Doc Mcstuffins' "Time For A Check Up" Birthday

About a month ago, our granddaughter who was turning 4 in April excitedly told us that she was having a Doc Mcstuffins themed birthday party to celebrate with her preschool classmates. Of course, this clueless gramma had no idea who Doc Mcstuffins was so  I had to quickly do the "Google/Wiki/You Tube Internet Search" to find out. Even sat down to watch several episodes from the series so I could regain some sort of cool gramma status, LOL.
 

I learned that the Doc Mcstuffins series is a fairly new (2012) addition to Disney Channel. She's a young girl who aspires to be a doctor like her mom, and she talks to and heals her broken toys and stuffies.  Happily I had no trouble finding lots of coloring book images, ideas and logos for Doc Mcstuffins on the internet to help me create this personalized themed birthday card for our granddaughter.

On the inside, I was excited to finally get a chance to try out the Photo Collage Pop Up die by Karen Burniston...

I've had this pop up die for awhile but never felt I had enough images to create this collage until now. I printed images from the internet of Doc Mcstuffins and her friends onto glossy photo paper, sizing them to fit into the die cut frames that are included in the pop up die set. 

This fun pop up looks like it might be complicated to assemble but I'm happy to report that I was able to put this collage together on my first try with the help of Karen's You Tube video assembly tutorial.

Cutting files for all the paper pieced embellishments on this card, including the paper pieced Doc Mcstuffins on the front were created in Make the Cut design program from coloring book images or icon clip art. This is a fun pop up card to make and receive; the only drawback being that I rarely have enough photos to create a collage. I guess I need to start taking more photos of people instead of only paper projects!

Prior to the themed party, my daughter asked if I could help put together some "Doc bags" for the party guests.

This is what Doc Mcstuffins' doctor bag looks like. I was happy to find lots of freebie templates online to recreate this as a treat bag for birthday parties....

But then I was told that all this stuff (stethoscope, clipboard and "Big Book of Boo Boos) had to fit into each bag... what?!! (The guests would all be playing doctors who would be doing "check ups" on their stuffed animals at the party)

Since the bags needed to be at least 8 inches high to accommodate the clipboard, we decided to use ready made lavender colored gift bags, trim off the handles and attach a glittery handled topper. The back flap of the topper was glued onto the bag and I used strong neodymium magnets for the front closure.

Cutting files for the glittery handled topper and this "most important" paper pieced Doc Mcstuffins bandaid logo were created in Make the Cut design program.

Themed birthday parties are always so much fun and I'm so happy that I had the chance to help with the bags. 

Touched by Kindness

As promised, today I'm sharing some fun crafty treasures I recently received from two very sweet and thoughtful friends.

My dear friend Bev warmed my heart again this year with another beautifully handmade Mothers Day card. I love the clever design of this box card shaped as a tea cup with brightly colored blooms! Bev's thoughtful gesture of sharing her love with the cards she creates during Mothers Day and other special occasions always brings much cheer and has inspired me to try to do the same.

This fun spa inspired Mothers Day gift is from my amazingly creative friend, Lorna. Lorna wrapped a bar of scented soap with delicate Japanese tissue and embellished with this totally adorable paper pieced bubble bath girl. Definitely outside the box creative, right? And Omgosh, how cute is that little rubber duckie!

But wait, don't put your cuteness monitor away just yet! This super kawaii Boys Day treat box, also designed by Lorna pushes the cuteness level sky high!  I love how she rolled washi papers to make flying carp windsocks and suspended them in air with beads strung on fishing line. Isn't it amazing what a little paper, beads, ribbon and fishing line can create when you have the creative prowess of Lorna?

Before I sign off today, I wanted to let you know that I was recently notified that Feedburner will no longer be providing email notifications for my blog posts. I honestly thought it had ceased to function a while back, but if you'd like to receive some sort of notification, the platform I currently personally use is Bloglovin'.

Mothers Day Shaker Card

Happy Mothers Day! I decided to make shaker cards for Mothers Day this year. I got started working on my cards early, because I wanted to make extra cards to send to special friends and  because shaker cards always seem to be a bit of a challenge for me to put together.
 

