Holiday Goodies from Crafty Friends

 

Today I'm sharing some of the fun and adorable handmade goodies I received from my crafty friends for Valentines Day and New Years. First up are these two Valentines Day treat holders from my dear friend Kris that really blew me away...

Here's an absolutely amazing candy dispensing vending machine that really works! Pressing the rubber band activated heart lever allows the candies in the dispenser to fall into the clear tray below. How cool is that! I'm not mechanically inclined at all so I can't even imagine how Kris constructed this fun toy.

This second Valentine treat box from Kris is another fun and novel interactive box.

This box has an unusual side magnetic flap closure. When you pull open the lid, a large glittered heart filled with treats spills out of the box...what a fun surprise! Hope to learn how to make this one day!

Next up are these wonderful handmade New Years projects created by crafty friends Bev and Lorna.

This beautiful glitzy hexagonal pop up New Years card was put together by sweet Bev. Hexagonal pop up cards are one of my favorite styles of card to make and receive. I really like the way she added the die cut word "Thanks" to the banner on the top so her card would double as a thank you card as well.

Then a few weeks later, I received another fun card from Bev. This time a Chinese New Year box card. This has got to be the cutest Year of the Horse card I've seen! Beverly constructed her card using Lori Whitlock's "Horse Stable Box Card" and very cleverly gave it an Asian twist by adding the Chinese Character for "Horse" on the front and hanging an Asian lantern on the panel behind the horse.

Every year I look forward to receiving  Lorna's lunar animal daruma creations. They are always so kawaii. This year she created a horse daruma and I love that she even added an easel on the back so it can rock back and forth, just like a real daruma!

This year we celebrated Chinese New Year just 3 days after Valentines Day, which made things a little hectic for crafters trying to make cards and treats. Lorna solved the problem by ingeniously combining the two! This Target wannabe shopping basket is so adorable... look closely and you'll see the holes in the basket are really tiny hearts. She added the familiar target bulls eye to the center of the basket but look again to see a heart shape in the middle. She also added an image of Hello Kitty riding a red horse as a nod to the lunar new year. Her tag with a cute horse dressed in lion dance garb and blowing heart shaped bubbles together with her sentiment saying it all: "Happy Valentine's Day and Kung Hei Fat Choy"!

Beary Special Valentines

I decided to go with a teddy bear theme for my Valentines Day projects this year.

 

Our Valentines Day card sent to our granddaughter was more of a box instead of a card. I assembled and decorated a box with a sliding drawer using Karen Burniston's "Slider Box" die set. Cut file for the "LOVE" word art was  created in Make the Cut and cut from silver foilboard and red glitter cardstock. I used a Taylored Expressions Little Bits die for the mini teddy bear.

When the drawer to the box is pulled open, a teddy bear pops up from inside!

Sitting teddy bear is actually pieced and glued on to three rubberband activated pop up cubes for this surprise pop up. Cutting file for the teddy bear comes from My Scrap Chick's "Teddy B Valentine Candy Wraps" which had to be edited a little so he would fit onto the three cubes. I added our sentiment in the drawer behind the cubes. Such a silly but fun pop up! The inspiration for this came from a video tutorial by Karen Burniston where she teaches the assembly of a similar pop up box but with an Easter Bunny instead.

For treat holders, I picked up the template for these fun teddy bear boxes from designer Paper Makes Studio on Etsy. I changed teddy bear's face just a little by adding my own eyes, nose and muzzle. I also added gingham bows; bow ties at the neck for the guys and on the ear for girls.

Though not readily noticeable, in the first photo, the two bears on the left are about 3 inches  in diameter while the one on the far right is about 2 inches larger. I made the smaller bears for my younger Valentines who prefer Sour Patch Kids and Ring Pop candies...

...and  the larger bears for my "Gal-entines" who prefer chocolates. I also added a print and cut teddy bear shaped sentiment on the bottom of the larger boxes.

