Taunton today, yippee and a tut.

Today was Tauntons turn to host the Sincerely Yours papercraft show and I've been looking forward to it for months.  It's probably my favourite of the shows I go to, small enough I can do a quick in & out but being only papercraft I can also spend hours there.  It's also good to go with my friends & meet up with other friends & stall holders I've known for years.

Now I've got a bit of a running joke with Tracey & Martine from Oysterstamps ever since my other mate Tracy mentioned lemon curd and I ended up taking a jar for Tracey & Graham. Martine likes Cadburys buttons though.  Roll on a couple of years and we'd found out Tracey likes the grub but Martine likes the box so I've started making pretty boxes to take her goodies in.

This was todays box and it's based on an old sewing/quilting pattern.    Not quite how I intended it to be, it was supposed to be handmade white roses but I couldnt find the right sized punch, but it's made using white stardream card, a spellbinders fancy circle die cut into a frame, embossing folder and shedloads of glitter which isnt showing in the pic.  The butterfly die came free with a magazine next year, Memory Box make some nice ones though.







I promised Martine I would do instructions for it, there's probably better ones out there than mine but I've never seen this box made with card before, only material.

2 ways to make it but they're basically  the same, just different boards used to get the same scored diamond within a square.

First seeing as Martine loves her WRMK envelope punch board we'll use that one.

Cut 2 identical sized squares, size isnt overly important but it does help to round them to full or half measure rather than cutting say 7 & 7/8"ths or 7.7cm. It's also better to use inches on this rather than cutting at metric.

Line your first edge on the punch board so it's meeting the measurement of half of your square, so if you've cut a 6" square line the edge to the 3" mark, if you've cut a 5" square line up at the 2 1/2" mark and so on.  Punch down and score along the groove (scores the blue line on diagram) as you would if you were making a normal envelope.  Quarter turn your card, line up to the same point (or use the guide) punch and score.  Do the same for the other 2 sides and repeat with the 2nd piece of card.  Use a ruler and score down the long red lines to create the flaps then snip away the 4 corners as per the grey area on the diagram on ONE of the pieces.  Fold and burnish all fold lines.

On the second piece of card cut along those red lines to leave a diamond within a square and no flaps.  Fold & burnish all scores.

 

 For the hougie, 

Cut 2 identical sized squares, size isnt overly important but it does help to round them to full measure rather than cutting say 7 & 7/8"ths or 7.5cm because it makes it next to impossible to find the central point without getting a ruler involved.  Score at 1/2" or 1cm on one side (doesnt matter if you've cut in imperial and scored in metric of vice versa as long as you do the same to the 2nd piece). 1/4 turn and repeat.  If you've used whole numbers it's now easy to score down from the top to show the mid point which is where to score the diamond by hand.  I've used short red lines on the diagram to show this.  Use a ruler and embossing tool to score between the midpoints (blue line on diagram.) Fold at all score and burnish.  Snip away the sections coloured grey on the diagram.  On the second square cut along the red lines so you just have a diamond within a square.

Assembly instructions aren't easy to describe and they don't really make much sense until you have to 2 pieces in your hands and are sticking it all down.  Here goes though.

Place a strong double sided tape to the right side of the flaps of 3 of the corners (all 4 if you don't want to hide something inside the box)  Match up the first of the flaps to the smaller square as shown and firmly stick together.  Work your way around the box taping and glueing flaps inside until you're finished or keep one point open to allow gifts to be placed inside.

I found it to be better to use a cropodile to make holes for the ribbon after decorating otherwise it's easy to get them in the wrong place.  I also found it harder to decorate when fully assembled but if you're using a paper/decoration which has a definite way up/down/diagonal you're less likely to make a mistake if you decorate after assembly.

Been a long day today so shout if it doesnt make sense.