Sanrio Halloween Treats

Oops! It happened again...I got distracted by all the adorable Sanrio characters dressed in their cute  Halloween costumes that I saw online that I had no choice but to go with Hello Kitty themed Halloween  treat holders for yet another year. Sorry... but not sorry!

 

I used the same small cooky box template I  created earlier this year for a friend get together but this time, I cut a square window in the front so I could put a shadowbox behind it. Make the Cut design program was used to create the cut file for Hello Kitty on her broom. I used foam tape to adhere the paper pieced kitty into a square tray with a depth of 0.25 inch, sized to fit behind the window opening. A panel of acetate was adhered to cover the window, then an orange frame over that. Metal dies to cut the bats came from Spellbinders "Halloween Wreath Add Ons" and Karen Burniston "Haunted Tiny House Add Ons" sets.

Inside, the shadowbox took up about a quarter of an inch of depth but I was still able to pack 8 to 10 small sugar cookies into each box. I managed to put together a dozen of these small boxes to share with family and friends.

I also had fun making these domed candy holders again this year. This year I made Pochacco peeking from a jack o lantern and Hello Kitty dressed as a vampire. Original templates for both are from  "By Yeni". I used the same "Pumpkin Hello Kitty" file that I used last Halloween except that this year I switched it to be Pochacco instead. I also used Yeni's original "Dracula Candy Holder" template for the vampire costume but switched Dracula to Hello Kitty.

Candy domes were both filled with Hershey Kisses. I was surprised that as much as a dozen candies fit into each 8 cm dome. I used square orange foil candy wrappers trimmed to size to wrap over the candies that I used to fill the Pochacco candy holders so it would look more like a pumpkin.

Access to the treats inside the dome is still on the bottom.

But this year I replaced the petal closure I've been using in the past to a simpler rectangular panel which easily slides up to reveal the candies inside. I love that this was so much quicker and easier to assemble. Had lots of fun making a dozen of each.

Last but not least, for my BTS lovin' friend (who doesn't care for Hello Kitty) I had just enough time to put together a candy dome and cooky box set just for her featuring her favorite "Chimmy" BT21 character. Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Eevee-lutions Halloween Card

I was itching to try another Tiered Triple Wiper Card like the ones being taught by Sam Calcott so I put together this "Eevee-lutions" themed  card to send to our granddaughter for Halloween this year.
 

The blue and purple ombre background for this card was created in Broderbund Printshop program, then printed and cut into tiered panels. The dies used to cut the fence, tree, and bats come from Karen Burniston "Tiny House Add Ons" set. Die cut "Happy Halloween" sentiment is from Spellbinders "Halloween Wreath Add Ons" set, tiny star dies are from Mama Elephant, and I used a 2.5 inch Marvy Uchida punch for the moon.

Here's a short video to show this fun wiper style card in action.

As the tab on the bottom right side of the card is pulled, the tiered panels separate and Umbreon, Espeon and another Eevee come into view. All Halloween Eevee-lution images were print and cut on the Cameo and adhered onto black shadow layers created in Make the Cut.

Here's a view of the card from the side.

I added a layered fancy label on the back of the card for a place to add a sentiment and sign the card.

Hoping our granddaughter enjoys this card as much as I had fun making it!

Birthday Cards for "Deer" Friends

I made two of the same cards to send to friends whose birthdays are just a day apart. I was already late with these cards so I decided to fall back on one of my favorite  "quick to make when it's crunch time" style cards: the rectangular pop up card.

The original svg cut file for this is called "Rectangle Pop Up Card Arbor" from the Lori Whitlock Shop. I've enlarged template so I can get larger elements like this pair of die cut deer from Marianne Designs to fit on it. The arched arbor, tree and Bluebird come included with the cut file. I used flowers and leaves die cut from Spellbinders "Club Blooms" and "Flowering Tree" sets together with flowers cut from a svg file I created to decorate the arbor. Happy Birthday sentiment was cut using Spellbinders "Layered Happy Birthday Die" and the front panel was dry embossed using Tim Holtz "Courtyard" Texture Fades embossing folder.

Side view shows the three struts that hold all the design elements for this card.

This is the card collapsed and ready to go into an envelope. I added a blank piece of pink cardstock to the bottom panel so I could scribble a personal message.

This is the simple matching top fold giftcard holder I included with the card.

My Melody Birthday

I recently made this My Melody birthday card and gift card holder for a very special friend.

The svg cutting files for all the My Melody images I used for this card were created in Make the Cut Design Studio from coloring book page images I found online. I cut a round window into the front of the card and added an image of My Melody with a watering can. Then I added flowers and leaves that had been die cut from Spellbinders "Be Bold Blooms", "Mini Blooms and Sprigs", and "Club Blooms" as well as Karen Burniston "Fence Add Ons" dies to decorate the lower half of the window.

On the inside, I used Karen Burniston's "Little Twist Panel Pop Up" mechanism die to create a fun

pop up panel of flowers that twists and pops forward as the card is opened.

Karen Burniston Design Team Member Sandy Diller explains how to create this fun pop up using the "Little Twist Panel Pop Up" die here. I added a second image of My Melody behind the flowers and used Benson font to create a shadowed cut file for the "Celebrate" sentiment. 

This view from the side shows the twist panel arms to which the flowers have been glued on.

