A Gift for a Sepcial Friend

My friend Gen - very near and dear to me.

She's had a rough go of it the last few years. Years ago, I had given her a set of rosary beads. They were green glass with shamrocks pressed into them. She's VERY IRISH, and proud of her heritage, so when I had seen those rosaries, I knew they'd be perfect for her.

She had said that she would pray on them so many times, she'd wear away the shamrocks on the beads. She loaned them out to people when they had a particular situation they needed to pray on, as she claimed at least for her, they had special power.

About a year or so ago, she loaned them out to someone, but can not remember who. And hasn't gotten them back. So while she would not normally flat out ASK for something - she did ask if I would get her a new set of rosaries. So I obliged.

I got them, and they came in a velvet hinged jewelry type box, which was nice, but I wanted to make it BETTER.

So I thought an thought and thought...and I was watching the Papertrey countdown, and saw Nichole Heady's project using Lauren's Timeless Templates - the stationary box.

I also remembered a project Lauren had done with it - to hold a pendant, with two tins...

I figured - I can do this...so I went ahead and printed out Lauren's template (available HERE) on printer paper, since I was using black CS and got to work.

I put the template onto the CS with Dotto repositionable adhesive. and trimmed and scored.

Then to make an insert to hold the beads. I went ahead and just used the template of the bottom of the box, except for the sides, I trimmed them to 1/2 inch, so it would sit nicel inside of the box. I also trimmed back the tab that folds over the front, to show more of what's in the box.

I cut slits in the top of the insert, and placed the rosaries through the slits. I used a small glue dot to hold up the end with the crucifix.

The sentiment is from PTI's Everyday Blessings. Thought it fit well with the gift. The ONLY thing I'm NOT happy about is the ribbon. I really wished that I had some ivory satin ribbon - but in all the ribbon I DO have, I could not find ANY. Nothing seemed to work right...but i needed something - so I settled on the silver ribbon - but it would have been PERFECT with the ivory satin.

Gen loved her gift, and I think it meant a little bit more - presented the way it was...

Thanks for stopping by!!