Gingerbread Explosion Box

Those who know me well know that I would pick crafting over Christmas shopping any day. That's why practically everyone on our gift list (except my mom and our granddaughter who give us their wishlist) gets giftcards from us at Christmas. That may sound like a boring gift, but at Christmas I make every effort to make giving and receiving giftcards fun for me as well as the recipient.

The giftcard holder everyone received from us this Christmas was this gingerbread house explosion box. The basic pattern for the gingerbread house was adapted from a Birdhouse Explosion Box cutting file I picked up from My Scrap Chick. The decorative elements on the inside and outside of the house were created from a collection of new and old svg cutting files from Doodlebug, My Scrapchick and Lori Whitlock as well as a few old dies from Taylored Expressions and Quickutz. Not showing up too well in the photos but everything "snow" was edged with Stickles glue to add some sparkle.

Lifting the roof (lid) off the house"opens" the explosion box. I left one corner of the box attached so I could create a corner of the room to add a fireplace and window. I added pockets for the giftcards to the other two sides of the box that opened flat. 

It was so much fun decorating the inside of the box with fun little details like rhinestone ornaments on the tree, stockings on the chimney and the silhouette of santa and his reindeer in the window.

I used a Doodlebug print and cut clipart from the Lori Whitlock store to create giftcard holder inserts to slide into the pockets.

Doodlebug gingerbread girl clipart from the Lori Whitlock store was used to create these hang tags for the gingerbread houses.

Final step: wrapping in cellophane and red gingham ribbon. I amazed even myself that I was able to complete a dozen of these in time for Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Holiday Treats

After baking up two batches of Chex Mix and putting them into resealable mylar bags, I tried to give the bags a festive look by dressing them up to be little penquins.

 

The paper pieced cutting file for the penquins is called "Penguin Sweet Treat Belly" from My Scrap Chick, and is originally intended to be an adorable little treat holder for small candies like individually wrapped Ferrero Rocher chocolates. 

I used the same file but enlarged it to size large enough for my bags of Chex Mix to fit and used double stick tape to securely adhere the front and backs of the penquin to the bags. 

Greeting in red on penguin's tummy was done as a Print and Cut, and I added a glittery punched heart to add a little fun bling. I put together a colony of two dozen penguins and I was glad that they all came together pretty easily. 

I also made a couple batches of Prune Apricot Mui to share with family and friends. 

This sweet, sour and salty fruit snack of dried plums and apricots marinated in lemon juice and scotch whisky is a favorite here in the islands. After packaging into sealed plastic containers, I labelled them with this fun "homemade with love" panda label using Print and Cut on sticker paper.

I think sharing homemade goodies from the kitchen is always even more fun when I can think of  cute ways to package them!

A 3-D Turkey for Thanksgiving

While searching for ideas and inspiration for a fun card we could send to our granddaughter for Thanksgiving, I came across the cutting file for this 3-D paper turkey designed by Chirpy Llama Art Studio on Etsy.

What I liked the most about this turkey was that it looked like a simple version of a sliceform papercraft with layers of  feathers and the turkey body slotted together. Sliceform papercrafts always ingtrigue me, but I haven't had the courage to try one yet. This one looked easy enough for a beginner like me!

Happily, I was able to cut and assemble the pieces to put this little guy together pretty quickly. There was lots of room behind the last row of feathers to add our personal Thanksgiving wishes.

Neatest thing about these sliceform projects are how they flatten so easily to slide into an envelope for mailing.

I had so much fun putting this 3-D  turkey together that I wanted to share the fun with our granddaughter. So I cut the pieces to the turkey again, this time about 30% larger (for tiny hands) and made a step by step photo instruction sheet for easy assembly. We put everything into a large envelope and mailed it as part of  our Thanksgiving "care package" from Grampa and Gramma.

May have been "too easy" for her but hope she had fun making a turkey for Thanksgiving!

