Angie and Sandras Box, framed card/book to fit inside

We're on the final leg now and I can recharge the poor batteries in my camera.

For each page you'll need a sheet of paper the same size as the paper you used for your box, a photo or piece of card 7.5cms sqr for 6*6 papers, 10cms sqr for 8*8 paper as well as 1 less piece if card 5cms sqr or 7cms square for the hinges. I made 6 pages so only needed 5 hinges. If each page is going to be heavily embellished or you use a thick paper 6 would be the maximum pages that would fit the smaller box. Thin paper with photos and rubdowns you would probably get about 10 pages and you can fit more pages if using 8*8 papers.


Start off by bringing the sides into the middle and folding, unfold, turn and repeat. If you have difficulty finding the centre line you can fold the paper in half first either across or diagonally but this will leave you with extra creases showing on the finished frame. I havent worried about it for the step by step but if I was making this as an extra special gift I would probably measure and score the lines with an embossing tool. Ignore all the extra creases on the pic, I'd forgot to photo it so had to go back in at the end, oops.

With the right side showing fold the corner into the middle, repeat for all 4 corners before opening out.

Turn the paper over and fold the corners to the diagonal crease line. Do not open back out.

This is the part of origami I call squidging ;o) Very carefully pinch the sides of one corner into each other while making sure that tiny folded over corner stays flat.

As the corner comes into itself you'll get a triangle popping up. Keeping a finger or thumb holding the base down use your other hand to push it flat.

Use the bone folder to make sure the edges are nice and crisp.

Once the 4 corners are done you'll have a shape like these. They will want to keep popping up but don't worry.

Very carefully slid the four corners of your photo/card into the four corner pockets. If you're using a very thick card it's a good idea to have shaved off 1mm of 2 sides of the card. I didn't bother even though I was using 300gsm ribbled card. You might find the page is now bowing, I like to turn them over and use the side of the bone folder to gently iron them flat.

Your page should now look like this and you can either decorate or skip straight to joining 2 pages together with a hinge.

Take the hinge square and fold in half diagonally, open out and fold back the other way along the same fold line. This is so the pages will fold in both directions.

Add a small strip of dst just along the side of the crease and carefull place in the side gap of one of your pages. Once the side of the page is next to the crease of the hinge squeeze so the dst sticks in the right place.

Add dst to the other side of the crease on the hinge and insert into the gap of the next page. Not sure if you can see the detail or not but the page on the right has creases across the corner. This is what happens if you found the middle of the paper by folding the paper diagonally. The page on the left has no crease because I found the middle by folding length wise.

I made 6 pages for my card and carefully inserted a piece of ribbon to the inside gaps at the back of the final page. It isnt essential but I wanted to secure the book and give something to help ease it from the box.

Finished but undecorated book/card inside the box.

Now if you don't want to make a box to hold you're book in you don't have to and you don't even have to use these pages in the same way as I have. By making 6 pages and 6 hinges you can turn the pages into sides of a cube simply by adding the hinges on all of the sides.

Huge thanks to Angie and Sandra for the day & demo. I know they'd love to see any of the boxes or books you make using this tutorial, so please leave a link. You're also more than welcome to shout if I've confused things with the step by step.

hugs

Angie and Sandras Box, base

If I'm taking photos that my fat fingers are going to be in I would normally take the time to make sure my nails were nice and clean, possibly with a bit of polish but I promised Kay I'd do the pictures complete with grubby nails and ink stains. The ink's worn off Kay but the nails are pretty bad ;o)

Anyway enough of that here's the step by step for the box. BTW the papers used are from a pretty old Branda Walton, K&Copad, Dolls House and trimmed down to 6*6.


Again remember your pattern match.

Step 1 fold the paper in half lengthways as you would to make a regular card, open out turn and repeat so you have a nice cross fold line.

Step 2 Bring the sides in to meet the middle as you would for a gatefold card, fold and open.
Step 3 You have a choice now of easy or tricky. Easy is folding the paper diagonally bottom left to top right corner and unfolding. I've shown the trickier version, fold diagonally but only crease from the bottom to the mid point before unfolding.

Step 4 Bring the bottom left corner to the middle and fold. This corner does not have a crease on the diagonal. Do not open back out.

Step 4 Bring the top 1/4 down to the middle and fold. The score line will already be there.

Hold the top fold and the diagonal fold with your left hand and with your right gently pull the bottom right corner down and underneath towards the left.

You will now have a completed corner.

Once you have the 4 corners made again carefully tuck one inside the other but only by a small amount and gently turn the box upside down

If you can see any points you need to tuck these to the inside.

Once all the points are tucked in gently pat each of the corners into each other until you have a tight fit.

Flip the box over and gently ease down the triangular flaps.

The box is finished now bar any decoration you want to add.

