Happy 'Bear'thday To You!

This is the card I put together to send to my niece on her birthday last month. Went with a Surprise Pop Up style card using the tutorial by Beate Johns over at Splitcoast Stampers as a guide. Just changed up the sizing so it would fit my paper pieced teddy.

Pulling on the ribbon tab at the top of the card makes the slider pull up to make the panel with the teddy bear stand and reveal the hidden sentiment inside.

Teddy bear paper piecing comes from the Bear with Bucket and Shovel cutting file from Little Scraps of Heaven; but I swapped his bucket and shovel for a paper pieced cupcake from the Happy Birthday Cat cutting file from Kadoodle Bug Designs. Both files are freebie files from a while back, but still available for purchase onsite.The fancy rectangle label used for sliding panel is another freebie designed and generously shared by Heather M. on her blog, Images by Heather.  Used Cuttlebug's Happy Birthday embossing folder on it to add some texture.

Here's a closer look at the sentiment that's revealed as the center panel slides up.The pink banner comes from Cricut's Wedding Solutions cartridge.

Side view shows how it all works! The slider piece in the back is large with space enough to add another sentiment, or even a gift card if you'd like. The one problem I recently encountered with this Surprise Pop Up card was that some recipients may not be able to figure out how to get it to work. I used this card style to make Mothers Day cards for my mom and mil, and found out a week later that they both weren't able to "open"  their cards! So sad!!! Next time I'll know to be sure to include a little note with the card with instructions...

Goodies for Mothers Day and Boys Day

A little late with this post, but these are the treat bags and cookie boxes I barely finished in time for our Mothers Day dinner. I think I waited too long to start baking the cookies, mostly because I felt uncertain about how long they would keep, and then it was a mad rush to get everything put together in time. The cookies were Oatmeal Lacies...thin, crisp and buttery...not hard to make, but a little different than the usual cookie dough. They're quite delicious while crispy, but unfortunately they tend to wilt quickly in humid weather conditions like we have here in the islands. Waited till the last minute to bake them in hopes they'd be fresh and still crisp when I passed them out. Got the recipe for them here, if you'd like to give them a try.

Inspired by some pretty stencil cut boxes I saw over at the online Silhouette store, I decided to try designing something similar to put the cookies in, using the stencil cut rose file from the Cricut Wrap It Up cartridge. Had to keep it clean and simple so assembling would be quick once I got the pieces cut on the Silhouette.

Also created a  simple topper for the gift bag the boxes went in using the same rose and leaves stencil and a scalloped edge. Very fast and easy, though maybe a little too plain? Ah well, at least they got done in time!

Now, here's a look at two Mothers Day treats that aren't simple or plain at all that I was lucky enough to receive this year from sweet friends!

This super cute kokeshi chopsticks holder was made by none other than my dear friend Lorna, using a cutfile she designed. Aww...isn't that little baby kokeshi just too adorable? And the luscious pink macarons you see were a gift from our friend the master patissier, sweet Heather. Almost too pretty to eat but totally light as a cloud and melt in your mouth delicious!

Lorna also surprised us a week prior to Mothers Day with these fabulous Boys Day treats. You can just imagine all the excitement that went on at our workplace when she brought these amazing koi nobori candy holders in to share!

Lorna designed her koi from one of those paper party popper boxes, using an envelope punch board to create the pattern and trimming it at one end to look like a fish. She created the very cool scales on the fish by running her cardstock thru an embossing folder inked up with a shimmery ink pad...love it! Circle and heart punches for the eyes and fin, and a Chupa Chups lollipop placed inside a straw for the holder...amazing, right?

For A BEARY Special Mom

Hello, hope everyone is having enjoying their Mothers Day today! Sharing the Mothers Day card I put together for my mom and mother in law today.Decided it was time to do something other than my usual favorite box style cards so I chose to do a Surprise Pop Up Slider type card.

Decorated the front of the card with paper piecings from a new paper piecing website I recently discovered, Cuddly Cute Designs. I fell in love right away with all the Cuddly Cute Animal cutting files on this website! For my card I used the Cuddly Cute Koala file and paired him with a hearts and flowers arrangement from the Bunches Of Love file.
After assembling, I placed both on a heart edged oval I created in Make The Cut (MTC). Center oval was embossed using a Cuttlebug embossing folder, Kassie's Brocade. LaLa Land Flourish Corner Die was used for the fancy corners, and the banner cut for the sentiments comes from the Cricut Wedding Solutions cartridge.

Isn't this little guy just adorable? I think he might just be my new favorite bear cutting file!

Pulling on the tulle ribbon at the top of the card makes the center decorated panel slide back and pop up to reveal the sentiment underneath.

Here's the side view to show how it works...

I used the tutorial/video by Beate over at Splitcoast Stampers to do this card. I really liked that she adds on a guide to the inside of the card to help the slider pull out more evenly. A fun card to make and hopefully to receive!

Celebrating Boys Day with Pochacco

Happy Boys Day! Today, May 5th was traditionally celebrated as Boys Day or "Tango no Sekku" in Japan until recent times when it was changed to Childrens Day or "Kodomo no hi". But traditional Boys Day customs still seem to persist and Japanese families continue to display samurai warrior swords, helmets and dolls in their homes, and fly "koinobori" or carp streaners outdoors. For Boys Day this year, I wanted to surprise my son in law with some "happy mail" so I got a few Boys Day treats and a made a fun gift card holder to send him.

Finally decided to give the pop up gift card holder everyone else has been making for years a try. Lots and lots of tutorials on the web for these. I used the tutorial for a tri-fold one by Angie Leach on her blog Too Cool Stamping. Really like how she added a window to the front panel!
For the front of my card, I created a cutfile for adorable little Pochacco holding a fish to add to the window.

Here's the card opened with the gift card standing in the center. Found some cute and colorful koinobori images by doing a Google search and added them as a border to the inside of the card. More cutesy than masculine, but I'm hoping my son in law will like it!