Belated Mothers Day Celebration

Whoa! Life took me into quite a tailspin this past month!  Thankfully things have finally begun to settle down now so I can get back into some sort of normal routine.  We didn't have the chance to properly celebrate Mothers Day with family until just yesterday, had to really scramble to put a few things together.

Thank goodness for the Lori Whitlock Shop! I chose to use her Butterfly Shadowbox file to make super quick but beautiful shadowboxes as Mothers Day cards for our moms.

Here's the view from the top showing the three intricately designed layers inside the box which give this shadowbox impressive depth and dimension.

Baked up batches of pound cake for the special moms in our family and put them in gable boxes which I quickly put together using a file from SVG Cuts. Resized the box file to fit the mini loaves in Make the Cut  and kept the decorating to a minimum with a just few butterflies and pearls.

Here we are at our belated Mothers Day celebration. Heartfelt thanks to all these wonderful moms  in our lives who helped us get through all that life has thrown at us this year. We never could have survived without you. Love you all.

Daughter's First Mothers Day

Today our daughter celebrates her very first Mothers Day. Hubby and I became proud grandparents just a little over two weeks ago and I was so excited for my daughter that I started working on a Mothers Day card for her even before making ones for my own mom and mother in law..naughty me!

I decided to do a Tri-fold Screen  card, also known as a Tri-Fold Shadow Box card. I used an old cutfile I created a few years back for this style of card but found that I had to spend quite a bit of time resizing it. Later, I found a ready made cut file in the Lori Whitlock Shop... darn, wish I had seen that earlier; it would have saved me alot of stress and time! The center panel of this card is a shadowbox, where I added a silhouette of a mom and her baby.  Texture was added to the panel inside the shadowbox using the Hearts and Flowers embossing folder from Sizzix. Heart flourish on the bottom of the frame is a cut file from Miss Kate's Cuttables.

My sentiments were added to the two side panels...

...and a simple belly band keeps the trifold card closed.

Hope everyone is enjoying a relaxing Mothers Day with family today.

Birthday Shadowbox

Recently I find myself being intrigued with shadowbox style cards, especially after seeing so many cute ones at the Lori Whitlock Shop. After viewing some of the instructional videos posted by Lori, I decided to give one a try for my niece's birthday.

All the design elements used for her card including the balloons, cake and Shiba inu puppy are cutting files which were created in Make the Cut design program from images found on the web. For the balloons, I used tinted polka dot digital paper I purchased on Etsy from The DigiRainbow shop.

For my shadowbox, I used two inner panels, with cut out frames. The front panel of the card has the largest cut out, with the next inner panel having a cut out frame about 1/4 inch smaller, and the last inner panel having a cut out another 1/4 inch smaller..

I followed the instructions on Lori's video for a Shadowbox with Hidden Binding to create tabs that run inside the box onto which the inner panels are adhered. I used Georgia Pacific 110 lb cardstock to make my binding, which resulted in a very sturdy shadowbox, but next time I will probably try to use a thinner cardstock because my card did not easily fold flat due to the extra thickness.

Birthday wishes for my sweet niece were added to the back of the card. Had fun playing and experimenting with this shadowbox style card. Still need a bit more practice with this, and hope to learn to do this well soon.

More Mama Elephant Pandamonium

Had to make a couple quickie cards, so of course I turned to my favorite Mama Elephant Pandamonium stamps. Love these pandas because they're so cute and most of all because I  never have to color them in!

I made this first card  to send  some long overdue recipes I had promised to send my cousin. It's sort of a tri-window card; I simply aligned three rounded squares and added the text in Make the Cut then had the Silhouette cut it as a Print and Cut. Placed the pandas behind the windows and used foam tape to adhere the front panel onto the card.

On the inside,   I made a pocket to hold the recipe cards.

Also needed a gift card holder to send along with the anniversary card I sent to my daughter and son in law, so I decided to do a tag holder type card.

When the tag is pulled out of its pocket, the sentiment shows thru the window. Added little hearts cut from a Carl Craft heart punch purchased in Japan.

Used a gift card holder die from Jaded Blossom to cut the tabs to hold the gift card in place. Quick and simple, but still cute...it's all good!

Easter Bunnies Galore!

Happy Hoppy Easter! Here are the shadowbox style gable cookie boxes I put together for Easter treats this year. The original idea for these came from an adorable shadowbox gift card holder created by the multi talented Brigit Mann. on her blog "Brigit's Scraps". Brigit used a cutting file from the Lori Whitlock Shop for her shadowbox gift card holder. If you like CUTE, you definitely need to check out both sites...you'll fall in love with everything!

