Flower Garden Happy Birthday Card-In-A-Box

On Saturday I had my friends Jan and Wendy round to make a card and I designed this card-in-a-box for them to make.  These are taking the card making world by storm, there are loads of card-in-a-box examples on Pinterest!  It was great fun, I really enjoyed putting this together!  Tanya has an excellent card-in-a-box video tutorial on YouTube HERE.  I followed Tanya's measurements so that the finished card fits inside a C6 envelope.  Monica Gale also has an excellent card-in-a-box video tutorial HERE - Monica's version fits inside a 6" square envelope.  I used Monica's measurements for my first card-in-a-box which is shown on this blog post - along with some fabulous examples from my talented friend Lesley!

After cutting and scoring my Crumb Cake CS piece for the card base I stamped the SU! Hardwood stamp several times using Soft Suede ink.  I just LOVE this stamp!  I then used my Hero Arts & Sizzix 'Flower Garden' stamp and die combo set.  I stamped the flowers, bees and the ladybird onto watercolour paper, die cut them and added colour with inks and a waterbrush.  I added Glossy Accents to the ladybird body and Star Dust Stickles to the bee wings.  I also added tiny gems to the bee eyes.  Using a dauber I sponged Soft Suede ink around the back panel and the fold down flaps to add a bit of definition.  I punched a strip of Old Olive CS using a grass punch and wrapped it around the 3 sides.  I glued my crossbar pieces inside the box and attached my flowers.  I punched 2 small strips of grass to cover the front of the 2 crossbar pieces.  I popped one bee up onto the back panel, I attached the other 2 bees to strips of acetate and adhered them inside the box.  I popped up the ladybird at the bottom, popped up the sentiment and added a die cut and embossed butterfly.   

Here's a side view. 

Here's a close up of the flowers and bees.

Here's the back panel and the envelope.

This photo shows the card-in-a-box folded up on top of the envelope.  When making these you need to be mindful of placing your elements so that the card fits inside your chosen envelope.  As I was working on the card I kept checking the placement against the envelope and I did need to reposition a flower and a bee!

After Jan had finished making her card she was not 100% happy with how she'd stamped the wood effect on the fold down flaps as there was a bit of a gap towards the top.  So she decided to punch more grass and glue that to the top of the flaps.  What an effective solution - it looked great!  Only thing was - she glued the grass pieces to my card instead of her own!  Bless her, she was mortified but I assured her I was more than happy with the end result.  Jan only realised when she'd glued two grass pieces on and found herself thinking "I know I was adding these grass bits to cover up gaps - but where are the gaps?"  We did have a good chuckle about it!  When the 3 of us get together we craft, we eat lunch and, of course, there's lots of chatting and laughing.  There well may have been a distraction somewhere along the line methinks!

Supplies:
Stamps: Hero Arts/Sizzix 'Flower Garden' stamp & die combo set, SU! 'Hardwood' stamp & 'Itty Bitty Banners' set, Penny Black 'Great Day'
CS: SU! Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo & Whisper White, watercolour paper, acetate
Ink: VersaFine Spanish Moss & Onyx Black, SU! Baked Brown Sugar, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Old Olive, Pool Party, Primrose Petals, Real Red, Smoky Slate & Soft Suede
Tools: SU! score board, SU! paper trimmer, dies from Hero Arts/Sizzix 'Flower Garden' stamp & die combo set, SU! Beautiful Wings Embosslits die, Martha Stewart Grass border punch, circle punches, waterbrush, sponge dauber
Embellishments & accessories: Ranger Glossy Accents, Star Dust Stickles, rhinestones, SU! Dimensionals