CottageCutz Flip Calendar - Part 1

I was really excited when I saw that CottageCutz was now making dies with coordinating stamps.  I've created a project that will cover three blog posts.  As you may or may not know, I love making 3-D projects as well as cards.  When I saw two of the dies from the CottageCutz Valentines 2017 release (Calendar Months and Calendar Icons), I immediately knew that I wanted to make a calendar of some sort.  My idea solidified itself after I saw the new stamp/die sets being released.  Here is a photo of the finished project.  My follow-up posts will explain how I made it.

Supplies for today’s post:

Cardstock – white, various colors based on choice of patterned paper

Patterned Paper – DCWV All Seasons 12” x 12” pack

Small monthly calendars or Excel spreadsheet software

CottageCutz dies – Calendar Months, Calendar Icons, Double StitchedRectangles

To start my calendar, I die-cut the months of the year and the icons.  I cut the icons from white cardstock and colored them appropriately with markers.  In addition, I cut a white panel using the largest Stitched Rectangles die.

I created a calendar for each month using Excel, cut it out as well as the background cardstock and appropriate patterned paper for each month.  The color scheme of the patterned paper determined the color of the base cardstock.  The photo here is for the month of January.  Each page of the calendar was created in a similar manner.

After adhering the panels onto the blue background panel, I adhered it to a 5 ½” x 7 ¼” white panel.  Each calendar page is two-sided so that the final calendar has six panels (January/December, February/November, March/October, April/September, May/August, June/July).

In my next post, I'll show how I made the scenes on the individual months.

CottageCutz dies used on today's post are:

CCEE1704 Let It Snow

Vicky winds up the month as hostess for the CCEE Stampers with a challenge to make an all occasion card  -- any card you could send on a normal day, no birthdays or holidays.  BUT . . . it should have snow on it in one way or another.  This was an opportunity for me to use some masking fluid, which I don't think I've used all season.   I added some Stickles for sparkle on the snow banks.

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog for some more snow.

Hi, Chick!

Today I'm using one of the new stamp/die sets from CottageCutz, Farm Animals.  I think the red gingham patterned paper gives a warm, country feel to my card.

Supplies used on my card:

Card base - 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", folded in half

Cream layers - 4" x 5 1/4", 3 1/4" x 4 1/2"

DP layer 3 7/8" x 5 1/8"

Ink - black, red

Stamp/Die set - CottageCutz Farm Animals, CottageCutz Double Stitched Ovals

Other - Copic markers, Foam pop dots

I stamped, colored, and cut out my three Farm Animals images.

Then, using two pale shades of blue and tan, I "painted" the background to my focal panel.

I stamped my sentiment on a scrap of cream cardstock and then cut out two ovals using the Double Stitched Ovals. 

When I layered the two ovals, I thought the difference in size was too wide; so I trimmed the gold oval at the inner stitch line, sanded it smooth, and then mounted the cream oval onto the gold one.  I liked the size contrast much better.   Then I constructed my card.  All the die-cut elements are popped up on foam pop dots.

Dies used on this set are:

STAMPlorations CAS Challenge

This is a reminder that you still have time to enter the STAMPlorations CAS Challenge for January.  It's an Anything Goes challenge with a color option of Silver or Gray.

I made a second sample card for the challenge, this time using STAMPlorations The Birds and The Blooms set.

You can enter up to three CAS cards for the challenge over on the STAMPlorations blog.

CCEE1703 Black and Cream

Once again Vicky is our hostess for the CCEE Stampers this week and asked us to use just black and cream (ivory) on our cards.  It didn't matter if we used die cuts, punches or stamps -- I used die cuts:  a Spellbinders set for the background and two CottageCutz dies for the package and sentiment.

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see some more black and ivory.

Hogs and Kisses

CottageCutz has some new die sets, only this time they come with matching stamps!    As I love to color, you know I am loving these new sets.  I made a funky Valentine card using the set called Farm Animals.

I found a layout I liked and went to work.  First I stamped and colored the pigs.

Then I cut them out.

The Valentine collection has a nice sentiment, a row of hearts, and some doilies that would work well with my chosen layout..

Now I was ready to construct my card.  I glued the patterned paper at the top of a white panel, laid down the sentiment and the heart border and adhered the panel to a red card base.   After gluing down the layered doilies, I added the pigs (popped up with foam pop-dots) and stamped a little heart between them.  I then stamped the "Hogs and Kisses" sentiment at the bottom and added the red die-cut heart (which actually came out of the sentiment) -- and I was finished.

