Beautiful Box

This is such a beautiful little box.

Finished size is about 3 inches round x 2 1/2 inches tall. cut from an 8 1/2 inch piece of cardstock. The design was saying that it needed 2-sided cardstock so I printed one up from Tracy Ann Digital Art from 2 different files but they were only $4.25 each and i already had one.

The hard part would have been the scoring the curved edges, but after the other day I just went ahead and scored the lines @ 13 Thickness and carefully folded the lines so that when glued they would just fall into place with a gentle nudge (for a box, that is).

Files used for the paper were:

• Susie_Q Melon leafy paper 7
• Bold Blooms paper 6

I usually change the names of the papers so they are more descriptive when i go looking through the folder but leave the number with it so when you open your file and expect it to be called leafy, it won’t be called that. But i do think it is paper  # 7.

The Silhouette Files used are:

• star_top_box_C00586_20509
• leaf_vine_border_adornment_C00482_19210
• 5_petal_flower_C00041_27011

The Card from the Tutorial

Cassie’s Brocade makes such a beautiful background and the with the distress inks (Dusty Concord and Antique Linen), I really liked the look. After removing my shapes from the mat i used Old Paper first, the Antique Linen on  both pieces to my liking. the scalloped circle for the mat was painted with Yasutomo’s Pearlescent paints along the edge.

The butterfly is done with the same paints on both layers. It doesn’t show up like I would like it to; the card is really very pretty. The fern that you see was cut on the silhouette but when I went back to check on the website it was no longer there. The rose leaves and the fern were both colored with distress ink Peeled Paint and a cotton ball before taking off the mat (carrier sheet). The rose was colored with Victorian Velvet.

The cutting files used:

• 3_flower_sprig_with_butterfly_C00480_19210
• my rose file listed at right under cutting files
• circle_scallop_MED_1181 altered

the finish

This week has been very hectic with my daughter and 2 of the 3 children moving out. A very unhappy time for me, but cannot be helped. I am wore out and i didn't even do the most of the work. So the post that was going to take one day took three but here it is.

I cut the lettering on the Silhouette. Unfortunately I could have added in another ‘s’ to make the phrase ‘blossoms’ which would have been more appropriate, but i was so tired. And I still haven’t caught up. So i cut it like it was and figured that would work with the other little phrase on the side of the box. After all it is only I who will be using the box. I suppose that phrase will be good to remind me to be pleasing to the Lord in all i do, even at 63.

Back to the lettering: I cut all the pieces on 65lb paper (bristol type drawing paper about 6 inches square) and in order to do this I used masking tape (drafting tape would be better) on the corners (as the paper is only 6 inches wide) to help hold the paper in place on the mat. Also had to make sure that the tape did not cover any are that was going to be cut. The letters for ‘my paper flowers’ laid out on the table and gently placed some masking tape over them (drafting tape would have been better – i can’t help but stress that.), again gently (with the tip of my fingernail) press down onto the lettering in 2 –3 spots on each letter, being careful not to press to hard. This did work but is risky. Also i pressed the tape on the work surface a few times to help take off some of the tack on the tape. Then i turned it over and placed tiny bits of glue on the back side of the lettering and placed it on the box. This worked okay, but i had to be very careful pulling the tape off. I hate not having the proper tools to work with but as i live out in the country (15 minutes from town) and have to go so far to the larger city to get anything, I prefer to get things by internet. This has it’s own problems but i do pretty good.

As you can see I did not press the one paper flat. I really liked the texture that the wrinkled paper made on this project.
So now my box is finished.

Got the perfect layout?

You’ve got you design all layed out and the flowers in plae then you have to move the flowers to put the glue on. Sometimes I have trouble, one way or another, making sure that my flowers land up i the same place as i found i liked them before i glued them into place on the card or other project. So I decided to make a little template. This post is how i did that.\

this is the way i want my flowers to look like when I have applied the glue and put them into place on my project.

I then took a piece of wax paper about the size of the object that the flowers are going to be glued onto and laid it carefully over the flowers and leaves then marked the flower centers and the stem of the leaf cluster starting at the base of the furthest out leaf. The daisies and roses are marked with a circle while little flowers are marked with a dot right in the center of the flower.

I marked the flowers in the order that they will be placed onto the object with a number and punched a hole through the wax paper to place the glue. I used a larger hole for the larger flowers as more glue is needed as well as I need to know that this will be the larger flower. For the leaf lines, I cut a slit in the paper.

Next i laid the wax paper template on the object i want the flowers on and placed a dot or line of glue (mono multi) in the hole of the template and carefully lifted the template off and laid it aside. I let the glue dry just a little (mono multi dries quickly) till it was just tacky enough the flowers wouldn’t go sliding, and laid the flowers and leaves down in the order I wrote on the template. You do need to remember to lay the template in a safe area of the work area because there is a little glue that will be on the template itself

The flowers are glued and waiting the next step.

I save the template with the other cut flowers in a snack-size baggie and have them in a candy box.

embellishing

this little trick will make your silhouette cut labels look a little ‘nicer’. I have an old Letraset burnisher for that i put to use for this. turning the flat shape over, laid it on a washcloth and running the burnisher around the edges I now have a raised edge to my flat shape

My burnisher looks like this:

I cannot afford one of those delightful little ‘machines’ that use the $25.00 dies. So when Silhouette came up with an offer for time payment I really jumped. I paid more for the machine and it will not do the embossing so i can do it this way and it looks just as good if not better.

And then, I went and did this little project. I don’t know how I will use this yet, but it is not going to be a card.

It would make a cute little album cover maybe….