Sister Stamps Release #16: Year of the Tiger

Today I'm sharing my second project for Sister Stamps Release #16, this time featuring the Year of the Tiger stamp from the Chinese Zodiac Collection. Isn't she adorable? Definitely one of my faves in this collection!

I colored her up with Copics and placed her on a background of bamboo...created by inking up a Darcy bamboo embossing folder and running it through the Big Shot. The kanji character at the top is "tora" or "Tiger", rendered into a cutfile in MTC and cut with the Silhouette. Altho this looks like a card, it's actually meant to be a box, or a holder for what's inside...

...a little Tiger charm to hang from your purse or keyring...

I have been itching to try some shrink art with these Chinese Zodiac animals for some time now, and was really pleased at how this turned out!

Tiger image was stamped onto white shrink plastic, colored, then cut out. I used a 1/8" hand punch to punch a hole at the top of the Tiger's head and  baked it on a foil lined pan in a toaster oven set at 300 degrees, allowing it to shrink, leaving it in till it was fully flattened...about 8 minutes. The finished size of the charm turned out to be about 1/3rd the size of the original stamped image.

I placed a jump ring through the tiny hole on the charm, added a bell and strap finding. Secured the charm by sewing it onto cardstock and placed it inside the recessed window "box".

Then on the left side panel, I added the personality traits for people born in the Year of the Tiger.
This was surprisingly quick and easy...and I can't wait to try and make all  12 zodiac animals into little shrink plastic charms...wouldn't it make a very cute charm bracelet?
To learn how you can win this adorable Year of the Tiger stamp or any of the rest of the cute Sea Friends stamps in Release #16, head on over to the Sister Stamps blog before midnite tonight. And definitely check out the Design Team blogs for their amazing creative projects featuring stamps from this new release.

Jenny:   Sister Stamps Official Blog
Debi:     Crafty Buzz
Eva:       Crafting This And That
Kerry:    Kerry Is Chilling
Patti:      Creations By Patti
Laura:    By TKG
Linda:    Simple and Sassy Creations
Linda's You Tube Channel:  Lfundoo's Channel

 

Sister Stamps Release #16: Year of the Ox

It's time for Sister Stamps Release #16, and included with this newest release are the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Ox and Year of the Tiger stamps. Today I'm sharing an anniversary card I created using the new Year of the Ox stamp together with the Year of the Rat stamp (from Release #14). 

When my daughter and son in law were first dating, we were pleased to learn that he was born in the Year of the Ox, a good match (according to Chinese astrology) for her, who was born in the Year of the Rat. LOL, I know it sounds silly but coming from Asian roots, our family tends to hold on to these traditional beliefs. In fact, there is a very cute folk legend about the Chinese zodiac animals which explains how the clever Rat got to be the first and the strong, kindhearted Ox became the second animal in the 12 year cycle of the Chinese Zodiac. (Click on the link to read the story)

For this card, I decided to color the Ox and Rat in nontraditional fun colors to give it a whimsical feel...remember Paul Bunyan's blue ox? (I think this ox is waaaay cuter!) The Chinese character behind them is the Chinese symbol for "shuang xi" or "double happiness". MTC was used to create the cutfile for the symbol, cut in red cardstock and sprayed with Tsukineko Sparkle spritz.

Placed the symbol and stamped images onto gold cardstock and washi paper and onto a gatefold style card...

...and to keep the gatefold nicely closed, I added little square tabs to top and bottom on the right side of the card to slip into the gap on left side of the card.

The gatefold card opens...

...with some interesting Chinese astrology info on  relationship compatibility between the Ox and Rat...

...And this flips open for the anniversary greeting inside.

 

I guess this card would also work as a fun and novel kind of wedding card, by using the Chinese zodiac animals of the year the bride and groom were born.

Hope you've had the chance to pop in at the Sister Stamps blog to see the adorable sea creatures in this newest release and possibly even win one! And please check out the Design Team blogs for some fabulous inspiration on what you can create with these new stamps:

 

Jenny: Sister Stamps Official Blog

Debi:   Crafty Buzz

Eva:     Crafting This And That

Kerry:  Kerry's Chilling

Patti:    Creations By Patti

Laura:  By TKG

Linda:  Simple and Sassy Creations

Linda on You Tube: Lfundoo's Channel

 





Last Grad Card for the Season

My last graduation card for the summer was for my cousin' daughter who graduated from the University of Hawaii with her Business degree...we're so proud of her! If this looks familiar it's because I used the same template I created with MTC for last year's female graduates...another recessed window card; I just switched out the "2" on the class year with a "3" to update it.

Once again I had my Silhouette cut the graduate's name (last name blocked out) in a window on the bottom and backed it with gold foil cardstock. School emblem was printed and cut out with a circle cutter and mounted inside the window with foam tape. I was embarrassingly late with this card so it was good to know I could fall back on a past cutfile to put this together quickly!
Just a very short post for today... Sister Stamps has begun introducing stamps from Release #16 -- have you seen them? So darned cute! Be sure to check out the Sister Stamps blog this weekend to get a sneak peek and chances to win the new stamps.  I'll be back on Tuesday and Wednesday with preview projects for the next two Chinese Zodiac Animals, the Year of the Boar and Year of the Tiger stamps. Hope you'll have the time to stop by to take a peek!

