Have a "GROOT" Birthday!

Every year I try my best to come up with a birthday card that will amuse my son in law. It's challenging but fun because I find myself learning a lot about things he enjoys. For example, this year I decided to use  baby Groot on his birthday card.

Do you know Groot? Any Marvel Comics fan would know him as the tree character in Guardians of the Galaxy. Groot's vocabulary is limited to just three words, "I am Groot", but depending on the tone of his voice, those three words can translate to many different things, and it's usually something unexpected and funny.

 

I was happy to find several cute coloring page images of baby Groot which were rendered into cutting files in Make the Cut Design program. 

Then for a fun surprise, I used Karen Burniston's Flower Pot Pop Up die and planted a baby Groot inside. 

I used one of the stitched balloon dies from Craft Emporium's Balloons Galore set to add festive birthday balloons.

Just for laughs I added the translation for "I am Groot" in the sentiment box and a print and cut image of adolescent Groot's cassette tape of rock music. Birthday cupcake was cut and pieced from Cottage Cutz' Tiered Cupcake die set. It was fun putting this card together while watching and laughing at Groot video clips from old Guardian of the Galaxy movies on You Tube. Hope my son in law enjoyed his card as much as I enjoyed making it!

Fortune Cookie Panda Pop Up

Thought of a fun idea for a pop up card that I thought might be perfect as a birthday card for my dear friend Patti, who enjoys creations with an Asian flavor.

 

On the front of my card, I started with a paper pieced tea pot and cup cut from Cricut's "Pagoda" cartridge using pearlized cardstock. I used Copics and a brown chalk inkpad to add a bit of color and dimension. Red foil board and gold stardream cardstock were used for the border detail and cover on the teapot. The cherry blossom branch was cut using a die from Yinise Store. Copics and stickles were used to for shading and a little sparkle.

I used Marjorie Ann Designs' "Panda Love" cutting file for my paper pieced panda. Panda's mouth and muzzle were done using the print and cut function, and I brushed a little chalk on his cheeks for some color. Cutting file for the fortune cookie is from Aletheia Shade on Etsy.

Open the card and up pops a take out box filled with more fortune cookies and a little peeking panda!

Pop up take out box was cut using Karen Burniston's Flower Pot Pop Up die. Pagoda image on the box comes from a scanned photo of an actual take out box which was printed onto white cardstock prior to die cutting with the flower pot die.

I pieced together several of the fortune cookies and attached a strip of acetate to each so I could arrange them inside the take out box at different heights. I also glued in a few napkin folded squares of red tissue paper paper to fill in the empty spaces inside the box.

   

Really enjoyed putting this card together! I'm really happy that I'm having more fun with the Flower Pot Pop Up die than I ever anticipated... looking forward to coming up with more exciting ways to use this interactive die.

Hello Kitty's Garden

Here's a Hello Kitty themed card I put together for my Sister-in-law's birthday. I guess sending a Hello Kitty birthday card to an adult might seem a little childish, but you'd be surprised how many of us senior citizens still find her adorable! I especially love that she was chosen to be the mascot for the 2021 U.S. Summer Olympic Team! 
 

Over time, I've collected several Hello Kitty coloring books, just so I can use the images to create cutting files for paper projects like this one. Lawn Fawn's "Stitched Hillside Borders" die was used to cut the grassy background; and all other cuts including the oval shape were cut on the Silhouette. "Happy Birthday" greeting  is from Lawn Fawn's "Party Animal" stamp set.

On the inside, I used Karen Burniston's Flower Pot Pop Up die to add a  flower pot filled with a peeking Hello Kitty and flowers from her garden.

 Cutting file for the flowers are from Lori Whitlock's "Mason Jar Box Card" file and foliage are from Little Scraps of Heaven "Bear Bouquet" file. Cutting file for paper doily under the flower pot is from Carta Bella Designs. I added topaz tinted flat back gemstones to the flower centers for some fun bling.

Here's a view from the top where you can see how the flowers and stems are adhered to the struts inside the flower pot. This was my third try at using this flower pot pop up die and I think I finally figured out the best way to arrange the flowers in the pot is by positioning the stems perpendicular to each other.

