Wedding Cake Gift Card Box #3

Well another wedding under our belts! Our beautiful daughter was married last month, and over the last few weeks, I've been sharing wedding projects I've made for her... 

This is the final project.... a white wedding cake gift card box, decorated in her wedding colors of mint and navy!

These boxes are truly a labor of love. Under the very top flower on the top, hides a gift card tucked down inside the middle of the top 2 tiers. Except for the lace around the base and the ribbon around each cake layer, this is completely made out of paper!

(click on photos to view larger images)

This a close-up of the front corner floral accent. I made these flowers myself out of cardstock. The leaves are made with mulberry paper in white, which I inked with mint to create their "green" color. 

At the top of this post is the view of the cake from the front. Going around the cake, the next photos show it from all sides..... first, the left side:

Next, the back:

Then the right side with it's cascade of flowers:

I think I used about 40 flowers on this project!! I handmade all of them except the 9 mulberry paper roses. I bought those (and the leaves) from 
I Am Roses. They were white to start with, but I inked the edges on 4 of them in navy. The other 5 larger ones, I painted with Starburst Spray from Lindy's Stamp Gang.... they are the solid "navy" ones. Finally, I sprayed all the flowers with their Scintillating Silver Shimmer spray! Yummy... seriously LOVE that stuff, LOL!!

This close-up of the flower cascade shows a little more detail, but still does not capture how incredibly shimmery all the flowers turned out! I used Liquid Pearls for the centers of the small ones:

I'm showing two photos of the top of the cake... one is a little closer look:

(click photo to view larger images)

That top carnation, with it's 4 leaves, is covering the gift card and slot. The flower is held in place with a pearl-topped, long floral pin. The entire thing just pulls out and then can be replaced after the gift card is removed!

I hope you like my creation and are inspired to try one yourself!

You can view my first two wedding cake gift card boxes by clicking on them in the left sidebar. There are links in those posts to the shops - Lindy's Stamp Gang & I Am Roses - and links to the tutorials for the handmade flowers as well. :)

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Wedding Cake Box for an Anniversary!

Well, I can't believe it, but I made another one..... the 

Wedding Cake Gift Card Holder Box!!

Only this time it was for an Anniversary... for our son and DIL. You can click on the photos to see the larger image. I have the instructions for one of these in the blog post of my first cake box... you can find it here. So I'm not going to print out all the instructions again! I'll try to point out the different things I did on this one, and any new instructions needed. 

Front View

On this cake, I covered the layers with CTMH cardstock in Sunkiss Yellow, but I did not emboss any of the "cake" layers. I decided to apply the cardstock with strong double-sided tape, instead of the wet glue I used on the first cake. I ended up having to use wet glue to get the ends to stay put anyway, so I recommend using a wet glue for entirely covering the boxes, as it gave me a much better permanent bond. 

And this time I tinted the pearl paint with the CTMH Sunkiss Yellow reinker before painting the layers, to keep the color from turning a lighter yellow. 

Left Side

Also the white satin ribbon is the real deal here, not paper 'ribbons'! I had to put the ribbon on in two layers, as the yellow pearl paint bled through the first ribbon layer where I had applied the glue. (Oh no!) But the top ribbon layer covered those spots very nicely! Whew... avoided disaster!

I did not use glitter to cover the hot-glue seams between the layers like I had done before. This time I went over them with Liquid Pearls in White Opal.

Back View

Instead of the 'spikey' flowers on the first cake, I chose daisies, as this is her favorite flower, and what their real wedding cake had all over it. 

I made each daisy by punching 2 flower layers and then snipping a "v" shape from the end of each petal (very time consuming, lol). I slightly rotated the 2 layers to offset the petals just a little bit. The center of each is actually a button... yes, buttons.... BUT they are covered with a 2-tone mix of Flower Soft that I blended myself. I love how they turned out with their fuzzy centers! 

I chose to arrange them not only throughout the cascade, but around the middle cake layer. That's why no embossing was needed on the middle layer, like I did on the first cake. And I used the Bitty Pearls on the top and bottom layers.

Right Side

The carnations and 'itty-bitty' flowers are made just like before... just color changes, with darker inked edges.... Amethyst CS with Gypsy inked edges and Blush CS with Cotton Candy inked edges on the carnations, and the 'itty-bitty's' and small carnations are done in White Daisy CS with Sunkiss Yellow inked edges. Some of the carnations are plain white and some of the 'itty-bitty's' are also sprayed with Glitz Spritz in Sunset Pink before adding the Liquid Pearl centers.

The leaves are different...... instead of hand cutting and inking them, I just purchased these pretty 2-toned ones from I Am Roses. I think they match the overall cake very well. 

