Create A Fast and Easy Slimline Concertina Card

I’ve gotten quite a few requests to do a how-to on my Slimline Concertina card that I made for the January Blog Hop.

So, I thought that I’d tell you how I did it and I created a little video to make things easier. This card is really easy to make and slimline cards are so easy to make.

Base

Start with a cardstock base of 10.5” x 8″
Along the 10.5” side score at 3.5” x 7″
At the bottom right of the card, measure up 3.5” and mark with a tic
Cut from the upper left of the card base to the right tic.
Accordion fold along the scoreline with the short side to the right side.

Mats

Cut 1 piece each @ 3.25” x 7 5/8”, 3.25” x 6 1/8” and 3.25” x 4 5/8″
On the 3.25” x 6 1/8”, on the long side measure down on the left side 1 3/8” and make a tic. Cut from the tic to the upper right corner.
On the remaining pieces, on the long side measure down on the right side 1 3/8” and make a tic. Cut from the tic to the upper left corner.

Patterned Paper

Cuts 1 piece each @ 3” x 7 3/8”, 3” x 6 7/8” and 3” x 4 3/8″
On the 3” x 6 7/8” on the long side measure down on the left side 1 3/8” and make a tic. Cut from the tic to the upper right corner.
On the remaining pieces, on the long side measure down on the right side 1 3/8” and make a tic. Cut from the tic to the upper left corner.

Adhere the mats onto the folded base. And repeat with the patterned paper on top of the mats.

Now the fun part. Stamp, color and cut out the gnomes and mushrooms using our Welcome Gnome Stamp Set. From green cardstock use the Grassy Patches CutUps to cut various sizes of grass.

Embellish along the top edge of the Concertina card.

Stamp the sentiment “Don’t stop Believing” from the Live Love Bark Stamp Set on the inside of the card

From green cardstock, cut the scalloped diamond from the Fancy Flip Frames CutUps and stamp the sentiment “Have a little Faith” on the it. Use a white pen to doodle on the type and on the panel. Adhere with foam tape.

Now that you have the measurements it’s easy to make it. If your eyes started to glaze over when you got halfway through the instructions, like mine did. I’ve created a video, to make things easier. 😉

This card is perfect for Spring and perfect for our Think Spring TCP Tuesday Challenge. (See how I did that? Good lead in to the challenge, eh?)

Whelp! There is still time to enter our TCP Tuesday Challenge and you could win a $50 gift voucher for our website. Just make a card, (maybe a Concertina Card, now that you know how to make one) and enter it by adding it to the InLinkz at the bottom of this page.

Good Luck!

January Blog Hop

1 / 25 / 21

Happy January Blog Hop Day! I hope that you’ve been enjoying our week long mini-hops and that they’ve given you a little inspiration as to what our January Collection might do in your own inky fingers. I’m the last person on the hop, so if you’ve come from Kerry Urbatch’s blog you are in the right place. If you didn’t click on over to Julee Tilman’s blog to start off at the beginning.

For my hop offering, there were so many cute stamps I couldn’t do just one card, so I decided to do two. First off is this cutey patootie stamp from the Sun, Please Stamp Set. I LOVE the size of these little mice, they are easy to color and the FREE Cutting file makes them easy to cut around.

Once I colored in the little mouse I added dots of white to add more texture to the umbrella and handle. I stamped the sentiment in tangerine versa fine ink and used the white pen to add more depth to the sentiment.

The stitched clouds were a last minute addition. I thought needed something in that area because of the flowered gems I added to bottom corner. I used foam tape to give everything a little depth and finished it off by adding shadows with my grey marker.

For my second card I did a slimline concertina card using the sentiment from the Live, Love, Bark Stamp Set, the NEW Welcome Gnome Stamp Set and the NEW Grassy Patches CutUps.

I üsed one of the dies from the Fancy Flip CutUps for the sentiment and added more white pen to the letters and to doodle on the edge. I also stamped a sentiment on the inside

Was it simple? You bet. Will I show you how? Of course. In the meantime, check out the card in action by clicking the picture above.

Want to see more? Check the links below to see if you’ve missed anyone.

Julee Tilman
Christine Okken
Brenda Nakandakari
Leigh O’Brien
Melissa Chipperfield
Wendy McGaffey
Kerry Urbatch
Alma de la Rosa

We picked the last winner of the In it To win it contest from Leigh O’Brien’s blog!

And the winner is:
Annette! Congrats on WINNING! Please contact me here to claim your prize!

