A Simple "Just Because" Card

You know how excited crafters can get when their kids do crafty stuff...well, I'm no different. When I recently learned that my daughter had suddenly taken an interest in the latest crafty craze of decorating planners, I got all excited. I know this sounds silly but I got so excited that I went out shopping for all sorts of cute stamps, stickers, washi and decorative tapes to send her so as to fuel her interest in her new hobby. And of course with all the goodies I had to send a card, right? I guess it's called a "Thinking of You" or "Just Because" card...no occasion, no reason...just because...

Wanted to mail the goodies out right away so had to keep the card quick and simple. I used the Cuddly Critter Koala cutting file from Cuddly Cute Designs...and by using black cardstock to cut his ears, eyes and arms and legs, I changed him to look more like a cutie panda instead of a koala! Then I added a little banner for him to hold by creating the flags in Make the Cut, adding the letters, and stringing them onto some embroidery floss.

Then on the inside, the cute and simple sentiment that explains the missing letter on panda's banner...
Later my daughter told me how she sadly searched the envelope her card came in for the missing "U", thinking it had fallen off...until she read the sentiment inside. Yes, dear daughter...I'm sadly missing "U" too!

"JAVA" Happy Birthday!

You know you're a Starbucks addict when...you've racked up so many drinks and gold stars that you could be a Starbucks Gold member twice over...who me?!!! Well, not ONLY me! My dear friend Heather is one too, and so for her birthday, I got her a Starbucks reusable cup and gift card so she can keep rackin' up those gold stars even faster.

Found what I thought was the perfect cutting file for her birthday card over at Marjorie Ann Designs called "Morning Coffee"...a set of five of the cutest mousies with their coffees. I chose to use the mousie with the takeout cup and pastries on this card....breakfast of champions, right?

I used white cardstock to cut all the pieces and Copics to color them up. This was a great alternative to using colored cardstock, especially since I didn't have any gray cardstock on hand. For the Starbucks logo on the cup, I simply imported the icon to my publishing program, reduced the size to fit, printed it and cut it out. Paper pieced mousie was then adhered to a label from Cricut's Elegant Edges cartridge.

Mmm...don't these Copic colored pastries look almost good enough to eat?

Added mousie and pastry paper piecings onto a Surprise Sliding Pop Up style card.

Pulling up on the ribbon at the top of the card makes the mousie on the front panel slide back and up to a standing position while revealing the sentiment underneath. The neat thing about this type of card is that it also makes a very cool gift card holder. The sliding tab attached to the ribbon pull was just the right size to attach my gift card to. Just thinking now how this might be a really fun way to give gift cards for Christmas!

Flying Easel Birthday Card

Over a year has gone by since I my first attempt at a flying easel card...it turned out to be a disappointing fail and since then I never cared to try another. But a few weeks ago while trying to come up with ideas for a birthday card for my mother in law, I decided it was time to give the flying easel card a second chance.

For my "flying" element, I chose to use a trio of paper lanterns with my Happy Birthday sentiment printed on them. Font used here is Chow Mein ttf. Lanterns were cut using a cutfile created in Make the Cut by welding circles and rectangles together. Colored them using Copics and ran them through a crimper to add texture, then hung them to the frame on a length of embroidery thread.

I used a label shape from Monica's Creative Room to create the frame and cut the window. Monica creates and generously shares some of the most beautiful labels,tags, doilies and cards in digital format on her site. If you haven't been there yet, you'll definitely want to check it out! My stamped and colored image is sweet Mei Li from Sister Stamps.

For the stop on my easel card, I used Make the Cut to create a cutfile of an image of a Chinese style medallion with a stylized character for long life found through an image search on the web. 

And here's what the finished card looks like opened to its display position.

Must admit that I was much happier with this second attempt at the flying easel card. The actual construction of the card is fairly simple; but trying to figure out how to decorate it was the hardest part for me. Hoping more ideas will pop into my head soon so I can try this card again!

Domo Happy Birthday!

My dearest and long time friend Pat is a big fan of the mascot to Japan's NHK broadcasting company, Domo-kun, so I wanted to surprise her with some fun Domo-kun themed goodies for her birthday.

I started out by making this tiered chocolate birthday cake card. The cake, frosting and candles were created by welding basic shapes together in Make the Cut (MTC) and cut using my Silhouette Cameo. The little rosettes were cut from the Springtime Tea die from Cottage Cutz and lacey corners were cut using Spellbinders D-Lites Corner Flourish Two die. Used Stickles and a Marvy Glitter pen to add some fun shimmer and sparkle.

Made this into what I call an "open down" card...the top layer of frosting on the card keeps the card closed. Gently lifting up on this layer of frosting drops the front of the card down to open the card...

...and LOL, it's Domo-kun with frosting and candles on his head with a birthday wish!

The pop up Happy Birthday sentiment was created Make the Cut and Arial font.

And I had MTC trace an image found online to make a cutting file for Domo kun.

Next, I made this gift card holder to include as part of Pat's Domo kun themed birthday gift.

This is a trifold pop up type gift card holder inspired by Angie Leach on her blog, Too Cool Stamping. Comic Sans font was used to create the word "Celebrate" on the front of the card, and I found a cute Domo kun border online to add to the inside.

Then finally, as I was getting ready to wrap Pat's gift, I got a wild and crazy idea to decorate the box as well! I enlarged the Domo kun cutting file I had created for her giftcard to make a huge paper pieced Domo kun to add to the front of the gift box...LOL...so fun! Hoping Pat enjoyed her crazy Domo kun birthday surprise as much as I had fun putting this together!