I'm still working on my Christmas presents, and I was really keen to get some metal lunch boxes to make files for birthday cards. I wanted one for myself and one for my best friend Mandy. Most of the cards I make are A5, and this is where the problem started. All the lunch tins I could find (like the large Provo craft one) were just a bit too small. I wanted a top opening one too as this would work best. After literally hours of searching I found some here: Lunchboxes.com, so then I had to sit back and wait a week for them to arrive from the States.
Mandy loves Cath Kidston. Her house is full of beautiful tableclothes, crockery and fabrics by Cath Kidston. So I knew that had to be the colour scheme and theme. So I bought some patterened Cath Kidston napkins, and used these as the starting point for her tin. Firstly I separated the layers of tissue, then stuck it to the botton part of the tin with some gel medium. I then coated it with a coat of clear acrylic varnish. I did the same on the back, then went through my cupboards to find co-ordinating ribbons, some red spotty paper and a lovely red vintage button. I made a card tag and cut out one of the flowers from a napkin to stick onto it. I also made a wooden tag from a domino and put a chipboard 'M' on it. I realised that trying to put paper or tissue around the opening clasps would be virtually impossible, so I painted this area with Tim Holtz Crackle paint in Antique Linen. Then I stuck ribbon over all the joins. The 'cards' tag is just some circles of card, and the letters are stamped with Doodlebug letter stamps. This is attached with more ribbon. Finally I tied some ribbons to the handles.
I made up the file dividers from brown card, and stamped each month with Purple Onion stamps, embossed with blue and red powder. Then on cream card I printed each month so the birthdays can be written on.
