Christmas Cards- Exploding Boxes,and Never-ending Cards

Hope everyone had lovely holidays!  Ours was relaxed, once the Nutcracker performances that my daughter was in were over!  Today we visited with my hubby's sister and her kids, and exchanged gifts between the kids.  At the ages our kids are, we pretty much do gift cards anymore.  I decided to do some fun cards for them to put their gift cards in.  One niece also has a birthday in late November, and we were late with her card, so I went ahead and did two for her.  I made exploding boxes for the two nieces' Christmas gift card, a never-ending card for the nephew (age 8) for his gift card, and also a never-ending card for the November birthday niece.  What's a never-ending card?  Oh, they are SO cool!  This is another one that my BFF Kendra told me about.  Here is a video that tells you all about it.  Basically, you fold and turn, and fold and turn, several different ways until you are back to the beginning- thus, it never ends!  They are really not complicated to make at all, but like the exploding box, it can be time-consuming to embellish them.

Here is Maggie's birthday card:

I didn't take pics of every view that you get when you fold the card each way, it was too hard to hold the card open for each shot!

Here's the never-ending card for the nephew:

I thought he would enjoy playing with one of these cards instead of an exploding box (he's 8).  He seemed to like it!

And finally, here are the exploding boxes for the girls:

It was so good to see all of them today!  They only live an hour away, but with their busy schedule, combined with our busy schedule, we just don't see each other as much as we should.

My vacation has only a few more days in it :( and I am going to try to make the most of them!  I want to do some work on my shop, as well as a few more projects around the house.  Hopefully I can get at least most of the stuff done that I want to!  Guess we will see...I always tend to plan more than I can actually accomplish!

Exploding Box Card

Happy Holidays everyone!  I hope everyone is enjoying the season!  Now that I am on vacation for the next two weeks, I sure am (or I will be, once I catch up on my sleep!)

My BFF Kendra showed me another neat card that I just had to try, the exploding box card.  She made one this week for a birthday party that her daughter was going to, and the picture of it was so cool, I really wanted to try it myself!  As it happened, my daughter also had a birthday party to go to, so it was a good excuse to make one.  It is not nearly as complicated as it looks, though embellishing it certainly can be time-consuming.  Meredith and I had a lot of fun making this one.

Here is the outside:

You take off the lid, and get this:

I used a mix of turquoise, purple, black and white, along with some animal prints.  Kendra used some zebra print in hers, and I shamelessly ripped off the idea. ;)  I got a neat pack of animal print papers at Michaels- it came with zebra and cheetah prints in different colors.  At some point I will have to find something to do with pink zebra and lime green cheetah print papers!  Each piece on the inside contains a sentiment, such as "Cool" and "Cute"- words to describe Meredith's friend.  There are three layers, and the inside layer says Happy Birthday.  Meredith made an origami star box to put on the inside, and in it we placed a little ornament with her friend's name on it.  You can see it a bit better here:

We embellished the inside with flowers, butterflies, and various gems.  Lots of bling in this one!

I wish I had gotten a picture of the whole present once everything was wrapped.  I used a black and white zebra print wrapping paper on the gift box, along with a turquoise ribbon, then this box card was attached to the top.  It really looked cute, if I do say so myself!

As I mentioned, I'm off work for 2 weeks- woohoo!!  I'm really hoping to have some time to do some crafting.  I am making an attempt to clear out my bookmark stash of old designs and come up with some fresh, new designs for my shop.  I also want to get some cards done- maybe get a head start on Valentine cards!  I have lots of ideas of Valentine cards that incorporate pressed flowers that I am anxious to try.  I will be sure to share what I come up with!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to all!