Today is my turn as a Susan's Tierney-Cockburn Design Team Member to post a project on the Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog. I decorated a Birthday Explosion Box using three of
Susan's new flower dies. The recipient will not only receive long
lasting flowers, but also a gift card to make their birthday wishes come
true! The flowers I created for this project are: Garden Notes Hydrangea, Garden Notes Lilac, and Garden Notes Hyacinthe.
Susan's new Garden Notes flowers are just the perfect size to decorate
cards and boxes, and I am sure will be treasured because they look so
realistic.
When closed, this is a six inch square explosion box.
To
create the bottom of the Explosion Box, use a 12 x 12 inch piece of
card stock; score at 3 inches on each side. Cut out the four corners.
Crease the seams well
.
The
top of the box must be just slightly larger. Use another piece of 12 x
12 inch card stock. If using a score board, push the the card stock
over 1/16 of an inch and score at 3 inches. Do this on all four sides.
This will make the lid just slightly larger to fit over the bottom of
the box. Add adhesive tape to the four corners to create the lid.
The next two pictures help you see how the inside was decorated. I created additional Garden Notes - Hydrangeas for the bottom side of the box. For the flower on the left side, I used Susan's Garden Notes - Lilac dies. For the flower on the right side, I used the Garden Notes Hyacinthe dies.
To create the dimensional (popup) "Happy Birthday" sentiment, I used the Elizabeth Craft Designs Happy Birthday PopUp
dies. I have never seen a popup used this way, but love the dimension
it gave to the inside of the box. I used a piece of card stock 6
inches by 9 inches for this die cut; it was scored at 3 inches. The die
cut was placed on the score line to create the popup; it fit perfect
for the popup on the side panel. The sentiment was die cut using black
card stock. The Silver Stars were created by die cutting the stars
again, using ECD Double Sided Transparent Tape attached to white card stock. ECD Silver Silk Microfine Glitter was poured over the tape. They
were glued over the stars on the die cut. A strip of the glittered
card stock was cut and glued behind the 6 stars on the bottom of the
popup.
On the other three sides, I cut a piece of card stock slightly smaller and embossed the panels with the ECD Swirly Curves embossing folder.
They were glued to each side panel. In the center of the card. I
cut a piece of 6 x 6 inch card stock and embossed the bottom 3/4 with
the ECD Sea Glass embossing folder. A piece was cut out to fit around the popup panel on the top. To create a pocket on the bottom, I used the Paris Edges
lacy die. It was attached on the bottom and each side with double
sided tape. This created a pocket for a gift card. The ECD Tags & More 6 - Daisy die was used to create a tag with a small pocket on the bottom to hold the gift card. The candles and gift are ECD stickers that I attached over a piece of card stock that had Double Sided Transparent tape and Cool Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter; they were colored with Copic Markers. I used ECD letter stickers for "a gift for you" sentiment by the present. Both the candles and the gift were attached with dimensional tape. ECD black line stickers were added around the Happy Birthday Popup and along the bottom of the center panel. More black sticker corners, to match those on the lid, were added to complete the inside.
I will show you how I created the hydrangea flowers. I used the base piece in the Garden Notes Hydrangea die set. It was shaped with the largest ball stylus in Susan's Tool Set. By shaping this base piece, it will give the hydrangea the rounded (domed) shape.
I
used the smallest ball stylus and pressed down in the center of each
petal, on each die cut flower piece, to give it shape, then pressed down
in the very center to cup the petals. (I know, that looks like a lot
of petals, but I was creating 5 hydrangea flowers and wanted to be sure I
had plenty of petals die cut. I didn't really need this many, but now I
have more petals for future use.)
The
petals were glued around the bottom of the shaped base and then the
entire base was covered. I mixed the shades of purple petals to give
variation to the color of the flower. After the entire base was
covered, I added additional petals on top of the one already attached;
this creates a nice full blossom.
Here
is a closeup of one of the finished Hydrangea. The finished flower is
less than 2 inches wide and about 1/2 inch high. Aren't they
beautiful!
Explosion boxes are always a lot of fun to receive. I hope you will give this a try and surprise someone you know!
Supplies:
Other Supplies:
12 x 12 inch white card stock
Four shades of light purple card stock
Graphic 45 Secret Garden Design Paper
Copic Markers
White Tulle
Narrow Lavender and purple gingham Ribbon
Flat Back Pearls
Dimensional Tape
