Welcome Sachi!

This is the "Welcome New Puppy" card I made when my sister and brother in law brought a new Shiba Inu puppy into their home. They named her "Sachi", which is the Japanese word for "happiness".

For my card, I cut a window on the front and layered a stencil cut paw print panel on top. I used an older Shiba Inu cutting file I had created a few years ago for my Year of the Dog calendars and sized it up a to fit into the window. Next, I searched for  a simple image of a doggie bed and rendered it into an svg cut file so  my puppy would have a comfy place to sit.

Inside, I used the Karen Burniston's Spinner Square Pop Up die. As the card is opened, the square panel with the puppy pops forward and an arm with the sentiment, dog toys and dish spins out from behind the square.  

 "Welcome Sachi" sentiment was created as a print and cut using LaFemme font and a shadow cut. Cut files for Sachi's toys and bowl were created from coloring book images.

On the backside of the card I used another stencil cut pawprint panel to create a pocket for a gift card holder.

Here's a photo of sweet Sachi. She's still a baby, but growing fast! Hope her mommy buys lots of toys and treats with the gift card!

Bluey Themed Birthday

"Wackadoo!" Earth completed another trip around the sun and suddenly our granddaughter was five years old.  This year she requested a "Bluey" themed party. 

Do you know Bluey? She's an Australian Blue Heeler puppy in a Disney animated series for children. Together with her sister Bingo, the two pups encounter some fun and unpredictable adventures. 

I picked up a set of layered Bluey cutting files and clipart on Etsy to create a paper pieced Bluey to add to the front of my card.

Inside the card, I added the mechanism from Karen Burniston's "Mailbox Pop Up" die set to create a fun "Double Spinner Pop Up Card".  Since it's difficult to show the spinning movement of this pop up card through still shots, Hubby helped to capture the fun in this short video.

I used the print and cut feature in Make the Cut design program to make cut outs of Bluey and her sister Bingo and attached them to the spinning mechanism. Video tutorial by Karen Burniston on how to assemble this fun pop up using her "Mailbox Pop Up" die can be watched here. Love that she always shares alternate creative ways to use her dies to make different interactive cards.

It's not always easy when you live an ocean away from your grandchildren and you want to help with their themed birthday parties. I wasn't able to do much; I printed up a bunch of bag headers for some of the goodies that were going into the treat bags...

 

... made Bluey lollipop holders,

  

... and silly Bluey and Bingo hats ...

... that even the dog didn't want to wear.

Nevertheless, I'm told the party was a big hit and the kids had a great time.

Mother's Day Cards

I am often amazed by the number of different shapes and styles of box cards creative card makers have come up with in recent years. This fun envelope shaped box card from the Lori Whitlock store especially caught my eye and I thought it would make sweet Mother's Day cards to send to my friends who are moms.
 

The original cutfile by Lori Whitlock creates a card about 3.5" x 4.5" in size. I increased the size of the card by about 25%; mostly because I was in a hurry to get these done and I didn't want to worry about intricate fiddly cuts.

The finished size of my cards was about 5.5" x 4.25" with a depth of 0.75".  The only other change I made was to add an insert of printed paper on the backside of the card.

Here's the view from the top where you can see the center panel with the flowers inside the envelope box. I used Stickles glitter glue and a white gel pen to add some bling and accents to the flowers and butterflies.

I added a insert panel to the back of the card where I used a stitched oval die to create a space to add my sentiment. These were easy to assemble and I was pleased at how they turned out. Wish I had gotten started sooner so I could have made more!

Here's the Mother's Day card I put together for my mom. I decided to keep the front of the card simple with a sentiment behind a gold bordered window embellished with a few flowers.

Flowers were cut from Cottage Cutz' "Teacup Mouse" die, and leaves from Stampin' Up's "Little Leaves" die. Flatback adhesive pearls were used for the flower centers.

On the inside, I used Karen Burniston's photo collage die to animate eight photos and a die cut sentiment for a fun surprise. 

"Happy Mother's Day" shadowed cut was created using Brisk font in Make the Cut Design program. Die cut words "love" and "you" were cut from dies from Karen Burniston's Pop 'n Swap die set and I used Punch Bunch mini punches to cut the flowers and leaves.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Hope you are relaxing and enjoying your special day!

    

Cherry Blossom Collage Pop Up Card

Today I'm sharing a slimline pop up birthday card I put together for my dear friend Lorna.

I kept the front of the card plain and simple, using retired sakura patterned papers I had in my stash as the background and an oval label cut from glitter cardstock and embellished with paper pieced cherry blossoms. Arial and Brisk fonts were used to create a svg cut file for the words, "Special Friend". Since the pop up mechanism inside was a bit bulky, I added a length of ribbon between the patterned paper and the card base to create a ribbon tie to keep the card closed.

Inspired by a designer challenge tutorial by Karen Burniston, I added three of the pop up mechanisms from her Heart Collage Pop Up die set . . .

. . . for triple the fun! 

