What Does the Fox Say?

"Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow! Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho!"

(That's what the fox says...) 

LOL...I've had this silly song by Ylvis stuck in my mind for awhile now, and thought it would make a fun birthday card for my niece.
Seems like card crafters everywhere have been having fun putting together their own versions of this "Card in a Box"... and of course I was anxious to give it a try as well! There are a lot of tutorials out on the web for this style of card, and they're all basically the same. For my card, I followed the one by Carol at Extreme Cards and Papercrafting mostly because I thought her method of adding the struts to the inside of the box was the easiest to do.

As always, the funnest part about this card is embellishing and making it your own. The cutting file I used for these cute foxes comes from Designs On Cloud 9's "Foxy" file.

This adorable elephant is from the "Safari Animals" cutting file from Kadoodle Bug Designs and tiny butterfly was cut using the "Bunny and Butterflies" die from Cottage Cutz.

Pink birdie and trees are from Cricut Create A Critter cartridge. Word balloons and labels were created in MTC.

Here's a view from the top...

...and a view of the back of the card where I added the sentiment. Underneath the sentiment I added a little pocket where I could slip in some birthday $$$ or a gift card.

And finally, the flattened view. Just for fun, I also added word balloons of "what the fox says" to the front and side flaps to give a "hint" to what was on the inside. Had so much fun putting this "card in a box" together; and the best part is that the base card is so easy to do that you can spend a lot of time on being creative about what to put inside your box. Can't wait to try another one of these soon!

Last Minute Easter Baskets

Happy Easter! I was a little pre-occupied with other things and didn't get to do as much as I would have liked for Easter this year, but I did find just enough time to put together a few of these little baskets for friends and family. Good thing these were pretty quick to do!

I first saw these cute baskets with an easy to follow tutorial over at Whimsie Doodles. I needed my baskets to be just a bit larger so I could fit some cookies in them so I used a 7-1/2 inch square piece of cardstock instead.  I used a Martha Stewart double loops edge punch to add a little lace to the handles.

This cute little paper pieced chick comes from the Trio of  Chicks cutfile from My Scrap Chick, and the bunny with eggs was created using MTC to render an image I found on the internet. Because I was pressed for time, I ended up having my Silhouette machine cut all the pieces for the bunny, chick and eggs from plain white cardstock and used Copic pens to quickly color the pieces after cutting while still on the mat. This saved me time from having to select all the different colored cardstock and loading and reloading to cut the different pieces.

And for our sweet furbaby friends, I decorated a few gift bags to fill with Easter treats using a cute puppy and bunny ears cutfile from Treasure Box Designs...
Happily, I was able to finish eight of these baskets and doggie bags just in time for giving. Hope everyone is having an enjoyable time today spent with family and friends!

Sweet Ayako Birthday Card

Yup, it's yet another one of those sliding pop-up box cards I enjoy doing so much. This was made for my mom's birthday and  is the same basic box design from Colette's Sliding Pop Up Box card, except that I brought the sides of the box up taller and had my Silhouette Cameo cut an octagonal window on the front panels. I also added "tabs" to the side corners of the box to make it easier to "push" the card open and "pull" it flat to close.

This time I used adorable little Ayako from Sister Stamps to peek out the octagonal window. Colored her up with copics and placed her on a die cut bridge from Lala Land Crafts which I attached to the sliding element inside the box. Printed double sided cardstock for this card comes from Best Creation's Kimono line...really love that lavender wisteria background behind Ayako! Branch accent on the front was cut from a Quickutz die and tiny blossoms were cut with a die from Cheery Lynn Designs.

Here's a view of the box from the top, which gives a better perspective of the shape of the card and shows where the bridge was attached to the sliding element inside the box.

Pulling on the "tabs" on the sides flattens the card so it can be slipped into an envelope.I love the versatility of the sliding box card and as you can tell, I'm still having way too much fun playing with this style of card!

Hello Kitty Baby Blocks

Had another go at the baby blocks card, this time for the birth of a co-worker's new granddaughter. I really love that this card is so super easy to put together. You can find the video tutorial by Papercrafter 45 here.
Since baby's mommy is a big fan of Hello Kitty, I picked up a sweet Hello Kitty quilt (shown in the background) from "Moe Moe and More" and of course had to make a card to match!

Cutfile for paperpieced sweet baby Hello Kitty was created in MTC using a freebie image found over at FreePrintable.com.  Also used MTC to create the alphas on the blocks from New Times Roman font. Squares on the blocks were done by embossing plain white cardstock using Cuttlebug's Love Language embossing folder and a 1" square punch.

On the backside, I added baby's name, "Hilina"i" a lovely Hawaiian name which translates to mean "trust". All baby toy cuts (rattle, diaper pin, duck) are from Cricut New Arrival cartridge, and heart and flower are from the Cricut George font cartridge.

The card looks like this when flattened, ready to slip into an envelope with room enough on the bottom to add a little sentiment. This blocks card is so quick and easy to do that I'm sure I'll be using this as my "go to" card whenever I need a baby card, maybe with just a quick change of the character on the front...

