Secret Garden Slipcase

Today I'd like to share the slipcase I created to house the Secret Garden Star Book.

I had the idea for the Secret Garden slipcase even before I created the  Star Book. But I decided I'd better make the book first to see if I would need to tweak any of the slipcase dimensions.(You can see the Secret Garden Star Book on the blog post dated February 25, 2015.)

To really get a feel for this project it is probably best viewed in three dimension, so there is a video on YouTube which takes you on a tour (see link at end of post).

The tree has a "knot hole" so you can put your finger in it and push out the drawer that contains the book. Here you see the drawer pushed out on the right with the book inside.

This project uses the Graphic 45 "Secret Garden" paper collection - hence the project name.  I used paper I had reserved specially for the slipcase from both the 12x12 and 8x8 pads. After making both the book and the slipcase, there is very little left in either of those pads!

The slipcase is built upon a Graphic 45 Matchbook Box - the 8x8 Kraftboard version.

When I designed the Star Book, I made sure the dimensions were appropriate for this box.  The drawer is just deep enough for the completed book .

The key feature is of course the tree which was made of chipboard.


The "bark" is plain kraft paper embossed using the "Bark" side of the Spellbinders MBossabilities folder "Bricks and Bark" and then highlighted with Distress ink.

The tree has five layers of leaves, each one created out of chipboard and covered with paper.

These five sections were then added to the top of the tree and surround the top of the matchbook box.

The front leaves have a little notch so a bird in a nest can hide within the leaves.

The front and the back each have a scene created from the paper line.  I fussy cut many elements from the main graphic page from the 12x12 collection. Some elements were raised with pop dots to give more dimension.

The front has the door to the secret garden and lots of flowers

The back has the picket fence, decorated with a bow and more flowers.

As a final decorative element, one of the Graphic 45 Ornate Metal Keys was attached to a light blue ribbon and hangs from the front tree branch.

This element is featured on several of the papers and I thought it would be fun to include it on the project.








I made a series of videos as I constructed the project and they will be posted in the next few days.

Here's a link to the project tour video on YouTube.