*Video* Gerda Steiner’s Meerkats on the Lookout

Hello everyone, I’m back with one of my most favourite stamp sets ever!  It’s “Meerkats on the Lookout”  from Gerda Steiner Designs and I’ve had no end of fun with them this last week! I love that these can easily be used for masculine cards because we all know how hard those can be to make.

If you would like to see an HD video on YouTube of how I made this card, please CLICK HERE. Otherwise, you can click on the video below.

To start this card, I created a horizon line in light pencil. I made sure that there was enough room for my meerkat to hide below the horizon behind some rocks. Once I had the horizon, I decided on the placement of my group of meerkats. I stamped the front two meerkats in copic friendly ink and then masked them while I finished stamping the back row of meerkats. I coloured in the meerkats with W3, W1, E31, E53, E40, E27, C2 and C0. I also used a black glaze pen to fill in the eyes and noses. I also stamped and coloured the lone meerkat who comes up, after masking off his arms and adding a cupcake to his hands. I also coloured a couple of the rocks that are in the set and cut them out.

Masking off sky line. 

I then cut a strip (the width of my card) of post it note paper in half lengthwise to create my true horizon. I masked off the meerkats and added one of the strips to make the sky line. I ink blended the sand with Tea Dye Distress oxide ink. Then I removed the post it note paper and lined up the other half over the sand to now colour in the sky. I used MFT’S cloud stencil and Mermaid Lagoon Distress oxide ink to make the sky. Once this was done, I stamped on my sentiments in Versamark ink.

Pencil mark widest point of meerkat. 

I adhered a strip of clear acetate to the back of the lone meerkat. After positioning him where I wanted him to pop up, I pencilled in the width of his ears (his widest part) where I wanted him to come up. I used a T ruler and craft knife to cut a slit here. I inserted the acetate through this slit and worked it up and down a few times to be sure it was wide enough. Then I attached a small strip of cardstock to the bottom of the meerkat to act as a stopper so he wouldn’t pull out through the slit. Finally, I pulled him up through the slit as far as he would go to determine where the top slit needed to go (just above his head). This slit only needs to be as wide as the acetate strip.

Adding a stopper to the bottom of the meerkat. 

I covered over the bottom slit with the rocks, being sure to not glue the middle portion down where the meerkat would pop up. I also die cut a few cloud shapes and placed one of these over the upper slit, again being sure to not glue down the middle portion.

I added part of an African tree die I have from Elizabeth Craft, and a few more clouds to complete my scene. I then adhered my card front to the base, being careful to not adhere any of the moving mechanisms. I also added 2 die cut cloud shapes to the front and back of the top of the acetate to act as a pull mechanism. I had glued in the word “Pull” on the front cloud.

Finally, I added some accents to the sand with copic markers E35, W5 and YG17 for grass. I also used a sparkle pen from Gelly Roll to add a little sparkle to the sand.

I hope you can give this card a try - it’s such a fun card to make and receive - and perfect for the men in our lives!

*Video* MFT Birthday Buds Inside Pop Up Card

Hello everyone, I hope you’re having a great day!  I’m really excited to share with you this inside panel pop up card technique. It adds such a fun element to any card and you don’t need any special dies for it.  Basically, you’re adding a third page, or partial page to the inside of your card.  I first saw this done on a video by Jennifer McGuire and you can see her video here.

Inside pop up panel

If you would like to see an HD video of this card on YouTube you can FIND IT HERE or watch it below.

I made this card by first stamping and colouring in the images from MFT’S Birthday Buds stamp set and then cutting them out. I also cut 2 panels of light blue cardstock that were 4.25” x 4”, as well as 2 green hill shapes and a grassy border. I also die cut 2 matching cloud borders.

On the blue sky panels, I creased them 1/4” from one end on each of them ( these creases will line up with the fold on the card and once adhered, become the mechanism that will hold the panel upright).

Next, I adhered the hills to both the front and back sky panels and the the grassy border on the front panel. Finally, I adhered the cloud die cuts, making sure they did not extend past the top of the card. It is best to unfold the creased bottom of the sky panel and line it up with the fold on the card base to help with positioning of the cloud piece to be sure you don’t extend past the top of the card.

Then I arranged my coloured images where I wanted them to go on the panel and adhered them with glue. I did not duplicate the image on the back panel but you could certainly do this.  I also find it easier to stamp the inside sentiment now before attaching the pop up panel.

The next step is to glue together just the top portion of the panels.  You don’t want the bottom glued together because it needs to be able to splay out and hold the panel upright when the card is opened.

Glue just the top edges of the panels together

I put a double sided adhesive tape along the opened out, creased folds on the bottom of both the front and back panels. After removing the backing paper, I lined the edges of these panels up with the fold on the inside of the card. Once I had them in position, I held them in place and closed the card so that the tape would adhere along the fold. Now the pop up panel is finished!