I also used the teddy bear candy wrap template from My Scrap Chick to make candy wrap boxes. I thought this candy wrap was designed to be so cute the way teddy bear's paws and heart are attached to the belly band that keeps the box closed.

The original template by My Scrap Chick for this candy wrap was made to fit a large size candy bar, but I sized mine to be taller and deeper so I could fit my favorite Japanese rolled cookies inside.   

"Gal-entines" Goodies

Apologies for being a little late with this post, but couldn't go on without sharing the goodies I received from two sweet crafty buddies.

This 3D ferris wheel treat box created by my dear friend Lorna once again attests to her amazing paper engineering prowess. The ferris wheel really rotates, and its seats (with Hello Kitty and friends sitting in them) really rock back and forth too!

Lorna also shared even more sweets in these adorable treat holders too. On the left is a paper pieced word "Love" with gummy bears and a Lindt truffle peeking thru the letter "o"; and on the right is a  kawaii paper pieced kimono girl holding a heart shaped origami pocket filled with treats...so clever!

My crafty friend Kris made this super fun personalized gatefold hinged valentine box.

As the front flaps of this box are opened, the heart shaped tray filled with treats rises up from inside! Lengths of ribbon attached to the flaps and strung inside the box act as a pulley like mechanism which lifts the tray up. The pop up movement of this is totally amazing! If you'd like to try making one similar to this, you can find the template designed by Nicoles Papercrafts here.

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope these creative projects shared by my friends inspire you as much as they do for me.

Valentine Pop Up Card Box

Happy Valentine's Day! I made Cupid Hello Kitty themed cookie boxes to share with my "gal-entines" this  year.
 

I found a few cute Cupid Hello Kitty images in my library of Hello Kitty coloring books and converted them into cutting files to piece together for my hinged lid boxes.  I used Hello Kitty peeking from behind a cloud for the box front and used a Happy Valentines Day sentiment die from Mama Elephant for the greeting.

Opening the box reveals a pop up scene on the lid inside. 

Amazed by the many beautiful and unique pop up packaging designs I've been seeing on Pinterest created to hold expensive Asian cookies and teas, I knew I wanted to give this style of box a try. Of course, my simple two tier pop up can't be compared to the intricate boxes that inspired me, but it was fun trying to figure out how to make one.

I started by using a svg cutting file template for a rectangular hinged lid box with reinforced sides from "Stick and Crop". 

After enlarging and altering the original template to create a box 5.25" x 4.5" x 1.5", I created and glued an insert with a depth of 1 inch to the inside of the box to be the platform for the pop up.  Hello Kitty and clouds were then popped up with strips of cardstock glued in as cubes.

Boxes were filled with  homemade shortbread cookies for special friends.  This was a fun box to learn to make. Thinking that next time I may want to try this style of box again, but maybe with a different type of pop up mechanism inside.

Crafty Treasures from Special Friends

Couldn't go on without sharing some of the crafty goodness I received from special friends this month.
 

This handmade calendar and card came in the mail recently from my sweet friend, Lynn.

I think this die cut "maneki neko" (lucky cat) is so adorable with his stylized "fu" (for good fortune) character on his tummy and shiny gold bell and baker's twine collar. I really liked how Lynn rolled the ends of a piece of cardstock to create a scroll, stamped with Chinese characters "gan xie" (for gratitude) for lucky cat to hold up.  The neatest thing about this lucky cat is that he can be lifted from the card front to sit upright on his mat, using his little tail as an easel stand!

Lynn also sent along this super cute Valentine easel desk calendar featuring  a stamped, colored, and fussy cut image of my all time favorite Pooh bear. 

My amazingly creative friend Lorna made this pair of kawaii Valentine treat holders.

