Halloween Boo Shutter Card

I love Pinterest as it has so many ideas and tutorials for fun card designs. I’ve seen the shutter card many times over the years but somehow, never got around to making one….until now! I wanted an interactive card for some young ones and thought it would be perfect for a Halloween card. I followed Lisa Curcio’s tutorial and have linked it here: https://lisasstampstudio.com/2020/07/how-to-make-interactive-card-like-a-boss.html

And here is the card closed:

And as it’s opened up slightly:

A little more:

And more:

And here it is fully opened:

Can’t you imagine a child opening and closing it repeatedly? I sure can and in fact, even I did several times after I made the card!! lol Hoping you enjoyed watching the card open in the photos. Thanks for stopping by....

Oh a tip: the BOO sentiment is a plastic die cut, which sometimes had enough "surface" to catch on the shutter mechanism. So I glued a strip of dimensional (double sided foam sticker) to cardstock and cut it out-- I only wanted one surface of the foam to be sticky. Then I attached the dimensional strip to the card base just about (but also out of sight) of the shutter mechanism as it opens and closes. I added this above the "BOO" and another below it. Then all I had to do was to carefully place the shutter pieces so that they were flush with the printed card stock so that the foam strip kept the shutters elevated off of the card base and hence, not catching on the "BOO". If you make a card and just stamp a sentiment or have an otherwise totally flat focal, you won't have to worry about it catching. 

Happy Halloween!

Paper Pumpkin June 2026 Bikes and Blooms alternates

What a fun kit this is! I have to admit that the partial bikes kind of bugged me initially but it grew on me pretty quickly and I loved the florals combined with the bikes💕. I’ve made 3 alternate designs so far with a 4th in mind but not finished at this time. I’ll hopefully post that one later but I have to admit that I’m so behind on posting …! 

The first two designs (shown on the bottom of the photo above) are variations on a z-fold but given the direction of the bicycle half, I flipped the Z portion of one. Let me explain…first of all, I preferred adding a background to the bicycle so I pulled out some leftover DSP from the Thoughtful Journey pack. I loved the abstract landscapes and thought they’d be a perfect backdrop for the bicycle, without being too specific. They were perfect (or so I think). The standard z-fold has a front panel that is also 5.5”x4.25”. I cut the Thoughtful Journey DSP at 5.25”x4” then I adhered the large bicycle - which I purposely attached going to the right most edge of the card base! Then I added a grassy die cut in front of the bike. I stamped a bunch of small florals in the open spaces on the basket of greenery and stamped a birthday greeting on the sentiment label. The finishing touch was adding a little bird from the birds and butterflies embellishment pack.

 

Since the front panel is the full size of the card, the z-fold doesn't show unless you see the card from a  top view. I added a strip from the front panel DSP to bring it inside the card too:

For the second z-fold, I cut the full bicycle into two and fussy cut around it. Then I reversed the Z since it was just the back end of the bike and it didn’t take up the entire card front, I took advantage and used a smaller front panel. Again I used the Thoughtdul Journey DSP as a background, and added the grass die cut in front. I also stamped some birds flying in the sky, but it got hidden until you open the card. 

Again the finishing touch was a little bird from the birds and butterflies embellishment pack. Here's the "reverse" z-fold card from an aerial view. I decided to reverse the Z-fold because I wanted the cut off portion of the bicycle to be on the right edge of the card. You can also see the little birds stamped in the top left corner:

The third alt is a Thank you easel card and I used the sentiments from the Banner Sayings stamp set for both the focal sentiment as well as the stopper. Once again I added a Thoughtful Journey DSP panel to the background and stamped the flowers in the bike basket. 

When you open the card the stopper is a second sentiment:

Which left plenty of room above the sentiment to write a personal thank you message!

Thanks for stopping by....hope you like my alternate designs from this Paper Pumpkin kit. Have a wonderful day...

Lovely & Beautiful DSP fun fold

A shoutout of thanks to Rachel Tessman for her tutorial on this card design. It looks like a horizontal book binding card but when you open it, it twists around and becomes a vertical orientation card!! 

Here I'm starting to open it:

Opening it further...you can see how the front of the card is flipping...

