ONE-derful Birthday Wishes

When I bought a brightly colored Sesame Street quilt as a gift for little Colin's First Birthday present, it was a no brainer that I needed to make a Sesame Street card to match, right? Dusted off my old Sesame Street Friends and Sesame Street Font Cricut cartridges, feeling happy that I would be using them again.

Thought it would be fun to have the Sesame Street characters peeking out of a Card In A Box...too bad there was only room enough inside the box for Elmo, Cookie Monster, the Grouch, and Big Bird. It was a bit of a tight squeeze but I also managed to fit in a present from Beyond Birthdays cartridge and a chocolate cupcake cut using a Cottage Cutz die.

Here's the view from the top which shows where each of the characters were placed on the struts inside the card.

And here's the card flattened with the sentiment on the back panel, ready to slip into an envelope.
Just wanted to mention that as I was remembering and having fun putting together my favorite characters for this card, I wondered if kids today still even watch Sesame Street anymore. LOL, ya know, at my age I often get kidded about being so out of touch...so had to do some checking...and happy to learn that Elmo, Big Bird and all the rest of the gang still are a favorite amongst preschoolers...this year celebrates 45 years for the show! You GO BIG BIRD!

Hello Kitty, Accordion Style!

Here's another fun accordion card I put together using Elizabeth Craft Designs Oval Accordion die designed by Karen Burniston. This one was a birthday card for my dear crafting pal Kris, another a big time Hello Kitty aficionado. The original inspiration for this card comes from Mary Prasad's beautiful Magnolia card here. Of course my card comes nowhere close to being as amazing as hers, but I really wanted to try the "Rain or Shine" theme using Hello Kitty images.

As mentioned before, it took me a bit of thinking to figure out the fronts and backs of this card and how to put it together, but watching video tutorials by Karen Burniston and Els van de Burgt  helped a lot. I used Hello Kitty cuts from Cricut Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge and the rainbow, clouds and sun were created in MTC from Hello Kitty coloring book images. Sentiments were computer generated using LD Charming font.

Had fun making this card and am looking forward to doing more of these accordion style cards. Been so inspired by seeing all the neat cards others have created using this die and can't wait to give them all a try!

Yankee Doodle Treats and Thank You's

Gosh, I can hardly believe the month of July is already more than half over! I'm totally embarrassed that I'm so late in posting this RAK we received from our crafty friend, Lorna for the Fourth of July. But these Uncle Sam treat boxes she put together are so darned CUTE that I just had to share. Lorna created these using her punches, filled them with star and heart shaped hard candies and even a champagne party popper...FUN! This girl never misses an opportunity to celebrate! We 're so lucky to have her as our special friend.

Speaking of being LATE...here's yet another thing I was embarrassingly late with...my thank you cards.Seems I always struggle whenever I have to make multiples of anything!

Decided to do window style card featuring a favorite Sister Stamps image, Li-Li with her panda. She's so adorable; happy I finally got a chance to ink her up! Colored her up with Copics and mounted her with foam tape to the inside of the card so she'd peek out of the window.
Layered some pretty washi papers for the background and used a Spellbinders Nestabilities circle die to cut the window. For the window border, I chose what I thought was an "Asian" border image found on the internet and rendered it into a cutfile using MTC. Laughs on me, because I learned later this border is actually "Roman". Shows how little I know about art and history!

Here's the card on the inside. Whew, such a relief to have these finally all done and mailed...I'm such a procrastinator!

Congratulations, Class of 2014!

The last three graduates on my list this year also got graduation hat boxes. Unfortunately, these didn't get done on time...just mailing them out this week. As mentioned on my previous post, you can get the cutting file for these cute boxes designed by Sunghee which she generously shares as a freebie on her website, Little Potato Studio.

I kept the embellishments with these the same as with the first box, using the graduate's school colors and keeping it minimal with just a banner and vellum rolled and tied with ribbon for a diploma.

I ended up cutting the slit for the $$$ to pass through a little too long on these boxes so I taped a strip of card stock onto the end of the first bill to prevent it from falling back into the box. A word of advice: since the bottom and sides of the cap are curved, the construction of this box is a lot easier if you use a thinner or more pliable brand of cardstock. I used a lighter weight  cardstock from an American Crafts cardstock stack to make the first previously posted box and had no problems, but really struggled with putting these last three together using a heavier, firmer Bazzill cardstock.

Tassels were made using embroidery floss and metallic cording and attached to the top of the hat with a matching brad.

Again, I used the graduates school logos as the background layer for my sentiment, cut them out with Spellbinders Label 2 dies, adhered them to the bottom of the hat boxes...and they were FINALLY DONE!

Congratulations, Class of 2014!!!!

Graduation Cap Gift Box

The second graduation card/gift that I got finished on time was for the sister of the pharmacy school graduate. Her high school graduation was just two weeks after her brother's graduation! Wow, can you imagine all the excitement going on in that family?

I had a difficult time trying to come up with graduation card ideas this year so I opted to do something completely different. Been wanting to try this graduation cap box designed and shared as a freebie cutting file by Sunghee of Little Potato Studio for a while now. Thought it might be fun to put together using the graduate's school colors and stuff  with $$$ in lieu of a card. Kept the embellishments simple by adding just a banner with the graduate's name and a piece of vellum rolled and tied with ribbon to look like a diploma. The tassel was made with embroidery floss and metallic cording and kept in place with a brad.

To add to the fun I cut a slit wide enough for bills to easily pass through on one of the sides of the cap. Using thin strips of Scotch Transparent tape, I taped the money together end to end to get a LONG strip of bills. Rolled this up, placed it inside the box and glued the top of the box closed to create a fun "cash dispenser". "Class of 2014" cutfile was created in MTC with Amazone font and cut on the Silhouette.

For a personalized sentiment, I searched online for the graduate's school logo to use as the backdrop and printed it from my computer using Broderbund Printshop. Used Spellbinder Labels 2 dies to cut it out and adhered it to the bottom of the box. Wrapped the finished hat box in cellophane and put it in a gift bag together with a lei I had crocheted earlier using eyelash yarns and satin rattail cording...whew...finished just in time!