Line up the creased ends along the inside fold of the card base

Fold up the card base keeping the panel in position

The completed pop up mechanism

Front of the card

For the front of the card, I decided to mask off a diagonal line and ink blended above it in blue inks to make a sky. I used a piece of green cardstock from Sunny Studios and a grassy border that I had in my stash, to make a grassy bottom half of my card front.  After trimming this down to fit the card, I adhered a white frame made from 3 layers of Hero Art’s Wood Frame die set. Finally, I attached my images and sentiment. I think the front of the card can be quite simple, leaving the wow factor for the inside.

I hope that you will give these pop up cards a try - they are just so much fun to open up and perfect for all ages and seasons!!

Simon Says Stamp “Fern Square” card

Hello everyone, I’m so glad to be back in my craft room after an incredibly busy December. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that the New Year has started off well for you!  I’ve got a couple of cards today that feature the Fern Square die from Simon Says Stamp. This is such a pretty die that I really wanted to make a whole card out of it.

If you would like to see an HD video of how I made this card, please click HERE.

I started by die cutting 3 - 4 of the Fern squares out of cardstock. These were to be my stencils so I taped the open end of the negative die cut with masking tape to help keep the stencil together. 

On my card front, I ink blended the stencil repeatedly with Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide ink in a random pattern across the whole card front. The next step was to use the stencil to apply Moda Scrap Gelly paste over the inked ferns on one card. On the second card, I applied Nuvo Glimmer paste in Moonstone over the ferns. I set these aside to dry. 

Then I applied a strip of Die Cut’N Bond double sided adhesive to a piece of cardstock. From this, I die cut another Fern Square and saved both the positive and the negative images. I stacked 4 of the positive die cuts together (I already had that many cut from making the stencils). With the negative die cut, I removed the adhesive backing and sprinkled micro-glitter all over it. I used my finger to push the glitter into the adhesive and then used my bone folder to finish pressing it in. 

I repeated this same process with my word dies. I die cut the Thanks from Simon Says Stamp’s (SSS) “Script Thanks” die from the adhesive backed cardstock. The background cloud die was cut from regular white cardstock. For the birthday card, I die cut the “Happy” with an Impression Obsessions die from the adhesive backed paper. I used the die itself to trace around and fussy cut out of white cardstock to make the cloud outline. I then removed the adhesive backing from the words and applied glitter to them, making sure to use a bone folder to press the glitter down into the paper. I then glued the words to the cloud outline backgrounds. For the “birthday” sentiment, I used the birthday stamp in SSS Circle Sayings set, and stamped it in place with Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide ink. 

Trace around the die and fussy cut to creat a cloud outline. 

Finally, I placed my elements on my cards to determine the placement of everything.  I used glue to adhere everything as the paste was slightly 3D. I found it easiest to adhere the negative Fern die cut first, holding the positive die cut in place. It took quite a bit of pressure to make sure the elements were stuck down and I used acrylic blocks to hold everything down while the glue dried. 

I love how these cards turned out and there is a difference between the two pastes - the moonstone glimmer paste has more golden flecks in it, while the Moda Scrap paste has a more satiny pearl look to it. I hope you can give these cards a try. Thank you so much for joining me and have fun crafting! 

(Video) "No Peeking" Panda Christmas card

Hello everyone, it’s Karen again from @Karens_Kardzz and I’ve got a “No Peeking Panda” Christmas card to share with you today that has a fun inside surprise element.

If you would like to see a video of how I made this card, you can see it in HD HERE.  Otherwise, the video can also be seen down below.

I started this card by cutting a card front that is 4 1/4” x 5 1/2” from white cardstock. The base is 4 1/4” x 11”.

I started working on the card front first so it would have time to dry. I white heat embossed a selection of snowflakes all over the front. I used the snowflakes from Simon Says Stamp “Lots of Snowflakes” set, but you could use whatever you have. Then I ink smooshed the card front with Distress Oxide inks in the colours Tumbled Glass, Shaded Lilac, and Blueprint Sketch. Once I had this looking the way I wanted it to, I spritzed the front with Tsukineko shimmer spray in Sparkle. I set this aside to dry.

Front of the card with snowflakes

I took my images from three Gerda Steiner stamp sets - Lovely Pandas, Peeking Friends, and Puppy Kisses for Santa.

I used all the pandas, but for the one holding the balloon, I used a baby wipe to remove any ink from the balloon or string. I wanted him to look like he was standing by Santa, waiting for his turn to give Santa a hug!  I coloured all these images with copic markers and I have listed the markers I used down below.

Since I don’t have the dies, I fussy cut out my images. For the Peeking panda and Santa that go on the card front, I didn’t want the copic markers to show through to the inside when you open the card. To get a matching cut, I used temporary tape to adhere another piece of cardstock to the back of my coloured image, and then cut through both pieces of cardstock together.

