Twin Stars Arch Pop Up Card

Today I'm sharing a Sanrio Twin Stars themed birthday card and matching gift card holder created for a special friend.
 

Paper pieced Twin Star characters were created from clip art images found online and rendered into svg cutting files using Make the Cut Design program. All the pieces for the clouds and stars were edged with Stickles glitter to give everything a subtle shimmer. The blue and lavender ombre paper used for the background panels was made in Broderbund Printshop program.

Inspired by a stunning angel pop up card made and shared by member Ana Paleo in Karen Burniston's Pop Up Peeps Facebook group, I used Karen Burniston's Arch Pop Up die to animate Twin Stars siblings Lala and Kiki to float amongst the moon and star studded clouds.

I must admit, I never expected having as much fun as I am playing with this  Arch Pop Up die mechanism. I especially love that it is super easy to install and the possibilities for decorating the arch seem almost endless. I can see this quickly becoming one of my favorite pop up mechanisms to use. 

I used the Print and Cut function to create the Twin Stars images for a matching gift card holder.

Inside, I followed a tutorial by Srushti Patil for her "Photo Pop Up Card" and sized it to fit a gift card.

No dies are required for this pop up and I found this to be a quick and easy way to make giving a gift card special.

BTS Birthday Surprise

 One of my dearest friends has been a big fan of the K-Pop band BTS for as long as I can remember. With all the excitement of collecting BTS Tiny Tan dolls in McDonald's Happy Meals last year, the release of their new album and their world tour concerts happening now, I really wanted to surprise her with a BTS themed card for her birthday.

I found lots of cute chibi style clip art of BTS Tiny Tan characters on Etsy and decided to do print and cut images for this card. I chose my friend's favorite member, Jimin, doing the Korean love hand sign to adorn the front. "Just for you" sentiment was die cut from gold foil board using a die from Lawn Fawn's "Gift Box" set. Shadow layer for the sentiment was created in Make the Cut Design program.

Inside, I used Karen Burniston's "Photo Fan Pop Up" mechanism to animate headshots of all seven BTS group members.

Clip art images were cropped, printed on glossy photo paper, and framed with lavender glitter cardstock. I used dies from Karen Burniston "Label Charm Pop Up" and "Big Birthday Charms" as well as Taylored Expressions "Celebration Confetti" to cut streamers, confetti and hearts from gold glitter cardstock and foil board to add some fun glitz and sparkle inside the card.

I also added a print and cut group shot image to the left side of the card. 

In keeping with the BTS theme, I also put together a sliding pop up drawer box using a fun BT21 claw machine sticker image. As the drawer is pulled open the image of the claw machine slides into an upright position. SVG cutting file template for this slider box comes from the Lori Whitlock shop. Really had fun putting this card and gift card holder together. But had the most fun watching my sweet friend's face light up as she opened her card. I'm looking forward to hearing all the stories she has to share from the BTS concerts she'll be attending soon.

Cherry Blossom Arch Pop Up

I decided to go with a cherry blossom themed birthday card for a sweet crafty friend who, like myself enjoys collecting cherry blossom paper punches and metal craft dies.                                                        My collection consists of  metal dies from Frantic Stamper, Wiki Caps, and I-Crafter as well as punches from Carl, Marvy, and Punch Bunch designed to cut cherry blossoms of multiple sizes from paper. I brought them all out and started cutting and punching out lots and lots of cherry blossoms from  pink paper of different textures, prints and shades from my scrap stash.

Leaves were cut using a Family Treasures paper punch and branches were die cut using Marianne Designs Creatables and Cottage Cutz branch die sets. I used gold foil board and glitter cardstock to cut and punch the flower centers.                                                                                                                         I dry embossed a shimmery white gold cardstock with an old Sizzix "Argyle #2" folder, then matted it with gold foil board. I layered some of the different sized cherry blossoms to get different looks and arranged them together with leaves and branches and glued them in place at the top corner. Happy Birthday sentiment was hot foiled and die cut using Spellbinders "You Are Everything Sentiments" Better Press plate.
 

