Boo!

I had to quickly recall the Disney/Pixar movie, Monsters, Inc. when I learned that our granddaughter would be dressing as the character, "Boo" from that movie for Halloween this year. Of course, I wanted to keep in the theme for her Halloween card!

Happily I didn't have any trouble finding a svg cutting file for "Boo" on Etsy. Many to choose from, but I used the svg file from Sportrops and was very pleased that it cut cleanly and accurately.

Decided to keep it simple and decided to do an easel type card.

And guess who got selected to sew the costume! LOL, I had to dust off my sewing machine and pray that it would still work! My daughter purchased the pattern from Punkie Monkey on Etsy.

 Finding all fabrics and notions needed to make the costume took a little time, but once I got started it wasn't too bad. Being that our granddaughter lives in a different state, the hardest part was not being able to have her try it on to make sure it would fit. I think it may have been a little snug, but hopefully her momma will be able to make the needed adjustments so she can "Boo!" tonight.

Best Witches for a Happy Halloween!

It's hard to believe Halloween is just a few days away already! I really wish that I had gotten started sooner working on Halloween goodies but somehow just couldn't get myself into gear!

Just so happens it was my turn to share a project at my monthly craft club in September, and this is the Make and Take project we put together at the meeting. This was another simple Hexagonal Pop Up card, this time in a Halloween theme. Since I wanted to keep the focus on the construction of the base of the card, I tried to keep the paper piecing to a minimum by using the Print and Cut feature for the cute witch and gravestones.

Unfortunately, only a handful of ladies were able to attend the meeting so I ended up with several extra unused kits. Didn't want them to go to waste so I put them all together and added a pocket to the backside of the cards and sent them off with giftcards as a spooky surprise to a few of my ghoulfriends!

Only had time enough to make one treat bag for Halloween this year, and it was for my sister in law's furbaby. I came across this super cute Pochacco and friend skeleton image and just couldn't resist the challenge of creating a cutting file!

Speaking of furbabies, here's our own little Latte all dressed up  in her Polar Bear costume, ready to go trick or treating!

FORE! Hubby's Birthday

Hubby was pleased as punch to get yet another golf themed card from me for his birthday. It's always a challenge trying to come up with different golf themed cards for him... thank goodness for talented crafters who generously share their ideas and Pinterest so I can save and remember them! 
The inspiration for hubby's birthday card this year comes from the Stamp Owl herself, Frances Byrne. I came across her wonderful golf themed card on her blog, StampOwl's Studio while I was learning how to use Karen Burniston's Spinning Square Pop Up die.

For my card, I put together a paper pieced golfing bear by using the standing teddy from Marjorie Ann Designs' Cool Treats file. After having the Silhouette cut out the pieces, I glued the bear's arms, legs and body positioned so it might look like he was swinging a golf club instead of holding an icecream as in the original file. Golf club cut file was created from a coloring book image. I kept the background simple by using Lawn Fawn's stitched hillside borders die.

The funnest part of this interactive card is how the panel with golf bear pops forward and an arm with the sentiment and golf ball peeks out from behind as the card is opened. I'm really liking Karen Burniston's Spinner Square Pop Up die a lot . A little tricky to put together, but well worth the resulting fun card. Highly probable that this will soon become my new "go to" card style for birthday cards this year!

Baby Girl Building Blocks Card

This is a card I put together for a grandbaby of a very sweet friend who recently became a proud and happy Gramma. I guess I am now in the stage of life where all my friends are joining me in retirement and becoming grandparents too!

It's been awhile since I've made a Building Blocks card, so I decided it was time to try one again. 

This is the first Building Blocks card I've done for a baby girl, and also my first time stretching it to a six block card so baby's name, "Kalena" would fit. I had to keep the blocks to 1 inch in height to avoid ending up with a card that would seem way too huge. I used  Make the Cut Design Program and Memo true type font to create the cutting file for the alphas on the blocks

3 panels on this card to decorate! I created cutting files for the giraffe family on the front using safari animal clipart from My Cute Lobster on Etsy and Doodlebug in the Lori Whitlock Store.

On the inside of the card, paper pieced teddy also from Lori Whitlock Store, ducky is from an old Quickutz die, and onsie and bottle are from Cricut Baby Steps cartridge.
The Building Blocks card makes fun baby cards; I especially like that I can add baby's name to the blocks to personalize these cards and make them extra special. I used the tutotrial and video tutorial found over at Splitcoast Stampers, here.

Let the Relaxation Begin!

Here's a fun retirement card I put together for a special lady who I used to work with. Although I myself am recently retired, I haven't had the opportunity to make many retirement cards yet so I needed to create a board on my Pinterest account to start saving ideas right away! The inspiration for this card came from a super cute and clever punch art retirement card that was created by Rochelle Peterson and posted on her blog, Creative Corner Studio.

To make this into a fun pop up card, I used the pop up mechanism from Karen Burniston's Katherine Label Pop Up Die so the teddy bear on the float rises and pops up as the card is opened.

The adorable bikini clad teddy and the float are paper piecing cut files from Marjorie Ann Designs: "Girls Just Wanna Have Sun" for the ring float, and "Beach Day Fun" for the teddy. The fancy labels  I used for the sentiments are freebie svg cutting files from Images by Heather M blog.
Kudos once again to Karen Burniston for coming up with this easy and fool-proof pop up mechanism die so everyone can create fun, "wowza" pop up cards everytime!

Instacube Photo Cube for Mom

I have another Instacube pop up cube card to share today. Had to make this one for my mil's recent birthday since she was one of the last few in our family who had not received this style of card from us yet.

I chose recent photos of her son, granddaughter and great granddaughter to use on four sides of the cube,

and added the birthday sentiment to the back.

This rubber band activated cube is easily flattened, and slides nicely into it's pocket envelope which I embellished with a rose and banner print and cut image from Miss Kates Cuttables. I created a shadow layer for it using metallic gold cardstock and adhered it to a panel which had been run through Cuttlebug's Wicker Weave embossing folder for texture. The Instacube card continues to be a favorite and fun card for me to make and give. Cutting file, template and tutorial  for this can be found at the Lori Whitlock Shop.

Panda Spinner Square Pop Up

I am in awe of Karen Burniston and her talent of always coming up with new cutting dies that make the funnest interactive pop up cards! I recently purchased her Spinner Square Pop Up die and couldn't wait to try it out on this birthday card for a special friend. Since I wanted to gift her a Starbucks giftcard, I chose a cute panda in a mug image and created a paper piecing cut file for it using Make the Cut design program.

As the card is opened, the panel with the panda and doughnut you saw from the window on the front of the card pops forward and *surprise!* another panda appears from behind, bearing a gift card!

So fun, right? The most amazing thing is that the actual pivot style mechanism which creates all this fun pop up and spinning action is a just small strip of cardstock with scorelines cut from Karen Burniston's magical die. Probably the hardest part is remembering where to fold and where to apply glue. I had to watch Karen's assembly tutorial video several times to make sure I got it right. Just need to play around with it  a few more times and I think I'll have it down. Looking forward to trying the almost endless possibilities for making different kinds of pop ups with this fun pivot mechanism!