The birthday card I'm sharing today is a fun updated version of an old favorite mechanism which I recently learned from watching a video tutorial by Sam Calcott of Made to Surprise.
Since this was made for a dear friend who owns a beautiful calico kitty, I wanted to do a cat themed birthday card. I found a "Kawaii Cat Clipart Bundle" on Etsy with the cutest kitties which I thought would work perfectly for this card. The birthday balloons were die cut with Pretty Pink Posh "Party Balloon" die. I used "Happy Birthday Words" die from Hello Bluebird, and Taylored Expressions "Celebration Confetti" die for stars and confetti.
After doing a print and cut of several of the cats from the bundle, I created and cut a shadow layer for each from black cardstock.The cut cat images were then adhered to their shadows and attached to a Triple Wiper style card mechanism. See it in action here:
As the tab on the bottom right side of the card is pulled, wiper mechanisms allow each of the three cats to appear behind one another. In the past I remember using double wiper mechanisms to make cards that had images pop up opposite each other, but having the wiper mechanisms layered behind each other on tiered panels was a new and novel concept for me.
The placement of the cats onto the wiper mechanisms was a little tricky since I wanted all the cats to be visible when the card was fully open, but after fiddling with it for a while I managed to work it out. I used LD Charming Bold font for the " to a special friend" laser printed sentiment, adding a shadow layer to cut each word. The words were run through a Minc with gold hot foil and glued onto each cat image.
I used a fifth cat image together with more die cut birthday balloons to decorate the front of the matching gift card holder. Inside I used "Srushti Patil's Sliding Pop Up" mechanism. Stamped sentiment is from Mama Elephant "Paola's Wishes" stamp set.
I wanted to make a Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck themed card to send my sweet "Disney Adult" friend for her birthday, and this is the card and gift card holder I came up with.
All images of Minnie and Daisy I used for this card were print and cut images from clipart found online. Shadows were cut from black cardstock for each image and glued on behind each of the print and cut images. Stickles glitter glue was used to add highlights to the girls' outfits and I used foam tape to adhere them onto a squarish oval shaped frame. Happy Birthday sentiment was cut using "Spellbinders Essentially Yours" layered die from gold foil board.
Inside, I used "Karen Burniston Twist Flower Pop Up" mechanism to animate Minnie and Daisy with a large die cut cake. I really enjoy using this mechanism a lot because although it's small and simple to assemble, it can twist and pop up fairly large images and embellishments for a fun "wow" effect. "Marianne Design Collectibles Birthday Cake" die was used to cut and assemble the cake and the candles were made using a die from "Taylored Expressions Mini Cake and Stand" set. "Spellbinders Mini Blooms And Sprigs" dies were used for the flowers.
The "Celebrating You" sentiment on the left side of the card was printed with my laser printer, cut using the print and cut function on my Silhouette, then run through a Minc Hot Foil machine with gold foil. This was then adhered to a shadow layer that had been cut with red cardstock.
I did another print and cut image of Daisy and Minnie for a matching gift card holder. The die to cut the "Just for You" sentiment comes from "Lawn Fawn's Gift Box" die set and it's shadow layer was created in Make the Cut design program. Inside, I used "Srushti Patil's Sliding Pop Up" mechanism so the gift card inside would slide up as it's opened.
After seeing and admiring all the beautiful photos taken by my dear friend of cherry blossom trees in bloom during her recent trip to Japan, I was inspired to make a cherry blossom themed card for her birthday.
I used old kokeshi girl svg cut files I created a while ago for this card. Digital washi paper was used to paper piece the kimono, then the kokeshi girl was glued into an oval frame. Lawn Fawn's "Happy Birthday Border" die was used to cut the sentiment.
Four sizes of cherry blossoms were die cut in different shades of pink using Elizabeth Craft Designs "Spring Blossom Collection Cherry Blossom" dies. Flower centers were cut from gold foil board.
