For a "TEA-riffic" Mom

Here's another Peek A Boo style card I made This one was for mom's birthday which was back in December. Oopsie...I'm still trying to catch up on my postings!

Used Kimono Marci digital stamps from Lala Land Crafts   for mom's card, colored her with Copics and paper pieced her kimono with washi paper. I used an embossing folder from the Cuttlebug Asian bundle for the textured background.

The white border trim on the front of the card was punched using an EK Success Modern Cube edge punch. Cherry blossoms were punched from various sized punches from Carl and I used adhesive flat back pearls for the flower centers.

Here's how the Peek A Boo card looks as it's being opened. 

As you open the card, the image you saw in the window on the front of the card becomes covered by another panel and image sliding over it.

Here's the view from the top which shows how this works.

Here's the card opened completely showing Lala Land's Kimono Marci with Tea digital stamp.

Cutting file for the fans with the sentiments are from Cricut's Pagoda cartridge. 

Peek A Boo cards are always a fun interactive card to make and receive. You can find a very good detailed tutorial for this by Norma on her blog, In My Craft Room.

Splurge a Little...It's Your Birthday!

Happy Valentines Day! I didn't make anything for Valentines Day this year since we were away on vacation, but in the spirit of Valentines Day, this card does have a few hearts on it! This is the card I sent to my daughter for her birthday back in October, but haven't had the chance to post due to all the busyness and excitement of the holidays at that time. For her card, I went with an ice cream theme since she and I both have an insatiable love for ice cream...guess it must be in the genes. I found what I thought would be the perfect cutting file set for her card called "Cool Treats" over at Marjorie Ann Designs.

Doily and ice cream are from "Cool Treats" and "Lacey Doily" cutting files from My Scrap Chick; and "Splurge" was created in Make the Cut using Ballerina font.

Using the tutorial from Norma's "From My Craft Room" I made this into another Peek A Boo Slider Card. As the card is opened, a panel with a different image slides over the bear with the ice cream scoop...

...and here's the card fully open.

All the paper piecings on this card were cut from white cardstock and colored with Copics. Background panels were embossed using a Cuttlebug folder called Juli's Garden. Similar to the Peek A Boo Slider card I made earlier, I added a spine to this card to try to prevent the paper pieced images from getting snagged as it slides open. You can find the details here. Having much fun learning to make this type of slider card! Hope to do more soon!

Life With You Is Still SO Sweet!

Hubby and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary last month and this is the card I put together for him.There's an ongoing joke around our home that he's the "Smoothie King" because he blends together the absolutely yummiest smoothies for us every weekend... acai, strawberries, bananas, pineapple, yogurt and kale...mmmm...YUM! He jokingly calls me the "Smoothie Monster" because I can slurp up those delicious smoothies he makes in no time flat. Even before he has a chance to sit down to enjoy his own drink, I'm already half way done with mine and begging for more!

So naturally, when I spied this adorable "Sweet Smoothie" cutting file over at Marjorie Ann Designs, I knew it would be perfect! All the paper piecings were cut on my Silhouette from white cardstock and colored using Copic pens. I used the Cuttlebug "Wicker Weave" embossing folder for the background on my blender mouse.

I decided to try another slider style card; this one is called a "Peek A Boo Slider". Found a very detailed and easy to follow photo tutorial for this shared by Norma on her blog, From My Craftroom. If you do a search on her blog, you'll find many of the beautiful Peek A Boo style cards Norma has created...so inspiring! In addition you can find her video tutorial for this card over at Splitcoast Stampers

As this card is opened, a panel with a new image slides over the first image seen in the window to replace it...neat!

And here's the card fully open with the new image... mousies slurping up their smoothie!

Just love these cute mousies from Marjorie Ann Designs! See the mousie on the bottom with the pinked cheeks and eyelashes? That's me!