January Sneaky Peek #7

1 / 24 / 211 / 24 / 21

Today is the final day of Sneaky Peek Week and I hope you’ve liked everything we’ve had to show you. Today we are wrapping up the week with a little peek of everything we’ve peeked so far. Today, it’s Designer’s Choice

Everything is available now. But, if you can wait until Jan 26, and want the entire release, or all the stamps, you can get them at a discount.

We are starting this peek from Christine Okken. She stamps up the Mouse and Ladybug from the NEW Sun, Please Stamp Set. The panel she stamped on was die cut with a die from the Mailbox die cut.

This darling card was created by Nancy Thomas who die cut the lamb and placed it on a field of flowers. The picket fence is from the Slimline Suburbs CutUps and the background was created from the Great Outdoors Stencilz

Leigh O’Brien creates this stunning shaker card using our Holeless Sequins as raindrops. The little mouse is from the Sun, Please Stamp Set.

Julee Tilman creates a STUNNING background for this exercising pup. I think it’s so cute how she added the little “perspiration” on the puppies face and chest.

Finally, Brenda Nakandakari stamps up this cutie from the Sun, Please Stamp Set. This set has a hand drawn look and is perfect for coloring with colored markers or water colors

That’s it for now. The Cat Pack has more to show you, so I hope you check out each of the blogs below for a closer look and comment on each of them. You could win a $10 gift voucher. We’ll pick a winner each day this week from the comments on the blogs and post the winners here and on our Facebook page.

Brenda Nakandakari
Leigh O’Brien
Nancy Thomas
Julee Tilman
Christine Okken

We picked the winner for yesterday from Nancy Thomas’ blog!

And the winner is:

Lyn! Congrats on WINNING! Please contact me here to claim your prize!

January Sneaky Peek#6

1 / 23 / 21

It’s Day #6 of Sneaky Peek Week and we’ve got a darling NEW stamp set called Sun, Please. If, you are like me, you can’t get enough sun, especially when it’s cold outside. Cold and rainy weather doesn’t bother these 3 little mice, though.

Sun, Please is available now, along with the rest of our January Release. If you can wait until Jan 26, and want the entire release, or all the stamps, you can get them at a discount.

This uber cute card by Brenda Nakandakari just makes my heart go pitter patter. Brenda stamps the big Hello and adds a sprinkling of hearts. The sweet little mouse is walking a little ladybug and placed on a background filled with hearts. I just think it’s adorable.

Here’s a closer look at Sun, Please. It comes with 3 mice and 4 sentiments to go with. If you have an electronic cutting machine, you can get the cutting files for the mice in this set for FREE here.

This little mouse is ready for the rain! Nancy Thomas stamps up so much cuteness and has him standing in the tall grass. This hand-drawn little mouse and his friends are perfect for coloring with colored markers or watercolors.

This little cutie looks like he’s sharing some words of wisdom with his friend the ladybug. Kerry Urbatch creates a stunning background that perfectly offsets this simple sweetness of the imageJulee Tilman uses our Great Outdoors stencilz to create this simple but stunning background, along with the raindrops from the Sun, Please Stamp Set. It’s a great background that captures the sentiment and the main image perfectly.

There is so much more to see. Check out eack of the blogs below for a closer look and comment on each of them. You could win a $10 gift voucher. We’ll pick a winner each day this week from the comments on the blogs and post the winners here and on our Facebook page.

Brenda Nakandakari
Kerry Urbatch
Melissa Chipperfield
Nancy Thomas
Julee Tilman
Wendy McGaffey

We picked the winner for yesterday from Christine Okken’ s blog!

And the winner is:

Bonnie Lynn! Congrats on WINNING! Please contact me here to claim your prize!

January Sneaky Peek #5

1 / 22 / 211 / 22 / 21

It’s Day #5 of Sneaky Peek Week and today we are spreading a little LOVE with this cute Live, Love, Bark Stamp Set. This little one reminds me of a special little gal that my friend Robert had. Madison was truly a wonderful little girl, with so much personality. But, it it also reminds me of my beloved Sam, who I lost last year. He was always good natured and was my constant companion throughout the day, giving me his opinion with a smile or an eye roll. I miss him terribly.

Live, Love, Bark is available now, along with the rest of our January Release. If you can wait until Jan 26, and want the entire release, or all the stamps, you can get them at a discount.

This sweet puppers reminds us to don’t stop believing (your mail will get delivered?) Kerry Urbatch’s cute card nestles this little puppy in a bouquet of ribbons and hearts. The eyes on this puppy just make the whole card pop.

Live, Love, Bark is a stamp set that features a darling Boston Terrier in 4 different poses along with 4 different sentiments

Here’s a sweet card from Christine Okken. She gives a little Bubble Therapy to this sweet boy. All those bubbles make it fun to bathe him. Or you can tell yourself that.

