Mom's Birthday Gift - Card Pack

This year for my Mom's birthday (only because I couldn't pull it off in time for Mother's Day -- TYPICAL -- more ideas but less time), I made her a card pack of all-occasion cards and a matching covered card box. The box is offered by CTMH and comes in plain, white chipboard for you to glam it up however you wish.

In my newest quest to clean out some of my stash, (I'm on a self-imposed moratorium of purchasing new supplies until I use up a bunch of old supplies. And, let me tell you two things really quickly: 1. It is no fun at all! NONE!  2. It's a pretty big motivator to move some inventory!), I used up an old kit from Fancy Pants Design called "Happy Together". I have no idea how I came by this kit, but it is pretty and I knew Mom would like the colors.

On the bright side, I used the kit up and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. I covered the box first, to ensure I could make it look like I wanted -- then worked on the cards with the scraps and other pieces that were not used yet.

All joking aside, it has been rewarding to get creative with what I already have and enjoy making use of it, rather than pining for new stuff like a kid who is never satisfied with their current toys. (I'm don't know ANY children like that. Ours are certainly not like that.)

Here is the covered box  (holds standard cards sized 4.25" x 5.5"):

As you can see, all of the edges are sponged in CTMH Chocolate ink. The chocolate stitched ribbon is also CTMH. The fun part about the top of the box is the transparency overlay with the flowers on it. Mom's "grandma name" in coordinating letter stickers adhered to that overlay beautifully and it was easy to line them up and move them around and not tear paper. (NOT that I know it would tear the paper. I'm just guessing that would happen if, say, a person decided to pull stickers off of a page they've already stuck them to and thought they were lined up, but then found, indeed there were NOT lined up. ... I'm just sayin'...Hypothetically, they would probably tear up. That's all.)

Here are the 10 all-occasion cards that were included in the box. (in no particular order)

I've added captions below for interesting tidbits.

This is a CTMH card pattern from the "Originals" book and the blue patterned paper is CTMH.
It matched perfectly!

Another CTMH card pattern (Loosely translated). CTMH ribbon, Mocha pearl
and sentiment stamp.

"Stitching" is from CTMH's Stitched Together stamp set.

Another piece of that same transparency overlay used on the top of my box.
The sentiment is stamped on the paper underneath the transparency.
It looked great in person -- good impact.

This is the first one I made for the set and it did NOT float my boat.
Discussion point:
Why do we seem to pick up speed as we go?

The beginning stages of this card were designed by my daughter.
Her waning enthusiasm finally relented to "Here Mom, you do it."
She picked the background paper and ribbon (and had me do it) then
dropped it like a hot potato.
The image next to the sentiment is a coordinating kit rub-on
that I "bedazzled" with Bitty bling.

Easiest card ever! Rub-ons and stamping (sentiment only) --
That's ALL folks!

A pattern from a card I've designed before that turned out to be one of my
favorites. I was happy to repeat the formula and just as pleased this time.
I'm loving the "simple" stuff these days.

Totally saw this in my head, but not like it wasn't inspired
by so many I've seen before.
I look at so many blogs, magazines, and catalogs
it's sometimes hard to remember where I had an idea
and many times it may be a hybrid design.
I love it and will definitely repeat this pattern. Very simple and great use of scraps.

Well, that was a lot of reading and if you hung in there with all of it, I'm impressed. My attention span isn't that long.

I hope you enjoyed the post and perusing the gift card set. It was definitely a big hit. Mom loved it when she accidentally stumbled across it in my craft room before I ever wrapped it and gave it to her. (Yes, you read that right. TYPICAL). I sat down and made all of this on a Saturday afternoon. I love making homemade gifts. As long as my family and friends continue to feign interest, I'll keep making the stuff.

Hope you have a great rest of the week!

Toodle-oo,
Mandy Pin It