For the next four days I have a mini chair series focusing on a pop-up chair die by Karen Burniston.
Today’s chair uses the Adirondack Chair Pop-Up with a slip cover to make it into a big overstuffed chair, perfect for cats to nap in! You can access this post and the ones in this week’s seasonal chair posts below as they become live posts.
See more chair cards below:
Hello, it’s Sue of the Dies R Us Design Team and today we are making a Happy Mail card using Karin Joan Misses dies and stamps by Studio Light.
This slimline easel card was inspired by some made by Jennifer McGuire. Elements from both sets were used to create the paperdoll and an action wobble spring.
Cut from the Betty die set:
Cut from the Tasha die set:
Cut four Hellos from Hello die.
To assemble the paperdoll, begin by stamping and heat embossing the facial features using the stamps from the Tasha set. (I colored the tongue with a pink gel pen and the teeth and eye highlights with a white gel pen.) Play with the layout of the hair pieces, ears and head. Once you have the position using a pencil, mark the location of the head and ears on the long hair piece. Glue the ears in place using a fine tipped glue bottle then glue bangs in place. Glue top half of head to long hair piece making sure to leave the lower half without glue.
Adhere collar and button placket to front of blouse. Glue blouse to shoulders and neck piece. (I used Nuvo drops for the buttons and let the piece dry overnight before going to the next step.) Using the fine tipped glue bottle, attached the head to the neck. Glue the long hair to back of shoulders.
Assemble arm and sleeve as directed on cutting instructions. (You may want to cut an additional sleeve and cuff if it will be seen on the backside.) Add the action wobble spring to the back of the arm.
To make the card base cut two piece of patterned cardstock 8 1/2 x 4 inches. Score one piece across the short end 1/2 inch. Fold and glue the tab to the end of the other piece. Score and fold the top flap of card base at 2 3/4 inches to form the easel.
Glue three hellos together to form the easel stop that will be glued to lower card base. The fourth hello will be used for decoration on the card front when closed.
Position paperdoll and arm piece on the easel portion of card front. Make sure that the hand is within the card front when closed. Adhere paperdoll and arm to card making sure to only glue lower half of paperdoll to easel. The arm’s elbow needs to not touch or catch on the card base. (I ended up having to trim a small tip of the elbow on this card to make it wave smoothly.)
Now you have a card that will wave a cheery hello.
“A truly great friend is hard to find, difficult to leave and impossible to forget,” is the sentiment stamped on the back of the envelope.
Hope this fun card has put a smile on your face and provided some inspiration for your crafting. 😊
Supplies Used from Dies R Us:
Additional Supplies Used:
Sometimes we just feel like being out there in space when it comes to celebrating birthdays. This interactive space themed birthday card is made with Whimsy Stamps “Over The Moon” stamp set and kinetic dies.
Having watched Jennifer Dove’s video on Whimsy Stamps kinetic dies, I proceeded in making a similar card to the one she made, but I expanded the card into a tri-fold card letting the viewer find the cake.
Because this was the first time, I had used the kinetic dies, I made a few mistakes – the first being I have the rocket moving backwards when you first pull the strip. My second mistake was that I should have used thicker cardstock or cut two and glued together for the pull strip. And my third mistake was allowing the moon to warp when I watercolored it.
I stamped the images with black Memento Fade-Resistant Dye Ink onto white cardstock. The images are colored with Spectrum Noir Sparkle Glitter Brush-Pens and a Faber-Castell white India ink pen. Once dry, the images were fussy cut and ready to use for decorations.
The moon background was colored using Nuvo Watercolour Pencils in gray and black tones as well as a black Spectrum Noir Sparkle Glitter Brush Pen. I used a heat tool to dry the second and third moon backgrounds which did not warp as badly as the first moon which I let air dry overnight.
I recommend watching the assembly video for all the steps in assembling the No-See Kinetic mechanism. Because I followed the video’s directions forgetting that my rocket image went the opposite direction from the one in the video, my rocket goes backwards. Doubling up the foam tape is a must so that it matches the height of the foam dot.
The navy blue card base is made up of two panels 5 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches with tabs scored and folded at 1/4 inches on the short side. The tabs are then glued to a 5 1/2 x 6 inches panel to create the tri-fold card base.
My card uses all the stamps in the set for the three panels. It would be an ideal card for a child.
The card fits folded into an A7 envelope which is stamped on the back with the last of the three sentiments included in the stamp set – “I’m over the MOON for you!”
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this blog post, please like it and follow the blog. 😊
Supplies Used:
Life gets rough and choppy sometimes and life isn’t always smooth sailing. Sometimes our friends need to be encouraged to take a chance and try something new. This interactive card is for those times.
