Category Archives: Cards

Fish Tank – Birthday Challenge #4

Posted in Birthday Cards, Cards, Creative Folds by

Fish Tank – Birthday Challenge #4

(back: Birthdays are for celebrating! Have a great day!)

It has been a while since making/sharing the “birthday challenge” cards from my children.  Since my triplets’ birthday is coming up, I thought I’d use their challenge ideas to create their cards.

Keith came up with challenge #4.  When asked what his challenge idea was, he had just two words – “fish tank.”  When I asked if there was anything else I needed to incorporate into the design, he responded with, “fish tank.”  How about…  “Fish tank.”  But do you want…  “Fish tank.”  So I made a fish tank card – lol!  Happy Birthday, Keith!

The basic card design is a box card with several acetate panels inside which allows my fish to “swim” at various levels in the tank.  I used a die from the “Infinity Rectangle Dies” set by Hero Arts to create the opening on the front.

The stamps were from the “Best Fishes” and “Tropical Scenes” sets by Sunny Studio and from the “Critters in the Sea” set by Lawn Fawn.  (There are coordinating dies available for each of these stamp sets.)  All of the images were stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Copic Markers.

The greeting is from the “Label Me Bold” set by Stampin’ up (retired?), and the sentiment on the back is from the “Ombre Sentiments:Birthday Stamp Set” from Papertrey Ink.

The background panel was smooshed with Color Burst (violet and ultramarine) and water.

I used Recollections “Vintage Blue” glass glitter for the gravel. (Not sure if blue is available anymore.) To make it stick, I applied wide, two sided tape to strips of card stock that were cut to shape. Then, I poured the gravel onto the sticky area, covered the pile with a scrap of card stock (it’s a bit pointy if not lying flat), pressed down, and poured off the excess. These strips were then adhered along the bottoms of the acetate panels and the back. I added a bit of the glitter (with liquid glue) to the stamped strip as well.

This box card folds flat for mailing.  When opened, the card is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, but when folded, it measures 4 1/4 x 6 3/4 so I created a custom envelope with my We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board.  (Start with a 9 inch square and punch/score at 3 5/8 inches.)

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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Sweater and Snowflakes Birthday Card

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Sweater and Snowflakes Birthday Card

We got a bit of snow yesterday and are expecting more today. Perfect weather for cable knit sweaters and crafting indoors!

The “Dancing Snowflake Tile” die is from Poppy Stamps, and the “Happy Birthday Friendship Script” die is from Memory Box. These were cut twice and layered to make the die cuts thicker. I used Metallic Gold card stock from Gift Boutique and heavy weight cream card stock by Recollections.

The background was embossed with the Stampin’ Up Cable Knit Dynamic embossing folder (retired?).

I really struggled to get a good photo of this card. Capturing the shine of the mirror card stock without seeing reflections of me, my camera, or the lights in the photo and while still seeing the texture of the embossed background was quite a challenge! I think the “darkness” behind the snowflakes is my black shirt – lol! The shine on that panel (like the greeting) is quite pretty in real life.

This card is 5 1/2 x 5 5/8 inches and requires a custom envelope and trip to the post office to mail. I used my We R Memory Keepers envelope punch, started with a 9 1/8 inch square piece of paper, and punched/scores at 4 1/2 inches.

Here is an A2 sized sample I made with different card stock…

For this one, I used Gina K Designs Metallic Gold card stock (which has more of a matte finish). The greeting was made with the “Doodle Happy Birthday” die from Poppy Stamps. The off-white heavy weight card stock is “Butter Mints” by Bazzill.

Thanks for checking out my card projects!

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Happy Birthday, Friend – Flip Card

Posted in Birthday Cards, Cards, Interactive by

Happy Birthday, Friend – Flip Card

(inside: We’ll be friends until we’re old and senile… then we’ll be new friends! Happy Birthday)

This interactive flip card features a seemingly “normal” card front with a surprise panel hiding beneath it.

Jennifer McGuire calls it a Pop-Up Panel card and shows how to create it in this video. (This is similar to a waterfall card but with only one flipping panel.) For Jennifer’s sample, she creates a 4 x 5 1/2 inch card base to allow the 1/4 inch tab to hang over (and still fit in an A2 size envelope). I wanted my finished base to still be 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches so I started with an 8 1/4 inch panel (instead of 8 1/2) and scored it at 4 (instead of 4 1/4). The back is still the standard size, but the front is shorter to allow the tab to hang out.

The images on the front are from the “A Little Something” and “Happy Birthday to You” stamp sets which are both from Gina K Designs (both retired?). I heat embossed them with GKD Fine Detail Black embossing powder and colored the packages in with Copic Markers ((Y15 and R29).

front of card

front of card when tab is pulled
inside when card is opened

The message on the hidden panel and continuing on the inside is from the “Just Kidding” stamp set from Stampin’ Up (retired?), and these were also heat embossed.

The “pull here” stamp was from the “Push Here” set from Lawn Fawn. I tried to heat emboss that to keep it all consistent, but it kept getting blobbed/blurry so I just stamped that in black ink. (Not sure why I was having such trouble with that!)

The patterned paper was from the “Hello Sunshine” paper pack from Gina K Designs (thanks Diana!). I used Wild Dandelion for the base.

I used a die from the Sizzix “Card, Base Step-ups #4” (discontinued) to create the slot needed for the flip mechanism, but you could easily create a slot with any slot die or even a craft knife or scissors; it doesn’t need to be that perfect/exact since you don’t see it when the card is assembled.

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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Mirrored Snowflake Thank You Card

Posted in Cards, Thank You Cards by

Mirrored Snowflake Thank You Card

This CAS card features the “Snowflake Marquee” die from Memory Box.

This is one die, but it cuts 10 separate pieces – the two halves of the snowflake and the 8 dots. I needed a bunch of these cards, and positioning and adhering all the pieces posed the biggest challenge, but I came up with a few tricks to make it easier…

First, I added Super Tacky Tape by Creek Bank Creations to the back of a piece of silver mirrored card stock and then die cut the shapes. The Super Tacky Tape made all the pieces stickers which made them easier to adhere to the card fronts. In order to get the placement of the pieces right, I created a template first by positioning and die cutting the image from plain white card stock. I was able to place the template over the actual card panels and just drop the silver pieces into the negative spaces on the template. (I used the spacing of the original die, but you could make the space between the halves of the snowflake larger or smaller if desired.)

The greeting is from the “What I Love” stamp set (retired?) by Stampin’ Up, and was heat embossed with Gina K Designs Fine Detail Silver embossing powder. This panel was mounted on a silver mirrored mat and then a heavy weight white base.

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas!

I’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I’d also like to take a moment to thank you all for taking the time to visit my blog and for all your support and encouragement this past year.  I really appreciate it!

(The above image was found on google and is not my own.)