Anniversary Wishes for a Beary Special Couple

Wow, I can hardly believe 4 years have already gone by since our daughter and son in law were married. This is the card I sent them for their anniversary.

Wanted to try something a little different, so I decided to do a Surprise Sliding Pop Up type card and added a cut out window. Cute teddy bear couple inside the window is from the "Love You To The Moon and Back" cutting file by Cuddly Cute Designs. Cut the pieces for the bears from white cardstock, then colored them with Copics before piecing them together.

Pulling on the ribbon at the top of the card makes the front of the card slide back and up to reveal the sentiment underneath. Sort of looks like a Flying Easel type card, but more fun because of the sliding movement.

The window frame was created in Make the Cut by joining a rounded square shape together with a freebie label cutfile created and generously shared by Images By Heather M. found here. I then adhered the teddy bears to a scalloped edged heart shape and suspended it in the frame using fishing line tied to the top and bottom of the frame. Banner on the bottom is a cutting file from Cricut Wedding Solutions cartridge.

I also added a sentiment "Love bears all things" to the backside of the heart.

For the floral embellishments and flourishes on this card, I used a combination of various dies and punches. Leaves and embossed white petals from Nellie Snellen punches; tiny branch punch from Martha Stewart; mini flower punch from Punch Bunch; and leafy flourishes from Tiny Fanciful Flourish die by Cheery Lynn. Larger pink mulberry blossom is from All Natural Accents; and pretty corner flourishes are a free cut file from SVG Cuts.
In keeping with my fun tradition of including "memories from the wedding" on their anniversary cards, I chose patterned papers with the same color scheme used at the wedding and added tiny die cut love birds (Memory Box, Resting Birds die) to match the love birds theme at their wedding 4 years ago.
Had fun putting this card together for my daughter and son in law. Always enjoy making Surprise Pop Up Slider cards...the tutorial for the basic card by Beate Johns can be seen over at Splitcoast Stampers. I thought adding the window made this card even more fun; and if you twist the bears around a few times before putting it in the envelope, the bears will spin in the frame when the recipient slides the card open...very cool!

Asian Fan Accordion Card

It's been a while since I've made an accordion style card using acetate so I decided to put one together for my sweet friend Lorna who celebrated her birthday earlier this year. For this card, I used the Sizzix Accordion Card die designed by Karen Burniston.

For each of the panels with the fans, I ran the die through three times; once with acetate and twice with cardstock for the outer frames. A word about the acetate: the first time I attempted this type of card I recall using a medium weight sheet of scrapbook type acetate sheet which I felt didn't fold easily resulting in a very bulky card. So this time I chose to use a thinner, transparency acetate, which folded much easier but ended up tearing and breaking off at the pivot points just as I thought I had finished the card. I redid the torn panels, but I'm afraid this card won't withstand much opening and closing. Next time I'll definitely stick to the thicker acetate.

Fans were cut using the fan image from the Cricut Pagoda cartridge using black cardstock and brightly patterned washi papers.

The first panel of the card was cut from cardstock instead of acetate because I needed a place to add my sentiment and I wanted to keep the inside of the card hidden until it was opened.

On the front I added a Kimono Marci digital image from Lala Land. Colored her with copics and paper pieced her kimono with washi paper.

And finally, the finished card, folded closed and ready to go into a washi decorated petal fold envelope. I was happy with how this card turned out (except for the issue with the tearing of the acetate), and am thinking I'd like to try another similar version soon, maybe using the smaller Elizabeth Craft dies also designed by Karen Burniston.

For a "TEA-riffic" Mom

Here's another Peek A Boo style card I made This one was for mom's birthday which was back in December. Oopsie...I'm still trying to catch up on my postings!

Used Kimono Marci digital stamps from Lala Land Crafts   for mom's card, colored her with Copics and paper pieced her kimono with washi paper. I used an embossing folder from the Cuttlebug Asian bundle for the textured background.