Cutting through two layers of cardstock

I creased the card base at 2 3/4” in from both ends and then used a bone folder to really crease the folds.

Crease card base at 2 3/4" from both ends

On the inside, I placed the word “Joy” from the Simon Says Stamp set “Stained Glass Greetings” and stamped this in Versafine black ink. I coloured this in with a red Tombow marker so it wouldn’t bleed through to the back. I used a red copic marker and coloured a scrap strip of cardstock. I stamped this with Versamark ink and white heat embossed the sentiment -“May your Christmas be filled with”.  I trimmed this down and adhered it across the word Joy with double sided tape.

I stamped a few more snowflakes on the inside front panels in Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink and then sprinkled them with some Hero Arts Sparkle embossing powder and heat set them.

Then I cut my snowflake card front in half at 2 3/4”. After making sure I had these with the snowflakes lined up the way they were stamped, I adhered these to the front folds of my card base. I placed 1/8” double sided tape along the coloured peeking panda’s paws and placed him on the card front near the top. I glued the matching blank back piece and adhered it to the back of the panda so he was white when you open the card.  I did the same with the peeking Santa, placing tape just on his mittens.

Adhering the back of the peeking Santa

On the inside, I placed my images where I wanted them to be and glued them down into place.   I was careful to keep the standing panda to the right of the front fold. The Santa with the puppy was just slightly on the fold and I had to work to make sure he was creased very well, using a bone folder and pinching the crease. I found I had to keep working at this crease, but it eventually works out.

Showing the crease line with images attached

For the sentiment on the front of the card, I stamped the “No Peeking” from the Peeking Friends stamp set in Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide ink onto white cardstock. I had a die in my stash that I used to partially die cut the ends into fishtails, but you could easily do this with scissors if you don’t have a die. I also cut one slightly longer out of silver foil cardstock and adhered these together. I then used double sided tape to adhere my sentiment to the card front.

I love that this card is still 4 1/4” x 5 1/2” and fits into a regular A2 sized envelope, yet it has such a fun surprise inside and lots of room to write a message. I hope you’ll give it a try!

Copic markers used:

Santa:  E000, E00, R20, R39, R25, R35, YR23, N6, N4, N2, C2, C0
Dog:  E35, E53, E51, R20, G99, G94, G82, YR23
Pandas:  N6, N4, N2, N0, R20, C2, C0

Carolling Pandas with Gerda Steiner’s Lovely Panda and Carol Kittens

Hello, it's Karen here (@karens_kardzz) and I have an interactive Carolling Panda Christmas card to share with you today.  I've used images from Gerda Steiner’s Lovely Pandas stamp set and the Carol Kittens as well. Here's a look at the card.

I love how when you pull out the tab, the panda is singing along with the kittens, but is instead singing "Beary Christmas".  And it looks like the one kitten on the left is really giving him the stink eye!

I think it’s easiest to see the construction of this card on HD video, and you can see it HERE. 

I started my card by making masks of the kittens and the panda as well as the envelope that the panda is holding.  I also made a mask of a snowbank using Lawn Fawn's Hillside border dies.  For the evergreen trees in the background I used Newton's Nook Evergreen stencil and I made a mask of this as well.

I stamped out the kittens on the front of my card, using the masks for the center kitten.  I left room below the kittens to add my sentiment. Then I masked all the kittens and positioned the snow drift mask over the kittens.  I positioned the evergreen stencil over the snowbank and used Distress Oxide Evergreen Bough ink to fill in the trees.  I then applied Nuvo Glimmer paste in Moonstone over the trees.  Once the glimmer paste was dry, I used Copic markers to colour in the kittens.  I have listed the markers I used down below.

To create the tab, I cut a piece of 110# cardstock into a rectangle measuring 2 1/8" x 4 1/2".  I corner rounded 2 of the edges to create the pull part of the tab.  You also need a stopper at the other end, and I made this from a strip of cardstock that was 1/2" x 2 1/2".  I adhered it to the back edge of the tab with 1/8" double sided adhesive. 

Showing the tab construction

I masked off the left, rounded edge of the tab where the word pull will go, approximately 3/8".  I then placed the tab in my stamp positioner and positioned the panda holding the envelope onto the left side of the tab. I used Gina K black amalgam ink to ink up my stamp and then used a baby wipe to remove the heart and inside lines of the envelope. I lightly stamped the image onto the tab and then placed the mask of the envelope over where it should be on the image on the tab.  I then stamped the image again to get a good impression.  I used a copic multiliner pen to go over the edges of the envelope where it hadn't transferred completely.  I then used the music sheet from one of the kittens to stamp onto the "envelope" the bear is holding so it would be a music sheet.  Again, I used a baby wipe to remove any unwanted lines or ink for this.

