Hi there Crafty Friends!

I hope your weekend is off to a fabulous start! I thought I would kick off my weekend by participating in the Pin-Sights challenge over at Ellen Hutson.com.

You can find out more by clicking the link HERE (and see some AMAZING project entries!)

The challenge was to take Essentials by Ellen product(s) and pair them with one of your favorite companies products. I have really been enjoying the latest Honey Bee Stamps release and decided to pick something from my Honey Bee stash!

I LOVE the essentials by Ellen stamps, dies, and other papercrafting items so this was a great challenge to hop into and jumpstart my creativity. Today I will be working with the Essentials by Ellen Bohemian Garden stamps and Zipper Panel die.

I will also be using the Kindness stamp set by Honey bee stamps.

Today I wanted to mix things up a bit and I thought… “What if I used the zipper panel in the back of the card rather than the front?” This way the recipient could see the gift when they opened the card but take the gift card out when they were ready.

For the front panel I did all my stamping in Versamark ink and heat embossed with Hero Arts white embossing powder. I did ink blending at the top and at the bottom with distress ink (colors listed at the bottom of the post) and mixed some Daniel Smith watercolors to color my floral images. I did add a vellum flag out of Essentials by Ellen 40 lb vellum and heat embossed the same as the card. For the final touch on the panel I added some Sparkling clear sequins with some Ranger Multi Medium Matte.

I set the front panel aside and went to work on the rest of the card. I made the shaker pocket from an Essentials by Ellen small stamp storage pocket and Be Creative tape. (I probably would have used my fuse but we are moving and it is packed up in a box at the moment). I printed my message on the same 40 lb vellum from Essentials by Ellen using my laser printer and cut it to fit inside the stamp storage pocket. I added the die cut “Enjoy” which is also apart of the zipper panel die set. Once that was dry, I added the pretty pink posh sequins, Prima beads, and Distress glitter.

I reinforced the center part of the zipper panel as Julie Ebersole has shown in her YouTube video (See bottom of post for video) with a piece of Neenah cardstock that I blended some distress ink on. I added be creative tape all around the back panel edges being careful not to cover the zipper stitched marks. I then added my gift card in the middle and placed the finished shaker pocket down on top of the tape. To hide the rough adhesive edges I made a frame from the large stitched rectangle dies from Lawn fawn and adhered that to the top of the shaker pocket.

 

I love that you can see the gift card through the vellum but the message still stands out. The shaker adds a fun playful confetti party like feel.

Here is the view of the back . I started lifting the bottom up……

But then I decided I wanted to show you all how cool it looks when it is opened up all the way!

What I love about putting the zipper in the back is that the front stays pretty and intact so you can still display as normal if you like.

This card was a lot of fun to make. Let me know in the comments below if you would like to see a video tutorial on how to assemble a gift card like the one shown today.

If you have never seen the zipper panel from Ellen Hutson yet. Check out this how-to video that Julie Ebersole (the designer) made. The die is just genius!

Links to the items I have used are listed below.

https://static.inlinkz.com/ppr.js
Thank you for stopping by. I hope you found my card project inspiring. I love giving gifts, but making gift packaging pretty is extra special!

Have an extra fun and crafty weekend!