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.
As much as I love and enjoy my hobby of making and sending birthday cards, being that I'm a very slow crafter, I can usually only manage to finish enough cards each year to send to close relatives and a few crafty friends. This year, however, several of the close friends I grew up with are celebrating milestone birthdays so I decided to challenge myself by trying my very best to make and send special milestone birthday cards to each. This card was the first of the seven I hope to complete this year.
I used a quilted coverplate die from Honey Bee Stamps to create a stitched background and added a paper pieced Franklin teddy bear from Marjorie Ann Designs together with lots of flowers die cut from Spellbinders "Be Bold Blooms" die set. Tiny butterflies were cut from Memory Box "Butterfly Delights" die. Happy Birthday sentiment was hot foiled and die cut using Simon Hurley's "Birthday Sentiments" set.
On the inside, I used Karen Burniston's "Twist Flower Pop Up" die set again for the mechanism to animate a large center panel with another paper pieced teddy bear and a double tiered cake. I used Marianne Designs "Birthday Cake" die for the cake and a very old QuicKutz "Studio" alphabet die set for the glittered gold "70".
After assembling the teddy bear, cake and flowers together, I scanned and imported the image into Make the Cut design program so I could create and cut a shadow layer for it.
I also put together a simple matching gift card holder to enclose with the card.
Initially, I started jotting down all the measurements and instructions needed to recreate this pop up card with the intention of making six more of the same to send for all the milestone birthdays I mentioned. Though the overall design of this card seemed simple enough, it took a bit longer than I expected to cut and assemble all the embellishments needed. Looks like I may have to come up with some alternative ideas for a card that will be quicker to complete.
Knowing how much my niece loves her Malshi (Maltese + Shih Tzu), I wanted to surprise her with a card that featured a likeness of her dog for her birthday.
I found some adorable digital doggie clipart created by artist Yuki of Elytra Studio on Etsy and just had to pick up a set. I thought one of the images looked just like my niece's dog, so I created a cut file, cut her from white cardstock, then used Copics to color her up to look like my niece's beloved "Kinako".
For the card front, I used a cut file for an open scallop circle to frame the dog and embellished with flowers die cut using Spellbinders "Be Bold Blooms" die set. Happy Birthday sentiment was hot foiled and cut with Spellbinders "Birthday Unboxing Glimmer" set. I also randomly glued on a few flatback clear dewdrops to add some sparkle.
Inside, I used Karen Burniston's "Twist Flower Pop-Up" mechanism on a panel I created with another paper pieced dog and flowers. As the card is opened, this panel twists and rises up to the center of the card. The "Twist Flower Pop-Up" die set comes with large daisy dies to attach to the mechanism (thus the name "Flower Pop-Up"), but I'm finding it fun to use this mechanism to animate a lot more than just flowers.
To create a matching gift card holder, I enlarged the dog image and had her hold onto a little paper pieced envelope which opens up to reveal a gift card.
And finally, here's the photo of my niece's sweet little dog, "Kinako" which I used as inspiration to create her birthday card. Isn't she absolutely adorable?
Ever had a card you spent hours creating for someone special get lost in the mail, never to be received or seen by the person you sent it to? Such is the sad tale of this card that I sent to my very crafty aunt (who loves to sew) to thank her for some craft supplies she had shared with me.
I used Whimsy Stamps "Thanks Word and Shadow" die set to cut the shadowed sentiment for the front of the card and embellished with die cut buttons, thimble, scissors, needle and thread from Karen Burniston's "Sewing Charms" die set.
On the inside, I used the mechanism from Karen Burniston's "Twist Flower Pop Up" die to animate the teddy bear and sewing machine in the center of the card. As the card is opened, the panel with the teddy bear and sewing machine twists to pop forward into position.
I used Marjorie Ann Designs "Franklin's Fall Quilt" svg cutting file for the paper pieced Franklin teddy bears and larger spool of thread that he's sitting on.
Shadowed sentiment was created in Make the Cut Design program and the smaller spool of thread, scissors, and sewing machine were die cut from the "Sewing Charms" die set. Large blank space on the left side of the card is where I wrote my thank you note. I had fun putting this card together, thinking my aunt would really enjoy it. Luckily I had taken photos of the card so I could show her. We're both disappointed she never received it.
This is the card and giftcard holder combo I recently put together for my dear friend Kris. Truth be told, I was in a creative slump during this time so I pulled out my Spellbinders Big Blooms dies. Not sure what it is but I've found that something about this floral die set always seems to help stir up the creative juices for me.
