Have a SAFE Halloween!

Here's the card I created to send to our granddaughter for Halloween this year. Can you guess who she chose to dress up as? 

Just like so many little girls her age, she wanted to be Elsa from Disney's Frozen movie. Our daughter sent us a few pre-Halloween sneak peek photos of our granddaugther trying out her new costume, and it was so heartwarming to see the joy in her face as she modeled Elsa's glittery gown. I knew right away that I wanted to make an Elsa Halloween card!

I used a coloring book image of Elsa to render into a cutting file using Make the Cut design program and added a paper pieced jack-o-lantern from Miss Kate's Cuttables placed in front. I used glitter and pearlescent cardstocks flatback rhinestones and Stickles to give Elsa lots of sparkle (because that's what little girls --and me-- love, right?).

I put Elsa behind a clear acetate card front, and used Karen Burniston's Rockin' Rectangle mechanism to animate the card. I attached my sentiments to the front and inside of the acetate panel as a print and cut using Christie ttf and a fancy label cutting file.

As the card is opened, Elsa moves forward and little Olaf appears from behind! 

And finally, I used the back of the card to add our Halloween wishes for our granddaughter. 

I also made a second batch of cookies but with not enough time to spend making anymore treat boxes,  I simply packed them in cute Halloween cello bags tied with satin ribbons and added a fun tag.

 

My original plan was to make paper pieced tags, but after spending much time creating a cutting file for my design, I realized I would be cutting and piecing 6 layers of cardstock to create each tag. Yikes! I quickly had a change of heart and decided to switch it over to a print and cut file by stacking each of the layers in the correct order on the design screen. I thought printed image on the tags were cute enough, and it was much quicker to put together!

Before I go, I'm excited to share a  couple sweet and spooky cute treat boxes I received from my crafty buddies, Kris and Lorna. Kris put together this adorable Dracula and coffin treat boxes filled with yummy candies and antibacterial gel!

And how about Lorna's amazing Halloween rendition of children storybook characters from"Where the Wild Things Are" for this fun treat box! 

Thank you for stopping by! Please have a SAFE and Happy Halloween!

Halloween Cookie Boxes

These are the " Cat in a Pumpkin" treat boxes I put together for friends and family to share cookies I baked for Halloween this year. 

The original idea for this fun box comes from a very similar box I immediately fell in love with at the Silhouette Design Store designed by"Little Luxuries Loft". I purchased the print and cut file for it from the Silhouette Design Store site, but to my dismay, the file automatically downloaded into my Silhouette Design Studio Library. Normally, this is probably a good thing, but for me, not so much as I have not yet learned even the basics on how to use Silhouette Design Studio. I immediately emailed support, requesting an SVG file instead of a STUDIO file but did not get a response for almost a week.

Meanwhile, with Halloween fast approaching I was getting a little anxious so I decided to do a screen print of  the STUDIO file and imported it into Make the Cut Design program (my safe place) to try and create a similar template. After some trial and error, I finally came up with this paper pieced version. Not as cute as the original, but that's okay because I was able to create a template for a box that was 3 times larger than the original 2 inch tall treat holder, which is a good thing since I needed my box to be large enough to hold my cookies!

I put together a dozen of these cookie boxes; painted the Jack o Lantern face with yellow Stickles for some bling and stamped the back of the box with a "Happy Halloween" stamp from Dandelion Designs as a final touch. 

 I really liked that the shape of these boxes reminded me a lot of the little curvy keepsake boxes which were all the rage a few years ago. This larger size is fun too, and I've been seeing quite a few creative takes on it, which I hope to try soon.

Game On!

When I first spied the free svg cutting file for a Sony PlayStation game controller created and shared by Jennifer Maker's Craft A Life You Love DIY website, I had to download it right away, knowing I wanted to use it to make a birthday card for my "gamer" son in law. Jennifer Maker has also included an  easy to follow tutorial for a pop up gift card holder to go with her game controller svg cutting file.
 

For my card, instead of a gift card holder, I chose to showcase the game controller on a Surprise Pop Up Slider card. 

Pulling the tab on the top of the card allows the front panel of the card to slide up like an easel...

... to reveal the message underneath.

Here's a view from the top which shows the pull panel which was done as a print and cut with my Happy Birthday greeting. My original plan was to attach a gift card to the pull panel, but unfortunately I forgot to use foam tape when atttaching the front panel which would have created the needed extra space for the gift card to smoothly slide in and out from the top of the card.

But it's just as well because as I was putting this card together, I was informed by my daughter that the game system my son in law uses is the Nintendo Switch. Honestly, all of this is Greek to me so I googled "Nintendo Switch" it to see what a Nintendo Switch controller looks like.

I'm sure my son in law would have been happy with the old school PlayStation game controller birthday card, but this was a challenge I couldn't resist! Luckily the design of the Nintendo Switch is pretty simple so it wasn't too hard to design a cut file for it. 

