CC2C Grande Finale!

Happy New Year!  Over at Studio L3, Linda is hosting the finale for the Compendium of Curiosities Vol II Challenges and what a finale it is!  We all get the opportunity to wish Happy Birthday to Tim Holtz whose birthday is January 7th.  The challenge is to create a birthday wish for Tim using any technique from Volume I or Volume II of Tim's Compendium of Curiosities books.

I made a pop-up birthday card using the Sizzix Pop 'N Cuts system created by  Karen Burniston.  The techniques included are basic Distress Ink blending, Distress Markers on page 50 of Volume II and Perfect Pearls Mist on page 54 of Volume II.

I want to wish Tim a birthday full of memories that include family, friends, love and laughter--all things that everyone should enjoy on their special day!

For the base card, I used Karen's Sizzix Bigz XL Pop 'N Cuts Horizontal A2 w/Circle Label die.  Other dies used were Karen's Sizzix Sizzlits Love die set, Flagpole w/ Lantern & Sign Decorative Strip, and her Sizzlits Celebrate die set.  The paper is taken from Tim's Lost and Found paper stash.  The stamp sets used were Tim's Good Thoughts, Words for Thought and Winged Things II.  Also used was Ranger black archival ink, Tim's distress markers, distress inks in Aged Mahogany and Brushed Corduroy, Perfect Pearls Mist in Sunflower Sparkle, Idea-ology Chit Chat stickers and a journal ticket.  The birthday hat is from Artchix Studio.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by my blog!  I appreciate it.  Have a great day!

A Merry Little Christmas Card to Everyone

I've neglected my blog, my blog followers and the blogs I follow over the past few weeks.  I was diligently making my Christmas cards.  I try to do this every year since I'm not very good at making cards for birthdays, etc., during the year. This year I waited too late to start and took on a design that was too detailed given the amount of time I had to make them.  But once I realized how long they would take I had already invested too much to turn back.  So here is a holiday card to all of you!  Thank you so much for all of your support and your kind comments.  I hope that the holiday finds you happy, healthy and surrounded by friends and family!!

The sentiment at the top right corner says "Wishing you a sparkling holiday!".

Thank You and a Pop-Up Card

First, I want to say thank you to everyone who left comments and good wishes for me on my last post.  I am happy to say that the doctor gave me a clean bill of health at my surgery follow-up!  I am so grateful for their expertise and for the excellent care I received from them and from the hospital.

Karen Burniston, who designs pop-up dies for Sizzix, recently posted a tutorial on her blog showing how to add a spinning mechanism to her new Sizzix Pop 'N Cuts pop-up dies.  Her tutorial used the Sizzix Pop 'N Cuts XL Die set base tray which I don't have.  It has been difficult to find due to the immense popularity of these dies!  Shelly Hickox, who is on the Sizzix design team, also recently posted an anniversary card that she made using the pop-up insert for the pop 'n cuts dies without the base tray.  Sooooo...I decided to see if I could combine both techniques and make a pop-up card, with a spinner, using just the Pop 'n Cuts insert along with the Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers base tray.  And it worked!  I've included pics and a quick video showing the action!  Please forgive my amateurish video.  I shot this one-handed with my iPhone while I opened the card with my other hand!

To assemble the card I cut a 6" x 12" piece of patterned paper for the inside.  I marked the center of each side of the card along the 12" edge.  I also marked the center of each side of the base tray.  I put the pop 'n cuts insert into the base tray and centered it using the marks I made on the sides.  Then I lined up the center marks on the patterned paper with the marks on the base tray and ran it through the Sizzix Big Shot Machine.  I cut another 6" x 12" piece of patterned paper for the outside of the card and glued them together.   I added the spinning platform based on Karen's specs and from there I decided what other pieces I wanted to add.  I did have to do some trimming and tweaking because the ghost's fingers kept catching on the pop-up behind the house!

I decided after the pop-up card was assembled to add the trick-or-treaters from the TH Stamper's Anonymous Halloween Cutouts stamp set.  I couldn't easily stamp it on the assembled card so I had to stamp it on a separate piece of paper and cut it out by hand.  Not fun!  Sure would have been nice to have the Stamp2Cut cartridge for this one!!

I hope you like the card!  I have an idea for another one so stay tuned!

List of products used: Karen Burniston Sizzix Pop 'N Cuts Label 3-D pop-up; Tim Holtz Sizzix Branch Tree, On the Fence, Movers & Shapers Mini Cat and Raven, Rickety House and Bewitching Hour (bat only); Sizzix Bigz Ghosts #3; Stampers Anonymous Halloween Cutouts stamp set; Boooo! from Inkadinkado Creepy Face; Paper from Teresa Collins Haunted Hollows, Authentique Glowing and Core'dinations Black Magic; Ranger Black Archival Ink; Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Black Soot and Weathered Wood;  Ranger Stickles Glitter Glue Christmas Red; Advantus Heidi Swapp Scrappy Glue.

Ciao Bre!

My beautiful niece left this past Saturday for a three-week trip to Italy.  She will spend most of the three weeks at an archaeological dig outside of Rome.  She was super excited and really looking forward to the experience she will gain on this trip.  She also plans to sightsee as much as she can while she is there.

We had a party for her last Thursday so I made her a pop-up Bon Voyage card.

