To My Significant "Otter"

Here's the card I put together for hubby to celebrate our wedding anniversary this month. I thought this little paper pieced otter from Doodlebug's So Much Pun collection was so cute! She reminded me of the fun time we had watching the adorable otters at the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park while we were in Canada recently. I had the little otter hold a heart with the number "39"... yup, 39 years already!

On the inside, I added two more paper pieced otters and used the Trifold Slider Die-namics die by MFT Stamps to make a fun interactive trifolold slider card. The cutting file for the Doodlebug Otter was purchased from the Lori Whitlock Shop. I used Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks applied with a cosmetic brush and splattered with water to create the ocean backgrounds for the front and inside of this card.

As the trifold card is opened, the two otters slide to meet together in the center! Since still photos don't do justice to these interactive cards I decided to post a short video so you can watch the sliders in action.

Although I have to admit this Trifold Slider mechanism took a little time to get working just right, I found Jennifer McGuire's video tutorial on this die especially helpful. I think this mechanism would make fun and adorable love themed cards for weddings, anniversaries and Valentines Day.

Timeless Love

My anniversary card for hubby this year was another Mickey and Minnie themed one. I'm a big fan of Disney, and for me, Mickey and Minnie represent the ultimate timeless couple. They've been together for 89 years, ever since Steamboat Willie premiered in 1928. Pretty sure I don't know any other couple who's been together quite that long!
Decided to do another one of my new favorite interactive cards, the Triple Slider style card...

Pull on the ribbon to the right of the card and two panels slide out from both ends of the card...

...and at the same time, Minnie slides across the front of the card to give Mickey a kiss on his nose!

Aren't they adorable? The cutting file for "Kissing Mickey and Minnie" is another fabulous freebie created and shared by the very talented and generous Krafty Nook. The background subway word art panel was created in Print Shop. A little hard to see but I started with "37 years" and added the equivalents in days, hours, minutes and seconds below it, using different font styles.

Imagine that, 37 years already! I guess it's true, time really flies when you love the one you're with.

Love Birds 5th Anniversary

Keeping in theme with the love birds theme of their wedding 5 years ago, this is the card in a box style card I  recently made to send to my daughter and son in law for their wedding anniversary.

Instead of the usual square shaped box, I opted to try a rectangular shaped one like some of the ones I've seen pinned on Pinterest.

The best thing about the rectangular shaped card in a box card is that front of the card is wider, allowing me to put larger paper piecings inside without significantly increasing the overall size of the folded card.

I used the Lovebirds cutting file from Country Life Graphics for the bird couple and placed them on a nest created from the Nest on Branch cutting file from Miss Kate's Cuttables. And since the happy couple is expecting the birth of their first child very soon, I added a little egg with a pink bow (yes, it's a girl!) created using the Dainty Bow die from Mama Elephant. Sentiments on the flaps of the box were created in Make the Cut design program using Lettering Delights Charming font.

Our sentiments and best wishes were added to the back of the card.

Then as final throwback to their happy wedding day, I placed the card in a petal closure style envelope with a belly band and the same personalized seal  we used on their wedding invitations five years ago. So many warm, happy memories emerged as I was making this card...no wonder they always say crafting is so therapeutic!

Love You To The Moon

Hubby and I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary earlier this month and this is the card I made to let him know how much I  still love him!

For the focal point of this card, I used a coloring book image of our favorite Disney couple that I had been saving for years with the hope of one day using for an anniversary card. Finally was able to start early enough this year to spend the time to work on it, using Make the Cut to render the image into a cutting file. I already knew I wanted to use this to make a Surprise Pop Up Slider card similar to the one I made earlier this year for my daughter and son in law's anniversary posted here.

Pulling up on the tab at the top of the card pulls the frame and the panel below it up...

...and reveals the sentiment underneath.

You can find the video tutorial for this fun interactive card by Beate Johns over at Splitcoast Stampers. Once you understand the basic construction of this card, you can easily alter the size to fit your own preference.

Since I wanted to get the "floating effect", I replaced the pop up panel on this card with a simple open frame and hung Mickey and Minnie from it using fishing line.

One of the main reasons I chose to do this card style is because I had also saved a backside view of this coloring book image which I also rendered into a cutfile. Unfortunately as it turned out, the front and back sides didn't match up as I had hoped, so I ended up having to fudge it and hand cut much of the backside to fit. LOL, it's a good thing this card was for my non-crafty hubby who probably never noticed!

One last thing I did just for fun was to twist Mickey and Minnie around a few times before putting the card in it's envelope. I thought it was sorta cool to see Mickey and Minnie spin around in the frame as hubby pulled the tab to open his card.

Anniversary Wishes for a Beary Special Couple

Wow, I can hardly believe 4 years have already gone by since our daughter and son in law were married. This is the card I sent them for their anniversary.

