Tags with the Crafter's Cafe

The Crafter's Cafe Challenge theme is Tags. We're sponsored by Rick St. Dennis, MFA, Angie's Cards & Digis, and Melonheadz Illustrations. I used "I Think I've Lost My Buttons" by RSD to create a tag atop a box for lost buttons!

I originally decorated this recycled box for the first Pile It On Challenge of 2012 ... I removed the top portion and remade it into a box for loose buttons.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Brown Sugar: Buttons
Crafting When We Can: Buttons Galore
Simon Says Stamp: Tags (2nd entry)

Update: This was chosen as the Winner for Crafting When We Can #109!

Thank you for visiting & hope you'll join us at The Crafter's Cafe,

Say Something Purple

OSAAT January Prize Pack

This fortnight at One Stitch at a Time (OSAAT), our theme is Purple. StitchyBear's Digi Outlet has hundreds of digital products from many wonderful artists. Even if you don't use a store image, you'll still be in the drawing to win the super-duper January prize pack.

Purple is a special color to me; my husband and I share a love of the color, and he even wore a purple suit for our wedding! I decided to use the Book Stamp by Sentimental Susan to make this small book box.

The box template is from SVG Attic's discontinued Nevermore set (if anyone knows where I can purchase this file or something similar, please leave a comment). I love the scored page pieces! Used a purple cardstock for the binding, and covered it with a burlap-patterned paper. I inked the paper with Victorian Violet Brilliance pigment ink from Tsukineko.

I made the sentiment in InDesign and heat-embossed it in purple on a shiny white paper. I inked the piece with the same violet ink that I used for the burlap-patterned paper. The book digi stamps were colored with Copics and place on top of the piece. I used an embossing tool to create little lines on the books' pages.

I wrapped a striped grosgrain ribbon around the box, adhering it only to the front so that it would unwrap. To secure it, I used a tiny key charm from Cousin/Designs By Me. I put a little glittered flower on the ribbon's end-knot.

I wanted to be able to keep charms in the box, so I made a cover for the interior box. I used two magnet strips to keep it closed, and added another tiny key.

Inspiration/Challenges:
2 Creative Chicks #22: No Cards
All Crafts Challenge Dec/Jan Challenge: Anything but a Card
Crafty Ribbons: Anything but a Card + Ribbon
Cut it Up #63: Embossing & Die Cuts (SVGs)
Loves Rubber Stamps #135: Digi Stamp + Letter B (Books, Box, Burlap, Binding)
PDE Linky Party #36: 3D projects

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us at One Stitch at a Time,

Incense Tube Box + Tutorial - UnstampBelles midway post

The UnstampaBelles November challenge is Box + Tutorial. We're sponsored by The Stamp Spot, and you can link up your projects until the end of the month. Remember, you CANNOT use ANY STAMPS (digi or otherwise)!

We were recently gifted some large incense sticks, and since they are especially pungent I thought it would be fun to make a decorative box to hold them.

Allen likes it!

The incense sticks are almost 19 inches tall (great for a yard), so I used two 12-inch pieces to create a 20-inch-tall box. I scored the one of the short ends of one of the pieces at 1/2 inch, and fringed the smaller portion (this is the bottom of the box).

I scored one end of the other tall piece at 1/2 an inch and at 3.5 inches, and then cut the shorter end down to 3 inches. The smaller piece will be used for the lid. The 1/2 inch score on the larger piece will help line up the box with the second portion and create a 20-inch-tall box.

I used a Spellbinders circle die for the base circle. It has a diameter of about 1.875, which means the circumference of the box is 5.888 inches (I cheated and used an online Circle Calculator). I cut the side pieces at 6 inches wide so that I could use one sheet of 12x12 paper for the whole project.

I decorated the box with a sheet of "Live Laugh Love" and a burlap-patterned paper from Recollections, as well as some orange bulap ribbon and my favorite washi tape.

Here's a photo showing my fringing technique:

I didn't follow any tutorial, I just decided I could do it! Trust me, if I could do this you can too. The trickiest part was making the tube, and I used adhesive tape to help me line it up. I must admit that the incense is still pungent, but I really enjoy it and the box may or may not become a gift!

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us at UnstampaBelles,

Safari Box - Anything Goes at Crafting with Dragonflies

This fortnight at Crafting with Dragonflies our theme is Anything Goes, so show off your work! We're sponsored by the Dollar Graphics Depot and I used this great Jungle Critters set by Cheryl Seslar.

I made a little box-o-boxes based on the tutorial at Bastel-Oase.

I'm entering this project into the following Challenges:
Craft It Up & Link It Up Linky Party by Craftin Desert Divas: Anything but a Card
Fitztown Challenge: Animals using Digital Elements (digi stamps)
Lunagirl Moonbeams: Put a Bird on It


Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us at Crafting with Dragonflies,

Hexagon box with matching card/envelope set

One of my favorite parts of volunteering at Paper Playful is that it gives me a chance to visit lots of great blogs. While updating the Wednesday winners list last week, I ran across the "Gift Box with Matching Cards" challenge at Crafting with Dragonflies, and was really moved by Susan's heart-felt appeal for entries. I've been trying to think of something special to make my best friend for his birthday, and I felt really inspired to pull out my *new* Silhouette Cameo and make this Hexagon box with matching card/envelope set:

I had so much fun making the cards that I ended up making 12 with matching petal-fold envelopes!

