I recently made this My Melody birthday card and gift card holder for a very special friend.
The svg cutting files for all the My Melody images I used for this card were created in Make the Cut Design Studio from coloring book page images I found online. I cut a round window into the front of the card and added an image of My Melody with a watering can. Then I added flowers and leaves that had been die cut from Spellbinders "Be Bold Blooms", "Mini Blooms and Sprigs", and "Club Blooms" as well as Karen Burniston "Fence Add Ons" dies to decorate the lower half of the window.
On the inside, I used Karen Burniston's "Little Twist Panel Pop Up" mechanism die to create a fun
pop up panel of flowers that twists and pops forward as the card is opened.
Karen Burniston Design Team Member Sandy Diller explains how to create this fun pop up using the "Little Twist Panel Pop Up" die here. I added a second image of My Melody behind the flowers and used Benson font to create a shadowed cut file for the "Celebrate" sentiment.
This view from the side shows the twist panel arms to which the flowers have been glued on.
A third image of My Melody was used for the front of the gift card holder. Grassy border was cut using Karen Burniston "Curved Edges" die, and flowers were cut using an old Punch Bunch mini punch. Sentiments were print and cut on the Silhouette and foiled using a Minc hot foiler.
I have a Welcome Baby card and matching gift card holder to share today.
It's been a quite a while since I've last needed to make a baby card. Happily, I had the "Sweet Baby Girl" pack of digital papers which I picked up from Bella Boulevard a long time ago still saved in my files so I didn't have to spend too much time searching for just the right patterned papers.
I kept the front of the card simple, only adding a crescent moon, clouds and stars. Stickles glitter glue was used to add some sparkle and the stars were hung from the clouds using fishing line.
Inside, I used Karen Burniston's "Arch Pop Up" die set to install an arch mechanism, onto which I added a sleeping teddy bear together with lots and lots of stars and clouds. Sentiment boxes matted with pink cardstock were added to both sides of the card. Fonts used for the sentiments were LD Charming and Paper Flowers.
Here's a view from above where you can see a few of the many tabs and panels included on this arch mechanism where embellishments can be attached.
Cutting and piecing file "Baby Girl Bear" comes from Cuddly Cute Designs. Edges of clouds were lightly sponged with blue ink and traced with glitter glue. Stars in the center of the arch were hung from the clouds with fishing line.
Gift card holder is a top fold card with a pocket inside. Kept the front simple with just a couple more glittered clouds and a shooting star.
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.
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.
A third image of My Melody was used for the front of the gift card holder. Grassy border was cut using Karen Burniston "Curved Edges" die, and flowers were cut using an old Punch Bunch mini punch. Sentiments were print and cut on the Silhouette and foiled using a Minc hot foiler.
