Gate Fold Magic Window Shutter 'Peekaboo' Cards

Well I've been cracking on with a load of stuff that needed doing this week, plus I've had a few fire fighter call-outs, so today I rewarded myself with a morning of card making!

I recently came across a couple of 'Shutter Cards' on the internet which have the effect of a camera lens opening when you open the card, and I really liked them!

I found a good tutorial by Sandi MacIver, which I mainly followed, to make the mechanisms for the following cards. I used the Martha Stewart Scoring board.

For my first card, I kept the card base and mechanism pieces all in pink, but put a square of metallic silver card behind the opening. I used my ATG tape runner for most of the sticking.

The patterned papers I used for layering are all from Crate Paper's Notes & Things 6x6 pad.

For the sentiment which is revealed as the card opens, I used the Happy die from the Echo Park 'Happy Easter' word dies, and a word stamp from Reverse Confetti's Whole Lotta Happy stamp set in Jet Black Staz On ink.

I used Stampin' Up flower stamps, with Bubblegum Blush Nuvo Crystal Drops in the centre.

The leaves are from Sizzix 'Floral Wreath' die set.

Here's a view of the card as it opens - you can see the sentiment starting to be revealed.

The movement is really nice! I keep opening and closing the cards, because it's so satisfying!

I just kept the card front simple.

For my second card, I used a black card base, but used contrasting pink shutter parts so the overall effect isn't too dark. All the patterned papers are from Carta Bella's 'Flora' 6x6 pad.

The bow is from Sizzix's 'Whimsy and Delight' die set, and I used a sentiment panel from the same 'Flora' pad.

On the front of the card I used the circle cut from inside the card, and the first part of the sentiment is a stamp from Altenew's 'Beautiful Day'. I adhered the circle to one side of the card.

The flowers are Stampin' Up punches, with an old stamen punch, and some black Nuvo Crystal Drops.

My final card from this morning uses exactly the same base card design as the others. This time I used papers from My Mind's Eye 'Away We Go' 6x6 pad, and die cuts from Tim Holtz's Cityscape Skyline.

Here's the card partially opening...

This time the card reveals a little car from Tim Holtz's Commute die set, and I added black and white Enamel Accents details.

The sentiment is from Paper Smooches 'Sentiment Sampler' stamp set.

Here's a view of the card mechanism from above - you can see how the shutter parts get pulled when the card opens.

I really enjoyed my morning of card making - this is such a fun design of card to make!

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Pop It Ups Accordion Oval & Sizzix Mother's Day Card

It's Mothering Sunday today in the UK, and I made this card a couple of days ago for my Mother-in-law, using Karen Burniston's Accordion Oval die set from Elizabeth Craft Designs. All the papers are from Basic Grey's Lucille 6x6 pad.

On the first panel, I used the word Happy from Echo Park's Happy Easter Words die set, a Reverse Confetti stamp from their Whole Lotta Happy set, and a heart that comes in the Accordion Oval die set.

The second panel has die cuts from the Sizzix You and Me die set, which I Distress Inked the edges of.

On the third panel I used a Sizzix Craft Asylum house, with the heart from the Accordion Oval die set, and on the last panel I used layers from the Accordion Oval set, and the female figure from the Sizzix You and Me die set.

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Sizzix / Echo Park / Stampin' Up Easter Cards for 2017

I just thought I'd show you the Easter cards I made this year.

I used a Stampin' Up embossing folder for the background, and the Sizzix Lovable Bunny Bigz die.

I added bows made with a Stampin' Up punch, and used Beacon's 3-in-1 glue to attach some paper flowers.

 For the sentiment I used Echo Park's Happy Easter word dies and glued them on with a Zig Chisel Tip Glue Pen.

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Sizzix Triple Flip-Its with Tim Holtz Commute Cars Birthday Card

This was a quick card I wanted to try out, using the Sizzix Triplits Flip-its die set, and car dies from Tim Holtz's new Commute set. The cars fit the circles really nicely!

I used the Happy die from the Echo Park Happy Easter word dies, a word stamp from Reverse Confetti's Whole Lotta Happy stamp set, and a star from the Sizzix Framelits Card Front Horizontal Drop-Ins die set.

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Tim Holtz Memoranda & Botanical Layers Pop 'n Cuts Card

 I missed my friend's birthday this weekend, so made this card for her, using some old Sizzix dies - the Pop 'n Cuts Square Card with Ornate Edges, with the Label insert. (A similar pop-up mechanism die which could be used is the Lucy Label Pop Up.)

I used papers from Tim Holtz's new Memoranda 12x12 pad, along with embellishments from the Tim Holtz Botanical Layers pack - both of which are just gorgeous!!

I didn't have a suitable belated birthday stamp, so wrote the sentiment myself with a dip ink pen.

I added some minimal decoration on the outside of the card.

Some of my new products!

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Pop It Ups & Tim Holtz Sizzix Cityscape Skyline & Commute Birthday Card

Hello! Ever since January when Tim Holtz's new products were unveiled, I've had the Sizzix Cityscape Skyline and Commute die sets on my wishlist - I've been wanting some cute transport dies to be invented for ages!!