Wanted to try something a little different, so I decided to do a Surprise Sliding Pop Up type card and added a cut out window. Cute teddy bear couple inside the window is from the "Love You To The Moon and Back" cutting file by Cuddly Cute Designs. Cut the pieces for the bears from white cardstock, then colored them with Copics before piecing them together.

Pulling on the ribbon at the top of the card makes the front of the card slide back and up to reveal the sentiment underneath. Sort of looks like a Flying Easel type card, but more fun because of the sliding movement.

The window frame was created in Make the Cut by joining a rounded square shape together with a freebie label cutfile created and generously shared by Images By Heather M. found here. I then adhered the teddy bears to a scalloped edged heart shape and suspended it in the frame using fishing line tied to the top and bottom of the frame. Banner on the bottom is a cutting file from Cricut Wedding Solutions cartridge.

I also added a sentiment "Love bears all things" to the backside of the heart.

For the floral embellishments and flourishes on this card, I used a combination of various dies and punches. Leaves and embossed white petals from Nellie Snellen punches; tiny branch punch from Martha Stewart; mini flower punch from Punch Bunch; and leafy flourishes from Tiny Fanciful Flourish die by Cheery Lynn. Larger pink mulberry blossom is from All Natural Accents; and pretty corner flourishes are a free cut file from SVG Cuts.
In keeping with my fun tradition of including "memories from the wedding" on their anniversary cards, I chose patterned papers with the same color scheme used at the wedding and added tiny die cut love birds (Memory Box, Resting Birds die) to match the love birds theme at their wedding 4 years ago.
Had fun putting this card together for my daughter and son in law. Always enjoy making Surprise Pop Up Slider cards...the tutorial for the basic card by Beate Johns can be seen over at Splitcoast Stampers. I thought adding the window made this card even more fun; and if you twist the bears around a few times before putting it in the envelope, the bears will spin in the frame when the recipient slides the card open...very cool!

Life With You Is Still SO Sweet!

Hubby and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary last month and this is the card I put together for him.There's an ongoing joke around our home that he's the "Smoothie King" because he blends together the absolutely yummiest smoothies for us every weekend... acai, strawberries, bananas, pineapple, yogurt and kale...mmmm...YUM! He jokingly calls me the "Smoothie Monster" because I can slurp up those delicious smoothies he makes in no time flat. Even before he has a chance to sit down to enjoy his own drink, I'm already half way done with mine and begging for more!

So naturally, when I spied this adorable "Sweet Smoothie" cutting file over at Marjorie Ann Designs, I knew it would be perfect! All the paper piecings were cut on my Silhouette from white cardstock and colored using Copic pens. I used the Cuttlebug "Wicker Weave" embossing folder for the background on my blender mouse.

I decided to try another slider style card; this one is called a "Peek A Boo Slider". Found a very detailed and easy to follow photo tutorial for this shared by Norma on her blog, From My Craftroom. If you do a search on her blog, you'll find many of the beautiful Peek A Boo style cards Norma has created...so inspiring! In addition you can find her video tutorial for this card over at Splitcoast Stampers

As this card is opened, a panel with a new image slides over the first image seen in the window to replace it...neat!

And here's the card fully open with the new image... mousies slurping up their smoothie!

Just love these cute mousies from Marjorie Ann Designs! See the mousie on the bottom with the pinked cheeks and eyelashes? That's me!

A word about the mechanics about this card...as with most slider type cards, this Peek A Boo Slider card works best using flat images that are printed or stamped onto the sliding panels. Layered paper pieced images like the ones I've used here tend to get caught onto the sliding mechanisms making it difficult for the card to open and close smoothly. For this card I did a fix by first, adding 2 layers of adhesive foam on the top and bottom edges behind the inside panel. This prevents the paper pieced images from getting snagged onto the edges of the window by allowing the panel to slide about 1/8th inch away. Next, I added a 1/4th inch spine to the slider piece and the back panel (indicated by the red arrows) to accommodate the extra thickness from adding the foam. And lastly, I added a tab (blue arrow) to hold the inside and back panels together to keep the sliding mechanism in place. Took a bit of extra work, but this made a huge difference on how well this card opened and closed. Now that I've finally figured out a solution, I think I may be doing more of these fun slider cards again!

Happy Anniversary to our Favorite Couple

My daughter and son in law celebrated their third anniversary last month...and yup, I made another sliding box card. I was already embarrassingly late with my card before I even started, and this was the quickest "nice" card I could come up with at the time so I just went with it, this time changing the window to a heart shaped one.

On the inside, I used a cute boy and girl paper piecing file called "Kissing Booth" from SVG Cutting Files.

Since the original cutting file on this only included the top half of their bodies, I used one of the Paper Dolls Add-Ons (also from SVG Cutting Files) to weld on the bottom half of their bodies and their legs in MTC (Make the Cut).

