Butterfly Spiral Pop Up Card

Because she is so special, mom's birthday card had to be extra special too. The flower on her card was created by cutting the flower from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge in five graduated sizes, then chalking the edges, and spraying with Tsukineko crystal spritz. Petals were shaped using the molding tool from the Punch Bunch embossing tool kit, then flowers were layered and glued together. Flower center is gold vellum punched with a Nellie Snellen punch and a flatback pearl. Leaves were also cut from Plantin Schoolbook, folded in half then run thru a paper crimper at an angle.

After spending considerable time searching through all the cartridge handbooks for a butterfly image to use (they are a lot!) I finally settled on the one from the Sentimentals cartridge. Cut several layers of the butterfly using different papers...gold vellum, gold cardstock, pink cardstock and pink patterned paper. I used  narrow strips of foam tape near the center of the wings so they would pop out an an angle.
Added a strip of white cardstock punched with  Martha Stewart's Graden Trellis deep edge punch and a swirly flourish cut from the Home Decor cartridge for background embellishments, and Nestabilities Labels One die to cut out my sentiment.
Here's how the card looks on the inside...

My very first spiral pop up card! Been wanting to try this for awhile now, and thought butterflies might look pretty cool on a spiral so I decided to give it a go. Found instructions and a video tutorial for this over at Splitcoast Stampers.

Butterflies were punched from various shades of pink cardstock and vellum using a Martha Stewart punch and adhered to the spiral with glue dots. For my spiral, I decided to use clear acetate instead of cardstock, thinking it would increase the illusion of the butterflies floating in mid-air.

Also added another large butterfly from the Sentimentals cartridge, and used a simple box pop up mechanism behind it. Flourish embellishment is the same one used on the front of the card from the Home Accents cartridge, and Nestabilities Labels One dies were used for the sentiment.

To assure that the flower and butterfly on the front of the card wouldn't get crushed, I definitely needed to put it in a box. Used the George cartridge and Design Studio to make a quick and easy box. Used my Martha Stewart Layered Arches edge punch for the belly band, and for the medallion, I used Stampin Up's Scalloped Circle punch and rubber stamp with another punched butterfly added to the center. I liked how the spiral pop-up with the butterflies turned out, although I did have to practice cutting the spiral quite a few times before I got it right. Definitely want to try this again...maybe with stars or snowflakes?

Always Our Princess

When it came time to make a birthday card for dd, I decided to do another waterfall card because I figured she'd get a big kick out of all the neat page flipping action. And after seeing the images of all the cute girls with "attitude"  on the Rock Princess cartridge, I knew they would be perfect for her card.

Pulling down on the tab on the bottom at the front of the card flips open the pages...

Using Design Studio to size the girls large enough, I cropped off the bodies so I could get just their head shots onto the pages. Then since I wanted it to look like they were all the same person (my dd), I used Design Studio to copy and paste the eyes of one of the girls (the "Andrea" image) onto the faces of all the other girls.

All patterned papers for the background are digital, from Lettering Delights, Designer Digitals (Mindy Terasawa), and Little Dreamer Designs (Nancy Kubo). I really like that with digital papers, I can print the papers together with the greetings, and just to the size needed, eliminating the neverending problem of having to stash more scraps.

After finishing my waterfall card, I glued it onto the front of another card, which opens up to reveal a pop-up card inside...

Here's what the pop-up card inside looks like from the top..

Really had fun doing this, it's sorta like making two interactive cards into one!

I used the Opposites Attract cartridge for the "YOU" on the inside of this card, George cartridge for the heart shape and a Sizzlet die from a set for the tag. Patterned cardstock on the inside is from the DCWV Glittered Sweet stack, and the cake was fussy cut from the same stack.

Splashin' Good Time!

Here's another whimsical card I made, this one for a little boy's first birthday celebration. The theme for his party was "Ocean Friends", and happily I found a plethora of cute ocean creatures to cut on the Life's A Beach cartridge to use on my card. I used the Don Juan font cartridge for the wording on the front of the card. I've found this font to be one of the easiest of the Cricut fonts to weld together with Design Studio and like that it remains easy to read after welding.

I decided to use a center pleated card format for this card, and used strips of clear acetate glued into the center pleats to hold my ocean creatures in place. I thought it was sorta neat how the clear plastic strips made the fishies appear to be suspended in air...or in this case, water!

If you look closely, you can see the strips of acetate. The birthday cake comes from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. The happy birthday greeting at the top was cut using a Quickutz cookie cutter die and computer generated greeting is Two Peas Flea Market font.

A detailed tutorial and a link to a video tutorial on making this type of card can be found at Extreme Cards and Papercrafting. Really like that this type of card is quite simple to do and full of so many possibilities!

Have A Blast!

Making cards for the guys in my life is always such a challenge. Funny how cute stuff are okay for girls of any age, but for guys, cute stuff  just doesn't seem to work. Such it was with this card...I thought the rocket & astronaut were adorable on the B Is For Boys Cricut Lite cartridge and thought it would make a clever pop-up card.

I decided to use a V-fold pop-up on the inside so the rocket would pop-up when the card was opened and make it look like it was soaring into space...

Kinda cute, huh. Only thing was that this card was created for dd's fiance who was celebrating his 25th birthday! Lol, lucky for me, he has a good sense of humor and really does appreciate these homemade cards!