Inside the card I used Karen Burniston "Arch Pop Up" die set to create a fun arch of cherry blossoms.

Nicest thing about the Arch Pop Up mechanism is how easy it is to assemble and install in almost any size card. This mechanism comes with the option of adding up to 5 platforms to the arch which means lots more surface area to add lots of embellishments. I had fun adding many of the different sized cherry blossoms, leaves and branches but had to be careful to avoid creating catch points.

I've been seeing so many different creative possibilities posted by crafters using this Arch Pop Up die and am looking forward to experimenting and playing with this mechanism again soon.

Using what was left of the shimmery white gold text weight paper I had used for inside the card, I made an envelope to hold a gift card. Also used the remaining cherry blossoms to embellish the envelope.

Another Rotating Pop Up Card

This week I'm sharing the card and gift card holder I made for my daughter's birthday. I decided to give the Rotating Pop Up style card another try since I struggled a bit getting the mechanism to work the first time for hubby's birthday card.

 To decorate the front of the card, I used my Silhouette to cut a circular window and a scalloped edge frame to fit. Flowers and leaves to embellish the frame were created using "Spellbinders Bayfair Floral Spray Collection" dies. Spellbinders "Slimline Confetti Happy Birthday Glimmer Plate" was used for the hot foiled sentiment and double shadow cuts for it were created in Make the Cut Design program. The paper pieced girl peeking from the window is  a svg cut file, "Fashionista Emma" from Treasure Box Designs.

Here's a short video to see the fun rotating pop up mechanism in action.

One thing I did differently from the first time trying this was to change it from the triple rotating card I made for hubby's card to a double rotating card for this card. You'll see in the video that the center center stays stationary and does not rotate as it does with hubby's golf card. That meant one less arc to worry about aligning and made things simpler to put together. 

I did have a few catch point issues but after moving the placement of some of the flowers around, I managed to solve that. Looks like I'm going to have to practice making this Rotating Pop Up style card several more times before I learn to properly put it together! If you'd like to give this style of card a try, here's the link to the Mitosu Crafts  video tutorial where I learned how.

I made a matching bottom fold gift card holder, using the same "Spellbinders Bayfair Floral Collection" dies for the flowers and leaves. Hot foiled and die cut fishtail banner was created using Spellbinders "Hexi-Gems Sentiments" Glimmer Plate. When the card is opened, the gift card appears to slide and pop up from the center of the card. I followed the video tutorial for "Photo Pop Up Card" by Srushti Patil to make this. I especially like that this pop up requires no dies and is very easy to put together.

More Easter Treats!

A few days past Easter already but definitely want to share these amazing Easter goodies I received from crafty friends this year.
 

Kris put together this super cute puppy with bunny ears shaped box and filled it with my favorite chocolate Easter candies. Shaped boxes like this one with so many curves and angles take lots of  time and precise gluing to assemble! She even added a window to the carrot so you can get a peek of all the goodies inside!

This Winnie the Pooh with bunny ears basket created by Lorna is absolutely adorable! Cuteness overload from the honeybees on the bow at the top and down to the "Hunny bunny" sign Pooh is holding. The design of this basket is very unique; Lorna created a box base with just a bottom and two side panels, then wrapped and glued the double sided Pooh bear cut out around it.

Lorna also made this irresistible little Peeps S'Mores basket. Tucked inside the basket are everything you need to make a yummy S'mores snack: an individually wrapped Marshmallow Peep, a mini chocolate bar and graham crackers! Instructions on how are on the backside. So cute and clever!

I'm truly fortunate to have such creative, crafty friends who always spoil me with all the fun things they make!

Just in Time for Easter

 Happy Easter! I made a card to send to our granddaughter and cookie boxes to share with family to celebrate Easter this year.

