A Winter Wedding Surprise Box

My husband and I attended a beautiful wedding celebration this weekend - a perfect winter wedding on a stunning rural property.  The celebration included very personal touches from both the bride and groom, who both love nature and chose this theme throughout: from the beautifully designed invitations through to the ceremony under the gum trees in the winter afternoon sun and the handmade wooden chopping boards that we received as mementos.  It was a brilliant affair and the first (and possibly only) time I have worn gumboots to a wedding!  I decided to make a special surprise box for the couple, with inspiration taken from their invitation - in fact I used their invitation as part of the creation.  Hint:  If you choose to use an invitation in this way prior to an event, (with details including, location, time and a map) copy these details first BEFORE you realise all of that pertinent info would come in handy as you depart. Lol.  

Cardstock:  Night of Navy, Not Quite Navy, Sahara Sand, Shimmery White, Very Vanilla

Ink:  Night of Navy, Not Quite Navy, Sahara Sand

Stamps:  French Foliage, Occasional Quotes (hostess), Pocket Silhouettes (on flower)

Acc:  Blueberry Crisp DSP, Flower Folds Bigz XL die, Scallop Envelope Die, Decorative Label Punch, Elegant Lines Textured Embossing Folder, Small flower punch from Itty Bitty Punch Pack trio (carryover from Summer mini cat), Scallop edge punch, Antique brads, 1/8" whisper white taffeta ribbon coloured with a marker, 3/8" taffeta night of navy ribbon, hemp twine, dimensionals, adhesive pearls

This project came together beautifully with the blueberry crisp DSP as a colour base.  The images used on the wedding invitation were a good match for Night of Navy and Sahara Sand and the French Foliage stamp set provided the right touch of winter beauty.  I loved making the flower for the top of the box, the Big Shot easily cut out the shapes, I stamped and manipulated them and then used the last remaining cut out from the invitation under the flower centre - you can just see the navy peeking out in the collage pic above - with a gorgeous antique brad in the centre.  I loved the way the flower turned out, and the photo-like images made stamping the leaves so easy.  If you haven't tried stamping on designer paper - go now and have fun.  

The cake centrepiece was made using 3 boxes that I debossed ( just turn the embossing to the reverse side) and joined together with tombow glue.  I coloured the narrow ribbon with my marker to achieve the blue shade, then more tombow to adhere the ribbon and all the pretty flowers on top.  How much do you love the adhesive pearls?  All of the supplies I used made this project come together so well, it's wonderful when you know the colours will all work together BEFORE you begin.  

The scallop edged mats were NOT cut using a Big Shot, I used my trusty scallop edge punch using this method.  

All the little details made this surprise box a joy to make and a pleasure to give.

Happy Stamping,