Reminiscent of  the silk rose truffle holders seen at fancy weddings, Lorna cut and folded the petals of this fabulous rose from red cardstock to create this sweet rose candy holder. Look carefully and you'll see Hershey kisses and Dove chocolate hearts tucked in the center of the rose. Little Mocha Bear standing on the petals with his bouquet of roses just doubles the cuteness of this treat holder!

Lorna also pieced together this irresistible pink "maneki neko" (lucky cat) as a Valentine treat holder. I wasn't even aware that different colored lucky cats represent different things. Pink lucky cats represent romance and brings love; perfect for Valentines Day!

My dear crafty friend Kris put together this sweet heart shaped basket perfect for a fellow crafter (like me!). This sturdy and roomy basket has room enough for a lot of treats. I love that Kris filled it with crafters' favorites... diamond glaze and chocolates! The template for this cute basket was designed by Kim of Crafting Cheerfully.

Hope you enjoyed seeing crafty projects from friends and hope they may have inspired  your creative juices as much as they did for me.

We PIKA - CHOOSE You, Valentine!

We recently learned that our granddaughter had started watching the Pokemon anime series and has become quite a fan of little Pikachu. Well, you know this gramma loves a theme, so I grabbed the Pikachu theme and ran with it for Valentines Day.

I found a svg cut file template for this cute Pikachu domed candy holder by Mirachefamira Studio on Etsy which I thought our granddaughter would enjoy. I used half of a clear plastic ball ornament for the domed candy holder. The base of the original template is a circle, but since this was for Valentines Day, I glued it onto a heart shaped base.

The original template included a fancy notched rotating window underneath to access the candies in the dome but I decided to switch it to the simpler hexagonal petal envelope closure that I am more familiar working with.

I also preferred that the petal style envelope gave me a place to add a fun card enclosure. Access to candies is inside the envelope behind the card. I created a simple "Pokeball" card in the shape of a heart with our sentiment inside. This included a clipart of another Pokemon named "Evee", which happens to be the nickname we lovingly call our granddaughter by.

This personalized hinged box decorated with another paper pieced Pokeball held a surprise pop up Valentine inside. When the hinged lid of the box is lifted . . .

little Pikachu pops up inside!

"We Pika-Choose YOU to be our Valentine!"

Inspired by several creative members on the Karen Burniston Pop Up Peeps Facebook group, I wanted to try recreating Pikachu too, using Karen Burniston's Mini Ball Pop Up dies and stacking two of them on top of each other. These rubber band activated pop up balls have been used to create so many different fun creatures and characters!

After adding on Pikachu's ears, face, arms, feet and tail, I had him hold two glittered hearts and secured him to a glittered heart shaped base with a brad so he could swivel around. If you look closely at the previous photo you may be able to see that I added two pieces of  the printed cardstock on the right and left inside the box to create a channel where Pikachu's heart shaped base could be slid into. Not certain if this creature resembles Pikachu enough or not but I had lots of fun putting him together!

You're a True Gem, Valentine!

 

Happy Valentines Day! These are the boxes filled with cookies I made to share with my "Gal-entines" this year.

I fell in love with these unique 3-D heart shaped boxes I saw online after Valentines Day last year and promised myself to make them for the following year...so here they are!

There are several slightly different shaped versions of 3-D Heart Box templates by different designers available; this one I chose to use is by Nilmara Quintela on Etsy. I thought the beveled edges on the box cover reminded me of a heart shaped gem so I created insets for each beveled panel in Make the Cut Design program, cut them from pink and red glittered cardstock, and glued them to the top to make the boxes shimmer like a gemstone. I used silver foil board and Waffle Flower's "Love Word" die to cut the script word love.

Inside, I filled the boxes with hubby's favorite buttery Lace Cookies. The boxes were quite roomy inside because of the beveled top and I was able fit six cookies in each box.

Last, I added my heart shaped computer generated sentiment to the bottom of the boxes. Thank you for dropping by today! I have a few more Valentines Day themed projects to share but will wait till I know our granddaughter has received them.