Arch of Leaves Pop Up Card

As the days begin to get noticeably shorter I'm realizing the holiday season has already begun. I found myself scrambling for ideas for a card to include with our Thanksgiving "care package" that we send to our granddaughter each year. When I came across Jennifer Webster's beautiful fall themed arch pop up card posted on her blog, I knew I wanted to try something similar.                                                         

I kept the front of my card simple by only adhering a sheet of pretty patterned paper with autumn leaves to it. Since this card ended up being quite bulky, I decided to use a belly band to help keep it closed. That meant both the label with my greeting and the paper pieced deer I wanted to put on the front had to be glued on to the belly band.

Inside, I installed the mechanism from  Karen Burniston's  "Arch Pop Up" and added lots of die cut leaves, acorns, and even a couple pumpkins cut using Karen Burniston "Autumn Elements" set. Smaller leaves were cut using very old Carl and Marvy Uchida punches. Marianne Collectable dies were used to die cut and piece together the two deer for this card.

For some additional pop up fun, I glued a rubber band activated Karen Burniston "Small Scenes Bam Box" to the back of the deer so it would pop up to its upright position as the card is opened.

Really had fun putting this arch pop up card together. I ended up adding more leaves to the arch than I initially thought would be needed, which resulted in quite a bulky bulgy card... next time I think I will add at least a quarter inch spine to the center to help the closed card lay flatter. 

Thanks for stopping by to visit today; relax and enjoy Thanksgiving... Christmas holiday madness starts tomorrow!

Have a "Meow-velous" Birthday

The card I'm sharing today was created for one of my very special friends who owns a beautiful calico cat named Cheerio. I find it's fun to make pet themed cards for friends who own pets.

For this Double Hinged Pop Up style card, I used Marianne Designs "Eline's Kittens" die set to piece together all the little kitty cats inside.  The shadowed sentiment peeking through the front window on the right side was created in Make the Cut Design Program using Note and Hello Valentica fonts together with the pawprint image. Cupcake was die cut from MFT's "Cupcake and Sprinkles" die. and blinged with some Stickles glitter glue.

As this top fold card is opened, the two panels you see through the front window pop forward and move to the sides to reveal additional side and center panels inside. Template and video tutorial for this interactive pop up card by Tatyana Zhykova can be seen here.

I used a shimmery cream colored cardstock which was dry embossed with a Tim Holtz's "Courtyard" Texture Fade folder for all the panels. It was fun piecing together kitties with different colors and markings.

And yes, I made another matching Slider Box/Surprise Cube Pop Up gift card holder to go along with the card. I used the same "Eline's Kittens" die set for the kitten on the front of the slider box, but this time did some custom cutting in an attempt to create a likeness to my friend's cat "Cheerio".

     

I think both "Cheerio" and my girlfriend approved!

Pop Up Bouquet Card

I made this matching birthday card and gift card holder set for a very dear friend who used to have bunnies as pets when her daughters lived at home. Although I love teddy bears and nearly always use them to decorate my cards, I figured I should change it up once in awhile to keep things interesting.
 

One other thing that is different about this card and gift card holder set is that I put everything together without the use of my Silhouette cutter at all... now, that's definitely a game changer for me! All the embellishments, and even the pop up mechanism inside were cut using thin metal dies.

All bunnies were cut using "Eline's Collectables Baby Bunny" set, and I used Spellbinders "Be Bold Blooms"  and Karen Burniston's "Fence Add On" sets for the flowers. Spellbinders Nestablilities "Open Scallop Edge Circle" together with Circle dies were used to create the lacy circle frame, and Lawn Fawn "Stitched Scalloped Borders" to cut the beaded decorative border. I used Spellbinders "Hexi-Gems Sentiments Set" to hot foil and die cut the fishtail Happy Birthday sentiment.

On the inside, I added a fun pop up bouquet using Karen Burniston's "Little Twist Panel Pop Up" die. This mechanism was originally designed to create cards with a fun accordian folded, four panel pop up inside, but recently talented Karen Burniston design team members Sandy Diller and Nicky Foden have shared how they've used this same mechanism to create amazing pop up flower bouquets. After seeing their cards, I knew I wanted to give it try as well.

Essentially, the only change made to the original mechanism was cutting away all the corners of the panels and loading what was left of the mechanism with blossoms and foilage. Easy peasy, but I loved the result!

