Baby Girl Pop-Up Gift Card Box

When I go to craft fairs I have found that the main item that people want to purchase is baby cards. For some reason, my creativity reaches it's limits when it comes to baby items. Maybe it is because the Lord has not blessed us with children yet, or maybe it's because my stint of living at the Student Health Center at MBU has gave me a permanent disgust of things all PINK and things all BLUE. (The boys floor of the Student Health Center was ALL BLUE, and the girls floor was all pink, not just any pink, Pepto Pink.)  Anyway, I struggle to make baby items and struggle to buy baby stamps. I found this sweet image from Lili of the Valley. The image is called "Snuggle Time". I really enjoy Lili of the Valley images. They only downside is that they are a company based out of the UK so waiting for them to come in the mail is a KILLER! But once I can get over my antsy need to use them, the wait is so worth it. The stamps come unmounted, (Which was a shock when I got them.) I was able to purchase some mounting foam from Amazon.com which was super easy and works great! After I applied the mounting foam, I could use the stamps with my acrylic blocks.

The idea was to make another slider box, but I had the worst time getting it to work, so I changed mid-project and made a gift card holder inside the box that pops up.  I don't know about you, but when I go to a baby shower, I always think that no matter how many cute outfits and baby blankets you can find, the mother appreciates money more so she can get the brands and stuff she prefers or needs. So I try to do gift cards over actual gifts. The downside with gift cards is that they are boring to give and open. So why not put it in a super cute box that can be displayed for years to come!?  
I had some silk daisies from Walmart laying around so I decided to add them for some dimension and accent. I used a brad with a plastic rose on it for the drawer handle. 
I made a gift-card-sized insert for the picture, but any standard gift card will fit just perfectly. There is also room in the drawer for some treats for the mom to be. (Lets face it, pregnancy is an occasion that calls for lots and lots of chocolate.)

Hope you Enjoyed!! Thanks for reading.

Nikki

Thank You for the Music Gift Box

One of the gifts that Lord has given me is the ability to play the piano. I love playing as much, if not more than I love crafting. (That's saying a lot too!) I have had the ability to play the piano for our church services for several years now. A few years back, my husband took over as song leader for our church and since then we have been able to work together and organize our church music services. One of the things we like to do, but fail to do as often as we should, is show the other musicians appriciation. We understand how much time and work goes into preparaition for the music service and sometimes the hard work goes without mention. So I decided to make something special for them as a way to say thanks. I also made one for my Etsy Shop.

  ~

When I discovered SVG Cuts, I found this template for a Piano box and since I LOVE the piano, I knew I had to have it. All of our musicians play piano so I thought it was fitting. I also made cooresponding tags as well. I plan to fill those boxes with chocolate which I know they will very much enjoy!

Thanks for reading!!
Nikki

Have a Heart Tissue Box Cover

I rarely make anything for myself. I am usually working on a gift for other people, or something to sell in my Etsy shop. In the spirit of making different things, I decided to do a project for my bedroom. I've been tossing around the idea of a tissue box cover. I keep a tissue box in my living room and my bedroom. I decided to use the latest Tiddly Inks Challenge to make my box. My bedroom colors are purple and gray so I decided that the tiddly inks image were most appropriate for my bedroom and easily done in purple.  For this project I used Wryn - Have Heart and Wryn- Grow a little Love. Wryn-Grow a little love was the first Tiddly Inks image I ever seen. I didn't know where it came from at the time, but when I went searching for another image one day I ran across her. I just LOVE Christy's images. They are so much fun to color and I aspire to have them all one day.

I also used ...
Splitcoast Stampers for the Tissue Box Cover Template. 
Norma's Blog for inspiration
Lia Griffith's templates for the Peonies on the sides of the box
and my Cricut Explore and Subscription for the die cuts. 

I colored the images with prismacolors and odorless mineral spirits. I have been trying to get the guts to draw my own backgrounds for digital images. I decided to make gray striped wallpaper for these cute little girls to stand in front of. The darker one was my first attempt. I decided I like the lighter colors for the second attempt so it looks like they are in different rooms which is ok since they are on different sides.

The last thing I discovered was for the cover of the tissue box, I wanted a very intricate flourish to go across. The Cricut (R) explore is so much better than my Cricut (R) Inspiration 2 when it comes to cutting intricate designs, but even still I have always had a little issue with any image that has tiny lines. I ruined half of my last sheet of deep purple cardstock and was about to give up when I decided to give the "Custom" setting a whirl. I discovered that they have a setting under custom for Cardstock Intricate Cut. I used it and it worked PERFECTLY! I was ecstatic!. Just another facet of my Cricut Explore (R) that I LOVE and will use again!

Well I hope you enjoyed my project! Thanks for Reading!
Nikki