Welcome Fur Baby Basket

Recently my good friend welcomed an adorable Maltese puppy into her home. Just so happens her new puppy shares the same papa as my 2 year old Maltese; so being that they're half sisters, we're hoping they too will become good friends like their owners.

New puppy's name is "Jaz", and this is the pop up basket card I put together for her using Karen Burniston's Pop Up Woven Basket and Wide Woven Basket Box Card dies. 

The woven basket itself is pretty easy to assemble, but the really fun part is in filling and decorating the basket. The "Welcome Fur Baby" sign was designed in Make the Cut Design Program using Hello Valentica and Expose fonts. A strip of acetate was glued onto the back of the sign and attached to one of the struts inside the basket. Grassy borders and flowers were cut using dies that are included in the Woven Basket die set.

Sweet little Maltese pup was paper pieced using cuts from Marianne Design Eline's Puppy Die Set. Puppy's bone, bowl, duckie and ball were pieced using older svg cutting files I had created in the past just for these type of dog themed cards I love to make.

I added a personalized label to the front of the basket using an older lacy scallop oval shape cut file. Hard to tell from the photos but I used white glitter cardstock for both the sign and label for the basket and Stickles glitter glue on the flower centers for a little sparkle.

View from the side shows the depth of the basket; I used the smaller Woven Basket dies for the sides and the Wide Woven Basket dies for the front and back.

Then just for a little excitement, I added two Bam Boxes underneath so the basket would automatically pop open on its own as the recipient removes it from the envelope. If you look carefully, you can see where the two Bam Boxes were glued in to the right front and left back corners of the basket.

Here's the basket being held in it's flat position, ready to be slid into an envelope.

I used a cute paw and heart icon to stencil cut the front for a simple gift card holder to go along with the card.

And of course, last but not least I couldn't go without sharing a pic of the adorable little "Jaz"!

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.

Mothers Day Box Cards

I have two Mothers Day Box style cards to share today. One I made for my mom and another which was sent to me by a very sweet friend. This first box card made for my mom was inspired by Spellbinder's Large Die of the Month for March called "Flowering Tree". When I saw all the beautiful box cards others were creating with this die, I knew I had to add it to my collection too. 
   

Initially I had imagined making all sorts of fun cards using this die by adding cute stamped or paper pieced critters sitting under the pretty flowering tree. I guess I was so excited that I neglected to pay close attention to the finished card size (3x5") which was too tiny for even my smallest critter stamp. But since I really had my heart set on having the tiny kokeshi dolls from Dandelion Design's "Enjoy Today" stamp set stand under the tree for my card, I knew had to make a few size adjustments to make it work. I started by creating a cut file in Make the Cut for a template similar to the die for the base card, but in a larger size and next, I made an extension to add to the tree trunk so it would be taller. 

I also created a cutting file for the "Happy Mothers Day" greeting using Arial and Commercial Script fonts. The original Spellbinders die was used to cut the tree branches, textured leaves and pretty blossoms that I loved most about this die set.

Dandelion Designs adorable kokeshi dolls were stamped, heat embossed, colored and their kimonos paper pieced.

I also created a matching inset to add to the back of the card so I could add our Mothers Day sentiment. In the end, I was happy with the finished card and more importantly I learned that I need to be more careful to take notice of the size of the dies I'm purchasing.

This is the absolutely amazing box style card I received in the mail for Mothers Day from my dear friend Bev. I just love the intricate cuts and all the tiny, tiny details on this card!

Designed by Furrow and Feather, the svg cut file for this "Rattan Plant Shelf Box Card" can be found on their website together with several more similarly beautiful intricate cards. 

In addition to the delicate cuts of the rattan shelving, I was really amazed at the details of all the tiny plants, candlesticks, books and other items on the shelves. Imagine the eyesight and fine motor skills required to assemble this card!

A fancy label inset was added to the backside of the card for a personal message. I continue to be intrigued by the many forms and shapes of different kinds of box style cards. I love that talented designers and crafters come up with so many fun versions of box cards!

Fun Easter Treats

I put together these Easter candy holders to share with friends and family this year. I had so much fun making the Panda chocolate kisses holders for Valentines Day that I knew I wanted to make something similar for Easter.    
 

I purchased the template/cutfile for this bunny dome candy holder from seller Papaya Creativa on Etsy. She has designed many different styles of these candy holders for almost every occasion as well as for themed birthday parties. All of these candy holders use clear fillable ornament balls as the dome to hold the candies. Since you only need half of the ball for each candy holder, it's possible to make two from each ornament ball.

The original template for this was designed as a Valentines Day treat holder but I made a few small changes like adding a carrot for bunny to hold, and changing the base that bunny is sitting on to make it more appropriate for Easter. I also aded a few die cut flowers to decorate the front.

This bunny template came with a square envelope for its base but I decided to change it to a hexagonal petal style envie similar to one that some of the other candy holders on site come with.

