Happy Birthday Anastasia

Tomorrow (Saturday) is my landlady and good friend Anastasia's birthday. When I moved here to Sydney 6 months ago I didn't know a single person! I was so incredibly lucky to phone Anastasia about a room for rent and to be able to move into the house where I now live. Anastasia rents out the rooms in the house, mostly to grad students, and she takes such good care of us. She looks after the lawns, cleans the house, and always brings me milk or other grocery items if I email her. When I first arrived, she knew that I was all alone in the big, bad city and stopped by every day to check on me. She took me to the local shopping centre, and out for coffee, and was really so kind and compassionate when I felt homesick. I feel truly blessed to have been so lucky to find someone like her.
Ok, enough blathering, onto the craft.... Seeing as Anastasia is such a special person, I wanted to make her something nice for her birthday, but I also knew that it couldn't be 'too much' or she would be embarrassed. So I made this cute little gift set, consisting of a card, a little gift bag (with some Body Shop shower gel and moisturiser in it) and a little post it note holder. Naturally they all match!
I've used Le Jardin designer paper and River Rock, Very Vanilla, and Bashful Blue CS. On the card I have added some Pretties flowers, coloured with Bashful Blue and Sahara Sand markers, a rhinestone brad and some half-backed pearls. I've used wide Vanilla and thinner Bashful Blue grosgrain ribbons as well. The sentiment comes from 'Happy Everything' and is stamped in Bashful Blue.
This is a close up of the little post-it note cover. You can find info on how to make it on Sarah Gough's blog here. This was such a cute idea and I knew Anastasia would love it, as she does essay editing and uses alot of post-its. This was done with River Rock CS, Le Jardin paper, Vanilla ribbon, the 'flower' is the five petal flower punched out twice and the scallop punch with a blue rhinestone brad for the centre.
This awesome gift bag...or box-in-a-bag as it is known came from the talented Diana Gibbs, and you can find the tutorial here. It is super quick and easy to do, and looks fantastic! It was just the perfect size to pop in the two little bottles of Body Shop goodness that I got for Anastasia, but would also be perfect for chocolates or any other small gift item.
Basically it has the same 'ingredients as the card and post-it cover, with the addition of some flowers punched with the Boho Blossoms punch, Bashful Blue buttons and Jumbo Antique Brass eyelets that I set with my crop-o-dile. Oh, and the little flower in a circle done in white craft ink around the scalloped bit at the bottom. If you check out the tutorial you'll notice that I made a few changes, mainly because I don't have the tab punch (yet) and I put the eyelets in to make sure I didn't tear the CS when I tied the ribbon....I'm a bit clumsy like that!

So, my housemate Caren thought the little post-it cover was cute and she wanted one too...but in Chocolate Chip to match her room. So here's the one I made for her. The paper for this one is Berry Bliss, the CS Choc Chip and Close to Cocoa and the button is Vanilla. The Choc satin ribbon is from the 'Theatre' ribbon originals. She loves it!

Of course, after making one for both Caren and Anastasia, I thought I should have one for myself....'cept in PINK. And while I was making it I had this piece of left over CS and thought it was the perfect size for a bookmark.
These both use Rose Red and Regal Rose CS, Rose Red DSP and Regal Rose wide grosgrain ribbon. There's my very last pink rhinestone brad in the centre of the flower on the post-it cover, and the big pink flower comes from my stash of Smiggle winnings. The button in the flower centre is one from Mama's stash...who knows where it came from! The two things took about 5 mins to make and certainly help cheer me up when I'm wading through boring texts!!

Wow, that turned into a really long post, didn't it! Anyway, I was going to wait to show you Anastasia's gifts tomorrow....but I couldn't make TwistyKristy wait that long ;) Hopefully I'll make something new tonight to share with you tomorrow instead.

Hope you are having a fabulous day, wherever you are!

Kristie