Before I go, I wanted to quickly share this beautiful intricately cut Thanksgiving display card that came in the mail for us from a very dear friend.

I especially love the combination of vibrant fall colors for the pumpkin and leaves together with the pearlized gold frame and easel...so pretty!

I hope everyone is enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday today with friends and family. Tomorrow: Black Friday and full steam ahead to Christmas!

May Your Birthday BB-"(gr)8" !

Here's the Star Wars themed birthday card featuring the droid BB-8 that I created for two of my favorite Star Wars "fan-atics", my hubby and son in law. 

I came across an image of  a very cool card created by illustrator Josh Lewis showing Star Wars Droid BB-8 lighting a candle on a birthday cake and knew right away I wanted to create something similar using paper piecing. 

To create the cutfile, I started with a simple coloring book image of BB-8 and drew in the arm extension and flame. Make the Cut design program was then used to render this doctored image into a  cutting file. At first I thought this would be a simple cutfile to create but later realized making multiple layers for the 5 colors of BB-8 was a little mind boggling. But I stuck with it and got it done! I used a cut file from Marjorie Ann Designs' "Betsy Loves Baking" set for the birthday cake.

I thought it would be fun to showcase BB-8 using a Hexagon Pop Up style card. Here are a couple views from the top and side. As you can see, the paper pieced BB-8 droid and birthday cake were attached to struts on the front half of the hexagonal "stage".

I used a round panel which I ran through Sizzix Stars and Swirls embossing folder for texture as the center backdrop."Happy Birthday" was cut from glitter and metallic cardstocks using dies from Hello Bluebird and Whimsy Stamps.

The template for the stand alone Hexagon Pop Up card is one I created a few years ago inspired by Hallmark Cards'  amazing Paper Wonder collection.

I was hoping to find ideas for a really good "punny" sentiment to add to the back of this card, but sadly, this one was the best I could find... "May Your Birthday BB (gr)8". I simply added it to a backdrop image I found online of droids BB-8 and R2D2 together and printed it out. Shadowed and glittered stars were cut on the Silhouette and added to the struts on the back side  of the hexagon platform.

Without a doubt, the best part about these Hexagonal Pop Up cards are how they fold flat to fit very nicely into an envelope. I like how there's even room on the very bottom of the card to add a personal message when the card is in its folded position.

After spending way "too much time" creating the cutfiles and assembling the first card for hubby, I decided to make it into "time well spent" by making another identical card for my son in law who celebrated his birthday 3 days later. It's always good whenever I can get multiple uses from cutfiles that took way too long to create!

Black Cats and Glowing Pumpkins

Happy Halloween! I've been neglecting my blog recently because I've been busily putting together these Halloween treat boxes which were inspired by my crafty friend Lorna. Lorna often creates fun scene displays for her treat boxes and I wanted to try one too. 

I started by assembling one of the cool 3 dimensional jack-o-lanterns from the "Halloween Jack-o-Lantern Trio" project from the  Simply Crafty SVGs store.   BTW, you can find the neatest "scary-cute" Halloween 3-D projects at this website. Since this treat box was originally intended for my 5 year old granddaughter, I wanted more cutesy than scary so I ended up swapping the jack-o-lantern's face for another and adding a leaf and vine with a lot of Stickles glitter. 

I found a coloring page image of a cute cat online from which I was able to create a layered paper pieced svg cut file using Make the Cut Design program. I used white and pink chalks to give kitty some highlights and cheeks and a dimensional bow using a free svg cutfile from Birds Cards found here. 

A rectangular panel cut to the width of the treat box was adhered to the lid of the box for the background where I added gold glitter stars, bats die cut from Karen Burniston's "Haunted Tiny House Add-Ons" die set, and a Stickles glittered moon. 

Computer generated "Happy Halloween" sentiment on the front was embellished using a silly bat and ghost die cut from glittered and pearlescent cardstocks using an old "Halloween" die from Cuttlebug.

