Welcome To Fourth Grade

It's August, and though it still feels like summer to me,  a great majority of children including our granddaughter are already back in school. I made this "Back to School" card to cheer her on as she enters her school year as a fourth grader.

Our granddaughter's name is Evelyn and we call her "Eevee" for short, so I wanted my card to feature Pokemon Eevee going back to school. Encouraged by my daughter, I decided to give AI a try for my first time by showing Google's AI Gemini a coloring book image of a boy writing on a chalkboard and asking to swap the boy with Pokemon Eevee. Within a few seconds, Gemini amazed me by coming up with an image exactly as I had imagined which I was able to use to create the cutting file for my card.

Gemini AI also helped me with a coloring book style image of the school desk and chair which Make the Cut rendered into a cutting file. To create the look of  the chalkboard with writing, the words were cut using black text weight paper as a stencil, then backed with white cardstock. The world globe and stack of books on the desk were put together using a very old die from Quickutz and Karen Burniston "Bookworm" dies. After assembling all the pieces for my classroom scene, I used a hexagon pop up style card to display them. 

The paper pieced Eevee I used on the backside of my hexagon pop up was asembled from a cutting file I had created in the past. Gemini AI assisted by creating a simple coloring book image of a backpack which Make the Cut could trace to create a cut file. 

I found some cute "math calculations" doodles which I printed onto white cardstock to use as a fun background for my card. "KG Miss Kindergarten font" was used for the sentiments.

This hexagon pop up card flattens to 6.75" x 6.75". I like that there's space at the base of the card where I can add a personal message which can be read by the recipient before the card is opened to it's display position. In case you're interested, there are a few companies like Karen Burniston and Lawn Fawn which have come out with dies to create this style of pop up card. Or, if you own an electronic cutting machine as I do, you can find the cutting file for a this style of card at the Lori Whitlock Shop.

I sent along these two bag charms together with the card. When our granddaughter came to visit for a week at the end of July, I showed her how I had printed these Pokemon images onto shrink plastic and cut them out. She then put them into our air fryer oven and was amazed as she watched how they curled and shrank. We didn't have the chance to finish them while she was here, but I coated the shrunken charms with UV resin and assembled them with beads and split rings onto clasps and promised I would mail them. Pretty certain she'll be happy with how they turned out.

Kokeshi Platform Pop Up

I have another milestone birthday card to share today, put together for a dear friend who recently celebrated her 70th birthday. I was running late and was a little short on time so I decided I would try to make a card using older cut files I made for past projects instead of trying to create new files. I wanted to go with a kokeshi themed card, so I paper pieced a few kokeshi girls dressed in washi paper design kimonos. Arched and shadowed "Celebrate" greeting in Benson font as well as the fan shaped background are older cut files created for cards in the past. The patterned paper I used for the card and gift card holder come from a digital paper collection purchased many years ago, "Happy Spring" by Nancy Kubo.
 

Inside the card, I installed the bottom layer from Karen Burniston's "Cake Pop Up" die to create a mini version of a hexagon pop up platform. 

The double fans and large cherry blossom are from a very old Cricut "Pagoda" cartridge, and the bamboo is also an oldie I created in the past. I used a Lawn Fawn "Happy Birthday Border" die to cut the greeting added onto the fans. The number "70" was cut from glitter cardstock using Beach font.

Here's side view of the pop up platform where you can see the acetate strips used to hold the fans and kokeshi doll in place.

I kept the matching gift card holder very simple, allowing the patterned paper to do most of the work. "Just for you" was cut from gold foil board using a die from Lawn Fawn's "Gift Box" die set and the white shadow layer for it was created in Make the Cut design program.

Up, Up, and Away!

I enjoyed putting together the  re-vamped large hexagonal pop up style card for our granddaughter at Easter so much that I couldn't wait to try another. This one was for a sweet niece's birthday, with  a scene set high in the sky with glittery clouds and a rainbow.

To create the cutfile for this card, I lengthened the front and back sides of a regular hexagon pop up card base and added a back panel in Make the Cut Design program. Once the card base was assembled, all the fun was in decorating to create the scene inside.

 Teddy bears were die cut from Marianne Design Eline's Collectables "Arctic Bear" and "Baby Animals" dies. An old Quickutz "Banana Split" alpha die was used to cut the letters for "Up, Up and Away".  "Happy Birthday" fishtail banner was hot foiled and die cut using Spellbinders "Hexi-Gems Sentiments".

I used Marjorie Ann Designs "Baby Ellies" cutfile to cut the clouds and rainbow; and a freebie cutfile from SVG Cuts for the hot air balloon.  Glitter cardstock was used to cut a few of the clouds and tiny hearts. The edges of the remaining clouds were traced with glitter glue.