For the shadowbox element on my cookie boxes, I purchased the SVG cutting file for the shadowbox giftcard bag from the Lori Whitlock Shop. Then, instead of putting the shadowbox in a bag as in the original cutting file, I placed it into a gable box. Gable box is an old cutting file I created in Make the Cut a few years back, just tweaked it a bit so everything would fit and come together nicely.

Paper pieced bunnies, grass and carrot are images found online which were rendered into cutting files using Make the Cut design program. Pretty patterned paper background is a retired digital file called "Happy Spring" designed by Nancy Kubo which I purchased a few years ago. Put together a dozen of these bunny girl boxes and filled them with homemade pizzelle cookies.

Of course, I had to make at least one little boy bunny box for my dear son in law! I  had so much fun putting these boxes together...I'm finding that shadowbox projects have piqued my interest lately, especially after seeing many of them at the Lori Whitlock Shop. I'm hoping to start experimenting and playing with a few more shadowbox projects in the future!

Now for the best part...check out these fabulous Easter bunny treats I received from two super talented and creative friends!

This lovable little bunny put together by my dear crafting buddy Kris is really a box! I fell in love with this amazing bunny box the first time I saw him over at  the SVGCuts Shop. Of course I bought the cutting file for it too, but still haven't had the chance to make him yet... and now that I see how super CUTE he really is irl, I'm even more inspired and excited to try making him too...maybe for next Easter?

Leave it to my AWE-mazing friend Lorna to come up with yet another crazy cute, outside-the-box creative treat holder! Aren't these darling Easter bunny slippers just the most adorable thing you've ever seen? Can't tell from the photos but Lorna strapped Easter candies underneath the rug the slippers are sitting on.

And for those of you who enjoy crafts with a little Asian flavor, these Daruma Easter bunnies Lorna created for her Bon Dance Club will surely tickle your fancy! Lorna decorated red plastic eggs for her Daruma treat holders, adding bunny ears, nose, and whiskers. Super kawaii, right? Honestly, this girl and her creativity are above and beyond!

My last Easter bunny to share today is our furbaby Latte, bringing Happy Easter wishes to all. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful time celebrating today!

Love Birds 5th Anniversary

Keeping in theme with the love birds theme of their wedding 5 years ago, this is the card in a box style card I  recently made to send to my daughter and son in law for their wedding anniversary.

Instead of the usual square shaped box, I opted to try a rectangular shaped one like some of the ones I've seen pinned on Pinterest.

The best thing about the rectangular shaped card in a box card is that front of the card is wider, allowing me to put larger paper piecings inside without significantly increasing the overall size of the folded card.

I used the Lovebirds cutting file from Country Life Graphics for the bird couple and placed them on a nest created from the Nest on Branch cutting file from Miss Kate's Cuttables. And since the happy couple is expecting the birth of their first child very soon, I added a little egg with a pink bow (yes, it's a girl!) created using the Dainty Bow die from Mama Elephant. Sentiments on the flaps of the box were created in Make the Cut design program using Lettering Delights Charming font.

Our sentiments and best wishes were added to the back of the card.

Then as final throwback to their happy wedding day, I placed the card in a petal closure style envelope with a belly band and the same personalized seal  we used on their wedding invitations five years ago. So many warm, happy memories emerged as I was making this card...no wonder they always say crafting is so therapeutic!

Fairytale Wedding

Here's my second take on a Cinderella themed wedding card. This one was made for the son of my coworker who got married in December. My first Cinderella wedding card was a shaker card, but this time, I was inspired by a beautiful shadowbox card by Thyme Graphics found here.

The basic concept of this is the same as with the ever popular pop up box cards. with the struts inside the box to hold the design elements. Adding a framed window makes this into a shadowbox.

Most of the cutting files I used were the same as I used for my first card. Cinderella with Prince Charming silhouette image comes from Cricut's Happily Ever After cartridge and the castle is a coloring book image found on the web which was converted into a cutting file via Make the Cut program. This time I also added a pumpkin carriage which was created by welding an image of a pumpkin together with an image of carriage wheels.

Added the names of the bride and groom to the front of the card and backed it with some pretty glittery paper. Pharmacy true type font was used to create the cutting file for this.

View from the top shows a peek at the struts which were adhered to the card below the window with the castle and carriage glued on to them.

I added a card to the back of the box with a side tab to keep the card closed. The background layer was run through Cuttlebug's Jamara embossing folder to add some pretty texture.

Then on the inside I added my sentiment and a side pocket to hold an envelope of gift cash. In the end I was slightly disappointed that I had not taken the time to dress up the back panel in the shadow box a bit. Maybe something as simple as running it through an embossing folder might have made it look much nicer. don't you think? Hopefully I can remember to try that for next time!