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Friday, July 8, 2011

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.  

3 comments:

  1. Love your patriotic explosion box Suzanne! I have never made one, but I really want to, so I think I will for a birthday gift! You have inspired me to give it a try. LOL I love your surprise on the inside as well my friend, what a faboulous idea that was!

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  2. Wonderful project! I keep seeing these, and am starting to think I need to give one a try one of these days!!! Thanks for joining us at Patches of Pink!

    housesbuiltofcards@gmail.com
    www.housesbuiltofcards.blogspot.com

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  3. Another wonderful project! I've yet to make one of these but I absolutely love them.

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