WOYWW 132 - Snowmen, lots of Snowmen!

Not much going on today on the workdesk, so decided to post a pic from earlier.  In a post a few weeks ago I mentione dhow batch stamping had killed my mojo, so I decided to try to make each card different - well, here's the results.

Given that I had (stupidly - and never again!) stamped and coloured them all pretty much the same, I was a little limited. but they turned out ok.  The eagle eyed among you might spot that the diamond pop up with snowballs (left of pic) was in the December issue of Making Cards :-)

I'm a bit late with my WOYWW entry today, been a bit busy with non-crafty stuff, and will probably be tomorrow before I get to take a peek at other crafty goings on, so click here if you want to get ahead of the game & take a look at other crafters desks. For those who asked, my last 2 posts include the template for the christmas Crackers and the Gift Boxes - have fun!

Debs xx

Gift Box (Christmas or any time really!!)

These gift boxes look amazing, and are so easy to make! We made them at the Weds class last week, and I demo'd them at Hobbycraft yesterday, and was inundated with requests for instructions, so here we are!!

You will need:

• 2 x A4 card
• ruler
• craft knife
• scissors
• pencil
• extra strong double sided tape or fast drying glue
• Patterned paper, rubber stamps, die cuts, ribbon etc to decorate

instructions

• To make the base of the box - cut one piece 20cm x 26cm, and one piece 20cm x 10cm
• On the larger piece of card, measure along the long edge and score at 8cm, 16cm and 24cm
• On the smaller piece of card, measure along the shorter edge and score at 8cm
• On both pieces of card, position the card so that the scored lines run top to bottom, with the 2cm section on the right hand side, and score each piece horizontally at 4cm up from the bottom edge
• With the card still in the same position, cut up each scored line, stopping at the 4cm horizontal score line.  This creates the flaps for the base of the box.
• Cut away the bottom edge of each of the 2cm wide flaps, up to the 4cm horizontal score line, and trim a narrow triangle from the left and right edges of all remaining flaps
• fold along all score lines, but do not burnish - you should now have 1 piece with 3 x 8cm panels, and one with a single 8cm panel, each piece having a 2cm flap at the side, and 4cm flaps at the base
• Apply any decoration (Paper panels - see measurements at the end) stamped patterns on the outside etc) before assembling the box - it is much easier when the panels are flat
• using extra strong tape (or wet glue) apply to the long edge on the outside of each of the 2cm flaps, and attach the long flaps to the inside of the next panel
• repeat with the base flaps, folding in 2 opposite flaps, and then the 2 remaining, only applying tape or glue to the last 2 flaps
• place the box upright on your work surface and use a ruler inside the box to press down on the inside of the base panels to secure them in place
• To make the lid cut a piece of card 13.2cm square
• score along each edge 2.5cm in from the cut edge
• to make the flaps, on one edge, cut up the vertical score lines until you reach the first 2.5cm horizontal score line
• Trim a small triangle from the inner edge of each corner flap (important to trim from the small corner flaps, and not from the longer rectangular centre section of the lid, to get a neat finish)
• repeat on the opposite edge of the lid
• fold along all score lines, but do not burnish 
• Apply any decoration (stamped patterns on the outside etc) before assembling the lid- it is much easier when the panels are flat
  
• using extra strong tape (or wet glue) apply to the small corner flaps only, and at this stage fix only 2 of the flaps in place
•  To ensure that the lid fits, place it on the box before finally securing the 2 remaining flaps in place
• Apply any decoration, die cuts, ribbon etc to finish the box

If you want to cut patterned paper panels to fit the box, you will need:

• 4 panels 15.5cm x 7.5 cm for the base
• 4 panels 2.2cm x 7.8cm and one 7.8cm square for the lid

It took a lot longer to type up the instructions than it did to make the box!  These are very easy and a nice size for small gifts.  You could also cut a shaped panel from one side and line with acetate to make an aperture box.

Experiment and have fun!

Debs x

Xmas Cracker Template

A few people asked for the template and instructions for making their own Xmas Crackers.  You can download a copy of the PDF template here

To make the crackers, you need the following supplies:

• Cracker Template 
• A4 patterned paper
• cardboard tube from loo roll
• ribbon
• double sided sticky tape
• ready made decoration (or stamp and colour your own) and sticky foam pad
• cracker snap (pr you can just get everyone to shout BANG!!!)
• Pencil and scissors

 Instructions

• Place the paper face down, find the centre of both long sides of your A4 paper, and mark with pencil
• Place the template on the wrong side of the paper, with the 2 notches marked 'Centre' lined up with your pencil marks
• Fold left and right sides of the paper under in line with the outer edges of the template (outer edges of the 'teeth')
• trace around the teeth onto the fold at both left and right
• remove the template
• Keep the paper folded, and cut out the marked triangles (don't cut around the outer edges, these should sit roughly on the fold of the paper)
• open out the paper face down, and apply double sided sticky tape to the wrong side of the paper, along both long straight edges, avoiding the areas with the cut out triangles
• place the cardboard tube in the centre of one long straight edge, attaching it with the sticky tape, and roll towards the other edge, securing it with sticky tape
• push one end of the paper in towards the tube, and tie with a ribbon bow
• fill with your choice of gift, a snap, hat and/or jokes (lots of cracker jokes available to download - just Google 'Xmas cracker jokes!)
• push in the other end, and secure with another ribbon bow
• fix your chosen decoration to the cracker

Hope you enjoy making these, I find that once I have all the materials to hand (having already made the decoration panels) I can run up 6 crackers in an hour!

Merry Christmas xx