I am a day late in posting my last project. I thought I could get it all done on Friday and be ready to post this morning. Well, it took me all day Friday to finish the cards and I still had to finish my box. I left my craft room on Friday after 11 p.m. and I was back at it today by 8 a.m. I should have known it would take me longer than I had anticipated. After all, I made 6 greeting cards, a handmade box to store them in, and stamped inside sentiments to interchange. More about that in a minute. I first want to give you some background on what prompted me to do this project. My goddaughter, who is the daughter of a friend I have known from 7th grade, likes and rides horses. Over a year ago, I ordered (I still had the store then) Giddyupabella from Stamping Bella with the intention of making up a kit for Alex, the goddaughter. Time went by, birthdays and holidays, and still I never got around to making this kit for her. A few weeks ago, when I was in The Crafty Scapper, a local scrapbook store, I came across two different sheets of western paper that I knew would go perfect with my little horsey and bella! And, then a few days ago, I decided with Alex's birthday approaching (again), I was going to finally stamp the image and combine it with the paper I bought and I decided instead of a kit for her to make cards, that I would instead make a card set for her to give to others. I absolutely love how it came out! I have lots of pics for you and instructions too! I guess I should start with the overview of the contents, then I'll show you the box, and then the cards individually too!
Next, I have some pics of the box. The first photo is the closeup of the front of the box.
The next two shows the size of the box.
And, this one shows the cards inside with lid is open.
The idea came from a class I taught at my store where I made an open bag and matching cards for the inside. Here is a pic of it ...
If that doesn't jog your memory or if you were never at my store, then see below for instructions. The main difference in this bag and the box I made is that I took this bag one step further and added a lid to transform my bag to a box. This bag was also wider by 2 inches than my bella box. Here is the diagram I drew and instructions to help you understand how it is made.
1. Start with a 12" x 12" piece of cardstock. To get the correct size of box to hold A-2 size cards, you will cut 2" off one of the sides. Now your sheet is 10" x 12".
2. With the 10" side horizontal as in above diagram on the right, score 2" from left side. and 2" from the right side. 3. Turning the cardstock so that the 12" side is horizontal, score 5" from the left side, and 5" from the right side.
4. Cut the solid lines, that would be on both sides up to the 2" mark only. Fold up into bag shape and tape.
5. To make the lid, see above for diagram on the left. Start with a piece of cardstock 6" x 10". Score at 5", 2". and 3". The 5" side is taped to inside of back of the bag and the 2" forms the top and the 3" is the flap in front. I used two magnets to force the flap and the lid to stay in place. One is between the layers of the horse and girl, and the scallop circle and the other is under the pattern paper on the front of the box. The magnets are very thin and are made by Basic Grey. I hope these instructions make sense. Feel free to email me or leave me a comment if you need help. I think, once you make one, you will find it to be very easy to make and one that can easily be adjusted to different sizes.
Now, lets take a look at the individual cards, which by the way, I thought I was never going to finish coloring ... that was much more coloring than I usually do! All the cards used the same stamp, paper and cardstock. I just changed the layouts to change to look of the individual cards. The actual image was large so I was limited as to what layout would work and still be able to see as much of the papers as possible. The Pink paper was by Karen Foster called Horseshoe Bandanna, and the Cowgirl words paper was from Adorn It from their Wild West collection and is called Cowgirl Talk. After each card, I will list any other items used on the cards.
Recipe Card #1 -Flowers by Prima, Brads by Creative Impressions
Card #2 Recipe - Ribbon by May Arts, Rhinestones by Hero Arts, Border Punch by EK Success
Card #3 Recipe - Ribbon by Unknown, Silver Ribbon Slide by Unknown, Silver Squares by JoAnns
Card #4 Recipe: Dot Sparkler Stickers by Stampendous, Brad (shank cut off) by Basic Grey
Card # 5 Recipe - Brown Paper with white diamond design by American Crafts, Flowers by Prima, Brad by Creative Impressions (white brad colored with Brown Sharpie)
Card #6 Recipe: Ribbon by Creative Impressions, Tiny Pink Pearls by Hero Arts. One note about the shape of the die on the card - I first used Labels 4 to die cut the image out, but if cut off her and the horses legs and I decided I didn't like it, so I pieced them back under with a scallop circle behind the labels 4 and that is why I used the ribbon and brown border to cover up the boo boo ... I share all my secrets with you! LOL!Now, there is one last addition to this gift that I must tell you about. I don't know if Alex, will use the cards for notecards or if she will want to use them as an occasion card. I got the idea to stamp out a bunch of random sentiments and I layered each onto the same pink cardstock. On the inside of all cards, I have added a white layer so she can pick one of the sentiments and tape to inside or she can just write her own message, the choice is hers. Here is a pic of all the sentiments I stamped.
That's it! I hope she likes her gift and appreciates how much work I did on it. But, as you know, handmade gifts are mostly for the giver and the happiness one gets for creating! Now, I have to get back to my Easter cards because they need to go in the mail by Wednesday at the latest. I will try to post something on Tuesday, but if you don't see me, it is because I am frantically trying to finish my Easter cards!
Please leave me a comment and let you know what you think about my Giddyupabella Card Set!
Happy Stamping!
Tina