Since this is for a man, I wanted to keep the design clean and simple. I used 3 colors of Kraft paper (Recollections, Jo-Ann, Kraft Outlet), plus a printed Kraft (Recollections). I also used Recollections' shiny brown & gold papers, and some white, blue, and orange cardstock from my stash. He's very social, both personally and for work, so I think these will come in handy.

The cards in the bottom row are topped with handmade papers I have in my collection; wish I could say I made them myself, but I did trace and hand-cut the hexagons. I also used these papers to cover the inside of the box.

Oooh, I love my Silhouette! It was a birthday gift from my Mom, and I've been having fun learning their software as well. It was pretty easy to use Samantha Walker's Hexagon Card Silhouette file base design to create hexagon-shaped overlays, mats, and frames. The overlay cut files are from the Silhouette store, Scrap Your Story, and Bird's Cards. The envelopes were cut using Lori Whitlock's Hexagon Petal Fold Card Silhouette file.

I've gone a bit crazy with buying Silhouette files, so instead of buying a hexagon box cutting file, I used the same base shape to create the box in Silhouette Studio. The lid is the same as the bottom, except just a touch bigger. I folded the sides in half and trimmed the tabs to create fold-over edges.

I included a "pull" ribbon to make it easier to get the cards out of the box. This is one of my favorite twill ribbons, from the Kraft Outlet.

I also made a matching birthday card for my friend to include along with the set. I designed the Happy Birthday sentiment in Silhouette Studio again, using the font Eccentric Standard.

Thank you Susan for reminding me how much fun this kind of project is!
Update: This project was chosen as one of the prize winners for Crafting with Dragonflies Challenge #12!

Update: My friend really enjoyed his gift, and sent me this fun photo of the cards lined up on the top of his refrigerator:

Thank you for visiting,

"A Ladies' Diary" box & tiny journals

My mom has a fantastic papercrafting store that she hangs out at a lot, Scraps of Love. Since it's over 2000 miles away from where I live, she generously sends me wonderful papers & embellishments that she finds there (thank you, USPS flat-rate shipping!).

One thing in particular that she can purchase there that I can't find here are Graphic 45 papers. Scraps of Love has insanely talented instructors who do things with these papers that would make you cry, and Mom takes many of their classes and sends me the trimmings and any extra papers.

I decided to use the papers from their A Ladies' Diary Collection to make this box containing small journals, as I also wanted to practice my book-making. One fun thing about Graphic 45 papers is that each double-sided design comes in 3 sizes: 12x12, 6x6, and 8x8, so having different sizes gives you lots of options. The box is roughly 2 x 3.25 inches, based on the size of this cute fashion-card paper from the 8x8 pack.

click photos to enlarge

I couldn't help but use the Stampin' Up! Beautiful Wings Embosslit die to add some 3D embellishment. I used Glossy Accents to adhere the butterflies.

The box contains a tier of tiny boxes; I used the tutorial (well, sorta) by Bastel-Oase.

Here's the back of the box, without the lid:

Each 2x2 box contains a small book.

Three of the books are designed around the different sized "vintage stamps" from the paper collection. For the blank books, I used regular printer paper. Everything is inked with Antique Linen distress ink and/or edged with my E04 Copic marker (Lipstick Natural).

This is the smallest piano-hinge book I've ever made, at just under 3/4 inches wide:

I learned this technique from a book, but I used the tutorial at Making Mini Scrapbooks to refresh my memory.

For the second book, I used my awl to puncture a hole in the middle of the pages/cover, and ran some twine around and through the tiny spools, knotting it in the middle.

The next one is basically an accordion book with a wrap-around cover:

Mom had also sent me several pieces of this particular part of one of the collections' 12x12 sheets. It's a column of three of the vintage stamps, so I glued 3 of those together to make the book. I glued the spine, so the pages naturally created pockets for little journal tags.

Finally, I used Prima wood pieces to make a funky little accordion book:

The metal clock hands are actually from Tim Holtz's Game Spinner collection, but hey they work!

I decided to decorate the back of the pages, so I stamped it with a large background stamp (Flourishes llc), heat-embossed it with clear embossing powder, and inked it with pink chalk ink. I had used printer paper, so much to my surprise the heat-embossed portion became almost translucent. It created a vintage look that I'll definitely have to use again.

Many thanks to my wonderful husband for taking these photos, and for giving me some pointers on how to get better photos from now on. We had a real family photo session for this!

Inspiration/Challenges:
Charisma Cardz #33: More than one fold
Love to Create: Fancy Folds
Opus Gluei Challenge #163: The Start of Something BIG! (This project was inspired by my wanting to start book-making again, and to do more 3D projects)
Stamps & Fun = Creativity: Box
The Pink Elephant Monday Card Challenge: Anything but a Card

Update: This was a prize winner at Love to Create. Thank you!

Thank you for visiting, and if you're ever in Peora, Arizona, be sure to visit Scraps of Love!