I cut and layered different sized cherry blossoms from glitter and pearlized cardstocks and added them to the spinning arms of the mechanism.

Punches from Nellie Snellen and Punch Bunch were used to cut the different sizes of flower centers. Brisk font was used to create the svg file for the layered "Happy Birthday" sentiment cut from glitter and pearlized cardstock.

Lastly, I added a gift card holder with a cherry blossom closure to the back of the card. Had lots of fun putting this triple collage pop up card together. Looking forward to playing and experimenting more with this pop up mechanism!

Easter Treats 2022

I'm finally back to share the rest of my Easter projects this week. I made a dozen of these funny but cute bunny boxes this year with the intent of filling them with mini pizzelle cookies and sharing with friends and family.

The original svg cutting file template for these paver-like boxes is from the Lori Whitlock Shop. I sized the boxes up just a bit and made them deeper so I could fit at least a half dozen pizzelle cookies in them.  Because of their funny paver-like shape, these boxes were easy to assemble and came together pretty quickly. Then, just to dress them up a bit, I gave each bunny a paper bow, assembled using a free cutting file from Birds' Cards.

As things would have it, my pizzelle press refused to cooperate this year, so I went with Plan B and ended up baking butter cookies with sprinkles instead. 

Bunny boxes were filled with cookies and chocolate eggs, then wrapped in cello bags tied with a tulle bow to finish.

Every Easter, I keep an eye out for these mini Lindt gold bunnies because I think they're so adorable! 

This year I was inspired by the fun basket packaging Lindt used for a pair of midsized gold bunnies and decided I would try to make something similar for the mini gold bunnies.

To create the baskets, I used the svg template for a hexagon pop up card purchased from the Lori Whitlock Shop and added scalloped sides and a basket handle. I used the Grassy border die from MFT Dienamics and mini flower and circle punches from Punch Bunch to decorate the sides of the basket. Cutting template for the paper bow is from Bird's Cards.

Want to share the fun Easter goodies I received from my crafty friends this year too. This adorable "Bunny Feet Box" filled with decadent and colorful egg shaped cookies covered with powdered sugar (yum!) was created by my sweet and talented friend Kris. Love how this box looks so cute from both the front and back! You can find the svg cutting file for this cutie over at My Scrap Chick.

My endlessly creative friend Lorna blew me away with these three super cute and amazing Easter baskets!

This candy filled scallop edge yellow basket is beyond cute with this irresistible little bunny and butterfly sitting inside!

This beautiful tulip shaped basket is an all time favorite for me. I love how the petals of the tulip become the sides of the basket and sweet little bunny inside is just too cute! Svg cutting file for tulip basket comes from SVG Cuts.

This third Asian "flavored" basket is hands down the most creative of all. Lorna designed and created this basket to be shared with with her Japanese Bon Dance club friends. To create her kawaii Asian bunny, she added bunny ears and a face to a plastic egg, draped a kimono shaped piece of washi paper around it and gave her a fan! Bunny was then adhered to the bottom of a plastic condiment cup filled with treats. A tall grassy border was wrapped around the condiment cup and a handle embellished with cherry blossoms and a butterfly added to create an amazing basket.

Thank you for dropping by for a visit!

Sending Easter Love Across the Miles

Happy Easter! I have several Easter projects to share so I'll be sharing the card and lollipop holder project we sent our granddaughter today and post the rest of the projects later this week.

Our Easter card for our granddaughter was inspired by Sam Calcott's video tutorial on You Tube for her Fabulous Flip Cards.
 

I used the adorable bunny cutting files from Marjorie Ann Designs "Bunny Patch" to decorate the first panel on my card. I thought the bunny on the scooter was so cute! Then I added a colorful egg from My Scrap Chick "Easter Chicks Bundle" to the back rack of the scooter for Miss Bunny to deliver. 

On the second panel I added a personalized road sign so Miss Bunny would know where to deliver her decorated Easter egg. "Happy Easter" was die cut from "Easter Border Die" and grassy background from "Stitched Hillside Borders Die", both from Lawn Fawn.

Here's the fun part of this interactive card; pulling on the tab on the left of the frame pulls the double frame forward and to the left...

.... while swinging the two front panels open!

Retired dies "Easter Basket" and "Bunnies and Chicks" from Sizzix were used to create the Easter scene on the inside panels. I really like the fun and dramatic movement of this swing-type card and am looking forward to  making this often. 

A week prior to Easter, I put together a mini craft kit to make these lollipop holders to send to our granddaughter. 

I used My Scrap Chick's "Bunny Sweet Treat Belly" file to cut all the pieces and mailed them together with  this instruction sheet and enough ribbon, tape, and lollipops  to make ten lollipop holders.

Our granddaughter is at the age where she thoroughly enjoys playing with crayons, scissors, paper and glue. (Just like gramma!) But being that she lives many ocean miles away we aren't not able to play together as much as we'd like so I decided to make and send her crafting kits so she can get creative and play just like she would if we could be together. Hope she had fun putting these together and sharing with her friends!