Easy Birthday Blast stamped twice card

As soon as I saw this set I knew I wanted to add it to my birthday stack.  It is truly a blast and I love the matching die for a purpose I will show you.  Base card is Bermuda Bay with a layer of whisper white stamped with the birthday blast twice- once on top and turn around and stamped on bottom in Pool Party.  Stamped the Celebrate you in Bermuda Bay on Vellum, layered it on another strip of whisper white then a layer of Silver Glilmmer paper.  The stars are left over from the matching diecut I used.  It is very sparkly and elegantly simple- although hard to see the real sparkle from the photo.  Easy peasy birthday card - and who couldn't use one of those,eh?

Thank you cards from the kids

Trying to get the kids to write thank you cards is worse than pulling teeth-  I made these simple cards for them to write.  The dog was an undefined stamp I made using Dylan's drawing- the thank you on top is retired SU- the bottom thank you is from teeny tiny wishes with an image from PTI. The pig is from some Japanese company years ago- I am not sure as there was no label on the stamp and oink oink is handwritten with message inside that says- that means Thank You.  Really simple cards- using the thick Whisper white CS makes for great single layer cards.

small giftcard snowman 4 panel twist and pop

There has been a lot of cards with twist and pop 4 panel cards that have been really cute- I did one for my workshop and everyone seemed to really like it. I did want to make a smaller version for a giftcard popup so I engineered it using the dimensions of the giftcard.
you can get 3 cards out of one sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 CS.- This is the inside of the finished card on the right. If you open and close the card really fast, he looks like he is clapping!

I have made this card with many different sizes but the basics of the mechanism is the same.

The base of this card is 11x smidgen more than 2 8/10  inches (1/3 of the 8 1/2) folded at 5 1/2 inch on the 11 inch side. (Long ways)

The pieces for decoration are as shown on the left. You need 1 piece 3/4" x smidgen more than 2 8/10 inches or so(width of card) 2 black buttons (this was a button punch but you could just use a 3/4 inch circle punch.  I took a 1 1/2 inch strip of tangerine CS and cut them by hand into long triangles to make a bunch of noses.  The big white curved white piece was for guideline for drawing the head of the snowman in the corner under the hat with a black marker.      The hat was made using black and red glimmer paper.  The base was 3/10 inch strips, the banc was 1/2 inch strips and the main hat was 1 1/2 inch tall.   I cut the piece twice as wide and cut it in diagonal to get 2 pieces. Make sure you cut the diagonal on the proper side, otherwise it will not fit (the glimmer paper is not double sided to be able to flip it).  The holly on the hat was a pack of pre-made stickers from Michael's.

This is the mechanism for the gift card popup.  I also sized this so that you will get the most out of a 8 1/2x 11 sheet of paper.  cut it by half  into 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch piece then slice them into pieces a little bit smaller than 1 3/4 inches.  Score in half longways and at 1 7/8 from each corner make a pencil mark and make a diagonal scoreline. It should cross in the center.  The is the mechanism part.   I used a black sharpie to mark up one of my score boards so I can do this easily.  see below.

You fold the mechanism like this and put sticky tape on the triangular part on top and bottom and this gets put into the fold of the card as shown.  I eyeball it but lot of people like to measure it which is fine.

When you open it it should look like this.

Take the other strip 5 1/2 x 1 3/4 and score at 7/8, 2 3/4 and 4 5/8 inches as shown.

put the center of the piece on top of the center of the mechanism piece.

You need to put tape or glue onto the opposite corners- either left bottom and right top or left top and right bottom.  It will twist differently depending on how the glue/tape if put but it does not matter.

Then open the the piece to adhere the 2 corners as shown.

I added red gloves (hand cut from 2x2 piece of red carstock to fit) and glued it as shown to the 2 outer rectangle corners.

Pop the center out and you have the twist and pop card.

I attached money by putting on a little bit of tombow tape onto the wrist area of the gloves while it was flat and the money folds into the popup.  It was a fun way of giving money for Christmas.

