Quick & Easy Gift Card Holder Purses

Been so pre-occupied with the planning of our upcoming trip that I haven't had the time to do much crafting. Decided it would be a good time to finally post these gift card holders that I made a while back, but never had the chance to post. These are really simple to do and I often fall back on this purse when I'm falling late with a gift.

The cut file for this gift card holder uses all George. For the front closure, I used a Stampin Up scallop punch and circular greeting stamp and a flower shaped rhinestone from Photocraft. To keep the purse nicely closed, magnetic strips are glued to the purse and the inside of the closure.

Here's what the card looks like on the inside with the gift card in place...

Hello Kitty is a sizzlits die...she's all decked out and ready to go shopping!

Here's another one done in shades of blue... I used glittered cardstock from the DCWV Sweet stack for these and had fun embellishing with rhinestones, flowers, ribbon and a paper lace edging cut with a Martha Stewart edge punch.

These are really kinda fun to embellish! Recently I picked some sizzlits dies of girly things like lipstick and nailpolish which I think might look cute to decorate inside these purses too.

If you'd like to give one these a try, shoot me an email and I'll send the cut file your way. BTW, next Cricut Club meeting is scheduled for the 25th!

Cards for Soldiers

For our very first group project, members of Photocraft Hawaii's Cricut Club were asked to create "Cards for Soldiers" which they shared at our last meeting in March. It was so much fun and so inspiring to see all the wonderful cards everyone created!

Here's Ev C.'s absolutely gorgeous card and matching tags which she created using the Pagoda cartridge...

Robin K. used her new Mothers Day cartridge to create SIX (!) sweet cards...



Iris T. stamped, colored and embossed these two beautiful and perfectly color coordinated cards...

Look at this pair of cuties created by Sharon F.! She used Wild Card and Sesame Street cartridges.

These two lavishly embellished and detailed beauties are Aileen H.'s creations...

These two elegant cards were created by Laura K. (left) and Roz J. (right). Laura used a paper doily to embellish the front of her card and Roz used A Childs Year cartridge for her scallop edge and embossed card.


Inside view of Laura's gatefold card...

These two super adorable cards were created by Cindy (left) and Brian (right). Cindy's cute puppy cut comes from the Paper Pups cartridge.

And Brian's multi-paged tag card features cuts from the Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge.

These two sweet cards were created by creative & talented ladies Michele C. (left) and Michele F. (right). Michele C. used the bamboo embossing folder from the Asian bundle to create the perfect backdrop for her cute panda from the Pagoda cartridge. Michele F's mouthwatering icecream cone is cut from the Indie Arts cartridge.

And finally, these are the three cards I made, very quick and easy. I used the Lyrical Letters cartridge to create all three, used Cuttlebug embossing folders to add a little texture.

Heartfelt thanks go to everyone who participated in this group project! Your talents and hardwork are truly appreciated! All your wonderful cards are being sent to our dedicated soldiers overseas so they may in turn use them to send to their loved ones.

"Hoppy" Easter!

Just barely had time to finish my Easter projects this year...my poor computer crashed and burned a couple weeks ago in the midst of my preparing for a Design Studio class and I've been frantically trying to catch up on things since then.

My first project for Easter were these little milk cartons and holders. Kind of like the Sizzix ones, but larger. The Sizzix milk cartons just seemed too small to me, so I was really happy to find these larger ones created and shared by Cricut Message board member thunderbirdlindy (Beth).

Beth's milk cartons are 5-1/2 inches tall and 2-3/8ths inches wide. Plenty large enough to hold a lot of goodies! She created two cutfiles, one for Design Studio and one for the Gypsy. Both use the George cartridge. You can find the link to Beth's files here. Please be sure to leave a message thanking her if you decide to download her files.

I decided I wanted a holder for the milk cartons so I created one in Design Studio, also using the George cartridge. The milk cartons and holders were pretty easy to cut with the Cricut and assemble. The tough part for me was the embellishing! Making and decorating my first set of four milk cartons didn't seem too bad...but I ended up making twenty-four, and that took way too much time!

Two of each set were embellished with My Melody cuts which I created with Make The Cut and images found on the internet.

And for the second two cartons in each set I used Hello Kitty Sizzlits dies. I spent way too much time on all the details on these!

For the sides of the boxes I used a round Easter Greeting $1 stamp from G Studio, Stampin' Up's scallop circle punch and a Sizzlit die for the cute chickies in the middle.

Flower, circle and leaf punches were used on the tops of the boxes and the swirly cut on the holder is from a large Sizzix die.

After spending too much time making the tiny cartons, I still had more gifts I needed to make, but with time running out, I decided to "Super-Size It". Using Beth's cut file as a guide, I created a cut file for an even larger milk carton.


Though it's difficult to tell from the photos, these cartons turned out to be 9 inches tall and 3-1/2 inches wide. Large enough to hold nearly a dozen cookies! These use two sheets of 12x12 cardstock and the 12x24 inch mat to cut.

