Saturday, July 30, 2022

I'm Just a Gnome Boy Looking at a Strawberry Girl...






Hi everyone! My name is Linh and I'm honored and excited to be here as a guest designer. I have a new video up on the CottageCutz YouTube Channel. I've combined several dies from the Strawberry & Bees Collection to create this sweet scene card.  In this scene, our darling Strawberry Gnome Boy is bringing flowers and a pot of strawberries to his beloved Strawberry Girl who lives in a Strawberry Cottage. :)

Watch this video to see how I created this card.






Friday, July 29, 2022

Woodland Country Church

Hello CottageCutz friends! Thanks for taking the time to stop and visit with us today. It's Mary Marsh here bringing you the Friday edition of the Blog.

Today is the last day of the big Christmas in July sale with savings of up to 65% on selected dies. It ends at 9:00 pm PST. You still have time to shop and pick up the dies that are on your wish list. Since it's the last day of the sale, I thought I would create a card using a couple of the dies that are on sale. 

Today for your viewing pleasure, I am featuring the Woodland Country Church and the Merry Christmas w/ Snowflakes dies. So, let's get started with some details of how I created my card. 

Design Steps:
I started my card this week with the colors. The colors for the Splitcoaststampers color challenge #906 were perfect for my outdoor church scene. We were to use real red, garden green and silver. 
real red, silver, garden green

Next, I cut the church in the red and green colors plus the allowed neutral shades of kraft and brown. For the snow I used white glitter paper. You could cut the images in white cardstock and then color with your favorite medium. If you follow me on this Blog, you know I like to use colored cardstock for my images.
The Merry Christmas phrase is cut in real red cardstock. The image is large enough that I thought one layer would be enough. Sometimes I double them up, but it wasn't necessary with this die. 
For my image panel I used a falling snow embossing folder for added background interest. 
Now that my card elements are prepared, I am ready to start card assembly. I attached the church image with double sided tape. For the larger tree, I used dimensional adhesive.  
Next, I secured the Merry Christmas phrase with a clear drying glue. 
To finish off my card, I attached the image panel to the card base. I kept the panels to just the base and image panel. That way the images would be the star of the show. To get the silver color in, I added these snowflake images from my stash and used a silver sequin in the middle. 
 
Real red card base: 4 1/2 " x 5 3/4"
Image Panel: 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"
That's it for me for this post. See you next Saturday!

Dies I used to create card:





Thursday, July 28, 2022

Bee Happy

 Hello Scrapping Cottage Friends, 

We have a huge Christmas in July sale going on right now! The last day for the sale is tomorrow! So don’t miss a chance to save up to 65% off!  Check it out HERE

We also have a new release and it is just plain adorable.  It is called Strawberries and Bees perfect for those fun summertime cards. There are 16 designs in this new collection and you can get the individual dies for 30% off right now! This sale will not last so shop today to get the incredible savings.

Here is my card for today using two new release dies Honey Bee and Bee Phrases.


Design Steps:

1.  Start with a black A2 card base with the front flap cut in half.  2 pieces of white card stock cut at 4 1/8 x 5 3/8 and 5 3/8 x 2. 2 pieces of DP cut at 4 x 5 1/4 and 1 3/4 x 5 1/4

2.  Glue the DP pieces to there matching white layer and then glue them to the black card base

3.  Use the Scalloped Circle die second from the largest and cut two pieces of yellow card stock.  Use the Cross Stitched Circle die third from the largest and cut two pieces of white card stock.  Glue the pieces together (One will go on the inside of the card)

4.  Use the Honey Bee die and cut out pieces using: yellow, mustard yellow, black, red, vellum and brown

5.  Shade the pieces with ink and a small applicator.  Assemble the pieces with fine tip glue and then arrange onto the white circle as shown above.  Use a white gel pen to dot the eyes

6.  Using the Bee Phrase die cut out the mustard yellow and red card stock.  Shade with ink and a small applicator

7.  Glue the scalloped circle to the edge of the front flap as shown above.  Glue down the sentiment

8.  I decided the card need just one more little bee so I cut out the second bee and glued it to the bottom right of the card as shown



9.  For the inside stamp the white circle with your sentiment and then glue directly under the front circle and your card is complete


CottageCutz Products




We have more inspiration on our YouTube Channel check it out HERE
Thanks so much for stopping by!  And I will see you next Thursday.

Blessings and Take Care



Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Strawberry Fields Forever




Happy Wednesday, my crafty friends, Marla here with another card project and CottageCutz YouTube video. Today I have this berry sweet slimline card to share with you.  I mixed and match products from the "Strawberries & Bees" release to create a mini paradise for this sweet mouse.   Isn't it just a yummy place for a mouse to live?

As we wind down from the dog days of summer, many of you are beginning to long for cooler weather.  I am a summer loving girl, so it always makes me sad to know that summer has moved by so fast.  For those of you who love the winter season the Scrapping Cottage has you covered.  All of their Christmas dies are currently on sale for a limited time as they celebrate Christmas in July.  You can shop the sale here    Until then, I will leave with a list of supplies I used on my summer loving card for easy shopping.

Until next time.... Marla












Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Strawberry Gnome Couple So Sweet Card

Happy TuesDIE Cottage Cutz Friends!
Melinda here with you on on another sweet TuesDIE. Today I am sharing another very simple but so sweet card I created, featuring dies from the new Strawberries and Bees release
Today's card features the adorable little Strawberry Gnome Girl Die and the Strawberry Gnome Boy Die. They are part of the new Strawberries and Bees release. I also used the Strawberry CottageStrawberry Treats 1, and the Berry Phrases Die from the same release. My finished card size is a standard top folding A4 size. The base is white cardstock and then I added a piece of green cardstock. To that, I added a mat of some patterned striped paper. 