The white border trim on the front of the card was punched using an EK Success Modern Cube edge punch. Cherry blossoms were punched from various sized punches from Carl and I used adhesive flat back pearls for the flower centers.

Here's how the Peek A Boo card looks as it's being opened. 

As you open the card, the image you saw in the window on the front of the card becomes covered by another panel and image sliding over it.

Here's the view from the top which shows how this works.

Here's the card opened completely showing Lala Land's Kimono Marci with Tea digital stamp.

Cutting file for the fans with the sentiments are from Cricut's Pagoda cartridge. 

Peek A Boo cards are always a fun interactive card to make and receive. You can find a very good detailed tutorial for this by Norma on her blog, In My Craft Room.

More Easter Goodies

In addition to the egg house boxes I posted earlier, I made a few of these last minute treat holders. Since I still had a lot of cookies left over after filling the egg house boxes I decided to put together some really simple bags so I could give them away in a festive way. I just made boxes to fit the cookies, then glued two pieces of cardstock to the bottom of the box. Brought the ends of the cardstock up, and secured them together at the top with a bow. So easy!

Kept the decorating simple too. This is Kathy Bunny, a friend of Hello Kitty; she was cut using a Sizzix die from the retired Hello Kitty Collection. Flowers and leaves are from punches and oval panels were cut using the Silhouette.

And these are the "gluten-free" pizzelle cookies I made that went inside. This actually started out as an experiment to make cookies to send my daughter who recently went on a gluten free diet. I used a combination of sweet rice flour (mochiko) and potato starch (katakuriko) in place of the flour in the original recipe. The surprising happy result was a much lighter cookie. Buttery and crisp like the original, but much more fragile. Yummy! LOL, never would've expected "healthier" to taste this good!

Then at the very last minute, I decorated a few gift bags for treats to give to little Latte's doggie pals. See the "Peeps" in the photo? They almost look like the real thing, but are actually plastic squeeky toys for doggies. So cute!

Make the Cut program was used to make cutting files for Pochacco and the butterfly and cut on the Silhouette. Easter egg cutting file came from Miss Kate's Cuttables. Had so much fun putting together all these cutsie Easter stuff...guess I'll always be a kid at heart!

Last, but certainly not least...Easter surprises from my sweet friend, Lorna!

Lorna's creative genius delighted us all once again with super cute Easter goodies. This adorable long legged chick is a candy filled plastic egg with bamboo skewers as legs, adorned with a beak, eyes, wings, funny feet and even a cute "fluff" of pink on her head! 

How about Easter treats with an Asian flair?  No problem! Lorna put together these fun treat holders for friends in her Bon Dance Club. I just love how she added bunny ears to her kokeshi and a plastic egg...and how cute is that "hachimaki" (head band)! Simply amazing how Lorna always takes the concept of "creative" up a notch to another level! So fortunate I am to have such a special friend!

Easter Bunny's Egg House

Happy Easter! Sharing the egg house boxes I created for giving to family and friends for Easter this year. I had been eyeing this egg house box from SVG Cuts for the longest time, thinking it was so cute but always thinking it would take too much time and effort to make. Since I got started early on Easter projects this year, I decided to take the plunge and give these a try...yup, they took a little much time to put together, but oh, so much FUN!

I made ten of these boxes...and honestly, for me the hardest the part and what took up the most time was deciding on which papers to use. Ended up using a combination of printed papers from Echo Park (Bundle of Joy), Bo Bunny (Double Dot), Lasting Impressions (Plaids) together with digital papers I purchased online over at Etsy.

Once all the papers were printed and cut, the assembly of these boxes took time, but wasn't too hard. Mary over at SVG Cuts has an assembly video posted on her site which helped alot, and with ten of these to make, by the time I was half way through, I was getting faster at it. One change I did make to the original cut file was to increase the height of the box by half an inch because I wanted to be sure it would be deep enough to hold at least six pizzelle cookies.