A word about the mechanics about this card...as with most slider type cards, this Peek A Boo Slider card works best using flat images that are printed or stamped onto the sliding panels. Layered paper pieced images like the ones I've used here tend to get caught onto the sliding mechanisms making it difficult for the card to open and close smoothly. For this card I did a fix by first, adding 2 layers of adhesive foam on the top and bottom edges behind the inside panel. This prevents the paper pieced images from getting snagged onto the edges of the window by allowing the panel to slide about 1/8th inch away. Next, I added a 1/4th inch spine to the slider piece and the back panel (indicated by the red arrows) to accommodate the extra thickness from adding the foam. And lastly, I added a tab (blue arrow) to hold the inside and back panels together to keep the sliding mechanism in place. Took a bit of extra work, but this made a huge difference on how well this card opened and closed. Now that I've finally figured out a solution, I think I may be doing more of these fun slider cards again!

First Card Class

Held my very first card class ever last month for a group of about 18 young ladies from a co-worker's church. It was quite a learning experience for me, I'm so glad that dd was there to help and support me all the way. Made me really appreciate and respect all of you who are always doing those craft demos and make and takes. Lots and lots of time spent is preparing all the supplies before class. For my first class, I wanted to keep it simple, but interesting so I chose to do a easy peek-a-boo card and a push/pull card. Thank goodness for my Cricut and Design Studio! The card pattern, smiling doggy, scalloped frame and heart frame for the first card were all cut using George and Paper Pups cartridges on the Cricut. Front of card embossed with Cuttlebug heart folder.Sentiments inside from a Stampin Up rubber stamp and peek-a-boo sentiment computer generated.

The second card we made at class was this push/pull birthday card with tabs that pull out
to hold a gift card surprise. Used my favorite Doodlecharms cupcake, decorated with


colorful sprinkles from a Sizzix die. Happy Birthday is also a Sizzix die, and used my Nestabilities dies to do the scallop circle and circle. Swiss dots embossing die from Cuttlebug for the front panel. Didn't have a chance to create the card pattern on Design Studio for this one, but it's definitely on my to-do list! Using the Cricut to make 20 sets of kits for both of these cards plus embellishments certainly made things go a lot faster. Happy to report that everyone that afternoon seemed pretty much pleased with the cards they had created. Thank you for all your help, sweet dd...you know I never could have pulled it off without you!

Congratulations, Graduates!

With so many friends and relatives graduating this year, figured this was a good time to justify the purchase of all my stuff! Made good use of this cute little Graduating Chick stamp from Stampendouse to do Peek A Boo cards for all the "Chicks with Brains" we had graduating...all the same except changed the colors to match school colors. Used Cuttlebug's Graduation embossing folder to do the front panel. And the best part of all was that I took a tip from Okielady's Blog to create the basic card pattern for this Peek A Boo card on my Cricut Design Studio. Now I can make multiples of Peek A Boo cards anytime I please without having to spend time cutting and measuring. What a great timesaving idea! Thank you Okielady! This lady is pure genius when it comes to designing stuff on the Design Studio.






Scalloped window frame for the front of this card was also created with Design Studio, which makes it nice knowing that now the window cut in my frame will be perfectly centered everytime. The flower embellishments are from Prima and Photocraft's All Natural Accents line.



Sentiments inside are computer generated on Printshop. Created and saved files for these too so I can change the sentiments anytime to fit any occasion without worry that everything will be properly aligned on any Peek A Boo card made using this pattern. Now maybe it won't take me a whole day just to make one card!



For the graduating guys, figured they might not appreciate being called a "chick with brains" so had to do something different for them. Made a simple square cut window card, again using the Design Studio to create the pattern. Embellished with die cuts (diploma, hat, globe) from Quickutz and Cuttlebug Congratulations embossing folder.

Happy Fathers Day!

Here's the card made for my dh for Fathers Day. The front of the card reads, "You're still my MANE man..." (Get it? Mane...Main...) Saw a card with this play on words on the SU Gallery a while back and thought it was so clever!

Created this to be what is called a "Peek-A-Boo" card. Found a video tutorial for this on Dawn's Stamping Thoughts and have noticed versions of this card popping up on lots of blogs lately.

Had to change the dimensions of the original card pattern to make the window large enough to accomodate my Cuttlebug Lion. As the card is opened, a new image appears in the window on the inside of the card..."peek-a-boo"! For this card, I had the inside sentiment appear in the window, "NO LION!" Uh, huh, yet another play on words. My Dd pointed out that it was actually a double play on words because the lion "disappears" and there really is "no lion"! Corny but fun...just like my Dh. "Happy Fathers Day, Hunny...we love you!"