The Stove Card Tutorial & Online Extravaganza is Live!

I have had a lot of people ask for a Tutorial for these Homemade Kindness Bridge U Fold cards...

But before I start... the Online Extravaganza Sale is now live!.

Discounts off most Annual Catalogue products over three 2 day sales... So a great time to stock up! Deals from today, 23 November (Black Friday) through 28 November. Click here to go straight to the relevant products in the Online Store... And/or click here for more details...

So back to the card...Make one of the Bridge U Fold cards as per this Tutorial here...

Cut the Festive Farmhouse papers as per the background scene papers in the Tutorial... Note that these 2 stove versions are just using the 2 sides of the same piece of paper...

The hearth front  is just a 1/2" x 15.5cm (6 1/8") high strip of the wood effect Farmhouse Christmas paper stuck to a piece of 1/2"  x 15.5cm (6 1/8") high piece of Grey Granite card for strength

But add a 5.5 x 8.5cm (2 1/8" x 3 3/8") Whisper White panel, scored when PORTRAIT at 1cm (3/8") from either side. This forms the top of you hearth (and is instead of those centre/box panels at the bottom) and is stuck to the card at the centre/back.. so that the hearth top and front lift up and fold onto the back of the card.. so you can fold the card flat...

And add a 12x4cm (4 3/4"x 1 1/2")  piece of Basic Grey card scored when LANDSCAPE at 2, 5.5, 7.5 & 11cm. (3/4", 2 1/8", 2 7/8" & 4 1/4") Stick this "open at the sides box part" behind the bottom/front part of your fussy cut stove... and then stick the back to the back/centre of the card... lining it up so the stove legs sit on your hearth!

The stove is black embossed on Basic Grey - only one stove needed as you chop the bottom section off the chimney! (unless you want legs at the back too - as I have on the stripy green one!) Chimney goes on back of card, rest onto that "open box part"

Though you do need another Memento Black stamped stove onto Whisper White... for colouring just those kitchen paraphenalia parts & pie... including the towel! Reduces the fussy cutting/colouring timings...

Two 1/2" Circle Punched Basic Black circles for the hob... and some Basic Black marker or Stampin Blends colouring to finish... I have also added silver highlights using a non SU silver Uniball Signo pen on the tartan papered scene...

Hand cut a few log rolls from the Wood Textures papers...

And finish off with a stamped and die cut Winter Woods large tree... (the die that cuts out within the tree shape with the extra cuts!)

And a final tip for you... after opening up... I find that the hearth/stove/fold is better if I pull the hearth and stove down through the base of the card...and then push both up into position...

Thatched Roof Cozy Cottage... behind a Drystone wall...

A little thatched roof Cozy Cottage in a country garden scene for a New Home card ... Cozy Cottage is actually a Hostess stamp set which can be yours at a seriously reduced rate with a qualifying order...

Memento Black stamping throughout... lots of Stampin Blends colouring action... including all that Pool Party sky... 

And talking of Stampin Blends... If you would like to collect them over a few months... then do check out my Stampin Blends club... details here... You can collect over 2 or 3 months... but note that the free Sale A Bration items can only be ordered in February and March... ie in the next 7 weeks...

Bridge U Fold card Tutorial here... as it was the perfect card format... (again!) The only difference being that I started with a 3cm high (1 1/4") base/front panel

And seeing as it is Tuesday... a few tips for you...

The drystone wall was elongated by stamping the whole image in the stamp set centrally... and then re-inking and stamping part of the wall to the left... and then to the right... avoiding the gate being repeated!

I coloured in a few stones using the light Smoky Slate and dark Crumb Cake Stampin Blends markers...and then blended over the whole wall (and path) with the light Crumb Cake Blendy... colouring the greenery with the light Old Olive Blendy...

Finishing off with the light Pool Party Blendy above the wall to remove the stark white... I then fussy cut the length of the wall at the top to create my front panel...

The flowers were coloured in the same way... with the whole image background coloured in with light Pool Party for sky at the top and some light Old Olive for the ground... these are stuck onto the central tab... to add dimension and that country garden feel...

And did you spot my oops!! Yes right at the last minute I must have touched my front left sky panel with my Old Olive Blendy... or maybe I had Old Olive ink on my hand!!! Anyways... luckily the greeting covers it pretty well!

Greetings from Beautiful You... Birds from High Tide

Bridge U Fold Lantern Tutorial

So back to this project... using the Hearts come Home & Hometown Greetings products

I thought I had already shared the "little" secret behind its creation... but it appears I hadn't... so here you go...

Make one of these...
Albeit better if you cut the middle panel to 14 x 10.5cm H (5 1/2" x 4 1/8"H) & score LANDSCAPE at 1.5cm (5/8") from each end (as per pt. 6) ... as that will give a better fit around the candle light......

