Sylvester the Cat Card

When I saw this card by Ellen Kemper at Blinkin', Thinkin' & Inkin' I fell in love with the cat face.  Immediately, it made me think of the cartoon character, Sylvester the cat.  If you enjoy making characters using punched shapes, you should definitely check out her blog!
 

For an A2 sized card I cut one each of:

5 1/2 x 4 1/4 pink cardstock
5 1/4 x 4 black cardstock
2 1/2 x 4 1/4 white cardstock
2 1/4 x 4 pink cardstock
2 1/2 square of pink cardstock
2 3/8 square of black cardstock

The white eyes and pink nose were cut using the George cartridge and Design Studio.  I placed a 2 3/8" square on the mat in DS and sized the heart and oval to the size I wanted.

Using my Crop-o-dile, I punched the holes in the white heart to form the eye opening and then snipped off the tip of the heart.  The cat's whiskers were done with a white Signo gel pen.  The pink and black tiger striped ribbon is from Ribbons and Bows, Oh, My!

Box Top Fold Card

Dawn Griffith featured a card like this on her blog recently.  The one she designed was square.  Since I do only A2 (5 1/2 x 4 1/4) cards to send to Operation Write Home, I had to do some "higher math" to convert the measurements.  Boy, I knew I should have paid more attention in math class!

You can click on the link above to see how Dawn assembled her square card and get all her measurements.  If you want to make it an A2 size card, here's what you'll need to cut.

Base cardstock:       cut 1 piece 11 x 4 /14"     score this piece at 2 3/4" across the
                                                                       narrow width
                               cut 1 piece 8 1/2 x 5 1/2"   score this piece at 2 1/8" across the
                                                                         narrow width

Fold the scored piece to the center of the card stock.  Then, fold the opposite end in to meet the edge of the scored section..  You need to use a bone folder to get a crisp edge so the card will lay flat when assembled and the front sections are tucked inside.

This will make perfect sense to you after you watch her video!

Lining:    cut 1 piece of cardstock 5 1/4 x 4"
              cut 1 piece of cardstock 5 x 3 3/4"    this will be your area for your
                                                                       sentiment

Lay the two pieces of base cardstock across each other in the shape of a + sign and attach them using adhesive.  Then just layer the lining pieces and attach them to the inside.

Fold the outer pieces just like you would if you were closing up a cardboard box.

Embellish the front however you choose and add your sentiment.

For my card I used:  Stampin' Up stamp sets-Define Your Life (retired), Language
                                of Friendship and Cottage Garden
                             
                                Boho Blossom punch

                                Coredinations Color Core cardstock

                                Sizzix Decorative Flourish Die

                                Pearl Pen and Signo White Pen

My written instructions make it seem pretty complicated but it really does go together easily.  The hardest part, other than figuring out the dimensions to cut the cardstock, is folding the top closed.  I folded mine closed and then did the embellishments so I wouldn't have to determine which piece to fold in first!  You can ask Fred how many tries it takes me to close a cardboard box this way!

It was fun to challenge myself to make this style of card.  I make so many A2 sized ones that I tend to think only in terms of what will fit onto that size.  This isn't a card that I'd make tons of to send to OWH, but it was a nice change of pace this afternoon.  Wouldn't it make a fun Easter card for a child with something special inside?

Christmas Tree Cutout

Very Merry tags was the source for the oval with the Christmas tree cutout.  Using Design Studio, I cut it out at  4.75 inches and then stretched it a little wider to make the tree opening large enough for the sentiment.  The stamps I used are from CTMH and are part of their Art Philosophy bundle.

My picture quality is pretty bad.  So, if you can't tell, the light green paper with the words stamped on it is actually sitting inside a cutout of a Christmas tree.

This one has brads in the corners, gold Pearl Pen dots and white Signo pen stitching on the oval and around the tree cutout.  The star is punched from shiny gold metallic paper.

I used gold Pearl Pen dots instead of brads on this one; made white Pearl Pen dots around the oval and filled in with a Signo pen.

This is my favorite of all the ones I tried out.  Just brads, white Signo pen work and a metallic gold star.  It's one that I can make multiples of really quickly to send to Operation Write Home and Cards for Soldiers.

White embossing powder was used for the words, I added gold Stickles as well as white pen work around the oval and the tree cut out.