And here it is, fully open:

Love love love this card design and of course this DSP pack has been a huge favorite of mine. I've used it in many a card! Thanks for stopping by...

Flowering Zinnia DSP cards - simple fun fold

I make a lot of cards for donation and depending on the organization I share my cards with, one has very strict rules about no embellishments. And because most of these organizations need lots of cards, I keep them fairly simple. But I still want them to look nice. And I always try to include a few simple fun folds in each batch.

I found a blog with a simple fold back fun fold but it was in metric. I tried to convert it to inches but had to tweak it a bit, plus one little size change as well. In the end, this is what I came up with and since this was back in April so I made a bunch of Mother's Day cards:

Card base: 4.25” x 11” scored at 1.5” and 5.5” Fold at the 5.5” line to create the basic card, then fold the  1.5” score line to the left so that the front of the card is shorter.

DSP panels: 3.25” x 4” qty 1 and  1.25”x4” qty 2 Attach the larger DSP panel on the left and the other two on the folded back area and on the “inside” of the card.

And here are close ups of each card: 

And as you can guess, this is a GREAT way to make a bunch of cards, as well as use up scraps and strips! Hope this inspired you to create some easy cards. Thanks for stopping by.

Peaceful Dock Father’s Day standing front panel card

Ah life has been extra busy these past few months so…whoops…forgot to finish posting several blog entries! Including a perfect Father’s Day card! I love fun folds but they don’t have to be complicated and this one is a simple one that stands up nicely and yet folds flat into an A2 sized envelope.             

To make this card, the card base is 8.25” x 5.5”  (note that this is .25” shorter than the standard 8.5” page width! I’ve made this card several times and tend to forget to remove .25” off of that end each time!!!). Then score the card base at 2”, 3” from each edge. Fold the 2” score as a valley fold (a “V” shape) and the 3” score as a mountain fold (the opposite direction). And then use a bone folder to get a crisp fold. The folded card base should fit easily in an A2 envelope.

I used an older DSP in my stash that looked “masculine” but don’t know the exact name. I adhered two panels on each side that measured 1.75” x 5.25”. The background of the front is 1 5/8” x 5.25” and the slim panels between the sides and front (which you can’t see in these photos!) is 3/4” x 5.25”.

The front panel is 3.75”x3.75” and I stamped it with the row boat from the Peaceful Dock stamp set. 

And on the back I’ve adhered a white panel 4 x 5.25” and attached it only on one side of the back so that it will allow the card to stand freely, but also fold and fit into the envelope:

I’ve made this card design several times and even made a bunch for donation! It’s easy and it’s fun. I hope you try it! 

“Celebrate” card using Lovely & Beautiful DSP and Simply Beautiful bundle, stamped & sponged

At first, the large prints of flowers in the Lovely & Beautiful DSP pack and corresponding Simply Beautiful stamp and die set were so intimidating! The prints were beautiful though so I decided I needed to get over that. LOL

I embossed the background using the floral embossing folder from the Cheers & Sips Suite of products. And then I stamped the large floral and two sets of double leaves on a piece of scrap white cardstock and die cut them out.  I used finger daubers to add color, purposefully making the color uneven in places. The gold strip and gold flower centers all pull together with the gold on the printed DSP. A small “celebrate” message (from the Banner Sayings stamp set and corresponding punch) set the tone for a celebration.

Here’s a close up of the background embossed panel. I love how an embossed background adds a touch of elegance and fills the background without being too busy:

And here’s a close up of the coloring of the focal flower and the sentiment was also sponged to match. I purposely tried to let go and not try to make every petal of the blossom and leaves have an even coverage. I rather like the way the flowers turned out!

And in closing, a second card made in the same way:

I hope you enjoyed these cards…I loved making them! Thanks for stopping by 😉

Cupcake card with Arched Wishes & Everyday Arches dies

A cupcake for a birthday …how perfect is that? Coupled with a new set of dies: arches!! Love them!! So I paired both with different background DSPs. Here’s the first version on one of the beautiful Wildflower Birthday DSP prints. I fussy cut the cupcake out and raised it using Dimensionals. The sentiment was stamped directly on the arch die cut:

And here is the inside of the card where I used the same arch die for the inside panel. The sentiment was stamped using the Everyday Details stamp set:

And here’s the same card with a different background print (from the Bright & Beautiful DSP pack). I also decided to emboss just the arch panel for this version and used a retired folder called Subtle Textile:

Thanks for stopping by…have a wonderful day!

