Harry Christmas!

It's been a minute since last I posted, but I wanted to share the pictures from a project I recently completed. A friend requested a custom explosion box with a Harry Potter theme for her nine-year-old granddaughter. Things she wanted included were Hermione, Hedwig and Dobby. As a pretty big fan of the Harry Potter myself, I had a million ideas, definitely more than I could use in this single box! I kept in mind that the little girl receiving this has only seen a few of the movies and tried to narrow my options. 

This post is going to be mostly a lot of pictures and list of supplies used versus a detailed step-by-step or how-to. 

For the explosion box itself, I used the Gingerbread House Exploding Box SVG file from LesPenseesenPapier. I omitted almost everything except the plain lid, the base and the inside flaps. I even removed the corner hearts from the inside flaps because I needed to stand up one flap for the train. 

The castle is from the SVGCuts Bedtime Stories kit.  I scaled it way down so it would fit on the lid of the explosion box. I don't recall the size, but here it is next to a soda can for scale. I did not make the base included in the kit, but did use almost all of the other parts.

I created panels for the sides of the box using the Tim Holtz Sizzix Brickwork 3D Texture Fade. I ran a black inkpad over the folder before embossing which brought out some of the detail. The deer are from Tim Holtz Sizzix Darling Deer and Winter Wonderland die sets. With Harry's patronus being a stag, I thought the deer would be a fun touch and provide interest to the brick walls.  The Hogwarts title was cut on my Cricut using a free font called Harry P.  The stones and moss are from my stash. 

 

The centerpiece of the box interior is the Hogwarts Express. This was created using a few pieces of the Choo Choo Train SVG from Dreaming Tree's Christmas Cheer Bundle.  Some Polyfil was used to make a little wisp of smoke coming out the top. I glued the train in the upright position so it would not flop over when the box is opened. On the back side of the flap/wall, I added a Platform 9 3/4 image that I found online. 

The inside of the outer flaps were stenciled with the Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Falling Stars stencil and some gold ink before adding a house crest to each. The Hogwarts House Crests are a free svg file from Designs by Miss Mandee.  She has a bunch of great Harry Potter related svgs and I used several of them in my project. 

 

 

The flap to the left of the train includes a few printed pictures including Harry, Ron & Hermione as well as a cute illustration of Dobby. The flying key is from Miss Mandee and can be found here. I did alter the wings to be solid as this cut is very small and I didn't want to tear the wings trying to achieve lacy detail. I added some Perfect Pearls powder to the wings to add some shimmer. The eyeglasses I just created using a few circles.

I used a Tim Holtz Sizzix die called Santa's Helper to create the little stack of books, but this could easily be done by hand if you don't have the dies. The svg of Hedwig is another freebie from Miss Mandee and can be located here.  The wand was made by running a bead of hot glue around a toothpick and then painting it. The stars are a from a Tim Holtz Sizzix die called Swirling Stars. I also applied some glittery Stickles around the stars to up the magical feeling!

The envelope is one I found online as a free svg, although I don't recall where I found it. I sized it down to fit the flap and added the desired message for the recipient. I think that pretty much covers everything inside and out. 

I did add some extra pieces because I was having fun. I created this Snitch ornament using a glitter foam ball and gold wings cut out using some gold mirror cardstock and a Tim Holtz 3D Impresslit called Winged. 

I salvaged the hearts that I cut out of the inner box flaps and re-purposed them into a couple of ornaments as well. 

Last but not least I included a Howler card which I found on Miss Mandee's site. It was super easy to put together and so cute! 

 

Merry Christmas Muggles!!! 

Halloween Countdown Calendar

Let me start by saying that this was a very difficult project to photograph - it's just shy of two feet tall! When I put all of the lights on inside of it, it gets very bright in here too. I've tried to take some pictures of each section to show you a little of what I did, but it's definitely not a full blown tutorial. 

This Halloween Countdown Calendar was my entry into Dreaming Tree's Summer Challenge. If you follow the link, you can see lots of amazing examples of beautiful 3-D papercrafting.  The challenge was to combine files from two or more Dreaming Tree projects to make a unique, custom project.

