Easter Gift Box and Card

Easter is such a special time of the year, and I wish I was closer to my family to celebrate with them. Unfortunately they are over 1,700km away so that just isn't possible.  I decided that this year I would make an Easter gift and card for the family of my daughter's boyfriend.  She spends a lot of time with them so I wanted to do something special, not just buy a box of chocolates - these are my creations.

First the box, I was going to use a pre-made box from Stampin' Up! but found none were quite the right size for the chocolates I wanted to give.  So the only alternative was to make a box myself!  I used the Natures Composition Speciality DSP for the base of the box, it is quite a heavy weight that is more like a stiff card stock than a paper so it was perfect.  It is difficult to see but I used the sheet with the floral pattern and brayered it with Crushed Curry.  I made the lid from Window Sheet and made the faux band from Melon Mambo and Gold Embossed Vellum.  The box is of course filled with Easter Eggs and Lindt Balls.

I wanted to make a card that matched so after some false start sketches I decided to go with a bigger sentiment and butterfly and I am happy with the result.  They are quite bright, but Easter is a time for celebration and so the brightness seemed to fit perfectly.  You may notice that I have stamped the flowers using the Encore Gold Ink in the Occasions Catalogue, and then coloured parts of the petals with Melon Mambo to give some depth of colour.  The centre flower on both the box and card are raised on Dimensionals and curled.

Box Measurements
Base
- 10" x 10" Card Stock
- Score on each side at 2-3/4"
- Base adhered with TomBow Glue

Lid
- 10-1/8" x 10-1/8" (this is a smidge bigger so the lid fits neatly over the base)
- Score on each side at 2-3/4
- When cutting the fold over flaps, I trimmed these to 1/4 inch so they are less conspicuous.
- Lid adhered with Sticky Strip

Happy Stamping

ESAD Occasions Blog Hop

It's time for another ESAD Blog Hop, this time to showcase products for the current Occasions Catalogue that went live in the South Pacific market on 28th January.  The first time I looked through I wasn't sure there was a lot that really grabbed me, but on closer look there is a really good range of products and this blog hop will show you some of them in some amazing projects. It doesn't matter if you have hopped here from the link on Gail's blog Stamp With Gail, or if you are starting the hop here, just follow the links at the end of each blog to hop to the next one until you have made it all around to the blog you started at.  

I have chosen the cute a la carte stamp "Blessed Easter" and as usual wanted to show you a few different ways this lovely stamp can be used.  As you can see from this image it is a single stamp with three beautiful tulips and an Easter sentiment.  This is a wood mount stamp and I chose to cut off the sentiment before mounting so that I could easily use the images separately.

While the stamp has an Easter theme, it is easily transferrable to other occasions, in this case I have used it on a birthday card.  For this card I have used the oval Framelits to cut a window in the card and stamped on vellum to give a luminescence to the image.  I added some bling with some of the cute little gold sequins that are also one of the new products in the catalogue. The sentiment, from Blooming with Kindness, was cut using one of the Banners Framelits Dies, also from the catalogue, they are great for getting perfect ends on sentiment banners. 

Next up I created a 'card in a box' with the tulips, stamping and cutting them out multiple times to create the bunch of flowers look.  I added some butterflies stamped on vellum and attached them to thin strips of window sheet so that they appear to flutter slightly as the card opens or catches a breeze.  I used the Easter sentiment that is part of the stamp, but this would be a great project for Mother's Day, or even a get well card for someone in hospital where flowers can't be taken.  

Finally I wanted to show you another option for the Blessed Easter stamp.  This time I have attached it on the front of a little chocolate box made with the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch.  This is a great punch that is so much more than a tag topper!  I will be posting a tutorial for this box in upcoming weeks. I have used some of the Watercolour Wonder DSP behind the tulips - this is a great DSP with lots of soft images, I also used one of the sheets on my card in a box above. This treat box holds two small blocks of chocolate, I got these from Aldi and the gold on the top goes perfectly with the Gold Baker's Twine around the ribbon.

I hope you have been inspired by my creations, now it is time to hop on over to the next blog to see what the very creative and talented Sharlene Meyer has to show you on her blog 

Magpie Creates

What is ESAD?

ESAD stands for "Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators" and it is an on-line group just for Australian and New Zealand Stampin' Up! demonstrators. We so love what we do and not only do we love to share it with our customers, friends, and wonderful blog visitors, but we share our love for what we do with each other as demonstrators. We run swaps, challenges, tutorials, product know-how, and cyberstamps, and we are always there to help and support each other when it is needed. So if you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand, then please feel free to contact me for an invitation to this wonderful group.

Happy Stamping