Although I was a little disappointed after my first try at using this pop up die, I think now that I've had the chance to play with it a bit more, I'm finally beginning to enjoy using it to make cards. I'm  especially liking the idea of having cute little critters pop up together with the flowers in the flower pot!

Flower Pot Peeking Teddy

 Trying to play catch up now to share some of the cards I made last year but didn't have a chance to post. This one was made for my daughter's birthday which was in October. 

 I used two cutting files, "Bear Bouquet" and "Bear with Dogwood", both from Little Scraps of Heaven to piece together the teddy bear for the front of my card. The bouquet of flowers and most of the teddy bear are from "Bear Bouquet" but I had to borrow the hands and feet from "Bear with Dogwood" file so I could get my bear into a sitting position.

On the inside of the card I used Karen Burniston's Pop Up Flower Pot die to add a teddy bear peeking out of the pop up flower pot. I used the same teddy bear and flowers from Little Scraps of Heaven's "Bear Bouquet" file, using lavender flatback rhinestones as the flower centers for some fun bling.  

Doily underneath the flowerpot was cut using a cutfile from Carta Bella Paper Co., purchased at the Silhouette Design Store. Matted labels for the front and inside of the card are from Cricut's Lacy Labels cartridge.

Here's a view from the top of the flower pot which shows the struts inside where the flowers and foliage are attached. 

I tried to be very careful when putting this pop up flower pot  together this time. The first time I used this die  was for Mothers Day cards and I had trouble with the placement of the flower pots inside the cards because I think my flowers were too large. I think I finally got it pretty much figured out now, and am ready to play with this die again soon.

By the way if you're interested,  I'll be backposting my Christmas holiday projects tomorrow. I'm not positive, but I think you'll have to either click on "older posts" at the bottom of this page or click on December 2020 archives (in the sidebar) to access these posts.

Flowers for Mom

I was excited to finally use the Karen Burniston Flower Pot Pop Up die set that I purchased a while ago with the express intent of making our Mothers Day cards this year.

I had watched Karen Burniston's assembly tutorial video for this die more than half a dozen times so I felt pretty confident the pop up mechanism would come together fairly quickly. But as it turns out, I ended up spending way too much time going back and forth on the design elements of the card... what colors to use?...which patterned papers?...which flowers and leaves?....etc, etc... that I barely finished the cards in time.

I finally settled on my favorite pinks and decided to make cutting files to create my own version of a layered flower instead of using the daisy style layered flower dies that came included in the die set. Layered butterfly was cut from Cheery Lyn Designs Small Exotic Butterfly dies; and I used C.C. Designs Olive Branch, Stampin' Up Little Leaves Sizzlets, as well as the leaf branch included in the pop up die set to cut the leaves.

Here's the fun pop up flower pot inside the card.

 Difficult to see from the photos, but I layered a combination of glitter and pearlescent cardstocks on the flowers and butterfly for a touch of bling. Flatback pearls were used for the flower centers.

Although I suspect this pop up die mechanism was designed to be used in cards with a portrait orientation, I decided to change mine into a landscape oriented card at the last minute. I first assembled the flower pot and attached it to a doily I had cut on my Silhouette. I then made the mistake of  filling the pot with flowers and leaves before attaching the flower pot to the card base. Didn't realize until I finally secured the doily and pot to the card base that all my flowers were facing to the right of the card! So rather than removing the stems and recutting all the branches to rearrange the flowers, I decided to rotate the card to a landscape orientation.

  

 I tried to balance to awkward placement of flower pot by placing the sentiment boxes to the upper left and bottom right of the finished card.   

Here's a shot of the flower pot pop up from the top which show how the struts in the flower pot run perpendicular to each other. The funny thing is, although it was this feature that really attracted me into purchasing this pop up die, as you can see in the final card, I ended up using the only the struts that were parallel anyway. That's okay, I'm looking forward to spending more time playing with this die set and learning how to better use it to it to its full creative capacity.