Thank You Card for a Nurse

I needed to make another thank you for card for a nurse again, but felt the need for a change from the ones I've quilled in the past (1 and 2). So instead I used my much neglected die cutter to cut one that I could shape and sculpt instead.

Jack O' Lantern Pumpkin Party Favor Box

Who has their carving tools ready? It's still a bit early to start digging in for Halloween, but this Jack O' Lantern doesn't need any gutting.

His perky stem comes with spiralling vines for extra fun.

There are three friendly faces to choose from, and when cut from yellow paper, appear to have an inner candlelit glow.

The pumpkin itself offers a decent size for ghoulish treats. It's easily cut from just two sheets of 8.5"x11" in green and orange, attached simply by two orange brads. So fun to assemble with little ones. It's now available in my shop.

Die Cut Elephant Card

When I am imagining a project, I am often surprised it turns out how I see it in my head because I don't feel that way about my illustrations. When it works, it feels like the planets have aligned and it just feels good. This isn't one of those times. I hope posting this will help others learn from it anyway.

Since I had such success with making my own paper flocking, I wanted to do it again for a birthday card for our nephew. I used a double-sided adhesive sheet. You can see here how I'm peeling away the two sides to access the sticky inner sheet.

After cutting the elephant, I removed the bottom sheet and unwanted sticky areas, then applied to my card background.

Next came the fun flocking making and the start of my disappointment.

Although the adhesive sheet grabbed onto the paper fuzz, it was in such a patchy fashion, it made my elephant appear to have some kind of skin problem. Plus you can see just at his feet there, that it was kind of see-through, which is not what I had wanted.

I also thought I left a great leeway for the letter and saddle details to show through, by keeping it quite simple and large. However, I didn't like how I can't see the serifs and subtle skewing of the letter.

I use Adobe Illustrator to create my designs. Here are the settings I used to skew the letter to make it appear like it was really draping along the saddle. I know it's not that big a deal, but for me, these subtle details make a project sing.

Since I ran out of time and couldn't make another plain paper version, I had to buy a card {gasp!}. Why does my brain only kick into high gear when I have just 2 hours to go? Now that I look back on this project with calm eyes, I could have simply crumpled the blue elephant to mimic the elephant's skin and saved myself time. Oh well, next year!

Has anyone been working with paper flocking?

Die Cut Happy Birthday Cards

I had several birthdays to celebrate this month and wanted to make them with my Silhouette SD. I thought I would make one design and customize to match the recipient's favorite colors. This pink and purple one is for our niece who turned 13.

I have long admired paper cutters who cut by hand with a craft knife, but any time I think about trying it, I run the other way because I just don't have the patience for it. I finally drew a cake without measuring a single thing - no rulers or straight lines or grids or pre-thinking it. The fine lines are a delicate piece to remove from the adhesive mat and I manually thickened some areas to make gluing easier, but this is still not something I'd want to make many times over. My laziness is quite the task master!

I dabbed a glue stick like a bingo card - up and down, not rubbing across, or else the glue goes underneath the paper and would show in front. Again, the fineness is a hindrance.

As you can see, there is not much gluing surface here and a little too far on one side means you'll see it from the front so some fussing with the lines are needed.

In the end, I love how the thick black paper feels on top of the metallic colors below. It's a tactile thing that isn't quite the same if I put the colored piece on top, which would have been much easier.

Does anyone else come across this dilemma? Which do you prefer to do - difficult and tactile with challenging gluing OR larger, easier to glue pieces that go on top of the black?

Orchid Background Embossed with Big Shot

I was making an orchid for a 60th birthday card and was cutting 84lb Cover Starwhite Flash Pearl with the Silhouette SD. Normally I'd cut something thinner to make it easier on my machine, but I didn't have a lighter weight paper on hand that matched.

Due to the thickness, I set it to cut 3 times at full strength. It cut nicely enough until it snagged somewhere and then all the remaining cuts were off, ruining my design and card stock.

So I tried again, this time with 2 cuts at full strength. It didn't snag or misalign, but this time it didn't cut all the way. So for the entire design I had to manual cut the remaining fibers and at times my patience ran out and I yanked the bit out, leaving little torn bits behind. Looking at it with my Type A personality meant I wasn't happy with the bits. But which do I try again?

My friend recently bought a Big Shot and it came to my rescue! I used the same sheet I had just manually weeded and cranked it through, bits and all.

Seconds later a beautifully embossed texture has appeared on the front of my card without any bits hanging around, making the subtle backdrop I wanted, without all the drama.

So, how many more sleeps until Christmas...

The orchid and leaves are made of Stardream paper. I dotted the deep purple paper with a gold ink pen.

Gingerbread Man Christmas Card

BEFORE: A happy gingerbread man.

AFTER: ouch!

He was cut from discarded chipboard paper from work. Both the front and back are cut from one  letter size sheet (8.5x11"). Isn't it great that chipboard looks just like gingerbread dough?

All the icing is cut from white vinyl. His hat is cut from red and white card stock and glued on top. The m&ms were attached with a hot glue gun. White glue didn't work at all because it melts the candy color instead.