I always find it fun to add a few little subtle details to bring back memories of their wedding whenever I make my daughter and son in law's anniversary card. Though they probably didn't recognize it, the pretty patterned paper (retired, from Basic Grey) I used on the outside is one of the papers I had originally used to create one of their wedding invitation samples three years ago. And in keeping with the lovebirds theme they had for their wedding, I added a bird held banner for the Happy Anniversary sentiment. Birds are from the Cricut 3 Birds On Parade cartridge, and banner is a from a internet image search rendered into a cut file with MTC.

I used paper blossoms from All Natural Accents glittered with Stickles together with foliage from a Nellie Snellen punch on the bottom corners of the box, and a corner flourish die from LaLa Land embellished with flatback pearls and jewels on the remaining corners. And finally I added a scalloped heart frame embellished with more pearls for the window.

Views from the top of the box show the glittery Best Creation Inc sakura paper from the Kimono line used on the inside of the box and where the couple is attached to the sliding mechanism.
LOL, I think just about everyone on my cardmaking list has at least one (or maybe even two) of this sliding box style cards already. Guess it's about time to start looking for another style card to have fun with....

You Color My World!

Three days after hubby's birthday, we celebrate our wedding anniversary. This year was number 34 for us...wow, time flies when you're having fun, right? This year for my anniversary card for hubby I decided to do a "blast from the past"... and bring back a really old stamping/cardmaking technique I learned many, many years ago called the Magic Color Card.

Instead of using a stamped image, I chose to use a coloring book image of a classic and one of my favorite Disney couples, Lady and the Tramp. Printed the image twice; once on acetate and a second on white cardstock. Colored the one on cardstock using my Copics. Used Spellbinders Nestabilities round dies to cut the window, and the circular word border was created in Microsoft Word 2010 using Expose font. Struggled a bit with this, but found a pretty good tutorial over at Online PC Learning  which helped a lot.

For the construction of this card, I used a Splitcoast Stampers tutorial by Beate Johns, changing the dimensions to suit my card. Pulling up on the tab on the top of the card moves the image out of the window and "voila!"... the sentiment and a colored image "magically" emerges...

The concept for this card may be old...and though it's really just a simple slider card, even after all these years, it still manages to deliver the wow effect to its recipients.

I enjoyed re-learning how to make the magic color card again. Best part is that hubby really seemed to have fun with it...sliding it back and forth repeatedly to see the "magic"...."Neat! How'd you do that?!!!"... LOL, that's why I LOVE him SO MUCH!

Happy 2nd Anniversary

March 3rd is a special day for our family, not only because it's Girls Day but also because it's the day my daughter and son in law got married 2 years ago. I like that it's a date I won't ever forget, but *sigh* I guess as long as I continue making treats for Girls Day, my card to them will unfortunately continue to be late every year... 

For their 2nd Anniversary, I decided I wanted to give a try at making one of those neat flying easel cards I've been seeing posted on many blogs recently...

Unfortunately...due to my poor planning and hurry to get this done, I just couldn't get my flying easel card to work out the way it's supposed to. After attaching the heart shaped photo onto the frame using clear fishing line, I couldn't get it to sit correctly in the frame as I hoped it would. I liked the motion of free spinning photo in the frame, but at rest, the photo always ended up facing to the side instead of face forward as I wanted. I guess it has something to do with physics and balance. In the end I gave up and used a strip clear acetate to hold the photo in place instead. I still got the effect of the photo being suspended in the frame, but lost the fun spinning movement. Guess I'll just have to give the spinning easel card another go later when I'm not so late.

Here's a closeup of the top of the heart frame; if you look closely toward the center top you can see the strip of acetate I used to hold the photo in place inside the frame.

The lacy heart frame was created in Make the Cut and the doves and streamers were cut from Cottage Cutz Dove with Ribbons die. Copics were used to add shading to the doves and color the ribbons green. I used a Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust pen to add glittery accents to the ribbons and heart frame and added flat back pearls to embellish the frame.

Martha Steward layered arches edge punch was used to create a lacy border embellished with more flatback pearls to act as the stop for this easel card. "Happy Anniversary" sentiment and shadow was created in MTC using CAC Shishoni Brush font.

Here's how the front of card looks when closed flat. Fancy corners were cut from LaLa Land's Filigree Corner die.The emobssing you see peeking through the heart window behind the photo is the negative piece I got from cutting that window, embossed using Cuttlebug's Jamara folder...the same embossing that we used to create the couple's wedding invitations 2 years ago. 

I used the embossed heart piece to create a heart shaped card and adhered it to the inside of the main card so it would show through the heart shaped window.

And finally, a shot of the inner heart card open with our best wishes for the happy couple. Although this card didn't turn out quite as I had imagined, I'm hoping my daughter and son in law will like it. The photo of the couple I used is from their engagement shoot prior to the wedding and hopefully this card will help to trigger some wonderful memories for them.