All The Pretty Little Boxes!

Wow - I can't believe it's been almost a week since my last post!! This summer has been super busy and it still is. I can't complain, of course, because I'm having the best time EVER - but it does mean that I really have to start allocating specific days/times to updating my blog! :)

A little while back, I bought a scoring board. I never really scored anything before, so it was a bit of a random purchase. I used to not really be that interested in making cards, and there's not a lot of scoring to be done in scrapbooking - at least not the way I've done it. But I've made a few cards here and there, and with the new stamp sets I've been getting, it was so much more fun to do cards too!

But this post isn't about cards - it's about something cute & fun that also happens to be very practical: my pretty little boxes! Here's what happened. After I bought the score board, which has a little compartment on one side to keep the bone folder inside, I realized that there were a couple of instructions listed inside the lid. So I decided to try it and made this tiny little box - which I then, of course, had no idea what to do with because it was so tiny.

After this little experiment, I quickly realized just how easy it is to assemble these boxes - and make them in any size whatsoever! I played around with some cardstock I have from years and years ago and came up with what I think is just so fun & practical: little storage boxes for my small clear/acrylic stamp sets. Up until now, they'd just been sitting in a container in a closet - and because I couldn't really see them all and they were stored in a somewhat impractical way & place, I never got around to using them.

Now, they're both decorative and useful on my desk - and the bonus is that they're right within my reach, so I see them every day and can play around with them when the mood strikes without having to look for a particular set, dig it out, and so on.

Of course YOU can make these cute, fun boxes too! They're perfect as gifts too, to hold candy or other treats, little surprises for kids or friends, and much more :) Here's an easy guideline for making them:

(1) Start out with a SQUARE piece of cardstock. You can use paper if you want or don't have any cardstock on hand, but the box will be a lot more flimsy and may not hold the contents well or properly. The size of the cardstock/paper is up to you - it really depends on how big a box you want to make, or how tall/high you want it to be.

(2) Score the cardstock at the same level on all 4 sides. To use an example, let's start with an 8"x8" piece of cardstock. Score at 3 1/2"; turn by 90 degrees; repeat until all sides are scored. The scored lines will create a center square - this will be the bottom of your box. Fold all scored lines and flatten cardstock again.

(3) On one side, cut along the scored lines up until the point of the scored line that's at 90 degrees to the line you're cutting or right up to the square in the middle. Repeat with the second score line on the same side. DO NOT CUT INTO THE CENTER SQUARE.

(4) Turn the cardstock by 180 degrees. You should now be looking at the side directly opposite to the one where you just cut the two scored lines. Repeat step (3). You should now have cut 4 scored lines, two on each of the opposing sides.

(5) Put glue or scrapbooking adhesive on the little flaps that you now have on the two opposing sides WITHOUT cut lines and assemble box.

(6) Embellish as desired. I adhered ribbon around one box and fastened a matching bow with a brad. Another box got a fun 3D label with the word "STAMPS" adhered to the front, and a smaller one just says "CREATE!" on the front. How fun is that? :)

Presto-change-o! You've got yourself a super cute box!!

On My Wall...

I've been working on a ton of different projects but haven't actually put everything together and taken pictures to put up here. I know I still need to "learn" how to do video tutorials - it's just so much easier when you can watch a video rather than scrolling for what seems to be an eternity.

So I decided to share one of my other creative outlets. Ever since I was a teenager, I've loved memo boards - especially cork boards because, of course, you can stick just about anything on there with a pushpin. I like to put some artwork on there but also things that inspire me - whether it's a postcard or a gift from a friend, sometimes even something torn out of a magazine, a recipe card or a receipt.

The funny thing is that, on the one hand, I think it must seem kind of random to someone who doesn't know me well - but for me, looking at my pinboard is like looking in the mirror. I can see how all the elements come together and what they mean or meant to me, what they represent and what I like about them.

This is only one of many, many memo boards I've "assembled" over the years. Some of the projects on there are sort of experiments - like when I first started dabbling in ATCs or trying different techniques for staining papers & other fibers. Sometimes I think I should just clear it all off, start from scratch with things that are relevant or important to me right now - but then I just like looking at what's on there every time I walk past it... :)

"Cute As Can Bee" gift box

You know how sometimes you start on a project and you think you know where it's going, or where it's supposed to go - but then it takes a few twists and turns before you end up somewhere totally different? Something like that happened to me a few days ago.

A couple of months ago, I bought a scoring board - you know, one of those 12x12 hard plastic trays that have a ton of little lines to allowe you to score paper and cardstock for cards, envelopes etc. Said item had been sitting in a corner since the day of purchase, until I decided it was finally time to brave the "newbie" and figure out what I could do with it.

Well, fast-forward a couple of weeks and I'm just completely obsessed with it! LOL I've found that, within about 10 minutes or so, I can turn almost any piece of cardstock into a box (although I have to make the lid separately - and me being the not-so-organized artist that I am, it's no big surprise that I have as yet to actually remember that I need to write down what I'm doing as I do it in, order to be able to remember it later).

I've made quite a few different ones and I'm still tinkering around with the process, but one of the boxes I made yesterday turned out so cute that I just had to share!!

I used retired yellow Stampin' Up! cardstock and scored it, cut it, and stamped little bees all over what would be the exterior of the box. Once assembled, I added a little handle cut from the same cardstock with shaper scissors - first with some scrapbooking adhesive and then with a brad to keep it firmly in place. Last but not least, I took a pretty napkin and separated the layers until I had only the patterned one left (admittedly this was a measure borne out of desperation because I couldn't find any tissue paper in my room! LOL) and filled the little box with gorgeous Molton Brown toiletries. A cherry red ribbon to pick out the roses in the napkin-come-tissue-paper, tied in a little bow, and it's ready to be given as a gift. How cute is that??