My Melody Birthday

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.

Tiered Triple Wiper Birthday Card

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.

Minnie and Daisy Special Friends Birthday Card

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.

Kokeshi and Cherry Blossom Arch Pop Up

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.

Twin Stars Arch Pop Up Card

Today I'm sharing a Sanrio Twin Stars themed birthday card and matching gift card holder created for a special friend.
 

Paper pieced Twin Star characters were created from clip art images found online and rendered into svg cutting files using Make the Cut Design program. All the pieces for the clouds and stars were edged with Stickles glitter to give everything a subtle shimmer. The blue and lavender ombre paper used for the background panels was made in Broderbund Printshop program.

Inspired by a stunning angel pop up card made and shared by member Ana Paleo in Karen Burniston's Pop Up Peeps Facebook group, I used Karen Burniston's Arch Pop Up die to animate Twin Stars siblings Lala and Kiki to float amongst the moon and star studded clouds.

I must admit, I never expected having as much fun as I am playing with this  Arch Pop Up die mechanism. I especially love that it is super easy to install and the possibilities for decorating the arch seem almost endless. I can see this quickly becoming one of my favorite pop up mechanisms to use. 

I used the Print and Cut function to create the Twin Stars images for a matching gift card holder.

Inside, I followed a tutorial by Srushti Patil for her "Photo Pop Up Card" and sized it to fit a gift card.

No dies are required for this pop up and I found this to be a quick and easy way to make giving a gift card special.

Another Rotating Pop Up Card

This week I'm sharing the card and gift card holder I made for my daughter's birthday. I decided to give the Rotating Pop Up style card another try since I struggled a bit getting the mechanism to work the first time for hubby's birthday card.

 To decorate the front of the card, I used my Silhouette to cut a circular window and a scalloped edge frame to fit. Flowers and leaves to embellish the frame were created using "Spellbinders Bayfair Floral Spray Collection" dies. Spellbinders "Slimline Confetti Happy Birthday Glimmer Plate" was used for the hot foiled sentiment and double shadow cuts for it were created in Make the Cut Design program. The paper pieced girl peeking from the window is  a svg cut file, "Fashionista Emma" from Treasure Box Designs.

Here's a short video to see the fun rotating pop up mechanism in action.

One thing I did differently from the first time trying this was to change it from the triple rotating card I made for hubby's card to a double rotating card for this card. You'll see in the video that the center center stays stationary and does not rotate as it does with hubby's golf card. That meant one less arc to worry about aligning and made things simpler to put together. 

I did have a few catch point issues but after moving the placement of some of the flowers around, I managed to solve that. Looks like I'm going to have to practice making this Rotating Pop Up style card several more times before I learn to properly put it together! If you'd like to give this style of card a try, here's the link to the Mitosu Crafts  video tutorial where I learned how.

I made a matching bottom fold gift card holder, using the same "Spellbinders Bayfair Floral Collection" dies for the flowers and leaves. Hot foiled and die cut fishtail banner was created using Spellbinders "Hexi-Gems Sentiments" Glimmer Plate. When the card is opened, the gift card appears to slide and pop up from the center of the card. I followed the video tutorial for "Photo Pop Up Card" by Srushti Patil to make this. I especially like that this pop up requires no dies and is very easy to put together.