Is It a Card? Or...

My nephew is turning 16 this weekend.  Mind you, this is my youngest nephew which means that not only is he turning into a young man but I am turning into an old aunt!  He asked for some CDs for this birthday and even though I had no idea what I was buying, I gamely bought him one.  I had already decided that I was giving him this card, so I needed a something to give him the CD in.  Behold this "card."

The layout came from the Taylored Expressions sketch challenge this week (although I changed it to square instead of rectangular).  But this is not actually a card.  There is a flap that you can't see that folds over the front which turns this card into a very slim box that can hold a CD!

The CD was encased in a very thick cardboard (instead of the usual plastic case) so I was able to make this box very slim (only 1/4-inch thick).  I used dimensionals on the bottom half of the panel with the buttons which left some space for me to tuck the flap in and hold the box closed.  I think it's adorable.  I hope he does too (although he's a boy and could probably care less about these things.  However, I'm sure his mother will save it for another use)!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

MOJO144 Birthday Bag

I decided to go in a different direction with my take on the MOJO sketch this week.

I felt like making something other than a card, so I decided to make a gift "bag" instead.   I used my fancy favor sizzix die to make the bag and embellished it with some blue bayou dp (I always loved that color *sniff*), taffeta ribbon and brads.  I had it in my head that I should use the birthday stamp from the Four Square set, but I wish I hadn't.  It's really a little too small for this sketch and I had trouble finding something small enough to be the little shaped piece on the right side of one of the squares.  I finally settled on one of the smaller labels four nesties.  All in all I think it came out pretty cute and I'm sure that whoever I give it to will be so impressed with my stamping talents!  That's one of the fabulous things about stamping, I think.  You really don't need any special talent to create something that's beautiful.  And no matter how hard you try to tell non-stampers that they can do it too, they still think you are full of baloney!  If I can convince one non-stamper (are you listening Bea?) that they can do it, I will consider my work here done!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

Gift Box

As I have mentioned with the past few posts, I attended a Stampin' Up! worskshop on Saturday where I learned quite a few new things.  One thing I was anxious to try was the super-sturdy gift boxes demonstrated by Donna Centamore.  If you have never checked out her blog (which I highly doubt is the case), then run (don't walk) there now and see all her fabulous creations.  One thing that she loves doing (and excels at) is making all kinds of creative gift boxes.  This is my humble attempt at a gift box using the soon-to-be-retired pale plum.  This box measures 4-inches square so it is large enough to hold all kinds of gifts.

I feel the need to confess:  the roses on this box are beautiful.  But they are a pain in the {you know what} to make.  First you've got to break down the fibers of the cardstock to make it easier to bend.  I've tried running it against the edge of my desk, running it through the paper crimper, running it against my bone folder.  Apparently, no matter what method you choose, you need to do it for about two weeks in order to break the fibers down to some kind of manageable level. Then you've still got to bend them to your will.  They don't want to be bent.  They fight you every step of the way.  You try coaxing, wrapping them around dowels, squishing them between your fingers until you just give up and say "they look good enough."  Thankfully, once you put them together they do look good enough, but the journey is almost a little bit too much.  For these roses (once they were "good enough") I decided to give them a blast of smooch spritz.  It was very satisfying.  I think I won this round.  We'll see what happens in the future.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!