Welcome To Fourth Grade

It's August, and though it still feels like summer to me,  a great majority of children including our granddaughter are already back in school. I made this "Back to School" card to cheer her on as she enters her school year as a fourth grader.

Our granddaughter's name is Evelyn and we call her "Eevee" for short, so I wanted my card to feature Pokemon Eevee going back to school. Encouraged by my daughter, I decided to give AI a try for my first time by showing Google's AI Gemini a coloring book image of a boy writing on a chalkboard and asking to swap the boy with Pokemon Eevee. Within a few seconds, Gemini amazed me by coming up with an image exactly as I had imagined which I was able to use to create the cutting file for my card.

Gemini AI also helped me with a coloring book style image of the school desk and chair which Make the Cut rendered into a cutting file. To create the look of  the chalkboard with writing, the words were cut using black text weight paper as a stencil, then backed with white cardstock. The world globe and stack of books on the desk were put together using a very old die from Quickutz and Karen Burniston "Bookworm" dies. After assembling all the pieces for my classroom scene, I used a hexagon pop up style card to display them. 

The paper pieced Eevee I used on the backside of my hexagon pop up was asembled from a cutting file I had created in the past. Gemini AI assisted by creating a simple coloring book image of a backpack which Make the Cut could trace to create a cut file. 

I found some cute "math calculations" doodles which I printed onto white cardstock to use as a fun background for my card. "KG Miss Kindergarten font" was used for the sentiments.

This hexagon pop up card flattens to 6.75" x 6.75". I like that there's space at the base of the card where I can add a personal message which can be read by the recipient before the card is opened to it's display position. In case you're interested, there are a few companies like Karen Burniston and Lawn Fawn which have come out with dies to create this style of pop up card. Or, if you own an electronic cutting machine as I do, you can find the cutting file for a this style of card at the Lori Whitlock Shop.

I sent along these two bag charms together with the card. When our granddaughter came to visit for a week at the end of July, I showed her how I had printed these Pokemon images onto shrink plastic and cut them out. She then put them into our air fryer oven and was amazed as she watched how they curled and shrank. We didn't have the chance to finish them while she was here, but I coated the shrunken charms with UV resin and assembled them with beads and split rings onto clasps and promised I would mail them. Pretty certain she'll like them.

BT21 Tote Bags

I had so much fun making the tote bags and bag charms in my previous post that I decided to make more. These were made for my friends who are fans of the KPop band BTS.

I used a cute  group image of BT21 (cartoon characters created by BTS members of themselves) to decorate the front of my tote and added a matching bag charm to the handle.

As you can see from this side view photo, the bags were simply constructed by gluing the front and back panels to a rectangular shaped box.

The bag charms were made by enlarging the BT21 images I wanted to use and printing them onto shrink plastic. After cutting the images out and shrinking them in a toaster oven, they were coated with UV resin to give them a glossy finish. I attached them with together with mini bells and seed beads onto split rings then onto binder rings so they could be fastened onto the tote strap.

I was having so much fun playing with shrink plastic and UV resin that I guess I got a little carried away and ended up making a few more charms than expected. Happily, I found  a couple packages of charm straps in my stash to use for my extra charms.  I'm sure my friends will have no problem sharing these with their fellow BTS fan friends.

Tote Bags for Goodies

Have you noticed that several crafty companies have been coming out with cutting dies to create fun paper versions of tote bags similar to the wildly coveted Trader Joe's canvas totes? I'm wasn't willing to stand in long lines for these bags but when I saw how cute the paper versions of these were, I was all in.

I needed my totes to be large enough to hold a bag of Cheetos Snack Mix so I created my own simple template cutting file in Make the Cut. The finished size of these totes turned out to be 7-3/4 inches wide, 2-1/2 inches in depth and 10-1/2 inches tall. 

As you see from the side view, I simply created front and back panels and glued them onto the sides of a rectangular box.

The funnest part of making these treat bags was decorating them. I used a clipart found on Pinterest to decorate the front, and added "faux" bag charms made with tiny bells and seed beads, together with glitter and metallic cardstock. Lawn Fawn "Butterfly Border" and Karen Burniston "Charm Rings" dies were used to assemble the butterfly charm.

Minnie and Daisy Special Friends Birthday Card

I wanted to make a Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck themed card to send my sweet "Disney Adult" friend for her birthday, and this is the card and gift card holder I came up with.
 

All images of Minnie and Daisy I used for this card were print and cut images from clipart found online. Shadows were cut from black cardstock for each image and glued on behind each of the print and cut images. Stickles glitter glue was used to add highlights to the girls' outfits and I used foam tape to adhere them onto a squarish oval shaped frame. Happy Birthday sentiment was cut using "Spellbinders Essentially Yours" layered die from gold foil board.

