"Koala-fied" To Give Hugs

With all the tragic and devastating news about the Australian wild fires, I've had Koalas on my mind quite a lot recently, and decided my Valentine treat boxes needed to be Koalas this year.

For the base treat box, I used the Scalloped Flap Treat Box cutting  file from the Lori Whitlock Shop. The original cut file for this box is 2 x 3.5 x 3.5 inches, but since I knew I wanted to fill the boxes with homemade cookies, I enlarged the file to create a box that was 4.75 inches in height, 4.25 inches in width and 2.5 inches in depth.

I used Cricut Create A Critter 2 cartridge to cut the Koala's head, enlarging it so it would fit onto the flap of the box. I used a now retired Koala cutting file from Cuddly Cute Designs to cut koala's white fur and paws.

The thing I really liked about this particular treat box style was the simple, yet novel "easy open" tab closure on the flap.

I used the print and cut function on Make the Cut design program to create and cut heart shaped sentiments to add on to the back of the boxes.

I made only one Valentine's card this year, and of course it was for our granddaughter.

Since we got her a Hallmark's Lovestruck Minnie Mouse plush for Valentine's, I thought it would be fun to send along a matching Minnie Mouse Magic Color style card to go along with it.
I used a simple coloring book image of Minnie found online and printed it onto a sheet of acetate and a sheet of white cardstock for my card. I used Copics to color in the image of Minnie printed on the white cardstock and used a digital paper file from Bella Blvd's Sweet Baby Girl collection for the background. Happy Valentine's sentiment was cut from glitter cardstock using a Mama Elephant die, and hearts were cut using  mini Carl Craft Punches.

Pull up on the panel marked "PULL" and the image of Minnie appears to "magically" become colored in. Hoping our two year old granddaughter will have fun with this!

 Happy Valentine's Day! Thanks for stopping by!

A Card To Amuse Dad

Still catching up on posting birthday cards from last year. This one was made for my dad who turned 92 in November. Always a challenge to come up with guy cards...LOL, even harder to think up a card for an OLD guy! Decided to make a Magic Color Card for him, hoping that he might be amused by it.

I chose to use good ol' Mickey Mouse for his card...Mickey turned 82 years old in November, so he's nearly as old as dad...and even tho dad's memory isn't so good anymore, I figured he'd still remember Mickey Mouse, right? I used a coloring book image of Mickey found on the internet and added the "92" behind him  Found some old vintage Mickey Mouse scrapbook paper in my stash which I thought might be fun to use as a background.

Pull up on the Mouse head shaped tab at the top of the card and Mickey disappears from the window...

...and re-appears at the top of the card all colored in! Always a fun card to give, and not too hard to put together. I used the tutorial by Beate Johns found here at Splitcoast Stampers.

As it turns out, dad was more amazed to learn he was 92 years old than with the color changing card. "Wow!!! I'm 92 ?!!! Wow, I'm old, huh" Happy Birthday, Dad...we love you.

"Yoda" Man!

While shopping at Costco recently, we saw a Star Wars Lego collectors set that we knew would be the perfect "fun" gift to send my son in law for his birthday. To keep with the theme of his gift, I decided to put Yoda on his birthday card, and did another version of the Magic Color Card similar to the one I made for hubby's anniversary card here.

I found a coloring page image of Yoda on the internet and printed him twice; once on clear acetate and a second on plain white cardstock. Used Copics to color up the one printed on cardstock. A label from the Cricut Elegant Edges cartridge was used to cut the window. To put this card together, I used a tutorial by Cathy found on her blog, Bright Side Of Life. This Magic Color Card differs just a little from the one I made earlier in that the image stays in the window instead of pulling out with the tab.

Pulling the tab on the top of the card gives the illusion of the image in the window "magically" becoming colored...

I thought my son in law might get a kick out of this card since he has an amazing talent of always being able to figure out how things work...LOL, don't ever go to any magic shows with him if you want to be amazed...

...And here's the silly sentiment in "Yoda language" on the inside of the card...

Had fun with this second type of Magic Color Card too. Still not too sure which style I prefer. The one thing I'm pretty certain about is that these Magic Color Cards are a great choice if ever you're stumped for creative ideas for guy cards. Dad's birthday is just around the corner so he just might get one too!

You Color My World!

Three days after hubby's birthday, we celebrate our wedding anniversary. This year was number 34 for us...wow, time flies when you're having fun, right? This year for my anniversary card for hubby I decided to do a "blast from the past"... and bring back a really old stamping/cardmaking technique I learned many, many years ago called the Magic Color Card.

Instead of using a stamped image, I chose to use a coloring book image of a classic and one of my favorite Disney couples, Lady and the Tramp. Printed the image twice; once on acetate and a second on white cardstock. Colored the one on cardstock using my Copics. Used Spellbinders Nestabilities round dies to cut the window, and the circular word border was created in Microsoft Word 2010 using Expose font. Struggled a bit with this, but found a pretty good tutorial over at Online PC Learning  which helped a lot.

For the construction of this card, I used a Splitcoast Stampers tutorial by Beate Johns, changing the dimensions to suit my card. Pulling up on the tab on the top of the card moves the image out of the window and "voila!"... the sentiment and a colored image "magically" emerges...

The concept for this card may be old...and though it's really just a simple slider card, even after all these years, it still manages to deliver the wow effect to its recipients.

I enjoyed re-learning how to make the magic color card again. Best part is that hubby really seemed to have fun with it...sliding it back and forth repeatedly to see the "magic"...."Neat! How'd you do that?!!!"... LOL, that's why I LOVE him SO MUCH!