Box Card Tutorial.

Box Card Tutorial .
Here's quick tutorial on making the Box Card.My measurements may vary  slightly from other tutorials.

Start by cutting an A4 sheet of cardstock in half as if to make two 4x6 cards.

Place your card on your scoreboard and score  at  2"  4"    6"  and  8" inches.
You will notice there will be a narrow strip left at the end of the card. this is where your adhesive will go when you come to stick the box together.






Turn the card around on the scoreboard so that the narrow strip is at the bottom of the scoreboard. Then score a line across three the top three panels ONLY. Then mark the narrow strip at the 2" inch point.

The unscored panel is the back of the card where you will place your sentiment panel  and a space for the card to be signed.



Using a knife or scissors cut down the  three score lines to the the score lines cross over.





Cut away the top section ONLY  of the narrow strip. 

Your box should look like this  when the cutting is finished.


DO NOT stick your box together yet.











Cut three side panels in either white card stock or a decorative cardstock that coordinates with you base card.

I have decided to decorate the panels myself using rubber stamps rather than my usual  patterned papers.

I have chosen this colour because  I was asked to making a card for a Sapphire Wedding Anniversary.
So I thought I would experiment first.

Your panels need to be half and inch smaller than the side panels of the box.
You will also need to cut 4 smaller panels to decorate the top flaps of the box.   Again these need to be about  half and inch smaller than the box flaps.

The last panel is  going to be  half an inch smaller than the full length  back panel .





Here I have use a  Night of Navy ink pad from SU and stamped the images from the flower shop  stamp set and the petite petals stamp set.
Using the Aqua painter I picked up a  little ink from the lid of the ink pad and brushed in a little more colour to the flowers. the I sponged the edges of the card stock with the same ink. I repeated this on all the panels.

 Now you can stick stick your panels onto your box  sides and flaps.





You can also join the sides of the box together now with a strong double sided tape or glue.

Allow to dry if using wet adhesive.







Next step,  the  mechanics of this card. 

Cut two strips of card about half an inch wide.


Then cut the strips into  lengths of  3" you'll need three in total and  score a line  half an inch in at both ends  of each strip.
These are the bridges  which you will be sticking all your decorative piece to and they so it is important they are stuck in to position firmly.



Fold the ends so they are going in  opposite directions, so they look rather like a stretched Z.

Open up your box and stand it on a firm surface.

Place a small amount of glue onto the end tabs of one of  the bridges and gently place the bridge inside the top opening of the box and as bring it as far forward as it will go and then squeeze those glue tabs  against the side walls of the box, then lay the box  on it's side and  gently squish it flat, this is to make sure it will fold flat when it's  finished so that it will fit into an envelope.   You really don't want any nasty surprises later on.


Repeat this until all three bridges  stuck in. 


Do remember to  fold it flat after adding each bridge. If you do something wrong at this point you will be able to correct it easier  at this point  rather than after you've added        all  your bit's and bobs.



Now comes the fun bit.
Cut  some thin strips of fairly thick acetate around 1/8" wide  and  in varying lengths. You'll need quite a few.

Then stick each of your decorations on to an acetate stem. 

Starting with the larger items begin sticking them to the Bridges. Then  add the smaller items.


I love to use small glittery hearts  and  shiny gem stones mixed in with the flowers to give a little sparkle and to lift.

Here is the box with all the strips of acetate stuck to the bridges. This card was made for a Sapphire Wedding Anniversary hence the 45.

Petite Petals Birthday Card.

Today's post is a card I have CASE'd from another SU demonstrator from Germany.

 I saw  this card on her blog and thought it was beautiful so I  just had to CASE it.

  I think what drew me to this card was her use of the Gorgeous Grunge splatter stamp.

She has stamped the splatters and heat embossed them in silver.

 The card looks a bit flat and uninspiring without this addition.

My card is not exactly the same  but its as close as I could get it without actually copying it stamp for stamp.   I will post the link to her blog

 at the end so you can pop over and see the original versions.  

You will notice  a few more changes that I haven't mentioned.

I am not sure what colours Annmarie used on her card as she doesn't list her colours on the first version of this card. She does list her colours for the second version.

I can tell you the colours I used. 

They were Blushing bride, Night of navy, and Raspberry  ripple.

Stamp set used were  Gorgeous grunge, Petite petal and Flower shop.

 The paler images in the top and bottom corners I inked up the small flower with Blushing bride ink and stamped it off once onto scrap paper before applying the stamp to the corners for a softer image.  Then inked up the stamp with the same ink and applied it directly to the card, which gave the stronger image.

Then I stamped the flower again in Night of navy directly onto the card and I stamped two images onto scrap card and punched them out with the corresponding punch for layering up. 

Using Versamark ink I inked up the splatter stamp, wiped down my card with an embossing buddy ( anti static pad) and stamped the image in the top left corner and the bottom right corner, covered the splatters in embossing powder and heated until shiny. 

The sentiment was also heat embossed in silver before punching it out with the word window punch and mounting it on to Blushing bride cardstock.

The central flower is a stamp from the Flower shop stamp set. I used Raspberry ripple ink to stamp this image on to scrap card. Then used the same ink along with a water filled paintbrush to colour in the image.  Once the  ink was dry I punched out the large flower with the corresponding  punch and  added the smaller flower to the center with a small, thin sticky foam pad placed a sparkly in the  center of the flower and adhered it in place on the front of my stamped background. 

The final steps were to add the rhinestones and  mount my finished work onto a piece of Blushing bride cardstock, then onto  Night of navy cardstock and finally onto the 7x5 white base card.  

All that's left for me to do now is create the insert and get this in the post to a special lady for her birthday.

But before I go here is the link to Annmarie and Andrea's  post for this beautiful and  inspiring  card.

http://firsthandemotion.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/petite-petals-in-pastell.html

Hearts and Flowers Card in a box

 I am not really one for this type of card  Sharon another S.U Demo sent me a photo of one she had made and it looked great.
I thought I would like to have a go at making one.

Then I found Victoria McLafferty's  video on constructing the card in a box.
I went straight to my craft room and made one. 
(NOT this ONE I can't feature the one I made just yet but Next week I will be able to.)

Today I made this floral  version.  
I used the flower from the morning meadow stamp set a selection of ink pads and the corresponding punch to create the flowers.
I then stuck each flower to a narrow strip of 
stiff ish  acetate and added leaves.
The leaves were punched using the three petal punch and Gumball green card stock.

The Mini heart punch  and a small amount of glimmer paper  both from S.U.  were used to make the little hearts,  again each heart was stuck to the end of a narrow strip of acetate.





After making the box following Victoria's instructions.

  https://www.facebook.com/VeryVictoriaCrafts 


I began sticking the flowers to the bridges inside the box then added the hearts. 
This can be  a little bit fiddly but worth the effort.


I almost forgot to say this card fold flat so it will fit in an envelope. 

You do have to be careful not to have too much sticking out the sides of the box when it's folded. or it won't fit into a standard size envelope.  
This won't be a problem if you own the envelope punch board though as you can make the envelope to fit the card.

Amanda Fowler's Card

The postman brought this card this morning sent to me by Amanda Fowler along with  a  very posh inspiring inkee team badge.

I love the colours  Amanda has used here. They are not colours I have purchased .....yet!  But they could well be on my next order.

 I don't yet own the Floral Flourish stamp set  (from SU) she has used here either. I have been umming and arhing over this stamp set for a long time now. I think this may now be on my  wish list along with the Flower Shop set.

Thank you Amanda for your card and the  posh badge and for making me want to spend even more money. hee hee.

Here is my badge.... the background is silver but it doesn't look it in this photo.