What a CAT-astrophe!

 After making the masked Daniel Tiger card to send to our granddaughter (in my previous post), I wanted to create something similar to send smiles to some friends whom I've missed getting together and spending time with this year. 

I came across some handmade cards on Pinterest using  a clever play on the word "catastrophe". Then of course my favorite cat, Hello Kitty came to mind and I figured together this might be a cute idea for a card.

Just as with my last card, I used  a cutting file for the mask from the "Shelter In Place" file from Little Scraps of Heaven, sizing it to fit Miss Hello Kitty, then welding it into a round window for the front of the card.       

Cutting file for paper pieced Hello Kitty was created in Make the Cut design program from a coloring book image. 

Cutting files for the thermometer and caution tape as well as the printed virus image in the speech bubble are also from Little Scraps of Heaven's "Shelter In Place" file.  An icon symbol of a pump bottle found on the internet was rendered into a cut file to create the antibacterial bottle.

Just learned recently that we need to be sheltering in place for at least another two weeks in our area. I'll be mailing half a dozen of these cards to friends this week, hoping it might help to bring a little bit of cheer...

Staying Safe With Daniel

Yikes! Our city and county is back on lock down due to a  recent rise in our Covid 19 positive cases. All of this was getting a little depressing so I decided to cheer myself up by making this fun card; hoping it would also bring a smile to our little 3 year old granddaughter whom we're really missing a lot these days.
 

The idea for my card comes from some of the cute and clever pandemic greeting cards I've been seeing a lot of on the internet recently which feature a masked happy face. Since this card was to be for our granddaughter, I swapped the happy face with a face that I knew would be more familiar to a preschooler... can you guess who it is?

Open the card to see the face behind the mask is none other than PBS Kids' Daniel Tiger! In case you're not familiar with him, he's the same Daniel Tiger that appeared as a puppet in PBS's Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.  He and all the rest of the puppets (and even the red trolley!) from that program are back on PBS as a delightful animated cartoon for children with all the wonderful songs from the original show. 

The paper pieced cutting file for Daniel was created in Make the Cut design program using a coloring book image found on the PBS Kids website. For the front of the card, I used the mask from Little Scraps of Heaven Shelter In Place cutting file, which was welded into the round window shape.

Grassy border was cut using a Die-namics die and flowers and leaves were cut using Punch Bunch mini punches.

We've heard our granddaughter isn't always cooperative with her parents about wearing a mask to keep safe, but perhaps her favorite Daniel Tiger can be more compelling?

Hello Kitty Eye Chart Card

 I made this card for a special young lady in our family who will be leaving home in a few weeks to attend Optometry School in Arizona. To create the custom eye chart for my card, I used the free eye chart maker app available online at the Homemade Gifts Made Easy website. So easy... all you need to do is type in the text you want on your eye chart, select a font and it's ready to download and print in a matter of seconds.

The soon to be Optometry student is my cousin's daughter, who happens to be a big fan of Hello Kitty, so of course I had to add a "geeky" Hello Kitty to her card. I also found some Bo Bunny Ruled Journal Paper cardstock in my stash which I thought would be perfect backdrop for this "back to school" card.

Decided to make this into a fun Surprise Pop Up Slider style card... pulling up on the tulle bow on the top of the card makes the front panel pull up like an easel, revealing our sentiment underneath.

I also adhered a clear envelope with a monetary gift onto the pull tab as an added surprise. The video tutorial for putting together a Surprise Pop Up Slider style card by Splitcoast Stampers' Beate Johns can be viewed on You Tube, here. 

I always enjoy making the Surprise Pop Up Slider card, especially whenever I want to enclose a gift card or monetary gift with a fun interactive card. 

Kokeshi Double Slider Card

I recently discovered that Lili of the Valley, an online stamp shop from UK, also has an Etsy Shop by the same name where they sell their line of digital stamps. I've always known Lili of the Valley to have some of the cutest stamp images so I was excited to be able to purchase them in digital format. I noticed they had some adorable Asian inspired stamps, and  picked up their Kokeshi Doll Set  knowing it would be perfect to use on a double slider birthday card I had in mind for a sweet friend.

Still photos never seem to do slider style cards justice, so hubby agreed to help me capture some of the sllider fun of this card on video.

Pull out on the tab on the bottom right side of the card and the two kokeshi girl images slide from behind the sakura border and towards each other to meet in the center! To create this fun interactive slider, I followed MFT's very talented Karolyn Loncon's video tutorial for a double slider card found here. Karolyn uses MFT Die-namics dies to make it easier to create the mechanism to make this slider card work but you could also cut the slider pieces and create the slots with an x-acto blade.

