To My Favorite Peanut

One of the great things about making cards is the ability to customize them. My son asked me to make “a peanut card” for his girlfriend with an elephant and peanut image he found online. (Nicknames, inside jokes… lol!) I came up with a few different samples to start, and he pointed me in the direction he wanted me to go. The sample above is from Eric’s vision, using the papers, greeting, and design he chose. He decided he wanted a cute, festive look with a bold image.

We thought it would be fun to separate the head and make it wobble using an action wobble spring (Hampton Art).

I “traced” the image and then created cut files using my Silhouette software.

The original online image had soft edges…

…so some of the samples I started with were much softer looking. Here’s one of them:

For this one, I inked the edges instead of matting all the elephant pieces and peanut on black.

For Eric’s card, I used Glitter Card Stock (Recollections) and a sheet from “The Birthday Wishes Stack” (DCWV). The “Happy Birthday Sentiment” die is by Creek Bank Creations, and the bottom strip was computer generated. Both were cut and stacked several times to make them stand out better. The hat was hand cut from “Easter Stripe” paper (Reminisce); the “pom pom” was made with the “Flower & Flourish” edger punch (EK Success). The peanut was debossed with theTim Holtz/Sizzix “Dot Matrix” embossing folder (and then flattened a bit with my bone folder) to add texture to the shell.

For the second sample, I used a sheet of Studio Calico/American Crafts paper (#331575) and “White Plaid” by Core’dinations/American Crafts.

The elephant was cut from “Gray Kraft” and the peanut from the “Nostalgia” pack (both Recollections). GKD Stormy Sky and Dark Chocolate inks were used to ink the edges.

Thanks for checking out my card projects!

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Harry Potter Spinner Pop-Up – Birthday Challenge #6

Kelly came up with the idea for my 6th “birthday challenge” card (and for her birthday card this year). Happy Birthday, Kelly!

Kelly loves Harry Potter and wanted him featured on a card. Specifically, she wanted a “cute” Harry Potter image and a card design where the design on the front continued to the inside. She also wanted something to move when the card was opened. Here’s what I came up with…

The moving element is the elusive golden snitch that Harry has to catch while playing quiddich for his school/house team. The pop-up mechanism is part of the “Spinner Square Pop-Up” die set by Karen Burniston. Check out her video tutorial to see how this type of card is made.

Harry was created with pieces from an svg file by JuicySVG that I purchased on etsy. I created a few extra pieces that were not part of the original design; he had no shoes and looked like he was wearing (black) dress robes which wouldn’t work while playing Quiddich -lol! Since he needed to be seen when the card was both closed and opened, I cut a window on the front and covered the opening with acetate.

Stamps were from the “Vertical Greetings” set (retired?) by Gina K Designs and “Fairy Friends” by Lawn Fawn.

I created a cut file from this google image for the golden snitch. The patterned paper on the front is from the “Wizard Paper Pack” from DigitalCollageCafe. Digital paper from the “Wizard School II” by cachivachedesign was used to create the cut file for the goal posts. Both of these shops can be found on Etsy.

At first, the goal posts were adhered directly to the inside of the card, but the snitch panel kept getting caught on the thick gold card stock so I cut the goal posts from an additional white panel and inlaid the gold pieces where the white ones had been. This made the goal posts flat and no longer interfered with the pop-up panel.

My original design included a clear, shaker panel for over the window opening to give the illusion of “magic” around Harry, but there was so much static between the two layers of acetate that the sequins stuck to the acetate and completely blocked Harry from view. Crazy, right?!

(The shaker panel in the photo is unfinished; I did not adhere the top frame to cover the tape since I ended up not keeping it on the card.)

I also originally wanted to decorate the inside to look like a quiddich pitch/stadium, but the acetate window made that difficult. Everything I tried clashed with the patterned paper on the front when the card was closed so I ultimately went with a CAS look for the inside. (With all the fails, this card took much longer to create than it should have – lol!)

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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Build a Snowman – Birthday Challenge #5

Kevin came up with the fifth of my “birthday challenge” card ideas, and it’s the card I made for him for his birthday this year. He had quite the list of requirements…

It had to have a cute boy wearing a hat. The boy had to be rolling a snowball to make a snowman. (Kevin wanted the snowball to get bigger as it was being rolled; I told him I didn’t think I could make it both roll and grow, and he chose for me to make the snowball roll.) And finally, the boy had to actually build the snowman. I think he’s trying to kill me – lol!!

The “cute” boy with a hat rolling the snowball is on the front of the card…

The “rolling snowball” was achieved by creating a “penny slider/spinner” element. HERE is a tutorial I previously posted for making a penny slider/spinner card.

I made the boy build the snowman on the inside.

For the “build the snowman” part of the challenge, I created a “slider card” element. HERE is a tutorial I previously posted for making a slider card. (I actually needed to use my own tutorial to remind me how to create this type of card!)

The boy image was part of a digital stamp called “Boy Tickling Snowman” by kindacutebypatricia that I purchased on etsy. It was a line art image that I separated and “colored” with my Silhouette software. (My original thought was to die cut all the layers and paper piece the boy, but some of the pieces were too tiny for my Silhouette to cut cleanly so I created a “print and cut” file instead.) I did need to alter the position of his arm on the front so he could roll the snowball. The snowman is part of the same digital stamp.

The snowy sky was created with Stormy Sky Distress Ink, a blending brush, and a mask. Once inked, I spritzed the panel with water which reacted with the distress ink and created the white “snow” spots. I added a few hills with GKD Soft Stone ink and the mask.

The trees were cut from GKD Christmas Pine card stock with dies from the “Evergreen Die” set by Creek Bank Creations. I added a bit of snow with Chunky White Deep Impressions Embossing Enamel by Stampendous. (The powder wouldn’t stick with the tiny amounts of Versamark, so I used glue instead.)

I used several other Creek Bank Creations dies as well – the deer from the “Into the Woods Die” set, the greeting from the “Happy Birthday Chunky Sentiment Die” set, and a slit from the “Slit Die” set.

The sentiment on the inside of the card is a stamp from the “Snorkel Fun Penguin” set by Your Next Stamp, and the speech bubble was made with a die from the “Tag That!” set from Spellbinders.

Happy Birthday, Kevin!

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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