Gift (Pizza) Box

As you might have learned in previous posts, I've been doing a lot of soul searching, goal setting, personal life coaching this year. I have a dear friend who is going through her own goal setting, decision making period right now; so I decided to get her a journal and make her a tool for her own life mapping.

I didn't want to just hand it to her in a bag, and my gift wrapping skills at Christmas were atrocious; so I decided to make a "pizza" box to put it in. You may have seen mini versions of this on Pinterest. The mini ones were all I was able to find online, so I decided to create a tutorial to share with you for a larger version while I was making mine.

My journal measured approximately 7" x 9" so I started with two 12" x 12" sheets of paper. I chose the Pool Party cardstock for my base so it was nice and sturdy; and a piece of Designer Series Paper from the I Am Me package for the top. I primarily chose to use the DSP since it's double-sided and I would have a pattern on the inside and outside. 

For the base, I used the Simply Scored tool to score at 1-1/2" on all four sides. Or if you only want to have to turn your paper once; 1-1/2" and 10-1/2" on one side, then turn 90 degrees and repeat. Next I cut along the score marks to create flaps. Finally I used Sticky Strip to adhere the flaps to the sides of the box to complete my base. 

I wanted to make sure the top would slide over the base, so I scored it at 1-3/8" on each side. Or 1-3/8" and 10-5/8" on one side, turn 90 degrees and repeat. In order for it to open like an actually pizza box, I cut the flaps entirely off on the part that I wanted to be the "bottom." I created flaps on the other end and again used the Sticky Strip to adhere them to the sides. Then I put Sticky Strip across that entire bottom strip to glue it to the back flap of my box. 

Here is the finished project with the lid open. Anyone else think that they always have a ton of leftover tissue paper, but can never find it when packaging a gift? 

Finally, here is my completed box tied with a bow and gift tag. I realized while writing this post that there was even more symbolism with the gift box than I had intended. I did choose the DSP for the "world view" on the inside. I didn't realize at that time that the paper was called "I Am Me." Most ironic and least intentional was that the friend who this gift is for is constantly craving pizza right now! 

Thanks for stopping by today. If you would like some other box ideas created from paper; check out Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration where our design team members have shared an assortment. 

Supplies used:

  Cardstock: Pool Party

  DSP: I Am Me

  Stamp sets: Simply Sketched, Express Yourself

  Ink: Basic Grey, Pool Party

  Embellishments: Whisper White 5/8" Organza Ribbon, Gold Baker's Twine

  Punch: Scallop Tag Topper

  Tools: Paper Trimmer, Simply Scored, Bone Folder, Paper Snips

  Adhesive: Sticky Strip

Happy Moments

This card means more to me than most all of the ones I've made in the last year combined. One of my oldest and dearest friends & her husband have been trying to adopt for a number of years. Recently their prayers were answered.

I wanted to color block with Wisteria Wonder, Pink Pirouette, and So Saffron. I was going to use Smoky Slate for the solid layer. Then I thought, "hey, why don't I step it up by using a layer of Eastern Elegance DSP instead?" The lamb is from Storybook Friends. The star and greeting are both from a retired set, By Ones & By Twos. It was available in a spring mini catalog several years ago and I bought it right before it retired because I knew that someday my friend would adopt and I wanted to have it when she did.

If you like the saying, there is a current set, Cuddles & Kisses; that has the same greeting in it. It's in a really cute font too!

Thanks for stopping by today to share in one of the happiest moments in my friends' lives. Stop in tomorrow to see the box I created for another special gift.

Supplies used:
  Cardstock: Whisper White, So Saffron, Wisteria Wonder, Pink Pirouette
  Designer Series Paper: Eastern Elegance
  Stamp sets: By Ones & By Twos (retired), Storybook Friends
  Ink: So Saffron, Wisteria Wonder, Smoky Slate
  Framelits: Hearts Collection
  Tools: Paper Trimmer, Simply Scored, Bone Folder, Big Shot, Magnetic Platform
  Adhesive: SNAIL
  Ink: Wisteria Wonder, Smoky Slate

Layout Challenge

Every third Monday of the month, Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration has a layout challenge. This particular layout was a little more challenging for me than some, as I had to find just the right picture. 

Of course I used My Digital Studio to create my page, because I love our digital papercrafting program! One of the many reasons I swoon for MDS is that even though some of my favorite cardstock colors are retired, they are still available digitally. Our wedding colors were Sage Shadow and Chocolate Chip. Imagine my panic when Stampin' Up! announced that they were retiring Sage Shadow in 2010, a year after our wedding.

As I was searching my folder for the picture I wanted to use today, I was inspired to create a page that was reminscent of our wedding, while showing how we were currently celebrating our love. This was why I leaned towards using Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow, and Very Vanilla on the page. The yellow strip of DSP was added to give the page a little more color.
The heart is an embellishment from the "Love Is All Around" download that I featured in Thursday's blog hop post. It, of course, was red; which I didn't feel fit in on my page. This brings me to two more things I love about My Digital Studio; the recolor and crop features. I was able to crop out most of the arrow around the heart. I also recolored it to Sage Shadow. The parts of the arrow I was not able to crop out right next to the heart, I used Sage Shadow square punches to cover up. Voila, now I have the perfect heart!