I started by printing "Happy Mothers Day" word art from the Silhouette Design Store on the inside panel of my shaker. Scalloped oval frame is a freebie svg cutting file shared by Heather M on her blog here. Lacy corners were cut using the Filigree Corner die from Lala Land Crafts.

I used Lori Whitlock's Decagon Pop Up Swan svg for the paper pieced swan and blossoms, adding stickles to the flower centers and scattering a few extra sequins for some bling.

On the inside, I used Karen Burniston's Cake Pop Up die (AGAIN!) to create the hexagonal platform for the crowned swan and blossoms.  I added more die cut filigree corners and an oval matted in gold for the sentiment. The sentiment shown here is for the cards that I made for my special "mom friends".

I knew I had to have this swan cutting file from the first time I saw it in the Lori Whitlock Shop. I've always thought of swans as being beautiful, graceful, magical, and a symbol of motherly love... so I felt this would be perfect to use for my Mothers Day cards.

The original cutting file for the swan (Lori Whitlock's Decagon Pop Up Card - Swan) creates a very impressive ten sided stand alone pop up card, but since I already had my mind set on creating a pop up inside a card, I used Karen Burniston Cake Pop Up die to install a hexagon pop up platform in the card.

I've been having way too much fun using this hexagon pop up platform in my cards recently so I'm pretty certain everyone on my list to receive a card will probably get one... or more! 

I also have a pair of amazing Mothers Day surprises I received from my crafty friends that I want to share, but will save for my next post. Till then, please have an enjoyable, relaxing Mothers Day!  

New Home Pop Up Card

 Our daughter and son in law moved into a new "forever home" in December, and although I was little late, I finally put a card together and sent it off to their new address.

As you may have already guessed, the mailbox on the front of the card was inspired by the Disney movie, "Up". I actually created a similar "Up" inspired mailbox for their housewarming card several years ago when they bought their first home. This time around, I enlarged the mailbox to be the focal point of the card front and added the dog paw and toddler handprint (additional family members!).

On the inside, I added this fun pop up house, which was inspired by a fabulous light up, snowy house Christmas card created by my dear friend Bev a few years ago. The tutorial and template to recreate Bev's amazing light up pop up card can be found here. I also discovered and learned a lot from a video tutorial by Duncan Birmingham, Tutorial 31 Pop Up House. If you are interested in pop ups as much as I am, he is on You Tube as "The Pop Up Channel" with video tutorials for many, many different kinds of pop ups. I really like that he takes the time to fully explain the mechanisms, how to construct them and how they work.

Through Duncan Birmingham's tutorial, I learned I could add things on to the pop up rectangle house structure as long as I stayed in the same line or parallel to that line. So on that premise I added the white picket fence and a pop up box on the backside of the house to attach the rainbow; and happily it worked! The one thing I just couldn't get quite right was the placement of the roof, which is not quite on correctly, but I after several tries at adjusting it, I gave up.

For the fence, windows and door, I used the same cutting files I originally created in Cricut Design Studio for the first housewarming card for my daughter back in 2012. I just downsized everything to fit this house. Cutting file for the tree is from Doodlebug's "Trees-Kitten Smitten" and rainbow is "Cute Rainbow" from Miss Kates Cuttables.  Flowers and leaves for the flowerboxes were punched using mini punches from Punch Bunch.

It took a lot of practice tries and experimenting, but I guess was pretty happy with how this pop up house card finally turned out, despite the issues with the placement of the roof.  However, I know I probably won't be attempting another pop up house like this anytime soon. The funniest thing is that just as I was getting ready to publish this post, I found out yesterday that Karen Burniston released 12 new die sets this month which includes dies to make a pop up house similar to this one. Darned.... if only I had waited a little longer before attempting to make this card! Now I might have to buy that die and eat my words about what I just wrote about not making anymore cards like this soon...!

