Crafty Love

I received many wonderful crafty goodies recently and am so excited to share them! This first set of "oh, so kawaii" treats were all created by my super creative friend Lorna.

Lorna decorated this gift bag with an awesome paper pieced Chinese lion from SVG Cutting Files...don't you just love all the shades of red and glitter and gems she used on this! And how clever is that double heart tag tie she created to keep the bag closed?

Lookie at all the fun treats inside the bag! Adorable China girl (SVG Cutting Files) and puppy treat holder for Chinese New Year, and kawaii Daruma Puppy for Shogatsu (Japanese New Year)...

...and of course Asian themed Valentines Day treats too! Lorna used washi papers to wrap around her adorable One Kiss Hearts...love it! Tutorial for these paper heart Hershey Kiss wrappers by Brenda Quintana here.

This adorable Valentine treat set was created by my crafting buddy Kris.

Totally love this amazing "Kissing Slider Card" she put together! Pull the pink tab on the right and both Pochacco and his sweet girlfriend slide to the center for a kiss! Aww...so CUTE!

And how about this very cool sliding drawer treat box? Kris is the absolute best at creating interactive cards and boxes! Pull out the drawer for Valentine treats and adorable Hello Kitty pops up! Cutting file and instructions for this super neat interactive treat box can be found over at the Lori Whitlock Shop.

Here's a super neat thank you card I received from my blogging pal Karen of Have A Scrap Happy Day  blog.  Hard to see in the photo but Karen embossed the base card with an Asian clouds design folder, then added the fancy frame, die cut sushi, lasercut "arigato"and decorated chopsticks.

One more thank you card, this one from my sweet friend Dale. So darned cute how she added one of those green plastic stoppers to her take out coffee cup! It's so funny because I actually collect those little stoppers and carry them around with me in my purse...they're hard to come by and they never have them when you need them the most!

Kung Hay Fat Choy, Year of the Dog!

Kung Hay Fat Choy! Xian Nian Kuai Le! Happy Chinese New Year! I made a dozen of these petal style boxes to hold the almond cookies I baked this year for giving to friends and family.

I've made petal style envelopes before and these boxes are really just the same but with a larger depth. I wanted my boxes to be large enough to hold half a dozen cookies so I created them to be 5 inches square with a depth of 1-7/8 inches. I used the tutorial by Amber on the Damask Love website as a springboard to design my template.

Text weight Stardream paper was used to cut the silhouette of the dog, gold Stardream cardstock to cut the Chinese medallion, and textured gold foil board for the backing. I used digitized washi paper for the box top flaps.

And though we won't be able to spend Chinese New Years with our granddaughter this year, I put together this simple little card to send along with the cookies and some fun goodies. 

The paper pieced furry puppy is an old cutting file from Treasure Box Designs. To suit the occasion, I dressed her in a Mandarin skull cap, created in Make the Cut design program using basic shapes; and made a mini lai see envelope for her to hold. Varied sizes of cherry blossoms were cut from washi paper and gold cardstock, using punches (Carl, Punch Bunch) and dies (the Frantic Stamper).

Kiss Kiss, I Love You!

What can I say...after posting my Valentine projects yesterday, I was feeling so guilty for not having made a Valentine for my real Valentine. So I got my act together and came up with this card for my dear hubby just in time!

Knew I didn't have much time and wanted to keep things simple so I naturally reached for my favorite Mama Elephant Pandamonium stamp set.  I cut a scalloped heart shape to place my pandas on and ran the heart thru the Paper Studio's "Love Love Love" embossing folder.  The Happy Valentines Day sentiment was cut using a Mama Elephant die. My first thought was to do some sort of shaker card so I cut a scalloped heart shape from the front of the card, adding a layer a acetate for a window.

Then I thought, "hey! I should try one of those COOL pop up cards my crafting buddy Kris made for my birthday!" Did some web searching, and learned that Kris' card is a Katherine Label Pop Up card, designed by Karen Burniston. After taking a close look at the pop up mechanism and watching Karen's video tutorial,  I figured it would probably work with any shape, including this heart shape.

The neatest thing about this pop up is that the image that shows through on the front of the card rises above the window and pops up as you open the card. I'm pretty certain hubby will get a kick out of this one!

Before I go, I also want to share this beautiful and elegant Valentine created by my sweet sister in law. She used Cuttlebug's "Birds and Swirls" embossing folder to add texture to the front panel and the very intricate die cut heart was cut using Stampin Up's" Bloomin' Heart" Thinlits die. Love the dotted swiss texture she added to the heart die cut as well. I'm just a little jealous because this Valentine was actually given from my sil's doggie to our doggie! LOL, I'm sure my doggie won't mind if I put it away for safe keeping!

Beary Special Valentines

I decided to make heart shaped faceted boxes for my valentines this year. 

These multi-sided, self closing faceted boxes have always intrigued me. I was happy to find a freebie template created by Petrina Burman and shared on her blog, The Walking Mombie. The original template for this box fits on a 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock, but since I wanted my box to be larger (to fit more candies!)  I enlarged it to fit onto a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock.

