UnstampBelles - Box-o-Boxes + Tutorial

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 can't use ANY STAMPS (digi or otherwise)!

I made what I'll call a Box-o-boxes, which I first saw at Bastel-Oase-Orsingen (you can see all my box-o-boxes here).

It's relatively easy, if you're good at making boxes. But you probably know it's more difficult than you'd hope! Here's my attempt at a tutorial:

When I make boxes, I usually start with one size and then size the lid and wrap around them. I've found that regular cardstock adds about 1/16th (.0625) of an inch.

In this case, I started by making the four inside boxes, which are 3x3 inches square by 1.25 inches high. Score a 5x5 piece at 1.25 inches on each side, and cut the small corner squares to make tabs. Then glue the boxes together. The strips on the boxes are 12 inches x 1.0625, and the papers on the inside are about 3x3 inches.

To make the wrapper, I cut a 12-inch cardstock to 5 inches high. I wrapped it around the box and marked where it lined up. I then hand-folded it (the wrapper side ended up being being 3.0625 wide. Because the final wrapper was larger than a regular 12 inch paper, I used a extra piece of 5 inch-high cardstock to complete the wrapper. The patterned papers on the side were cut at 2.875 x 4.875.

The lid ended up being about 3.1875 inches wide. I embossed it with spiderweb-patterned embossing folder before putting together the box. The rosette was made with a patterned paper and a Tim Holtz die. I topped it with a gem-topped spider sticker. The leaf is a wood embellishment that I heat-embossed with shiny black powder.

Challenges:
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards #77: Halloween
Creative Moments #54: Anything goes/ Halloween / Spellbound / Fairytale
MilkCoffee Challenge: Halloween
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Update: I was the random winner for this week's SSSWC!

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,

"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!