Festive Flower Gift Set

I wanted to make a special little gift for a friend to whom I owe alot; she is the person who introduced me to Stampin’ Up!  Honestly, when I got invited to a ‘rubber stamping class’ I thought “Ink, Stamp, Boring!”.  I mean what could you do with a rubber stamp to make something decorative?  (My exposure to ‘stamps’ was basically a black ink pad and a date stamp, a paid stamp, and a copy stamp so I didn’t really have high hopes!)  But when I put a decorative stamp to a colored ink pad, and used markers to add various colors to one stamp, added ribbon and some decorative paper, I WAS HOOKED!   All I wanted to do from that night on was stamp!

Well, I’ll be going to Baltimore later today for the Stampin’ Up! OnStage event and I’ll be traveling and rooming with Sue.  So I decorated this plain old notebook, added a coordinating pen, and decorated a coordinating gift bag.  (Of course, they’ll also be chocolate in the gift bag too, along with some other essentials for a road trip!)

WARNING:   A few retired items were pulled from the archives in the making of this coordinating gift set. 

I used Early Espresso cardstock cut out with a (retired) framelit dies. A piece of Early Espresso DSP from the Neutrals Paper Stack was cropped with the triple banner punch to create the flagged end.  But the really star of the show is the Sunflower created from the Festive Flower Builder Punch (on sale this week!).  I punched 12 large leaves in Hello, Honey cardstock, and 6 small leaves (and one circle from the 1-1/4″punch).  I used the circle to form a base, covered it with glue and started arranging 6 petals in a circle.  I added another layer of glue and another layer of 6 petals, overlapping the first circle.  Lastly, I added the 6 smaller petals, again staggering them.  From my stash of really old, I mean vintage, Stampin’ Up! supplies, I pulled out this Chocolate Chip Corduroy brad.

I stamped a few leaves in Mossy Meadow ink on Mossy Meadow cardstock and fussy cut these using my trusty paper snips.  A little bit of gold metallic cording adds some bling behind the flower when it was assembled.

Now for the bag!  I used Mossy Meadow cardstock, Hello Honey DSP cut to the width of the kraft gift bag.  I used Early Espresso cardstock to cut out the decorative shape with the same retired framelit die used on the notebook.  A gold metallic doily added a little accent behind the banner flag.  A little button adds a decorative touch.

You can see both items together here.  I think that they coordinate well together, don’t you?  Well, I hope that you enjoy this project.  It was really fun to put together and I would encourage you to find a plain boring notebook (think Dollar Tree!) and dress it up!  A Pentel RSVP pen, a strip of 1″ x 3-1/4″ DSP is all you need to add a coordinating pen to your notebook.  When you put that in a matching gift bag, your recipient will be sure to know how much you care.

If you would like to make this and need any supplies, click on the supply list below to go straight to my online store.  Bonus:  the Festive Flower Builder Punch and the Metallic Foil Doilies are on sale in the WEEKLY DEALS this week!