I started by die cutting all my pieces in white. I colored and assembled each little gnome. I then cut out the large strawberry from the Strawberry Cottage. I colored it and the leaf at the top in. I then added the sweet little cake from the Strawberry Treats 1 die.

Lastly I die cut the words So and Sweet from the Berry Phrases Die set and then colored those in with my green marker.



Here is one last look at my completed card. I am going to be using this for an Anniversary card. The little couple is just too cute!


Dies I Used











Be sure to check it out and all the amazing creations from the design team!


Also, don't forget to head over to the CottageCutz YouTube channel and check out all of the amazing projects on there. Our video team is doing a wonderful job of filling the channel with all sorts of creative content! You don't want to miss it!


Well that about covers it for today! Until the next time, have a wonderfully craft-die day!
Melinda Beltran

Monday, July 25, 2022

Pop Up Gatefold Card

Happy Monday friends!  Kris here with a fun and easy card fold that was a first for me, but certainly won't be my last as I had too much fun with this one!   I thought this was perfect for the new Flowers  in the Strawberries & Bees Release!  I hope you will craft along with me in today's tutorial!

Here are a couple of photos to get us started.  It's easier than it looks and you can make it as simple or detailed as you wish. ☺  This is a 6" square card when folded - and yes it does fold flat to put in an envelope!  



CUTTING AND SCORING:

White Cardstock:
(1)  Cut 6" x 12" - score along the 12" side at 3", 6", & 9"
(2)  Flowers
(1)  5" x 1/2" - score at 1/2" and 4-1/2" 
(1)  4" x 1/2" - score at 1/2" and 3-1/2"
(1)  2" x 1/2" - score at 1/2" and 1-1/2"

Acetate (or you can opt for green cardstock):
(5 or 6)  11" x 1/2"

Patterned Paper:
 6 pieces (2 of each pattern - 4 on front and 2 on back):  2-3/4" x 5-3/4"

Green Cardstock:
Cut (1) 6-7/8" x 2-1/2" and score 1/2" , 3-7/16", and 6-3/8"
(if you want, you can cut the top of that piece with the grass die)
Cut (2) 2-3/4" x 1-1/2" and cut the top edge with the Hills Slimline Die

Dark Pink Cardstock:
Nested Scallop Circles Set:  Die cut middle size 
Flowers:  Die cut 1 or 2

Yellow Cardstock:
Nested Wacky Stitched Circles Set:  Die cut 2nd smallest
Flowers:  Die cut 1 

Purple, Lavendar, Light Pink, Light Orange Cardstock (or colors of your choice!):
Flowers:  Die cut 1 of each

HOW TO:

1.  Fold and burnish your score lines on card base so that the middle score is a valley fold and the 2 ends are mountain folds.

2.  Adhere your patterned papers to the 4 front panels


3.  Adhere 2 more to the back panels.  Leave the middle panels white for your written (or stamped) message.  (If stamping on it, do it now as it will harder to stamp evenly after your get your flowers on the front side.)


4.  With your green middle piece, miter the top edges of your 1/2" flaps as shown below.  You can choose to cut the top with the grass die, leave it straight, or cut it down so it's not sticking up above the fence.  I trimmed my fence down to fit the width between the flaps of the green layer.


5.  With your 3 pieces of 1/2" white strips, using the edge of a bone folder (or other object) run it between the scored lines (like you would with curling ribbon and scissors) to make the strips curve.  


6.  Flattening out the strip just a enough to attach it, glue the flaps across the middle of the backside of your grass piece so that the middle lines up with the scored line of your grass.


7.  Glue flaps of the next largest strip and place it directly on top of your first strip, flattening it down and repeat for the 3rd strip.  It should look like this when standing up.


8.  Add glue to side flaps of grassy layer and adhere to bottom center of card while it's laying flat.  The sides of your grassy layer should be just short of the score lines on card base.


9.  Color your flowers, adding highlights, etc.  You'll want to color some of those white pieces like the flower centers yellow, and the leaves green etc.  


10.  Glue your pieces together. 


11.  Attach acetate strips to the back of your flowers. For the back (tallest) flowers, I cut my strips to 4-3/4" and added Score Tape to the bottom fronts of the strips.  Then I attached them BEHIND the largest curved strip in my card.


12.  For the rest of my flowers, I held the flower in the placement I wanted, marked it with my thumb and pulled it back out and cut the strip where my thumb was.  Then added Score Tape to the bottom and attached the flowers.  

*** You'll want to alternate which side your put your Score Tape on as some flowers will be attached to the BACK of the curves and some will be attached to the FRONT of the curves.  Continue until the whole section is filled in with flowers.


13.  Adhere your green hills, sun, clouds, umbrella and sentiment pieces as shown below.  


OPTIONAL - create a belly band to help hold the card together!

1.  Cut a white strip 12" x 2-1/2" and wrap it around the middle of your card loosely.  Should not be scored first, or wrapped too tightly as you want to be able to slip it off.  The ends will not quite meet in the middle and that's ok.  


2.  Cut (2) pieces of patterned paper 2-3/4" x 2-1/4" and attach to the front side ends of your strip


3.  Die cut (1) of the largest die from the Nested Scallop Circles Set from blue cardstock.

4.  Die cut (1) of the 2nd largest die from the Nested Wacky Stitched Circles Set from white cardsock.

5.  Attach blue scalloped circle to the wrap, making sure not to add glue to the very center of the circle or you'll glue your belly band to your card!  

6.  Attach white circle to the blue and embellish with another flower.



PRODUCTS I USED:







And here's the whole release!

Thank you so much for being here today!  I hope I've inspired you to try this or something else with this fabby release!  Have a wonderful week :) 

~Kristine