One of my very special friends, Shipra, is also a talented crafts lady. Almost all Mondays you’ll find people ooh-ing and aah-ing around her cubicle over some new thing she has created. She has successfully converted an old discarded box into a cute little school bus. An used coffee container from Cafe’ Coffee Day into a pretty flower vase. A couple rectangular baby-apparel boxes into a paper / stationery holder painted like a wall of bricks. You get the point, right?
Such a creative person celebrated her birthday on 1st Aug.
And I wanted to make a very special card for her. Let me admit, I was a little daunted. I wanted my card to make her feel special. But I just didn’t know how…
After toying with many ideas, I decided to make a card that would be shaped like a ladies purse. Or clutch, rather. I wanted it to have girlie, Indian feel. With these bare minimum thoughts, I set out. (and while I was at it, I also thought of putting together a quick tutorial for you, so you can try it out yourself. Here goes…)
Here are the things you’ll need:
1. Papers – the pink one is a handmade paper. You can use some good scrapbook paper which is little thick like a greeting card. You can also glue together two sheets of papers so together they get thickness as well as patterns for the outside and inside of our clutch.
2. Craft Glue
3. Crystals / Embellishments
4. A pair of scissors
5. Some thick thread (green if you are going for colored ones) or a delicate chain
6. Two large buttons like the blue and purple rose ones in this picture
How to:
1. Take the main greeting card paper and cut it in the shape of a purse. You can download a template if you wish. I did not want to do that because I did not have some easy way to print as per the size of my paper. I tried drawing one myself, but had trouble making left and right side identical. So I used a simpler method instead. Let me show you :
– Make tiny marks like the following on both sides of the paper where the numbers on the out overlapped with those on the inside.
– Putting this paper face down join 5 with 3, 6 with 4 and pressed the fold to make it permanent. You’ll get something like this:
– Next draw a freehand curve on one side like the following.
– Carefully, hold 3 – 4 together but do not make the fold permanent this time and cut along the curve drawn holding both the layers of papers together. Similarly cut the flap by holding together 1 – 2.
There you go :)
Once I had the basic clutch ready, I made its clasp. Fixed one button each on the flap and the purse and attached the golden chain (a little loosely) so you can fasten-unfasten it.
Below the clasp I drew freehand swirls and attached chain on to the lines. Along side each of these I attached flat backed crystals.
Does not look like a typical Indian bride’s clutch? I wish I had had one like this on my wedding day… ;)
On the inside of this card I simply attached a pocket, again attached a chain to it and a gift tag (plain white paper cut-out) with a message that said, “A pocketful of wishes from all of us” (meaning from all of us in our team).
I also asked all the people in our team to write their wishes on PsotIt notes and put them inside this pocket :)
For the main wishes inside, I used similar colored paper, and another cut-out from one of the card from store. You could also write a sweet little message yourself.
The stitch on the sides of this message and the pocket above are not really stitches, but dashed lines made with a sketch pen of the same color in darker shade. Totally optional, I would say, but it is the details that add a special touch, isn’t it? ;)
Here is the finished product for you.
Might seem like a lot of steps, but not that difficult really. It took me all of 2 hours right from planning the folds to finalizing with pseudo-stitches all over.
And yes, a special mention to Mr C for helping me out with taking care of little Akshara while I was locked away in a room doing this. You are so sweet, dear!
Do try it out yourself and le me know how your attempts came out. Also, if I can help in planning / executing any such crafty project for you, please do let me know. I’ll be happy to lend a hand…
Cheers,
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