Scary Apothecary Pop-Up Card

Hello everyone! Today I have a scary pop-up card to share with you, full of secrets and charms. I also wanted to show how you can change a Karen Burniston Sizzix pop 'n cuts die into a different shape.

 

We've never celebrated Halloween, but my son is now very interested in scary stuff, spiders, bats, skeletons etc. so I thought I would do some scary crafting too. Here we step into the frightening shop of a scary old-time apothecary. Don't taste anything! I wanted to make a counter full of drawers and therefore needed a rectangular pop-up. You can place larger papers on top of most the pop 'n cuts inserts, and I found that for my large counter, the 3-D Suitcase die was most suitable. The suitcase has a flat base and is pretty large, giving me an easy surface to attach my counter to.

 

I started out by die cutting manila cardstock with the 3-D Suitcase die. My card is wider than the pop 'n cuts base dies, so I used my base tray to die cut the insert. To make sure the die doesn't shift, I adhere it to the cardstock with masking tape (first removing some of the stickiness on my clothes). The background was inked with orange and brown distress inks, making it mainly orange at the top where the wall is, and mainly brown where the floor is. The background was stamped with a text stamp from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Chemist set (designed by Brett Weldele), and Archival Potting Soil ink.

 

I die cut a rectangle from black kraft-core cardstock. The drawers were made by cutting strips of the same paper, sanding all the edges and gluing them to the rectangular piece. The handles were made with black Enamel Accents. The labels come from another Tim Holtz set, but were too large for my project. I stamped them on shrink plastic, shrunk them and painted the back with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap Distress Paint. The top was coated with Glossy Accents, to give them a finished look.

 

The counter was attached to the pop-up suitcase with double-sided tape. It is higher than the suitcase, so you don't see the suitcase at all. Just make sure that you leave a tiny bit of space at the base so that the pop-up will fold over easily.

 

Stamps from the Chemist set were stamped on the smooth side of Ranger's new watercolour paper. I watercoloured the images with Distress Inks and a paintbrush. I thought they were a bit bright and inked lightly with Gathered Twigs to tone down the colours. Enamel Accents was applied here and there for a splattered look. I also stamped the script stamp on a piece of ledger paper, crumbled it up and folded it over the pop-up so that it look as if the bottles are standing on a sheet of notes. If you look closely, you might see that there is a small shrink plastic tube next to the blue bottle, made with one of the stamps from the Laboratorie set.

 

I have a thing for pen nibs and was happy to see Tim Holtz new Writing Desk die. The pen nib was die cut from grungeboard, inked with Black Soot and Enamel Accents was used for the ink. 

 

Here's another fun little detail. I used Karen's Foyer set embossing folder and cut out only the picture frame. It was inked with Gathered Twigs and I cut out the centre and placed it over a skeleton stamped on a piece of scrap paper. The centre was coated with Glossy Accents, to make it look like glass. This is my son's favourite part of the card.  

 

At the front of the pop-up, I stamped a wooden floor with a Darkroom Door stamp and Frayed Burlap ink. I also embossed the carpet from the Foyer Set, inked it with Gathered Twigs and stamped 'welcome' on a Funky Label die cut. The black dots are Enamel Accents. The books and tube were coloured the same way as the other images stamped on watercolour paper. The sign stamp is repeated on the front of the card.

 

The cardbase is watercolour cardstock which was coloured with Distress Stains and stamped with a brick stamp and a skeleton. Is he a customer coming out from the apothecary or planning to go inside? This was the perfect opportunity to use one my favourite dies again, the Opening Door die. It was die cut from black kraft-core and sanded. The handle was coated with Enamel Accents and I placed another pen nib on the door.

Do you recognise this sign from the inside? I wanted a sign above the door, but of course the stamp was far too large. I stamped it on shrink plastic, punched two holes and then finished it the same way as the labels on the inside. Love this look.  

If you dare to open the door, there is another sign on the inside, stamped on a Funky Label and with a Tim Holtz rub-on. The Enamel Accents made really cool dots, with dimension. 

 

It was hard to capture the dimension of this card, you might see the pop-up a little bit better here.

 

Thank you for stopping by today!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Surfaces: Ranger: Manila cardstock, Watercolour cardstock, Shrink Plastic; Tim Holtz Idea-ology Grungeboard; Tim Holtz Core'dinations kraft-core cardstock
Dies: Sizzix: 3-D Suitcase, Opening Door & Wreath, Funky Labels, Writing Desk, Rectangles
Embossing folders: Sizzix: Foyer Set
Stamps: Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz: Laboratorie, Poisonous, The Chemist, Ultimate Grunge; Darkroom Door: Woodgrain
Ink: Archival Ink: Jet Black, Potting Soil; Distress Ink: Antique Linen, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, Rusty Hinge, Gathered Twigs, Black Soot, Broken China, Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn; Tsukineko Stazon Jet Black
Paint: Distress Paint: Mowed Lawn, Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap
Stain: Distress Stain: Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Gathered Twigs
Medium: Ranger Black Enamel Accents, Glossy Accents
Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Chit Chat stickers, Elements tissue tape, Elements Remnant Rubs