Here's a picture of the whole thing, all lit up:

I used elements from seven different Dreaming Bundles to create this colorfully spooky countdown. Working from the top down, I used the bat from the top of the Vintage Halloween Screen in  Lily's Halloween Decor bundle as the crowning element to an upside down Tick Tock Clock from the Making Time bundle.  

I used a Cricut spiderweb for the face of the calendar as I needed a web with 12 points on it since I was adding all 12 months.  The months were cutout in vinyl using a free font called Burton's Nightmare from dafont.com.  The 31 is from the same font.  The rosette in the center of the spiderweb came from the Compass Gift Box in the Good For Guys bundle.

The clockhand is from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology line - I coated it with orange Stickles to give it that wonderfully sparkly finish.  The skull and crossbones pieces are also by Tim Holtz.

The center section was actually really fun to create, but the photos didn't do a great job of showing it.  There's a new Heidi Swapp product available at select Joann's stores which is called Neon Glow. It's an 8 foot coil of battery-operated, vibrant neon wire. I used the lemon lime color to make a neon frame for my glittery ghost.  Here's what the neon looks like when you turn it on. There are two blink settings too!  

I took a video clip of the neon while I was building the project because it was so much fun to play with: 

Here's another picture of my ghostly ghoul while I was working on the middle section. The ghost is from the Shudder Shutter card from the Holiday Hauntings bundle and I have him suspended in an elongated Halloween Cookie Box which was a freebie from Dreaming Tree.  I modified the cookie box to get it to fit into the project. The idea was to make it look sort of like a pendulum in a grandfather clock.  

The bottom section is the same Tick Tock Clock as used in the top section, only this time it's right side up.  I used the frame from the front of the Lucky 7's Slot Machine in the Vegas Road Trip bundle to create the countdown window.

The word Halloween came from the Candy Dish in the Frank and Friends bundle and the 'Days To' is the Burton's Nightmare font again.  The mirrored stars from Tim Holtz were tinted with bright green alcohol ink and added to the front for some extra sparkle and interest.  

I think that about covers it from top to bottom. I've included a few more extra photos below. I really enjoyed challenging myself to create this crazy project and now I have a fun Halloween decorative piece I can use for years to come.  

We're 91 days from Halloween as of today, so there's plenty of time to create some more spooky projects.  Thanks for stopping by!

Secret Garden

When I learned that a family member was going to be celebrating her 75th birthday, I set out to build her a special card to commemorate the occasion.  The card turned into an explosion box featuring her love of gardening, tea and all things vintage!  Her garden is so beautiful that it was featured in a magazine years ago.

I used a variety of svg files, dies and punches to create my project.  I started by using the Easter Explosion Box from Dreaming Tree as the base.  I only used the main body and lid along with the panels to go on them.  I cut the panels from glittery hydrangea paper from K & Company which I've had in my stash for many, many years. The garden is bordered by huge hydrangea bushes and so I wanted to include some in the project.  The tag is cut from a Tim Holtz die and the butterfly is from a layered punch by Martha Stewart.  I embellished the butterfly with some Liquid Pearls by Ranger.

I also wanted to include a dramatic flower on top of the box instead of using a bow.  I've been wanting to make the peony from Dreaming Tree's Love You Mom collection, so I Googled it to make sure that blue peonies actually exist and they do - they're quite beautiful!

Next came the inside where I went with a completely different color scheme than on the outside.  Here's a bird's eye view with the lid removed:

The centerpiece for inside the box is this rose-filled teacup; the svg files for the cup, saucer and spoon are from the SVGCuts Tea For You & Me kit.

I cut the small rolled roses out of three different shades of pink cardstock using a Sizzix die. I added a floral foam block inside the teacup, glued some Spanish moss over top of it and then hot glued the roses on top of that. I added the tea tag which I created from a scrap of Tim Holtz paper and some numeric rubber stamps.

The doily underneath the tea cup is a Tim Holtz die. I added an extra rose and a little greenery leftover from another project, also from a Tim die.  It's hard to see in the picture, but I wrapped a thin gold washi tape around the base of the tea cup to match the gold handle and gold foil in the paper print on the outside of the cup. I embossed the very end of the spoon and added a little pearl to embellish.

