A Special Birthday Card

 I had to make a card for a special birthday.  I'd seen someone using the Lavinia Lillium stamp as a partial background recently - I think it was on the Lavinia group on Facebook, but I wasn't planning on using it when I saw it, so I didn't not the originator. Anyway, that's how I started.

I made the card base approximately 8in square, and I've created a vine effect with the Sizzix/Susan Tierney Cockburn Beeblossom die, along with a couple of other branch dies from other Susan Tierney Cockburn set from other manufacturers. I coloured the flowers with Promarkers, adding some detail with Pan Pastel. The leaves were made using olive green card. I stamped the Lillium with Versafine Clair ink, and coloured the blooms with Promarker, then outlined them with an fine Posca pen. You can't see it in the photo, but I finished the flowers by adding a layer of clear glitter marker (Crafter's Companion). I created a suitable sentiment in Photoshop Elements and cut it and a mat with a Spellbinders die set. The stamped area was shaded with Distress Ink in Tattered Rose and Spun Sugar. I added a darker shade around the whole edge using Picked Raspberry (which I originally misread as Pickled Raspberry, and that's how I always think of it!) I've digitally removed the sentiment for the photo.

I made a couple of insert pages using similar techniques.

Beeblossom is quite a dimensional flower, so there's no way this card was going into an envelope. Therefore, the next stage was to make a box. I used 12 by 12 white card to make a basic lid and tray box which I decorated to match the card. Again, I've digitally removed the recipient's name.

I added an oval label area with a mask, and a little background texture with Tattered Rose ink and a Lavinia stencil.

Needle Cases

 At my craft group, someone showed a needle case they'd been given and wondered if we could do something similar. I had a think, and decided to go with an Eileen Hull Bigz die.

My first attempt was ok, but there were a couple of things I decided to change.

I also used some very old Sizzix dies for the scissors, needle and thread which I cut out of rose gold Sizzix Surfacez. (What's the singular of that?) Anyway, my base here was 300gsm card, and I covered it with a scrap of cloth I've had knocking around for ages. I cut some felt remnants I had through the die too, but using folded felt on the die up to the first fold line. The result had a few issues. First, the cover is quite floppy. Not a major issue, but not what I wanted. The other thing is that, using the die to cut the felt resulted in pages that were a bit too big. They fit, but polyester felt is quite stretchy, and the result just didn't look neat enough for me. I used double-sided sticky sheets to adhere the fabric, and finished it off with some lace and elastic cord to make a closure.

My second attempt I tried something a bit different, and I'd also bought some new felt so I could choose colours to fit!

This time, I used some grey board - in fact it was the back of an old notepad. That gave a much firmer basis. For decoration, this time, I used some ribbon, and then a Tonic die from its Sew Pretty range which I decorated with metallic gold thread.

This time, I cut the felt by hand. This gave a wonkier result, but the needle case itself looks much better.

I took a bit of the offcut from the cover (grey board covered in fabric both sides) and cut it to make a loop as show. I adhered it with tacky glue. I think I need to come up with a better option (elastic maybe?) as the scissors fall out if the case is upside-down. I'll continue to give it some thought!