16th Birthday Card & Gift

This weekend my lovely daughter had two birthdays celebrations to go to and I offered to make her a couple of cards to take. The first one I will show is the 16th card and matching gift box holding a very special hand made gift.

The first thing I made was the gift box.  I tried a couple of options, but the Box #2 die worked best with the gift (sorry no pic of that) but I will tell you about it.  I wanted to use the Framelits die for the cut out on the front of the box as I knew I could then use the larger frames on the birthday card.  I knew the birthday girl likes purple (I think a lot of 16yo girls do!), and so chose Elegant Eggplant, a colour I used to love but haven't used in ages.  I decided it would go very well with Pool Party, to give it a lift.  I chose Pool Party Seam Binding ribbon to tie up the box and hold the lid shut.  The sentiment is from Memorable Moments, stamped and than hand cut.

With the colour pallette for the project sorted out, and knowing I was going to use the Framelits all I had to do was come up with the card - sounds easy right?  Well it mostly was, I started with the Very Vanilla layer, stamping the flourish from Creative Elements in Elegant Eggplant, and then colouring in the leaves in Pool Party with my Stampin' Write Marker.  The Elegant Lines Embossing Folder seemed to go quite well with this so I embossed the Pool Party layer to give some extra texture.  I still wasn't quite happy, so used the oval from the Designer Frames lightly sponged with Elegant Eggplant to give a subtle highlight to the frame.  I added the Happy Birthday sentiment from Perfect Punches punched out with the Extra-Large Oval punch and sponged around the edges with Pool Party.  I finished off with a little bit of bling on the sentiment, Seam Binding to tie it in with the gift box,  and "16" cut out with my Junior Type alphabet die.

 Here are the two together.  Now what is in the box?  My daughter had to design a project for her textiles class this semester, the criteria was that it had to be affordable and easily manufactured.  She did a bit of research and came up with a concept, the first I knew about it was "Mum can I borrow your Big Shot?"!  She had decided to decorate a Bobby Pin with some material cut out with the Perfect Pennants Die, using two different colours of material.  Her project was chosen as one of two in the class!!! I found out while I was at Convention and actually sold one of her creations to one of the demo's there!  So she had decided to make two of these for the birthday girl, one in purple and a dark brown, and the other a purple and cream one.  They look great and are her first creations as McCrazzy Designs!

Happy Stamping

Utah Divas Challenge

This is my first time playing along with the Utah Diva's Inspiration Challenge, but with this picture as the inspiration how could I resist!  Don't they just look soooooo yummy, and those cherries!!!

I translated the milkshakes into three ice cream cones, but just had to keep the cherries.   The cones are cut freehand from Soft Suede run through the Lattice Embossing Folder, I just love how this embossed pattern fits so many different applications, here it's waffle cones.  The tops I cut from cardstock using the Build a Cupcake Punch and then run through the Elegant Lines Embossing Folder to get the swirls effect.  I spritzed the "ice cream" with Frost White Shimmer Mist to add a nice frosty feel to them, they look great in person.  The cherries are also cut with the Build a Cupcake Punch and spritzed with Champagne Shimmer paint, as is the strip of faux ribbon.  Doesn't the sentiment from A Word For You set go great with this "Happy Birthday with a cherry on top"?

A card good enough to eat!

Happy Stamping

A Mashup and Mateship

The Friday Mashup this week is to do Black and White, and/or Square.  I wasn't really sure what I was going to do for this card, as I usually don't do black and white cards, but when I was tidying off my desk I found my Elegant Lines embossing folder and it all just came to me.  I also had in the back of my mind the Just Add Ink challenge this week, to celebrate ANZAC Day by adding Mateship or Friendship to the project. 

"ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. ANZAC Day is held on April 25 and is the anniversary of the first major military action by Australian and New Zealand forces in the 1915 Gallipoli campaign during WW1. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers died in the Gallipoli campaign, and even though the campaign was a failure, the ANZAC legend was formed. Australia was a young nation and the courage and character shown by Australians at Gallipoli was quickly recognised and honored back home.

 

The ANZAC spirit of mateship, courage and sacrifice is a very important aspect of our national identity. Many Australians who lost their lives in war weren't thinking they could save the world or defeat evil regimes.  As in the trenches of France, and the patrols in Vietnam, or on the Kokoda Track, Australians were looking after their mates alongside them.  Many Australian veterans march on ANZAC Day in memory of their mates left behind, and the ones that have passed on before them." - Peter Barnes

A few years ago I had the honor of marching with my mum and my daughter in memory of my grandfather who fought with the group of soldiers known as the Rats of Tobruk, ANZAC Day has taken on extra special meaning since then.

I wanted to give the embossed black cardstock a bit of a lift so spritzed with Champagne Shimmer Mist, and then added the butterflies and the pearls.  The sentiment was easy on this one, and comes from the Great Friend stamp set (one of my first ever Stampin' Up! sets). 

Happy Stamping