Inside the hexagonal envelope, I added a round shaped card designed using Doodlebug clipart from the Lori Whitlock Shop. As you can see, access to the chocolate eggs inside the dome is behind the card!.

It was fun putting these domed candy holders together. I'm sure you'll see me making more of these  (maybe for Halloween?) since I purchased of boxful of  the plastic fillable ornaments from Amazon!

I also put together a dozen of these boxes to fill with Easter cookies for sharing with friends and family.

This box style is something I've been imagining in my head and wanting to try for the longest time. The bunny sitting in the grass holding the decorated egg on top of the box is actually a modified version of a "Card in a box" style card. 

I started by making  a template for a simple box large enough to hold my cookies (4-1/2 x 5" with a depth of 2"). I then sized the Easter Bunny Box Card svg cutting file from My Scrap Chick to fit the top of my box. At the same time I decreased the height of the card base to one inch and decreased the height of the struts inside the box card by an additional 1/4" so that it would sit securely on top of the box. I also changed the bunny on my box topper to a bent eared one which I picked up from the Lori Whitlock Shop.

Here's the box of cookies with the box card topper removed. I was pretty happy that this turned out just as I hoped and imagined it would. There are so many creative and clever svg cutting file designs for box style cards available online and I think this idea of using them as box toppers makes for a fun way to decorate treat boxes.

Gabby's Dollhouse Fabulous Flip Card

  

I made this Thank You card to send to our daughter and her family after we stayed at their home earlier this month. Our granddaughter had a week free prior to starting kindergarten, so gramma and grampa got to spend lots of time with her. While there, we learned that her new favorite animated series is Netflix "Gabby's Dollhouse" about a young girl named Gabby, who magically shrinks in size to go on adventures with her cat friends.

Just for fun I wanted to try to recreate Gabby's Dollhouse using a card style similar to Sam Calcott's four shutter "Fabulous Flip" Card as the base.

I used Make the Cut Design Program and a coloring page image of the dollhouse to create a layered cutting file for the kitty roof. After watching Sam Calcott's video tutorial for her 6x6 Fabulous Flip Card assembly, I made a template with a similar mechanism for my card. I imagined each of the shutters to be windows of the dollhouse and added clipart from Etsy of the different characters onto the shutters.

As the frame on the front of the card is pulled to the left, the shutters swing open to reveal images of four more of Gabby's kitty friends and a sentiment underneath on the right.  Still having so much fun making these Fabulous Flip cards!

I also want to share these box cards and paper pieced princesses my granddaughter and I had fun working on together during our stay.

The castle box card is from the Box Card SVG Kit from SVG Cuts, the Box Card Ice Cream Truck is from the Lori Whitlock Store, and the princesses were paper pieced from Karen Burniston Princess and Mermaid die set. I had precut all the pieces and made kits with pictures of the completed projects. It felt so satisfying just sitting there, crafting with my granddaughter! Looking forward to the next time we can work on more fun projects together.

"Cool" Summer Treats

Best remedy for the summertime blues when you're missing your grandkids? Put together a care package filled with treats to send them!

My sweet and crafty friend Lori created this adorable set of stationery items, including matching notecards, decorated notepad and a super cute bookmark/clip. Whenever our granddaughter comes to visit us, we enjoy taking her for shaved ice at the shaved ice stand near our home so I knew right away I wanted to share this adorable set with her.

Then for some added fun, I put together this matching "Card in a Box" style card to send along with the trio of goodies. The svg cutting file for this shaved ice stand box card comes from the Lori Whitlock Store. I just love all the different kinds of box cards you can find there! 

The shaved ice stand box card included the signs, the cups of shaved ice on the stand and even the bottles of syrup but not the bears. The cut file for the paper pieced teddies are from Marjorie Ann Design's "Franklin Brain Freeze" set. After resizing and assembling the two bears, I attached one to the strut inside the stand to hold one of the bottles of syrup. I attached the second teddy with the shaved ice to the front of the stand using foam tape  After assembling everything, I used a small paint brush to add a generous coat of Stickles glitter glue to the cones of shaved ice for an icy sparkle.

I added our Happy Summer sentiment to the back of the shaved ice stand.

Like all box style cards, this one also folds flat to fit into an envelope for mailing, although in this case it didn't matter since it was packed in a box with other things for mailing.

This last photo was taken by my daughter when they received the "care package" of goodies. I asked her to send me a photo because I forgot to take one of the "jelly bag" you see in the back that I put together at last minute to hold some of the treats we sent. The cutting file for this "jelly bag" was offered as a free gift with purchase from SVG Cuts. It reminded me of those "jelly" bags and sandals that were all the rage while my daughter was growing up! It was surprisingly easy and quick to put together and I was really happy how it turned out. I hear it was quite a hit with our granddaughter as well!