Finally had a chance to play with my set of Lawn Fawn "Build A Bunny" and "Build A Bunny Accessories" dies to make the bunnies for this Easter card. Die cut Happy Easter greeting comes from Karen Burniston "Easter Charms" set and I used Karen Burniston "Curved Edges" dies for the grassy hillside.

Inside the card, I added a sliding gift card mechanism which I learned from watching video tutorials by Sam Calcott of Mixed Up Craft on You Tube here and Sarah Davies of Crafter's Companion here.

Here's a short video showing this sliding mechanism in action.

 As the card is opened, a panel holding the gift card slides out from the bottom.

The sliding mechanism for this card is really simple to put together and no special dies are required. The only thing that bothered me a little is that the sliding mechanism (shown here) is part of the back of the card and very visible; there is really no way to hide or disguise it.

At the last minute I decided to put together these Easter cookie boxes to share with friends and family.

The original cutting file for the top of this box was a freebie I picked up from Dreaming Tree at Creative Fabrica. This was meant to be a box style card, but I made a few adjustments to the cut file so I could use it for the top of my cookie boxes.

I wanted to use a hinged lid for my cookie boxes so I first enlarged the outer "box" of the card to fit around the lid of the cookie box. I then cut the height of the two struts that hold the bunny and tulips by 0.5 inch so it would sit nicely on top of the lid.

I also added a round scalloped label with "Happy Easter" printed on it just above the tab closure for the box.

Not enough time to even bake cookies so I filled my boxes with our favorite decadent Palm Leaf cookies from a local bakery. 

Hope everyone is spending Easter doing whatever you enjoy most! 

Slot Machine Slider Card

When I learned that our daughter and son in law would be celebrating his birthday in Las Vegas, I thought it would be fun to try and make a birthday card in the shape of a slot machine for him.

Since I remembered making a slot machine shaped card many years ago I checked back and found  one I made in 2014. Happily I found the old cutting file so I was able to use it to create a simpler, modified version for my son in law.

The original card made more than 10 years ago had a rolling window mechanism which I recall being quite complicated to put together. This time around, I simplified my slot machine by using a simple sliding window mechanism. When the tab on the bottom of the card is pulled, a happy birthday sentiment and gold coins appear in the "tray", and at the same time, triple cherries replace the triple sevens in the slot machine window. A video tutorial by Jennifer McGuire for this type of mechanism can be found here.

I used Karen Burniston "Treasure Charms" die set for the gold coins which I cut from gold glitter and foil cardstocks. Happy Birthday sentiment was hot foiled and cut using Pink Fresh Studios "Perfect Sentiments" foil plate and die set.

Inside, I used mini playing cards to decorate a pocket to provide a place for a gift card. I was happy to finally figure out a simpler version of the original slot machine card. Too bad it took me over ten years to figure it out!

Rotating Pop Up Cards

 Today I'm sharing the card I made for hubby's birthday and the two cards I received from crafty friends that were the inspiration for his card.

I'm very fortunate to have crafty friends who are always trying out the latest fun pop up and interactive card techniques to keep me current and inspired! The card on the right was a birthday card I received from Kris and the one the the left was a Mothers Day card created by Bev.

Click on the video above to see both of these cards in action.

As you open this rotating card by Kris, Hello Kitty in the center circle pops forward and the  words "Happy Birthday" rotates around her. So much fun!

Bev installed a triple rotating mechanism in her Mothers Day Card. When Bev's triple rotating card is opened, the large flowers and "Happy Mothers Day" greeting rotate counter clockwise around the center circle while the pink circle with the sentiment and the tiny flowers buds behind the larger flowers both rotate clockwise. So many things moving! I knew I had to give these rotating cards a try too.

Click on the video below to see how my version of this card turned out.

I found several video tutorials showing how to make these types of rotating cards online but ended up mainly following the instructions from Mitosu Crafts here as well as assembly instructions from Lawn Fawn here to create my template and figure out the assembly of the mechanism.

For Hubby's birthday card, I followed the instructions for the triple rotating pop up so as he opened his card, the "Happy Birthday" sentiment rotates to the left as the golfer and golf ball rotate to the right.