This card is the first of a series to use my Ully Cat Designs’ Split-Slider Slimline template.
Split-Slider: Print split-slider template (download under Materials Used) onto bright blue lightweight cardstock and then cut out the top panel and slider arm around the outer red cutting lines. (Note: The printed side of the cardstock will be the back of the panel and when assembled will not be seen.) Using a craft knife and a metal ruler, cut the top panel’s eight mini-easels on the red lines. Next, using a scoring tool, score the green and blue fold lines – green being valley folds and blue mountain folds.
Because the top panel is adhered on three sides to the card base and needs to be raised the thickness of the lightweight cardstock slider arm, place two layers of double-sided tape on the long sides and bottom of the panel making sure not to cover the red lines of the easels. A single layer of double-sided tape should be placed on each of the narrow tabs of the eight mini-easels. (If you are using tape that is wider than the tabs, trim off excess.)
To adhere the slider arm to the mini -easel tabs, first, using low-tack tape, tape the front side of the easels shut. (This will ensure that the easels are adhered to the slider arm in the shut/flat position.) Position the slider arm over the back of the panel, making sure there is at least an 1/8 inch/3 mm gap between the tape along the panel edges and the slider arm. Hold the slider arm in place and remove the backing tape on the lowest easel and adhere to the slider panel. Repeat removing tape backing and adhering each easel. Once slider arm is attached to easels, turn over and remove low-tack tape. Test the slider. You may have to help fold the easels into the fully opened position the first time to train them. Once satisfied with the slider/easels’ movement, remove panel backing tape paper and adhere to card base.
Decorating the Easels: For my die-cut lighthouse and boats, I used Distress Oxides and Inks to color the lighthouse and boat flags, a black gel pen for windows and a silver gel pen to color the anchor. The lightkeeper’s house is cut from a pattern paper and colored with pencil for the grey stone. The blue and white layered sea waves are cut freehand as is the rocky land masses for the three easels around the lighthouse. Make sure you don’t glue anything that will impede the easels from moving. (Note the 2nd & 4th waves on my card have been trimmed to allow the easel in front to operate.)
The gold heat embossed compass on the pull-tab of the slider arm, was stamped on a separate peace of cardstock, embossed and them fussy cut. The compass adds sturdiness to the pull-tab. (Depending on the thickness of your cardstock, you may want to add another circle on the bottom of the pull-tab as well.)
The “SEAS the Day” sentiment is attached with foam squares between two easels and is not adhered to any moving parts.
Inside Decorations: You can decorate as you would normally inside the card. Because of the dark card base, I used paper that looks like an old ship’s log, to stamp the inside sentiments “Enjoy life’s journal” and “We cannot control the wind, but we can direct the sails.”
The back flap of the envelope was stamped with a Sara Davies Nautical Collection sentiment “Adventure awaits” to hint at the enclosed card is about.
I enclose a slip of paper with instructions on how to open the card. (See split slider CRX sheet download below.)
Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊
Split-Slider Slimline Template Series:
Day 1 – Split Sea Slider
Day 4 – A Valentine for A Baseball Fan
Bonus Cards: Crafty Friends, We’re Off to See The Wizard!
Materials Used:
Please note that this template is copyrighted, and Ully Cat Designs must be cited if you publish a card made using it.
Dies
Stamps
Inks/Embossing Powders
Papers
Miscellaneous
© 2021 Sue Small-Kreider/Ully Cat Designs
Everyone likes Happy Mail and this one is made for a family of horse lovers. After making a z-fold card using a gate and fencing, I envisioned this horse paddock card.
The card is designed to fit folded into a #10 slimline envelope.
I laid-out the fence first on a 2 ½ inch x 12-inch strip of textured cardstock folding it long-ways in half and then scored at 3 inches and 9 inches. Draw pencil lines for the fence posts at: 1/4 inch, 1 7/16 inches, 1 9/16 inches, 2 7/8 inches, 3 inches, 3 1/8 inches, 4 7/16 inches, 4 9/16 inches, 5 7/16 inches, 6 1/16 inches, 7 7/16 inches,, 7 9/16 inches, 8 7/8 inches, 9 inches,, 9 1/8 inches, 10 7/16 inches, 10 9/16 inches, and 11 ¾ inches. Next, I evenly spaced three boards long-ways and colored in the spaces to be cut out. Using an Xacto craft knife and metal ruler I cut out the colored spaces on the folded over strip measuring 1 ¼ x 12 inches. (I recommend coloring in the cutout spaces as it gets very confusing, and like me, you have to start over again.) (If you have the Karen Burniston Farm Edges die set or another fence die set, you could piece together the fence rather than cutting it as I did.)
