An Inspiring Birthday

No it isn't my birthday… isn't my children's' birthday…. it isn't Rick's birthday.  But I was "Inspired" by one of my favorite blogs, using one of my favorite designer's products, to make a "Birthday Inspiration

Configurations

Configuration". Birthday is the theme, Inspiration is the name of the blog from which the swap originated (Inspire Co.) and Configuration refers to the Tim Holtz box we all used.  Amy, of Inspire Co organized the Birthday Configuration Swap.  Interested bloggers sent their name and blog info to Amy and she matched participants together in two's and sent our swap partner's email addresses to us.  I was matched with Maria of the blog Fabulously Creative.  I did receive the box she made for me but I got it as I was leaving for the beach (as in OCEAN!!!!) and didn't have time to photograph it.  I did of course photograph the one that I sent to her.

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Foundations are glued to the bottom of the box.  I love the way this looks because it adds an element of completeness to the box.  

Choosing which of the Configurations and what paper I wanted to use was the first step.  I decided to use the medium size Configuration and the "Whimsy" line by Girls Paperie as my starting point.  I really love pink and aqua and think of them when I think of birthday celebrations.  I didn't own many pink papers so I went shopping at a really cool store in Livonia, called Scrappy Chic.  I had never heard of it until I went to the Mega Meet and the wonderful Jenny Bowlin of JBS Mercantile told me about it.   Very fun and very well stocked.  If I could stock my dream store this would be it.  So I grabbed all sorts of pink things that I thought would look cute- including lots of cool stuff from Mr. Holtz.  Right now there is a big circus thing happening in the scrapbook world so it was easy to find super cool and fun items for this project.

I started by painting the inside of all the boxes with Claudine Hellmuth' Studio paint in Painterly Pink .  I didn't like the way that looked so I covered the back and sides of each inner box carefully with pattern paper from the Whimsy line.  I had to do it twice because It wasn't perfect the first time.  I  covered the entire front with Tim Holtz Tissue Tape to give it a cleaner look and keep the individual boxes from shifting.  The boxes can be moved around to get different "configurations" but since I was going to leave the clear acrylic lid off the finished box I needed to keep the boxes from sliding out.

I made the little hot air balloon seen in the far left box from a Tim Holtz Idea-ology light bulb, aqua seam binding, and fine gold thread.  It is hanging from the top of the box.  The far right top box contains a vial of glitter labeled "dreams" and a large pink acrylic cabochon rose as well as a little flag pennant.  The middle top box has a key I embellished with rhinestones and Glimmer Misted seam binding.  There is also a large aqua pearl and tinsel glitter. 

The little bottles are filled with glitter because there is  never too much glitter. The far right, bottom box contains the framed word and a rhinestone.  The middle box (top in this picture) contains 2 Tim Holtz wings and paper butterflies.

The left side middle opening (top on this picture) holds a little ring I made from a kit using flower and round beads - I added extra Swarovski Crystals to bling it up.  The middle bottom square contains a little Frozen Charlotte doll that I dressed using seam binding colored with  Glimmer Mist and a little party hat I made out of paper and seam binding with a Swarovski Crystal on top

I covered tiny little wooden spools with 1/4 inch silk ribbon in the top box.  You can see a better picture of the ring in the middle box.

The little white frames are from Melissa Frances.  The top one frames music notes and the bottom three say "Happy", "Birthday" and "Maria

I finished the box by adding the Foundation Feet and covered the outside of the box with more paper from the Whimsy line- this one a pink and white check pattern.  The top edge of the box is covered with a line of velvet flower ribbon.  I cut the brads off the pink jewel brads and added one to each end of the ribbon to finish it off.  The roses were also once brads.  The brad portion was cut off and they were glued in place with Glossy Accents.

So much fun to make. I am currently typing quickly so I can head back out to the beach.  My kids are bored by the ocean already- what is wrong with them?  I don't know, but I am going out to sit in the sun, read my smutty novel, think about what to put in a "beach themed" configuration, and soak up the healing energy I get whenever I am near the ocean.  It is relatively calm today so I am hoping to see dolphins.  Fingers crossed.

Laters...