How to Make a Hillside Trifold Card *Video*

 Hello and thanks for stopping by!  I’ve got a couple of cards for you today that use a similar technique but they have very different looks. They are both hillside trifold cards and are both Christmas cards. 

This is the first card and it features the beautiful Hero Arts Tri-fold Edge Village die set.  I’ve kept the colours very simple - just white and gold, which gives the card a classic, elegant look.  

The second card features The Reindeer and a Tree stamp set from Gerda Steiner Designs, as well as Sunny Studios Woodland Border die set.  This is a fun, whimsical card and has the added surprise that from the front of the card, you don’t see all the reindeer decorating inside. You only see them when the card is opened.  

I’ve got a video if you would like to see how I made these cards.  To see the video PLEASE CLICK HERE.

I hope these cards will give you a little inspiration or help jumpstart your creativity.   Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you’re having a great day! 

Who Let the Reindeer Out?!

Hello, and welcome!  I’ve got two Christmas cards to share with you today featuring the Reindeer and a Tree stamp set from Gerda Steiner Designs.  We’ve had our Thanksgiving here in Canada, and Halloween is almost over, so I’ve been on a roll making Christmas cards lately - I hope that’s not too early for you!  I’m trying very hard to use my stamps and dies more frequently but in different ways, so since I had two cards made with this set, I thought I’d share both of them with you. 

I stamped all the adorable reindeer and the Santa images and copic coloured them in (copic markers used are listed below), and then cut out my images.  I used a snow marker (Marvy Embellishing Snow Marker) on Santa’s hat trim and pompom to give them some dimension. I also added some Glossy Accents to Rudolph’s nose and the collars.

For my background, I cut from white cardstock, 3 layers of the Simply Diamonds die from PinkFresh Studios and saved one layer of the inner die cut pieces.  I ink blended these smaller, inset pieces with a mix of Distress Oxide inks in Festive Berries, Barn Door, Candied Apple, Lucky Clover, Mowed Lawn and Crushed Olive. After gluing together the die cut panels, I adhered them to my card base and then inset the ink blended pieces.  

Then I adhered the reindeer and Santa with foam tape inside the diamonds on the panel.  The sentiment is from Picket Fence Studios Santa’s Sleigh Ride and I just thought it went well with all these somewhat mischievous looking reindeer. Finally, I added some Studio Katia Icy Sparkle crystals. 

And for the second card ...

For this card, I copic coloured the images which are all from the same stamp set.  I added the ornaments, lights, and candy cane from the set because I wanted to make it look like the reindeer were having a little too much fun with the decorating.  I added some black cord around the reindeer with the lights, and glued it behind his back. Then I glued the lights around and under the cord.

I made the strip of patterned paper from various papers I had in my stash.  I cut them into strips and then used a tape gun to adhere them to a piece of cardstock on the diagonal. I embossed a piece of white cardstock for the bottom half.  The sentiment is from the same stamp set too - bonus! - and I just embossed it with gold embossing powder. I added a little ink blending behind the patterned strip with Distress Ink Festive Berries, and popped the reindeer up on foam tape. 

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you’re having a great day!

Copic markers used:

Reindeer - E51, E53, E25, E33, N6, N4, R20, R00, YR23 and R29

Santa - R39, R29, R35, N6, N4, YR23, C0, C1, C2, E000, R20, R00

Hero Arts Christmas Village Bridge Card *Video*

Hello and welcome!  I’ve made a bridge style card using the new Tri-fold Edge Village die from Hero Arts. I think this die set is such a great Christmas one because it’s very versatile and oh, so Christmassy!  

I think the easiest way to see how I made this card is to watch the video, so I haven’t done a traditional blog post today.  I do hope you’ll follow along with the video, and I hope I’ve inspired you to give this card a try. It stands up so well that it doubles as a Christmas decoration too!  To see this video, PLEASE CLICK HERE.  

Thanks for joining me! 

Slimline Christmas Carol Kittens Card and a Bonus Card!

