more round boxes

 Hi friends.  Can you tell I like making these little boxes?  I made one for a contest that required a pumpkin.  So... I made the pumpkin... a pumpkin box actually.  

And a better view of the cover.  

I used some silk leaves, which I cut down a bit so they fit better.  I went outside and picked up a few sticks to use as a handle.  They were really dry, so I hope it doesn't break.  But I guess it would be easy enough to replace if it did.  

This next box was a special request by my cousin.  She really liked the floral one I made, so this is pretty similar.  I used a different flower stamp, and the flower on the cover is paper, whereas the other one was silk.  

And here is the cover.  I punched and die cut some different sized flowers, and cut the petal separations deeper.  Then I sponged all the edges with candied apple distress ink.  I turned them over and used a stylus and a thick foam mat to give them more shape and dimension.  Then I glued all the layers together, added some leaves, and glued the flower onto the cover.  

I remembered that I had some decoupage medium (hmmm... actually I have four jars) that would work to give this a nice smooth finish.  Although I didn't check, I'm pretty sure that all the jars have been opened, so hopefully, they are still all usable.  The one I used just needed to be stirred a bit before use.  I normally use matte mod podge, but I only have a little bit left, and I've been procrastinating going shopping for more.  Plus, sometimes it leaves the surface a bit sticky.  I think that may have something to do with the humidity.  I've really been trying to use up what I have instead of buying more.  A while back, I was watching a video, and the girl used a 1:1 mix of water and white glue as a finish.  I absolutely would do that, but I've also used almost all of my white school glue, because I ran out of tacky glue, which is really my favorite for putting this type of project together.  I like it because it's not so runny and dries with less bubbling.  But I found if I use a very thin layer of white glue, that works quite well, too.  

Thank you so much for stopping by to visit.  I always appreciate that. 

and one more...

I really loved the look of the last box I made, but thought a few more details would make it even better.  The last two boxes went to the neighbors, since both of the kids had birthdays.  So I made another. 

If you want details on how I made this, please check my previous two posts.  

Thank you so much for taking time to stop by today.  Be blessed. 

Can't make just one

Hi friends.  You probably know by now that I can't make just one.  I've made a number of these little boxes over the past few years.  Well, I figured that I really needed to make one for the boys.  Yeah.  No flowers or pretties on it.  How about WOOD?  Well, yes, I would if I weren't afraid to use some of those woodworking machines.  So what's the next best thing?  Faux wood, of course.

I use faux wood techniques quite often in cardmaking, so why not on a box.  The basic technique to create faux wood is to drag ink pads down the paper, repeating with several colors - mostly working in browns, but other colors work as well.  

Recently, I discovered a variation from my friend Ann on Split Coast Stampers.  What I like about this technique is the color is smoother than simply dragging the ink onto the paper.  

Please refer to my last post for more details on the basic construction of the box.  

I used a 4"x12" piece of barely banana card stock and smaller pieces for the cover and bottom.  Start by scoring lines every half inch across the card stock.  You can vary the width between score lines if you want.  The next step can be done on either side of the paper.  I prefer to use the bumpy side, because the ridges pick up the darker inks and give board delineations.  The other side portrays those lines as the color of your light card stock.  Either way works.  Put some white glue (I'm using Elmer's school glue) on the paper and use an old gift card to spread it all over the paper.  Then let it dry.  I'm pretty sure you could speed up the drying with a heat gun, but the heat will bubble the glue, so I prefer to just let it air dry.  

Once the glue is dry, drag your ink down the card stock in the same direction as your score lines.  I used distress inks: antique linen, tea dye, vintage photo, and early espresso.  The two lighter colors, you can use a heavy hand when dragging, but you want to go lighter on the vintage photo, and much less with the early espresso.  I also will lightly swipe the edge of the darkest color randomly to add a bit more detail for wood grain.  

