Cupcake Accordion Birthday Card

This rectangular format accordion cupcake card and matching gift card holder was created for a dear friend's birthday.

Inspired by the fun landscape cupcake cards created by others using Karen Burniston's dies, I did some experimenting in Make the Cut with the swing through card cutfile I used to create my Thanksgiving card last year.  I used a simple svg cutting file of a cupcake from Design Street , then created and welded their shadow layers to add the trio of paper pieced of cupcakes to the card.

I used a Whimsy Stamps die for the word "Birthday" on the center panel. "Happy" and the shadow cuts were created in Make the Cut. Streamer confetti embellishments were die cut with Karen Burniston Big Birthday Charms set.

Each of the panels on this card measures 7.25" x 4.25" so the finished card size is quite large. I like that the larger size makes it easier to embellish and decorate,  but I found that I had to reinforce each panel with an extra layer of cardstock to keep my card sturdy enough and prevent it from buckling as it's pulled open. Next time around I may have to consider increasing the width of the frame borders to make it stronger.

Here's a view from the top of the sccordion card opened. 

While searchng online for ideas for giftcard holders, I came across a cupcake shaped giftcard holder shared by Gina Creates that I thought would go perfectly with the cupcake accordion card. Gina shares a free svg file to create her cupcake giftcard holder on her website. I did use Gina's idea of creating a pocket on the top of the cupcake for the giftcard as well as in the cupcake liner for the cupcake, but I  used the same cupcake image I used on my card instead. Finished it off with a bit of stickles glitter on the frosting and candle flame for some bling.

Birthday Wishes for a "Deer" Friend

Today I'm sharing a birthday card and matching gift card holder set created for a special friend. 
 

Recently, I've been challenging myself to start making use of more of the dies I've been collecting over the years. I met the challenge with this card by using dies to cut nearly all the decorative elements except three...  the round lacy circle on the front, and the sentiment and oval on the inside were cut on my Silhouette Cameo. I used dies from Marianne Designs Collectable Deer set, MFT Stamps Grassy Edges, Memory Box Butterfly Delights, Cheery Lynn Babies Breath, and Gemini Birthday Celebrations for all the rest of the embellishments.

On the inside of the card I installed two sets of  the mechanism from Karen Burniston's Spinner Square Pop Up die side by side to get a double pop up effect.

As the recipient opens the card, the two center panels with the deer pop forward and arms with the words, "Deer Friend" swing down into view.

This was my first time making a double spinner square pop up card with the two spinners side by side. I really like how the pop up and moving arms really make for a fun card. The video tutorial I used for this can be found here. Love that Karen Burniston always comes up with multiple ways to use her fun pop up dies!

I used the same dies that I used for the card to decorate and embellish a simple pocket style matching gift card holder. This time I used a svg cut file I created a while ago in Make the Cut to cut the base card.