Just added a couple more bunnies and a sentiment box and it was done. Can't wait to try more of these type of cards!

I used Karen Burniston's "Slider Box", "Surprise Cube Pop Up", and "Bam Box" dies again to create this fun pop up gift card holder. Also used Karen Burniston "Big Birthday Charms" and Lawn Fawn "Happy Birthday Border" dies to decorate the boxes to match the birthday card.

Birthday Blooms

This is the card and giftcard holder combo I recently put together for my dear friend Kris. Truth be told, I was in a creative slump during this time so I pulled out my Spellbinders Big Blooms dies. Not sure what it is but I've found that something about this floral die set always seems to help stir up the creative juices for me.

    

                                     
I started by creating a cut file for a circular frame with a personalized birthday sentiment welded around the perimeter. Font used was Arial. I cut the frame three times and layered them on top of each other for dimension. Then I added a paper pieced Franklin teddy bear from Marjorie Ann Designs inside the frame and embellished with lots of fun blossoms and leaves that I had die cut using the Big Blooms die set. Clear resin dew drops were randomly added for a little bit of sparkle.

Inside, I used Karen Burniston's Twist Flower Pop Up mechanism to pop up and raise a panel with Franklin teddy bear surrounded by more flowers. 

To create this panel, I first glued the teddy bear and flowers together in an arrangement to my satisfaction, scanned this into my computer at true size,  then imported it  into Make the Cut Design program where I was able to create and cut a black out shadow panel for the teddy and flowers.

Last, I added more flowers to the left corners of the card and the sentiment box and it was done. 

I also made a matching gift card holder using Karen Burniston's "Slider box", "Bam Box", and "Surprise Cube Pop Up" dies."Happy Birthday" sentiment was die cut using Lawn Fawn's "Happy Birthday Border" die. When the drawer of the slider box is pulled open, two surprise cubes pop out and the gift card pops up from inside. Still loving this fun way to present gift cards!

Birthday Wishes for Some Bunny Special

Today I'm sharing the card and matching gift card holder I made to send to our daughter for her birthday. 
 

On the front of the card, I decorated the two panels showing through the window with my favorite  flowers  cut using Spellbinders "Be Bold Blooms" die set and a cute bunny cut and pieced together using dies from Marianne Design Eline's Collectable "Baby Bunny" Set. White pearlized cardstock was used for the panel insets and run through Cuttlebug's "Modern Wallpaper" embossing folder for texture. The sentiment was created using Memo and Hello Valentica fonts in Make the Cut design program. 

On the inside, I used a Doubled Hinged Pop Up mechanism to add movement for a fun interactive card. As the card is opened, the two side panels move apart to reveal the panel behind them. Video tutorial and templates for this pop up card by Tatyana Zhykova of Crazy Paper can be found here.

I used my printer to print the sentiment on the inside and cut it with a shadow layer on my Silhouette Cameo. 

Other than the two sentiments on this card, all other embellishments were created using the dies I mentioned earlier plus Karen Burniston's "Big Birthday Charms" set for the cake slice and presents.

My new favorite way to give a gift card is to enclose it in a box assembled using Karen Burniston's "Slider Box" dies and decorate it to match the card. Lawn Fawn's "Happy Birthday Border" die was used to cut the words on the front.

I always love a surprise element and I'm finding that it's fun to attach the gift card to a rubber band activated Bam Box and add in a pair of pop up cubes in the slider box for some birthday excitement. Pretty sure nearly everyone on my birthday card list will be getting one soon!

Rectangle Pop Up Card

My card today is a Rectangle Pop Up card together with a matching gift card holder. 

I purchased the SVG cutting file, "Rectangle Pop Up Arbor" from the Lori Whitlock Store to create my card. The mechanism for this pop is the same as for the hexagonal pop up cards I've been making for a while, the only difference being that the shape of the base of the card is rectangular instead. 

The original file for this card includes the flowering arbor, fence, tree and bird. Just to add a bit more fun, I also added a paper pieced Patches the teddy bear with a watering can from Marjorie Ann Designs "Take Time To Smell The Flowers". I also added a few additional die cut flowers using Spellbinders "Mini Blooms and Sprigs" die.