Mini cards: Country Rose and Splendid Day

Here are two more 3x3” mini cards/gift enclosures that I made recently. This time I used Splendid Day DSP and Country Rose DSP:

Here’s a closeup of the Splendid Day DSP card: 

And here’s a closeup of the Country DSP card: 

These little cards are a great way to use up small squares (or almost squares) of pretty DSP! 

Greenery lane cards

A friend recently asked me to show her how to use the Greenery Lane stamps, dies  and Washi tape. So I created the following cards:

The first card (closeup below) used the Washi tape directly adhered to white card stock, and then to the card front. I die cut several leaves from the die set and used circle punches for the sentiment. Behind the circles, I added some silver “thread” looped around and twisted once in back. Final details of light green jewels as embellishments plus a fussy cut leave trio to finish it all off.

I wanted a non-green dominant card for the second example so I used a Soft Seafoam panel from Splendid Day DSP pack and added Bubblebath card stock. I stamped using the leaf stamp as a background filler then added two die cuts in Old Olive and Soft Seafoam. The pink twine is from my embroidery floss stash (LOL) and the greeting is from the Banner Sayings set. Some iridescent sequins add an elegant touch to the card as well as the tiny brass dragonfly. Oh almost forgot the background panel is dry embossed using a Sizzix 3D foliage embossing folder.

And my last card was a technique demo of creating a stamped background using Versamark as a replacement for colored ink. The leaves on this card were die cut from the Washi tape after it was adhered to white cardstock. The bow was tied using twisted Misty Moonlight and silver twine and the mini dragonfly was made using a retired punch. 

I’m hoping that these cards inspired you to create something today using the Greenery Lane set, or any similar set. Use what you have! Thanks for stopping by….

Toadstool Gardens: the latest batch of mini gift enclosure cards

I often make mini cards usually 3” x 3” but this time, I made some 2.5” x 3.5”. These mini cards are usually used as gift enclosures and I use them as “thank you’s”. Here are the latest ones made using Toadstool Gardens DSP:

It’s quite a darling pack of DSP and I had lots of fun creating these little cards. 

Diagonal Joy Fold with Charming Floral DSP

When I open a new pack of printed Designer Series Paper (DSP), there typically is one or two of the designs that I immediately love. And this paper pack was no exception, and the print I used for this card was my fave!

I used a background card base of Blackberry Bliss that measures 5.5 x 8.5” and the angle is cut from one corner to the center fold. Here’s a look at the open card:

<insert card photo here>

Once the card was cut, I adhered the (orange) background DSP to the front flap (which was on the lower left) and then on the inside on the top right like this:

Part of the design of a  “joy fold” card is that it has another “mini” card inside. I added a card inside and positioned it so that the front flap closes properly. On the inside of the mini card, I added a white panel to write in and a small strip of the front panel DSP. 

The front of the mini card is also the main focal of the card. I attached a panel of the beautiful DSP. The sentiment was embellished with a die cut from the retired Dainty Delight Bundle as it matched so perfectly with one of the wispy flowers in the DSP:

And one last look at the entire card:

Starburst scrap buster card

It may seem silly but I’ve always wanted to make a “starburst” card and haven’t until now. My Pinterest feed recently showed me a starburst card so I decided that today was the day! 

I pulled out some sweet printed cardstock from my stash and I went at the scraps with my paper cutter…cutting as many 5” x 1” strips as I could and then cutting them on the diagonal from one corner to the opposite corner. I glued the triangles to a panel measuring 3.75 x 5” with the points all meeting up at the same spot. And then I flipped the panel over and trimmed off all the ends that extended beyond the 3.75x5” panel. I added a mat layer that coordinated with one of the colors in the strip and added a sentiment and some floral embellishments. 

Below are some additional photos of the final card (sorry I didn’t think to take photos during the process) and the inside, which I kept simple with two mini banners:

Thanks for stopping by!