Monday, June 22, 2026

TRIPLE THE BALLOONS

This week I will be featuring the Balloon Festoon Bundle.  This bundle is great to create fun cards for any type of celebration.


I have made Double Z Fun Folds many times, but this is the first time I ever attempted a Triple Z Fun Fold.  It was just as easy as a Double Z -- just a few more pieces of paper to cut.


Wouldn't this be a fun card to receive and open on your birthday?  It's a happy card!

On the Triple Z Fun Fold there are many surfaces that you can choose to decorate any way you choose.  I decided to put a large balloon bouquet in the card front.


The two smallest dies from Balloon Festoon were used for the balloons.  They were made using the Splash of Sparkles Designer Series Paper, Silver Foil and stamped images.  

The sentiments are also all from the Balloon Festoon Stamp Set and were added  to the right, middle and left panels.  On the upper middle panel I added couple of more balloons.


Because I used the colorful Splash of Sparkles DSP, there really wasn't a need for much additional decoration.  This beautiful, foiled Specialty Paper did all the work.

Since there isn't really a good place to sign this Triple Z  card, a panel was added to the back of the card to have a place to write a short note.


These three balloons were stamped rather than die cut.  The masking technique was used to make them look like they are in front of and behind each other.  The ENJOY YOUR DAY greeting is also from Balloon Festoon.

If you would like to make a Triple Z Fun Fold, go for it!  Download a tutorial at this link.  It includes all the cutting and scoring dimensions as well as diagrams and step-by-step directions that make the process easy.

The products used are shown below.


Product List

Thursday, June 18, 2026

VELVET MEADOW FUN FOLD

On Monday I indicated I was having a difficult time choosing which of the beautiful Velvet Meadow Designer Series Paper (DSP) designs to use.  Well, I'm still having trouble!  They are all so pretty that it seems impossible to select just one.

So I went on a search of a card design where I could use several of the pretty designs.

I found this card by Sharon Armstrong in my Creativate Tutorial's file.  She shared it during the Spring Creativate Retreat, and when I saw it I knew immediately that this was the fun fold I needed to use.

The fun fold is made using a standard card with an added flap on the right.  Initially, I was a little intimidated, but it turned out to be extremely easy to put together.  Using the designer series paper made it even quicker to complete--which was good because I was running out of time.  

If you want to see just how easy it is, watch my short video.

I did add additional mat layers that Sharon did not use on her examples.  It is an easy modification once you have the basic instructions, and I love the detail it adds.

In this close-up of the card front you see the DSP design that is probably my favorite.  I'll admit, it was difficult to cut into this particular piece of DSP.

Open the flap and you see these two DSP designs.

Open the card front and you see the inside of the card.

I actually was able to use five different DSP designs from Velvet Meadow collection.  

The card front and the flap have a different design on each side, and the flower on the center message layer was die cut from a fifth design.  

Yes, there are coordinating dies for some of the flowers in the DSP.  

The only step in making this card that requires a bit of extra attention is when to add the ribbon the ties it closed.  Just be sure to lay the ribbon over the flap before you add the DSP assembly to the front of the flap.  I didn't and learned that lesson the hard way.  Guess I should have paid better attention to Sharon's instructions!

Use this link to download a PDF Tutorial.

Ad list of the product used is shown below.

Product List

Monday, June 15, 2026

A VELVET MEADOW QUILT

This week I am featuring the Flowering Meadow Bundle with the Velvet Meadow Specialty Paper.


This was the first card I made using products from the Velvet Meadow Suite.  I knew I wanted to use the gorgeous designer series paper (DSP), but honestly, I could not decide which design to choose.  So rather than choosing one design, I decided to make a "quilt" so I could show off several of them.


A few weeks ago I saw a similar "quilt" design on a card, but with no dimensional information available, it took a little "figuring" to know what size to cut each of the quilt "blocks".  Then I had to figure out which way to cut the diagonals.  

So needless to say, there was a little trial and error involved.  Fortunately, I remembered to start with some old, retired scraps of cardstock, so I didn't "mess-up" this gorgeous velvet DSP.  Yes, this Specialty Paper has areas of flocked, velvety texture.  One side has flocking -- but not too much.  The "backside" of the paper is smooth with a variety of small patterns that create an appearance of texture.  Colors are Basic Beige, Berry Burst, Bubble Bath, Cloud Cover, Daffodil Delight and Peaceful Pine.  Click on the link in the product list below to get a better understanding of all the pretty designs.


The center focal point of the card was made with Sweet Words and Labels Dies and one of the floral images from the Flowering Meadow Bundle.

For all the details and dimensions please reference the tutorial that can be downloaded here.


The flower on the inside of the card is also made with the Flowering Meadow stamps & dies.

A list of the products used is shown below.


Product List