The last cutting is to trim one half of the endposts off (See photo). Once the fence is done being cut, glue the wrong sides together to form a sturdy fence. I used distress inks to color the fence.
The stable doors are sized to fit the Karen Burniston horse die. I cut three horses and decorated them differently using a black fine tipped pen and watercolor pencils. (Watch the assembly video for decoration ideas and tips). The doors are loosely based of the retired Stampin’ Up barn door set. I cut pieces of woodgrain paper to form the trim pieces and glued. The sliding door hardware is from the Stampin’Up set. Because the door is smaller than the die set door, I had to do a modified cutting of the slots that the door slides on. I followed the door assembly method described in this video by The Creativity Cave.
The sentiments are from the barn door set. You will need to cut two pieces of wood grained paper for the stable at 4 x6 inches. Once you have cut the door slots out of the front piece, and assembled the door, you can adhere the backing piece with the grain sided facing the back side of the front. (The grain will camouflage the slot cuts. Make sure you don’t glue your acetate door mechanism to the backing piece. Test your door before the glue dries if you need to make adjustments. Stamp and cut out your sentiments and adhere behind the doors. Glue one horse head to be peaking out from the stall door and the glue door onto stable.
Glue the fence endposts to the front of the stable once the doors and decorations have been added to the front of the stable. Add the horses to your paddock by gluing one to the back of the front fence and the other by using a strip of clear plastic from packaging (It needs to be sturdier than acetate.) to glue the acetate in place, first glue one side the inside of the side fencing. Fold the paddock flat to one side and see where the plastic strip folded tab ends up on the fence and, then glue to that spot.
You can write your personal message on the back of the stable.
Stamps/Dies
Inks/Watercolors
Paper
Miscellaneous
When does a cupcake become a bushel of apples with a gift card? When rain cancelled my afternoon plans and the idea, I had been tossing around for a few days with a new die beckoned.
I started with Karen Burniston’s Cupcake Pop-Up die and since the cupcake liner dies cut slits in the design, I cut a liner and some thin strips from brown paper and embossed the liner using Stampin’ Up’s Sizzix Big Shot Basket Weave Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder to give texture to the bushel basket. Next, I wove three strips alternating between liner slots with each strip. For the smaller liners I texture embossed and wove two thinner strips to form the woven baskets.
Next, I cut a sheet of glittered craft cardstock 6 inches x 10 inches scoring in half at 5 inches. I folded with the glitter side inside and opened it again centered the Pop-Up cupcake die following Karen Burniston’s directions on the package and assembly video. After measuring a gift card and the width of the frosting on the cupcake, I knew there was just enough space to cut a slot in the frosting for a gift card slider. I also had to cut small extension slots at the base of the cupcake liner. (The yellow pencil and silver scissors point to the two slots cut with an X-Acto knife.) I traced the outline of the cupcake on the back of a piece of the glitter craft cardstock as well as the outline of the gift card overlapping it with the frosting and finally cut the card outline with some of the frosting on top. The gift card slider resembles a tag shape with straight sides and a decorative top.
I found I needed to reinforce the cupcake shape by backing the shape with another cupcake cut from the craft cardstock. Next, I cut a square the width of the frosting and traced where the slot needed to be cut. Once the slot was cut, I glued it to the front of the cupcake. I tested the gift card slider moving it up and down with the gift card taped to it. I found that I needed to clean-up the slot cuts to get a smooth slide. Once satisfied with the slider slots I glued the large basket to the square over the cupcake liner leaving the top edge unglued so I could tuck corn stalks and apples under it.
To decorate the Pop-Up, I used the large cherry die from the cupcake set and cut approximately 20 with short stems from thick red Hero Arts cardstock. A black Sharpie marker and a white gel pen were used to color the apple stems and shiny patches. I cut four corn stalks using the leaf dies from Karen Burniston’ Flowers and Bee die set. And I cut eight of the tiny flowers from the same set in a maroon cardstock and another eight in a bright yellow cardstock. I fringe cut around four each color flower and pushed the fringe up and glued them to the center of the remaining cut flowers.
Test arranging the four corn stocks to hide the slider slot and act as the backing to glue the pile of apples, I then glued the base stem and first two leaves to the square, tucking the stems under the edge of the basket. Starting from the top edge of the basket I put a dot of glue on the back of each apple and then placed them as one would when stacking real apples in a basket. The top few apples I rounded between my fingers to add dimension and glued the edges, but not the centers down.
The small baskets of chrysanthemums use the fringed flowers glued to a scrape of craft cardstock adhered to the basket. The leaves are scrape green cardstock from my stash. I used Stampin’ Up Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals to adhere the three loose apples which were rounded between my fingers.
