Gift Bag & card set

The gift bag and card I am showing you today is inspired by a present I have bought for a friend (hope she doesn't look at this before her birthday!) 

The material is coloured dragonflies, as shown on the left and, as I have a dragonfly stamp in the Nature's Nest set, I thought why not make a matching gift bag to pop my present in. I don't know about you but if anyone gives me something that is handcrafted I am always much more interested in the wrapping/box/container than I am the contents. With something handcrafted you always know that a lot of thought and effort has been put into the gift and it makes it so much more special.

Anyway enough waffle, have a look and see what you think.

The gift bag is made from the same tutorial that I used the other day for the flowery bag (scroll down for more info or see Sarah's turtorial here)

I used two sheets of Whisper White cardstock for the bag and some retired Melon Mambo ribbon (however this is now available in the Scallop Dots ribbon). I used the dragonfly stamp with Wisteria Wonder, Melon Mambo and Pumpkin Pie as these were the closest match to the fabric and the tiny flower, from the SAB set Fresh Vintage, was used just to fill in the gaps! I added a Melon Mambo gift tag from Cottage Garden.

I attached the handles differently this time by using Rhinestone Brads.

Now onto the card which, before you look, I will say I am not overly happy with - much too fussy for me, so may well be doing this again without the Melon Mambo fancy circle for the sentiment. I ummed and aarghed and decided to use it and after it was stuck I wished I hadn't!

I stamped a piece of Whisper White cardstock with the dragonfly and flower, using the same colours as before but this time stamped off to give a more subtle image. This was matted onto Wisteria Wonder cardstock and a piece of Melon Mambo ribbon was put around before layering onto a white card blank.

The sentiment, from the Hostess set Happiest Birthday Wishes was stamped in Wisteria Wonder and punched out with the Scallop Circle punch.

Then comes the bit I wish I'd left out - the sentiment was layered onto the Melon Mambo fancy circle, cut from the Perfect Pennants die and glued in place. I'm now convinced it would have looked SO much better without it!!!! Oh well you learn from your mistakes as they say - the number of mistakes I make I'm not so sure that's true :0)

Thanks for looking and for all the lovely comments - they really do mean a lot to me x
Whoops I pressed 'post' instead of 'save' so 2 posts today and probably none tomorrow!!