EXPLODING STARS BIRTHDAY POP-UP-BOX-CARD & CCC #031

Hey Crafters!

 

Thought I'd share a very special birthday card with you today - I made it for my eldest niece who turned 11 recently. It was my first attempt at a "pop up box card" - which is a card style which seems to be very hot trend in the paper-crafting world at the moment!

 

The colours were inspired by the colours of her bedroom, which are red, gold and yellow and I decided that stars were more appropriate for my niece than flowers might be.

Here is the card:

 

 

I wanted it to look like the stars were bursting out of the card in a joyous explosion of celebration! The card was definitely a "labour of love", as apart from the smallest stars, which I punched out, all the other stars had to be fussy-cut, by hand, with my trusty Paper Snips (what would I do without those little essential crafting beauties, hey??!!) - but, it was very therapeutic nonetheless!





 

I stamped the patterned stars using the fabulous Simply Stars stamp set in Real Red and Daffodil Delight ink on Whisper White Cardstock. Some of the smaller stars were punched out using the little star punch from the Merry Minis Punch Pack (order ref = 126882, which was carried over from last year's Holiday Mini Catalogue). I punched them out of the Red Glimmer Paper, Daffodil Delight Cardstock, the Gold Foil Sheets and also the much-overlooked-but-fabulous Brushed Gold cardstock. I really must use that more often, as it is so nice and gives a lovely, subtle, gold sheen to your projects... 

 

You can just about make out in these photographs (above and below), that the stars are stuck to little strips of Window Sheet: Stampin' Up!'s more sturdy equivalent of acetate sheets. I found that the Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue and the Mini Glue Dots were the best adhesives to use for gluing on the stars to the Window Sheet strips and the strips to the box support struts etc. The Tombow allows a little "wiggle time" to get the shapes in the right positions, but does take a little longer to dry than when gluing two pieces of cardstock together - so you need to be a little patient with it!

 

Another top tip is to glue all the decorations onto the card support struts before you stick the struts inside the box of the card! You can of course add a few more stars and things after they are in the box, if you discover any gaps that need filling with more things. This is one card design where less is definitely not more! Excess is best! ;O)

 



 

I thought the polka dotted stars echoed the lovely Real Red Polka Dot Parade Designer Series Paper (DSP) that I had used to decorate the card flaps and panels - this is such a versatile set of papers and I used both sides of the sheets on the card. I have used this DSP a LOT. The Happy Birthday comes from the Label Something Stamp Set and I punched it out using the Artisan Label Punch. I punched a second one out of Gold Foil Sheet, cut it in half and stuck the two pieces to the back of the Birthday one, to give the greeting label an extra border. This is a great trick to make your punched shapes "pop" on a card or gift tag.

 

I glued an extra layer of Real Red Cardstock, Gold Foil Sheet and then Whisper White cardstock (stamped with more stars), onto the back panel of the card base in order to add stability and provide a space for writing my message onto. (See picture below:)

 

I also attached a few small stars to the flaps of the card base, to make it look like the stars had exploded out of the card and landed on them! Some I glued flat onto the card with my most-used crafting tool: the Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue, and others I popped onto a Stampin' Dimensional to add a little bit of height.

 

 

As you can see below, I got a little bit carried away with adding the exploding stars and several of them poked outside the card base when the card was folded flat, ready for posting... So much so, that the card didn't fit in the standard C6 envelope that I had originally planned to use - Oops!! BUT, luckily this didn't matter a jot, as I had my extremely useful Envelope Punch Board to hand and I was able to make  an extra-special envelope from some more of the Polka Dot Parade DSP! Phew! Thank the stars (no pun intended!) for the Envelope Punch Board, eh?!

 

Here is the envelope I made, along with it's belly band which I made using the Daffodil Delight colourway of the same Polka Dot Parade DSP - the "just for you" stamp is from the Label Love Stamp Set and again uses the Artisan Label Punch and the little star punch from the Merry Minis Punch Pack - is it just me, or, does it remind you somehow of Wonder Woman's headband?!  No? OK, just me then!! Ahem...

 



 

My niece had asked for money for her birthday so that she could go on a "girly shopping day with just Mummy"- gosh how grown up is she getting - it hardly seems like yesterday that my sister announced she was expecting and now my niece is ELEVEN!! (Gulp! Am getting old! LOL!!) The smaller, yellow envelope is what I put her birthday money into and uses the same Daffodil Delight and Real Red Polka Dot Parade DSP, the Artisan Label Punch and the "To:/From:" label comes from the Label Love Stamp Set...

 

 

I thought the back of the belly band on the large red envelope looked a little plain, compared to the front, so, I glued a left-over Red Glimmer Paper star for a little bit of extra bling/interest!

 



 

This last photo is a close up of the front of the belly band showing the "Wonder Woman" style label and also illustrates the sparkle and glimmer of the red and gold little stars. It always amazes me how even a teeny bit of the glimmer paper can add such a lot of sparkle and glamour to a hand made project - and a little goes a long way, so it is great value for money too!

 

 

 

Hope you have liked today's project? In my monthly card-making classes this month (May 2014) we are making similar  pop-up-box-cards - using slightly different dimensions for the card base, different stamp sets/punches and different colours - last week's class was great fun - I am very much looking forward to the repeated, evening class towards the end of the month too, now!  I know that this will definitely NOT be the last of this style of card that I make - as they are great fun to construct and are such a "wow" card for any occasion as well!

 

 

 

Don't forget that all of the supplies used on today's project can be bought from my online shop (click here!) or by contacting me directly if you prefer.

 

Anyone who places an online order with me before the 29th May 2014 using the hostess code VRSJWE3R on their order will get a little thank you gift from me in the snail-mail post, too (as long as you don't click the "no contact" button - which will mean I don't have access to your contact details and will therefore be unable to get your gift to you!). N.B.: If your order is for £150 or more, don't use this hostess code for your order or you won't qualify for your "Stampin' Rewards"!

 

Oh and don't forget that during May there is a special offer to receive a free exclusive brand new Photopolymer Stamp set, for all orders of at least £60/75€, while stocks last- see my online shop for details! They are all rather fabby, I must say! :O)

 

Well, that's it from me today, I really hope you are inspired to make your own Pop Up Box Card now? I am entering this card into the Catherine & Cathy Create "Starlight, Star Bright" Blog Challenge. seeing as they wanted to see projects using stars on them - I think this card qualifies, don't you?! It is definitely very starry! Hehe! 

 

Until next time: happy crafting!

 

Lucy xx