My next post will be making the framey card which will fit inside. I havent started it yet so it won't be until this evening. If you're in a rush there is a very basic step by step in my gallery at docrafts.

Angie and Sandras Box, lid

Ooops, I've been a really really bad blogger lately. No excuses other than I've been so busy designing svgs for the cricut and scal then opening my new webshop.

I had an absolute ball yesterday meeting up with a load of my docraft buddies after Sandra graciously offered to host the day. Cheers Sandra.

Angie decided to demo a modular origami box and was supposed to be assisted by Sandra wearing her sparkly tights... no sparkly tights but she did assist most beautifully by keeping the kettle piping hot ;o)

Before I left I did promise to put Angies instructions into a step by step pdf, not sure if it's the pdf programme I use or the sheer volume of photos but the size was a bit hefty so I decided to use blogger instead.

This is the first of the step by steps, making the lid. Sorry it's further down the page but I'd already uploaded the pics before I thought of the viewing order.


You'll need to make the box.

4 sheets of 8*8 or 6*6 for the lid
4 sheets of the same size paper for the base.

Best not to use the really thin paper but really heavy or textured paper can be trickier to fold accurately.

framey card inside

up to 8 sheets of the same size paper, 1 sheet makes 1 page
1 piece of card per page cut to 7.5cms sqr if using a 6*6 paper, or 10cms sqr if using an 8*8
1 less than the total number of pages pieces of card cut to 5cms sqr if using 6*6 or 7cms square if using 8*8. These create the hinges.

After each fold use a bone folder or cocktail stick to sharpen the fold line. This will make for a neater box and help with the assembly.


Easier start

1 Fold the paper diagonally, open out, turn around and fold along the other diagonal.

2 Open out and fold one of the corners to meet the middle. Fold the paper diagonally so that the folded in corner gets tucked in and hidden. If using a patterned paper that has a directional pattern it's a good idea to fold all the papers in exactly the same place OR the exact opposite before moving on to the next stage.

Trickier start but keeps the sides and top crease free, not photoed.

1 Fold the paper diagonally, open out, turn around and fold along the other diagonal but only to the half way point. Again think of any pattern match.
2 Open out and fold one of the corners that has a crease line along the complete diagonal up to the middle. Fold the paper along the complete diagonal so that the corner is tucked in.

Turn the paper so that the folded in corner is on your left.

It doesnt matter now whether you do step 3 or step 4 next.

3 Carefully bring the right hand point over to the left hand corner and fold, unfold.

4 Fold the top down so that the right angled corner on the left meets the bottom of the folded in corner. Unfold.

5, last fold, bring the bottom point up and across so that it meets the bottom of the folded in corner and score only until you get to the 2nd crease if using the easier start OR the first crease if using the trickier start. Just in case that confuses anyone it's the crease line created in step 4.

Keep the fold in place and hold the point where you folded it to the tucked in corner with your left hand and gently pull the point on the right hand side down


Repeat for the remaining 3 pieces of paper.

To assemble gently tuck the pointed edge inside the straight edge of the next piece. Do not push them in all the way, just enough that the base starts to slip into the base of the next piece.

Once you have all 4 corners tucked inside each other gently flip the box over and gradually pat in each corner until they are fully tucked in.

Flip the box back over and gently ease down the inner folds. You will have a small hole in the centre, the thinner the paper and the more accurate the folding the smaller it will be.

playing with scal

I've been having fun designing templates with scal this week. This is one has a wreath from inkadinkadoo and a bauble from butterfly kisses. Not sure who makes the snowflake but I wouldnt be surprised if it was another inkadinkadoo set. The template for the base card and others are available to buy from my SCAL blog

Friday sketchers 59

I wanted to make a thankyou card and the sketch on this weeks Friday Sketchers was perfect for what I had in mind.

Anya is stamped on pti cs coloured with e00, e31, e35, e47

Clothes, yg03 yg11 g21 g000 bv00 & bv02

The umbrella is bv02 and yg11 and has many layers flicked into each other.

She's cut close then mounted on an ivory bazzill bling cut with the largest Labels 4 Nestie die with the edge coloured with copic yg41

Posh Posies paper by Daisy Bucket.

Border punch from Martha Stewart with a green polka dot ribbon.

Sentiment from StampinUp!.

Happy coincidence

It doesnt happen very often but this is one of those cards that came together with a series of coincidences.

To make the money up on an order last week I bought a Caribbean Sea ink pad and when it arrived I had to try it out. I happened to have a stampinup wheel to hand and didn't even look to see which one it was... so bit of versamark, some glossy card and a brayer later I had a sea themed bit of card.

Then I happened to be blog hopping and found it's summer theme on a Spoon Full of Sugar so put the card to oneside while I hunted for a suitable stamp, time and a bit of inspiration.