Using red double-sided-sticky tape, I adhered on side of the glitter craft cardstock Pop-Up to an A7 size heavy craft card (5in x7in) and then the other side of the pop-up as recommended by Karen Burniston in her assembly videos.
To have good CRX (card recipient experience), I used the arrow tab from Karen Burniston’s Frame Pull Pop-Up Die and cut it from brown paper, adding a part of a yellow sticky note for the arrow color and folding it over the tip of the gift card slider tag and adhering with glue. I trimmed the excess of the brown tab off.
I found two stripes of red and white gingham-checked paper in my scrapes and pasted them onto the card. Because I didn’t have a specific person in mind to give this card to, I’ll leave it unfinished until autumn when I can finish it up for a wedding card or a birthday card.
SUPPLIES USED:
Dies
Embossing Folder:
Paper:
Miscellaneous:
Say yes to adventure. Chase your dreams. Who knows where it will lead you? This is a card that tries to capture all these sentiments and to celebrate achievement.
The inspiration for this card comes a desire to use all of my bicycle dies, but morphed into a card trying to only use one paper set (Chasing Dreams by Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper). The bicycle die set is by Simon Says Stamp and has the wheel as a separate die so you can cut the perfect tire from a separate color and has a separate basket die as well. The balloons, string of lights and banner flags are from one of my favorite die sets by Sizzix and Courtney Chilson. A fine tipped black marker was used to color the bike’s handles, pedals and balloon strings. A white gel pen was used to color in the balloons’ highlights.
While the outside of the card is to suggest the current moment, the inside is to suggest how pleasant the future will be if you chase your dreams and say yes to adventure.
All of the pop-up, stamped, watercolored and die cut images come from the Hero Arts January 2019 My Monthly Hero kit. I had to cut off the top awning of the flower stand and lower it to fit inside the card. I reinforced the back side of the stand with strips of scrap paper before attaching with double-sided tape.
The tiered stand was inspired by a tiered pop up cake by Karen Burniston for Elizabeth Craft Designs. Since the die is no longer available, I had to improvise to create the right proportional shelves.
The outside sentiments come from the paper stack while the inside sentiments are from two separate sets. The “you’re wonderful” is stamped and embossed from the Hero Arts set and the ”Celebrate” is die-cut from Momenta Firefly’s Celebrate Happy Birthday die set.
SUPPLIES USED:
Dies
Stamps:
Paper:
Miscellaneous:
Happy mail is when you get note from someone you haven’t heard from in a while. Happy mail is opening an envelope and getting good news. Happy mail makes you smile.
I love getting interactive cards. Not only do they stand out as different, but they make me think that someone went to a lot of trouble to design and get the mechanics right on how it works. Concord & 9th’s new Mail Drop stamp and coordinating dies are happy mail for me.
I made this test card from the set as a birthday card, but the other phrases in the set allow for creativity and customization. Getting the slit in the correct spot on both the envelope and the backing panel took several tries. I recommend watching this video to get it right the first time.
Long Live Snail Mail!
Cats pop-up everywhere and this card is no exception. The inspiration for this card comes from Juliet and Romeo the two cats who live with the recipient of this card. The overstuffed chair is one that has been passed down in her family and a favorite of Romeo to curl up and sleep.
The chair is made from Karen Burniston’s 1071-Adirondack Chair with a custom fit slipcover cut from paper inside a large business envelop. The round blue pillow is cut from the front of the envelope and adhered to chair with foam tape. Romeo’s picture was supplied by his human companion and has a tab running thru the chair and attached to the floor. The afghan throw is from Echo Park’s A Perfect Summer by Lori Whitlock and is also attached to chair with foam tape. Wallpaper is from Colorbők’s Brights Photo Mats. The flooring is from Ms. Sparkle & Co. Paperie’s Woodgrain Neutral paper pad. The “Happy Birthday” was cut from black cardstock using Momenta Firefly’s Celebrate Happy Birthday die set 35516 R7. The floorboard molding on wallpaper was a scrap piece of white cardstock scored at the top and bottom edge.
Front of card has Juliet looking out a window. The window, shutters, flowers and flowerbox are from Poppy Stamps Small Madison Window set no. 1137 and decorated with white gel pen. The window glass is cut from the glassine window of the large business envelope that was upcycled to slipcover chair. The cat is cut from white cardstock using Karen Burniston’s 1024 – Cat die and then ink blended to get Juliet’s wolf-like grey fur. The “popping up to say” lettering comes from Karen Burniston’s 1027-Word Set 4- Just a Note. The letters were dotted with a black fine point felt tip pen.
See more chair cards below:
Other supplies used:
