Star Explosion Box

Hello all you crafty bloggers, this is Suzanne from Cricutcraftingrammy. Thanks for joining me on the Sweet Sassy Design Team today.  Hoping you are all have a great Summer and some 4th of July festivities to celebrate the USA.  The challenge for this project  was to use stars not stripes.  This was a good challenge as it is not easy finding paper with stars and no stripes but I managed.  I decided to make an Explosion box with a cute surprise inside. I learned to make these at an LSS class a couple years ago.    Much of the papers used were from K and Company stacks found at Michael's.  

This is three views of the finished product.  Remember you can click on pictures to enlarge.  

Start out with 3- 12 x 12 pieces of cardstock- I used red, white and blue.

Next you cut them down and score. 

Cut one piece for bottom  9 x 9 and score at 6 inches all sides.

Second piece for center cut to 8 5/8 x 8 5/8and score at 5 3/4 inches all sides. 

The third and top piece cut to 8 1/4 x 8 1/4 and  at 5 1/2 inches all sides.  

You will end up with 9 squares.  Fold to firm scores and then cutout the 4 corner squares.  

 I then use decorated papers in this case stars to decorate the cardstock pages.  Cut the pieces a quarter inch smaller than square so the cardstock color shows through for example the bottom you would cut the pieces 2 3/4" for 3 " square, 2 5/8 for middle and 2 1/4 for top.  

You must decorate the bottom side too but I usually decorate both sides of all 3 pages.  Next you glue the three on top remember to put them in size order.  Glue only the center piece.  I use my ATG gun here.  

Next we start with the lid.  The lid is 6 1/4 " x 6 1/4 "  and is scored at 4 3/4 ".  The diagonally score the corners and fold them in and glue with a good firm glue.  I use Beacons 3 in 1 and once they are glued flat to sides I clip with bull clips or clothespins till they dry.  

 For embellishments and the surprise inside I decorated the lid making another lid and scoring at 4 5/8" to cover first lid. The side strips on lid were cut at 3 x 1 /4 ". I also decorated the top inside of the box lid so when it is opened it looks more finished.  I then punched a hole in center and added the top part of a small pinwheel I found at Michael's.  I glued this tight and then covered bottom of box  with paper so it didn't show.  I then got out my Stand and Salute and cut out a variety of cuts I liked at 2 inches or smaller to fit on fold outs, sides and top of box.  If you want you can also add stamps and or pictures to these.  

For the top I added the dimensional star cut page 32  from Stand and Salute.  I cut it twice at 4 1/2 inches and glued it so it stayed dimensional.  I added a rosette I made with Tim Holtz rosette maker and my Cuttlebug and then a couple more cuts, some stars on wire from Michaels, and an embellishment from a K and Company kit at Michaels.  

These boxes are a lot of fun to make for any occasion.  

I  hope you enjoyed the project and would love to hear your comments.