I also added Mr. and Mrs. Bunny! Idea for this comes from the adorable egg house boxes created by Nadia of Glittering Eyes blog a few years back.  My bunnies for my boxes are from the "Easter Title and Bunnies" cutting file from My Scrap Chick. Cut them out on plain white cardstock and colored them with Copics...much easier and faster than having to load and reload all the different colored papers for each piece to be cut on the Silhouette. I used the grassy borders die from Die-namics for the grass under the windows and a Punch Bunch mini daisy punch for the flowers. Flower embellishments on the tops of the eggs are a combination of  petals from silk flowers I took apart and flowers from All Natural Accents and Prima.

Then at the last minute, I thought it might be cool to make a window box to put the egg boxes in. Used Make the Cut to design the boxes, having to keep it really simple since I was running out of time. I totally enjoyed making these egg house boxes. Mary at SVG Cuts does an awesome job of creating cutting files that even I can put together! What's really neat is how you can completely change it up by the papers you select...from vintage to elegant to whimsical...so FUN!
Hope everyone is having a fabulous and fun Easter weekend! Have a few more Easter projects to share but will save for next time.

Kawaii Kokeshi

Sharing a trio of super kawaii kokeshi treats today, given to me by three of my sweetest crafting buddies.

I just LOVE this really neat shaped treat bag created by my dear friend Kris.The unique triangular shaped panels on this gives this bag some very cool dimension and really makes the adorable little paper pieced kokeshi stand out! Love the pretty sakura paper Kris used on the panels and red rafia bow to keep the bag closed. The paper pieced kokeshi girl Kris used on her bag comes from a freebie set called "Kyoto Kuties" from Lettering Delights and you can find many tutorials for this neat bag by doing an internet search for "Fancy V Self Closing Bag".

On Girls Day, sweet Lorna brought by pretty plum blossom adorned treat boxes for each of us at work. 

Lorna did a wonderful job of decorating these boxes...love the beautiful bold plum blossom with buds and the image of the cute wooden kokeshi in the background for a perfect finishing added designer's touch!  Lorna told us that the inspiration for decorating her boxes came from seeing images of  pretty Japanese wagashi or tea confections beautifully shaped and decorated to look like flowers.

This totally amazing treat box is a creation from Patti, of Creations By Patti blog. I'm very embarrassed to admit that this little treasure was given to me nearly 6 months ago but I had such a difficult time taking a picture of it because of the glare on the dome that I nearly forgot to post this. 

Patti created this beautiful "snowglobe" trinket box by covering a round candy container with patterned papers and adhering a plastic dome onto its lid. Inside the dome are miniature kokeshi, pagoda and a cherry tree from the "Cherry Delight" collection from My Little Shoebox. Gently turn the box over and pretty pink iridescent sequins fall like sakura petals around the kokeshi. So pretty!!! You can learn more details on how this was made and see more views of this amazing project by visiting Patti's blog here. 

Hope you enjoyed and are inspired by these kawaii kokeshi projects from my talented and creative crafty friends! 

Treat Boxes for Girls Day

Today is Girls Day or "Hina Matsuri" in Japan, also known as "Doll Festival". To celebrate, I made these kimono girl treat boxes and filled them with rice cakes or "mochi" to share with friends.

The inspiration to make these boxes comes from some cute bear shaped "onigiri" or rice ball boxes I spied on Pinterest from a Japanese design concept site called "h concept" found here. Using the Make the Cut design program, I tried to create a template similar to the onigiri boxes but taller to look more like the body of  kimono clad doll.

I added a head and hands, and covered the box with washi paper so it would look like a kimono. Slits were cut in the hands to allow the hands to slide into each other and keep the box closed.

Sliding the hands apart opens the box to get to the goodies inside! Coming up with the template for this box was a bit of a challenge, but once that was done, decorating and putting these treat boxes together was fun. Thanks for dropping by to visit, and wishing you all a Happy Girls Day!