They arrived this week, and I had a vague card idea in my head, but wasn't sure how it would turn out. This card is the result and I'm reasonably pleased with how it ended up. I'll be using these gorgeous little cars on plenty more cards, I imagine!

I took a few pictures along the way:

I used October Afternoon's 9 to 5 Steno Pad 12x12 paper for the background, and cut it as wide as the Skyline dies. I knew this would make for quite a 'busy' looking card, but felt that the vintagey work-related feel of the paper matched the style of the cars quite nicely.

I added one Skyline die cut, with a matching cardstock strip below it, up to the card fold.

I then die cut the card with Karen Burniston's Lucy Label Pop It Ups die, to create the pop-up part.

I made another Skyline die cut and attached it to a strip of cardstock, then adhered this to the pop-up part.

Next I used an Xacto knife to create some extra pop-up parts. (I taped these together on their reverse, to create the box folds.)

Then I just had fun die cutting all the little transport parts. The Commute die set includes all the separate wheels, and additional layer pieces. I used Tim Holtz's Kraft-Core Nostalgic Collection for the transport cardstock, because I liked the texture, but also the colours matched the October Afternoon patterned paper well.

I also added some perfect cute little clouds from Karen Burniston's Hot Air Balloon die set.

For the outside of the card I added cardstock strips to the top and bottom which I cut with Tim's Sizzix On The Edge scallop die, and a slightly metallic grey cardstock to cover the holes left by the pop-up parts.

The helicopter is also from Tim's Commute die set.

You can see all the layers, here:

Finally, I hand cut a road, added a sentiment from Tim Holtz's Sizzix Handwritten Celebrate die set (which I glued with ZIG's Chisel Tip glue pen) and one more little car.

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Sizzix Framelits Front Horizontal 'Congratulations' Drop-Ins Card

Here is the fifth card I made this week using some of the dies I was sent by Stephanie Barnard of The Stamps of Life and Sizzix.

I used a Stamps of Life chevron die for the background, and then the Sizzix Framelits Card Front Horizontal Drop-Ins die set for the border, 'congratulations' and stars.

I absolutely love the 'congratulations' font, and its shadow! The set also comes with dies for the words 'Thank You' and an accompanying shadow die which also fits into the frame.

I finished off the card with a present made using the Sizzix Triplits Gifts die set - another of my favourite sets from Stephanie!

All the cards I made this week with new die sets from Stephanie.

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Sizzix Framelits 'Thank You' and 'It's a Party' Drop-Ins Cards

Here are two more of the cards I made yesterday using two of Stephanie Barnard's great new die sets for Sizzix - the Sizzix Framelits Thank You Drop-Ins Card, and the Sizzix Framelits It's a Party Drop-Ins Card.

I used the shadow layer card front die on a pre-folded blank card, then had fun adding the heart layer and the wording. 

I cut out the wording twice (once in pink card stock and once in glitter card stock), stuck one layer on, then hand cut alternate letters from the glitter card, and stuck them over the top.

I just added some patterned paper inside the card.

The second die set I used is such a fun one - I love the mini balloons! The die set comes with three balloon dies, so you don't have to cut them all out one at a time.

I made the card in a similar way to the card above, adding some wire for one of the balloon strings, with Beacon's 3-in-1 glue.

I added some more detail inside the card, using pen for the strings.

All the cards I made yesterday with some of Stephanie's new die sets for Sizzix.

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Sizzix Stephanie Barnard Framelits Happy Birthday Drop-Ins Cards

 A couple of days ago I received a rather lovely package in the mail from Stephanie Barnard, full of dies she's designed for Sizzix and The Stamps of Life!

I'd recently spotted the Sizzix Framelits Happy Birthday Drop-Ins die set, and thought it looked great, so I was delighted to see Stephanie had included it.

As with lots of Stephanie's other die sets, they enable you to make a card pretty quickly - and this set is no exception - I love it!

You can use the die set with a standard size Bigshot and cutting pads, but it would probably be easier using an extended cutting platform and cutting pads. I found it easiest to just use the shadow Happy Birthday die on a pre-folded blank card.

Then it's just a case of adding the lovely large Happy Birthday words. (I die cut this twice from different patterned papers, stuck one down, then cut some of the letters from the other pattern and glued them on top.)

I added a party hat using dies from the Sizzix Triplits Party Hats die set, and some ribbon round the card fold, and that's it!

It was so quick, I made another one... 

Inside the cards, I added a panel of co-ordinating patterned paper, which you can see round the edges when the card is closed, and also a smaller layer of white card for writing a message. The message panel is hidden when the card is closed.

Stephanie had also included two more die sets which are a similar concept to the 'Happy Birthday' Drop-Ins - the 'It's a Party' and 'Thank You' Drop-Ins. I made cards with them too, and also with the Sizzix Framelits Horizontal Card Front Drop-Ins die set, which has the beautiful 'Congratulations' font included. I'll show these other cards in more detail in separate blog posts.

Hope you've enjoyed seeing some of Stephanie's latest products! I love how easily they lend themselves to bright, bold designs!

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