Top

The pearl hat pin is again holding the center flower on, and it with it's leaves, are covering the gift card and slot in the top of the box. The skinny yellow ribbon is attached to the gift card for easy removal and then the center flower can be replaced! 

I mounted the cake on white with punched border, then on gold mirricard, and finally the chipboard base to stabilize the whole project.

OK... I think I have covered it all.... so I hope y'all like this box as well as the first one!

Supplies:

CTMH: Cardstock - Amethyst, Blush, Sunkiss Yellow and White Daisy; Inks - Cotton Candy, Gypsy and Sunkiss Yellow; Reinker - Sunkiss Yellow; Pearl Paint; Bitty Pearls

Lindy's Stamp Gang: Glitz Spritz - Sunset Pink

I Am Roses: 2-toned leaves

Liquid Pearls - White Opal

Flower Soft and Flower Soft Glue

Marco's Paper: Mirricard

Other items: Assorted punches; foam brush; X-acto knife; paper mache nesting boxes; Scor-Tape; hot glue; glue dots; chipboard; pearl hat pin; white and yellow satin ribbons; buttons; brads

Train Lover vs. Bookworm

My best friend, Carol, is a bookworm... can that woman read!!!... vs....
Her husband, Tom.... he loves trains!!

My dilemma .... what to do for an anniversary gift and card? I had to give this some thought, especially since for the last several years, no, for all of them (LOL!) I've made mostly "girly" cards. So I had to finally take Tom into consideration as well (sigh!) After all, it is his anniversary, too!

What to do, what to do?.... I had already decided that I wanted to give Carol a gift card to Barnes & Noble (she likes to go in there and just smell the new books before shopping... sniff, sniff!... I guess sort of how my hubby likes to go into Wilson's and just smell the leather! LOL!). And if our area had a train museum or something, I would have gotten Tom a gift card to go there, but, alas, nothing of the sort in the area :(

.... the closest thing to anything transportation here is Cadillac Ranch, and that's FREE! Although, we do have trains running through town. I hear their whistles all the time. But I couldn't just send Tom out to the tracks to watch trains, even with good advice 'not to play on the tracks', could I?
So what's a girl to do?

THIS:

I decided to cover a paper mache "BOOK" box for Carol

and do the matching card with Tom in mind.

I've had this CTMH Sweet Home paper for some time now (it's retired). When I saw the paper mache book, I knew I had to cover it in this paper, because for some reason, the striped B&T patterned paper reminded me of story books my Grandmother had when we were growing up. Each book had 3 or 4 stories in them, and those stripes just brought back good memories for me :)

I attached the paper to the box with Mod Podge for Paper, letting each section dry thoroughly before moving on. It was pretty time-consuming to get all the pieces just right, because I had to line up the front cover's side binding with the back side (I'm OCD that way!!) and I went up and over all the edges with the papers. It probably would have been a whole lot easier

to just put the paper to the edges, and color the edges with matching markers!!!

When the paper was done, I covered the entire outside of the box, in stages, with a layer of the Paper Mod Podge... I like it better than the regular, because it's a lot less tacky when dry.

I thought the card turned out well. I got the idea for it on SCS... you can see it here. I found the train image online and printed it out with the sentiment,

in Indian Corn Blue (using RGB codes), above it. I inked all the edges of the pieces before glueing them together. I even inked, lightly over the sentiment, my own "steam" coming from the train stack, which helped give the illusion the train was in motion.

I made Carol a matching bookmark, and put everyting inside the book box, including the card, for them to open.  I added a "Discover" gift card for Tom, so he could use it for anything his heart desired, as long as the entity accepted Discover!

Here's some more photos of the project:

The spine I did with the striped paper. I cut all those pieces separate

because the "leather strips" were bumped up on the box.

All I did to make the 'leather' was color the bumps with several layers of the

CTMH Barn Red marker (old style), right on the paper mache.

It worked perfectly!

Carol loved this yellow B&T in this set, so I decided to do the inside with it.

If you look closely at the bookmark (or click to see bigger image),

you can see how I lined up the skinny blue strips with the yellow pattern.

That blue print was on the backside of the yellow in the kit.

The angle of this photo is off just a little, or you'd be able to see how the

striped 'binding" lines up from the front cover with the back cover... LOL!

And of course, I used I AM ROSES for all the flowers and leaves.

A few small ones I painted with the Lindy's Stamp Gang Magical Micas,

but most are the color they came!

Also, none of the photos show it, but it sure was a challenge to cover the curved inside binding edge at the top and bottom of the spine (you know how hard-covered books have the binding slightly curved out from the actual pages of a book.... well in going up and over those edges, the cut of the paper had to be arched... a straight cut line just didn't cut the mustard!

