Thursday, June 25, 2026

A STADIUM WAVE OF BALLOONS

Have you ever participated in "the WAVE"?  It's fun right?  Well, this Fun Fold mimics that Stadium Wave.  I stumbled across it as I was perusing the internet.  I found several videos from 2 - 3 years ago, and each had a little different take on this fun fold.  The main difference was the number of "waves" and how those waves were constructed.

I found a video by Dawn Griffeth from Dawnsstampingthoughts that was very well done and didn't scare me off.  So, I decided to try it.  

Dawn also scored her card base a little differently which I thought nicely accommodated the "bulky" wave on the inside of the card.

The inside of the card is where the fun begins.  Remove the belly band; lift the front of the card to open it, and the stadium wave rises to greet you.

I made a video showing how I made this card.  I used the designer series paper called Beautiful Ordinary Life.  Combined with the Balloon Festoon balloons it makes a beautiful, happy card.

Check out the video.


Obviously, you can use different DSP, stamps and dies to completely change the "feel" of the card, but no matter what you use, the recipient will be impressed.  

Think about using butterflies, flowers, letters to spell a word, a sports theme or any type of theme you want.

The belly band is a great way to hold the card closed and decorate the simple DSP card front.  But again, this doesn't have to be DSP.  Think of using an embossed layer to add texture.

I used the above Beautiful Ordinary Life DSP design on my card front.  I love it, and it makes a beautiful "sky" for my balloons to float in.

The stretched hexagonal shape on the belly band that provides a backing for the balloon bouquet was made with the Nested Essentials Dies.  The balloons were simply die cut from other patterns from the DSP.

If you want additional space to write a note, you could add Basic White cardstock to the back of the Basic Black card base.  I didn't do that on this card, but I can always add it later if I want.

Use this link to download the PDF Tutorial.  I know you will be focused on making the "waves" but also be sure to note the different scoring for the card base and the resulting cut sizes for the DSP layers on the front and inside.  

It isn't 100% required to score the card base this way, but it does help the card to lay nicer when it is closed.

A list of the products used is shown below.  Click on any image to learn more about that product.

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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.


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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.

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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.


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