Another Twist Panel Pop Up Card

This card was created for our daughter who recently celebrated her 40th birthday. Wow, now that really makes me feel old! Decorated the front of her card with a paper pieced "Patches teddy bear" from Marjorie Ann Designs. Happy Birthday sentiment was hot foiled and die cut using Simon Hurley's "Birthday Bash Sentiments" from Spellbinders.
 

The flowers and leaves used on the front and inside of this card were cut from three of my favorite Spellbinders floral dies: "Mini Blooms and Sprigs", "Club Blooms" , and "Be Bold Blooms". Marianne Designs Collectables "Birthday Cake" and "Twine Circle" dies were used for the cake and lacy doily frame. The four candles (one for each decade!) were cut from Karen Burniston "Big Birthday Charms" die.

On the inside, I added the pop up mechanism from Karen Burniston "Little Twist Panel Pop Up" and covered it completely with flowers and leaves die cut using the Spellbinders floral dies.

As this card is opened, the folded bouquet of flowers inside pops forward, twists, and fans open. Always so much fun watching all the movement! Cutting file for the shadowed "Celebrate" sentiment was created using Benson font and cut from gold glitter cardstock.  A very old Memory Box "Butterfly Delights" die was used to cut the very tiny butterflies scattered throughout.

This style of pop up card always takes a bit of extra time to assemble but it's always well worth the effort. 

A Pair of Twist Panel Pop Up Birthday Cards

 October is by far the busiest month for me when it comes to making birthday cards. This year, I decided to do duplicates to alleviate some of the stress of being short on time and creativity.

I started by using Spellbinders "Lacey Circles" die set to cut and glue three layers together for each frame. Flowers and foliage placed around the frame were cut from pearlescent papers with Spellbinders "Be Bold Blooms" and "Mini Blooms and Sprigs" die sets. Fishtail sentiment banner was foiled and cut using "More Sentiments" Glimmer hot plate from Spellbinders.

Little teddy bear peeking through the frame was cut and pieced together using Marjorie Ann Designs' "Franklin Heal the World" svg cut file.

Inside the card, I installed a "Twist Panel Pop Up" or "Pop Up Accordion Panel" mechanism for a fun surprise. An accordion folded "Happy Birthday" banner pops forward and twists open as the card is opened.

There are many tutorials that can be found on the web for this type of pop up mechanism by searching "Twist and Pop Up Card". The template and tutorial I use for mine are from Kevin Devine found here.

I used the same "Franklin Heal the World"  cutting file to cut and piece together the mirror image sitting teddy bears. Alphas for "Happy Birthday" were cut using Arial font and the banner was made by arranging the bears with the letters and having Make the Cut design program create and cut a shadow layer of them together. Teddy bears and letters were then adhered to the shadow layer and folded accordion style to fit onto the pop up mechanism.

Last step was to add my sentiment box, some die cut balloons and flowers, and a little bit of sparkle to the letters with glitter glue. 

Blossoms and Butterflies Pop Up Bouquet

I recently made this butterfly and floral themed birthday card and matching gift card holder to send to a very special friend.

To decorate the front of my card, I started with a top fold card and added a panel which had been cut using Poppy Stamps "Cortina Pinpoint" cover plate die. Spellbinders' "Birthday Unboxing Glimmer" hot foil and die set was used for the sentiment. Cheery Lynn retired "Small Exotic Butterflies #1", Spellbinders' "Club Blooms", and MFT's "Grassy Edges" dies were used to cut the butterflies, grass and flowers.

Teddy bear was paper pieced using "Take Time To Smell The Flowers" svg cutting file from Marjorie Ann Designs.

As the card is opened, a large, colorful bouquet of flowers and butterflies pops forward to unfold from the center of the card. 

 

Inspired by Karen Burniston Design Team Members Sandy Diller and Nicky Foden, I used the "Little Twist Panel Pop Up" die set to create this fun pop up. Instructions and helpful tips from both ladies on how to create this interactive card can be found here and here.                                                             The svg cutfile for the large shadowed "Celebrate!" sentiment was created in Make the Cut Design program using "Hello Valentica" font and cut from gold foil board.