Add glue up the back of the 2 sides... and stick...

Pop a battery operated candle light behind the middle panel...

And there you have it... a card that has now become a lantern... or one that can even be both if you use Tear n Tape add instructions to the recipient to remove the backing layer of Tear n Tape and stick for themselves...

My favourite Detailed Gates Christmas Card!

So I remade my Christmas Gates card that I shared here (with the Tutorial for you...) as I wanted to use the Boxwood Wreaths... and make it a quicker and simpler card in a class with lots of other projects going on...

Though luckily my brain kicked into gear before I attached the Boxwood Wreath as...with all that dimension... it would never have fit in a standard C6 envelope if I had... so the Christmas Around the World papers came out again... and a simple die-cut but flat wreath & bow was added instead...

And of course... luckily the Halloween Night papers are still in the Clearance Rack for us in Europe.. so the brick sheet in there made the gate posts really easy! I have to admit that more on their way to me and that I have bought a lot of these papers since they have been in the Clearance Rack...

Rest of the details are the same as the original ... apart from the Lanterns which are also care of the Christmas Lamppost dies... which are retiring (sniff! I am so gutted!)... but they are reduced in the Year End Sale by nearly £4...

Though the Full Bundle with the co-ordinating Brightly Lit Christmas stamps is still marginally cheaper if you want the stamps too...

And I will dash a few more of these off prior to my Christmas post... quicker to create than they look... and some already prepped and ready to go ...

Hometown Greetings in the Light...

Love it when one thing produces another... details coming another day! Though I think some of you will now be going..."oh of course!"

Edited to Add - and for the rest of you... here is the Tutorial post...

Sorry... really must dash today!  But I didn't want to leave you without a creative share.... Products used Hearts Come Home Bundle... available in Wood Mount And Clear Mount... 

Though I do have some exciting news to share tomorrow... speak then...

Detailed Gates Lanterns...

Remember these cards... well it turns out that they aren't just a card after all...

Pop a tealight in with your card and the recipient can have a  beautiful lantern/light display too...

Just remember to wrap washi tape around your tealight to make it look so much more special...

Simples!

Finally back to normal scheduling time today so as to hopefully hit a few fellow demo's blog feed before they dash off to On Stage events around the world this weekend... see you there (in the UK!) and hope you all enjoy!

Stampin Blends are making me happy!

Re-make of this incredibly popular U Bridge Fold card with the Stampin Blends in my hands! Coupled with the colouring concepts used in this card with the Many Marvellous Markers! But the Blends made those roofs so much easier!

Can't tell you how many times I have seen that original card CASED (Copy & Shared)... thank you to all of you that have so honoured me and my creation ... particularly those that  CASE+C (CASE with credit when sharing on-line)... it makes my blogging and sharing so worthwhile... and brings such a creative smile to my face!

Definitely prefer the ease and coverage with the Stampin Blends alcohol based blending markers... lot more subtle which is right up my street!

Live in the UK? Want your own Stampin Blends... then click and go here to see my November offers... just one last space in my first Stampin Blends Club...

Card tutorial here...

And just leaving this here...

 

This made me so so happy right in the middle of running a class!!! But more on that another day...

Detailed Gate U Fold Card Tutorial for Fancy Fold Friday

So back to my Detailed Gates cards... I had an unexpected (and great!) night out on that Friday - so I had to suddenly stop my blog post mid flow...  And then it was a busy weekend! And then a very very busy week - or three!

But here is the card tutorial for you finally... which is slightly resized to fit the gate perfectly... sorry for the delay!

Craft Spa Card Recipe
Main Card - Smoky Slate card 21 x 8.6cm H (8 1/4" x 3/3/8" H)
Box Sections - Smoky Slate card 12.6 x 2cm H (5" x 3/4"H) & 14.2 x 2cm H (5 3/4" x 3/4" H)
Background Panel - Whisper White Card 14.5 x 8.1cm (5 1/2" x 3 1/8"H) 

Card Directions
1. Large Smoky Slate panel LANDSCAPE (long edge along top). 
2. Score at 2.5cm and 5cm (1" & 2")

3. Turn 180 degrees
4. Score at 2.5 & 5cm (1" & 2")

Where required (ie in the event of inner sections as in the Halloween Gate Card)...

5. Score narrower LANDSCAPE Smoky Slate Box Section panel at 0.8cm (3/8") from each side

6. Score wider LANDSCAPE Smoky Slate Box Section panel at 1.6cm (3/4") from each side

7. Adhere Box Section panels to each other 

8. Make stamped background panel and trim when LANDSCAPE to 2, 10.5 and 2 cm (3/4", 4" & 3/4")

9. Adhere trimmed background elements to 3 inner faces

10. Fold Card as Mountain, Valley, Valley , Mountain

11. Adhere Box Section panels to inside of card (where relevant - none in this card) See photos for steps 15-18 here for more guidance if necessary

12. Assemble the Gate across the Front  section

13. Double stamp the gateposts (above and below each other in opposite directions!) using a Stamp A Ma Jig stamp positioner. Cut out by hand & trim as necessary. 