I originally wanted to make some offset flaps on the corners so that it looked sort of like a lacy napkin underneath the tea cup. I converted these beautiful lace banner pennants from Bird's SVGs Tea Party collection by adding a tab to the top of the banner for gluing into the box.  Unfortunately I didn't take the width of the saucer into consideration when designing the project and when I tried to add the flaps at the corners, the wouldn't fold up properly.  I didn't want to waste them, so I just used them in alignment with the outer flaps, although I would have made them larger if that was my original plan.

I embellished each flap with a pearl and a piece of Tim Holtz ephemera that matched the project.

For the outer flaps, I used a pink and purple, lightly glittered piece of K & Company paper for the panels and edged each panel with a strip of lace cut with a Tim Holtz die.  I added some white liquid pearls along the edges as well.

On each outer panel I added more ephemera, mostly from Tim Holtz, as well as some Chit Chat stickers, also from Tim.  

On the last panel, I cut out a little envelope and tucked in a tiny card that I stamped with a Happy Birthday sentiment, added a ribbon pull tag, signed the back and added a little velcro dot to close.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the butterflies on the inside!  They are all from Martha Stewart punches. The larger ones were glued to some acetate strips which I glued to the base, so when the box explodes open, the butterflies flutter around a bit.  I cut the base layer of the butterfly with leftover patterned paper and the top layer was cut using vellum.  I added some liquid pearls to these too.  

I packed this up and put it in the mail last week. The recipient absolutely loved it! I'm so glad because it was quite a bit of work, although I enjoyed every minute of planning and executing it so it would turn out how I envisioned.  

Every project leaves me with a list of things I'd change, do better or remember to include next time. I think that's part of what makes it fun and helps us grow artistically.  I really enjoyed being able to mesh many different svgs, dies and other supplies into one cohesive project.

Well that was a long post, so thanks for hanging in there if you've made it this far. I appreciate you taking the time. Thanks so much for stopping by!  Until next time...

Party in a box!

We have a family member who is coming up on her 100th birthday in the next few months and I knew I needed to make a very special 'card' to celebrate this momentous occasion. The Explosion Box from the It's Your Birthday bundle by Dreaming Tree immediately came to mind.  

I started with the recipient's favorite color, bright red, and began by building the outer panels of the box with it's white glittery ribbon. It looks so festive! 

Next, I had an absolute blast decorating each panel on the inside - I'll take you through each one. I used svg files from a few different places as well as some die cuts, but the majority of the project is the file from Dreaming Tree.

First are my favorites of the whole project - the sequin filled shaker balloons!  I modified the balloon file in Cricut Design Space to create a cutout in the middle of the balloon. I cut out five layers for each balloon and glued them together to create the pocket for the sequins. 

The addition of so many sequins to each of these panels definitely weighs down the flaps, but I just love them so much! I used white vinyl on the front of the acetate to add the "100!" to each balloon.

On the triangular inner flaps, I started by adding this cute little party monkey from Cricut. The recipient loves monkeys, so this was a definite must have. I embellished with some more sequins and tiny confetti which was cut out using the Cuttlebug Celebration Confetti die. 

I added a cute little girl party bear too, also from Cricut, and dyed her tiny hat pompom to match with some Tim Holtz Twisted Citron re-inker. 

Next up, I added a party hat which looks just like the big one in the center of the box:

I wanted to have a Happy Birthday message of some sort, and found the perfect thing in a free pennant file from Bird's SVGs.  I sized the pennant to fit the flap and blinged it out with some gems across the top.

Last but not least, I also wanted to have a place to sign the card and add a sentiment. I used a cupcake card from Cricut's  Sweet Treats cartridge which I sized down to fit. I stamped a sentiment inside the card, signed it and attached it to the flap.  

 

Here's the final version one more time:

I'm really so pleased with how this all came together. The colors and shaker elements make this feel like a party in a box to me. Now I just have to wait a month or so before I give it to the recipient - can't wait!  I think she's going to love it too.

Thanks for stopping by!