"FAN"-tastic Mothers Day

Hope everyone is having a great Mothers Day. Sharing today the card I made for our moms and a treat box for giving to our friends and family who are moms too. Not exactly sure why, but it seems  lately I've had this thing for Japanese fans and have been using the fan theme on quite a few of my cards.

First, this is the card made for our moms. I used Sister Stamps "Yoshimi" dancing with her fans for the front of the card. Colored her with Copics and paper pieced her kimono with washi paper. The  background label is a freebie cutting file from the Labels 5 Set designed and generously shared by Monica of Monica's Creative Room. Textured gold strip behind it was embossed using a folder from the Cuttlebug Asian Bundle and cherry blossoms were punched from Carl Crafts punches.

Then on the inside, I tried a different kind of pop up card; I think you would call this a "Tunnel Card". I used the tutorial by Mary Deatherage of Stamp-N-Lingers blog but made mine with a rectangular window instead of the oval one in Mary's tutorial.

In addition, I added strips of cardstock to the top and bottom inside the "tunnel" to serve as struts, and attached strips of acetate running vertically between the the top and bottom struts to hold the fans.

In these photos you can more clearly see the strips of acetate. Fans were cut using the Cricut Pagoda cartridge from black cardstock and washi papers then glued onto the acetate strips. I added embossed gold cardstock on the inside for the backdrop. For the sentiments, I used the same label as on the front of card, resizing it in Make the Cut. A fun. but a little challenging card to create. Hope to try this type of card again, and hopefully it will get easier and quicker to put together.

For my Mothers Day treat boxes, I kept it simple by making these sliding "matchbox style" boxes. Once I figured out the right size the box needed to be, making the "sleeve" was easy. Sort of like making a belly band, just larger. I stamped and used Sister Stamps" Miyoko" to decorate the front of the box. To keep with the "fan" theme, I cut away the cupcake she holds and replaced it with a separately stamped image of one of "Yoshimi's" fans. The fan shaped label and shadows were created in Make the Cut, and I used Punch Bunch mini punches for the flowers and leaves.

I baked manju (yaki manju) with sweet red bean (azuki) and apple fillings to put inside the boxes.Hope the moms enjoyed them!

And before I go...just wanted to share a sweet surprise I received in the mail from my daughter and son in law on Friday. I was totally amazed how these lovely tulip buds survived the trip from the mainland, in a box and with no water! After trimming their stems and putting them in water, they perked up and today the buds are starting to open...so beautiful!
Thanks for stopping by today! Hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing Mothers Day!