I had the most fun with his surprised eyebrows. However, after I finished cutting and assembling, I realized his eyes would have been better if they looked to the right more, at the missing foot. Oh well, there's always next year.

To ensure the front was a full and complete man, with no folds cropping his limbs, the front and back are separate. They are joined just at the tips with a perforation inset .5" from the edge to allow the card to be opened.

Lizard card for Fia

I was touched by Pam's post about a little girl named Sophia who loves lizards and the color pink. I'm hoping this card will help her smile while dealing with acute lymphocytic leukemia.

At first I thought I would keep the entire lizard raised with adhesive foam dots, but realized the toes are easily damaged. So I glued the bottom portions and applied the foam dots along the top edge only. Belatedly, I realized the pink lizard would stand out better against the light pink background if it had some stamp ink rubbed on the edge. Luckily I was still able to do that along the top.

I think it's fun when a card can be interactive. Going through the mail may flatten out these leaves, but she'll be able to fluff them up again herself.

If you ever struggle with centering items while it's wet with glue, this is what I do. Cut a "jig" out of scrap paper. The screen shot above is what I cut - it's the bottom portion of the overall layout. You don't need the entire layout, just a portion for positioning.

Place the green shape on the 5x7 card, lining up the corners, and adhere with removable tape. Glue the light pink background down. Then place the pink jig on top of your newly glued background and adhere with removable tape. Now you can glue the letters without worrying about spacing.

Hope this tip helps you!

Cecelia

3D Owl Party Favor Treat Box

Peek-a-boo! Here is a 3D version of my owl box, suitable for digital die cutters.

Ever since I made my first ATC, I've been wanting to make a practical, useful version.

I usually cut the pupil and iris out of card stock, then the lashes from paper. This makes it easy to fluff up the lashes against a stiff circle. For this example I chose to cut the iris and reflective shine from vinyl.

If you have difficulty lining up vinyl, here's what I do. After weeding out the unwanted vinyl, I peel back the wax and cut some off, leaving part of the adhesive exposed. I hold the vinyl (waxed area) and paper against the light. This lets you see all the layers to center the circles. Once you like the placement, press the sticky area and remove the remaining wax - and voilà, centered circles!

My 3D owl box is now available in my shop. Hope you have a hoot making these!

Halloween Owl Box (printable and editable PDF)

I've been thrilled with the feedback on my various Halloween party favor boxes and wondered how my owl would fare as a gift box for fright-night.

 

I found some fun tricks (glow in the dark bat, tattoos, erasers, and springing toy) at Walmart and it wouldn't all fit in my other boxes, but they fit just fine in this one with room to spare.

Just like my previous owl box, you can type whatever you like on the back of this editable PDF. It's now available in my Etsy store - thanks so much for looking!

I created this owl box for readers who don't have a digital cutter because I had requests for it after my first ATC card. However the tiny cuts are quite challenging to do by hand, so this box is a compromise. Happy haunting, everyone!

Paper Orchid Birthday Card

 

My wonderful neighbor loves orchids and receives them as gifts. For his birthday, I wanted to make a paper orchid and used my own for inspiration.

I scanned and traced the petals, reducing them to 25%, then cut out with my Silhouette die cutter. Next I added color with a marker and water color paints. Using a dried out ballpoint pen, I scored the middle vein and curled the petals. After stacking and gluing the layers together, the blossom simply comes to life.

 

I poked a hole in the middle of the smallest bud and inserted the end of the floral wire, adding white glue to hold it in place. I then glued the open blossoms to the wire, ensuring my glue coated the wire thoroughly.

My favorite part is the delicate pair of curly wisps in the center of the flower. 

Then I cut two leaves and manually scored the vein with a dried up ballpoint pen. The pot is made of 3 layers of metallic copper card stock and floats a bit due to adhesive foam dots on the back. It was great having my real plant as a visual reference, because it helped me realize I should glue the items asymmetrically, not all centered. I believe it's these small subtleties that makes a piece.

I have moved my plant throughout the room, depending on my needs, and the stems would gently wave up and down, heavy with the weight of so many blossoms. I deliberately left the wire unglued to his birthday card, and as I place it on a table, it also gently waves, just like the real thing - so fun to watch! The blooms are cut from 65lb paper, so it's sturdy and gives just the right amount of weight on the wire to make it bob.

By the way, I'm often asked how I managed to have 4 new stems bloom. This is my first orchid and I feared it would remain the desolate stick with 2 leaves I often see in homes. My secret? I have a worm condo and fed my orchid the worm tea.

My orchid files are available via my Etsy store. I also include larger sizes for other greeting cards and a tapered gift box, perfect as a wedding party favor.

Bride Dress & Groom Tuxedo Party Favor Boxes (SVG, DXF, and PDF file formats)

  

My bride and groom boxes are on Etsy now! I had to slow down the horses until I finished adding photos of new bows I added to the brides. How can the guys be more decorative than the girls? They're held obediently in place with double-sided tape and guests won't have a problem accessing the treats because they can still open the box from the bottom. I hope I get to see my box designs decorating someone's party one day!