Inside, I installed Karen Burniston's "Arch Pop Up" mechanism to create another cherry blossom arch pop up card.
This time instead of the Sanrio characters I used on my last cherry blossom arch card, I placed two additional kokeshi girls to both sides of the arch. Sentiment boxes bordered in gold foil board were added to the bottom left and right sides of the card.
I must admit that I've been having more fun playing with this Arch Pop Up die set than I ever expected. This is thanks to all the talented and inspiring card makers that share their wonderful creations on Karen Burniston Pop Up Peeps Facebook Group. So many fabulous ideas... can't wait to try them all!
A matching gift card holder was decorated with more die cut cherry blossoms and a "celebrate" sentiment cut from gold foil board using Avery Elle's "Sentimental" die set. Inside, I added the gift card to a sliding pop up mechanism that I learned here from Srushti Patil. "Happy Birthday" stamped sentiment is from Mama Elephant "Paola's Wishes" stamp set.
This was the Shiba Inu themed card and gift card holder I put together for my sister in law's birthday this year.
I used Arial and Hello Valentica fonts to create the the cut files for the shadowed "Happy Biirthday" sentiment on the front of the card. The paper pieced Shiba Inu pups I made for this card were inspired by the many cute, wide eyed and cartoon-like Shiba Inu images I've been seeing lately on Pinterest.
I may have gotten a little too ambitious but I decided I wanted to try making a landscape style accordion card using the paper pieced Shiba Inu images. For the base card, I started by using Lori Whitlock's "Swing Through Card" svg cut file template, enlarging the size and altering the orientation of the card to landscape.
The swing through panels were created by welding shadow images of the Shiba Inu pups together. I struggled to get the correct sizing of the shadows in this step, which caused the card to buckle in the closed position.
Even after redoing multiple times, I had to settle with several "bandaid fixes". Hope my sister in law doesn't look too closely at the construction of her card!
I used Lori Whitlock's "Pop Up Drawer" svg file to make the matching gift card holder. Happily, this came together a lot easier! I kept the decorating simple, using another paper pieced Shiba Inu image for the front pop up. "Celebrate" sentiment was created as a print and cut image which I ran through my Heidi Swapp Minc with toner reactive gold foil.
This is the birthday card and gift card holder I recently put together for a dear friend whose favorite Sanrio characters are Hello Kitty and Pochacco.
Hello Kitty and Pochacco were cut and pieced together using svg cut files rendered from coloring book images. After gluing them onto an oval, I was excited to use my new cherry blossom dies from "Elizabeth Craft Designs Spring Collection" to embellish around the framed oval.
Happy Birthday sentiment was cut using Lawn Fawn's "Happy Birthday Border" die.
Inside, I used Karen Burniston's "Arch Pop Up" die to add an arch of cherry blossoms together with Pochacco and Hello Kitty.
Last year I made a similar cherry blossom arch pop up card for a friend, but without the Sanrio characters. Then recently, I came across another cherry blossom arch card, but with Mickey and Minnie Mouse added to the arch created by a crafter from Japan, Ink-Lady Blue. Her card was so adorable, I just knew I had to try something similar.
I was pretty happy with how this turned out and had to make another... which I will share in a later post.
I also made a matching gift card holder, keeping it simple with another Hello Kitty and more cherry blossoms.
This is the card I put together for our cousin's grandson's first birthday celebration last month. I was falling behind on my birthday card making in May so I knew I had to keep this card quick and easy. To cut and assemble the paper pieced teddy bear, I used one of the bears from the "Stardust and Moonbeams" cutting file from Marjorie Ann Designs. "Expose" font was used to make the cut file for the word "One". Balloons were cut using Craft Emporium's (retired) "Stitched Balloon" die.
I needed a card I could finish quickly, so I decided to use the Slide and Reveal mechanism I recently learned from watching video tutorials bySam Calcott and Sara Davies on You Tube. As the card is opened, a panel holding a gift card slides out from the bottom of the card.