 This is how you mount the gift card- use 2 pieces of tape - scotch or packing works fine and fold them in half, place the first tape with the fold on the left of the center mountain fold and the second tape on the right of the mountain fold as shown on the right.






When you put the card on the tape it floats like this and looks like the snowman is holding it out.

If you want to give cash you put two tiny strip of Tombow monoadhesive on the base of the red mittens as shown- it is not terribly sticky and money can be easily taken off.

When you adhere the money- nice crisp ones would be nice- it folds up like this

It twists and fold flat inside the card so it does not show.

 I made little pockets that holds the cards- they are a little too fat to mail-
I took some DSP 6 1/2 x 5 1/2  - you can get 4 sheets out of a 12x12 paper if you cut it carefully - score it at 3 inches and at 6 inches along the 6 1/2 side and 1/2 inch along the 5 1/2 side.-cut out the corner and one of the 1/2 inch tabs as shown on the right and then punch the top with the envelope punch to make a little groove to complete the package.
Enjoy!

eskimo girl with bear

When I saw the little girl thought igloo- someone told me there was another card they saw with the same idea but I guess great minds think alike eh?  The base is black with piece of whisper white embossed with Softly falling embossing folder. I took a piece of  vanilla - for a little contrast and Seaside embossing folder to create the base.  I used the Brick Wall EF to emboss a piece of whisper white then  freecut and igloo by hand. I used the door die from the Sweet home set to make the door and the fox punch idea I saw from http://fortheloveofstamping.blogspot.com/  for the polar bear and the fish- sentiment from the Snow Place stampset from the main catalogin Island Indigo to compete the card.  The girl was colored with markers, Island indigo, real red, sahara sand and smoky slate.

Banners for Christmas Case

This is a case of the Banners for Christmas card found in the Holiday Catalog- did not like the craft and mint colors used so changed it to real red and soft sky. Hard to see the watercolored Soft sky behind the banner but it is there and adds a soft pretty color to the card. 

Easy birthday banner card

I was looking for an easy birthday card to make using some pieces of DSP I had.  You can use pink purple blue or whatever DSP you have and then use the coordinating color ink for the sentiments and the balloon.  Use birthday banner stamp for the banner and the balloon. DAD is spelled out using the Labeler alphabet.  Some silver metallic thread, stars from metallic sequins and rhinestones to finish the look.   You can adapt it to any DSP practically.
The pink one below used the silver glimmer paper with the start punch. Again, easy peasy.

Paisley Pumpkin

I have been so busy with changes at work and with kids starting school, I have not been able to see straight- but I have been playing with what little time I have left with the things I ordered from the Holiday catalog- of course I wanted it ALL!  I was fiddling around with the paisley set and the dies and when I put the two paisley together it looked like a pumpkin- so here is the little card I made to showcase that.  The sentiment is from Suite seasons set and the little scallop on the bottom is just like one of the floral patterns from the Paisley & Posies set - I think it was just made for it.  I took Watermelon Wonder- I know but it reads pumpkin in real life next to the Emerald cardstock leaf-  as the base, added a layer of gold glimmer paper and then on Very Vanilla CS stamped the sentiment in Watermelon Wonder and Emerald,  glued the diecut paisleys as shown,  The leaf is from Rose Garden thinlits in Emerald CS. I auditioned several other leaves to see how it would look and this with its lacy look seemed most appropriate.
The stem is made using the little tree trunk from Thoughful Branches onto Soft suede. using soft suede ink.
Happy Fall, y'all!

Bringing back Birthdays Tin of Cards

I really am trying to send birthday cards to my family and friends and God only know how many cards I have just sitting around.  I have lots of occasion cards but my problem is that I don't remember the birthdays until after it's past and then I smack my head for forgetting.  The solution is to have cards set up by months rather than occasions.