Whew! I'm glad it's done! But all in all, it was worth the time (and trouble)!

Hope ya'll like it, too. :)

Wedding Card

For my son's wedding, I made him and his new bride a card, of course!
I got the idea from a pin on Pinterest, and I think it turned out well.
Michelle's favorite color is pink, and her wedding colors were pink, yellow
and purple, so I made the card in those colors. I'm just glad they liked it!
But the photos came out a bit blurry... sorry :(

the front

(remember to click on any image to see it bigger)

The ribbon is actually keeping the card closed. I didn't want them to have

to untie and re-tie the bow, so it's a permanent bow with a magnet closure

underneath. It needed something to keep it closed, since it turned out so thick! See what I mean...

I even had to make a custom box for it....





This is the card open and standing (close-up photos are farther down):

and this is the back, both open and closed:

Here are some close-up shots of the front and back of the card:

As usual, I used a bunch of I Am Roses. All the colored

ones are painted with Lindy's Stamp Gang's Magical Mica's!

The white ones are the original colors as they came. 

Now these photos are from the inside of card.... first and second 'page'...

page 1 closeup

page 2 closeup

And then 'pages' 3 and 4....



page 3 closeup

page 4 closeup - (we tucked a check in the pocket behind the tag)

and the closeup of the tag:

I did the embedded-embossed technique on this tag, as well as

the hearts on page 1 and the hearts here on the back:

a closeup of hearts on the center back

Well, that's a lot of photos, and all of them were probably not necessary for this post, but I never know when to stop until I've run out of photos, LOL!! 

Thanks for stopping by.... have a great day! :)

Engaged!.... (long post with many pictures!)

Our son is getting married on September 8th! Last Tuesday eve, they surprised us with some engagement photos, and this is one of them:

(I added the text)



They had come up for a wedding of friends, the next day, and I had been working on the wedding card for them to take to the happy couple (another Floral Impressions Easel Card!) I wasn't done with making the 3D envelope box it had to go in, so Michelle got to see the card up close and personal! Now, she and her women folk are all "crafty" women (just not in scrapbooking or cardmaking.) 

So, I was very flattered at her attention to and comments about the card.... so much so, that I decided to make her an even more elaborate one... one with a different engagement photo that she mentioned was one of her favorites. I made it so they could use it as a photo decor item in their home (or just throw it out if they didn't like it, lol)

Michelle's sister and SIL gave her a bridal brunch for her shower on Saturday. With my health, I wasn't sure I'd make it since it's more than 2 hours away, but I did. YAY! It was a fun and happy event! There were over 30 women attending, and she received many nice gifts for their new home together.
I had my real gift shipped ahead just in case I didn't make it, so I ended up taking her the photo decor and a card, that turned into a kind of mini-album.

Here's the photo of the decor piece I made:

click to see photo larger

Michelle's wedding colors are pastels... a pink-azalea color, yellow and a touch of purple. Her favorite flowers are daisies, which will be her bouquet. Her bridesmaid's will be in the pink tones and the wedding cake will be chocolate with yellow icing and daisies flowing all over the top and sides, gradually thinning out as they get to the bottom layer. With all that in mind....

That's why I did the easel part of the project in yellow (some Basic Grey color I don't remember). I triple matted the photo, first on white cardstock embossed with an ivy pattern, then on a patterned paper from my stash that I thought complimented the pattern in her dress, and then on
Gold Mirricard from Marco's. The sentiment's I did in MS Word, and matted them on CTMH Cotton Candy cardstock.

There are 2 sizes of daisies on here.... the smaller ones, as well as the small pink roses, yellow cherry blossoms, and the leaves are from I Am Roses.
All the smaller flowers were white to start with, but I painted them with
Lindy's Stamp Gang's Starburst Spray in Cotton Candy Pink and I used their Yellow Rose of Texas Magical Micas... that's in their Prairie Wildflowers set.

The base is 7.25" x 12" and built on chipboard for extra sturdiness. The bottom patterned paper is of small yellow daisies on a white background and the whole paper had a golden shimmer to it. (You'll be able to see it better in the photo of the matching card.) The next layer is the Gold Mirricard again, and then topped with daisy patterned paper from my stash that is so old, I don't even remember the store I purchased it from, lol :)! But it's made from a real photo of a field of daisies, and it really made exactly the look I was going for! I love when that happens!

