You're the Bees Knees

Hi Crafty Friends,

Today is the 3rd Anniversary of the Slimline Card Addicts Facebook Group, a group I started with my friends Karen Aicken three years ago because of our love of Slimline Cards. Neither of us ever dreamed that the group would grow so. quickly and now has a membership of over 9500 members.

Of course I had to make a Slimline card to celebrate the occasion, for my card I have mostly used stamps and dies from Lawn Fawn's recent May release.

Here is a quick video to see my card in action.

One of the dies that came out in the May release was the Magic Iris Bee Hive Add On, this can be used as a stand alone die or used in conjunction with the Magic Iris and Magic Iris Add On die sets. 

Lawn Fawn's Magic Iris dies were designed to work with an A5 card (4 1/4 inches x 5 1/2 inches), however I wanted to make a Slimline Card. I had to do a few little alterations to make it work, but I am happy with how it turned out. I used the largest Slimline Rectangle die from Lawn Fawn's Large Slimline with Sliders die set, so I could get the stitching around the edge of my panel. I then used Distress Oxide inks to add my sky background. I couldn't use the Magic Iris Add On die set to die cut the panel, so I used this instead to mark the placement of the circle and the semi circles on my card. I then used circle dies to cut these pieces out. I also needed to layer my slimline panel to a white panel for some extra width to hid the magic iris mechanism. I did need to do a little trimming once the mechanism was in place and if you look closely you can see a tiny bit of brown poking out on the left side, but for the most part it is ok. I also had to play around with the lever piece as my semi circle wasn't the exact size as the magic iris one.

Here you can see the magic iris starting to open and reveal the hidden message.

I used the grass die from Made To Surprise's Perky Pooches die set to add the grass layers.

And finally the full reveal of the hidden message. I used an older bee themed sentiment die from Darcie's Stamps for my message, which I white embossed onto brown cardstock.

To decorate the remainder of the card, I used the Hive Five stamp set, as well as the branch & small flowers from the Bee Hive die set.

Here is a quick look at my card showing the Magic Iris closed, partially open and fully open.

Of course seeing this is a bee themed card and Lawn Fawn also released a Bee Pop-up die set, I had to incorporate that into the inside of my card.

First I die cut two Slimline Rectangle Panels using a Picket Fence Studios die set. I then used  the first layer of a Honey Bee Stamps Stacking Hexagon Stencil set to add the hexagons randomly over my background. I also added a few black splatters.

After assembling the bee, I added it to the centre of my card.

Finally I added two sentiments to the inside panels using an older Honey Bee Stamps stamp set called Hi Honey.

 

Have A Novel Birthday

 

Hi Crafty Friends,

Thanks for visiting my blog. Today I am sharing a book themed Slimline Pop-up card I created recently.

To create the slimline portion of my card, I used Picket Fence Studios Slimline Die Cutting System including their new Slimline Oval Fence die set.

To decorate my card, I used Mama Elephants Book Club stamp set and one of the sentiments from the Storybook Sayings stamp set.

The grass & mushrooms behind the fence is from Lawn Fawn and the grass in front of the fence is from Trinity Stamps. 

For the inside of the card, I created a pop-up card using Karen Burniston's Little Labels Pop-up die set. I also used one of the slimline borders from the Long Nature Edges die set.

I again used stamps from Mama Elephant's Book Club and Storybook Sayings stamp sets to decorate the labels.

Here is a look at the inside of the card showing the card at an angle, so you can see the pop up portion of the card a little better.

Thank You Teacher

 

Hi Crafty Friends,

Thanks for visiting my blog. Today I am sharing an interactive Teacher thank you card that I created. This is one of four I have made so far this year for my grandchildren to give to their teachers at the end of the year. I think I still have a few left to make.

This year I purchased a few new stamp and die sets with a school/teacher theme and this card uses a few of these stamp sets. 