Inside, I used "Karen Burniston Twist Flower Pop Up" mechanism to animate Minnie and Daisy with a large die cut cake.  I really enjoy using this mechanism a lot because although it's small and simple to assemble,  it can twist and pop up fairly large images and embellishments for a fun "wow" effect.  "Marianne Design Collectibles Birthday Cake" die was used to cut and assemble the cake and  the candles were made using a die from "Taylored Expressions Mini Cake and Stand" set. "Spellbinders Mini Blooms And Sprigs" dies were used for the flowers.

The "Celebrating You" sentiment on the left side of the card was printed with my laser printer, cut using the print and cut function on my Silhouette, then run through a Minc Hot Foil machine with gold foil. This was then adhered to a shadow layer that had been cut with red cardstock. 

I did another print and cut image of Daisy and Minnie for a matching gift card holder.  The die to cut the "Just for You" sentiment comes from "Lawn Fawn's Gift Box" die set and it's shadow layer was created in Make the Cut design program. Inside, I used "Srushti Patil's Sliding Pop Up" mechanism so the gift card inside would slide up as it's opened.

Hello Summer!

Today I'm sharing the card I made and sent to our granddaughter last month in celebration of the end of another school year and the start of summer vacation. I found some old cutting files of Sanrio's Hello Kitty and Friends at the beach that I created several years ago and decided to put them to use again. Paper Flowers and LD Charming Bold fonts were used to create the cut file for the "Hello Summer" greeting.
 

I recently learned a new (for me) pop up mechanism by watching video tutorials by Purple Girl Crafts and Graphic 45. It's called a Diagonal Panel Pop Up or Diagonal Twist and Pop Up mechanism and it's an updated version of the Twist Panel Pop Up card mechanism. Here you can see the four panels in the center of  this card pop up and open at a diagonal (rather than parallel to the fold) when the card is opened.

I added a paper pieced image of Pochacco riding a dolphin to the fourth pop up panel and suspended a smaller dolphin above him using a strip of acetate.

Hello Kitty surfing on a wave was added to the second panel. Then I added a paper pieced My Melody, some fish and a turtle together with framed insets for the sentiments onto right and left sides of the card.

I really like the look of this Diagonal Twist Pop Up Panel card and am looking forward to playing with this mechanism again soon; perhaps a floral version?

Kokeshi and Cherry Blossom Arch Pop Up

After seeing and admiring all the beautiful photos taken by my dear friend of cherry blossom trees in bloom during her recent trip to Japan, I was inspired to make a cherry blossom themed card for her birthday.

I used old kokeshi girl svg cut files I created a while ago for this card. Digital washi paper was used to paper piece the kimono, then the kokeshi girl was glued into an oval frame.  Lawn Fawn's "Happy Birthday Border" die was used to cut the sentiment.

Four sizes of cherry blossoms were die cut in different shades of pink using Elizabeth Craft Designs "Spring Blossom Collection Cherry Blossom" dies. Flower centers were cut from gold foil board.

Inside, I installed Karen Burniston's "Arch Pop Up" mechanism to create another cherry blossom arch pop up card.

This time instead of the Sanrio characters I used on my last cherry blossom arch card, I  placed two additional kokeshi girls to both sides of the arch. Sentiment boxes bordered in gold foil board were added to the bottom left and right sides of the card.

I must admit that I've been having more fun playing with this Arch Pop Up die set than I ever expected. This is thanks to all the talented and inspiring card makers that share their wonderful creations on Karen Burniston Pop Up Peeps Facebook Group. So many fabulous ideas... can't wait to try them all!

A matching gift card holder was decorated with more die cut cherry blossoms and a "celebrate" sentiment cut from gold foil board using Avery Elle's "Sentimental" die set. Inside, I added the gift card to  a sliding pop up mechanism that I learned here from Srushti Patil. "Happy Birthday" stamped sentiment is from Mama Elephant "Paola's Wishes" stamp set.

Sharing with Old Friends

When I got together for lunch with some high school friends earlier this year, I made several of these little treat boxes and filled them with cookies to share.

I used a laser printer and my Silhouette Cameo to print and cut the old friends word art from pearlized gold cardstock. This was then hot foiled using a Heidi Swapp Minc with toner reactive foil sheets. I cut a shadow layer of the tree from  gold metallic cardstock, layered it behind the tree, then adhered it onto a white square panel with foam tape. It's a little hard to see from the photo but I dry embossed the white square panel behind the tree with an embossing folder that had a repeating leaf design. This was then matted onto gold metallic cardstock and glued onto the front of the box.

The template for the box is a simply a square  box with flaps extending over the top of the front and back. The flaps meet at the top and I threaded gold lame ribbon through holes on the top to tie a bow to keep the box closed. I was able to put together a dozen of these boxes fairly quickly and was happy that they turned out looking like I had spent a lot more time than I did making them. Pretty certain you'll see me using this style of box again when I need to make treat boxes to share.