I really love the tin of cards and got the stampset to match to make the cards inside but I used the Perpetual Birthday Calendar set to stamp the months on each of the tabs.

 Now the kit comes with only 9 dividers but no worries.  I used the white cardboard that comes with most of the DSP to cut out a piece 6 1/2x 5 inches and then used the envelope punch board to make the tabs.

 For the side tabs, punch at the corners and at 3 inches. The middle tabs are not exactly centered so it seemed like about 1 3/4 and at 4 1/4 or so worked out. After punching the indentation, cut off the remainder with the paper cutter.

Maybe Stampin Up will put 12 dividers next time in the kit?

 I am thinking about stamping Writing Notes stamp in front of each divider to write the actual birthdays and names of people to remind me to send the cards.

 While I was taking the picture of the Tin for the main picture a gargantuan bumblebee buzzed into the picture- here is the closeup...

On the lid I like to have some postage stamps on the ready so nothing impedes my card getting mailed.

When I gifr these, I also like to put a pen - you can use a velcro tab on the pen and the lid to attach if you want.

Hopefully I will be better this year sending out my cards.....

Love and Affection Catalog sort of CASE

There was s little card on page 46  of the Annual Catalog that really caught my eye and I cased it of course for the last month's party.  Base card is Watermelon Wonder embossed with Floral Affections textured impressions.  I took a piece of Cucumber Crush and then a piece of whisper white stamped with Love and Affection set using crushed curry, watermelon, cucumber black as shown.   I then stamped happy birthday from Birthday Banners - curved it to fit the banner and stamped the banner in Crushed curry and diecut it out and mounted with dimensionals. 

Bright, cute, easy peasy card.....

Jar of Love Hello Shaker card

 Such a fun little card we had at my last stamping party.  Base card is Pool Party. Take the DSP (here I used the It's my Party DSP from Occasion catalog (retired) fold the bottom up by about 1/2 inch and diecut the tall jar shape.   I took a piece of clear windowsheet   bigger than the jar opening all around and stamped the jar and sentiment with Staz-On,  Make sure to lift straight up to prevent smearing.   Adhere the clear window sheet to the back of the DSP. putting tape just on the edges of the DSP.  Now, place the foam adhesive strips around the edge of the jar on the clear adhesive sheet. I used the embossing buddy to take some of the stickiness and static off the sticky strips. add some hearts diecut and some sequins and put a piece of whisper white CS larger than the cut out to ocver and adhere the whole thing onto the base card,  Stamped the lid with Crumbcake, diecut it and put it on in the front.  I tied a little cord into a bow and attacked it on the corner o the lid tied with the tag,    Enjoy!

Undefined- Star Wars

 At the  end of the school year I have been making a tin of cards for each of my kids' teachers, decorating the tin, filling it with a stack of cards for different occasions.  I like to add a book of postage stamps on the lid with a magnet and  put it in a bag with a stack of envelopes so they have everything they need to send out the cards.

One of my boy's teacher this year is crazy about Star Wars.  He has movie nights at school and has lots of paraphernalia on his desk. He was the teacher for my other boy in the past and I had found some Star Wars designer paper then, but this time I had no luck finding anything appropriate. So Undefined again to the rescue-  it is now retired through Stampin' Up but I bought a bunch of extra carving material just for situations like this.   I found some pictures on the internet that I thought would work and printed it and used it to carve out the images.  I found the font TIE-WING on line for free and printed on whisper white CS using my printer.  I printed 4 on one sheet then cut it out then stamped the images above the sentiment.  The Yoda is stamped in Pear Pizazz with same color CS to layer the stamped piece.

Easy cards and now with my new stamps I can make many many more.  I have little stamping space so I don't mount the carved rubber on the wood blocks but they are thick enough to work without the wood.
I also carved out too much of Yoda's eyes so when I stamp it, it looks wonky.  Since Stampin' Up has coordinated everything, I just used the marker to fill in the eyes a bit and it's just fine.....
Lynda