Inspired by chocolate packaging

While out shopping for gifts for a friend I suddenly found myself in Hotel Chocolat - I know, I've no idea how it happened! They certainly know how to present their goodies in there and I found myself quite inspired... So inspired in fact, that I based the gift wrapping for my friend around a box of chocolate buttons! Come and see:

The packaging was a gorgeous soft blue - very like Stampin' Up's Soft Sky. I stamped the panel with the swirl from the Creative Elements stamp set using Soft Sky ink which gives a lovely tone-on-tone look. Before attaching the panel to the card front I wound some white bakers twine round it...

...and topped it with a chalkboard style sentiment. This was made by stamping the Happy Birthday from Perfectly Penned using versamark ink and heat embossing it with white embossing powder. I always use my embossing buddy to do this so that I don't get unsightly white specks all over the place! Once the embossing was done, I cut the sentiment out with a die from the Apothecary Accents pack of framelits. Isn't it a gorgeous shape?! And it has a coordinating template in the Essentials piercing pack too so it was easy to add a pierced frame for a bit of extra detail.

I made one of my simple boxes out of the Soft Sky card stock and topped it with a panel stamped with that Creative Elements swirl again. I had some black satin ribbon (sadly retired now) which I thought looked rather swish...

...  and I added a little tag made with an image from the Chalk Talk stamp set which tied in rather nicely with the whole chalkboard theme.

Here's the box of chocolates that set me off - they were chocolate buttons in the shape of vintage buttons for goodness sake! How fabulous is that?!!

Here's what you'll need to make the card

Stamps: Creative elements, Perfectly Penned

Ink: Soft Sky

Card stock: Soft Sky, Whisper White (for the lining)

Other: Versamark, white embossing powder, heat tool, Apothecary Accents framelits, Big Shot, Essentials piercing pack mat and tool, white bakers twine, stamp-a-majig

You can order from my online shop any time, day or night,

but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

The word 'buttons' always makes me laugh: One of our neighbours acquired a kitten some years ago -  a tiny ball of grey and white fluff. They named it Buttons and it really was as cute as a button. Fast forward a few years and you should see it now! It's a great bruiser of a cat, with a cauliflower ear and cross eyes, who terrorises the neighbourhood with his gangster ways! Whenever we see this animal we cast our eyes to the sky, shake our heads and mutter "Buttons! I ask you!"

Have a great weekend and I'll see you very soon,