The outside of the card is the Tim Holtz Alterations Vintage Valise die.  I cut the die from patterned Tim Holtz grunge board and the smaller pieces from Tim Holtz grunge paper.  The pieces are painted with Adirondack Paint Dabbers in Sandal, Espresso and Pitch Black.  I distressed the edges of the valise with Vintage Photo distress ink.  I fashioned a latch from extra die pieces to help hold the card closed.  I added brads from the Idealogy Mini Fasteners and then hammered the tops to distress them.  The tag was cut from the Sizzix Framelits Tickets set using Nomad paper from the Bazzill Wayfarer collection.  The sentiment stamp is from Inkadinkado.

The paper inside the card is also Nomad from Bazzill.  I cut two separate pieces for the top half and bottom half of the card so that I could use the image of the United States on the top half and Europe on the bottom half.  Inside the card I used Karen Burniston's Sizzix Bigz Zig Zag 3-D Pop-Up die.  I cut the die from acetate so that it didn't cover up the background paper.  If you look closely you can see the outline of it behind the airplane.  I love this die because it's so versatile!  I've used it in cards that open both horizontally and vertically.  Inside the card I used Tim Holtz Sizzix Vintage Camera Movers and Shapers die.  I painted the accents on the camera with a silver paint dabber. The stamp of the Roman Coliseum is from Stamp Cabana.   The color was added with chalks.  The airplane, from the Tim Holtz Visual Artistry The Journey cling stamp set, was stamped on glossy paper using black Ranger Archival Ink and mounted with foam tape.  The sentiment, Enjoy the Journey, is from the same Visual Artistry stamp set.  The passport stamp is an old one, from Inkadinkado's Dawn Houser collection, and it was also stamped on glossy paper.

As an afterthought, I stamped the small arrow from Stampendous in red on a separate piece of paper, cut it out and positioned it so that it points to Italy!

She loved the card as well as the cookie cake that I made for her.  Thankfully I have a day job and it doesn't involve making cookie cakes (obviously!)!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Party in a Card!

Long time no post!!  If I didn't have a day job I could post much more frequently.  But then how would I buy all of the cool stuff that I NEED!  Today I have a birthday card that I gave to my good friend Carol.  I like to think of it as a Party in a Card!!

I started with a gatefold card. The front is decorated with a scallop square and the words Happy Birthday.

 Inside I added a center platform for the pop-up and added Make a Wish.

When you pull down the platform the party hat, gift and sentiment pop-up in addition to the banner across the top. And no party would be complete without balloons! I used the Sizzix Bigz Zig-zag 3-D pop-up die on top to hold up the banner. I cut the die shape in half and glued the pieces to each side of the card. The banner was created with the Framelits Banners die sets and the Stamps of Life Banners4all stamp set. On the platform I used the Sizzix Bigz Scallop Circle 3-D pop-up die. For the finishing touch I "stickled it up"!  Because Stickles make everything better in my book!

Hope you like it!  I have a couple of Christmas banners to post as soon as I take the pics.  Yes, I know that Christmas is over with but I didn't have the time to finish them until Christmas was over with!  Hey, that just means I'm ahead of the game for this year!  Happy New Year to everyone!

I love Pop-Ups!

I've always had a thing for pop-ups or any kind of card or book that has things that move, flip, fold open, etc.  I've also always had a thing for Halloween! Maybe it's because I was born in October...or because I loved candy as a kid...I don't know...but the decorations and the colors of Halloween have always appealed to me.  So to prove that I actually do use some of the craft supplies that I buy...and to justify buying more...I pulled out all of the Halloween dies that I have purchased from Sizzix with the intent to make pop-up Halloween cards.  Of course, once I pulled them out I knew that in order to use all of them I'd have to make an awful lot of Halloween cards !!!  That's when I realized that the best way to use them...all in one project...was to create a Halloween pop-up book!  So here's what I came up with...

For the pop-ups I used several different Sizzix dies designed by Karen Burniston.  I had to be creative and alter the pop-up to suit my needs since I made the book first and then had to design the pop-ups to fit the pages!  Kind of backwards, I know, but that's how I work sometimes!  The only frustrating part of the process was having to leave the project unfinished and go to my day job!  It took several weekends to complete but I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.

Here are the supplies that I used:

Sizzix Dies- Karen Burniston Pop-up Bigz 3-D Scallop Circle, 3-D Bat, 3-D Spider & Spiderweb, 3-D Pull Tag Frame; Tim Holtz Alterations Gothic Boo, Candlelight Fright, Pumpkin Jack, Rickety House, Bewitching Hour, Branch Tree, mini Bat & Skull set, mini Cat & Raven set, Silly Jack-O-Lantern set, Scary Jack-O-Lantern set, Vintage Market strip, Cobwebs texture fades; Sizzix Bigz Ghosts #3; Bigz Sweet w/Skull; Bigz Treat Bag & Candy; Originals Witch Hat, broom & shoes; Originals Fence; Originals RIP & Tombstone; Bat strip; Candy strip; Sizzlit Skeleton; Sizzlit Graveyard Set.  Paper- Authentique, Fancy Pants Design, Pink Paislee, My Mind’s Eye, Making Memories, SEI, Cloud9 Design, Reminisce, Echo Park Paper, Karen Foster, Doodlebug Design, Recollections, Coredinations.  Stamps-Tim Holtz Stamper’s Anonymous; Stampabarbara; Pink Paislee;  Catslife Press; Technique Tuesday; Martha Stewart.  Stickers- Little Yellow Bicycle, The Girls’ Paperie, K & Company, Martha Stewart.  Punches- Marvy Uchida.  Miscellaneous- Ranger Stickles, Scrappy Glue, Yes paste, Maya Road bingo number, 7 Gypsies cable rings, We R Memory Keepers Crop-a-dile Big Bite.