Birthday Explosion Box

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.

This is a picture of the top of the box.  I used Secret Garden Graphic 45 design paper to cover the top and sides of the box;   The Grid framing "Secret Garden" was die cut using Susan's Garden Patch - 7/8-inch & Mini Leaves die set.  Four squares were cut out of the center of the grid and centered over the words in the design paper.  I love the size of the flowers in the new collection from Susan.  I die cut the Garden Notes Hydrangea  using four shades of light purple card stock and mixed the colors on each flower.  I used black Elizabeth Craft Design Black Corner Stickers, tulle and a ribbon to complete the top.

 

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

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 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:

1020 - Garden Notes - Hydrangea

1017 Garden Notes - Lilac

1016 - Garden Notes - Hyacinth

1004 - Garden Patch - 7/8-inch & mini Leaves

808 - Susan's Flower Tool Kit

810 - Susan's Molding Pad

603 - Silver Silk Microfine Glitter

642 - Cool Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter

509 - Transparent Double Sided Tape

E119 - Swirly Curves embossing folder

E125 - Sea Glass embossing folder

979 - Paris Edges

959 - Tags & More 6 Daisy

1226 - Corner Peel Off Stickers

2545 - Candles Peel Off Stickers

2544 - Gifts Peel Off Stickers

1004 - Straight Borders Peel Off Stickers

1281 - Alphabet 1 Lower Key Peel Off Stickers

7045 - Glitter Ribbon Branches Peel Off Stickers

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