All cuts for this card are from Cricut cartridges...the saturn-like planet is from the Superman cart, stars are from George and funny little green martian from Everyday Paper Dolls. Also ran the martian's planet thru a Cuttlebug embossing folder to give it some fun texture. Had fun putting this together, but I guess it turned out a bit too boyish for a young man of 25!

My First Vinyl Project

Last year, for our Cricut Club holiday Secret Santa gift swap, one of the talented gals, Michele F., decorated one of those clear re-usable plastic cups that are all the rage right now with a super cute Hello Kitty vinyl decal she had cut with her Cricut. Totally inspired by Michele's adorable cup, I went out and bought several sheets of vinyl and all kinds of plasticware to embellish.

But it wasn't till I was trying to think of something to send dd for Valentines Day that I finally decided it was time to learn how to cut vinyl with my Cricut. So after watching tons of video tutorials on youtube and lots of advice and encouragement from Michele, I finished my first vinyl project. The cutting party was easy... Cricut cut through the vinyl very smoothly and easily. By using a medium pressure setting and blade depth of 3, Cricut cut through the vinyl only, leaving the backing intact for easier removal of the cut piece from the backing. I used the wedding cake cut from the Sweethearts cartridge and doves and filigree heart cuts are from the Wedding Solutions cartridge.

 For the cover, I did a monogram, created on Make the Cut using  CK Calligraphy and Baar Sophia fonts. I learned alot about creating with vinyl by doing this project, but I there's still so much more I need to learn!

Here's the finished cannister with some "starter cash" that I sent off for dd and her fiance's Valentine surprise. They're busy planning their wedding and are learning how expensive weddings can be. I thought this might be a cute way for them to save up their pocket change for their "wedding fund"...a penny saved is a penny earned, right?

Sweet Treats from the Heart

Wow, Valentines Day came & went so quickly this year, I felt like I barely had enough time to finish what I wanted to do! Here are a couple heart boxes I sent off to dd and her fiance.

The boxes were created in Design Studio using the George cartridge, and once again, I used the re-sizeable scalloped heart cut created and shared by Okielady. Hello Kitty cuts are fron a sizzlits die, and the cute robot comes from the Robotz cartridge. The word "Love machine" is from the Don Juan font cartridge.

And look at this! Pulling down on the tab just below the die cut characters reveals a Valentine message and makes the characters pop up & stand! Neat, huh? My dear friend and fellow blogger, Patti of Creations by Patti recently posted a very cool New Years card using this mechanism and I just knew I would have to try one too. You can find the instructions & video tutorial for this "Sliding Pop Up Card" over at Kim Score's blog, Paper Punch Addiction. Kim's instructions are for a A2 size card with a sliding background which also pops up together with her character.

Since for my purposes I wanted just the pop up character on my boxes, I eliminated the background and miniaturized the sliding element so it would fit on the heart.

Here's a shot of the box opened with the goodies inside. Notice the box is not a heart shaped box at all, but instead, a triangular shaped box. Definitely alot simpler to put together!
Made a few more of these boxes for my friends who are young at heart. This time I used the squirrel cut from my favorite Create A Critter cartridge...

And for those who prefer purty over cutesy, I shared boxes of Louis Daar Tea Ceremony cookies. The box these came in were already so pretty, I simply added some gold ribbon and a heart shaped cut-out card to dress it up a bit.

These heart cut-out cards were inspired by the beautiful and intricate heart cuts on the 2010 limited edition Love Struck cartridge which I waited too long to decide I wanted. Unable to find that cartridge for sale anywhere, I decided to wing it on Design Studio. To create the cutfile for this, I used the heart shape with the silhouette function from the George cartridge and welded various flowers from George, Hello Kitty Greetings and Plantin Schoolbook inside.

After cutting with white cardstock, I stickled & prisma glittered the cutout and backed it with foam tape to a plain red heart. The banner (Wedding Solutions cart) was also adhered with foam tape for dimension. The whole thing was then glued onto a heart shaped card (hearts from George welded at the top) and it was done!

And finally, I want to share a super special Valentine treat I received from my friend, Heather...

Aren't these the absolute SWEET-est ever? I loved the look of the Hello Kitty treat bag, but when I peeked inside, I nearly fell off my seat when I saw these scrumptious goodies inside! Heather, you are awesome!

Hope everyone had a delightful day sharing the love on Valentines Day!

In Search of Prince Charming

It's been quite a few months ago that I made this card for dh to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, but with Valentine's Day just around the corner, I figured now was a good a time as any to post this. Decided to do a fun and whimsical card...I had seen this sentiment used on a card a while back and always wanted to try my own take on it.
Here's how it opens up...

I put the frogs on a pop up mechanism similar to the Sizzix Platform Spinning Die for the surprise element. This one was a cut file created in Design Studio and generously shared by Laurinda on her blog, Oh Scrappy Daze.

All the froggies on my card came from the Paisley cartridge, and I used Indie Arts for the "Smack!" and lips.Had so much fun with this...giggling to myself the whole time putting it together.Not sure if dh caught on to the humor, though. I had to explain to him that he was "the one with the crown...you know, Prince Charming". All he said was "Oh". Maybe he didn't want to be a frog?