Friday, October 17, 2025

GATHER TOGETHER FOR SOME AUTUMN FUN

Another great way to use our designer paper is on Fun Fold Cards.  Today's card is a Double Flap Fun Fold, and I used four different designs from the Gathering Together Designer Series Paper DSP.

I love fun fold cards, but if I'm honest, I don't love photographing them.  Those "fun" flaps and folds sometimes want to go every which way but where you want them to when you try to take pictures.  

It's like trying to take pictures of cats!  Most of the time they have a mind of their own!  Although when they don't know you're looking, they can "behave" for a secret photo shoot.

This is my neighbor's cat, Coco.  She likes to come and visit and lay on my deck.

OK, back to today's card.  Without a little "persuasion", this is how it usually wants to stand up.


Those two flaps on the front like to pop open.  I don't really think it is being "uncooperative"; I think it just really wants to show you want is under the flaps.


There is a place for a special greeting under the flaps.  Typically this fun fold is mounted to a fixed panel, so under the flaps would be the main place to write your message or greeting.  Of course, you could always put a panel on the back, but for today's card I decided to put it on a card base that opens at the top.


By doing this I have lots of room to add another greeting and/or write a special note on the inside of the card.  

I decided to make this a Thanksgiving card as I still need a few more or those.  The "Happy Thanksgiving" stamp is from a VERY OLD stamp set I keep called Holiday's & Wishes.  This stamp set is so old it has wood mounted stamps.  The reason I keep it is for this Happy Thanksgiving stamp.  Of the hundreds of stamp sets I have, it is the only one I have (or can find) that has a "HAPPY Thanksgiving" stamp in it.  

Now, let's back up a bit and take a little closer look at the card front.


I mentioned above that I used 4 different designs from the DSP.  Can you find all 4?  Three are obvious.  The foiled plaid on the panel on the front of the card, the beautiful, foiled leaves on the left flap and the Cajun Craze pattern on the right flap.  But do you see the 4th pattern?
Maybe not.  It is the dark Early Espresso Swirled Design die cut under the pumpkins.  This is a very tiny sneak peak of a new bundle coming in November as an Online Exclusive.  You are going to love these dies!    There are all different shapes with all kinds of swirling details.  I'm excited to use them more.


Here's a closer look.  You can only see a couple of the swirls peeking out behind the pumpkins.

The pumpkins are from the Amber Autumn Bundle which I featured a couple of weeks ago.  They were stamped and then colored with Stampin' Blends and die cut with their Amber Autumn coordinating die.

For all the details on how to make this Double Flap Fun Fold download the tutorial at this link.  If something doesn't make sense, leave me a note in the comments or even better, send me an email.  I'm here to help!


We are now more than halfway through October and that means there are only two weeks left to take advantage of the BEST DEAL EVER on the STARTER KIT.  There are two options.  Chose the one that is best for you.



To learn more or to get one of those Starter Kits for yourself, use the button below or use this link.


A list of the currently available products that I used for today's card are shown below.


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Location: Commerce Township, MI, USA

Wednesday, October 15, 2025

FUN DSP TECHNIQUE WITH PEACEFUL GARDEN

 For today's post you get a Three-Fer.  What's that?  Three cards from one simple Technique.  

I like to call the technique "Stack & Cut".  Stack several pieces of the same size designer series paper (or you could use cardstock) and then while they are aligned and stacked together, cut it into the same number of pieces as you have in your stack.  For example, if you have 3 pieces of paper in the stack, cut the stack into 3 pieces.  If you have 4 pieces in your stack, cut the stack into 4 pieces.

I've never tried more than 4, but I don't see why you couldn't.  You just need to be sure your cutter will cut all the pieces in the stack at once -- while you keep them carefully aligned.

After you cut the stack into pieces mix and match the pieces to make card fronts.  For today's card I used 3 designs from Peaceful Garden Designer Series paper cut to 5-1/2" x 4-1/4".  I stacked them and then cut my stack into 3 pieces.  After mixing and match, this is what I had.

Now the fun begins!  Let's see the 3 cards I came up using the above panels.

I decided to made a "beginner" level card, an "intermediate" level card, and an "advanced" card.

Let's start with the beginner card.

I added a couple of tails of ribbon and Basic Rhinestones for a bit of sparkle.  I guess you couldn't stay it qualifies as a SIP (stamps, ink & paper) card, but for my style, it definitely qualifies as a "simple" card.

The inside is also clean & simple, but never naked.  A strip of coordinating DSP adds a bit of color.  The sentiment is also from the Shepherd's Care stamp set.

Now let's move to the intermediate level card.

For this card I die cut my stack & stamp background with a die from Branching Out dies and layered it on a Night of Navy layer made with the same dies.

The narrow Night of Navy die cut was also cut with Branching out dies.  To make it narrower, I just die cut it twice -- one on the left side and then slid the same die over and cut the right side.

The two stems were die cut from Basic White cardstock using dies from the Beautiful Motifs dies.  I used a Blending Bush on the "flowers" of one of the stems to add a little Misty Moonlight ink to help them pop.

 The sentiment for this card was made with a new Online Exclusive Bundle coming in November, called Banner Sayings.  

Since I die cut the 2nd technique sheet I used a leftover "scrap" to decorate the inside of the card.  The inside sentiment is also from Banner Sayings.

The second card is still fairly simple as the only stamping was the sentiments, but the die cut elements step it up a bit.

OK, are you ready for the next card?  

For my "advanced" level card, I decided to use the Party Banner Dies to create my card base to add a bit of fun interest.  This card base opens at the top and I slid a Party Banner Die just high enough so the fold remained intact.  The Petunia Pop Mat and the remaining technique sheet were also die cut with the Party Banner dies.

The flowers and leaves were made with the Lifetime of Love Bundle.  The flowers were colored with Stampin' Blends and some depth was added to the Old Olive die cut leaves by added Old Olive ink to the tips.

 The sentiment was made using the Unbounded Beauty Bundle.

The message layer and Petunia Pop mat on the inside of the card were also die cut with Party Banners dies.  A leftover "scrap" from the technique sheet was bordered with Night of Navy to provide a finishing touch on the inside.

 I'd like to give a big shout-out to my Upline, Jackie Bolhuis the leader of our Klompenstampers team, for sharing this DSP technique idea at our team meeting last week.  I had done Stack & Cuts (she doesn't call them that. I made up that name so don't blame her for the name.) previously, but none like this one.  It's really simple to do.  If you want more detailed instructions download my tutorial for these cards.  I included instructions for doing a Stack & Cut on the first page of the tutorial.

Use this link to download my tutorial.

Below is a list of the current products I used. The Banner Sayings Bundle that I used won't be available until November, so I didn't include links to those products.

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