Candy Holders for Halloween

While searching online for ideas for Halloween treat holders, I came across a plethora of candy holders by several designers that use clear domed ornament balls. Honestly, there were so many that looked so cute and fun that I had a difficult time deciding on which I wanted to make. As you can see from the photo, I couldn't resist choosing Hello Kitty. 

I purchased the cutting file to create this Hello Kitty candy holder from designer "By Yeni". The original design was of Hello Kitty peeking out of a pumpkin but I decided I wanted to change things up just a little and dressed my Hello Kittys in black cat costumes for Halloween.

And for my guy and ghoul friends who aren't fans of the kitty, I made these fun skeleton candy holders, also designed "By Yeni". The crown of flowers came included in the cutting file to give the look of a sugar skull, and I created a cutfile for a top hat and bow tie from clipart found online so the guy skeleton could look dapper.

Both the Hello Kitty and Skeleton candy holders were designed to be made using 8cm plastic ornament balls but I decided to try using 8cm half ball shaker domes that I picked up from Amazon instead. As a result I had to make some changes to the way the domes were attached and how the candies inside could be accessed. I decided to create a bottom panel for the candy holder with a hole just large enough for the candies and covered the opening with a petal style closure as I have done in the past. Although I had to make a few modifications to the original design, in the end I had a much easier time using the shaker domes than if I had used the plastic ornaments. Both the Hello Kitty and skeleton candy holders came together pretty quickly so I was able to finish several of each to share with friends.

Earlier this month I decorated boxes of cookies with this cute Frankenstein wrap to share with friends we had lunch with.

The original cutting file for "Frankie" from My Scrap Chick was designed be used as a candy bar wrap. I wrapped purple cardstock around the sides of the box and enlarged the cutting file for "Frankie" to be large enough to fit onto the front of my favorite LaGrande Gallette cookies. This was a fun way to give the boxes of cookies a festive Halloweeny look.

Our furbabies are the only children we have in our home these days, and yes, we do have fun dressing them up for Halloween. Enjoy your Halloween too!

Photo Collage Pop Up for the Bride and Groom

Last month was full of fun and excitement for our family as our niece and her fiancé tied the knot here on Oahu. 

For a personalized wedding card, I used the print and cut function on Make the Cut design program to create a heart shaped window with the couple's names welded inside and the date of their wedding along the right side of the heart. 

Behind the window, I placed a photo that was taken of the couple a year ago when Sam surprised  Ashley with a wedding proposal on the beach.

Inside, I used my all time favorite Karen Burniston Photo Collage Pop Up mechanism die to animate photos of the couple from their wedding website as well as a few I had taken at their wedding shower. Kept the decorating to a minimum using only a few random glitter hearts and a die cut word "love" from Karen Burniston's Pop 'N Swap die set.

I used opalescent glitter cardstock matted onto textured silver foil cardstock for the inside panels. No skimping here on bling and shine!

I printed up a watercolor image of koi and used an envelope template cutfile to create an envelope for our gift. The red envelope and pouch were quickly put together a few days before the wedding to take to the couple's Chinese Tea Pouring Ceremony. I found a neat stylized heart shaped Chinese character for the word "Happiness" which was rendered into a cutting file using Make the Cut. I cut the characters from gold foil cardstock and backed it with  red glitter to make a tag for the pouch and an embellishment backed with pearlescent gold paper for the red envelope.

Another Photo Fan Pop Up Floral Bouquet

As I mentioned last week, I have another Photo Fan Pop Up floral bouquet card to share this weekend.
 

Yes, this card is nearly identical to the card I posted last week except for the type of die cut flowers I used. This time around I used Spellbinders Big Blooms die set to cut the three different flowers you see in this card. For the leaves I used the same Karen Burniston Flower Pot Pop Up die I used on the other three cards of this style of card.

Flowers and leaves were glued onto the spokes of the mechanism from Karen Burniston's Photo Fan Pop Up die. Cutting files for the vase and bow were created in Make the Cut Design Program.

