Berry Nice!

I was up all night again so put the time to good use!

I had already printed out this kit - it was in a folder with all embellishments so set about cutting it out!

The kit was from Crafts You Print and was designed by Julie Hill.

This kit is called Berry Nice 3D Parasol Card Kit

There were 3 main sheets and then a box base and lid to the kit.

After cutting out all pieces I cut the centre from the card front and placed acetate behind it as in the instructions.

I did make quite a few silly mistakes with this kit - the 1st was to add the decoupage to the bottom of the card while it was laid flat - WHY is that a problem? Because the card is bowed and the decoupage didn't like having to bow....

So as I was saying, I added the decoupage to the bottom - its a personal choice as to where you put it and how much you actually want to use....and I decided to use all 8 of the flowers along the top and top sides!

The instructions then said to add the insert behind the bowed section but after thinking before doing this I went my way....I had printed everything onto my 128gsm matt photo paper so there wasn't any weight or strength to the card - I got around that by attaching the insert to a piece of card stock.

Next I made up the parasol - typically I stuck the wrong folds together so was so pleased I had used Collall photo glue as I did manage to prise it apart and re stick the correct folds. The cut down kebab stick was simply glued with Cosmic Shimmer extra strong PVA glue and pushed through the centre of the folds. I added a bow I made using Cerise spotty ribbon which I had from www.meiflower.co.uk and positioned it slightly above the top of the folds! If you look at the photo of the parasol you can see I ran my green metallic pro marker along the edges - even though it looks silver in the photo - it doesn't in reality.

I used strong red double sided tape to attach the parasol to the insert sheet and then attached the sentiment panel over the top of the stick with large sticky pads.

The tricky bit now was to fix the insert in place and then fold the card to produce the dome effect - for once it went well - did it first time!!

Next problem - the card doesn't stand up!! Why? Because the decoupage is below the card base line! Bet you are now checking the 1st photo and nodding!

No problem I thought - so grabbed a sheet of card stock and folded to form an A5 card blank - measured my domed card against it - trimmed it down and then attached it - perfect!!! And I can now add an insert when I'm ready!

I wasn't sure if I would use the box so just made it up in the paper form to see what it was like - make the top and bottom - they were spot on!

Added the too and from to the box front then measured card to fit in the base and the lid to strengthen them - it really couldn't have worked any better....

I thought....

When I went to put the card in the box....it didn't fit! Obviously because I had put the domed card onto a larger card blank it was no good for the box...doh! Lesson learned - at least now I can play again with my Enveloplus board and make something suitable!

Hope you enjoyed the card and catalogue of disasters!

See you next time...