A third image of My Melody was used for the front of the gift card holder. Grassy border was cut using Karen Burniston "Curved Edges" die, and flowers were cut using an old Punch Bunch mini punch. Sentiments were print and cut on the Silhouette and foiled using a Minc hot foiler.

A Star Is Born

I have a Welcome Baby card and matching gift card holder to share today.

 

It's been a quite a while since I've last needed to make a baby card. Happily, I had  the "Sweet Baby Girl" pack of digital papers which I picked up from Bella Boulevard a long time ago still saved in my files so I didn't have to spend too much time searching for just the right patterned papers.

I kept the front of the card simple, only adding a crescent moon, clouds and stars. Stickles glitter glue was used to add some sparkle and the stars were hung from the clouds using fishing line.

Inside, I used Karen Burniston's "Arch Pop Up" die set to install an arch mechanism, onto which I added a sleeping teddy bear together with lots and lots of stars and clouds. Sentiment boxes matted with pink cardstock were added to both sides of the card. Fonts used for the sentiments were LD Charming and Paper Flowers.

 Here's a view from above where you can see a few of the many tabs and panels included on this arch mechanism where embellishments can be attached. 

Cutting and piecing file "Baby Girl Bear" comes from Cuddly Cute Designs. Edges of clouds were lightly sponged with blue ink and traced with glitter glue. Stars in the center of the arch were hung from the clouds with fishing line.

Gift card holder is a top fold card with a pocket inside. Kept the front simple with   just a couple more glittered clouds and a shooting star.

Tiered Triple Wiper Birthday Card

The birthday card I'm sharing today is a fun updated version of an old favorite mechanism which I recently learned from watching a video tutorial by Sam Calcott of Made to Surprise.
 

Since this was made for a dear friend who owns a beautiful calico kitty, I wanted to do a cat themed birthday card. I found a "Kawaii Cat Clipart Bundle" on Etsy with the cutest kitties which I thought would work perfectly for this card. The birthday balloons were die cut with Pretty Pink Posh "Party Balloon" die. I used "Happy Birthday Words" die from Hello Bluebird, and Taylored Expressions "Celebration Confetti" die for stars and confetti.

After doing a print and cut of several of the cats from the bundle, I created and cut a shadow layer for each from black cardstock.The cut cat images were then adhered to their shadows and attached to a Triple Wiper style card mechanism. See it in action here:

As the tab on the bottom right side of the card is pulled, wiper mechanisms allow each of the three cats to appear behind one another. In the past I remember using double wiper mechanisms to make cards that had images pop up opposite each other, but having the wiper mechanisms layered behind each other on tiered panels was a new and novel concept for me.  

The placement of the cats onto the wiper mechanisms was a little tricky since I wanted all the cats to be visible when the card was fully open, but after fiddling with it for a while I managed to work it out. I used LD Charming Bold font for the " to a special friend" laser printed sentiment, adding a shadow layer to cut each word. The words were run through a Minc with gold hot foil and  glued onto each cat image.

I used a fifth cat image together with more die cut birthday balloons to decorate the front of the matching gift card holder. Inside I used  "Srushti Patil's Sliding Pop Up" mechanism. Stamped sentiment is from Mama Elephant "Paola's Wishes" stamp set.

Welcome To Fourth Grade

It's August, and though it still feels like summer to me,  a great majority of children including our granddaughter are already back in school. I made this "Back to School" card to cheer her on as she enters her school year as a fourth grader.

Our granddaughter's name is Evelyn and we call her "Eevee" for short, so I wanted my card to feature Pokemon Eevee going back to school. Encouraged by my daughter, I decided to give AI a try for my first time by showing Google's AI Gemini a coloring book image of a boy writing on a chalkboard and asking to swap the boy with Pokemon Eevee. Within a few seconds, Gemini amazed me by coming up with an image exactly as I had imagined which I was able to use to create the cutting file for my card.

Gemini AI also helped me with a coloring book style image of the school desk and chair which Make the Cut rendered into a cutting file. To create the look of  the chalkboard with writing, the words were cut using black text weight paper as a stencil, then backed with white cardstock. The world globe and stack of books on the desk were put together using a very old die from Quickutz and Karen Burniston "Bookworm" dies. After assembling all the pieces for my classroom scene, I used a hexagon pop up style card to display them. 

The paper pieced Eevee I used on the backside of my hexagon pop up was asembled from a cutting file I had created in the past. Gemini AI assisted by creating a simple coloring book image of a backpack which Make the Cut could trace to create a cut file. 

I found some cute "math calculations" doodles which I printed onto white cardstock to use as a fun background for my card. "KG Miss Kindergarten font" was used for the sentiments.

This hexagon pop up card flattens to 6.75" x 6.75". I like that there's space at the base of the card where I can add a personal message which can be read by the recipient before the card is opened to it's display position. In case you're interested, there are a few companies like Karen Burniston and Lawn Fawn which have come out with dies to create this style of pop up card. Or, if you own an electronic cutting machine as I do, you can find the cutting file for a this style of card at the Lori Whitlock Shop.

I sent along these two bag charms together with the card. When our granddaughter came to visit for a week at the end of July, I showed her how I had printed these Pokemon images onto shrink plastic and cut them out. She then put them into our air fryer oven and was amazed as she watched how they curled and shrank. We didn't have the chance to finish them while she was here, but I coated the shrunken charms with UV resin and assembled them with beads and split rings onto clasps and promised I would mail them. Pretty certain she'll be happy with how they turned out.