The box underneath was filled with candy and I placed a tea light in the lid by pushing the bulb through a hole cut in the lid and the bottom of the pumpkin.

Turning on the tea light makes the Jack-o-lantern glow!

I had so much fun putting this together for our granddaughter that I had to make twelve more to share with family and friends!

These three fabulous Halloween treat boxes were designed by my amazingly talented and crafty friend Lorna. 

This haunted mansion box with the adorable paper pieced Frankenstein boy was created by Lorna last Halloween and was the inspiration for my treat box this year. The svg cutfile for this haunted house box  designed by Nilmara Quintela can be found at the Silhouette Design Store. 

Lorna used an image of a cookie cutter to create her cut file for her cute Frankenstein. Then to complete the "scene", she adhered everything to a platform and used a Martha Stewart border punch to cut a spooky fence to wrap around it.

This year Lorna created beautifully decorated witch hat treat boxes! Don't you love how the cone of this witch hat becomes the lovely dress for this fashionista witch? So much attention to detail... Lorna used a wooden bead for the head, created her hat from felt, her dress from cardstock, yarn and glittered net and even made her broom!

This second witch's hat is really a wizard with a large purple hat! So clever!

This next Halloween treat box was masterfully constructed by my dear friend, Kris. This mechanical paper pieced project is better described as an "animated toy" or "treat dispenser" than a treat box.

Pull down on the rubber band activated dowel on the front and candies drop through the front door! Totally amazing, right? The roof of the house even lifts open so you can fill with more candies as you please.

Super kawaii! There's cute goblins and a paper pieced Hello Kitty dressed in Halloween costumes decorating every side of this fun haunted house candy dispenser.

And finally, cuteness overload! The yummiest of all the treats! These "too cute to eat" adorable cookies came from the creative kitchen of our dear friend, Heather. We look forward to her cookies every Halloween... they get cuter and cuter every year!

Happy Trick or Treating! Wishing everyone a fun and safe Halloween!

Another Year of the Tiger Birthday

I'm finally getting around to posting this second of the two birthday cards I put together last month using the Spellbinder's Be Bold Blooms dies.

This time I added a paper pieced tiger to sit with the flowers since this card was for a special aunt who celebrates this year as her milestone Year of of the Tiger birthday. The svg cut files for the adorable tigers I used come from Creative Cat and Co.

On the inside I used the Pop Up Accordion Panel mechanism again to animate the Happy Birthday sentiment. This panel was created using Arial Black font, shadowed, then print, cut and folded to fit onto the arms of the pop up mechanism. Can't tell from the photos but I used Stickles glitter glue to outline the letters to add a little sparkle.

Here's a side view of the mechanism which is also called a Twist Panel Pop Up. Currently there are many companies that have dies and templates which cut different versions of the mechanism for this pop up card. The template I used for my card comes from Kevin Devine of Devinely Designed which can be found here.

Really like how the cute paper pieced tigers and die cut blossoms add such a fun, whimsical feel to this card! 

Be Bold Blooms Birthday Card

 This the the first of the two birthday cards I needed to finish within a week that I mentioned in my last post. 

I used the same Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms die, this time using more purple and lavender shades for the various blossoms. Paper pieced teddy bear cutting file comes from Marjorie Ann Designs' "Patches the Bear Birthday".  I used Ballerina font for the computer generated sentiment on the front of the card, and Sizzix embossing folder "3 Dots" to add texture to the white panel. Difficult to see but I also randomly adhered a few flatback dewdrops to the flowers and background.

On the inside, I added a Pop Up Accordion Panel (aka Twist Panel Pop Up) mechanism. But instead of the four rectangular panels typically seen with this style of card, I made an accordion folded shadow cut "Happy Birthday" greeting using Arial Black font to twist and pop up as the card is opened.

Having fun playing with this Spellbinders floral die set and experimenting with different color combinations. I'm really bad at mixing and matching colors but am learning a lot by studying the different color combos other crafters have been using to make their cards with this die set.