The cute paper pieced valentine panda is from Marjorie Ann Designs' "Panda Love" . The really nice thing about the paper piecings from Marjorie Ann Designs is that she includes a blackout silhouette piece with her files which makes it so much easier when it comes to assembling all the tiny pieces together. Also included are clipart, making it possible to do an even easier print and  cut. For my pandas, I decided I didn't want to have to struggle with cutting and piecing panda's mouth together so I printed his mouth and had the Silhouette simply cut his muzzle. I used digital paper from Jazzy Pattern's "Romantic Adventure" to fill the faceted panel pieces and cut them on the Silhouette. Put together a dozen of these panda valentines and filled them with chocolates for sharing with special friends.

Only had time to make one Valentines Card this year...and guess who it was for! Been seeing a lot of Bridge Fold or U - Fold cards on the web recently so I decided to give one a try for our granddaughter's First Valentines Day card.

I love that this just may be the easiest pop up type card I've ever made. It's sort of like a simple gatefold card with a strip of cardstock running from one end to the other and with a strut (similar to those pop up box cards) running behind it. There are also many fancier versions that have an extra flap to create a countertop in the center, but I wanted to keep this card as simple as possible.

Cupid Bear and X-O-X-O border paper piecing file comes from Cuddly Cute Designs, "Cupid Bears".

Here's a shot from the top where you can see the strut on the inside to which cupid bear was attached with a strip of clear acetate, so it would look like he was flying.

I added our sentiment to the backside, and this card easily folds down to the left or right side to slide into an A6 size envelope.
Wishing everyone a wonderful Valentines Day... don't forget to tell those who are close to your heart how special they are!

40th Birthday Celebration

I put together another fun Instacube card, this one for hubby's cousin who recently celebrated his 40th birthday with a fabulous dinner party. I've always wanted to try one of those black and white glitzy cards and this was the perfect chance!

Had a great time embellishing the sides of this cube with all the papers I love...glitter, foil, and pearlized!

The cutting file for the champagne and glasses comes from Pretty Paper Pretty Ribbons, and balloons are from Cricut Celebrations cartridge.  Happy Birthday is die cut from a Elizabeth Crafts die. Candles are teardrop and rectangles shapes. I used the fill function in Make the Cut to add the stripes and dots to the rectangles, then print and cut. Fancy label shape is a Pinterest find which I converted into a cutting file.

I cut different sized stars from metallic and pearlized silver papers to embellish the top of the cube and sleeve to hold the card. All cut on the Silhouette except the tiniest ones which were cut using Mama Elephant Lots of Stars die.

Folded flat, the card slides easily into its sleeve. Cutting file for this Instacube card comes from the Lori Whitlock Shop. Definitely my most favorite go-to card when I'm stumped for ideas on what to make!

Keepsakes from Patti

I have a couple more crafty birthday treasures to share with you today. Both amazing projects were created by none other than my dear friend Patti of Creations By Patti blog.

As many of you may already be aware, Patti is in a league above with all her paper crafting projects. This card is no exception...so beautifully done and incredibly well made with every attention to details. Patti used Lala Land Crafts Kimono Paper Doll Marci stamped image for the front of her card, so artfully colored with Copics...see the design on her kimono?...that's penned in with Copics!
Surrounding the stamped image...the circle, filigree borders, bridge, sakura and koi...all cut from Lala Land dies.

This beautiful card opens up to a stunning Z fold pop up style card. I love all the different prints of paper Patti used on this card and how they work so well together...how does she do that? Even more die cuts on the inside. I think I counted a total of 12 different dies she used to embellish this card...wow!

And as always, Patti finishes everything to perfection...look, even the back of the card is covered with layered panels of designer papers!

Ready for more? This breathtaking beauty is what Patti calls an "envelope" project. It's sort of like a double pocket file folder you might keep hanging near your desk to keep little notes in.

Patti used a newly released Lala Land Kimono Marci stamped image for this project. So pretty! Again, check out her undeniably amazing Copic coloring skills...look at the print on the kimono! 

I totally love the effect she achieved by adding color to the koi and sakura die cuts. I think I counted a total of 11 different dies used on this project!

Wow, right? I am so blessed to have someone as creative and talented as Patti as a friend. I am always in awe of her work and inspired by her...I only wish some of her amazing creativity would rub off on me some day!

Birthday Blessings

I always get so excited when I receive handmade cards...especially when it's my birthday! I actually celebrated my birthday late last year but haven't had the chance to post some of the beautifully created cards I received till now.

I was especially thrilled to receive this very pretty card from my sweet SIL. At first I thought she had bought it...I even checked the back of the card for the Hallmark trademark! She is so talented, yet she doesn't make cards often so this one is a real treasure! She used the cupcake file from Cricut's Doodle Charms cartridge and cut her cupcakes from glitter and metallic gold cardstock, using foam adhesive to put it together...love it!

This second card is yet another wowza pop up card from my crafting buddy, Kris. 

Hard to tell from the photos, but on the front of the card is a shaped acetate window framed  in silver metallic cardstock. When you open the card, the sentiment that shows through the window lifts and pops up! SO COOL!!!  Not sure what this type of pop up card is called, but it uses a v-fold mechanism which I hope Kris will teach me soon!
Making cards and papercrafts is always fun, but really, not as much fun as receiving them. Thank you ladies, for making me feel so special!