So Lucky To Be Your Friend

When Mama Elephant released their "Lucky Cat" stamp set last year, I tried very hard to resist buying it. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) it didn't take long before my will power caved in because you know; I REALLY NEEDED to have it to make this card... lol!

 

I think what I like most about Mama Elephant stamp images is how I can get away with creating a pretty cute card with a minimal amount of coloring. For this card, I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the rounded square windows for the front, adding the sentiment using the Print and Cut function. The colored background behind the windows was created by brushing and blending Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks with foundation brushes.

On the inside, I used Karen Burniston's Cake Pop Up die set once again to add a little pop up "stage" where my lucky cats could hang out and celebrate. Did I mention that I'm having too much fun with this die? "Happy Birthday" sentiment was cut from glitter cardstock using "Happy Birthday Words" die from Hello Bluebird.

I added three clear acetate struts; front, center and back so I could stagger the cats and sentiment placement on the hexagon base.

Wanted to include a gift card with this birthday card so I added a pocket cut using a "Pocket Border" die from Pretty Pink Posh to the backside of the card.   

For An Egg-stra Special Granddaughter

 This is the Easter card I made to send to our granddaughter this year. She's old enough now where she enjoys pop ups and interactive cards so it's fun trying to come up with new ideas to surprise her.
 

For the paper pieced bunnies on my card, I used an older svg cutting file, "EGGstra Special" (now retired) purchased from Kadoodle Bug Designs a few years ago. I kept the front of the card simple, layering cardstock for the background and running the blue cardstock thru Stampin' Up's "Cloudy Day" embossing folder for the sky.

On the inside, I added one of my favorite, the Pop Up Accordion Panel, or aka Twist Panel Pop Up.

Just for fun I used egg and flower shaped panels in place of the rectangular panels typically seen with this style of pop up. Sentiments for the inside and front of the card were computer generated, using Bryce ttf.

Side view here shows the pivot mechanism which holds the accordion folded panels and creates the fun twist and pop up action of this style of card. 

There are many video tutorials for this type of card on YouTube if you do a search for "Twist Panel Pop Up Card". I usually like to watch several different ones since everyone has different helpful tips and tricks to make the assembly of this card go smoothly. 

Easter Egg Houses and Other Springtime Treats

While looking for ideas for making a cute box to share my pizzelles in this Easter, I came across an adorable "3D House Easter Egg" which was part of a collection of little paper houses for home decor at the Lori Whitlock Shop.

I purchased the Lori Whitlock cutting file for this, but since the original file was not designed to be used as a gift box, it wasn't quite deep enough to hold cookies. On checking some older files I picked up in the past, I found an egg shaped box in the perfect size designed by SVG Cuts as part of the "Bunny Hop Kit".

I altered the original file from SVG Cuts just a bit by creating a flat bottom for my box so it could stand upright on its own. 

I used the window, door and tree and grass embellishments from Lori Whitlock's "3D House Easter Egg", enlarging them to fit onto my box. Paper pieced bunny was created from an image found on Pinterest.

I was pleasantly surprised that it was pretty simple to assemble these boxes. Cutting all the small embellishment pieces for the front of the box that took some time, but I was able to complete and fill 15 of these in time for sharing with friends and family.

As a final touch, each egg box was put into a cello bag and tied with a tulle bow.

I was the lucky recipient of these two super cute Easter treat boxes created by two of my very special and creative friends, Kris and Lorna that I'm excited to share...

This "fence box" with an adorable bunny and her eggs was put together by Kris. I love the pretty pastel colors she used, and especially like that this treat box is large enough to hold Kris' yummy home baked cookies as well as two Easter eggs filled with treats. Designed by Daniela Moscone, the svg cutting file for this can be found over at the Silhouette Design Store.

Isn't this the cutest little lamb basket ever? Lorna created the cutting file for her sweet paper pieced lamb from clipart ,adding a fun fluffy wooly texture by running pieces through Cuttlebug's D'vine Swirl embossing folder. I love that lambie's paper punched pretty crown of blossoms is just the perfect touch of spring! Best wishes to all for a joyful Easter Sunday!