Kokeshi girl digital images were printed onto white cardstock and colored with Copic markers. The sakura images that came with the set were rendered into a cutting file in Make the Cut, cut from pearlescent and glitter cardstock, then paper pieced to be a border. The blue wave background panel is from a digital paper set designed by Gradient Fox also on Etsy. I used Memo and Ballerina true type fonts for the sentiments and cut the front and back panels and the sentiment using the Print and Cut function.

I enjoyed putting this card together and was especially pleased that I was able to assemble and have the double slider mechanism working smoothly fairly easily. Looking forward to trying another double slider card like this one soon!

Christmas Shaker Tags in July

I admit I've never been much of a fan of  the concept of "Christmas in July". I suppose getting an early start on holiday projects is always a good idea, but I'm never ready for it and the thought of already being late for the holidays in July gives me anxiety! 

But last week while tidying my craftroom, I came across this very old Penny Black rubber stamp purchased many years ago but never used... and thought to myself, "Okay, why not? Let's give it a go!"

    

I started by coloring my stamped image with Copic markers, then scanning it and using the print and cut feature in Make the Cut design program to fussy cut a dozen images. Cutting file for the shaker tag front was created by adding a rectangular shape into a simple tag shape. Back panel was also done as a print and cut using Invitation true type font.

I used clear acetate for my shaker window and adhered the stamped image to the front.  I applied 1/4 inch wide foam tape on the inside around the window and lightly wiped the acetate with a Bounce dryer sheet before adding my chunky glitter and sequins. Sounds crazy but that really helped to control the issue of static cling...uncontrollable glitter and sequins everywhere that I dislike most about making shaker tags. I also found that I could keep the glitter and sequins from sticking to my fingers and tweezers by wiping them with the dryer sheet too.

Now that I've finished my first set of a dozen Christmas tags, it feels so good! I guess Christmas in July can be a good thing afterall.

Promoted to Grandma

This is the card I made to send to a dear long time friend who recently retired and became a new grandma. Instead of sending our congratulations in two separate cards, I decided to create just one card to celebrate both happy events.

I wanted to use a fun but simple format for my card so I chose to do a Lever style card with a square window. Difficult to see from the photos but the computer generated sentiments read, "Congratulations! On your Retirement... and your promotion to Grandma!"

Patterned papers are from Echo Park's "Bundle of Joy-Girl" digital collection. I love how easy it was to print and cut all the insert panels for this card using the texturize, fill and cut features in Make the Cut design program together with my Silhouette Cameo.

Paper pieced teddies were created using a Marjorie Ann Designs cutting file, "Starburst and Moonbeams" for grandma bear reading to baby bear on the front of the card and ...

...an older, retired cutting file; "Sister Bears", from Too Cute By Jessica for baby bear's high chair.

Here's a view from the top which shows the easy construction of the Lever style card. I sent the double congratulatory card along with a couple fun Hallmark books for grandma to read to her new granddaughter; "That's What Grandmas Do!" by Alarie Tennille and "Elephants Have Grandmas Too" by Susan D Gotschall and a gift card for Grandma to splurge on herself as well. 
 

PANDA-mic?

Enjoyed putting together the Accordion style card with the cute digital stamps from Dandelion Designs for my granddaughter  (shared in my last post) so much that I wanted to make more cards to send to my friends as well. To add a bit of whimsy, I decided to use an idea for a play on words that I had come across while browsing the web using the word "panda-mic" together with Dandelion Designs' image of the adorable masked panda holding a cannister of disinfecting wipes for the front of my card. I used Cuttlebug's Wicker Weave embossing folder to add texture to the oval panel behind the panda and added a print and cut speech bubble for fun.

Although I liked the way the Accordion style card I made for my granddaughter turned out, I realized attempting to make a dozen more cards  might be too ambitious so I was happy to come across a tutorial for a Pop Out Panel Card by UK Stampin' Up Demonstrator, Teri Pocock on her blog, Teri's Stampin' Magic. I really like how this Pop Out Panel Card has a look similar to that of  an Accordion style Card but with a lot less work!

Here's  a view of the card from the top which sort of reminds me of a pop up z-fold style card on the inside.

First I printed theThe Dandelion Designs digital stamps onto white and Bo Bunny Double Dot cardstocks. Spellbinders nested circle dies were used to cut the images that I had printed onto the Double Dot cardstock. The images printed onto white cardstock were colored with Copic markers, fussy cut, and adhered onto the colored circles with foam tape. 

Thanks to Teri's tutorial and the ease at which this Pop Out Panel card came together, I was able to put together a dozen of these fun cards pretty quickly to share with friends. Hope it helped to brighten everyone's day just a little bit!