.
The double side paper is from Echo Park which is an older set designed by Lori Whitlock called Happiness is Homemade. Because the heavy cardstock is double-sided, it cut down on heavy layers of decorative papers.
I assembled the parcel pop-up as shown in Karen’s assembly video But I did not put on the decorative square front panel or flap. I also used a longer strip as the pop-up arm so that it would be tall enough to be seen behind the cupcake pop-up which was cut from a scrap piece of card stock and cut with tabs at the top and bottom to attached to card base and the parcel mechanism front.
The sentiments are cut once from pink glitter cardstock and once from glossy white paper (backside of some packaging). The white is just slightly seen so that the red on red stands out on the “You’re Sweet.” I used a topper from the paper set that had an oval design and the used an oval die to cut it out to frame the cupcake.
Because the card is a slimline size card to fit in a No. 10 business envelope, I needed a large white paper doily to fill the bottom half of the card and allow for a space to write a personal message.
The back of the envelope is stamped with a watermelon colored ink using a cupcake and “Made with love” stamps from Simply Made Crafts.
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Hello, it’s Sue of the Dies R Us Design Team and today we are making a summer pop-up card for a vegetable gardener using Karen Burniston dies.
The chair die just fits in a 3 ½ inch x 6-inch mini slimline card. I started by cutting a 3 ½ inch by 11-inch piece of lightweight white card stock and folded it in half.
Next, I cut piece of patterned background paper slightly larger than 3 ½ inch by 5 ½ inch and marked with a pencil where the chair arms connect with the card back on the patterned paper and cut slits so that the printed paper could be slid into place behind the chair. Using the same technique, I cut a piece of green grassy card stock 3 ½ inch by 6-inch for the ground, cutting slots for the chair feet. Glue both decorative papers to card base.
Cut chair, arms and seat from woodgrain paper. (I made my own woodgrain paper using a woodgrain stamp that I heat embossed with watermark ink and clear embossing powder.)
Fold woodgrain chair folds as shown on packaging. Glue wood grain chair to patterned paper chair matching up the seat, back, arms and leg pieces. Train the chair to pop-up by opening and closing card a few times.
Decorate card with the Garden Charm set cutting off the charm loops. To make the basket of corn and tomatoes, use the basket from the Picnic Elements set and the fruit from the Tree Fruit set. (I had corn and red apples already cut from a Rubberneck Stamps dies set which I use turning the apples sideways to look like tomatoes.)
On the card back I cut a patterned piece of green card stock 3 ½ inch by 6-inch and glued to the card base. For the card front I cut a 3 ½ inch by 7 ½ inch piece of green printed paper and glued it onto the card base folding over onto the back of the bard. I added a small decorative topper to finish the back of the card. For the front of the card I used some of the garden charms to hint at what is inside.
Papers by Recollections, Die-Cutting Essential issue 32, white, mirror and colored from my stash
Rubbernecker – Apples, Pears and Corn Die-5215-06D
Distress ink – Walnut Stain & Vintage Photo
VersaMark – Watermark Stamp Pad
Stampin’ Pad – Rubber Stamp – Hardwood
Recollections – Detail Embossing Powder – Clear
Stampin’ Up – Ink Pad – Pear Pizzazz
Stampin’ Pad – Rubber Stamp – Garden Goodness
Don’t forget to come join in the fun at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog. There’s a new challenge theme offered on the 1st and 15th of each month and one lucky randomly drawn winner will receive a gift voucher prize to the Dies R Us Store.
For your convenience, all the important Dies R Us links are provided below.
Cut the two printed papers to 4 15/16 inches x 7 inches. Position them inside the card base so that there is a gap between the papers where the fold can be seen. Using removable tape, tape them together and place the chair die with the nibs over the fold.
Run taped papers with die through die-cutting machine. Cut chair, arms and seat from woodgrain paper. (I aged the chair with white ink pad rubbed over the grain.)
Glue printed papers inside card base, adding matching scraps of papers to cover the brown spaces let where chair is cut away. Fold woodgrain chair folds as shown on packaging. Glue wood grain chair to patterned paper chair matching up the seat, back, arms and leg pieces. Train the chair to pop-up by opening and closing card a few times.
Decorate card with the garden charm set cutting off the charm loops. (I dirtied-up the tools and gloves with brown ink.) The pink flowers are made with the flowers from the Tiny Trees Pop-Up set.
Fold up all the petals on the flowers and then glue a smaller flower on top of a larger flower. Add a yellow Nuvo Drop center to flower. Let dry overnight before gluing on to card.
The front of the card is made with scrap rectangles of green patterned paper with another watering can cut on the back side of the mirror cardstock and rounded with my fingers so that it pours from the left. The sentiment is a also a Karen Burniston die.
Hope this fun card has put a smile on your face and provided some inspiration for your crafting. 😊
John Next Door by John Lockwood – Clear Stamps – Garden Tools
VersaMark – Watermark Stamp Pad
Recollections – Detail Embossing Powder – Clear
Don’t forget to come join in the fun at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog. There’s a new challenge theme offered on the 1st and 15th of each month and one lucky randomly drawn winner will receive a gift voucher prize to the Dies R Us Store.
For your convenience, all the important Dies R Us links are provided below.
Ully Cat's World 