Once that was dry, I measured and trimmed the ends to meet without overlapping.  Then I attached the strip around the box, cut wedges along the bottom and glued those to the bottom.  Circles were cut from the faux wood for the bottom and cover of the box.  

I painted the edge of the cover brown to blend in with the wood.  Everything was given a coat of Matte Mod Podge.  

 I see in the photo that I managed to get the seam right in the front, so you can see how that works.  It shows less on the wood grain than it did on the previous box, but I do like the flat seam better than overlapping.

This box went together much faster than the previous box, because there was no stamping required.  Other than drying time, the faux wood is a very quick technique.

Thank you so much for taking time to stop by today.  Have a wonderful day. 

my latest project

Hello my friends.  A friends daughter just had a birthday, and I wanted to make something for her.  Since I do a lot of thread crochet, I have the cardboard spools left from the thread.  I save them unless they are really mutilated.  They make great little boxes.  

Since these are open-ended, it's necessary to add a bottom, and I normally also want to have a cover.  I have a number of circle dies, so I try to find one that fits the diameter of the tube.  Then I use chipboard to cut the circles.  I keep chipboard from cereal boxes, cracker boxes, the backs of paper pads, etc., anything that is sturdy and not all bent.  If necessary, I glue layers together to make it sturdy.  

For this box, I only used a single thickness for the bottom, but the cover is six layers -- three the sit on top and three that fit inside the box to keep the cover in place.   Since it's difficult to cut multiple layers, I cut the circles individually, and then glue them together.  I place them beneath some old encyclopedias, while the glue dries, so they remain flat.  

Then comes decorating.  For this box, I stamped some poppies on a 4"x12" piece of light yellow cardstock.  Then I colored them with watercolor pencils and blender pen.  Over the top of the flowers, I randomly stamped a crackle background and old writing.  I glued the strip around the tube.  Instead of overlapping the strip as I usually do, I trimmed the ends to meet, creating a smoother box.  Along the bottom edge, I cut out wedges, and folded the points over to the bottom and glued them.  I added another cardstock circle on the bottom to cover those. 

I sponged the edges with coffee archival ink, and then sponged on a thin layer of matte mod podge to seal it.  

For the cover, I first glued all the layers together.  I used an emery board to smooth the edges.  I glued cardstock circles to the top and bottom of the cover.  Then I stamped a different poppy five times on some scraps of cardstock, colored them the same as the others, and cut them out.  After stamping the background, I glued the cut flowers around the top of the cover.  I sponged the edges, and added the matte mod podge.  I decided I wanted to add some metallic gold lumiere paint randomly to the whole box, so I used a dry brush technique for that.  It doesn't really show up in the picture.  For the center of the cover, I used some silk flowers.  I put a jewel brad in the center to hold all the layers together.  Then I painted the flower petals with some shimmery paint.  The flower is attached to the box with hot glue.  

One last special touch was to decorate the underside of the cover.  I die cut a fun little medallion and painted it gold for the center, and then I added a special message with die cut letters, because we all need to be reminded.  The letters are actually red; I'm not sure why they look pink. 

Thank you so much for taking time to visit today.  I hope you are staying safe and well.

And the gazebo on top

Hi friends.  In my last post, I showed you my new ink storage unit, which now houses all 120 of my distress and oxide ink pads.  I wanted to make some sort of cover over the top to keep the dust off the items stored there.  So I decided on an open gazebo.  Without going into all the detail, I made supports, both vertical and horizontal, from 2" wide chipboard, folded into a square tube.  I added decorative sides and a slanted roof, with a little decoration on top.  Not being an engineer, the roof was totally guesswork, and I was thrilled that it worked on the first try.  The gazebo lifts off for easy access to the supplies stored beneath it. 

This is the full unit.  My distress inks are on two sides, and distress oxides on the other two.  I store them alphabetically in vertical columns.  I have room enough to add 24 more ink pads.  These are the regular 3" pads.  So far stored on top are blending brushes and blender pens.  I'm not sure what else will go there yet, but most likely things that I use all the time, so they are within easy reach. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Have a great day. 