I also recently received my Made To Surprise Flip and See dies from their April release, so I decided to pull out the 5 x 7 die set to use on this card.

To create the front panel of my card, I used MFT Stamps Slimline English Brick Wall Stencil to make the background. I also used Clearly Besotted's Clever Corners stamp set for the cute owl and book scene.

I used MFT Stamps Teach, Sleep, Repeat stamp set for the sentiment. I doctored two sentiments included in the set to come up with the "Thank You Teacher" sentiment.

Here is a quick video to see my card in action.

When you pull the tab at the bottom of the card, the top panel flips up to reveal a teacher themed sentiment and images. I used the same stamp sets on this panel as I did on the front of my card.

This card is then layered onto a top folding 5 x 7 card. I added another sentiment and two pencil images to this panel.

What's One More Candle

 

Hi Crafty Friends,

Today I am share a shaped birthday card I created for someone celebrating their 70th birthday. 

I love creating shaped cards, so when Creative Craft Products released a set of dies called the  Numbers Galore Collection I had to add them to my stash. This collection creates  shaped cards for milestone birthdays and also include stamps to do with the dies so they can be used for both birthday and anniversaries. The numbers in the collection are 18; 21; 30; 40; 50; 60; 70 and 80. I could have really used these last year as my husband celebrated his 70th birthday and it was also our 50th Anniversary. This year I don't really have many special birthdays or anniversaries to make for, but these will be something I can use for future occasions. 

As I wanted to play with one of the dies, I decided to make a 70th birthday card. I used the Numbers Galore 70 Birthday & Anniversary die set to create the card base. I used the Numbers Galore 30 Birthday & Pearl stamp/die set for the candles & birthday cake. There is a cake & a candle in the "70" set, however the ones in the "30" set is smaller so I used those.

The balloons are from the Numbers Galore Milestone Birthday (21) stamp/die set. I stamped the balloons in rainbow colours and added them to the card in that order to match the patterned paper.

For the sentiment I used one from the Numbers Galore 70 Birthday & Anniversary stamp/die set.

One of the things I like about these sets is that they included both birthday and anniversary images and sentiments for the big numbers, except for 80. I would have liked a 90 too, but unfortunately they didn't do that number.

This makes a large card, being approximately 8 inches wide by 5 1/2 inches tall.  

Here is a look at the inside of my card. I added two birthday sentiments to the oval panel on the right side of the card. I also added a few more candles.

June 2023 Karen Burniston Designer Challenge

 

 Hi Crafty Friends, 

Welcome to our June Karen Burniston Designer Challenge.

Check out Karen Burniston's blog on Wednesday (US Time) when you will be able to see what all the designers created for the challenge this month, plus Karen will have an amazing video tutorial to share with us all.

Our challenge theme this month is ... "WEDDING or BABY" - create a card celebrating a new couple or a new baby.

For my card today I used the Paper Frames Pop-up die set for the pop-up mechanism of my card. I have used this previously in A5, Square and even Slimline cards so I figured this time around I would create a 5 inch x 7 inch card, which gives you plenty of room to decorate.

I used the elephant & giraffe from the Safari Animals die set to add the "stuffed toys" to the side panels of the card.

On the top left side of the card I added the "Congrats" die using Word Set 8 - Congrats die set.

On the upper right hand side of my card I used one of the labels from the Labels - Crosshatch die set, to have a place to write a personal message.

Here is a close up view of my Paper Frames pop-up. I added baby themed stamped sentiments to the panels and decorated the edges of the labels using dies from the Baby Charms die set.

For the front of the card, I used the gingham patterned paper I used on the inside of the card. Rather than use a third piece of paper I joined the paper left over from decorating the inside. To hide the join I added the border using the Border Blends - Party die set.

I used the Ovals -  Crosshatch die set for my oval panels which I decorated using dies from the Baby Charms die set and also the "Welcome" from the Welcome die set.

