Happy Birthday Cake Box!

Hello everyone!  Looks like I am becoming a once a month blogger. :(  I need to work on posting more often as I am actually creating more often!  I will try to do better!

Today I bring you a project that I am most proud of.  The cut file comes from MyScrapChick.com.  I purchased this months ago knowing it would take a while to put together along with many other projects I have on going.  My wonderful oldest daughter turned 16 last week and I wanted to make it special.  Don't misunderstand, we are not the "My Sweet 16" reality TV kinda folk.  No-No!  She invited 3 friends over, we went to see Monsters University (a must see if you like Monsters Inc.) then came home and went moonlight swimming, had cake and ice cream and then they watched TV til they couldn't keep their eyes open.  So, the paper cake was a special treat for my girl!

There are 20 boxes that make up the cake.  I printed the papers on my Imagine machine from the Blast Off cartridge and the Mr. Frosty cartridge.  I used paper by Colorbok from Walmart.  It cuts really nice.

 Each layer was very unstable so I tied each one up with some cute bakers twine and it made it nice and round.  One warning, slip a cardboard square under the entire cake to pick it up and move it, if not the pieces slip down and the lids come off easy and after you have tied the twine around them it is hard to get the lids back on.  Just an FYI!

 What would a sweet 16 cake be with out a bit of sparkle?  So I used my go to Stickles, Fruit Punch, Diamond and Yellow to add a bit of sugary sweetness.

She is a real girly girl, so in each box she found bracelets, fingernail polish, lip gloss, chewing gum (she is a bit gum crazy) earrings, etc.  Anything that would fit.  You could add gift cards, money, special notes from friends and family, etc.  THEN...her daddy came home, AFTER I had it all stuffed and tied up, with a very special present.  So it got wrapped in the tiny box below.

A very sweet pair of white 14K gold diamond earrings.  Her first "real" diamonds were from her daddy.  That's the way it should be. :)

So to add it to the gift cake, I wrapped it in matching paper and tucked it under the cake topper.  It made a real nice surprise.  Sorry for the blurry picture but I realized I never photographed the little box ON the cake so I found this one from the party.

I try to teach my children that although gifts are nice and can be really special, there is no gift better than the gift of eternal life they have received from their Holy Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ.  That is the best gift any person can ever be offered.  All you have to do is pray to receive it and it will NEVER be taken away.

Many blessings,

Jana

A Late Happy Mother's Day

(I wrote this post ON Mother's Day, saved it to add pictures, then just plain ole forgot to post it!  So, here is a belated post!)

Happy Mother's Day to all my wonderful followers and any visitors that have popped in!  Today I wanted to share with you the two cards that I made for my mother and my mother-in-law.  I could go on and on about how wonderful both of these women are but I won't.  I will say that I have been blessed beyond measure with having both of them in my life to guide me, love me and help me be a better mother to my own children. Blessed beyond belief!
The cards I made are not my own design, at all, not even the decision to what paper to use! :)  I just love the files from SVGCuts.com.  Mary does such a great job and I just love her taste in design and papers that I decided to keep it simple and just copy what she had created.  I even ordered the paper kit she used because I loved it so much.  So the kit from SVGCuts.com is called "Cards for Moms" and can be found by clicking on the image below.

The paper kit that she and I both used was called "Farm Girl" from October afternoon and I got mine from Scrapbook.com, I think.  You can google it and find it in many forms, kits, papers, embellishments, 8x8 and 12 x 12.  I got the 12 x 12 kit below.

There were many cards to choose from in Mary's kit so I decided to make the "I Love Mom - See through card" and the "Love You Mom Card".  The kit didn't come with all of the embellishments that Mary used so I change them up a bit.  Here is the card I made for MY mom:

 I LOVE buttons!  So I included them just like Mary.  Mary, Mary, Mary, I sound a bit obsessed????

 The cardstock stickers on the front came with the kit and I had the red buttons in my stash.  One thing I love about the svg kit that Mary created is that she has a cut for an insert for the interior of the card which is nice when using double sided paper.  That way you can stamp a sentiment inside and write a message also.

This is the card I made for my sweet mother-in-law:

LOVE the double wedding ring paper!!

Can you use too many pop dots??  I think NOT!!!  you can never have too much dimension, unless you are going to mail it, then I have to reluctantly back off on the popping but I am hand delivering this one!  Late, as usual.  I preferred a red shadow for my letters over the soft pink in the sample, I think it ties it in with the background paper and makes the letters pop more.

I didn't have the cute bottle cap like in the sample so I just used one of the cardstock stickers from the paper kit and then used my diamond glaze to make it look like an epoxy embellishment then added a bow from my stash.  Easy peasy, both cards.  Of course, I have to ink the edges of everything so I used the Vintage Photo ink pad from Tim Holtz.  I hope you like my creations and that you will stop by SVGCuts.com and check out all of Mary's wonderful files.

Oh! and Mary also included envelopes in the files to fit each card so I had to cute them up a bit with the stickers from the paper kit :)

I also wanted to add before leaving, I have changed the way my comments work so that if you ask me a question, I can hit the reply button and answer your question.  I hope it works :)

So I leave you with this verse, something I have pondered upon much this past year.  What is it God wants from me as a mother?  Many blessings to all the mothers out there!

Who can find a virtuous woman? She is far more precious than jewels... 
Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the time to come. 
She opens her mouth with wisdom, and loving instruction is on her tongue. 
She watches over the activities of her household and is never idle. 
Her sons rise up and call her blessed. 
He husband also praises her: 
Many women are capable, but you surpass them all! 
Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised. 
~Proverbs 31:10, 25-30

Water Bottle Drink Mix Holder

OK, I know this is not new to everyone but I think these little doo-dads are so clever.  My cousin's wife gave me one as a gift on a retreat a few years ago and so I am going to give my version of one this year for retreat gifts.  But I want you to know that I did not come up with this particular pattern.  I found it on this cute blog called "Blue Eyed Blessings".  I did tweak it a little bit and personalized it with an initial like my cousin did.  Also I created a Make the Cut file for it and will also post it as an SVG file at the bottom of the post. If you do not have a cutting machine for MTC or SVG files then feel free to hop over to Blue Eyed Blessings for the cutting dimension.  She just used circle punches to make the embellishments.

Oh yea!  I almost forgot to mention that on the second page of the MTC file I also shared the cute alphabet letters that I used.  It is a font from 2peas that I cleaned up for cutting.  It is not included in the SVG file, sorry.

 One of the things I like about this is the only thing that will need gluing is the scalloped collar around the bottle neck and the patterned paper.  The rest is the two brads.  You could just glue around the pocket if you wanted to.

After gluing the initial on I just used my doodle pen to dress it up a bit :)
So, here are the links to the files I created.  Here is the MTC file:
Water Bottle Drink Mix Holder MTC
Here is a MTC file for making multiple holders.  The files is set up so you can cut 20 of them and save as much paper as possible.
Water Bottle Drink Mix Holder Mulitple MTC
Here is the SVG file for a single holder.  I haven't learned yet to convert an entire file to SVG for the multiple holders file, sorry!
Water Bottle Drink Mix Holder SVG
Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the little project!