Friday, April 25, 2025

CHEERS AND SIPS POP OUT FUN

Yesterday on Learning with Friends I promised to share the Surprise Pop Out Fun Fold on today's post so that those who watched the video would have easy access to a written tutorial for this Cheers & Sips card.


Today's post will have more photos than I usually include because with Fun Fold cards pictures are often the easiest way to explain a Fun Fold.  The above photo shows the card ready for putting in an envelope and mailing.

Here is a closer view of the Belly Band that is holding the card closed.


The Belly Band sentiment panels were made with the awesome Textured Notes Dies.  Each of these layering rectangles all have unique borders that are "imprinted" around the border when the die cut is made.  I made a cute little die cut drink umbrella and a stamped lemon to decorate my belly band's "Cheers" greeting.

When you slide the Belly Band off the card and open the two gate folds towards the rear of the card, the surprise on the inside pops out to greet you.


Looking at the card from the top the card forms a "W" shape when it is open and on display.


I used Silver Embossing Powder on Vellum cardstock to make my ice filled glass of Raspberry Lemonade.


The vellum looks more realistic as a glass because you can see through it.  With the Vellum as the "glass", when you put any garnishes in your drink you can still see through the vellum and see those garnishes inside the glass.

I colored my Raspberry Lemonade with a Blackberry Bliss Stampin' Blend.  Because coloring with Stampin' Blends on Vellum tends to make streaks, I spritzed the colored surface VERY lightly with Isopropyl Alcohol.  I then used a small paint brush to move the ink around and make it look more like liquid.

Since there is really no place to write anything on the card front or on the "inside" pop out panel, I added panels on the back of the card to have a place for my hand written note.


If you didn't see yesterday's Learning with Friends video that shows you how to make this fun fold, you can watch the replay on YouTube.


For those that already watched the videos and are looking for a Tutorial PDF with all the dimensions to make the fun fold, you can use this link to download a copy of the tutorial for today's card.  The dimensions for the Fun Fold Base Card are the same for all the cards I shared during the video.  The dimensions and directions for decorative pieces may different, but the base fun fold instructions and diagrams are all the same.

A list of the current products I used for today's card are shown below.  Click on any image to learn more about that product or to make a purchase.   The Celebratory Sips Suite of Products are a new Online Exclusive that become available May 6, 2025, so are not in the Product List below as they are not yet available for purchase.  For future reference I have listed the item numbers for the suite and below it for all items included in the suite.  Items can be orders separately or keep it simple and just order them all with the Suite Item number.  You do save 10% when ordering the stamp set and dies as a bundle rather than individually.

Celebratory Sips Suite Collection - Item #165600

  • Celebratory Sips 12" x 12" DSP - Item #165586
  • Cheers & Sips Bundle - Item #165594
    • Cheers & Sips Photopolymer Stamp Set - Item #165588
    • Cheers & Sips Dies - Item #165593
  • Glass & Gardens Embossing Folders - Item #165597
  • Holographic Resin Dots - Item #165598
  • Gold Striped 3/8" Mesh Ribbon - Item #165599
Product List

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

TRIPLE THE FUN

 Today's card is all about the Celebratory Sips Designer Series Paper (DSP).  


The pitchers of drinks, bottle of wine and the drink in the glass were all snipped from one of the Celebratory Sips DSP designs.  I have really been learning to appreciate DSP that includes designs that I can cut out, either with coordinating dies, or fussy cut, and then use them as a focal point.


Do you see the pattern on the Basic White behind the DSP images?  This was created with one of the dies in Cheers & Sips!  It is about the size of the large glass in the stamp set and I believe it is meant to "dress up" a glass, but I thought it also made a pretty background. 

When I make cards for my Fairless Stampin' Flair website, I don't necessarily sit and make all three for a week at the same time.  The three cards this week were made over the course of a few weeks, and I didn't realize until I sat down to create the posts that both Monday's card and today's card both give you a sneak peek of the new Timid Tiger In-Color.  I'm thinking I must subconsciously really like this color because I've noticed that I'm using it the most out of the 5 new colors.

I never thought I was a big fan of any color orange, but this particular Timid Tiger orange is very pretty.  It is a soft orange but yet has enough depth-of-color to give a nice contrast with other colors.

The background paper on the card front definitely is one of my favorites from the Celebratory Sips DSP collection.  The 3 decorative panels on the front of the card sort of disguise the paper, but if you look at the peek of the decorated envelope flap, you can see that it is designed with several rectangular shapes that are various shades of yellow, pink, orange, red and deep purple. It reminds me a bit of a couple of the designs in the Full of Life DSP from the 24-25 Annual Catalog except the shapes in Celebratory Sips are scaled up to be larger in size.

To decorate the inside of the card I stamped the celery leaf garnish and colored it with Old Olive Stampin' Blends.  Then I stamped two strawberries on a Basic White scrap; colored them with Cherry Cobbler Blends, and die cut with the coordinating Cheers & Sips die.

Use this link to download a FREE TUTORIAL with all the details for today's card.

A list of the currently available products is shown below.

