Card in a Box Birthday Celebration

 Good morning crafters and a big welcome to a new crafty week.

A HUGE thank you to all the visitors to my blog over the weekend for Pinkies Sale-A-Bration blog hop. I can see from my statistics that I had a lot of new visitors to Stampin' Sarah. I hope you liked my little Sale-A-Bration Owl. If you pop back tomorrow I will give you a break down of how I created the little chap.

Now on to the order of the day, a big Happy Birthday to my Mum! I spent several hours tucked away in my craft room this weekend while Summer was entertained downstairs with Daddy (I found them tucked up together eating blueberries and watching cartoons when I'd finished!) creating two birthday cards for Mum.

The first is this card in a box creation.

I've seen so many different versions of this style of card across the blogosphere and decided to give one a go. It took a bit of time to get my colour scheme sorted. But I'm really happy with the result. I found this fab tutorial over on The Serene Stamper's blog which explained how to go about creating one of these cards in a box. I used the video to gain my card base and I then decorated with my own floral theme using the Sale-A-Bration Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper and matching coloured cardstock (Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Summer Starfruit and Pool Party).

I created this Happy Birthday using the gorgeous Four Frames stamp set (and coordinating Decorative Label Punch) matched with the Sketched Birthday banner stamp. I finished with my favourite Basic Pearls.

Here is a closer view of the pop up element of the card using the Pansy Punch and the Petite Petal Punch which is launching Tuesday as part of the Spring Summer catalogue. I also created the rock n' roll butterfly using Papillon Potpourri and the matching Elegant Butterfly punch.

This is how the card folds down to fit in a standard C6 envelope.

The second card I created I designed specifically for Summer to give to Nana. I  had stitched the wooden heart keyring and wanted to create a Stampin' Up! card to match this piece of cross stitch (and also feature the gift). I chose the beautifully bright Gingham Garden Designer Series Papers to highlight my floral heart.

Here is a close up of my stitched keyring.

I have to confess to being a little addicted to creating these sunshine cards and scrapbook pages. I had seen so many and been so in awe of the technique. I never realised how quick and easy (and simple) it is to create this effect. All you need to create your own sunshine card or page is to measure the space you want to sunshine to fill and then cut a piece of scrap card to those measurements. All you then have to do is create a template for your pieces and use these to trace around and cut your Designer Series Papers. 

This is the template I created for the card above (a standard 14.8cm x 10.5cm card base). This measured 14.3cm x 10cm and I randomly cut the lines from my centre sunshine point to the edges. I marked each piece A-H to ensure I didn't mix up my pieces (the ticks were to remind me that I had already cut that piece from DSP).

Thank you for stopping by today. Today is the last day to order any of the exclusive Valentines products I have previously showcased. Please pop by my online store if you'd like to order any of these before they are gone for good.

And just another quick reminder that Sale-A-Bration and the Spring Summer catalogue launch tomorrow!! I am so excited to share all the fabulous products with you. Please pop back all week as I have a whole series of cards and projects to share, starting with instructions for my blog hop owl tomorrow.

Please get in touch with any questions or to find out more about placing an order, joining my team, or hosting a party: poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

Happy Crafting ;0)

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