Thursday 18 April 2013

My Ada's 'Exploding Box'...!

My beautiful granddaughter Ada was five years old yesterday and instead of a card, I made her and exploding box with her gift inside it.


It really wasn't that hard - just a bit long-winded for the time I had to make it in - but that's me - why make it easy on myself...? LOL!

Materials

1 x A3 Centura Pearl card sheet (but you could use a 12 x 12 in a good weight cardstock)
1 x A4 Hunky Dory Adorable Scorable pink and white stripey card
1 x 12 x 12 Pink Pearl Bazzill cardstock
Some scrap pieces of pink dotty paper for covering the white backs of some of the leaves.
Double-sided tape
Good quality paper glue - I used Allene's Fast Grab Tacky glue.
I used a Martha Stewart deep border punch but whatever you have is fine
Fancy edging scissors
Couple of yards of organza ribbon.
Embellishments to taste.


Method
Cut one Centura Pearl A3 down to 12 x 12 and use Martha Stewart punch around the entire edge (I centred it  because the match wasn't quite perfect, so I chose to leave a small gap in the middles).




Then, measure on the wrong side your required space in the middle (I used a 12cm x 12cm central square for mine) and score the sheet into nine squares.



Score the corner squares lightly so you can fold them inwards



At this point you might like to do any stamping or embellishing of the inside of this outer leaf. I used a couple of different heart-shaped stamps.

Repeat this step as many times as you feel happy with, reducing the size of the middle square just a little each time to allow for the leaves 'nesting' inside each other. Also, snip off with either scissors or craft knife, the corner sections.

I had previously made a small box for the centre of the exploding box in which to put Ada's small gifts.   For a boy, or a less girly girl, I think a pirate theme with a treasure chest would be fab but my Ada is into Princesses at the minute!

(You can see in this pic where I've snipped off the little waste 'nib' left by the border punch, with the edge of a round hole die)


The sun was acting up at the time, going in and out by the minute - so sorry for the shadows...!

As you can see, I made three other leaves inside the original by following the same step but just snipping out the corners to reduce bulk. I also used fancy scissors to edge the layers.

When you're happy with your layers, use a little double-sided tape to secure on the bottom in the middle of each square. You can embellish before or after this step - whichever suits!


As you can see, I've added some greetings like 'Happy Birthday', 'FUN' and 'SMILE' on one layer and butterflies (Ada LOVES butterflies) on another layer.





The next thing to do is to make a 'lid' for your leaves, to hold them up.

I used the pink pearl Bazzil for this but , sadly, forgot to photo it as I did it.  It is, however just a simple lid, similar to the original leaf, keeping the centre 12cm x 12cm middle square, but snipping down one side of each 'corner', folding the corner across as you make the box shape and securing it with a good very tacky glue. I used Aleen's Fast Grab Tacky glue which is amazing and dries really fast!


When that is dry (well I did it before actually, to hold it in place) put  little narrow dst in the middle of your ribbon and secure it to the 'back' edge of your lid so you can tie the bow without it sliding down and off the lid (...don't ask how I thought of that...! LOL!)

Last of all is to do the same ribbon trick with the outside leaf, to keep it closed until the reveal.


Treasure....!



This is the little charm bracelet and Hello Kitty necklace I made for Ada and was places in an organza bag in the inner box.

Hope you've enjoyed this project and have a little go yourself!



Hugs 
Ei x



4 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you so much Anesha - very kind of you to leave such a lovely comment. Much appreciated Hunni.

      Considering the visitors I get looking at my projects (loads according to Live Traffic Feed...!) very few actually leave a comment. I wonder why that is?

      Hugs
      Ei x

      Delete
  2. great project Ei, she'll love it

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you Lynn - she did! LOL! Especially the 'treasure'!
    Hugs Ei x

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment!
I will try to respond where time allows.
Hugs
Eiglas
x

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