Mother's Day

It was Mother's day in the UK yesterday and the most sad one I have ever experienced due to the COVID-19 virus. Anyone over 70 has been advised by the Government to stay inside and away from other people and Social Distance. From Saturday morning all pubs, bars, restaurants and cafe's were to be closed unless it was for takeaway food. Of course this has all had a huge effect on Mother's Day for so many families.

I decided to make a box style card. I have seen loads of them but not made one myself until now. Having seen examples online I had a fair idea of how they went together but many seemed to be small. Me being me.... I had to go big or go home.

I started with some card that I got from Lidl a while ago. They had pads of 25 sheets of card all in different colours. They are 270 GSM and 24 x 34cm so quite a bit larger than A4. At only £1.99 per pad I bought one to check the quality and was so impressed I went back and bought a few more. They have been fab for matting and layering but also due to the thickness are substantial enough to make an A5 card or in this case provide the basis for the card shape.

I cut one sheet so it would provide the 3 sides at 11cm each. I scored these at 11cm down from the top to make the flap into a square. The back piece had a tab on each side so I could stick this to the shorter sides. I always use the red line double sided tape from Affixit Craft when making something that needs to be really sturdy. It is super sticky and I have never had a project discolour when using this tape.

The card strips inside the box were spaced 1.5cm apart and this gave me 7 strips in total to attach the decorative elements to. I measured 11cm for the width of the box and 1.5cm each side. Again using the tape I stuck this to the inside of the box. I made sure it would flatten down and then it was good to decorate.

I used 2 sheets of paper from my stash which had the same green mottled background. I cut a panel for the back section and left this with a straight edge. The 3 side panels were die cut using an Eyelet Squares Spellbinders Nestabilities die. 

The image on the front is Giant Mushroom from Sheepski Designs. This is the progressive freebie image for this month from The Outlawz challenges. I coloured with Promarkers and Spectrum Noir, fussy cut the image and mounted onto thin foam squares to add dimension. I used green for the background as I wanted it to look like a garden with fairies and flutterbies flitting around above their heads.

The sides are decorated with a large flower from Papermania and a smaller flower from Craftwork Cards. In the centre is a large yellow gem. This is a bold flower and really stands out against the green background.

The back panel has a sentiment which was a digi image from a now defunct site AI Factory. I was on their DT for a time many moons ago...... I die cut this with a Grace Frame Die'sire die from Crafter's Companion. I used the Fanciful Flourish die from Cheery Lynn for the green vine as I didn't want it to look too plain when viewing from the top.

Then I got to work with the decoration inside. I honestly thought I had a little fairy die and having recently catalogued all my dies I was aghast to realise that I had not bought it when I thought I had.... I shall have to rectify that ! Anyhoo, I had some epoxy stickers from Royal & Langnickel that are pretty and glittery too so that was a nice bonus. I added these to acetate and cut round the sticker so it made it more rigid. I also did the same to some butterflies. I have a bazillion flowers so pulled together a selection of paper and fabric ones from my stash in pinks and purples. Some were Craftwork cards, some Ebay finds, some from Poundland. All elements are on 'sticks' of acetate which was recycled from packaging. I added them to the bars and just kept playing with angles and sticking them until I was happy with it.

Once completely assembled I folded it up to make sure it would be flat. Unfortunately it was about 2cm wider than my largest envelope so I had to make one for it using some designer paper from my vast collection.

This was for my Mother In Law and I was able to give it to her on Thursday when I took her shopping. I was able to see her open in when we Face Timed her and her reaction was priceless. I will admit it took me ages to make it. Partly because I hadn't made one before and partly as I underestimated how long it would take to place and space the elements on the bars. However, especially under the horrible circumstances we found ourselves in, it was worth all the time to see her reaction. She absolutely loves it and I am happy to have brought some joy to her at this time.

To anyone who visits my blog and reads this post we I truly hope you and your families stay safe and well. This virus has had such a tremendous effect on the whole world already and I feel that it will do for some time to come. Crafting more than ever gives us a creative release and for that I am tremendously grateful.

Stay safe everybody xxx

Card Details -

Size - 11cm x 24cm Box Card

Image - Giant Mushroom from Sheepski Designs

Dies - Grace Frame by Crafter's Companion & Eyelet Squares by Spellbinders.

Colouring Medium - Promarkers & Spectrum Noir

Embellishments - Flowers, gems, epoxy stickers

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

• 613 Avenue Create – #231 Anything Goes
• A Bit More Time To Craft - #112 Anything Goes
• A Perfect Time To Craft - #3 Anything Goes
• All Fun Challenges - #5 Anything Goes
• Allsorts - #564 Anything in The Animal Kingdom
• CD Sunday Plus - # 31 Anything Goes
• Ching-Chou Kuik - Easter or Floral
• Classic Design Challenge - #3 Anything Goes
• Colour Crazy Challenge - # 10 Anything Goes
• C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - #549 Anything Goes or Christmas Animals
• Crafting Happiness - #41 Anything Goes
• Crafty Catz - #498 Anything Goes
• Crafty Gals Corner - #205 Use Flowers
• Craft Rocket Challenge - #68 Flowers
• Crafty Calendar Challenge – More Than One Fold
• Crafty Friends - #131 Ladies/Girls
• Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper - Any Patterned paper
• Creatalicious Challenges - #183 Anything Goes
• Createful Heart Design - #18 Anything Goes
• Creative Craft Cottage - #127 For The Girls
• Creative Fingers - #182 Anything Goes
• Creative Moments - #187 Anything Goes
• Cut It Up - #196 Use at least 3 butterflies
• Daisy Chain Challenges - #39 Use Dies
• Dies R Us - #141Things With Wings with a Store Die
• Digi Choosday - #11 Anything Goes
• Di’s Digi Designs – Embellish It Awesome
• Happy Little Stampers Die Challenge - ATG with a Die / Diecut 
• I Love Promarkers - #406 Anything Goes & Things That Fly
• Ike’s World Challenge - #130 Anything Goes
• Jan’s Digi Stamps - #10 Anything Goes
• Let’s Craft & Create - #157 Anything Goes
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - #128 Anything Goes
• Love To Craft - #44 Anything Goes
• Love To Scrap - #131 Anything Goes
• Mix It Up Challenge - #35 Anything Goes
• My Besties Art Espana - #42 Anything Goes
• My Time To Craft - #428 Off The Edge
• Not Just Cards - Anything Goes
• Outlawz Progressive Freebie - March Image
• Path of Positivity -  #78 Beauty of Botanicals
• Pearly Sparkles - #49 For The Ladies/Girls
• QKR Stampede – #390 Anything Goes
• Scribbles Designs - #87 Blooms
• Simply Create Too - #158 Shaped card
• Sheepski Designs - #36 Die Cuts and/or punches
• Stamper's Delight – Anything Goes
• Sweet Stampin’ – Mothering Sunday
• The Creative Crafters - #26 Anything Goes
• The Fairy & The Unicorn – Anything Fantasy Goes
• The Paper Funday Challenge - #15 Anything Goes 
• Unicorn Challenge - #52 Flower Power
• World Wide Open Design Team Challenge - #03 Anything Goes
• Your Scrapbook Place - Anything Goes