Birthday Wishes for a "Deer" Friend

Today I'm sharing a birthday card and matching gift card holder set created for a special friend. 
 

Recently, I've been challenging myself to start making use of more of the dies I've been collecting over the years. I met the challenge with this card by using dies to cut nearly all the decorative elements except three...  the round lacy circle on the front, and the sentiment and oval on the inside were cut on my Silhouette Cameo. I used dies from Marianne Designs Collectable Deer set, MFT Stamps Grassy Edges, Memory Box Butterfly Delights, Cheery Lynn Babies Breath, and Gemini Birthday Celebrations for all the rest of the embellishments.

On the inside of the card I installed two sets of  the mechanism from Karen Burniston's Spinner Square Pop Up die side by side to get a double pop up effect.

As the recipient opens the card, the two center panels with the deer pop forward and arms with the words, "Deer Friend" swing down into view.

This was my first time making a double spinner square pop up card with the two spinners side by side. I really like how the pop up and moving arms really make for a fun card. The video tutorial I used for this can be found here. Love that Karen Burniston always comes up with multiple ways to use her fun pop up dies!

I used the same dies that I used for the card to decorate and embellish a simple pocket style matching gift card holder. This time I used a svg cut file I created a while ago in Make the Cut to cut the base card.

Double Spinner Square Pop Up

The card I'm sharing today was made for a good friend I go walking with to get a little bit of exercise. It's fun and therapeutic to walk and talk with a friend!
 

I knew I wanted to put together walking teddy bears for the front of my card but since I couldn't find a cutfile for one, I ended up using a combo of  cutting files to create an image of  teddy bears walking together. I used Marjorie Ann Designs' "Take Time To Smell The Flowers" and "Franklin Brain Freeze" for the teddy bears, hats and sunglasses; and Cuddly Cute Designs' Girl On Scooter for the sneakers.

On the inside of the card, I installed two sets of Karen Burniston's Spinner Square Pop Up mechanisms for a fun interactive card. As the card is opened, a panel on the left side with the word "Happy" swings up, while a panel with the word "Birthday" simultaneously swings down on the right side.

The pivoting mechanisms which create all the movement are hidden behind the decorated square panels. The mechanism on the right of the card was installed in the usual manner and the the mechanism on the left was installed upside down to get the spinner to rotate in the opposite direction. Karen Burniston's You Tube video tutorial here explains all the details. I've owned and used this Spinner Square Pop Up die to make cards for a couple years now, but only recently have felt confident enough to try two in one card. Don't know why I waited so long... it was easy and so fun!

Ready to Rock First Grade

Hard to believe summer's over and the kids are already back in school! To cheer our granddaughter on as she returned to class, we sent her a few of her favorite twirl dresses together with this card and pencil shaped treat box.
 

I was first introduced to Pete the Cat by our granddaughter last year while she was a kindergartener just learning to read. Apparently she and her classmates became quite attached to Pete the Cat, as they read and were read to, quite a few Pete the Cat books. They even had a Pete the Cat stuffie in their classroom which the kids took turns taking home on weekends. 

I suppose Pete the Cat has now taken the place of Dr. Seuss' "Cat in the Hat" that we all loved and grew up with?  I found a couple coloring book images of this blue cat named "Pete" and used Make the Cut design program to render them into cutting files for my card.

On the inside, I installed two Karen Burniston's Spinner Square Pop Up mechanisms to create a fun double spinner card.  

As the card is opened, the mechanism on the top swings the rectangular panel with the word "First" upwards, while the mechanism on the bottom swings the panel with the word "Grade" down.

I decorated the square panels in front of the spinner mechanisms with "school stuff". The little blackboard was created using rectangular shapes together with DJ Doodlers Crayon and Comic Sans fonts. Cutting files for the pencil and scissors are from "Back To School Owls" set from Marjorie Ann Designs. Books and apple were die cut from Karen Burniston's Bookworm die set.

I also added a paper pieced Pete the Cat reading a book created from a coloring page image. Just for fun I added a tiny Pete the Cat image to the cover of the book using the Make the Cut print and cut feature.

I used Memo font and red mylar sticker paper to personalize this oversized pencil treat box. There are several templates for similar pencil shaped boxes on different websites to select from but I chose to use this one by My Paper Cute on Etsy because of it's unique flip top lid.  The box assembly was pretty easy once I watched the assembly video tutorial linked with the template purchase. I enlarged the template to as large as I could to fit onto my 12x12  cutting mat to be sure the 8 packets of Strawberry Cream Dipped Poky Biscuit Sticks I wanted to send for our granddaughter's after school snack would fit inside. Pretty sure I'll be making more of these cute boxes in the future... I think they might also work well at the end of the school year as a gift card holder thank you gifts for teachers.

Tiger Year Birthday

 My very dear friend was born in the auspicious Chinese Lunar Year of the Tiger, and being that 2022 is the Year of the Tiger, I wanted to send her a birthday card to acknowledge and celebrate this special milestone birthday.

I chose to use the Zoo Cuties paper pieced tiger from Cuddly Cute Designs for my card. He's actually on the inside of the card and peeking through the clear acetate window I created on the front of the card. Mama Elephant's Money Envelope die was used to add the Asian style frame, and I used Ballerina font to make the cutting files for the word "celebrate" and its shadow.