If you like this stamp set, you might want the matching dies. They make things easier to add dimension and create a scene without having to mask. If you get both of them in a bundle, you get a 10% discount on the two

Here’s what I mean. Stamped on the matching die, this exercising Terrier sits up nice and pretty from the background. Melissa Chipperfield puts a little foam behind him for more dimension.

Nancy Thomas mixes her Puppy Mail with a stamp from the 4 Seasons Duo Dies and the Rectangle Stamp CutUps Die. It’s a cheery match with the red gingham paper

Hopefully you don’t have this much laundry. Leigh O’Brien pulls off some masking magic with this puppy in the laundry basket. Stamped over and over, this stamp is perfect for filling up the space of a slimline card.

Want to see more? The Cat Pack is pulling out all the stops. Check out the blogs below for a peek at how they used Live, Love, Bark. Comment on each of them and you could win a $10 gift voucher. We’ll pick a winner each day this week from the comments on the blogs and post the winners here and on our Facebook page.

Leigh O’Brien
Christine Okken
Brenda Nakandakari
Kerry Urbatch
Melissa Chipperfield
Nancy Thomas
Julee Tilman
Wendy McGaffey

We picked the winner for yesterday from Wendy McGaffey’ s blog!

And the winner is:

Helen! Congrats on WINNING! Please contact me here to claim your prize!

January Sneaky Peek #4

1 / 21 / 211 / 22 / 21

Happy Hump Day! It’s Day #4 of Sneaky Peek Week and today we are laser focused on SPRING. To me, Spring is all about green and growing and birth. So, for this Peek I designed this cute set of baby animals. They are perfect buy themselves or embellishing a card. I didn’t get cute with the name of these guys. I figured they were cute enough as it is. I call these dies Lamb/Bunny/Chick

This set of dies available now, along with the rest of our January Release. If you can wait until Jan 26, and want the entire release, or all the stamps, you can get them at a discount.

Wendy McGaffey starts us off with these darling tags. You can use them on cards or on your Easter Baskets. If the stitched Lamb/Bunny/Chick weren’t cute enough, they come with a carrot, egg shell and little hooves to decorate the animals.

This set of dies comes with the stitched chick as the base body. If you want to make a bunny, just place the bunny head over it. To make the lamb, add the head and hooves. Then, embellish with whichever accessories you wish.

This little card from Brenda Nakandakari’s shows off what I mean. The adorable bunny card is super clean and simple. The bunny stands on a field of flowers holding its adorable stitched carrot. Just darling.

Speaking of stitching, Leigh O’Brien takes stitching to a whole new level with her darling puffy pillow. She die cuts the Lamb, Bunny, & Chick and sits them in our NEW Flower Wagon.

It’s a super cute pillow that can be hung from a chair or a door. I think it’s pretty amazing.

Here’s a closer look. Leigh O’Brien adds beads for the eyes and ribbon stitching for the ears of the Lamb and Bunny for even more interest. The NEW Grassy Patches die cut adds a great base for all the little figures.

And there are more goodies to be oogled! Check out The Cat Pack’s blogs below for a peek at how they used ththis adorable CutUps. Comment on each of them and you could win a $10 gift voucher. We’ll pick a winner each day this week from the comments on the blogs and post the winners here and on our Facebook page.

Leigh O’Brien
Brenda Nakandakari
Kerry Urbatch
Wendy McGaffey
Nancy Thomas

We picked the first winner of the week from Julee Tilman’ s blog!

And the winner is:

Sharon G! Congrats on WINNING! Please contact me here to claim your prize!

January Sneaky Peek #3

1 / 20 / 21

I don’t know about you, but after a Winter of staying inside, I get a little stir crazy and want to be OUTSIDE. Spring is the time when we can go out and ride our bikes with our sweeties. Or. sit with them sharing a latte in the sun. I can’t wait for the cold to go away! So, in hopes of doing just that, we’ve got this cute set that’s all about sharing time and enjoying life with the ones we care about. We call this set “Best Day Ever”

This set is available now, along with the rest of our January Release. If you can wait until Jan 26, and want the entire release, or all the stamps, you can get them at a discount.

We are kicking off this Peek with this darling card from Julee Tilman. This couple is so fun to color and embellish with hearts and flowers.

Christine Okken turns a slimline card on its side to give the cycling couple a little room to ride. She uses the Slimline Basics CutUps Die to create the grass and the Stitched Clouds are perfect for the stamped sentiment

If you are not ready to throw on your Spring clothes and just want to be cozy with a warm drink, this set is perfect for you. Leigh O’Brien beautifully colors up this couple and perches them on a big cup.

