Release day Fairy Friends and Tutorial Birthday Board

Good morning everybody!


Today is the day!! You can get your own set of the Pink Cat Studio Fairy Friends. Please allow me to show you the entire set:
Now aren't those lovely? I do hope I haven't lost you already to the Pink Cat Studio shop because I still have to show you my project with these cuties. Here is the picture:

I know most of you won't be able to read the title, it reads 'bijna jarig' which sort of means 'almost my birthday'. When I was a little girl my mum used to make a very simple version of this, just a wooden plank with a couple of nails on it where I could hang something on. You know how excited kids get about their birthday, I mean Dyanne's fifth birthday is coming up the end of September but she is already VERY aware that she is next. She is already talking about who she wants to invite to her party and what she wants to do. With this board, like with an advent calendar for Christmas, the last week of counting down gets even more exciting. I have very nice memories of my mum hanging up her birthday board so I wanted to start the tradition for my girls too. The Fairy Friends just seemed perfect for the project.

Every day Dyanne can open one box. I've filled the boxes with her favourite toys of the moment, Pet Shop Pets. I have to admit that I find these cuties very appealing too with there big eyes and cute faces. Here is one box opened:

Now you don't have to fill the boxes with Pet Shop Pets, you could fill them with balloons, or candy, or little notes with things to do before the big day like clean up your room today or bake cupcakes as treats for school.

Now maybe none of you like this idea but I'm hoping some of you will and I just thought I'd make my first tutorial out of it :). As mentioned before a BIG thank you is for Moon Hulsman the very talented cardmaker who made the box I used as the base for this board for Cards Only (a Dutch cardmaking magazine). Thank you again Moon!! Now let me tell you how I made my board:

TUTORIAL

NOTE: the tutorial for these boxes isn't the same as the box I made HERE, these boxes are flatter. The box I did for All That Scraps has even sides of 6 cm x 6 cm so if you want to make that box you'll have to use those measurments.

We'll start with the outer boxes. Now on the picture I have written down the sizes but these are all in our measurement system, centimeters. Under the pictures I'll give the sizes in inches, I converted the numbers by a tool on a website so I hope the numbers are right. If anybody does use this tutorial in inches would you please give me some feedback on that?

You want to cut seven pieces of cardstock measuring 12 cm x 18 cm (4.72 inch x 7.09 inch). Score the short side of the paper at 3 cm and 9 cm (1.18 inch and 3.54 inch). Score the long side of the paper at 3 cm, 6 cm, 12 cm and 15 cm (1.18 inch, 2.36 inch, 4.72 inch and 5.91 inch). Fold the lines and distress the edges while the lines are folded. Now cut the lines that aren't dotted in the picture. This will mean that the two pieces with the x through them will be completely cut away. You can click the pictures by the way to get a larger view of the pictures.

Decorate the cardstock with design paper as shown on the picture above. I have used Imaginisce Twitterpated paper. This paper is double sided so there were more then enough patterns to decorate each box with another pattern. Put tacky tape on the pieces that are marked with an X and place strips of tacky tape as shown with a dotted line, this is where the ribbon will go later on but it's easier to apply the tacky tape at this time I feel.

Now let's start with the inner boxes.

You want to cut seven pieces of cardstock measuring 11,4 cm x 11,4 cm (4.49 inch x 4.49 inch). Score the paper as shown on the picture above on both sides at 2,8 cm and 8,6 cm (1.1 inch and 3.39 inch). Now cut the solid lines on the picture above.

Now you want to turn the pieces of paper around and place tacky tape on the squares that are marked with an X.

Turn the pieces of paper around again and decorate the square that's going to be the bottom of the box as shown on the picture above.

Now one by one peal away the backing of the tacky tape, except for the strips that I told you were going to hold the ribbon, and fold and adhere the inner and outer part of the box as shown above. Now put tacky tape on the square marked with an X on the picture above, peal away the backing of the tape and adhere the inner box in the outer box.

Take a piece of ribbon, remove the final pieces of tacky tape and adhere the ribbon to the boxes so that you can tie them on top of the box as shown in the next picture.

When you have finished all seven boxes you are ready to decorate them. As mentioned I think the Pink Cat Studio Fairy Friends are absolutely perfect for this project. Yesterday and the day before I have shown you close ups of my boxes with the cat, dog and frog. Today let me show you the other boxes I did in close up. Remember, when you click on the pictures you'll get a larger view.

As you can see I used my nestabilities and my Cuttlebug Swiss Dotts folder for the ovals I have placed my coloured and 3D paper pieced images on. The numbers are Thickers by American Crafts. And.. as you can see, number one is the cute mushroom house that is included in the Fairy Friends set. I do realize I'm going the wrong way by the way... when opening the boxes you should start with seven the week before the birthday and open one the day before the actual birthday.

Number two is the frog I sneak peeked yesterday, you can find him HERE.

Number three is my favorite the cute little bunny. As with the boxes I already sneak peeked all the fairies have a trail of fairy dust behind them. I stamped these cute fairy trails with my Top Boss clear embossing pad and dusted the wet stamp mark with Stamp 'N Bond, heated that and sprinkled it with extra fine glitter. There is also a lot of stickles on all the fairies, what can I tell you, fairies just sparkle in my eyes :). On most fairies there is also some Paper Glaze, like on this bunny his nose and his wings are glossy.

Number four is the cute little owl with his moon wand. His eyes and wings are glossy and his wand is sparkly. And, as with all the fairies, he is 3D paperpieced.

My number five fairy is the cat I showed you HERE.

Number six is this incredibly cute penguin that was so easy and fun to color and I think he looks so cute with his cheeks :).

Number seven was the dog fairy I sneak peeked yesterday, you can find him HERE.

Now that all the boxes are finished and decorated you can adhere them to the base board. My board is chipboard measuring 30 cm x 22,5 cm (11.81 inch x 8.86 inch). It is decorated with design paper, the edges are distressed and I attached lace ribbon between the chipboard and the design paper. The ribbon is held into place with both tacky tape and eyelets that are placed behind the boxes. Two eyelets in the upper corners hold another piece of ribbon that is there to hang the board in Dyanne's room when the time comes. The 'title' on the upper left corner are a circle of design paper of 13,5 cm (5.31 inch) cross-cut mounted on a circle of cardstock of 16,5 cm (6.5 inch) cross-cut mounted on a piece of thin chipboard of the same size. I put two circle nestabilities in each other on a piece of thicker chipboard and that way cut the chipboard circle that I painted red to match the patterned paper. On that I adhered the title in Thickers and a couple of Petaloo Flora Doodles.

And that's it. Now this is my first time doing a tutorial of this kind so please any feedback is very welcome and wanted. I have spend many hours on both this project and the tutorial so please don't be shy, let me know what you think and if there are ways to improve it. I'll leave you with two more pictures of my finished project and both I and my husband think the pictures don't do it justice so I'm hoping you'll give it a go for yourself.

Have fun!!!

xxx

Mariska