Then my summer tilda club arrived today and what pops out but a tilda dipping her toes in water!! Just right for a sketch on Sketch & Stash.

Mounted on SU Taken With Teal cs and some matt silver pearl. An ek success photo corner punch and a couple of charms which I used meat scissors to snip off the hole bits. Ribbon from an old Brenda Pinnick TSV.

Tilda's stamped with memento on to papertrey inc cardstock coloured in

skin: ivory & blush promarkers.

Clothes, bg10, bg15 & y11 copics

Hair e35, e47 both tipped onto e31

Ring, b00, b02, yg11, yg03

shadow w1, w3

Normally I wouldnt scrub in as much colour on the hair because of bleed but must admit there was next to nothing on the pti cardstock. If I'd added in as many layers with laser paper I'd have had an huge mess.

Friday Sketchers 57

It's been a couple of months since I had the chance to play with challenges and seeing as I had so much fun revisiting old techniques a few days back I thought I'd use some neglected stash with this weeks Friday Sketcher.

Sort of polished stone technique using a stipple brush and 4 SU ink pads with pearl & copper alchie inks then a Lavinia stamp in versamark and clear ep. It looks like a mushroom colour face on but once the light hits it you can see all the shades of pinks, copper, pearl and chocolate.

DCWV papers with cream copy paper punched with a CraftsToo border punch. Freehand gem doodle with a pewter charm tinted with a brown copic. Uknown sentiment stamp using Chocolate Chip ink.

Fathers day

I'd forgot how much fun some of the old background techniques were so when I saw a GinaK tutorial on stampintv I had to dig out the reinkers and have a play.

Archival cobalt & plum reinker with some silver alchie ink on clarity white gloss card. Katzelcraft tree stamp from the Craftbarn stamped with versafine and clear ep. With a few leaves bleached out. Note, archival inks are hard to bleach, have got some SU ones on order will do a write up on them when they arrive.

Purple co'rdinations card embossed with swiss dots before sanding back. I'm still hunting the perfect fathers day sentiment stamp so will probably end up using a peel off.

The big experiment

It has always surprised my that crafters spend so much money buying lots of different sparkly paints when there are artist mediums that cost a few pound and will mix with felt tip ink, stamp pad ink, watercolour paints etc. After a bit of discussion on ILWS about twinkly paints I decided to put this up to show the 2 mediums together as well as experiment a bit.

Using a stamp from Stampin'Up!s Seaside Fun set I stamped with stazon on to 300gsm bockingford watercolour paper. The dress is coloured with ink taken from the Lovely Lilac SU marker which was scribbled onto acetate. Before I picked the ink up I dipped the tip of the (old and tatty) water brush into the lid of the iridescent medium. The hat is using the same marker ink but this time I mixed it with a teeny bit of the pearlescent medium. You might be able to see how the colour has slightly lightened. In real life it looks like I've stamped onto pearl paper when it's tilted in the light which is how this photo was taken.

I've used the iridescent on the back area of the grass and the pearlescent on the front grass. Now when using either medium the water doesnt flow from the waterbrush as much as normal so it's "stiffer" when painting and the paint doesnt spread as far. You don't want to be using your best brush with the iridescant as the glitter is a nightmare to remove fully. With both mediums you'll need to wash your brush as soon as possible.

This picture is taken straight on and although you can see the sparkle in real life my camera wont pick it up.

I did have a eureka moment a while back and thought it might be fun to fill my water brush with iridescent medium. Doesnt work :( the glitter is too large to go through the valve, even the cheapie waterbrushes that normally leak like sieves don't like it. Spray bottles wont work either.

However it is possible to mix the pearlescent medium with water and use it through a spray bottle. You need more medium than normal, I used about 5 pea sized blobs and mixed with 1fl oz of water. Now this is where the experiment came into being.. could you make faux glimmer mists by adding a drop or 2 of reinker? Not having seen them in person I don't know how close the effect it but I added a couple of drops of a blue archival ink to the mix and gave it a quick squirt over some black card. Might not be perfect match but for those who very very occasionally want this sort of effect without having to spend lots of something they might never use again perhaps it's a good enough compromise.

Sketch and stash challenge

I was so pleased with Dads card I decided to carry on the theme for this weeks sketch & stash challenge. This time I've used the little girl image from the Summer by the Sea Su set. SU papers in bashful blue, brocade blue cs and an organza ribbon from stash. She's coloured with rich regal watercolor wonders.

Nothing to do with the challenge, I promised mum I'd make her a tissue box in peach & cream. Watered silk paper over card to give stability, peach bazzill punched with my MS edge punch. Cream pearl and and organza ribbon. The poppy image is from Bloomin with Beauty stamp set and coloured with dark chrome yellow, cadmium orange, light cadmium red & juniper green F&C pencils. Took 5 12" pieces of card to make & decorate so she's better not bin it in 6 months.

