Swirly Background Wedding Card

Here's a wedding card I made recently for a good family friend who tied the knot this past summer. Couldn't guess the color scheme of the wedding from their beautiful photo wedding invitation so I decided to play it safe with white on white. Definitely went out of my comfort zone of my usual "cutesy cards" with this! Thank goodness for Bird's Cards and all the wonderfully beautiful cutting files she creates and shares!

For this card I used her freebie Swirly Background svg cutting file found on her site, Bird's Cards. To make the window, I created a heart shaped window with the newlyweds' names welded to the inside using Make the Cut design program and Amazone font. The personalized window was then joined to the center of the Swirly Background, again in Make the Cut. A sheet of clear acetate was placed behind it, and backed with pretty glitter cardstock from Core'dinations. The layered banner is from the Cricut Wedding Solutions cartridge, using the print and cut function to add the wedding date. For the final touch I added a silver foil backing and the tulle bow.

 I used Bird's Swirly Background svg once again to make a pocket to hold our gift on the inside of the card. The fancy bordered label with our sentiment is a freebie svg, from a newly discovered site, The Craft Chop. Lots of fun and very useful cutting files there, very generously shared...go check it out!
Very, very grateful to Bird's Cards and The Craft Chop for sharing their beautiful work. Without them, I would never have been able to put this card together!

Shadow Box Gable Box

I had the opportunity to spend a couple mornings this past summer with two amazingly creative friends to share crafty ideas and projects. Only problem is that I always have a tough time coming up with a creative project worthy enough to share with these two uber talented ladies! Just so happens during that time I was on a quest to find "the perfect pound cake recipe", baking nearly everyday, testing different recipes. This kitchen experiment left me with more loaves of pound cake than hubby and I could ever eat, which gave me the idea to put together a fun gable box as my share project so I could share my pound cake overload with my friends at the same time.

The template for this gable box comes from the Classic Gift Boxes Collection from SVG Cuts. I decreased the size of the original cutting file a bit to fit a mini loaf pan plus an additional 1/2 inch to the depth to allow room for the shadowbox insert.  I used the fill and print and cut functions in the Make the Cut Program to do the top of the box so it would look like a roof . Still learning how to properly use the fill feature which lets me fill shapes with patterns from digital paper files. Finding it lots of fun with so many creative possibilities!

To make my gable box unique, I decided to create a shadowbox on the front of the box. Inspiration for this comes from the very cool shadowbox giftbag/giftcard holders by Lori Whitlock which she sells at her shop. I purchased the file for this and increased the size of the pop up insert to fit my gable box. My Melody and Hello Kitty images were created using the print and cut feature in Make the Cut and adhered to the pop up insert. Oval scallop frame was created by welding circle shapes together. A piece of clear acetate was glued to the inside to create a window effect.
Really had fun putting this together and I'm hoping my friends did too. I'm enjoying playing with the fill feature and print and cut functions in Make the Cut now. Although it will probably never replace my love for paper piecing, it definitely is a time saver and great to use when I need to do multiples and time is a factor.

Baby Girl Onsie Box

Needed a gift card holder to go with the pop up crib card in my previous post but couldn't find one I liked until I came across this absolutely adorable Onsie Box from My Scrap Chick.

I used pink vellum to do the top layer of the skirt, pink brads for the snaps on the bottom and finally got a chance to use this cute Hello Kitty flatback embellishment that I bought many moons ago just because I thought it was so cute.

Here's the box open, with the gift card inside. The actual box is about one inch in depth, and I think it would be perfect for holding candies and treats for favors at a baby shower or reveal party. I used a freebie cutting file from My Scrap Chick for the gift card holder with the tabs.

I didn't like the way it looked with the gift card just sitting at the bottom inside the box so I decided to give it "a lift" by using a strip of cardstock which I had folded into a rectangular shape and adhering that to the inside of the box. This onsie box from My Scrap Chick was fun and pretty easy to put together. You have the option changing the style of the dress and there's even an adorable one for a baby boy with a little vest. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try that one too!

Baby Girl Pop Up Crib Card

Seems many of my good friends are becoming grammas this year too...and all baby girls so far! To welcome the birth of a dear friend's grandbaby, I chose to do another crib pop up card. My first one last year was for a sweet baby boy, but I've been itching to make another in pink! 

To decorate the front of the card, I created a little shelf with baby blocks and a banner; all designed in Make the Cut design program. For the word "welcome" I used Ballerina font, also rendered into a cutfile in Make the Cut. The cute little elephant is a svg cut file from the Lori Whitlock Shop. Finished the front with an eyelet border cut with a Martha Stewart edge punch and a tulle bow.

Here's the inside of the card with the pop up box style crib. The crib itself was created in Make the Cut; it's actually just a rectangular shaped box with struts inside similar to the popular Card In A Box style cards.

Lots of paper piecing went into putting this card together, but it was so much fun! Little baby girl inside the crib comes from Cricut Baby Steps cartridge, and duckie is from Cricut New Arrival cartridge. Bunny and giraffe toys are Doodlebug cutting files from the Lori Whitlock Shop. I also added a flag banner with baby's name for a personalized touch using Make the Cut and Notepad font.

The chest of drawers was created simply by layering different sized rectangles together with brads added for the knobs. Teddy bear is also from Lori Whitlock, and the books are just rounded rectangles with titles added using the print and cut function.

A couple views from the top show the struts inside the crib that the baby and toys are attached to.

Finally, my sentiment was added to a fancy label; a svg file designed and generously shared by Heather M on her blog, Images By Heather M. The inspiration for this card is a combination of ideas from Chris Peterson of Calla Lily Studio and Traci Penrod 's tutorial on the Lori Whitlock blog.

Pompompurin and Friends Birthday

Do you know Pompompurin? He's a chubby yellow golden retriever pup from Sanrio who wears a trademark brown beret. He's supposed to look like Japanese pudding ("Purin") or Flan. See how his brown beret resembles the caramel topping on flan? So cute! I wasn't too familiar with him at first. but when my dear friend Pat mentioned that he was one of her Sanrio faves, I began searching for images of him to use on her birthday card.

Discovered that Pompompurin has many kawaii friends too! Here's Macaron the Poodle, Muffin the Hamster, Bagel the Squirrel, and Whip the Penguin joining the birthday celebration.

And here's Scone the Rat and Powder the rabbit... don't you love that all his friends are named after bakery items and ingredients? Had Make the Cut design program render Pompompurin and all his friends into cutting files from images found on the web and put them together on a Free Standing Pop Up style card. Tutorial for this type of card by Mary Jo Albright can be found at Splitcoast Stampers.
"Happy Birthday" was cut using an Elizabeth Craft die.

Neatest part about the Free Standing Pop Up card is how it  folds and slides into it's base to become flat enough tp fit into an envelope. It took me awhile to create the cutting files for Pompompurin and all his little friends, but in the end I was pretty happy with how this card turned out.
                                                                                                                                                               

I also wanted to include a gift card with Pat's card so I created this shaped card with a pocket using the Print and Cut feature in Make the Cut. The image I used is the logo from the Pompompurin Cafe in Japan. Can you imagine? Pompompurin has his own cafe where they serve the cutest pastries and desserts you've ever seen, all decorated to look like him and his friends! I definitely must make it a point to go there on my next trip to Japan!