Showing removal of unwanted lines on the music sheet

 I stamped the word "Beary" from MFT's Polar Bear Pals stamp set, and the "Christmas" from Lawn Fawn's Here We Go A-Waddling set, just to the right of the bear.  I also used this Lawn Fawn set for the sentiment on the front of the card.  The next step was to mask off the bear and position the snowdrift mask.  Once they were in place I created the trees with the Evergreen stencil the same as was done on the front, and finally covered the trees with the Nuvo Glimmer paste. I coloured in the bear with copic markers, and they are listed below.

The last step for both the front of the card and the tab was to mask everything off, including the trees and then I ink blended the sky with Distress Oxide inks in the colours Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet and Chipped Sapphire.  I also ink blended these colours onto a scrap piece of cardstock that was big enough for my sentiment and to die cut the "Pull" letters from.  Once the sky was inked up, I applied Nuvo Shimmer pen to the snowbanks, and the trees.

I stamped "We wish you a merry Christmas" onto the piece of cardstock I had inked in the sky colours with Versafine ink and heat embossed it in white. I fussy cut this out and added fishtail edges to it.  I die cut the word "Pull" from Lawn Fawn's Picture Changer die set and adhered it to the tab, but you could easily stamp the word or place an arrow on the tab.

To assemble the card, you need to make a channel that the pull tab will run along so I positioned the tab where I wanted it to be seen on the front ( roughly parallel to the kittens) and marked this on the back in pencil.   I placed double sided foam adhesive along the top and bottom of the back of my card front, and another strip that would butt up to the stopper end of the pull tab.  I also placed foam tape along the stopper edge of the tab so it couldn't push through to the other side.  Finally, you need to place small pieces of foam tape on the left edge of the card so the tab cannot pull out of the card completely.  The picture below shows placement of the foam tape.

Placement of the foam tape - notice the stoppers at the front and back of the tab

Finally, I removed the backing on the foam tape and keeping the tab in position, turned it over and adhered it to the card front.

So here’s that list of copic markers that I used:

Panda - N6, N4, N2, N0, C2, C0, R00
Kitten on the left - E51, E53, E33, YR27 Scarf - G99, G94, G82
Middle kitten - N8, N6, N2, N0 Scarf - B04, B02, B00
Kitten on the right - N4, N2, N1, N0 Scarf - RV 25, RV 14, RV 21
Hats - R39, R29, R35
Music sheets - Y21
Sky “fill in” - V12

Whew!  I know that's a long post, but this is a fun card and I hope you’ll give it a try.  Truly, I think it's easiest to just watch the video for the best explanation of how to make this one.

Joy to the World with Create a Smile Stamps

Hello again!  I’ve got a very sparkly Christmas card today that I’ve made with a stamp set from Create A Smile stamps as well as one of their stencils.

I started by positioning the Wave of Snowflakes stencil on my card front. I inked it lightly with Distress Oxide Tumbled Glass ink and then applied Tonic Nuvo Glimmer paste in Moonstone over it and let it dry.   

Then I stamped the world image onto 110# cardstock with Gina K amalgam black ink and coloured it in with copic markers.  I placed it back in my stamp positioner and aligned the starry strands stamp around the globe. I stamped this on with Versamark ink and heat embossed with a silver embossing powder.  Then I fussy cut this out which was quite easy to do. I applied small star glitter with glossy accents to where there were already stars from the starry strands stamp and let this dry. 

I die cut the word Joy as well as a couple of snowflakes from dies I had in my collection from white cardstock. I used Distress Oxide in Mermaid Lagoon to ink up the J and Y of the word Joy. Then I applied Versamark ink to them and dipped them in Hero Arts Sparkle embossing powder and heat set them.  I did this 3 times to give a very shiny, thick look to the letters. 

For the snowflakes, I ink blended some Tumbled Glass ink onto the top snowflake and then applied some of the Moonstone Nuvo paste over it. The bottom snowflake I left white, but I applied Versamark ink over it and then dipped it into the Hero Arts Sparkle embossing powder and heat set it. 

I then foam mounted the letters and the world image and applied them to my now dry card front. I placed a small square of double sided foam to the center of the white snowflake and adhered that in place of the “O” in the word Joy. I used a little double sided adhesive tape to attach the second snowflake and then placed an Icy Sparkle crystal from Studio Katia in the center with glossy accents. I placed a few more of these crystals around the card where there seemed to be some gaps. 

Finally, I stamped the sentiment “to the world” onto scrap cardstock in Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide ink. I corner rounded the 2 bottom corners and trimmed it down. I attached it to the letter Y in Joy. I also added Nuvo shimmer pen to the land segments on the world image. 

This is just one of those cards that is so much prettier in real life. The camera just can’t get the colours right or capture the sparkle. Thank you so much for joining me today and I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!