Friday, September 23, 2011

Birthday Present Stand-In


When your children start to get older, birthday presents get a bit more complicated.  There are many things that they'd like but it is difficult to choose exactly the right style or model to suit their wishes.  Sometimes it is easier to just shop with them, but you still want to have something to wrap up for the cake and candles time!

My neighbor's daughter wanted a cell phone for her birthday and we stopped by a local toy store to see if they had a toy phone that she could wrap up and give her daughter until they could go to the phone store (we were thinking of something for a couple of dollars just to serve as a placeholder...).  The only phone they had was much more expensive and then I realized - we didn't need a toy phone, we could cut one out of paper to serve the temporary stand-in purpose.


 There is a cell phone on the Locker Talk cartridge.  This is an older cartridge and I always thought it was a bit too cartoonish.  However, when I needed to exchange a duplicate cartridge a few years ago, this was the only one the store had in stock that I didn't already own (remember, there used to be far fewer cartridges and stores usually do not stock all of them).


This particular phone is a dated style but still recognizable as a cell phone.  There are three pieces - a base, shadow and blackout layer. There is also a small circle to layer as a button at the top but I chose not to use this.


I cut the layers and quickly assembled the phone (I volunteered to make the phone since my neighbor would need to drive the girls to their activities all afternoon).  The blackout layer is a glitter cardstock and reminded me of a phone keypad - even though it is in the screen area...


 I added a cute flower and a peel off Happy Birthday sentiment on the front.


I had a gift bag that I made quite a while ago - it turned out to be just about the right size to hold the phone.  I added the blue gem to the flower on the bag to coordinate with the phone colors.


The purse style bag and the flower are from the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge - one of the ones I "had to have" when I got my first Cricut.  There are bags and boxes on many cartridges now but this used to be one of the few places to find these handy little items.


Mission accomplished - I left a bag with the finished surrogate gift hanging on the front door so it could be smuggled into the house in time for the birthday dinner. 

The moral to the story - Sometimes you already have what you need - you just have to remember that you have it!


 Don't forget, tomorrow is the Disney Pixar blog hop.  I have two projects and I am trying to decide which one to post - maybe I'll just post both of them...

Have a great day!

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7 comments:

  1. So cute! She'll love the crafty phone as much as the real one, and what a great souvenir for the scrapbook!

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  2. Oh my goodness...clever idea!! I LOVE it:)
    Sherrie K
    http://sherriescraps.blogspot.com

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  3. Thanks for the reminder to see what you do have before buying something else. This is a great idea. She gets the surprize of getting a cell phone and a fun shopping trip to boot. Darling bag too.

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  4. What a great idea and gift this makes! TFS

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  5. What a wonderful neighbor you are. She will have this paper phone a lot longer than the birthday present I bet!

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  6. This is really cute and what a great idea. I could of used that last Christmas when my own son's present of a phone did not arrive in time.
    Kim xXx

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