Hello and welcome! I’ve got a slimline card today that features the Carol Kittens stamp set from Gerda Steiner Designs as well as one of the puppies from the Howl are You set and one of the kittens from the Christmas Kittens set. My card took a bit of a left turn along the way, and I ended up with a second bonus card for you, so you can see that card at the end of this post. 

I’ve made a video showing how I made this card, so if you would like to see the video in HD, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

I started my card by cutting a piece of Strathmore watercolour paper to be about 9 x 4”, slightly larger than my rectangular die, and I taped it down to an old cutting board. After wetting it, I dropped in some Distress Ink reinkers in Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet and Dusty Concord. Once this was dry, I spattered it with some Kuretake Starry Colors paint in gold and let it dry. 

I used a Trinity Stamps die called Wonky Stitched Wilderness slimline series to cut out my background. I also embossed some of the stars that come with this die set.  I coloured all my images with Copic markers and have listed them below, and then cut them out. I applied some glossy accents to the dogs’ collar and the ornaments. I also die cut a snowbank from white cardstock using the Lawn Fawn Hillside border dies. 

When I went to assemble my card, things took a left turn.  I felt that the puppy was rather lost amongst all the kittens, but he was meant to be the singing star of the card.  So I removed the Christmas kitten in the tree (who I thought was looking very startled by the dogs’ singing), and he shows up later in the bonus card.  I die cut some trees from Sunny Studios Woodland Borders die set and covered them with Nuvo Moonstone glimmer paste.  

I embossed and heat set the words “Joy”, “The World” and the musical symbols (all from the Carol Kittens stamp set), using some Stampendous Pearlustre Moonstone embossing powder onto my snowbank border.  I also used the word stamp “To Youuuuuuuu!!!” from the Howl are You set and changed it to “Tooooooooo” by masking and rotating the stamp to only stamp and emboss the bottom of the u’s.  I then cut this out to make a speech bubble. 

To assemble my card, I foam mounted the snowbank and adhered it to the background.  I added some Nuvo shimmer pen just along the edge of the snowbank and then adhered the rest of my images. Finally, I glued the speech bubble in place to complete my card.  

And for the Bonus Card ...

So even though I had this card done, I still had that kitten in the tree image coloured and cut, so I decided to make a second card with it.  I coloured one of the other kittens in the Christmas Kittens set, as well as the tree branches.  

I die cut a panel of white cardstock with a wonky stitched rectangle die, and cut a lift the flap circle on this.  I heat embossed the “naughty or nice” sentiment around the flap in Stampendous Pearlustre Moonstone embossing powder.  I did the same for the word “Lift” on the flap.  I die cut a frame of gold foil cardstock and adhered this to my card base.  I glued the kitten in the tree in place so he would show up behind the flap, and then adhered my white rectangle panel to the card base.  I added the second kitten below the flap, and glued the tree branches over the flap itself.  I added glossy accents to all the ornaments. On the inside, I stamped the sentiment and added the broken ornament.  

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you’re having a great day! 

Copic Markers used:

Dog - E59, E57, E53, E51, E35, E33,  Collar - R39, R29, R35

Black cat - N6, N4, N2, N0, R20, R00,  Scarf - G99, G94, G82

Tabby cats - E34, E53, E51, YR27, R20, R00 Scarf - B66, B63

Grey cat - C3, C2, C1, C0, R20, R00, Tree/ ornaments - G67, RV13, RV04, RV02, YR16, Y38, YR21.

Hats - R39, R29, R35

Music sheets - E51, Y23

Theater Fold Meerkat Birthday Card with Video

Hello and welcome! Today I’ve made an interactive card featuring Meerkats on the Lookout from Gerda Steiner Designs.  I don’t usually make Halloween cards but wanted to do a fall colours card so this is what I came up with.  

I’ve made a video of how to construct this card and it’s probably the easiest way to figure it out.  If you would like to see the video in HD, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Here’s a list of the pieces of cardstock used and a diagram of where to crease the curtains.