This is actually the third card of this type that I've put together this year. I've been practicing and experimenting with different types and sizes of flowers, the arrangement of the flowers, and this time I added butterflies by attaching them onto strips of clear acetate. I'm learning that a bit a patience is required because I had to carefully open and close the card several times after adding each flower, leaf, or butterfly to ensure each addition would not create a catch point. I found I needed to trim a few petals and leaves as well as rub a few petal edges with some candle wax to get everything to open and close smoothly.

In the end, I was pleased with how the card looked and worked. Really enjoy making this style of card so you can be certain I'll continue making many different versions of this pop up card.

This time I kept the matching gift card holder simple since I wanted everything to fit nicely into a small padded envelope for mailing.

Floral Twist Panel Pop Up Card

Here's a doggie themed card and gift card holder I made for my dear sister in law's birthday this year. Since her Shiba Inu "Sachi" and our Maltese "Polah" are such good pals that enjoy playing together, I wanted to showcase our pups' friendship on her card.
 

To create the paper pieced Maltese and Shiba Inu dogs for my card, I used dies from Marianne Design Eline's Puppies die set. I had the dogs peek out of an oval shaped frame that was cut using Spellbinders Elliptical Ovals and Nested Ovals dies. Four layers of the frame were cut and glued together for dimension. 

Benson font was used to create the shadowed "Happy Birthday" and "Celebrate" sentiments in Make the Cut design program. I used multiple Spellbinders floral dies: "Be Bold Blooms", "Mini Blooms and Sprigs", "Sealed Blooms" and a Karen Burnison die: "Fence Add Ons" for all the flowers and foliage on this card. Then, for some fun sparkle,  flat back clear dew drops were glued on to the front of the card.

On the inside, I used the mechanism from  Karen Burniston's "Little Twist Panel Pop Up" die set to create a fun floral pop up.

Colorful party hats for the pups were cut using "Party Puppy" die set from Cottage Cutz. 

I couldn't resist making another one of those fun pop up gift card holders I enjoy making so much using Karen Burniston's "Slider Box" and "Surprise Cube Pop Up" dies. Definitely making these for everybody, lol!

Pop Up Bouquet Card

I made this matching birthday card and gift card holder set for a very dear friend who used to have bunnies as pets when her daughters lived at home. Although I love teddy bears and nearly always use them to decorate my cards, I figured I should change it up once in awhile to keep things interesting.
 

One other thing that is different about this card and gift card holder set is that I put everything together without the use of my Silhouette cutter at all... now, that's definitely a game changer for me! All the embellishments, and even the pop up mechanism inside were cut using thin metal dies.

All bunnies were cut using "Eline's Collectables Baby Bunny" set, and I used Spellbinders "Be Bold Blooms"  and Karen Burniston's "Fence Add On" sets for the flowers. Spellbinders Nestablilities "Open Scallop Edge Circle" together with Circle dies were used to create the lacy circle frame, and Lawn Fawn "Stitched Scalloped Borders" to cut the beaded decorative border. I used Spellbinders "Hexi-Gems Sentiments Set" to hot foil and die cut the fishtail Happy Birthday sentiment.

On the inside, I added a fun pop up bouquet using Karen Burniston's "Little Twist Panel Pop Up" die. This mechanism was originally designed to create cards with a fun accordian folded, four panel pop up inside, but recently talented Karen Burniston design team members Sandy Diller and Nicky Foden have shared how they've used this same mechanism to create amazing pop up flower bouquets. After seeing their cards, I knew I wanted to give it try as well.

Essentially, the only change made to the original mechanism was cutting away all the corners of the panels and loading what was left of the mechanism with blossoms and foilage. Easy peasy, but I loved the result!

Just added a couple more bunnies and a sentiment box and it was done. Can't wait to try more of these type of cards!

I used Karen Burniston's "Slider Box", "Surprise Cube Pop Up", and "Bam Box" dies again to create this fun pop up gift card holder. Also used Karen Burniston "Big Birthday Charms" and Lawn Fawn "Happy Birthday Border" dies to decorate the boxes to match the birthday card.

Another Year of the Tiger Birthday

I'm finally getting around to posting this second of the two birthday cards I put together last month using the Spellbinder's Be Bold Blooms dies.

This time I added a paper pieced tiger to sit with the flowers since this card was for a special aunt who celebrates this year as her milestone Year of of the Tiger birthday. The svg cut files for the adorable tigers I used come from Creative Cat and Co.

