Scor-Pal November Challenge -- Special Birthdays

The Scor-Pal team is celebrating those special birthdays in our lives.  I decided to look back at a special birthday in my life -- my 50th -- by creating an explosion box.    There are many tutorials on-line for this box.  Here is a simple one for those who have never made one before.

My box had several layers on the sides, as you can see on this photo.  One of the tutorials I saw used a 15" x 15" piece of cardstock for the first (outer) layer.  I didn't have any paper that size, so I cut my box down a few inches and used a 12" x 12" piece of cardstock for the first layer, reducing each layer by 1 1/2", so that the inner (third) layer was 9" x 9".

I used Our Daily Bread Designs large number dies for the 50.

You can see the opened gatefold "card" in this photo with its birthday wishes.

I hope you liked my Special Birthday project.  I will save it for someone I know who is having a 50th birthday soon.

CCEE1844 Turkey

This month's hostess for the CCEE Stampers challenges is Anne.  She says, "This is the month of Thanksgiving in the United States. My challenge to you is to use a turkey on your card. If you are in another place that does not celebrate, you may use a bird. It wouldn’t hurt if there was a RED feather or two!"

I used a new Karen Burniston Pull Frame Pop-Up for my turkey card.  The feathers in his tail are brownish-red -- I hope that works for you!

When you pull that little tab with the arrow, up pops the panel to reveal some Autumn leaves and a very red apple, in case the feathers aren't red enough!

You can see how the mechanism works in this photo.

And when you open the card, you get some Thanksgiving wishes.

Stop over at the CCEE Stampers blog for some more turkey talk!

Merry Christmas from Datoka!

The Scrapping Cottage (CottageCutz) has a die in its new Christmas release that is available ONLY on their website.  It will not be available from any other outlets.  Called Dakota the Husky, some of the design team members will be featuring him on our cards this week.  He is really cute!

I used the version of Dakota wearing his Santa hat on my card -- along with some new Christmas plaid paper I just bought last week.

I started my card by cutting out the die pieces from white cardstock.

I then colored him with Copic markers and put him together.

My cardstock measurements are as follows:

White - 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4"
Red - 5 1/4" x 4"
Plaid - 5 1/8" x 3 7/8"

I then cut three ovals using the Cross-Stitched Ovals set.  To save cardstock, the red oval was cut from the center of the 4" x 5 1/4" layering piece.  The plaid oval came from a scrap.

I constructed my card, layered the ovals together, and placed some adhesive foam circles on the back of the oval and Dakota . . .

. . . placing them on the front of the card.

Using a Merry Christmas phrase, I cut the sentiment from dark green cardstock.

After gluing the sentiment on the popped-up oval element, my card was complete.

CottageCutz dies used on my card are:

CCEE1843 True One-Layer Only

Joanne finishes up her month as hostess of the CCEE Stampers challenges by asking us to make a true one-layer card -- no layers, no pop-ups, no embellishments.  This is not my usual style of cards, but I'm always open to a challenge.  I do like masking and sponging, so that's what I did for this Thanksgiving card.  After taping some removable tape around the edges of the card, I sponged on some Ranger Distress Antique Linen ink and stamped the leaf down the side in three different colors.  It's one-layer but gives the impression of some dimension.

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog for some more one-layer creations.

Trick or Treat Twist Panel Pop-Up

I thought I was finished making Halloween cards, but I decided to make at least one more -- using several different dies and stamps.  The base of my card is the Karen Burniston Twist Panel die, which I love.  The front has some CottageCutz dies, and the inside features some old stamps from my huge Halloween stock of stamps.

As I said, the front is made with several different CottageCutz dies -- the Double-Stitched Oval set, the Halloween Ice Cream Cone, and a Happy Halloween phrase.

The inside is where the magic happens -- with the Karen Burniston Twist Panel Pop-Up die and some old MFP Stamp Shop Halloween stamps.  That two-sided Halloween paper has been sitting in my stash for at least five years!

This may or may not be my last Halloween card for the season.  We'll see!

Fall Bake Sale

I made a Side Step Card today, using several of the new Autumn dies from CottageCutz.

To start my card, I cut cardstock as follows:

Wood plank cardstock - 8 1/2" x 5 1/2"
Cream cardstock pieces - 7/8" x 5 3/8", 2 7/8" x 3 1/4", 3 3/8" x 7/8", 3 3/8" x 2"
Orange plaid paper pieces - 3/4" x 5 1/4", 2 3/4" x 3 1/8", 3 1/4" x 3/4", 3 1/4" x 1 7/8"

A side step card is a relatively easy fun fold.  To show you how to cut and score, I made a little diagram.

After I cut and scored the wood plank cardstock piece, this is what it looked like.

I then glued the orange plaid pieces to the cream pieces and adhered them to the card base.

I then cut the Autumn Sweets and Pumpkin Pie and Latte dies from cream cardstock.

After coloring the pieces with Copic markers, using the packaging as a guide, I constructed each of the images.

I also cut the word "fall" from the Fall Phrases die and  rolling pin from the Bake Shop die and stamped the words "bake sale," using my old Snap Stamps.

I then adhered all the die-cut pieces to the card base, gluing the "fall" and rolling pin and using foam pop dots on the others . . .

. . . and my card was complete.

Here is a side view of the card.

CottageCutz dies used on this card are:

CCEE1842 - Mustache/Masculine

Joanne continues as hostess for the CCEE Stampers this week.  She told us that today is No Beard Day and asked us to make some masculine cards with mustaches, but NO BEARDS.  In honor of the next installment of the Fantastic Beasts movie franchise, which opens next month, I used a stamp set inspired by two of the characters in these movies -- Jacob and Queenie.  As you can see, Jacob has a mustache and NO BEARD!  I'm not sure if this card qualifies as "masculine," but I thought the brown plaid might give that impression.

Be sure to check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see how the rest of the team celebrates No Beard Day.