Teddy bear inside is also from Marjorie Ann Designs and "1-derful" was created from New Boston and LD Charming fonts using Make the Cut Design Program.
We were happy and very excited when we recently received an invitation to our uncle's 100th birthday celebration. This is the card and money envelope I made as our gift.
This was the first 100th birthday card I've ever made. Wanted to make it special, yet wanted to keep it simple. I decided to go with the traditionally auspicious red and gold color scheme for this Asian themed card. The crane (Tutti Designs, retired) and Asian geometric corners (Mama Elephant Money Envelope die) were die cut from gold foil cardstock. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut a round window, gold glitter frame and the red foil medallion you see in the window. An old cutfile I had created a several years ago was used to cut the Chinese long life character "shou" on the medallion.
Inside, I used Karen Burniston's Katherine Label Pop Up mechanism so the medallion would pop forward and up as the card is opened.
I used a Minc machine to add toner hot foil to the Happy Birthday sentiment on the left side of the card and the lacy lanterns on the right side were cut using a very old (now retired) lantern die set from Tattered Lace.
Mama Elephant's "Money Envelope" die set was used to cut the template for the Chinese style red envelope. The Chinese long life character and personalization were printed using a laser printer and hot foiled using the Minc machine. If you click on the photo above to get an up close view of the envelope you'll be able to see that the foil did not adhere to the toner too well. I used a text weight Stardream metallic paper for the envelope which may not have been smooth enough for proper adhesion of the foil. As I continue to use both toner hot foiling and hot plate foiling on my paper crafts, I'm slowly learning which types of papers are better suited for either method.
This is the card and gift box I put together to send to our granddaughter for her ninth birthday. As she enters her "tween-age" years, it's getting harder for us, especially as long distance grandparents to keep up with the latest trends that interest her. Since I recall her telling us about her love of nature, I decided to go with a butterfly theme for her card this year.
The cute chibi girl I used for my card was paper pieced using a cutting file created from a set of printable sticker images by "Dreamy Clipart Cloud" on Etsy. She is attached to the pop up mechanism inside the card. I cut a circular window on the front of the card so she could be seen before the card is opened. The "celebrate" sentiment was done as a print and cut and passed through a Minc machine with toner reactive foil. Butterflies were cut from pearlescent, glitter and foil cardstock using Lawn Fawn "Butterfly Border" and Spellbinders "Delicate Butterflies" die sets.
Inside the card, I installed a rotating pop up mechanism for some fun pop up and movement.
As the card is opened, butterflies and the Happy Birthday sentiment rotate to the left, and butterflies behind the sentiment rotate to the right. This is the third card I've made using this mechanism, which has been a little tricky for me to learn. Guess the old adage, "Third time's a charm" held true for me; I think I've finally learned how to make this mechanism work smoothly without too much trouble. Yay!
When creating the cut file for this chibi girl, I made a small change to the original image by having her make the Korean finger heart sign, with the hope that it would catch our granddaughter's attention. Apparently it did, as she told her mom, "That's me!"
Since it has become increasingly difficult for us to keep up with the latest trends she's interested in, we decided to send a cash gift to our granddaughter to spend as she pleases. But of course, I had to make it fun! So I made a butterfly shaped box. Before gluing the box closed, I placed a roll of bills which were taped together end to end into the box with end of the first bill threaded through a slit that was cut on the back panel. Then I used double stick tape to adhere a piece of cardstock a little longer than the slit to the first bill so it wouldn't fall back into the box.
A little sad that we aren't able to celebrate birthdays with our granddaughter in person, but still having fun thinking up creative ways to keep her entertained.
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.
As the tab on the bottom right side of the card is pulled, wiper mechanisms allow each of the three cats to appear behind one another. In the past I remember using double wiper mechanisms to make cards that had images pop up opposite each other, but having the wiper mechanisms layered behind each other on tiered panels was a new and novel concept for me. 