On the inside I used the Pop Up Accordion Panel mechanism again to animate the Happy Birthday sentiment. This panel was created using Arial Black font, shadowed, then print, cut and folded to fit onto the arms of the pop up mechanism. Can't tell from the photos but I used Stickles glitter glue to outline the letters to add a little sparkle.

Here's a side view of the mechanism which is also called a Twist Panel Pop Up. Currently there are many companies that have dies and templates which cut different versions of the mechanism for this pop up card. The template I used for my card comes from Kevin Devine of Devinely Designed which can be found here.

Really like how the cute paper pieced tigers and die cut blossoms add such a fun, whimsical feel to this card! 

Be Bold Blooms Birthday Card

 This the the first of the two birthday cards I needed to finish within a week that I mentioned in my last post. 

I used the same Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms die, this time using more purple and lavender shades for the various blossoms. Paper pieced teddy bear cutting file comes from Marjorie Ann Designs' "Patches the Bear Birthday".  I used Ballerina font for the computer generated sentiment on the front of the card, and Sizzix embossing folder "3 Dots" to add texture to the white panel. Difficult to see but I also randomly adhered a few flatback dewdrops to the flowers and background.

On the inside, I added a Pop Up Accordion Panel (aka Twist Panel Pop Up) mechanism. But instead of the four rectangular panels typically seen with this style of card, I made an accordion folded shadow cut "Happy Birthday" greeting using Arial Black font to twist and pop up as the card is opened.

Having fun playing with this Spellbinders floral die set and experimenting with different color combinations. I'm really bad at mixing and matching colors but am learning a lot by studying the different color combos other crafters have been using to make their cards with this die set.

For An Egg-stra Special Granddaughter

 This is the Easter card I made to send to our granddaughter this year. She's old enough now where she enjoys pop ups and interactive cards so it's fun trying to come up with new ideas to surprise her.
 

For the paper pieced bunnies on my card, I used an older svg cutting file, "EGGstra Special" (now retired) purchased from Kadoodle Bug Designs a few years ago. I kept the front of the card simple, layering cardstock for the background and running the blue cardstock thru Stampin' Up's "Cloudy Day" embossing folder for the sky.

On the inside, I added one of my favorite, the Pop Up Accordion Panel, or aka Twist Panel Pop Up.

Just for fun I used egg and flower shaped panels in place of the rectangular panels typically seen with this style of pop up. Sentiments for the inside and front of the card were computer generated, using Bryce ttf.

Side view here shows the pivot mechanism which holds the accordion folded panels and creates the fun twist and pop up action of this style of card. 

There are many video tutorials for this type of card on YouTube if you do a search for "Twist Panel Pop Up Card". I usually like to watch several different ones since everyone has different helpful tips and tricks to make the assembly of this card go smoothly. 

Holiday Greetings to Friends and Family

Now that the holidays are over, I've come to the realization that I really do need to start working on my Christmas cards much earlier in the year. It took me way too long trying to decide on a design for our card this year so I had a late start and barely finished in time. That left me with almost no time left to do much else creative for the holidays. Such a disappointment since there's always so many neat holiday crafts I wish I had the time to try.

The layout for the card front of our Christmas card this year was inspired by a beautiful card created by Lin,  posted on her Sending Hugs . For our card, I used the Cuttlebug Snowflakes embossing folder to add texture, and snowflakes were cut using Die-namics' Let it Snowflake die.

I loved Lin's idea of using a Polaroid type frame; it was perfect for adding a photo we had taken of our furbaby Latte with our outdoor Christmas lights display in front of our home.The original photo was cropped in Photoshop and placed in a faux Polaroid frame shared by Megan on The Nerd Nest blog. The frame is a free download and Megan includes a tutorial to make it all easy.

On the inside, the card opens to my favorite Pop Up Accordion Panel card.

 Added a photo of us from our Hokkaido vacation on the inside, and tried to keep the embellishing to a minimum with just the snowflakes...but even then assembling 80 of these did take longer than I had expected! Thank goodness hubby helped with much of the scoring and die cutting!

And finally, here's a side view showing the V-fold mechanism that creates the fun pop up movement on this card. There are quite a few tutorials with free templates available on the web for this type of card, just search for "Pop Up Panel Card".