I started by assembling the front first.  I die cut a rectangle from two of the white 4 1/4 x 5 1/2” pieces of cardstock as well as a black piece and then glued these together.  I cut a notch out of the side edges, using a small circle die and partial cutting.  I white heat embossed the sentiment and added the three dots with a white gel pen.  I folded and creased the two sleeve pieces so they fit along the side edges and glued them in place on the back, making sure they weren’t too tight.  I trimmed the sleeves around the notches so it would be easier to grasp the curtains.

For the back and curtains, I ink blended using Distress Oxide inks in Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, and Candied Apple.  I used a die from Find IT Media called Amy Designs Wild Animals Outback, and partially die cut this from black cardstock to fit along the lengths of all 3 pieces of cardstock.  

I trimmed the two curtains just slightly along the 5 1/2” edge so they would slide more easily through the sleeves on the front.  Then I creased and folded the curtains at 2 3/4” and 4 1/8” for the left curtain, and at 1 3/8” and 2 3/4” for the right one.  Finally, I glued the black die-cut silhouette pieces to the curtains and back and creased along the fold lines.  

I used glue to attach the curtains to the back piece, being careful to only apply glue to the first folded area on the curtains and to try to keep the center fold of the curtains together. Really, the glued area of the curtains should line up along the side edges of the back, but I found it more important for the folded curtains to match in the center. 

I cut a second platform piece from black cardstock and glued the two pieces together.  I cut slits in both curtains at the same distance, wide enough for the platform piece to pull through.  I made stoppers by using pieces of narrow scrap cardstock and gluing these to the ends of the platform so it couldn’t pull through.  Next, I stamped the inside sentiment and clear heat embossed it.

To assemble the card, slide the left curtain through the sleeve on the back of the front piece, and the right curtain through the other sleeve.  I added pull tabs to the curtains by folding a small strip of black cardstock and used the same circle die to cut them out.  Now all that’s left is to just add your images.  Oh, and to play repeatedly with opening and closing the curtains!  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you’re having a great day!

Z Fold Merry Wishes Christmas Card

 Hello and welcome! I’ve got a Z fold Christmas card to share with you today, that features the Merry Wishes stamp set from My Favorite Things. This is an adorable stamp set! 

K

I started by cutting my card base from navy blue cardstock (dimensions are 4 1/4” x 11” long).  I creased this at the 5 1/2” mark to make a regular A2 size card.  Then I creased the left hand side again at the halfway mark or 2 1/8”. I splattered the sky with some gold and silver paint and let it dry. 

Next, I die cut a snowbank by using Lawn Fawn border dies and doing some partial die cutting to extend the length so that the snow bank would extend fully across the scene.  The height on mine extends about a third of the way up the background.  I creased this the same way I had done the card base, and then adhered it with glue to the card base, leaving the top border free of glue to later insert my figures.   I cut a second snowbank  in the same way to use along the bottom border.  I creased this one at the 5 1/2” mark, and again at the 7 5/8” mark on the right and then creased and folded this in the opposite direction from the base.  This snowbank only extends about a quarter of the way up the background to allow the snowbank behind to be seen.  I also used a Lawn Fawn stitched heart die to add some detail to the snowbank.  

I adhered the second snowbank by glueing it to the short left hand card base and also on the short right hand side of the snowbank.  

The white trees were cut from white cardstock using the Alpine Trees from Memory Box and then inserted and glued in place just below the left hand snowbank.  The Merry Christmas die is one I had in my stash, and I cut it from a red glitter cardstock, and glued it to the snowbank on the left.

I stamped all my images with Copic friendly ink, and then coloured them in with Copic markers. After fussy cutting them out, I arranged them on my card base.  I wanted it to be a surprise when the card was opened and the whole scene was revealed, so I was careful to place most of the images in the middle of the card.  From the front, only the bird and the cabin are visible when the card is closed.  I added sparkle pen to the tree decorations and lights, as well as the star the bird is carrying.  I also added a Nuvo shimmer pen along the edges of all the snowbanks.  

I added a piece of white cardstock on the back as I felt the card needed a place to write a message.  This truly is a fun card and I hope you’ll give it a try!