Here's a view from the top  which shows where the struts that hold the embellishments are positioned inside the hexagon. I attached the hot air balloon to the cloud border on the last strut with a strip of acetate to give the illusion of it floating in air.

Lots of space on the behind the back panel to add a birthday sentiment.

I like how this card folds down completely flat to fit into an envelope. In this case it had to be a very large envelope because the flattened card measured 7.75" x 7"! Yup, I'm sure everyone agrees the price of postage to mail these oversized cards can be quite disheartening but knowing my niece enjoys getting these crazy cards makes it all worthwhile.

This is the matching gift card holder I sent along with the card.

Bunnies and Chicks Galore

I recently watched a tutorial on YouTube on the assembly of Lawn Fawn Platform Pop Up cards using coordinating add on dies and was inspired to try a similar idea to create an Easter card for our granddaughter using the svg cutfile I've been using to make hexagonal pop up cards.

The hexagonal pop up cards I've made in the past have had six equal sides, but this time I altered my cutfile to create a hexagon shaped card that was nearly twice as long in the front and back than the sides. I also replaced the large round panel I usually attach to the center strut with a larger hinged panel adhered to the back.

I really liked the new look of  the hexagonal pop up card with the larger back panel which gave me a lot more space on the front of the card to create a fun Easter scene. 

 I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the pieces needed to construct the card base, and dies from Karen Burniston, Sizzix, and Maryanne Designs to cut the pieces needed to piece together the bunnies, chicks and scene elements.

Lots of room on the back of the panel to add our sentiment.

    

I think the neatest thing about the hexagon pop up card is how it folds completely flat for mailing. I intentionally increased the size of my card so I could fit several bunnies and chicks on it so the card measures 7.75 x 8.25 inches flat...huge!

I also made a fun matching gift card holder to tuck into the box of Easter surprises we mailed to our granddaughter.

As the drawer to this box is pulled open to reveal the gift card inside,  the panel on the top of the box with the bunny and balloons slides up. Svg template for this pop up drawer comes from the Lori Whitlock Shop. This little box is so much fun and surprisingly easy to assemble. I'm certain I will be making more of these in the near future!

Hexagonal Pop Up Birthday Card

I have another Hexagonal Pop Up Card to share today. This one was created as a birthday card for a very sweet friend and decorated with partying teddy bears.
 

I used the Cottage Cutz Celebration Cake, Karen Burniston's Birthday Charms, Taylored Expressions' Celebration Confetti, and Craft Emporium's Stitched Balloons dies for the cake, balloons and confetti on the round panel in the center of this card. 

Paper pieced teddies were cut using Marjorie Ann Designs "Bently At The Beach" svg cutting file and the template for the Hexagonal Pop Up comes from the Lori Whitlock Shop. I tweaked the template to increase the size to be as large as I could fit onto a 12x12 Silhouette mat.

On the backside of the pop up I added another bear, more confetti, presents, and a banner. Tiny cupcake was cut using an old EK Success punch.

Although the original cutfile I had purchased for this Hexagonal Pop Up Card was Christmas themed, I really like that I was able to easily make it larger and change the embellishments to convert it into a birthday card.

Pushing down on the center round panel collapses the card so it can be slid into an envelope. Flattened, the card is nearly 1/4 inch in thickness so I made a petal style box envelope for it.  I added my sentiment to the trapezoid shaped panel which sits underneath the hexagonal base when the card is fully opened.

Then I used Cottage Cutz Tiered Cupcakes and Lawn Fawn Happy Birthday Border dies to make a matching gift card holder to enclose with the card.

Hexagonal Pop Up Graduation Card

This second graduation card was created for the daughter of a very dear friend who graduated this year with her Degree in Education. Our friend had mentioned a while ago that her daughter was a fan of Hello Kitty, so I couldn't resist using Graduate Hello Kitty on her card.

I wanted to make a card that was BIG and FUN so I chose to use the Hexagonal Pop Up style card.I used the Hexagon Pop Up Card cut file I got from the Lori Whitlock shop as my base template,  enlarged it, and added my own embellishments.

Paper pieced Graduate Hello Kitty cutting file comes from the old Cricut Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge. I dressed her in the green academic regalia typical of  University of Hawaii graduates and gave her a light blue tassel for her degree from the School of Education. Star border cut from glitter cardstock was created in Make the Cut; and the "Way to Go" sentiment was die cut from Karen Burniston's word die - Congrats set.