On the front of the card I used Pink Fresh Studio's "Perfect Sentiments" hot plate and dies to add the foiled "Happy Birthday". The blue panel behind it was dry embossed using an embossing folder from Cuttlebug Decorative Tile Set.

Heres a couple of views of the card from the top and sides which show the struts where all the paper pieced embellishments were attached to. 

Here's the card flattened, ready to go into its envelope. I added a birthday sentiment to the back of the card. I also created and included a small instruction sheet to enclose with the card, just in case the recipient needed help opening her card.

Just another short video of the  gift card holder in action...

Then  just for a little excitement, I used Karen Burniston' Slider Box together with the Bam Box Pop Up, and Surprise Cube Pop Ups for a fun presentation of a gift card.

Flowering Tree Retirement Card

   This is the card and matching gift card holder I put together for a very dear friend who retired recently. 

This open box style card was inspired by Spellbinders Large Die of the Month for March called "Flowering Tree". I purchased the die earlier this year but was disappointed that the completed card from the dies in the set made a card that was a lot smaller than I expected. At that time I was trying to make a Mothers Day card and I ended up designing a similar but larger box card template in Make the Cut Design Program to better suit my needs. You can view my finished Mothers Day card here.

I decided to use that same larger template I created for my friend's retirement card. This time, I used a retired Stampin Up die to cut an adirondack chair to add to the second tier of the card. 

All the flowers and leaves were cut from the original Spellbinders "Flowering Tree" dies. I also added a few birds which were cut using the Memory Box "Resting Birds" die.

I used gold foil board for the die cut sentiment, " Happy Retirement" and added it to the bottom two tiers of the card. The die for the word "Happy" was included in the original set. The letters for the word "Retirement" were individually cut using an old Quickutz Alphabet die set, "Banana Split". Each letter was then adhered onto a strip of acetate before being glued onto the bottom tier.

This box card easily folds flat to fit nicely into an envelope. I used the blank panel on the back side to add a sentiment and personal message. 

Karen Burniston's "Slider Box" die was used to create a matching box to hold a gift card. Lawn Fawn's "Stitched Hillside Borders" die was used to cut the background, together with another adirondack chair die cut and more flowers, branches and leaves cut from the "Flowering Tree" die to embellish the top of the box.

If you've seen some of my past posts using this slider box as a gift card holder, you probably know that I've been trying to figure out for a while now, how to get the gift cards I put in these slider boxes to pop up as the recipient slides open the drawer of these boxes. Well, I think I finally got it to work the way I imagined. Watch the short video to see the fun!

In addition to the "Bam Box Pop Up" which I glued inside the box to pop the gift card up, I also needed to layer two pop up cubes on top of the gift card inside the box. These fun rubber band activated pop up cubes were assembled from pieces cut from Karen Burniston's "Surprise Cube Pop Up" dies. Love how fun these are and will definitely be using these often.

You Finished Kindergarten!

And just like that, it's Summer already! School's out, it's graduation season and Fathers Day is just around the corner. Last week our granddaughter finished her first year of elementary school so I made and sent this card to congratulate her.
 

I used a combination of Kristi W. Designs from  both Marjorie Ann Designs and Scrapping Cuts N' Snips for all the paper piecing used on this card. "Back to School Owls" and "Bentley at the Beach" sets from Marjorie Ann Designs for Bentley Bear, the pencil and the book. Crayons, paintbrush and rainbow are from Scrapping Cuts N' Snips' "You Color My World" set.

On the inside, I used Karen Burniston's Bam Box Pop Up die to create four separate rubber band activated pop up boxes which were attached behind the bears and the rainbow. When the recipient opens this card, all three bears and the rainbow pop up simultaneously to an upright position. So fun!

This side view shows the Bam Boxes behind each bear and adhered inside the card. 

I really like that these little pop up boxes can be placed at any angle, almost anywhere in the card to make almost anything you can think of pop up.

Since I used four rubberband activated Bam Boxes inside my card, I ran into a slight problem trying to figure out a way to keep my card in the closed position without too much bulging.Usually one neodynium magnet in each of the four corners is enough for rubberband activated pop up cards I've made in the past. But this time, the elastic force of the four rubberbands required six magnets to keep my card closed. Other than that, these Bam Boxes are simple to assemble and can be used in countless ways to add a fun pop up feature to cards. I'm sure I'll be using them often to animate my cards.