Papertrey's 'It's A Wrap' Challange

Over at Papertrey Ink, they are having their 6th Anniversary party and monthly release, which means they are giving folks lots of opportunities to win terrific prizes; one prize is worth $300 in merchandise. (I didn't get to enter that one, but good luck if you did.)

Papertrey is launching a new section of their on-line store, Boutique Bargains, which will feature ever-changing embellishments and surfaces (i.e. fabric bags and resin flowers) on which to create with their products. To challenge us to start thinking about creating wraps or gift packaging, we were to find an inspirational picture, and make our 'wrap' item using at least one of their items.

I chose this Pinterest picture of strawberries on black. Recently, Papertrey's January Blog Hop featured compositions on dark backgrounds. As a lover of tole painting (doing and looking), bright colors on a black field float my boat. For a long time I have needed to replace an old eyeglasses case that fell apart. By taking apart the case, and tracing around the outside, I was able to make a copy that would accept the hard insert from the original.

The picture above shows die cut felt pieces from the Strawberry Patch Die Collection, case pieces cut from black felt, and Clover's felting needle and felting surface (top left). The strawberry layout (roughly taken from the stamp set "Strawberry Patch"), has had the leaves and berries embroidered with black details and then felted to the front piece.

 NOTE

The back of the felt (image on right) has some of the fibers from the pieces showing through. (If you aren't familiar with needle felting, it involves interlocking felt fibers using tiny hooked needles (think crochet hook), pouncing up and down through both layers of felt.)

Then I embroidered the stems and tendrils, and added the blossoms on top of the berries and in the middle of the top flap.

Here's the finished project. I made a 5/8" strip of black felt, and buttonhole stitched it, from the top of one side of the front, to the top on the other side. I cut the strip even with the top front, and then attached the back.

Papertrey items used: Strawberry Patch Die Set, Strawberry Patch Stamp Set (for composition), Pure Poppy 100% wool felt (sigh).

Thanks for taking the time to look and leave a comment. Have fun and good luck on winning one of the fabulous gifts from Papertrey. There's no such thing as 'too much Papertrey'!