I started by creating a cut file for a circular frame with a personalized birthday sentiment welded around the perimeter. Font used was Arial. I cut the frame three times and layered them on top of each other for dimension. Then I added a paper pieced Franklin teddy bear from Marjorie Ann Designs inside the frame and embellished with lots of fun blossoms and leaves that I had die cut using the Big Blooms die set. Clear resin dew drops were randomly added for a little bit of sparkle.
Inside, I used Karen Burniston's Twist Flower Pop Up mechanism to pop up and raise a panel with Franklin teddy bear surrounded by more flowers.
To create this panel, I first glued the teddy bear and flowers together in an arrangement to my satisfaction, scanned this into my computer at true size, then imported it into Make the Cut Design program where I was able to create and cut a black out shadow panel for the teddy and flowers.
Last, I added more flowers to the left corners of the card and the sentiment box and it was done.
I also made a matching gift card holder using Karen Burniston's "Slider box", "Bam Box", and "Surprise Cube Pop Up" dies."Happy Birthday" sentiment was die cut using Lawn Fawn's "Happy Birthday Border" die. When the drawer of the slider box is pulled open, two surprise cubes pop out and the gift card pops up from inside. Still loving this fun way to present gift cards!
As much as I'd like to make my thank you cards, I always seem to need them "right now" so I end up buying them instead. For this particular instance however, I knew ahead of time I would be needing a thank you card so I had a bit of time to put this together.
I tried to keep things simple by making use of my dies instead of the Silhouette to cut most of the elements for this card. The dies used to cut the paper pieced lambs, flowers, leaves and tufts of grass were all included in Marianne Designs Eline's Lamb die set.
Inside, I used the mechanism from Karen Burniston's Twist Flower Pop Up die to animate the lamb so she would pop forward and appear to leap as the card is opened. Couldn't resist attaching a punny sentiment "Thank Ewe" to the lamb with acetate strips so it too twists and pops forward. I used Di font and Make the Cut design program to create the cut file for the the sentiment and shadow. Kept the background very easy and simple, using Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders for the grass and tree die from Karen Burniston Tiny Trees Pop Up. I added a matted blank panel on the right side where I could write a personal message. Very happy that this card didn't take too long at all to put together... what I really need to do is make several of these to put away for the next time I need a thank you card "now".
When I learned our granddaughter would be dressing up as "Barbie in her Gingham Dress" for Halloween, I started putting together a few fun PINK goodies so we could send her a Barbie themed Halloween package.
First, the card: I used Make the Cut Design program to convert a coloring page image of Barbie, a spider web and a wtich's hat clip art into cutfiles for the front of my card. I picked up a Dolly font bundle which included cute Barbie clipart and icons from Exordia Designs to use for the sentiments, and cut out embellishments.
On the inside of the card, I installed Karen Burniston's Twist Flower Pop Up mechanism. The movement of this pop up is a little difficult to capture with still photos alone so I have a short video to demonstrate the movement of this fun pop up.
Since this was a slimline format card, I could fit three of the Twist Flower Pop Up mechanisms in the card. The top and bottom panels with the orange flower shapes pop up and twist to the left while the larger center panel twists to the right as the card is opened. I also attached two die cut bats to the center round panel with strips of acetate so they twist and appear to be flying when the card opens. Barbie silhouette and crown svgs came as part of the Dolly font bundle, bats were die cut from Karen Burniston's Haunted Tiny House Add Ons, and black cat and jack-o-lantern were clipart images rendered into cut files.
Since I had not seen the Barbie movie yet, I watched the movie trailer hoping to get ideas and creative inspiration for fun things I could put together that our granddaughter might enjoy. I thought this shoe from the movie and references to "Barbie feet" vs flat feet were hilarious. It got me thinking, "Hey, I think I can make that!"
I used the free svg cut file for paper witch shoes shared by Cindy Louh on her website here. This is the same template I used to make the witch shoes which I posted last week. But since this one was for Barbie, I used pearlescent pink cardstock instead of black, and attempted to duplicate the heart shaped rhinestone shoe clip.
The next fun little thing I made was this Barbie Eyeshadow Compact...
The inspiration for this came from a similar one posted on Instagram and created by Ideas Caprichosas.
The eye shadow compact was made with circles of glitter and pearlescent cardstock to look like the eye shadows with a foil board mirror. I found clipart of a shadow brush and used Make the Cut Design program to convert it into an svg cut file. The completed paper pieced compact was then glued onto a box with side flaps and filled with candy.
The third little surprise was this personalized pop up slider box with a gift card to her favorite store. I used the Dolly font to make a layered cut out of her name for the front of the box. A little hard to see in the photo but lighter pink panels were dry embossed with Sizzix Stars and Swirls embossing folder and trimmed with glitter cardstock and tiny rhinestones for glitz.
I think I had the most fun this Halloween putting together this box of surprises for our granddaughter. Hope you enjoyed your Halloween too!
