Box with Fading Out Edge/Border - html

Question

I am trying to create a box that has a 'highlight' down the sides of it, and at the top.
The CSS for the box was pretty simple, however, now that I introduced this 'highlight' to the design, it has added another level of complexity to the CSS...
I have tried a lot of things, not sure if they will help but here is my most recent:
/* Define the Main Navigation Drop Downs */
#mn_navigation .dd {position:relative;width:226px;padding:29px 0 0;background:transparent url("//beta.example.co.uk/_images/_global/dd_handle.png") no-repeat;z-index:1000;}
#mn_navigation .dd nav {padding:30px 0;background:#3E5032 url("//beta.example.co.uk/_images/_global/dd_bg.png");border-radius:3px;}
#mn_navigation .dd nav a {font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:#fff !important;height:25px;line-height:25px;}
Please note I have posted the above to show that I have actually tried to sort this myself. The above code will probably not even help as a starting point as a restructure of the HTML may be necessary!
Here is the current HTML (probably needs to be restructured):
<div id="dd_foo" class="dd">
<nav>
LINK
</nav>
</div>
Here is a possible restructure (something like):
<div id="dd_foo" class="dd">
<div class="handle"><!-- Dropdown Handle --></div>
<nav>
LINK
</nav>
</div>
This is what I need the box to look like (notice the faint white border at the top and half way down the sides):
I have also included the box split into its separate elements (handle and background)
I think I can see how this can be done with clever overlaps and nested divs, but ideally I don't really want to resort to this... Can anybody suggest an alternative solution?

Answer 1

Simplest approach
You can try achieving this using a simple box shadow:
.plaque {
box-shadow: inset 0 1px 1px 0 rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.32);
/*...*/
}
An Example
Here's an example using 1 class and a div on jsbin.
Copy paste code
This code is only for modern browsers; it might cause ie < 9 and other non supporting browsers to explode.
.plaque:after {
top: -9px;
content: " ";
height: 11px;
width: 30px;
position: absolute;
pointer-events: none;
left: 50%;
margin-left: -15px;
display: block;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
}
.plaque {
width: 250px;
height: 100px;
display: block;
border: 0;
outline: 0;
padding: 12px 16px;
line-height: 1.4;
box-shadow: inset 0 1px 1px 0 rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.32);
border-radius: 5px;
border: 1px solid transparent;
font-family: sans-serif;
color: white;
font-size: 1.2em;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
position: relative;
top: 6px;
}
/* Use whatever background you want */
.plaque { background-color: green; }
.plaque:after { background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,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); }