Here’s a look at the complete set. It features a set of stamps featuring this sweet couple along with four sentiments to go with. If you have an electronic cutting machine you can get the FREE Cutting Files for it here

Finally, Kerry Urbatch’s uber creative background shows off this sweet couple so well. The simple “be happy” sentiment and the hand-drawn quality of the couple add to the handmade quality of the card.

And there is more! Check out The Cat Pack’s blogs below for a peek at how they used this sweet set. Comment on each of them and you could win a $10 gift voucher. We’ll pick a winner each day this week from the comments on the blogs and post the winners here and on our Facebook page.

Julee Tilman
Leigh O’Brien
Brenda Nakandakari
Kerry Urbatch
Christine Okken
Melissa Chipperfield

We picked the first winner of the week from Brenda Nakandakari’ blog!

And the winner is:

MiamiKel! Congrats on WINNING! Please contact me here to claim your prize!

January Sneaky Peek #2

1 / 19 / 211 / 20 / 21

Ready for another Sneaky Peek? Today we’ve got two! First up is the Flower Wagon

Nothing says Spring like flowers. What’s better than a bunch of flowers? Why a whole cart full, of course. This Flower Wagon Die actually features 2 dies. One that has the cart, flowers, and wheel, to create a wheel barrow. Create the cart with spindles by placing the included insert. Two different looks from the same die

Look how cute this card is from Christine Okken. She cuts the flowers in the cart from patterned paper to made this card extra cheery. Check out her blog for more info.

What’s nice about this die is that it’s just the right size to be the focal point. You can dress it up or down. It’s up to you

The cart isn’t just for flowers. Fill it with anything you like. Kerry Urbatch filled her cart with colorful hearts just in time for Valentine’s Day. Adorable.

The second Sneaky Peek is this super cute Stitched Easter Basket. It comes with three eggs, a bow, and even an Easter Bunny.

This card from Brenda Nakandakari shows off the Easter basket to perfection. She uses the flowers from the Flower Wagon CutUps and the NEW Grassy Patches die at the bottom of the Scalloped Square. The sentiment is from the NEW Live Love Bark Stamp Set.

Lastly, Nancy Thomas creates this uber sweet Spring card using patterned paper for a happy and bright card. The little chick and egg is from our NEW Lamb/Bunny/Chick CutUps. It’s adorable standing next to the stitched basket.

Check out The Cat Pack’s blogs for a closer look. Comment on each of them and you could win a $10 gift voucher. We’ll pick a winner each day this week from the comments on the blogs and post the winners here and on our Facebook page.

Nancy Thomas
Brenda Nakandakari
Kerry Urbatch
Christine Okken
Wendy McGaffey

We picked the first winner of the week from Nancy Thomas’ blog!

And the winner is:
Cindy Christoffel! Congrats on WINNING! Please contact me here to claim your prize!

January Sneaky Peek #1

1 / 18 / 211 / 18 / 21

There’s no place like gnome. There’s no place like gnome. Click your heels and welcome our January Collection Sneaky Peek. Today is Day #1 and we’ve got so many wonderful stamps and dies that you will love to stamp all year long. We are kicking off this Sneaky Peek with our NEW Welcome Gnome Stamp Set.

This set is jam packed with Ten Little Gnomes that you can mix and match. Christine Okken shows off exactly what I mean. Two sweet gnomes gather around a mushroom to wish you “hello”. Christine also uses our NEW Grassy Patches CutUps Die and sets the whole thing against a Snowglobe CutUps.

Along with the gnomes our Welcome Gnome Stamp Set features stars, a cloud and a large mushroom, as well as other accessories and sentiments to go with. If you have an electronic cutting machine, we have the FREE Cutting Files for this set so there is no need to buy a die set.

Getting ready for Valentine’s Day? Kerry Urbatch creates this lovely card featuring a tag full of gnomes. She adds the heart to the gnome’s hat for even more cuteness. The little gnome in front uses the grassy patch for cover.

Nancy Thomas’ card is so darling she masks out the using sitting gnome and the mushrooms to give this card depth. A string of hearts stamped on the gnome on the left personalizes this card even further.

I am such a fan of this card from Brenda Nakandakari . She welcomes the new kid on the plot with this darling card. She cuts dotted designer paper using one of the NEW Grassy Patches and uses it as a background for this two adorable gnomes.

Want to see more pretties from The Cat Pack? Head on over and comment on each of the following blogs and you could win a $10 gift voucher. We’ll pick a winner each day this week from the comments on the blogs and post the winners here and on our Facebook page.

Nancy Thomas
Brenda Nakandakari
Kerry Urbatch
Christine Okken

Now You Can Be Naughty

12 / 23 / 2012 / 23 / 20