My first Calendar Box

This weekend I've been making a Calendar box, for a Christmas gift. The pack I purchased from a company Craftwork Cards, the kit comes with 5 white boxes to make up, 12 white card tags per box and 5 mini 2015 calenders.

I took the sections out that were required to complete one box.

 

 

I decided to make the box first and took the advise to decorate the box first before making it up. Using a kit of paper and toppers from Craftwork Cards called the 'Potting shed'. I took two sheets of matching papers and some plain Bazzill brown cardstock. I created sections for the front, back and both side sections and matted these onto the brown cardstock. For the front pocket section I wanted to ensure the pattern matched and followed the main front section and matted this onto brown card also.

 

I fixed the front pocket using strong double sided tape and then added all the patterned section to all the sides. I then fixed the box together suing ulta sticky double sided tape as I wanted the box to be strong and secure. 

 

 

All lettering for my box and tags were created using my Cricut Gypsy device and Cartrdge Don Joan , welding and slating alternate letters before cutting. These were all cut from the same brown cardstock.

 

I then started decorating the white tags. I decided to decorate both the front and the back of

each card and I decided that I would not glue the calendar for 2015 to the actual tags (that way it could be reused each year). I parted my calendar and found a mini peg to used to hold this in place. On the  reverse of the tags I wanted to create a pocket to hold a slip of card 2 inches by 4 inches  for personal birthday dates to be noted on - again to be referred to each year. To create some of the pockets I used the toppers supplied in the potting shed pack whilst for others I created a pocket from papers only, all the pockets were stuck down using the ultra sticky double sided tape.

 

The idea of the calender box is that the tag is pulled out of the box and put in the front pocket on the correct month, using the peg supplied to attach the calender.

I continued decorating the remaining 11 tags, ensuring that each month differed and I used a mixture of the papers from the pad, on both the front and the back.

I printed the months of the year onto some plain white card for personalised dates to be written on and these along with the individual calender sheet were placed in the pockets created. 

 

 

It wasn't a quick thing to make but I was very pleased with the end result, have two more planned, a  dressmaking theme and a Disney theme.

 

 

A card for Ken - Happy 50th

A card request this time from my husband for a colleague at work Ken who is celebrating a big birthday.

 

My husband was quite specific with his request, Ken is a Wolves supporter but since moving to the Watford area also supports Watford FC.

 

Two football characters were created using the Cricut Everyday dolls cartridge , dressing the figures in the current football kits for both Watford and Wolves. Being Kens 50th birthday the score had to be 5 - 0. My husband being an avid Watford FC fan, didn't take much discussion which team would be allocated the 5 and which the 0.

 

The football badges were printed both small to add to the shirts and slightly larger to create two rosettes.

 

Green card was matted on to both orange and black card stock, four footballs were die cut, and cut and fixed to each corner. A personalised message was printed and fixed to the base of the card.

 

The figures, numbers and rosettes were all fixed using double sided tape to finish.

 

Lets hope Ken has a fantastic 50th Birthday.

 

 

A sweet card for a sweet lady

A special card was needed this month for a special friend, who runs a sweet business.

I decided on a using a decoupage image from my Makey Bakey Mice CD. I selected a sweet image and backing paper to match. I cut all the individual pieces out and layered them up using 1mm foam pads and silicon glue.

I embossed a square section of white Bazzill card stock using a Happy Birthday embossing folder. I added a stamped Happy Birthday image from the Stampin Up range and punched this out and matted onto black and orange card to create a shadow, this was fixed to the embossed card section.

The main backing paper was matted onto black and orange card and fixed to the base card. Black photo corners were cut and attached to each corner to add detail .

The main decoupage sections was also matted onto the same coloured card. The two matted topper sections were attached to the base card.

 

The liquorice sweet embellishments were created in card. The circle sweets were made by rolling up card in yellow and black card. The square variety were created by cutting small squares which were then glued together to create the depth. All the sweets created were attached using silicon glue. An alternative would be to use real sweets but I was concerned about any oil that may mark the card, hence why I created my own card versions.

I hope Karen has a sweet Birthday and likes her card. 

Birthday Wishes to Kira

A special card request from a young girl who celebrates her birthday at the beginning of the school year. The request was to have the school name on the card and a girl in school uniform.

Firstly I checked the uniform colour and style for the little girl and then looked on my Cricut cartridges for a school image.

Using the Cricut Gypsy device I selected the school image and added the name of the school in the roof section of the building. The building was cut out of green, white and brown card. The white words were added into the green roof section and fixed using double sided tape to the brown cut piece. The windows were cut from the white section and glued to the brown piece also to add more detail. Part of the building (the steps) were cut again from a darker brown card to create the step section (using the hide option on the Gypsy device to reduce the cut pieces).

The grass sections were cut using the Sizzix Decorative strip die.

The little girl was cut using the Cricut Every Day Doll cartridge. The face was stamped using Sizzix face stamps. The face was stamped again onto white card and the eye sections cut out and glued to the cut face shape.

A personalised message was printed and matted onto green card

All the pieces were fixed to a white square card matted onto a 6" x 6" base card.

A card needed this time for a family friend who celebrates her birthday this month - the BIG 40.

This design was taken from Tumble Tizzy CD - from the decoupage section.

The page was printed direct form the CD, I didn't particularly like the scalloped background that was on the printout so I decided to cut the base section away from the background. All other parts were cut out and layered up using 1mm 3d foam pads.

I matted the decoupage bear and glass onto cream cardstock and then on a burgundy red card and black card stock.

The base section was again using cream card and red striped cardstock (from Stampin Up range), a black ribbon was attached across the join with a diamonte buckle. The back section was matted onto red and black card and fixed to the base card.

Black triangles were cut and fixed to all corner sections.

A personalised message for Tracy was printed and matted onto red and black card and fixed to the lower striped section of the card.

To help compensate the weight of the front of the card, once glass section of the bear was retained and matted onto a cream circle which was mattered onto a red and black scalloped circle, this was added to the back of the card using double sided tape.
 

Lets hope Tracy had a fab 40th birthday and enjoyed celebrating.

Wedding Congratulations to Linda and Darren

Another card request of my double sided Wedding card design for a special couple getting married in August. The colour theme being mint and navy blue.

 

The base of the card was created using an Original Sizzix die - Car front. I cut 2 car shapes and then 4 circles using a circle punch approximately 1.5" diameter.  I cut the bumpers of the car in silver and the two front headlights, for the rear lights I cut the small circles out of red and orange card.

The Bride and Groom were cut out using Cricut Paper doll Dress Up Cartridge, the dolls were cut out at 3.5" height, I created back views also for the reverse of the card.

Blue card was attached to the base card and an embossed cream card was matted on top. The bridge and grooms( front and back ) were fixed to the card and the car was fixed using double sided tape and 3d foam on the roof part.

Personalised number plate was fixed to the front of the card and the standard number plate message was added to the back view.

Vets Birthday Card

 

Another missed blog post.

 

A card request for a special birthday for a lady who works at a vets.

 

Using the Cricut Paper doll and Everyday doll cartridges, I created the vet figure using the nurse sections and doctors accessories.

 

The animals were taken from the Animal Kingdom Cartridge. Each animal base shape was cut four times and then in different colours to add more detail to the animals.

 

The animals were fixed down the sides of the card to create a border effect and the main doll fixed to the middle of the card.

 

A personalised message was cut and matted onto green card and added to the base of the card.