I added the same "70" flower pick  I made for last week's card which was created by gluing together numbers cut from Sizzix Boxed Brush and pick cut from Spellbinders Sealed Holiday Squiggles dies. This card counts as number four of the seven extra 70th Birthday landmark cards I challenged myself to make this year. Yay! Just three more to go!

I made another simple top fold gift card holder embellished with the same die cut flowers used on the card. I used Spellbinders Hexi-Gems Sentiments plate to hot foil and die cut the Happy Birthday sentiment.

Fan Pop Up Birthday Bouquet

A few weeks ago I shared a Daisy Pop Up Bouquet card I made for a friend which was inspired by a similar card created by R Daina Andretto on Karen Burniston's Pop Up Peeps Facebook Group. I enjoyed making that card so much that I decided to try another, with different flowers.
 

The flowers I used this time to fill my vase were die cut using Spellbinders Club Blooms set. The leaves are from Karen Burniston Flower Pot Pop Up die set  and  mini butterflies from an old Cheery Lynn Designs die. I used various colors of shimmery cardstock to cut two sizes of flowers, gluing them together with leaves onto the six spokes of Karen Burniston's Photo Fan Pop Up mechanism. As the card is opened the spokes of the pop up mechanism make the attached flowers and leaves pop forward.       

To hide the lower part of the mechanism, I created a cut file for a tall vase, adding a fold to the center  and tabs to the sides. Tabs were glued it in so the vase would pop forward as the card is opened. Long green stems were glued onto the vase and covered with another vase cut from vellum to make it look like a glass vase. Cutting file for the bow was created from an image found online and added to the neck of the vase.

Since this card was meant to celebrate another friend's milestone birthday, I created  a floral pick by gluing on die cut numbers (Sizzix Boxed Brush) to a bow on a stick (Spellbinders Sealed Holiday Squiggles) and added it to the floral bouquet.

Lastly, this is the giftcard holder I decorated with the same die cut flowers and a hot foiled sentiment to match the card. Had fun putting this card together and will share another I made with different flowers again next week.

Pop 'n Swap Birthday Card

This is the birthday card I made to send a special friend who owns a beautiful calico cat she named "Cheerio". I learned that her kitten was a stray found sleeping inside an empty Cheerios cereal box.

To create a paper pieced version of  Cheerio, I used Eline's Kitten dies from Marianne Design Collectibles and used a pair of scissors to trim the black and brown die cut pieces to try and make a cat with a calico pattern similar to Cheerio.
 

I made a bottom fold card and inside, I followed Karen Burniston's You Tube tutorial to install two of her Pop 'n Swap mechanisms to get Cheerio to pop her head out of the Cheerios cereal box and have the "Happy Birthday" sentiments swing down into view on both sides of the card.

Here's a short video to see the movement of this fun Pop 'N Swap mechanism in action.

All the Cheerios cereal boxes on my card were printed onto white cardstock from images found online. Bows on the gift boxes were die cut from Karen Burniston Big Birthday Charms (green), Cottage Cutz Sweetheart Puppy (red and blue), and Cottage Cutz Holiday Gate With Wreath (pink) die sets.  "Happy Birthday" was cut using a word die from Elizabeth Craft Designs and glued onto the arms of the mechanism.

Then just for fun I decorated a gift card holder with another paper pieced Cheerio inside a Cheerios cereal box.

And finally, here's sweet Cheerio herself showing off the card I made for her Momma!

Disney Friends Collage Pop Up

I have a sweet friend who enjoys going to Disneyland and has gone there more times than anyone I personally know. I thought she might get a kick out of this Disney Friends themed card for her birthday.

I created a cutfile using an image I found online of Micky Mouse using a phone to take a selfie. Then I  swapped the image of the phone he was holding  with a cutfile of a camera I made a while back. Miss Elizabeth font was used to create the cutting file for the word "Smile!".

Inside, I used Karen Burniston's Photo Collage Pop Up die mechanism to animate framed "photos" of a few favorite Disney Friends. Images found online were sized to fit the polaroid frames and printed onto glossy photo paper. 

                                            

 Miss Elizabeth font was used to create the shadowed "Happy Birthday" sentiment.

