A Valentine for Hubby and RAKS from the Heart

Oopsie...I was in such a rush last week to get my Valentine Treats posted that I completely forgot about this card I had made for dear hubby.

While searching in desperation for ideas for a Valentines card for hubby, I came across an amazing Mickey and Minnie pop up cutfile I wanted to use, created and shared by Debbie on her Paper Pulse blog. To keep with the theme, I chose a cut of Minnie from the Cricut Mickey and Friends cartridge to decorate the front of my card. 

Now open the card to see Debbie's adorable pop up insert...

Isn't that the cutest pop up ever?!!!! Love it!

Check out the closeup.....

Well, I think I was more excited about this card than hubby, but that's probably because I'm such a kid at heart when it comes to anything Disney. Oh, in case you're wondering, the sentiment on the card reads, "Sometimes I think our relationship is a cartoon..." "...a dream come true and happily ever after!"

Many thanks to Debbie for generously sharing her wonderful cutfile. If you own an electronic cutting machine, you must pop in to visit her at Paper Pulse. You'll be amazed to see the plethora of beautiful cutfiles this talented lady has created and very generously shares.

Now on to some of the sweet Valentine surprises I received...

Taking a closer look...

A Hello Kitty goodie box from my dear friend Kris...don't you just love her red heart embellished shirt and the pink bow and arrow?

And a Hershey Kisses Valentine heart created by sweet friend and fellow Cricuteer Cheryl! I think these look so elegant...find the tutorial over at Qbee's Quest.

An adorable treat bag from dear Aunty Pat...don't you love the colors? Cute owl comes from the Cricut Hoot and Holler cartridge, and that super neat tag is actually washi tape, printed on an inkjet printer.

And how cute is this birdcage treat holder from Lorna? Bird cage is a Sizzix/Tim Holtz Bigz die, and adorable glittery birds are from the Cricut Simply Charmed cartridge.

And yet another incredibly cute and clever RAK from the ever so talented Lorna...she put together this sweet little lantern for Chinese New Years. Can you believe that these were made from Hello Kitty printed lai si envelopes? Just amazing....!

Whew! My head is spinning with all the creative talent that surrounds me. Wish I could absorb all the vibes and make it work for me too!



Sharing the Love!

Had so much fun making the flatback treat boxes last month that I decided to make even more! But this time around I made them a little larger to hold more candy. The finished size on these are: 5.25"H x 4.5"W x 1"D, and the box on the bottom holds eight Dove chocolate hearts.

 

Finally had the chance to work on more cutfiles of my favorite Tokidoki characters. Used MTC to create cutfiles of Cactus Hello Kitty and Polpettina from the Tokidoki Cactus Friends collection to decorate this box. Put together a little over a dozen of these to share with special friends. A little time consuming, but fun!

Then for my techie son-in-law, I used the robot image from Cricut Boys Will Be Boys cartridge to decorate his box, hoping to give it a slightly more masculine touch....

And here's the MTC screenshot you can use as a template to create your own similar box:

Start off with a piece of cardstock 8.75" x 8.5" and trim as indicated above to create the flaps of the box. Instructions for assembly of this box are the same as described on Splitcoast Stampers Resources Page for the Flat Backed Treat Box by Patti Gilliam. Be sure to also watch the short video tutorial by Beate Johns on the bottom of that page.

I used MTC to create my templates but this is simple enough do with just a ruler and pair of scissors. And in answer to those of you who have asked about SCAL, the MTC program has the capability of converting any of my files into svgs, so if you're interested, please email me.

I also made up a few more of the smaller three Dove chocolate heart boxes to share at our Cricut Club meeting last week...

Since it was for the Cricut Club, I needed to use an image cut on my Cricut, right? These adorable koala bears and "Hugs n kisses" sentiment are from the Create A Critter 2 cartridge.

The best part of this smaller sized box is not only that they're quicker to put together but also that you can cut two from a sheet of cardstock. You can find the template for this smaller sized box here.

Now as if putting together all those treat boxes didn't keep me busy enough, here's an idea I spied on Pinterest that I just HAD to try...

...decorated candy kisses! Luckily, these were REALLY quick to do...

For mine, I used a free template I found over at Little Bitty Design Studio, but there are a lot of similar freebie ones by other designers you can find by doing a Google image search for "Hershey Kiss Labels". I simply printed mine out on Avery 8.5" x 11" white shipping labels and used a 3/4" circle punch to cut them out. My bag topper was created in Printshop using digital paper from Sassy Designs and a png. digital image from ScrappyDew.com  BTW, if you're in to digital paper, Sassy Designs is currently having a crazy 99 cents sale on everything in their shop till Sunday (2/17)...

And finally...yes, you guessed it...gotta decorate those treat bags for our doggie friends! I just love that Snoopy is so quick and easy to render into a cutfile and cut!

Happy Valentines Day! Hope you all had a wonderful time sharing the love with your sweeties today!

Happy Chinese New Year!

"Gung Hay Fat Choy!" Today is Chinese New Years and the first day of the Year of the Snake. We didn't do much to celebrate, but I did bake up couple batches of almond cookies and put together another style of gable box to put them in. These boxes are a little smaller  (6.5"H x 5"W x 2"D) than the ones I made in January, but still large enough to hold about a dozen small cookies.



This time I wanted my box to look a little more Chinese so I used a lot of red and gold and chose a Chinese papercut image to decorate it. Since I didn't want to spend too much time poking out all the tiny cuts in the snake, I chose to simplify the original image a bit in Adobe Photoshop before importing it to MTC to create a cutfile. Shadow layer for the snake and kanji character for snake "hebi" was also created in MTC and cut in gold metallic cardstock. Used foam tape to pop the snake up onto a red circle and backed it with gold Stardream cardstock embossed with Spellbinders Asian M-Bossabilities folder. Clipped the corners with a Stampin' Up Ticket punch and backed it with more red cardstock. 

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year filled with good health and good luck!

Sister Stamps Release 11: It's Release Day!

Woo Hoo! Today is the day we've all been anxiously awaiting....it's Release Day for the five brand new Sister Stamps images! Head on over to your favorite craft store to grab yours before they're gone. For a listing of retailers here in Hawaii or online check out the listing on the side bar over at Sister Stamps official blog.

Sincere thanks to all of you who stopped by to visit during release week.  Hope you'll join us once again at the end of March when we introduce the next two Chinese Zodiac Animals, Year of the Rooster and Year of the Dog...see 'ya then!