On the backside I used a photo from graduation day and added a plumeria border print and cut that I had picked up from Island Digital Imagers on Etsy. "Congrats" is also from the same Karen Burniston word die set was cut from glitter and silver foil cardstocks and glued together a teensy bit  offset for a shadowed effect.

I absolutely love how this big 3 dimensional card folds down flat to easily fit into an envelope. I added our personal message to a panel that is seen right away as the card is pulled out of it's envelope but ends up being on the bottom of the hexagonal base when the card is fully opened.

Here's the gift card holder I included together with the graduation card. Kept it simple with a paper pieced diploma and mortarboard cap; both cut using old Quickutz dies. I used an Elizabeth Craft Designs word die to cut "Congratulations" from glitter and silver foil cardstocks.

May Your Birthday BB-"(gr)8" !

Here's the Star Wars themed birthday card featuring the droid BB-8 that I created for two of my favorite Star Wars "fan-atics", my hubby and son in law. 

I came across an image of  a very cool card created by illustrator Josh Lewis showing Star Wars Droid BB-8 lighting a candle on a birthday cake and knew right away I wanted to create something similar using paper piecing. 

To create the cutfile, I started with a simple coloring book image of BB-8 and drew in the arm extension and flame. Make the Cut design program was then used to render this doctored image into a  cutting file. At first I thought this would be a simple cutfile to create but later realized making multiple layers for the 5 colors of BB-8 was a little mind boggling. But I stuck with it and got it done! I used a cut file from Marjorie Ann Designs' "Betsy Loves Baking" set for the birthday cake.

I thought it would be fun to showcase BB-8 using a Hexagon Pop Up style card. Here are a couple views from the top and side. As you can see, the paper pieced BB-8 droid and birthday cake were attached to struts on the front half of the hexagonal "stage".

I used a round panel which I ran through Sizzix Stars and Swirls embossing folder for texture as the center backdrop."Happy Birthday" was cut from glitter and metallic cardstocks using dies from Hello Bluebird and Whimsy Stamps.

The template for the stand alone Hexagon Pop Up card is one I created a few years ago inspired by Hallmark Cards'  amazing Paper Wonder collection.

I was hoping to find ideas for a really good "punny" sentiment to add to the back of this card, but sadly, this one was the best I could find... "May Your Birthday BB (gr)8". I simply added it to a backdrop image I found online of droids BB-8 and R2D2 together and printed it out. Shadowed and glittered stars were cut on the Silhouette and added to the struts on the back side  of the hexagon platform.

Without a doubt, the best part about these Hexagonal Pop Up cards are how they fold flat to fit very nicely into an envelope. I like how there's even room on the very bottom of the card to add a personal message when the card is in its folded position.

After spending way "too much time" creating the cutfiles and assembling the first card for hubby, I decided to make it into "time well spent" by making another identical card for my son in law who celebrated his birthday 3 days later. It's always good whenever I can get multiple uses from cutfiles that took way too long to create!

Welcome Fur Baby

Today's card is one I created and sent to my dear niece who recently brought a new puppy into her home. To add a personalized touch, I added the puppy's name, "Kinako" to the paper pieced dog tag I made for the front of the card.
 

I used the Three Dots embossing folder from Sizzix Textured Impressions Birthday Set #2 on the rounded square panel behind the collar and dog tag. I really wanted to use a pawprint patterned paper for my card so I made my own by randomly scattering pink pawprints on a page in Print Shop publishing program. "Welcome Fur Baby" sentiment was done as a print and cut in Make the Cut.

On the inside, I added a sweet paper pieced puppy sitting on a hexagon pop up. Dog bowl, bones and tennis ball cutting files were created using freebie icon clipart found online. Hexagon pop up stage was put together using the bottom cake layer from Karen Burniston's Cake Pop Up die.

The little puppy was put together using Eline's Puppy dies from Marianne Design. Loving all the cute pups one can create using this fun die set! 

Here's a photo of little "Kinako"... isn't she precious? Just for fun, I tried to make my paper pieced doggie look like the photo my niece had sent of her adorable puppy. How did I do? Lol, well at least I got her white paws right!

Here's a view of the hexagon pop up from the side...

... and a view from the top. Video tutorial by Karen Burniston on how to use her Cake Pop Up die set to make this hexagon pop up stage can be found here. This has quickly become one of my favorite pop up card styles to do.

Then on the backside of the card, I made a simple pocket using the Pocket Border die from Pretty Pink Posh to fit a  giftcard.  I enlarged the same pawprint clipart I had used to make my patterned paper to also make a pawprint cut file to add to the front of the giftcard holder.