Japanese Milestone Birthday Card

Here's another one of those open front sliding pop up box cards I always have so much fun putting together. This one was created for my dad's milestone 90th birthday, so I went with the typical Japanese symbolic "good luck, long life" theme.
The base of this card is the same as for the sliding pop up box but with the front panel cut down to create the "open" look and the top edge of the back panel cut into a scalloped edge. I also added tabs to the side corners of the box to make it easier to "push" the box into its open position and "pull" it back to its flat closed position. If you're interested, I have the template for the basic sliding pop up box card posted here.

For the front of the card, I used Japanese iconic symbols known as "Sho Chiku Bai" or Pine - Bamboo - Plum. I added the "Sho" or "Matsu" or Pine (symbolizes long life) to the left side,

and "Chiku" or "Take" or Bamboo (symbol for strength and resilience) together with "Bai" or "Ume" or Plum blossoms (symbol for hope in adversity) to the right side. The pine and bamboo icons are images I purchased from GL Stock Images and converted into cutfiles using MTC. Plum blossoms and centers are from mini punches from Punch Bunch, and branches were cut using a Quickutz branch die.

The cut for the kanji "fukuju" (good luck and long life) was created in MTC using a free image file from Kanji Style.com.

And my favorite cut on this card, the crane or "tsuru" (symbol for good fortune and longevity) is also an image file from GL Stock Images renderered into a cutfile with MTC. Swirly cloud cuts are from a Taylored Expressions die.

I glued the crane onto a few of the cloud cuts, then adhered it onto the sliding mechanism in the center of the box.
I must admit it took me quite awhile to gather all the images and create all the different cutfiles for this card, but in the end I was pretty happy with how this turned out. Well worth the effort, for my dad's very special birthday!

Happy 2nd Anniversary

March 3rd is a special day for our family, not only because it's Girls Day but also because it's the day my daughter and son in law got married 2 years ago. I like that it's a date I won't ever forget, but *sigh* I guess as long as I continue making treats for Girls Day, my card to them will unfortunately continue to be late every year... 

For their 2nd Anniversary, I decided I wanted to give a try at making one of those neat flying easel cards I've been seeing posted on many blogs recently...

Unfortunately...due to my poor planning and hurry to get this done, I just couldn't get my flying easel card to work out the way it's supposed to. After attaching the heart shaped photo onto the frame using clear fishing line, I couldn't get it to sit correctly in the frame as I hoped it would. I liked the motion of free spinning photo in the frame, but at rest, the photo always ended up facing to the side instead of face forward as I wanted. I guess it has something to do with physics and balance. In the end I gave up and used a strip clear acetate to hold the photo in place instead. I still got the effect of the photo being suspended in the frame, but lost the fun spinning movement. Guess I'll just have to give the spinning easel card another go later when I'm not so late.

Here's a closeup of the top of the heart frame; if you look closely toward the center top you can see the strip of acetate I used to hold the photo in place inside the frame.

The lacy heart frame was created in Make the Cut and the doves and streamers were cut from Cottage Cutz Dove with Ribbons die. Copics were used to add shading to the doves and color the ribbons green. I used a Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust pen to add glittery accents to the ribbons and heart frame and added flat back pearls to embellish the frame.

Martha Steward layered arches edge punch was used to create a lacy border embellished with more flatback pearls to act as the stop for this easel card. "Happy Anniversary" sentiment and shadow was created in MTC using CAC Shishoni Brush font.

Here's how the front of card looks when closed flat. Fancy corners were cut from LaLa Land's Filigree Corner die.The emobssing you see peeking through the heart window behind the photo is the negative piece I got from cutting that window, embossed using Cuttlebug's Jamara folder...the same embossing that we used to create the couple's wedding invitations 2 years ago. 

I used the embossed heart piece to create a heart shaped card and adhered it to the inside of the main card so it would show through the heart shaped window.

And finally, a shot of the inner heart card open with our best wishes for the happy couple. Although this card didn't turn out quite as I had imagined, I'm hoping my daughter and son in law will like it. The photo of the couple I used is from their engagement shoot prior to the wedding and hopefully this card will help to trigger some wonderful memories for them.

A Girls Day Special Treat

Just had to share these EXTRA SPECIAL Girls Day treats I received from dear Lorna this week. I swear, this sweet lady's brain is filled with the neatest, freshest and most creative ideas!

She had our entire workplace squealing with excitement when she brought these adorable treat boxes in to work on Girls Day. Lorna used Sister Stamps Sitting Minako image for this, colored with Copics and dressed in a washi paper pieced kimono...so cute! She added a little table with a tiny bonsai tree (digital image from LaLa Land) to the side of Minako as an accent and even a beautiful decorated shoji door as a backdrop. Sweet little "Happy Girls Day" sentiment tags are from Dandelion Designs Kokeshi Candy cling set. 

The "stand" is really a box...with lots of yummy Japanese candies tucked inside! Lorna always spends lots of attention to details on all her projects, and as a result, everything she creates is nothing short of spectacular.

And how about these cutie patootie lollipop holders! Oh no, not just your ordinary lollipops, ladies...those are yummy Chupa Chups pops inside there. Don't you just love how she used Dandelion Designs Kokeshi Candy stamps to decorate these...washi paper pieced kimonos on these too! A BIG thank you from the heart to sweet Lorna for always sharing her amazing treats with us. You always brighten our day at work and make us all feel so special!!!