On the inside, I used Karen Burniston's Spinner Square Pop Up mechanism to add fun annimation to my card. As the card is opened, the tiger pops forward and his tail swings down together with a "Happy Birthday" greeting.  I added a paper pieced medallion with the Chinese character "long life" for the tiger to hold, and another with the Chinese character for "tiger" on the inside panel.

I added a pocket on the back of the card to hold a gift card. A silhouette image of a tiger found online was used to create a cutting file to embellish a simple gift card holder, and the word "celebrate" was cut from gold metallic cardstock using  Avery Elle's Sentimental Elle-ment die. 

   

Welcome Sachi!

This is the "Welcome New Puppy" card I made when my sister and brother in law brought a new Shiba Inu puppy into their home. They named her "Sachi", which is the Japanese word for "happiness".

For my card, I cut a window on the front and layered a stencil cut paw print panel on top. I used an older Shiba Inu cutting file I had created a few years ago for my Year of the Dog calendars and sized it up to fit into the window. Next, I searched for  a simple image of a doggie bed and rendered it into an svg cut file so  my puppy would have a comfy place to sit.

Inside, I used the Karen Burniston's Spinner Square Pop Up die. As the card is opened, the square panel with the puppy pops forward and an arm with the sentiment, dog toys and dish spins out from behind the square.  

 "Welcome Sachi" sentiment was created as a print and cut using LaFemme font and a shadow cut. Cut files for Sachi's toys and bowl were created from coloring book images.

On the backside of the card I used another stencil cut pawprint panel to create a pocket for a gift card holder.

Here's a photo of sweet Sachi. She's still a baby, but growing fast! Hope her mommy buys lots of toys and treats with the gift card!

Scoops of Fun!

It seems lately I've had a fixation for making interactive cards that swing and swipe... and here's yet another, this time using Karen Burniston's Spinner Square Pop Up die. 

For this card for my dear niece's birthday, I used  Marjorie Ann Designs' "Cool Treats" and "We Go Togehter Like Ice Cream and Cone" SVG files to cut and piece together my bears and ice cream treats.

As the card is opened, the bear with the double scoop ice cream cone pops forward and another teddy appears from behind him to add another scoop of ice cream to the sundae.

Honestly, I am just having way too much fun with this style of card! Hoping to come up with more fun ideas on how to use this mechanism.

Easter Treats

Happy Easter! I hope everyone is enjoying Easter Sunday with dear friends and family. I always have fun putting together little treats for sharing with friends during Easter.

This year my favorite Lindt Gold Bunnies, Chicks and Lambs were rather scarce at the stores in my area.  Luckily I bought a few packs early in March when I first saw them at the store. But by the time I finally got around to creating the cutting file for these "sugar egg" displays in April, these little Gold Bunnies were nowhere to be found. I did make 15 of these but really would have liked to make more.

I also put together  several of these fun bunny candy dispenser boxes. 

I used the cutting file for the Monster Treat Dispenser box from My Scrap Chick to create an Easter bunny version of the candy dispenser box. After experimenting with a few other templates for similar dispenser type boxes, I found that the mechanics and engineering of the box design from My Scrap Chick (in terms of ease of opening the flap and sturdiness) was the best. Cute bunny face and feet cutting files are from the Lori Whitlock Store.

My third Easter treat box was made to hold my mini Pizzelle cookies. Would you believe these bunny boxes were originally intended to be lollipop holders? I used My Scrap Chick's Bunny Lollipop holder cutting file and enlarged it to be large enough so my Pizzelles could peek through bunny's tummy where the lollipop normally would. I then added a 2-1/2 inch gusset to each side so the box would be wide enough to hold half a dozen cookies. I had just enough time to make two batches of cookies and 15 bunny boxes to share with friends and family.

For our Easter card for our Granddaughter, I just couldn't resist using Karen Burniston's Spinner Square Pop Up die yet again.

As the card is opened, the panel with the paper pieced bunny pops forward and another little bunny peeks out from behind to add a colorful Easter egg to the basket.

So how FUN is that! At first I was feeling a little guilty because I had used the same spinner square pop up die to make her Girls Day card last month... but then again, I figured our little granddaughter probably wouldn't mind too much... LOL! Happy Easter, everyone!

"Totoro-ly" Adorable

I got so excited when we were invited to a baby shower for a close family friend... and I got even more excited when I saw the Totoro themed shower invitation! Although I admit I haven't even seen the movie yet or gotten much into Totoro fandom, he is quite a cute furry character and I was happy to have a chance to craft with him.

Found quite a lot of cute Totoro images online so I rendered a few of them into cutting files in Make the Cut Design program. Decided to use Karen Burniston's Spinner Square Pop Up die again to make a fun interactive card.

As the card is opened, the panel with Totoro pops forward and Chuu and Chibi Totoro appear from behind with the sentiment. Still having so much fun with this little pop up spinning mechanism! Takes a little effort to get everything sized and placed in the right position in the card, but so worth the effort!

For our gifts, I found this adorable crocheted cap made by AmiAmigos on Etsy and made a matching Totoro gift card holder which was inspired by a Totoro handmade card I spied on Pinterest... and...

Lookie at this totally kawaii amigurumi stuffed Totoro! He was created by my crafty friend Lorna's daughter... creativity definitely runs in their family! He is so very huggable and even has a little bell inside his tail so he jingles everytime you pick him up!  Little baby to be is gonna look so adorable with her Totoro cap and toy.