Decorating these was a lot simpler too, since everything was a lot larger! Happy Easter is a sizzlits die, and decorated egg on the top of the boxes was created using shapes from George and Plantin Schoolbook cartridges.

Peeking Bunny was created in Make The Cut (LOVE this program!) using a digital image from Darcy Hunter's "Holiday Treasures" clip art collection.

Tulips are from the Walk in My Garden cartridge, welded in Design Studio and cut at 4-1/2 inches. Got six of these done just in time for our family Easter dinner tonight!

I was the lucky recipient of some really awesome Easter goodies from my sweet and creative friends! I received this sweet basket filled to the brim with goodies from my friend Dawne, when we got together last weekend for a Stampin Up demo at her home. The basket is from the new Easter cartridge...ooh, I love that butterfly!

This Tupperware filled with Easter surprises and this super neat swivel box is from my best shopping buddy, Kris. LOVE that box! Definitely a CASE study!


And this darling little box filled with her signature decorated cookies is from none other than my dear friend Heather. Box is a x-tra large Sizzix die....don't you just love the embossing on it!

I am blessed to have such wonderfully creative and generous friends!

Oh, oh! It's little Latte in her Easter bonnet with her new friend...wishing "ewe" a Happy Easter!

Heaven Sent

My cousin's daughter and her hubby welcomed a new addition to their family earlier this year and this is the card I created for little baby Blair. Had to do something quick and easy since I was already so late!

Found this cute Darcy Hunter Teddy Bear Angel image and used Make The Cut to render it into a cut file. I just can't get over how much easier this is to do with this new cutting program. What I love most is that I no longer have to struggle with nodes and vectors in Inkscape before importing my image into SCAL to cut. With Make The Cut, I simply import my image into the program and voila! Make The Cut renders it into a cut file. Fast and easy...just my speed!

I still feel most comfortable with Design Studio, so I used it together with the George cartridge to cut the window and create the scalloped frame. Used Cuttlebug embossing folders on the cloud and front of the card for some fun texture. Added Robin's Nest dewdrops to accent the frame, Martha Stewart Valentine doily punch for the edging. Then tied on a satin ribbon and a personalized tag cut with a Sizzlit die and it was done!

Sweet Girls Day Wishes

Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival) or Momo No Sekku (Peach Festival) is celebrated on March 3rd. Also known as Girls Day, it is the day we send wishes of good luck and happiness to the girls in our families.

And this is the card I made to send our Girls Day wishes to dd this year...

It's called a Double Display card, and I when I first saw Teri's cute card, I knew I had to give it a try too. Teri posted links to Brenda's blog, sweet as a gumdrop, where I found even more wonderful samples of this card as well as a template and tutorial! Isn't the blogging network just so awesome?!!! (BTW, you must go take a peek at the amazing creativity going on over at Brenda's blog! She is one talented lady...wait till you see all the cute punch art she creates!)

This card is very similar to the Tri Shutter Card, but with a few additional folds. I really like how the focal point on this card is center stage when you pull open the sides...

Here's what the card looks like when open. The folds and panels on inside of this card reminded me a lot of the screens placed behind Japanese Girls Day doll displays, so I thought it would be a perfect place to put my kimono dressed Hello Kitty!

The image of Hello Kitty in her kimono originally came from a coloring book, which was scanned, then rendered into a cut file using Make The Cut. Fans were cut from glittered, printed cardstock from Best Creation Inc. using the Pagoda cartridge.

I used embossing folders from the new Cuttlebug Asian Bundle to do the embossing on the front (red) and inside (gold) panels. Large and medium sakura punches were then adhered to the gold inside panels for my sentiments. Red and pink sakura borders were cut from Japanese washi paper.

Here's a top view of the showing the folds and cuts which create the panels on this card.

For treats to share with friends, I created these Japanese Doll treat holders in Design Studio.

These were created to share at the last Cricut Club meeting over at Photocraft a couple weeks ago.
The Design Studio cutfile for this box uses George, Paper Dolls Dress Up, and Stone Script cartridges.

The kimonos were cut from Bazzill in pretty pastels, then run thru the sakura embossing folder from Cuttlebug's Asian Bundle.

For the obi in the back, I used a large plastic molding tool from the Punch Bunch embossing tool kit. It has a large rounded tip which I used to puff the obi bow out and give it a bit of dimension.

This is a new (for me) technique I recently learned from my friend Norice at Creations Unlimited. I still need more practice, but I kinda liked the way it turned out.

Here's a side view showing the boxes of Japanese Pretz crackers I put inside. Found that small boxes of Strawberry or Coffee Milk Pokky crackers fit nicely too.

After cutting out the fans for dd's card, I had enough left over printed glittered cardstock to make the kimono for this one...really love that paper!

Tags for my treat bags were cut using the sakura image and tag feature on the Pagoda cartridge. I used the molding tool again, this time on the sakura petals to give them a little shape and dimension.Stamped the tags with a cute sentiment from Dandelion Designs.

I put the dolls into cellophane bags and finished them off with a bow and tag.

Hope everyone had a fun filled Girls Day!