I used Karen Burniston's Surprise Cube, Bam Box, and Sliding Box dies again to make my favorite fun way to give a gift card. When the drawer to the sliding box is pulled open, the two rubber band activated cubes pop out of the box and the gift card inside pops up to an upright position. Top of the sliding box was decorated with a glittered Cinderella Castle with Mickey Mouse head cut out, and tiny glittered die cut stars and fireworks. Happy Birthday was cut using a Lawn Fawn border die. Printed "photos" of more Disney Friends were glued onto the cube panels. A glittery fun surprise for any kid at heart!

Doggie Birthday Card

Here's a super quick birthday card I put together for (believe it or not...) a dog! 

I don't usually make birthday cards for dogs but "Jaz" holds a special place in our hearts because she and our dog "Polah" share the same dad. The two dogs enjoy playing together and Jaz's Momma also just happens to be my weekly neighborhood walking partner.

 

I decorated the front of this card with older cutting files I used for cards created in the past; the cupcake made from  Design Street US clipart on Etsy and the wrapped presents are from  Sliceform Birthday Presents Card from Lori Whitlock Shop. Happy Birthday greeting was computer generated using Vagabond font. Make the Cut design program was then used to create a double shadow to cut around the cupcake, gifts and greeting.

The original cutting file for this pop up called "Pop Up Card Dog" also comes from the Lori Whitlock Shop. I used "Cute Dog Digital Clipart" from Elytra Studio to make a few changes to the original dog's head, body and tail so it would look more like a Maltese like "Jaz" and "Polah".

Here's a side view of the card which shows how a simple box mechanism makes this pop up work... fun and easy to do!

Back To School With Eevee

Here's the back to school card I made to send to our granddaughter as she got ready to start third grade. Since we lovingly call our granddaughter "Evie" for short, I thought it would be fun to put Pokemon Eevee on a sliding pop up card for her. If you happen to be a fan of Pokemon, you know that Eevee has the ability to evolve into several different types of Pokemon, so I made my paper pieced Eevee studying a book about Eevee evolutions.
 

Make the Cut design program was used to render a coloring book image of Eevee into a cutting file. The cream colored label behind Eevee was cut with a freebie cut file from Images By Heather M and run through a Cuttlebug embossing folder "Number Collage". 

I followed a video tutorial by Beate Johns from Splitcoast Stampers on You Tube to create this Surprise Sliding Pop Up Card. It's an older style of pop up but definitely a favorite of mine to make. When the recipient pulls the bow on the top of the card, the center panel with Eevee on it slides up to a standing position revealing a message underneath. The sliding mechanism also provides a perfect place to add a second message and a gift card.

Super Hero Get Well Cards

I was suddenly in need of two get well cards...and at times like this I always wish I had a stash of cards made in advance to fall back on. Fortunately, I found the cutfiles for these two chibi super heroes which I made a while ago in my files.

     

I originally created the svg cutfile for this Chibi Wonder Woman image a few years ago for another get well card. I made a nearly identical card this time around, but with a different background paper and sentiments.

Inside, I used Karen Burniston's Katherine Label Pop Up mechanism to make Wonder Woman appear to fly up as the card is opened.

I used some older cutting files I had on hand to cut out four different sized clouds, attaching two of them onto the pop up mechanism. The paper pieced Wonder Woman image was then glued onto the clouds. The third cloud was cut as a print and cut with a sentiment, and I left the last cloud blank for a place to add a personal note and sign. All clouds were edged with Stickles glitter for some added sparkle.     

For my second get well card, I used  Chibi Super Girl paper pieced images. The cutfiles for these were also created a few years ago but this was my first time using them. Everything else about this card was created identical to the Chibi Wonder Woman card. 

Attaching the Super Girl image and clouds to the Katherine Label Pop Up mechanism also gave her the super hero powers she needed to fly up above the clouds!

I also put together a quickie matching gift card holder using a print and cut image of Chibi Super Girl attached to the front with foam tape for dimension.

Hoping I won't be needing too many get well cards in the future but I guess it's somewhat reassuring to know I can put these together pretty quickly if needed now that I've saved a template for this.