The 3 large daisies on the project I made myself! I'm so proud of these as they're my first attempt at daisies!.... I started each with 2 paper flowers from CTMH. I had to hand-cut all the niches in each petal of every layer, to get them to resemble the other daisies. I glued the 2 paper flowers together, with petals slightly off-set, making a daisy. In the center of each, I put a CTMH clear button, then covered each button with a custom two-color yellow flower soft to get the "fuzzy" look I wanted. I liked how they turned out so much, that I covered the centers of the I Am Roses daisies with the flower soft as well. I finished it off with some butterflies (punch from Martha Stewart) in CTMH Floral Impressions paper (retired), inked with CTMH Gypsy ink, to get the bit of purple added in, and topped them off with some bling swirls marking their "flight" pattern, and CTMH Bitty Sparkles for their bodies! 

I also made a matching 3D box to hold both this easel project and the card.
Since it had to be longer than 12", I covered the seam with the daisy paper.

And I knew way ahead of time, that I was going to make a card "booklet" (or mini album) for Michelle, because of the things I wanted to include in it. So, I matched the card to this elaborate easel decor piece I had made!

This is the card front with all I Am Roses embellishments. You can see the yellow daisy paper better here, but still not the gold shimmer it had... you had to hold it at an angle to see the shimmer! Same Basic Grey yellow cardstock as the easel, and all the inside 'pages' are CTMH Cotton Candy cardstock.

The inside pages are as follows:

This is a poem I wrote for Michelle to welcome her to our family!

(sorry the photo is a little blurry)

These pages are the "Recipes"!

Left one I wrote for a happy marriage and right one

to add to the recipe book she received!

It's a recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal NO-Bake Cookies!

Just a crazy personal note to her!

And because I had the gift sent to her home,

the last paragraph tells her to turn the page

to see her gift that should arrive soon.

(but she got it the day before! Go figure!)

It's a PINK KitchenAid Mixer with a flexible edge attachment

(see the small photo on the left)

I made this photo collage on PicMonkey's free online photo editing site. The images are all from Google Images... top one says "Bridal Shower" on the umbrella, second one is gold wedding bands, 3rd is the flexible edge attachment, and the bottom one is the wedding cake Michelle wants (from Martha Stewart Weddings).

Can you tell her favorite color is pink?

Well this post is finally done!... I told you it was long and had lots of pictures in the title, so if you made it all the way down here, thank you so much for taking your precious time to check out my blog post! :)

Have a GREAT day!

Miniature Hat Boxes

For my last 'baby shower' post, I made these 3 miniature hat boxes
(with small gifts inside, of course!). The nursery for our granddaughter
will have some paisley printed bedding, so I wanted to stay with that theme and CTMH More to Adore paper was the perfect choice!

Click the photos to see larger image

As you can see, I made the middle size one backwards from the large and small ones. I used Mod Podge for Paper (following their instructions) to get the papers stuck to the boxes, just smoothing it out with my fingers as
I went along. Then after drying for at least 2 hours, I put one coat on top, just on the outsides and left the insides alone. 

All the insides are the same.... they all look like this:

It was quite a task to get that paper done "just so" on the inside of each box top and bottom! And I thought that was difficult until I started on the outsides, lol! Those paper mache boxes are NOT smooth and NOT perfectly round, and even 12x12 paper does not go all the way around anything except the smallest box bottom, inside and out. I had to piece together all the other paper parts, including the outside rim of the small box top! Being OCD didn't help, because I just had to have the stripes match up around those sides! Needless to say, there were some wrinkles when all was said and done, but for me, the end results were worth the headaches along the way! They turned out better than I thought they would, and my daughter loved them!

I used a variety of flowers and leaves, and even a 'spray' from I Am Roses to decorate each top, attaching them with a low temp hot glue gun. Everything you see came as that color except the yellow flowers... they were originally white. I painted them with Yellow Rose of Texas Magical Micas from Lindy's Stamp Gang, and then spritzed all the flowers and leaves with Medieval Gold Glitz Spritz.... so pretty! I chose yellow, even though it's not part of the colors in the paper set, because not only do some of the flowers have yellow stamen centers, but the baby's room is painted yellow! (pink, yellow, and green are her colors) I think I covered all of them in this design and even added the brown florals to go with the paper! The final touch were the stickpins.

Here's a close-up of the large arrangement:

Thanks for stopping by to check these out! Leave me some love in the comments if you have the time, and let me know what you think. :)

Supply List:

CTMH:
     More to Adore Paper pack (retired)
     Pretty Pins (reitred)
Darice Paper Mache Nesting Boxes
Mod Podge for Paper by Plaid
I Am Roses - variety of flowers, spray, and leaves
Lindy's Stamp Gang - Glitz Spritz and Magical Micas
hot glue gun