My new ink hotel

Hello.  I know it has been a long, long time since I posted.  Maybe my life is just that boring?  Well, I don't think so, so I guess I have no excuse.  I know I'm a big procrastinator.

Anyway, for mother's day my daughter made a new header for my blog as you can see.  I had completely forgotten that I'd asked her to make one, so that was a nice surprise.

Six years ago I created an ink pad holder for my distress ink pads.  You can see it here.  Well, it wasn't too long after that Ranger introduced some new colors, so all my inks didn't fit in the holder.  Then, they also produced all the colors in distress oxide inks.  These are the things I put on my wish list for my family to buy as gifts, so I now have the full set of those as well.

So I decided that it was time to make some new storage.  I wanted all the distress inks in one place, so I started construction.  Now be advised I'm not an engineer, and I design as I go, so the final product is certainly not perfect or even designed well, but that's OK by me, as long as it works.  My husband kept calling it a roach hotel, but I think ink pad hotel is a much better description, since we do not provide housing for roaches here.

I should warn you that this will be a long post with lots of photos.  I wanted to give a lot of the step by step procedure that went into the making.

I built the entire unit from cereal box (cracker box, pizza box, etc.) chipboard, corrugated cardboard, and tacky glue.  There is also a small amount of stamped cardstock.

I started by cutting pieces which would hold the ink pads.  These are cut 2-1/2"x8", and scored at 1", 4" and 5".  I taped the edges together.  The ink pads will hang out the front by about 1/2", so I can pull them out easily.  The total unit will hold 144 ink pads, so that's how many I cut and folded. 

Yes, that 2nd picture is the whole bunch!  Then I started gluing them into towers of 12 each.

The next step was to add extra chipboard on the sides for support and then glue towers together in sets of three. 

As I said earlier, I design as I go, at this point, I thought it would help if they were brighter, so I painted all the insides with white acrylic paint -- not spray paint, because I didn't have any -- with a brush.  A lot of work, but it made such a difference.  After I finished painting, I added a back panel.  These were already white on one side, so I didn't need to paint them. 

Because of the way I was going to put the towers together, one side needed some decoration, so I stamped white card stock with ultramarine stazon, and then sponged places with azure stazon, and coated them with matte mod podge to help keep them clean.  I attached these panels before gluing the triple towers together.

Now, since it's obvious that with four sides, the unit needs to turn, so there is access to all four sides.  I had an 8-sided lazy susan that I decided to use.  There is a small indented cavity on the top, so I decided to utilize that to keep the unit from sliding off the base.

Since the towers act like walls, there is a large open area in the center.  I did the same stamping procedure to cover the top around the opening. 

I built a base that fit into the cavity, as well as up into the open area of the storage unit.

The unit sits nicely on top of the base.

I thought it made sense to use that open area on top for additional storage, so I made a partitioned box to hold my blending brushes, and some other items (which I haven't figured out yet).

Since this box was going to be sitting at the top, I needed to add some braces for it to rest on.

I added an additional flat square made from two layers of corrugated cardboard on top of the braces, and the box sits on top of that.

Here is the completed unit.  The base is not permanently attached to either the unit or the turn table, and the storage box on top is also not permanently attached.

And here's a photo with some ink pads in it.  I did not fill it with all my ink pads, because I thought it would be too heavy to move, and it needs to go into a different room -- as soon as I clear a space for it.

Thanks so much for taking time to visit today.  I hope you enjoyed the process of building my ink hotel.

Edited to add:  Please see my next post to view the unit with the gazebo dust cover on top

house boxes tutorial

Hi friends.  Sorry it's been so long since I've posted.

The last couple of days I've been working on a little box - shaped like a house.  I know there are some dies out there that you can use to create something similar, but I was sure I could make one without a die.