Sliding Box Graduation Card

Here's yet another Sliding Pop Up Box card, this time for my cousin's daughter's graduation. Once again, totally inspired by the amazingly talented Colette and her card here. This time around I left the box flaps off and the box bottom becomes more of a display stand.

Sweet Tara is such a Hello Kitty fan, that there was no question that her card had to have the Hello Kitty Graduate cut from the Cricut Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge on it. I dressed her in Tara's high school colors and added a little diploma for her to hold. Then to make it look like her little cap and tassel were flying off, I attached it to a strip of clear acetate, secured to the back. Kind of fun because the hat actually bobs up and down when the box is moved. Glued Hello Kitty to a tag cut from Spellbinders Fancy Tags 2 die with the greeting and attached the whole thing onto the slider inside.

To personalize, I added her school name and class onto nested labels cut with Spellbinders Labels 4 dies and adhered them onto the side panels on the base.  On the back panel, I added a little pocket and a mini envie to insert her gift.

And here's what the card looks like flattened...

I am having so much fun playing with this Sliding Box card, you can be certain I'll be making a few more of these...my new favorite card to make!

Welcome Little Lulu!

 

When my daughter and son in law recently brought a little Mal-Tzu (Maltese+ShihTzu) puppy into their home, the image of a brand new puppy being brought home in a cardboard box came to mind and I knew right away Colette's fun pop-up box card would be the perfect choice for a welcoming card for their sweet Lulu.

 I used Cottage Cutz "Sweetheart Puppy" die to cut and piece together little Lulu from ice gold cardstock and Copics to color her up. "Welcome Lulu" tag was cut from a Sizzlits mini tag set, and  sentiments were printed onto rounded rectangles, adhered to the sides of the box tied up with twine.
The neatest thing about this is the sliding mechanism inside the box that allows the box to fold flat for mailing. I was in such a rush to get this out that I completely forgot to take of photo of it flattened, but I have one posted of my first card of this type here, if you're interested.
I struggled a bit the first few times I tried Colette's card, maybe because of my own inaccuracies in converting metrics to inches...and also because I just couldn't get the sliding mechanism to work properly. In any case, I ended up tweaking the slider mechanism a bit and am happier now with how the box slides open and close. As promised last time, here's the template I came up with:

Solid lines are the cutting lines and broken lines are the score lines.

Here are the box pieces and the sleeve (printed paper), cut, scored and folded.

Glue the 1/2" flap on the long side of the sleeve to create a tube for the slider.

Connect the two box pieces together by gluing the mitered flap on the Box Base A to Box Base B.

Adhere the mitered flaps of the sleeve to the box at the same corner where you attached Box Base A and B.

 

Now insert the slider (on Box Base A) into the sleeve, making sure it slides in and out smoothly. You may have to trim the height of the slider a teensy bit to get it to slide to your satisfaction.

 

Apply glue to the remaining mitered flap (Box Base B)...

 

...and adhere to the slider to complete your box.

After that, let your creativity take over to decorate as you please!

Hopefully the instructions were easy enough to follow...

 

Here's a photo my daughter took when they received the box we sent for Lulu...

After it was flattened, I put Lulu's card into a brown box made to fit and tied it up with twine. (...brown paper packages tied up with string...these are a few of my favorite things!)

And finally, here's a shot of sweet little Lulu....awwwww....!

 

 

Divided Shadowbox Graduation Card

We have only a handful of graduates amongst our family and friends this year, but I couldn't find or think of any fresh and new ideas for graduation cards. So I ended up going back to my good ol' favorite recessed window/shadowbox style card. Tried something a little different this time by adding dividers to the inside of the shadowbox to hold some memorabilia and covered with a sheet of clear acetate.

This card was made for hubby's cousin's grandson who was a pitcher for his high school baseball team. I used MTC to create  cutfiles from images of a pitcher silhouette and their Trojan mascot, both found on the internet. "Class of 2013" and grad cap is a free svg cutfile designed and generously shared by Kay on her blog, Clever Someday. I used Varsity font and MTC to add the school name and pitcher's number. Then just below the shadowbox, I had my Silhouette cut the graduate's name using Arial font (last name blocked out for privacy) welded to a window and backed it with gold foil.

 Added a pocket on the inside to hold a note, cash or a gift card.  This was a fun card to put together especially since it could be personalized with memorabilia for the graduate.

 

Before I go, I also want to share the Fourth of July surprise we received last week from our sweet friend Lorna...

...Cellophane tubes filled with M n Ms  in festive patriotic colors with an adorable stamped topper! The stamped image is Kiyoko from Sister Stamps playing with sparklers.  She looks so patriotic in her red white and blue paper pieced kimono! Aww...this is too darned cute to have to take apart to eat!

 

Sister Stamps Anniversary Release #15 - Release Day!

Here they are! All four sweet furbaby stamps to be released for sale at your favorite local retailers and internet shopping sites TODAY! (Check the sidebar at the Sister Stamps Blog for the list of retailers)
Happy Birthday and congratulations to Denise and Jenny for another exciting year of fun and adorable rubber stamps to fuel our imagination and creativity...best wishes for your continued success!
A big MAHALO (thank you) to my dear friend Jenny for believing I could do it, all the encouragement, and inviting me to be a part of this awesome birthday celebration. And a sincere thank you from the heart to everyone who stopped by to join us for this new release! Hope you'll all have a chance to come back and visit again at the end of this month for the next Sister Stamps Chinese Zodiac release!