CottageCutz sets used on this card are:

CCEE1702 Tri-fold Card

Vicky continues this week as hostess for the CCEE Stampers blog and asked the team members to each make a tri-fold card.  If you know me, you know that I love fun-fold cards; so this one was a treat.  My card uses mainly patterned paper from the Under the Sea collection from Heartfelt Creations.

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see some more creative cards from the rest of the team.

Tea and Cookies

I have a bit of Valentine fun for you today.  As a non-coffee drinker, I appreciated one of the new Valentine dies called Cup of Love.  In addition to the cup die, this gave you the option of tea and/or hot cocoa with marshmallow on top!  My card today is a little "tea for two."

Supplies for this card are:

Cardstock - white, pink, blue, silver, tan, red
Ink - black, pink, blue
Dies - CottageCutz Cup of Love, Double Stitched Ovals, Double Stitched Circles
Other - white gel pen, foam pop dots, sponge applicators

I started cutting my card base from white cardstock 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", folded in half.  Then I cut a pink panel 5 1/4" x 4" and a white panel 5 1/8" x 3 7/8".  Then I cut out the pieces from Cup of Love, using small scraps of cardstock, and Double Stitched Oval from silver cardstock.

I sponged a little bit around the edges of the cups and handles with a darker pink and blue.

Then I cut out some tan and pink "cookies" and "icing" using the Double Stitched Circles.

I carefully trimmed back the pink circles at the first stitch line.  This would make my "icing."  Then I ran a white gel pen around the remaining stitch line to add a bit of decoration on my cookies.

All that was left was to construct my card.  I sponged around the edge of the white panel, adhered it to the pink panel and added it to the white card base.  I placed the cups on the tray and added the three cookies, popping one of them up with foam pop dots.  I added the tea bag and stamped the sentiment, and my card was complete.

CottageCutz dies used for this card:

STAMPlorations CAS Challenge - Silver or Gray

Today marks my first post as a guest designer for the STAMPlorations CAS challenge team.  I have not always been drawn to CAS cards but recently have become a big fan.  I do love the clean lines and lots of white space of CAS stamping.    The January challenge is Anything Goes: with an optional color choice of Silver or Gray.

For my card today, I used a stamp set called Smile.

If you'd like to play along with this month's challenge, check out the STAMPlorations CAS blog and link up your card at the end.  There are prizes!  $10 gift certificate for the winner and $5 gift certificate for the top picks.

CCEE1701 Bird Day

Happy New Year to all!  Vicky starts off 2017 as hostess for the CCEE Stampers, and she reminds us that today is "Bird Day."  Guess what our challenge was . . . you're right.  We were to include birds on our cards.  I made a relatively CAS card today using just an embossing folder, some CottageCutz dies and a few sequins.

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see the birds the rest of the team used on their cards.

Birthday Time!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.  Now it's time to get back to work . . . or fun, as the case may be!  I have another fun birthday card for you today using a few CottageCutz Mini, Petite, and Expression dies.

Supplies needed for this card are:

Card base - white cardstock, balloon patterned paper

Scraps of colored cardstock - pink, green, purple, red, yellow, orange, black, white

Dies - CottageCutz Balloon, Round (mini), CottageCutz Present, CottageCutz Happy, CottageCutz Birthday 

Ink - Distress Worn Lipstick
Other - red pen, ribbon, foam pop dots, adhesive sheet, scallop border punch, ruler, pencil

I started with a white card base 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", folded in half.  Using a pencil and ruler, I marked in 1/2" on all four sides.

Using a red pen, I drew a border around the edge.  Then I cut a strip of patterned paper 1 1/2" x 5 1/4" and punched the scallop border down the long left-hand side, adhered it to the left-hand side of the card and ran a ribbon round the center, gluing to the inside of the card.

Next I cut all my dies.  I wasn't sure how many balloons I was going to need, so I arbitrarily cut six of them. 

As it turned out, I used only five of the balloons on the front of the card, so I put the sixth one on the inside.

I had cut two present die-cuts -- one in pink cardstock and one in patterned paper.  I cut the ribbon portion of the pink one out and backed the hearts with a small strip of red.   After sponging around the outside of the patterned paper, I glued the ribbon to the package.

All that was left was to construct my card.  To make it a bit easier, I had put an adhesive sheet behind some of the cardstock for the smaller die-cuts, such as the sentiment dies, string and shadow on the balloon die.  The sentiment is glued flat, while the balloons and present are popped up on foam dots.

CottageCutz dies used on this card are: