Happy New Year 2022

Happy New Year! I'm finally back from my usual holiday hiatus from blogging. The first project I'm sharing this year are my Year of the Tiger calendar magnets.

While searching the internet for inspiration, I came across many adorable maneki neko (lucky cat) tiger images on Pinterest and knew right away I wanted to create a paper pieced version for my calendars this year.

I normally try to start working on these calendar magnets during late summer to alleviate holiday stress but last year I got behind schedule and didn't get a chance to start cutting and assembling until after Christmas. In order to save time, I decided to print the stripes onto orange cardstock for the tiger body pieces prior to cutting them on the Silhouette. It saved a lot of time doing it that way instead of having to cut the stripes out as a stencil or as individual pieces, and it prevented much stress! Arial Black font was used to create the cutting file for the year. The cutting file for the paper pieced tiger was created in Make the Cut design program, inspired by a combination of several maneki tiger images found on Pixta Japan. 

 I wanted to send the calendars in my holiday thank you cards again this year so I created a window on the front of a card for the tiger to show through. "Year of the Tiger" was done as a print and cut and backed with a gold foil board shadow cut.

I trimmed an acetate sleeve to fit the bottom half of the calendar and adhered it to the inside of the card. Mama Elephant stamps from "Lunar Sayings" and "Lunar Extras" sets were used to add the sentiments to the left side.

I enjoyed putting these calendars together and sending them to friends and relatives again this year. Hope the Year of the Tiger proves to be a lucky one for everyone!

Thanksgiving Treats

I'm a week late, but I thought I should post these Thanksgiving projects before I get too wrapped up in Christmas stuff and forget. As much as I love Thanksgiving, for some reason I always fall behind and struggle to create anything fun to share with others for this holiday. Luckily, I have two crafty friends who are on the ball and always have a creative RAK to share for Thanksgiving.

This sweet Thanksgiving bendi card was created and sent to me by my dear friend Bev. I think this is the very first bendi card I've ever received and I love it! Bendi cards are especially fun because the recipient gets to play a part in putting it together to create a neat three dimensional display style card.

 

My super creative friend Lorna came up with this sweet treat box which she filled with my favorite candies. I thought her paper pieced roasted turkey and pumpkin pie were adorable; and I really liked how she added a cute seasonal kokeshi stamped image from Dandelion Designs to adorn her treat holder.

I was feeling a little guilty because I knew I was behind schedule and didn't have time to put a Thanksgiving card together for our 4 year old granddaughter this year. A week before Thanksgiving, I came across a post by a member of Dreaming Tree's Facebook group about how she had cut out a paper pieced turkey and sent it unassembled to her grandson for a fun Thanksgiving craft project. What a brilliant idea, right? I didn't have time to come up with a fun interactive card, but I knew I'd have time to cut the pieces for a paper pieced turkey and send to our granddaughter to assemble herself.  I also adhered a simple folding frame to the back of the base piece so turkey could stand up for display once it was completed. Prior to mailing, I snapped step by step shots for assembly instructions to include with the turkey pieces.

Happily, it turns out she had a great time putting her turkey together.

Only problem, I'm told was that "It was too easy" and to "Please make the next one more challenging"!

Looking For Rainbows

Everyone needs a little cheering up sometimes, right? I made this card to send to a friend who was going through a rough patch in her life about the same time that I too was going through sadness from having to put a beloved furbaby to rest. Focusing on making a card to help cheer someone else up seemed to help ease some of my own sadness.

My friend is a fan of all things kawaii and Hello Kitty, so I decided to use this Hello Kitty with umbrella image from the Hello Kitty Greetings Cricut cartridge. Cutting file for clouds and raindrops were created in Make the Cut and the grassy background border was cut using Lawn Fawn's Stitched Hillside die.

On the inside, I used Karen Burniston's Katherine Label Pop Up mechanism to animate my card. As the card is opened, a rainbow and Hello Kitty pop up and rise up to the top of the card.

Paper pieced rainbow and clouds cut file comes from Cricut's Once Upon A Princess cartridge. Cutting files for Hello Kitty with balloons and blue birds were created in Make the Cut design program from coloring book images. I hope that this simple card brought even just a little bit of sunshine into my friend's day!

Have a "GROOT" Birthday!

Every year I try my best to come up with a birthday card that will amuse my son in law. It's challenging but fun because I find myself learning a lot about things he enjoys. For example, this year I decided to use  baby Groot on his birthday card.

Do you know Groot? Any Marvel Comics fan would know him as the tree character in Guardians of the Galaxy. Groot's vocabulary is limited to just three words, "I am Groot", but depending on the tone of his voice, those three words can translate to many different things, and it's usually something unexpected and funny.

 

I was happy to find several cute coloring page images of baby Groot which were rendered into cutting files in Make the Cut Design program. 

Then for a fun surprise, I used Karen Burniston's Flower Pot Pop Up die and planted a baby Groot inside. 

I used one of the stitched balloon dies from Craft Emporium's Balloons Galore set to add festive birthday balloons.

Just for laughs I added the translation for "I am Groot" in the sentiment box and a print and cut image of adolescent Groot's cassette tape of rock music. Birthday cupcake was cut and pieced from Cottage Cutz' Tiered Cupcake die set. It was fun putting this card together while watching and laughing at Groot video clips from old Guardian of the Galaxy movies on You Tube. Hope my son in law enjoyed his card as much as I enjoyed making it!

Golf Shutter Card

I'm always looking for new ideas for golf themed cards to make for hubby so  I was excited when I came across this Golf Shutter Card designed by Cyndy Gustashaw of My Scrap Chick. 

Shutter or Magic Iris cards are probably one of the funnest interactive cards to receive. As the lever on the right side of the card is pulled down...

The center shutter or iris of the golf ball opens up to reveal a message.

Although the interactive element of  this type of card is fascinating, admittedly it was a bit fiddly to assemble. After a few practice runs I knew I would have to add some strength by using a double layer of cardstock for all the working pieces of the mechanism to ensure the iris would open and close smoothly. I should also mention that I used Cuttlebug's Tiny Bubbles embossing folder on the pieces of the iris to give the golf ball a cool dimpled texture but that may have created some of the resistance causing the need for the extra reinforcement of the mechanism.

I kept the inside of the card simple by using a golf course background printed at 60% tint and adding the birthday sentiment, using Aloha Summer font. 

This was my first time working with this style of shutter/magic iris card. Although initially I ran into some difficulty getting the mechanism on this card to work smoothly, hubby loved his birthday card so much that I guess I will be playing around with it a bit more so I can get better at putting this together. I am hoping to one day try this with a camera shaped card,

Kitties, a Dragon, and a Unicorn

Don't know why but it took me longer than usual to get excited about Halloween this year. Couldn't get the creative juju going so I ended up having to fall back on good ol'  reliable cuteness of Hello Kitty on a fry box. 

I used the template for the Elf Fry Box from SVG Cutting Files which makes a fry box large enough to hold more than half a dozen cookies or a dozen pretzels. Paper pieced Hello Kitties were created in Make the Cut Design program and sized to fit on the front of the boxes.
 

Cut file for the spider was created from freebie icon clip art and the bats cut from glitter cardstock using a very old Quickutz die. "Happy Halloween" and the back inset was done as a print and cut using Henny Penny font. Hello Kitty skeleton boxes were filled with Furikake Pretzel sticks.

Cutting files for both Hello Kitties were rendered from coloring book images. I filled the Jack o Lantern Hello Kitty boxes with butter cookies generously sprinkled with orange sanding sugar. Being that I was running late it was nice that a dozen of each box were finished in a week. Hello Kitty saves the day!

Perhaps part of the reason I was so late in getting started on Halloween treat boxes may have been this card. This is the card I made to send to our granddaughter for Halloween.

 I wasted so much time trying to find the perfect paper for the back drop for this card, and in the end I decided to try and make my own. This gave me the chance to finally try the Bokeh Background technique using distress and white inks together with circle stencils. I started by randomly brushing on 3 colors of distress ink onto white cardstock. I used my Silhouette to cut different sized circles onto a piece of sturdy cardstock to use as a stencil. Then I brushed white pigment ink from an inkpad over the distress inked background using my homemade stencil to create the bokeh effect. I was quite pleased with the result and am looking forward trying this technique again soon with different colors of distress inks.

I completed the scene on the front of the card by adding glittery die cut bats cut from an old Quickutz die and a spooky haunted house border using a cutting file from Miss Kate's Cuttables.

I thought it would be fun to do another Popping Flap style card. As the inner panel is pulled out of its outer "pocket"...

"Sisu" the water dragon from Disney's "Raya and the Last Dragon" pops out and up from inside!

Yes! You are absolutely correct if you guessed that our granddaughter chose to be "Sisu" the dragon for Halloween this year.

SVG cut file for Sisu was acquired from One Creative Market on Etsy. I used pearlescent and glitter cardstock to cut and piece Sisu together and added glittery Stickles accents to her mane. 

As mentioned earlier, this card took way too much time to create, but that's okay because I had so much fun putting it together!

And finally, here's the Unicorn... she's the newest member of our family, our furbaby "Polah" dressed up for her very first Halloween! Thanks for dropping by today. Happy Trick or Treating!

"FaBOOlous" Halloween Treats!

I have a trio of  fun and "Fa-BOO-lous" Halloween treats from my creative friends to share today. 

Caution! Cuteness Overload Alert!!! This Halloween bento box of goodies put together by our dear friend Heather is almost too cute to eat. Heather worked her magic in the kitchen baking and decorating these adorable cookies and making mochi in Halloween colors. There's orange chichi mochi, and mochi filled with peanut butter and Resses peanut butter cup... so yum!

My crafty friend Kris created this amazing haunted house treat box filled with treats and even a  little coffin box. I think the flying ghosts outside the house and the spider on the coffin are just too cute!

I love that this treat box is nice and large; it stands about 7 inches high and is approximately 3 inches in depth... so plenty of  room inside for lots of treats! SVG cutting file for this "Haunted Ghost House" comes from Simply Crafty Svgs.

The third of my trio of Halloween goodies was put together by creative friend Lori. This has got to be the cutest tombstone treat box ever! Sturdy tombstone shaped box is from Stampin' Up and Lori did an amazing job of dressing them up using an adorable print and cut Halloween teddy by Kristi W. Designs together with spooky tree, fence and sparkly star die cuts. The glitter glue accents she added gives everything a fun, almost magical feel.

Halloween falls on Sunday this year which means we can enjoy celebrating all weekend long...stay safe and have fun!