Blue Floral Mother's Day

 

Hi Crafty Friends,

Mother's Day was last month, but I didn't get around to making any Mother's Day cards to share on my blog as I didn't need them for Mother's Day. However I did realise that I needed to make some to add to my two daughter's card packs I give to them at the end of the year, so today I am sharing one I have made for that purpose.

As you can see I have created a Z Fold Card and I used one of Crafter's Companion's Ribbon Threading die sets to decorate the left and right sides of my card. For this card I used the Alluring Aztec Ribbon Threading die set.

To decorate my card I used pattern paper from the Frida Kahlo Paper Pack from Creative Craft Products. I hand cut one of the flowers from the patterned paper to use to embellish the oval panel on the front of the card.

I used oval dies from Creative Craft Products for all the oval layers of this card. For the Mother's Day sentiment, I used an older stamp set from Honey Bee Stamps ... Best Parents.

Here is a look at the back of my card. I decorated each of the panels on the back as I did the front. For the sentiment on the back of the card I used a sentiment from Card Making Magic.

Cheers

 

Hi Crafty Friends, 

I have a fun Sliding Window or Sliding Pop-up Card using the 5 x 7 Rectangle & Zig Zag Slider Card die set from Made To Surprise by Sam Calcott's Super Sliders Collection. I thought this was going to be one die set I wouldn't be able to get hold of, as it has been out of stock for months and I noticed there was an SVG version of it on Craft World. However about a month or two ago, it appeared in stock on Craft Stash so I didn't waste much time adding it to my cart.

I wanted to make an alcohol/wine themed card using some of the die/stamp sets I have of this theme, so as I had this wine themed paper I started with that. I also used gold mirror cardstock and burgundy cardstock to match the colours of wines.

To decorate my card I used MFT Stamps In Good Hands and Long Stem Barware Die-namics sets. I also added the "Cheer" sentiment which is an older die also from MFT Stamps.

When you pull the tab at the top of the card, the main rectangle panel moves to the upright position revealing a secret message as it does. For the sentiment here I used another stamp set from MFT Stamps ... Raise A Glass Stamp set.

Here is a side on photo of my card, so you can see the pull up panel of the card a little better. Normally I would add a sentiment to this panel, but I didn't for this card.  I did add the stamped "Pull" to the top of the pull up panel using the Push Me Pull Me stamp set.

For the inside of the card, I used the large rectangle and Zig Zag dies to add my layers to the card. I stamped two more sentiments from the Raise a Glass Stamp set.

To finish the card, I added two more sets of hands holding a glass of wine to each bottom corner.

Hummingbird Slimline Centre Step

 

Hi Crafty Friends,

About 12 years ago I did a tutorial for Splitcoast Stampers on how to make a Centre Step Card. It was my very first video tutorial I had ever made. Since then I have made many Centre Step Cards and now have a number of different die sets that help make them. You can find my tutorial here.  Last month, Dina Kowal came up with a Slimline version of this style of card and included it in the Splitcoast Stampers Newsletter, the converted measurements are at the end of my original tutorial, if you are interested in giving it a go.

It's been a long time since I have made a Centre Step Card without the use of a die, but of course I had to make one. I cut my Centre Step from white cardstock. 

As you can see, I decided not to add layers to my card except for the two cloud layers at the bottom of my card. I used Spellbinders' Hummingbird and Lily die set to decorate my card which includes dies to create the hummingbird, lily and cloud. The cloud die is a little shorter than the width of my card, so I just did a little careful die cutting.

I added Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide Ink to add details to the card base and clouds.

For the sentiment, I used Altenew''s Everyday Sentiments Hot Foil Set, foiling the sentiment using black foil. I added the circle sentiment to the bottom of my card, trimming off the overhanging portion of the circle.

To finish off the card, I added clear dew drops randomly around the card.

For the inside of the card, I added a few more of the lily buds and a sentiment using a stamp set from Card Making Magic.