Christmas in July

As I have mentioned previously, the CottageCutz design team is having a throwback month in July, using previously released dies on our cards.  I used the Cardinal Holly Ornament as well as the Nested Stitched Eyelet Rectangle set.  My card went together pretty quickly.

To begin my card, I die cut the cardinal ornament -- the bird from a scrap of red cardstock and the ornament pieces from white.

I colored the ornament pieces with Copic markers and added a bit of darker red to the cardinal to give him some depth of color.  After I constructed the ornament, I added a bit of white highlight to the holly berries with a white gel pen.

My card base is a piece of red cardstock cut 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", scored at 4 1/4".  I cut the mat piece from some slightly patterned snowflake shimmer paper with the largest Nested Stitched Eyelet Rectangle die.

I constructed the card base . . .

. . . and added the ornament.

I then tied a bow with some gold cord, attaching it to the top of the ornament with a glue dot, and placed some small gold sequins for a bit of bling.  My card was complete.

CottageCutz dies used on my card are:

CCEE1829 - National Zookeepers Week

Lynn continues this week with another challenge to the CCEE Stampers.  She told us that trips to the zoo were always one of her favorite summer activities and asked that we honor the zookeepers of the world by including a zoo animal in our design this week.  My card depicts one of these animals (the elephant) -- but in his natural environment rather than in the zoo.

Be sure to check out how the rest of the team handled Lynn's challenge over on the CCEE Stampers blog.

Framed Lighthouse

Because CottageCutz isn't having a new release this month, the design team members are pulling out older dies and giving them a fresh look.  Today I have pulled out Lighthouse w/Clouds, Rope Corner, and the Pierced Wide Rectangle Frame set to make my card.

This card is a standard A2 card which folds at the top.  I started by cutting the cardstock and patterned paper for the card base, as follows:

Turquoise - 4 1/4" x 11", scored at 5 1/2"
White - 4" x 5 1/4"
Waves patterned paper - 3 7/8" x 5 1/8"

Next I cut the middle Pierced Wide Rectangle Frame from gray cardstock and a piece of sky patterned paper 2 1/2" x 3 1/2".  I applied two layers of foam tape to the back of the frame and adhered the sky paper to the frame.

I then die cut the Lighthouse and Rope Corner pieces from white cardstock . . .

. . . colored and constructed the images.

All that was left was to place the lighthouse, seagulls, and clouds in the frame, attach the frame to the card, and add the rope and anchor appropriately -- and my card was finished.

CottageCutz dies used on this card are:

3x3 Note Tote and Card

The Scor-Pal "More than One Score" challenge for July was "3 of a Kind" -- make a matching set.  Earlier this month I posted my 3" x 3" Note Tote and Matching card.  Today I am showing you how I made this set, using some Kindred Stamps characters based on one of my favorite movie franchises.

To make the tote, I cut a piece of red cardstock 3 1/4" x 7 1/2" and scored at 3 1/4" from each end.  I then trimmed the four corners with a corner rounder punch.

Then I cut a strip of red cardstock 1 1/4" x 8" and trimmed it with a scallop border punch.

I then cut another piece of red cardstock 2 1/4" x 8 1/2", scoring at 1 5/8", 2 5/8", 5 7/8", and 6 7/8".  This will be used to create the sides of my tote.

I adhered Scor-Tape along the top and bottom of the two end sections center section.

To construct the tote, I removed the protective paper from the Scor-Tape, lining up the long center section of the insert with one side of the outside panel, being careful to line up the corners and the bottom, and gently pressed it together.  I then folded up the other side of the outside panel, lining up the corners on each side of the insert, and pressed them together, forming the tote.

I cut a piece of white cardstock 2 1/8" x 9" and applied adhesive to one end and wrapped it around the tote, overlapping at the end.  I burnished the corners to create a crisp fold line and then cut a piece of star-patterned paper 2" x 9", repeating the wrapping process.

Using a piercing tool, I created a hole centered and approximately 1/2" down from the top of each 1" side panel.  I adhered the scalloped handle on the inside of each 1" side panel, piercing through the hole to go all the way through and then inserting a white brad on each side.

I then stamped, colored and cut out the characters and adhered two of them to the front of the tote with foam pop dots.  The rest of the characters will be for the 3" x 3" note cards and the larger A2 card.

The note cards were made from 3" x 6" pieces of red cardstsock, scored at 3".  I decorated the fronts with a panel of white cardstock and a slightly smaller panel of star-patterned paper -- adding a character to the front of each.

The larger card was made with a piece of red cardstock 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4" and folded in half.  Again I layered a piece of white cardstock and star-patterned paper, similar to the note cards.  I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of white cardstock and cut out with a key tag label punch.  I added two die-cuts made from a Sizzix die set called Scribbles and Splat as background -- and then adhered the three remaining characters with foam pop dots.

CCEE1828 - National Simplicity Day

Lynn continues as hostess for the CCEE Stampers this week, telling us that today is National Simplicity Day, in honor of Henry David Thoreau, who was a devoted advocate of living a life of simplicity.  So on this lazy day of summer, her challenge to us was to create a clean and simple one-layer card.

Some time ago I bought a set of stamps inspired by the "simple" thoughts of kids.  I used one of them on my card today.  What is better than a friend with chocolate?

Check out the rest of the simple cards created by the rest of the CCEE Stampers team over on the blog.

Special Thank You

As I mentioned last week, during the month of July the CottageCutz design team is reminding you of some older dies when making their cards.  My card uses two such dies -- Stitched Leaves and the Pierced Wide Rectangle Frame Set.

To start my card, I cut the stitched leaves from a piece of white cardstock.

I then colored the pieces with Copic markers.  I had originally planned to use a white pen to make the stitches more pronounced, as is shown on the packaging; but I was not happy with the results on the first leaf I tried.  So I turned it over and colored the back so it was not wasted.

I then cut the card base pieces and the frame.  The cream card base is 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4"; and the inside of the frame is 3 5/8" x 4 5/8".  I used the largest frame die.

I adhered foam tape on the back of the frame.

After constructing the card, I laid out the leaves down the side of the frame to see how much room I would have for my sentiment.

I removed the leaves and stamped the sentiment.

I then replaced the leaves, gluing them down over and under the frame, as well as the acorns at the bottom.  And my card was finished.

CottageCutz dies used on this card are:

CCEE1827 - Impossible Card

Lynn starts her month as hostess for the CCEE Stampers with a currently popular fun fold card -- the Impossible Card.  She says, "This new fun fold card, based on a famous card trick, is sweeping the internet.  I thought it would be great if the CCEE Stampers put their own 'twist' on this design this week.  Here is a link to a tutorial by Maymay Made It Crafts that will show you what it is all about!  It demonstrates the Impossible Card in several varied sizes."

Here's mine -- made with a cute train die from CottageCutz and some old stamps from the MFP Stamp Shop.

Be sure to check out all the other fun Impossible Cards over on the CCEE Stampers blog.