An American dime as size reference for the
tiny roses on the cake top.
I have spent so much time trying to figure out what type of card I wanted to make, something special, for the 50th Anniversary couple. I went so far as to design a trifold photo album card with the cake popping up out of it (
similar to my Pop Up Christmas Tree Portrait Frame Card), but in the end decided against that because I don't like the way to cake looks after it has been flattened to fold up inside a card.
As I was working on the card that I settled on (which is now the top of the box), I decided to go ahead and make an explosion box/scrapbook despite the invite asking for no gifts. It's just an extra fancy card that can be used as a decor piece/ memory box ! I just could not help myself in the end, I enjoy making these boxes and have not used my pop up cake die nearly enough as it is. Let's see, the die cost me $40 and I have used it a total of 6 times now....... hmmmmm............... I try not to think about my crafting supplies that way, otherwise all of my cards would cost well over $20 each, not counting time to make them, since I don't use most of my stamps, etc nearly enough ! I imagine there are a few others out there that can relate ;)
Anyway, on to my project.
Because I already had the card front made and it was slightly larger than 4" square, I needed to alter my explosion box dimensions. The new top size had to be 4 7/8" to accommodate the scalloped square mat to the card front I already made, which made for a fun time crunching numbers to make it work proportionately out of one piece of 12 x 12 card stock. This will change the dimensions of the box slightly.
See
this post here for a the normal size scrapbook in a box / explosion box dimensions (I shared a pattern). You can also see two other boxes I made that have three layers on the sides with tags in pockets for more photos and memories
here.
I scored the 12" x 12" piece of vanilla card stock 3 7/8" in from each
edge. This creates a 4 1/4" base. A scoring board works great for this,
especially if you have one that has grooves every 1/8" and has markers to place
at the point you want to score. The Simply Scored from Stampin' Up! is a
wonderful tool for scoring projects such as this.
Four of the side pieces (the corners) will be slightly smaller with the new
measurements, but it will still work fine.
The lid top for this project must be 4 3/8" square . Add at least 1" to
each side then score in along each side at 1" to make the sides. This
particular box has a scalloped edge at the bottom of the lid sides. To do this,
add 1 1/4" to each side (the starting square will be 6 7/8"), score along each
edge at 1 1/4" then use a border punch to make the scallops. I used the scallop
edge border punch from Stampin' Up!
The thin strip of gold card stock around the lid sides is 1/2" wide. I cut two pieces and glued them around the edges of the box top after the lid was assembled.
I cut a scallop square with a Clear Scallop Edge Square Sizzix die from Stampin' Up! A piece of Very Vanilla card stock was cut to fit on top of the gold piece then run through the Big Shot in an embossing folder from Stampin' Up!. I lightly inked the edges of the textured card stock with gold metallic craft paint. This same paint was used to stamp with and to paint the edges of the roses.
To stamp with the gold metallic craft paint, I poured a small puddle of the paint on a scrap piece of plastic. I lightly dabbed a piece of Stampin' Sponge into the paint then dabbed that onto my rubber stamps. I stamped quickly before the paint dried, then immediately cleaned the paint from the stamp with a damp rag. I've used craft paints on stamps for my projects over the years (I've stamped
walls,
furniture and so many craft projects with craft paints and rubber stamps) with no problems - just be sure to clean them off right away.
I almost forgot, I used the 5th Avenue Flower stamp set for the outline rose images on the sides of the box.
The 5 0 is also die cut from an alphabet die set available (currently) through Stampin' Up!
I hand cut the little banner with scissors and stamped it with a stamp from the Hugs and Wishes stamp set.
The gold leaves are die cut with the Sizzlits Little Leaves die from Stampin' Up!
The roses are made from several scallop circles cut with the Triple Layer Flower punch that Stampin' Up! used to sell. I attached them with hot glue. I'll share a couple photos below, but you can find step by step instructions all over the internet for many types of flowers made from paper punches. Most of them I have made and posted I didn't bother to make tutorials for since there are so many already on the internet, but I do have a couple ideas on my blog here
The 7/8" wide gold organdy ribbon bow is made from ribbon Stampin' Up! sold some time ago. Although nearly everything used on this project is no longer available from Stampin' Up!, there are many other current items that will work or similar items can be found elsewhere.
The Sizzix XL 3D Pop Up 3 Tier Cake Die was bought from Stampin' Up! several years ago. A quick search showed a couple of online retailers that still sell this fun die.
I
used Texturz Plates from Stampin' Up! to dry emboss designs on the side pieces
and top pieces before assembling. A Big Shot machine make this fast and easy !
I used the Triple Layer Flower Punch from Stampin' Up! to punch scallop circles that were then trimmed down to create the cake topper. It was stamped with gold ink
and the Bold Alphabet stamp set, Stampin' Up! I used a gold metallic Signo ink pen to add small dots at each
scallop.
The tiny roses for the top of the cake were created with very small punch
flowers, Flower Trio Punch, as well as the 7/8" scallop edge circle punch, both
from Stampin' Up! The edges of the roses were dabbed with gold metallic acrylic
craft paint. I think I may add some rhinestones to the centers and to the dots I drew on the scallops.
The gold metallic leaves were cut with the two step bird punch from Stampin' Up! and trimmed slightly. The gold card stock is some really old paper still in my stash,
bought from Stampin' Up! ten years or so ago !!
I added a little strand of metallic gold thread, Stampin' Up!, too.
The 1/4" wide metallic gold ribbon along the sides of the cake are from
my crafts stash, Offray brand. It was attached with Sticky Strip.
The gold "doily" base to the cake was cut with a Nestabilities scallop edge
circle die. I added little dots of pearlescent dimensional paint to each scallop
after the photos were taken.
I inked up a border stamp (Frames with a Flourish, Stampin' Up!) with gold
metallic craft paint and stamped the bottoms of the four smaller , corner
squares. These corner pieces could be used for journaling.
The gold squares are meant to have photos mounted to them. I'll add a sticky note to each to let the recipients know.
Below are a couple of composite photos that show the punched pieces I used to create the flowers.
These are the larger roses on the box top.
I used three punched pieces for the fuller rose
and one single rose that was cut into a spiral
for a sort of rose bud.
I dabbed metallic gold craft paint onto the edges
and carefully bent the edges of the petals
before assembling it.
I used tacky glue to hold it together
then hot glued them to the box top.
These are the teeny, tiny roses on the cake top.
A tiny single flower trio punched flower is the base,
the trimmed portion of half of the scallop edge circle
is wound around on itself to create the center.
I dabbed metallic gold craft paint onto the edges
and carefully bent the edges of the petals
before assembling it.
I used tacky glue to hold it together.
Thanks for looking at my latest labor of love =)