I wanted this to be a gift card holder so I designed it so the game controller screen was a pocket with a clear acetate front. I found a Super Mario game backdrop on the internet and personalized it in Print Shop with a Happy Birthday greeting, sized it,  printed it onto glossy photo paper, and adhered it to a piece of folded cardstock just large enough to hold a gift card. Then I added a small tab to the back of the card so it could easily be pulled out of the pocket.

Last thing... everyone wants to open a  present on their birthday, right? So I made a little gift box to put the Nintendo Switch gift card holder in. This turned out to be a fun project... and I learned that not all game systems are the same... !

Happy "Birdie" Day

While perusing the internet for fresh ideas for "guy cards" I came across some adorable images of golfing mice which provided the much needed inspiration for yet another golf themed card for hubby's birthday this year.

I paper pieced a mouse and a few birds and put them into a card with a large acetate window front together with Karen Burniston's Rockin' Rectangle mechanism to make this fun interactive pop up card.
 

When the card is opened, the rectangle panel with the golf mouse pops forward and moves to the right to reveal the flagstick and birdies underneath.

To create the golf scene on my card, I put together paper pieced elements from several different cutting files. I used the cute little mouse from Marjorie Ann Designs "Cookies and Milk" set; golf ball and tee are from Little Scraps Of Heaven's "Golf Mouse"; and birdies are from Cuddly Cute Designs' "Cuddly Critter Birds" (now retired).

Golf club image from Pixabay and coloring book images of the flagstick and golf cap were rendered into cutting files in Make the Cut Design program. Just for fun I added a Nike swoosh to the front of the cap, which may have been a mistake because hubby noticed and commented... "Hey, I don't have one like that!" Was that a hint or what?!! 

I used a Die-namics border die for the grass and and added tiny flowers punched from a mini Punch Bunch paper punch.

Here's a view from the top which shows the Rockin' Rectangle mechanism which is really simple to put together to easily animate and make fun interactive cards. I think this is my new "Go To" easy pop up mechanism to to use.

Sending Big Hugs

 No matter how many times I keep telling myself not to buy any more stamps, it seems every year when Mama Elephant announces their Anniversary Sale, I cave in. This year was no different; I just couldn't resist picking up this "Little Girl Agenda" set, especially since these adorable little girls reminded me so much of our granddaughter. When they arrived in the mail, I could hardly wait to ink them up to create my very first Slimline card.

This was my first set of Mama Elephant "Little Agenda" stamps and I was a little surprised at how tiny the images were in real life. At first I thought I'd surely need a magnifying glass to color these, but it actually wasn't too bad. The nice thing is they hardly use any ink at all and color up super quick!

Cutting them out was a little tricky, though... now I understand the reason behind the coordinating dies for these stamps! After cutting, I mounted the little girls onto square panels that I had lightly colored with Tim Holtz distress oxide inks.

Rounded rectangle shapes in Make the Cut design program were used to create the four window Slimline card front, and Arial Black font was used to for the alphas for "hugs". I cut four sets and stacked them to give it some chipboard-like dimension.

And on the inside, a simple message completes my card to accompany a surprise box of goodies sent to our sweet granddaughter.

"PANDAstic" Birthday

My card today is a variation of the Double Z-Fold style card I created for my mother in law's birthday in my last post. The inspiration for this one comes from the very talented Bronwyn Eastley, who designs and shares some of the most amazing and fun Double Z-Fold cards on her blog, Addinktive Designs.
 

I believe Bronwyn calls her card a "Double Pop Up Gatefold Box" card, but I will simply refer to this as a variation of a Double Z fold card since its easier for me to remember.

As you can see from this view from the top,  the double z-folds create two "boxes" into which struts and pop up boxes can be added.

I added a strut to the inside of the first "box" and used a strip of clear acetate to adhere a panda with balloons to make him appear to be suspended in the air by his balloons.

A simple pop up box mechanism was glued into the "box" created by the second z fold, where I added a panda with a birthday cake. Paper pieced pandas, cake and gifts are from Marjorie Ann Designs "Panda Love" and "Birthday Girl" cutting files. Stitched balloons were cut using Craft Emporium's "Balloon Galore" die set, and an Elizabeth Craft Designs' die was used to cut the "Happy Birthday" sentiment.

I added my sentiment to the back panel. I really enjoyed putting together this variation of the double Z-fold card and am looking forward to trying another one very soon. This card is almost 15 inches long when stretched open and offers plenty of space to add lots of fun images and embellishments. I was in quite a rush to finish this card in time for our dear friend's birthday, and I see now that my finished card looks a little bare. I probably could have added more pandas, balloon, presents, and maybe some stars and confetti to fill it in and give it a more festive look.