A Little Saturday Crafting Session

Afternoon all....what a horrible day it is here, its cold, damp and very windy indeed! The perfect kind of day for staying home and being creative.

Tomorrow hubby and I are off to a surprise 60th birthday afternoon tea. As the birthday girl is a close friend who also loves anything creative and crafty I couldn't let the chance go back to make her a little something special to mark her birthday. I was going to make a mini book but after searching for ideas I decided to make an exploding box, something I haven't made in ages.

I used to make loads of these boxes, in fact I even taught classes at a local shop many years back (please note that I am not claiming the rights to the exploding box - I got my measurements etc off the web and went from there). I opted to make the base layers and lid of the box in neutral colours and then I added a little splash of colour inside with patterned papers and some flowers on the top. You can see below the closed up box....

The next picture is the centre square of the top layer where I put a little card so that I can write a message to my friend.

The flowers on top of the lid of the box are all from Wild Orchid crafts, I gave them a little brush over with some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Antique Lace to kind of 'age' them and give them a bit of a shimmer.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy making these boxes, they are fairly quick and very simple to make but they are so effective. They make such a fab gift for birthdays, new babies, weddings etc. I am sure my friend is going to love hers. If you have a special occasion coming up and would like a box made please do not hesitate to get in touch, my contact details are all here on the blog contact page.

I also managed to complete a layout today, this one is based on Sues January sketch (yes I know its February, I am just a tad behind here!!). You can see the original challenge on Sues blog here. For this layout I again used up the ends of a Basic Grey kit, the pictures are of my niece and I last year before a family party.

Hopefully I will manage to complete the Feb challenge before the end of the month!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jane x