Christmas Exploding Box

Hello friends,

I have been crafting this morning and I have made an Exploding Box with a Christmas theme.

I used papers by Cosmo Cricket from the "Be Good" collection and I used a variety of Christmas rubber stamps. Some are my own and the others are borrowed from my friend Andrea....cos I have not got many Christmas stamps...so thank you to Andrea for the loan and I loved using them!







Exploding Boxes are relatively easy to make. The most important part is getting the measurements right so the lid fits and the pages all sit nicely together.

For this box I used three sheets of 12" x 12" Cosmo Cricket paper, which is double sided and this makes the making of the box a whole lot easier as both sides of the flaps are already patterned. I also used a sheet of Bazzill Metalic cardstock in red. This was primarily for the lid and I used some of the offcuts for matting onto the flaps. I also used a little bit of Bazzill Metalic in Gold for matting too.

The design of the colour of the box was to be red and gold and brown. I used Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks, Gold Krylon and Acrylic Dabber and a Sepia VersaFine Pad.

The stamps are by Paper Artsy, Crafty Individuals and from the Tim Holtz Collection.





I also used small pieces of mountboard on the outer flaps of the box and on the lid. I used Fired Brick to colour the mountboard and dragged a Cranberry and a Gold Dabber across the mountboard before spritzing it with Tattered Angels Mist (Antique Gold).





As I wanted the overall look to be aged and distressed, I used a paper distresser to rough up the edges of the flaps and the mats that I added. I used my Gold Krylon roughly on all the edges so this gives the box a more "worn" feel.




For the centre of the box I made a little bauble. I took eight strips of co-ordinating paper, cut them to the same length and then cut away a little bit at the top and bottom so they joined together more neatly. I used a few Sticky Dots to keep the strips together at the bottom and then used a small round piece of chipboard which I had painted with the Gold Krylon. Through this I pushed a star shaped brad and then attached this to the assembled paper strips. I repeated this method to join the other end of the strips together and tied a piece of thin gold thread through the hole and around the brad, so the bauble can hang from a tree.

Finally, I coloured some silver charms I had with the Gold Krylon and then used jump rings to attach them to the box lid.

I am really really chuffed with the over all look of the box. For once, it has turned out exactly how I imagined! And I am rather proud of my little bauble too!


Thanks for looking....if you would like to know the measurements I have used I will be happy to answer any questions.

Cheers

Hels x