I used Copics to color and fussy cut a clip art image of a golfer to attach to the center rotating circle. Golf ball was glued onto a strip of clear acetate which was attached to the rotating mechanism behind the circle. I must say that the video tutorials for this card made it look pretty easy but I did struggle trying to figure out the correct placement of all the moving parts and to get everything to align just where I wanted.

Kept the front of the card simple with the same golf course background I created for inside the card and added a golf cart cut using my Silhouette. This card was for hubby's landmark "70th" birthday so I   added a fun "play on words" greeting.

Hello Kitty Triple Platform Pop Up Card

Here's a quickie  Sanrio friends themed birthday card and gift card holder I put together for a dear friend. 
 

Kept the front of the card clean and simple by layering matted rectangles, a peeking Hello Kitty and and a hot foiled fishtail banner sentiment made using Spellbinders Hexi-Gems Sentiments hot foil plate. Happily I have gotten into the habit of hot foiling and die cutting several sets of these fishtail sentiments to stash away whenever I get my Spellbinders Glimmer system heated up so I can have them ready to use whenever I need them in a hurry.

Inside, I used Karen Burniston's "Triple Platform Pop Up" die set to create this fun birthday pop up. Really love that this pop up mechanism is so very easy to assemble! Birthday cake was pieced together using Marianne Designs "Collectables  Birthday Cake" and candles from Taylored Expressions "Mini Cake" dies. Sanrio characters were cut on the Silhouette using older cutting files I had created a while back. 

Added another paper pieced Pochacco together with a hot foiled and die cut "Celebrate" sentiment using

Simon Hurley's "Birthday Sentiments" glimmer set to a top fold gift card holder. 

Holiday Goodies from Crafty Friends

 

Today I'm sharing some of the fun and adorable handmade goodies I received from my crafty friends for Valentines Day and New Years. First up are these two Valentines Day treat holders from my dear friend Kris that really blew me away...

Here's an absolutely amazing candy dispensing vending machine that really works! Pressing the rubber band activated heart lever allows the candies in the dispenser to fall into the clear tray below. How cool is that! I'm not mechanically inclined at all so I can't even imagine how Kris constructed this fun toy.

This second Valentine treat box from Kris is another fun and novel interactive box.

This box has an unusual side magnetic flap closure. When you pull open the lid, a large glittered heart filled with treats spills out of the box...what a fun surprise! Hope to learn how to make this one day!

Next up are these wonderful handmade New Years projects created by crafty friends Bev and Lorna.

This beautiful glitzy hexagonal pop up New Years card was put together by sweet Bev. Hexagonal pop up cards are one of my favorite styles of card to make and receive. I really like the way she added the die cut word "Thanks" to the banner on the top so her card would double as a thank you card as well.

Then a few weeks later, I received another fun card from Bev. This time a Chinese New Year box card. This has got to be the cutest Year of the Horse card I've seen! Beverly constructed her card using Lori Whitlock's "Horse Stable Box Card" and very cleverly gave it an Asian twist by adding the Chinese Character for "Horse" on the front and hanging an Asian lantern on the panel behind the horse.

Every year I look forward to receiving  Lorna's lunar animal daruma creations. They are always so kawaii. This year she created a horse daruma and I love that she even added an easel on the back so it can rock back and forth, just like a real daruma!

This year we celebrated Chinese New Year just 3 days after Valentines Day, which made things a little hectic for crafters trying to make cards and treats. Lorna solved the problem by ingeniously combining the two! This Target wannabe shopping basket is so adorable... look closely and you'll see the holes in the basket are really tiny hearts. She added the familiar target bulls eye to the center of the basket but look again to see a heart shape in the middle. She also added an image of Hello Kitty riding a red horse as a nod to the lunar new year. Her tag with a cute horse dressed in lion dance garb and blowing heart shaped bubbles together with her sentiment saying it all: "Happy Valentine's Day and Kung Hei Fat Choy"!