Dads birthday

This is for Dads birthday on Mon. He's not into any hobby as such unless you count Boddington beer, but he is a lucky s*d and lives just by the sea on a caravan site. I've kept it very very simple, Summer by the Sea stamped image from Stampin'Up! coloured with their rich regals watercolor wonders. Now why didn't someone tell me how good they are??? I've spent an awful lot of money on my f&c pencils but these are a lot quicker to use and blend really well. Flourish is from the Season of Joy set and sentiment from cheer & wishes set both using bashful blue ink, brocade blue & cream linen cs.

blog candy alert

Steph Has some lovely candy up for grabs if you're quick. Deadline is May 3rd.

Still havent had chance to play in challenges but I have added a few cards to my SU blog.

blog candy alert

Debbie has an amazing blog candy up for grabs until 30th April. Even if you're reading this after the deadline still go & visit as her blog is amazing.

As to my own blogs, nothing much happening with challenge cards here as I'm having fun making samples for my first SU party. I've added a few cards to my su blog and to my scal blog.

Breaking news.

I've just made the decision to sign up with Stampin Up to become a demonstrator. It's going to take a couple of weeks to organise, if I'm accepted that is lol. Woohoo can't wait.

Now this blog is already a wee bit chaotic with my stencil work, scal, tutorials and challenge cards so I'm going to start seperating things a bit. I'd already been toying with the idea and have got the addresses ready

This one will be primarily for my challenge cards and anything that doesnt really fit with the other blogs but there's going to be a fair amount of crossover seeing as I like to mix things up.

http://sueplayingwithstampinup.blogspot.com/ is where I'll be keeping everyone up to date with my stampin up creations.

http://sueplayingwithstencils.blogspot.com/ is going to be for my stencil embossing

http://sueplayingwithsurecutsalot.blogspot.com/ is for my cricut & scal work. As and when I get time I will be making more tutorials and putting some of my .svg files for sale.

It's going to be a bit of a job to get the blogs up together properly with plenty of links and pretties so don't expect anything really fancy for a few weeks or so.

Have a nice day everyone, I sure am lol.

Series of mistakes

This was made using a sketch of Charisma Cardz challenge and is a perfect example of why everyone should make charts of copics blended together. It doesn't look too bad at this size but in real life the rv000 use to blend the pinks has developed overnight into what looks like greasy marks instead of nicely shaded colouring. Bildmilarna stamped image with memento ink on bristol board coloured with dress rv000, r85, rv21. Hair e35, e31 & e53, Green flower yg11 yg41 & g21. with y00 & y21 for the centre of the flower. B00 for the trim of the dress.

Mustard yellow white core card embossed with birds & vines bug folder before being sanded back. Paper is from dcwv Blossoms & Butterflies but as I stuck it down I forgot I should have been sticking it to some green card not straight to the white core card.

Mistake 3 is the flower. I used psp & scal to cut the flower in 2 parts before shaping with a large ball tool. The sides of the cutaway layer didnt take the shaping very well and with hindsight it doesnt work, not the shape, size or colour.

Friday sketchers 46

Not too sure about this one, no matter what embellies I added it just didn't work but looked bare without.

Layout is Friday Sketchers, papers from PaperSalon, Gorjuss girl stamp from Sugar Nellie coloured with copics and promarkers.

The mat & layer were designed in PSP then cut with the cricut & scal. Sadly the blade went blunt mid cut and it was the last of my chocolate brown card so I had to finish cutting by hand.

Bit of lace from Ribbonbox, prima flower and a pb sentiment.

No peeking

If your name is Alex or Sara.......

Just a little something to say thankyou to Alex. One of the new gorjuss girls, stamped with memento ink onto bristol board and coloured with polychromo pencils. There are 5 different browns to her hair and the dress is rose carmine. Scalloped mat cut with the cricut.

Papers from a docrafts goodie bag and a couple of my crocheted flowers. I used a 2mm hook and quilters thread, never again!! Talk about squiffy eyes.

This is also for Alex and was cut on the cricut. Tildas tulip stamp and a few of the butterflies from the spring stamp kit. F&C watercolour pencils, rose carmine, light magenta, madder lake, juniper green & chromium green opaque.

It's Saras birthday on Sunday and along with a couple of ladies from the docrafts forum we're off to a Stampin Up demo. I've used my most precious CraftWork Cards papers on her card and she'd better appreciate the sacrifice I made by cutting them!!

A bildmalarna stamped image coloured with f&c watercolour pencils. The bottom corner is a new Anya style stencil dry embossed then cut away.

Pink organza ribbon with some gems and a sentiment that came with the papers.