14. Adhere to sides of card front. Decorate as required.

Please see my Full U Fold Card Tutorial here if you need more guidance and visuals as to what goes where for this type of card fold... and yes it does all fold flat to go in the envelope!

And here are the 3 Gate cards made so far... just click on the photo to go to the relevant post with more details on the decoration... Oh and another one out in my craft space for another day!

Hearts Come Home U Bridge Fold Tutorial - Fancy Fold Friday

A Fancy Fold tutorial for you today.... and it had to be for this Bridge U Fold Card as its popularity on Pinterest tells me so! So here you go to save you having to work it all out... as it really is rather simple in principle...

Please note that my card is sized to fit in a standard A6 envelope with the full width of die cut houses showing in the front central area... and that the US/inches measurements are a direct conversion from the centimetres.

Craft Spa Recipe
Night of Navy card 21 x 10.5cm H (8 1/4" x 4 1/8" H)
Thick Whisper White card - Front 16 x 7cm H  (6 1/4"x 2 3/4" H); Middle 13 x 10.5cm H (5 1/8" x 4 1/8" H) ; Back 10.9 x 9.5cm H (4 1/4" x 3 3/4" H)

Directions
1. Night of Navy panel LANDSCAPE (long edge along top). Score at 2.5cm and 5cm (1" & 2")
2. Turn 180 degrees
3. Score at 2.5 & 5cm (1" & 2")

4. Stamp as necessary (using Craft Whisper White Ink)
5. Fold as Mountain, Valley, Valley , Mountain

6. Score LANDSCAPE Middle panel at 1cm from each side
7. Die cut 3 house borders as necessary  (TIP:- note the position of the left hand tree and the church on the Middle section as you position the die... I actually cut the front and middle sections together so I knew the church was where I wanted it in the gap!)

8.Trim Front border to ends by hand
9. Ink up & Stamp greeting on Front border

10. Assemble all parts (Tip: I stuck the back, then the centre, then the left hand side of Front and finishing off with the Front right)

Please see my Full U Fold Card Tutorial here if you need more guidance and visuals as to what goes where for this card fold...

Enjoy!

Hearts Come Home & Hometown Greetings Bridge U Fold card #4

A Simple Fancy Fold in the Navy & White series for you today seeing as it is Fancy Fold Friday...

A perfect Card Fold for this set of dies.... whether you call it a U Fold, a Bridge Fold or a Centre Box Card Fold.... or even a Bridge U Fold Card that I used for the title!

So the one today has been tweaked in size a bit to fit the full length of the border die cuts across the central section... and still fit in a standard C6 envelope... but I think I want to further tweak so I will be back to this fold another day!

EDITED TO ADD - Tutorial now available. Just click here...

Or click here to see my Hearts Come Home chalets in the snow version posted earlier... the chalet one being based upon the U Fold Card tutorial I posted here... though using just one box insert...

So 3 simple borders die cut for the 3 main elements of the scene...

A bit of Whisper White stamping on the background to create the starry night scene... Spot the smoke in the centre!

A couple of Smoky Slate stamped and hand cut houses to add some interest at the back and finished off with a couple of die cut trees using the Card Front Builder dies...

Hearts Come Home & Hometown Greetings for Merry Monday

Spoiler alert!!!

I can't wait to share a sneaky Autumn Winter (aka Holidays) catalogue peek with you today... using the coming soon set Hearts Come Home with co-ordinating Hometown Greetings dies... which I know will be a VERY popular bundle!

Available to all from 1st September... while stocks last.... as I have that feeling about this one...

So I mentioned that I had created a Snow Rama scene when I shared the details on my Dino Rama scene a few days ago... click here for that as I have used the same method...

Well I had to quickly make a snowy U Fold Card with the beautiful house die-cuts dressed up as chalets in the snow... care of the Wood Textures papers... Click here for the U Fold Card Tutorial... though I only used one box insert this time... (Note that this card fold is also called Bridge Fold or Centre Box Fold...)

Now as an avid skier for most of my life this little glittery scene around a lake in the snowy mountains gives me a lovely warm feeling and makes me very happy! And I am sure that some of you can relate to that....

One thing I particularly love with these dies.... is that you can cut a card strip with a die and then move the die along & line it up again to extend your houses with a second cut... as I have done for the front part here... Or you could use a different die for the second (or third) cut... I can see a 12" house strip on a scrapbook page coming sometime soon...

Want to see more of these stamps and dies... well you can... click on the picture below for a video introduction from the Home Office...

And I will be back with more Hearts Come Home creations pretty soon....