I remember my dad making little wooden houses and other buildings from 2x4's for my siblings and myself when we were children.  He painted them, including windows and doors.  These little boxes remind me of those.

I wasn't sure what size to make, so I started with a prototype from a JoAnn's flyer, which was 6"x11".  I ended up cutting a half inch off the end.

But, I really wanted it a bit taller, not a lot, just a half inch, so I ended up using card stock that was 6-1/2"x10-1/2".  On the long side, score at 3", 5", 8", and 10".  I used a green marker to show the score lines. 

Then turn 1/4 turn to the left and score at 4" and 6".

Turn 1/2 turn and at 5", mark the top edge, and score across the 2" panels and the 1/2" panel.

Turn 1/4 turn to the left and mark the top edge at 1-1/2" and 6-1/2".

Use a straight edge and bone folder to score diagonally from these marks as shown in the next diagram.

You need to do diagonals in both directions to form the roof peaks.  This is what your score lines should look like. 

Next, cut on all the vertical scores; from the bottom up to the 2nd cross score, and from the top down to the 1st cross score.  The cut lines are in black. 

At this point, you will need to trim away the sections that are shaded below.

On the 3 bottom tabs and the side tab, trim at a slight angle to make fitting easier.  Your house should now look like this.

I proceeded to put the box together and forgot to stamp it.  You really want to do that while it is still flat.  You may want to add designer paper instead of stamping, or get really creative with mixed media.  Any dimensional embellishments can wait until the house is all together. 

Once you have the sides stamped or decorated, you can start putting it together.  I flip it over; fold the 2" and 1/2" panels toward the center.  Using whatever adhesive you choose (I used Tombow Mono multi glue) by putting adhesive on the 1/2" tab.  Fold over the farthest panel and press onto the tab.

To form the roof area, the angled tabs are adhered to the straight flaps.  It is easiest to put them on top rather than underneath.  They will get covered by the roof, so they will not show. 

For the roof, cut a piece of card stock 2"x4-1/4"; score at 2-1/8".  I embossed this one in my Tim Holtz notebook embossing folder, and then inked it with vintage photo distress ink.  You can use any embossing folder you choose, or make shingles using a border punch or die.  I know I want to make one with corrugated cardboard for a roof.  You'll see another house below with shingles using Tim's vintage rooftops die.   

Glue the rooftop onto the house.  It does not have any overhang.  If you want that, you need to cut this piece a bit larger.

Close the house box at the bottom.  Now you can add any other decorations you wish.
I added the designer paper after I had the house all glued together, but it would have been much easier to do it first.  I only added embellishments to one side.  The finished size is 4" high, 3" wide, and 2" deep. 

Here's one I made from the same card stock, but stamped the sides.

And another one from designer card stock.  This is the one with the shingles.

And here they are all together.

I hope you like my tutorial and will try these.  This will make a nice gift box or you could make a whole village.  I know I will be making more.

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

and then December happened

Hi friends.  I was going to try to blog a little more often... and then December happened.  I worked like crazy to get my Christmas cards all finished, addressed, and sent.  And I also volunteered to be a hostess for December's VSN on Splitcoast.  The theme was Around the World in 80 days.  For challenges, we picked a country and something pertaining to that country.  My challenge country was Indonesia and my challenge was to make a card using some type of batik technique or fabric. 

This card has a background created with the acrylic batik technique.  

This next card uses batik fabric.  A number of years ago, I was given a bunch of fabric pieces by a lady who was moving and didn't want all her quilting scraps.  Included were a lot of small scraps, but there were also some larger pieces.  This fabric was was part of that. 

I glued the fabric onto some cardstock and then die cut the circles. 

Along with having my own challenge, hostesses are asked to make samples of the other challenges if we have time, so I did that also. Here are a few of those samples. 

I'll share more of these soon.  Thanks for stopping by today.