Product List

Since the Celebratory Suite Collection will not be available until May 6, I've added a list of the products included in the Suite for future reference.  

Celebratory Sips Suite Collection - Item #165600

  • Celebratory Sips 12" x 12" DSP - Item #165586
  • Cheers & Sips Bundle - Item #165594
    • Cheers & Sips Photopolymer Stamp Set - Item #165588
    • Cheers & Sips Dies - Item #165593
  • Glass & Gardens Embossing Folders - Item #165597
  • Holographic Resin Dots - Item #165598
  • Gold Striped 3/8" Mesh Ribbon - Item #165599
Additional Sneak Peeks from the 25-26 Annual Catalog are:
  • Timid Tiger Cardstock - Item #165626
  • 2025 - 2025 In-Color Flat Pearls - Item #165192

Monday, April 21, 2025

TIME FOR CELEBRATORY SIPS

This week I am giving you some Sneak Peeks of a new OnLine Exclusive Suite of Products that will be available May 6, 2025.  The sweet is called Celebratory Sips.

It includes the great Cheers & Sips bundle, colorful Designer Series Paper (DSP), a 2-pack of embossing folders, embellishments and ribbon. 

Today's card is made with my FSF Sketch #6  This is a versatile sketch that can be used to show off DSP.  The Celebratory Sips DSP also gives you a sneak peek at some of the new 2025 - 2027 In-Colors.  This card base and the vertical banner use Timid Tiger.

If you missed April's Template Time Learning with Friends Video, you can watch it here to see more cards made with this sketch.

For the drink, I used the Packing Tape Technique that I shared a few weeks ago.  The glass was covered with packing tape before being fussy cut from the DSP to give it a high gloss shine so it realistically looks like glass.


The glass sets on two layers of Around it All dies.

Can you see the shine?  

The little umbrella was stamped on the same floral DSP as the rectangular mat and then die cut with the coordinating Cheers & Sips die.  It makes a really cute garnish for my Timid Tiger drink.

For the inside of the card, I mounted three of the sentiments all on one acrylic block and stamped them at the same time.  So quick and easy.  And you can test it on scraps to make sure you like the spacing and they are all straight!


Use this link to download a tutorial for today's card.

The currently available products are in the Product List below. 

Product List

Since the Celebratory Suite Collection will not be available until May 6, I've added a list of the products included in the Suite for future reference.  

Celebratory Sips Suite Collection - Item #165600

  • Celebratory Sips 12" x 12" DSP - Item #165586
  • Cheers & Sips Bundle - Item #165594
    • Cheers & Sips Photopolymer Stamp Set - Item #165588
    • Cheers & Sips Dies - Item #165593
  • Glass & Gardens Embossing Folders - Item #165597
  • Holographic Resin Dots - Item #165598
  • Gold Striped 3/8" Mesh Ribbon - Item #165599
Additional Sneak Peek Annual Catalog Products used are:

Timid Tiger Cardstock - Item #165626
Timid Tiger Classic Stampin' Pad - Item # 165278
2025 - 2025 In-Color Flat Pearls - Item #165192

Friday, April 18, 2025

BALLOONS & ARCHES

Today's card is an accordion Fun Fold made with the Everyday Arches Dies and the Arched Wishes Stamp Set.

I love, love, love the balloon stamp in this stamp set!  I've had stamp sets before that had balloon stamps, but I feel like Goldilocks.  Some are too small.  Some are too big.  But these balloons are the perfect size!  They are large enough to use them singly, but small enough to create  balloon bouquets!

The balloons on this card were made with the 24 - 26 In-Color Glimmer Paper and were created using the Embossing on Glimmer Paper Technique.  Yes, you can emboss images on Glimmer Paper, and it is so beautiful.  Watch this short Learning with Friends Video if you want to learn some tips for embossing on glimmer paper.

This card is an accordion Fun Fold.  I used the Everyday Skies Designer Series Paper (DSP) to decorate two of the arches and then used some more of the fun Arched Wishes stamps to decorate the third arch.


 I'm hoping this card will make someone smile for their birthday.  

There are probably several different ways to make an accordion card with these arches.  I took the easy way and just made a longer "shorter" card base and then adhered the bottom portion of the arched panel assemblies to it.  If you would like to try my method, use this link to download a tutorial with all my cutting and scoring dimensions.

If I were to make it again I would probably make some small tweaks to the width between each of the folds on the base card.  The width of my panels on the base card are a smidgen wider than the largest die in the Everyday Arches dies.  Making the distance between each of the scorelines a little narrower may be better, but this works just fine.


Here is a little closer view of the glimmer balloons.  They are so sparkly!  

For the message layer, I stamped the streamers and some confetti in the same colors as the balloons.

Does anyone remember the colored strips of crepe paper that we used in the "olden days" to decorate with for parties or sometimes in our classrooms at school?  It was stretchy and we would twist it and then drape it around the room.  These decorative stamps remind me of those streamers.  We definitely used those streamers more than we ever used confetti!  I suspect the janitor didn't want to clean up confetti!

Below is a list of the products that I used to create today's card.

Product List