Thanks for stopping by. Please check out Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration to see the other Design Team members' creations. Also, if we've INKspired you to create a page, card, or 3-D item with this layout, please link your post up with ours. We'd love to see it!

Love Is In the Air

Happy Valentine's Day! We don't get too mushy around our house, even on the 14th. Ever since that first year when the flowers died within two days, and the chocolates sat on top of the fridge and he finally ate them a month later; I don't get flowers and candy. The last two years he has surprised me with a handmade card...which he stole my supplies to make them! I thought this year I would return the favor.

Pink and grey is one of my favorite Valentine's color combinations. In this case I used Basic Grey and Blushing Bride. The hearts all came from the Hearts Collection framelits. The greeting is from Happy Watercolor. I'll still be asleep when he leaves for work, so I'm hoping he realizes it was made for him!

This card was a bonus score for me! Ever since celebrating my 10th Stampin' Up! anniversary last month, I've been trying to create a card that uses 10 items. I have finally succeeded! 

Supplies used:
  -Cardstock: Basic Grey, Blushing Bride
  -Ink: Basic Grey
  -Stamp set: Happy Watercolor
  -Framelits: Hearts Collection
  -Tools: Paper Trimmer, Big Shot, Simply Scored, Bone Folder
  -Adhesive: SNAIL

Get Bundled Up To Blog Hop

Thank you so much for joining us for our February Stylin' Stampin' Squad Blog Hop! Sale-a-Bration is in full swing and it's one of the BEST specials that Stampin' Up! provides every year! Each of the stops along our hop will give you a bundle of items that you can purchase that will total around $50 and give you a FREE Sale-a-Bration item!! 

You won't want to miss these exclusive Sale-a-Bration items: 

As you hop along, please be sure to comment and show some love on every blog! We are always excited to hear from our followers! You should have just left stop number 4 on the Stylin’ Stampin’ Squad blog hop – Kathy P. of Katrina P's Creative Corner. If so, you are in the right spot. If a link doesn’t work or you get off track, you will find the full blog hop lineup below.

My bundle is all My Digital Studio related. These are the digital items that I put together to create my $50 bundle:

#130646- My Digital Studio Software- $19.95

#136798- Baking Up Love- $6.95

#136821- Love Is All Around- $9.95

#137068- Kaleidoscope- $4.95

#137071- Starburst Punches- $3.95

#137077- Watercolor Wonder DSP- $4.95

#137079- Watercolor Wonder Washi Tape- $2.95

Here are the two projects that I created to showcase these items:

On this scrapbook page, I used the gold Watercolor Washi Tape, but changed the color to Smoky Slate.

For the card, I used the same DSP from the Love Is All Around kit, but I changed the opacity to make it appear a little lighter. Two things that I love about MDS: the color tool and the crop feature. I used the coloring tool on the cupcake for white frosting, chocolate cake, and a grey cupcake liner. With the crop tool, I was able to use two different stamp images from the See Ya Later stamp brush images to create the Happy Birthday. 

For my free Sale-A-Bration item, I chose the "One Big Sale-A-Bration Digital Ensemble" download. This allows me to have almost all of the SAB items accessible through My Digital Studio!

#134976- One Big Sale-A-Bration Digital Ensemble- $24.95 FREE

Use the Next button below to head on over to Kim's blog to see the fabulous projects she has created to share with us today!

Blog Hop Participants:

1. Diana E. of Stampin' Fun with Diana
2. Cynthia R. of Ink-a-Doodle Creations
3. Jennifer C. of Happy 2 Scrap 4 Life
4. Kathy P. of Katrina P's Creative Corner
5. Darcy J. of DJ's Stampin' Place
6. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
7. Pamela W. of Stinky Tofu
8. Erica B. of Stamping Starlette
9. Donna S. of Organized Chaos
10. Tonya B. of Stampin' with Tonya
11. Kristina M. Mama's Sanity
12. Bree R. of Craft-Somnia
13. Dawn S. of Dawn's Creative Chalet
14. Anastasia R. of Stampin' Blondie
15. Darla R. & Nancy K. of Stampin with Darla and Sisters
16. Pam S. of Stampin' in the Sun
17. Heidi B. of Stuck on Stampin'

A New Way To Washi

I found this great idea on Pinterest and I just had to try it out! It was a use for washi tape that had never crossed my mind. Any ideas? I'll give you a hint; it has nothing to do with papercrafting.

Ta Da! I used it while painting my nails. To start out, I tore off a small piece of washi tape and folded it in half. Then I cut out a half a heart. Remember how we used to do that in grade school with our rounded edge scissors that barely cut paper?

I had painted all of my nails with the base color and a top coat, because of the type of polish I used. I made sure that was really dry before I put the washi tape on. I pushed the washi tape down on the nail so that there were no bubbles, or space around the edge of the heart. Next, I carefully painted over the top of it with my gold polish.

I let it dry for a bit and then slowly pulled the washi tape off. Be gentle as the edges did want to stay with the polish that was on top of the tape.

Here are a few things I learned while trying this out:
-I don't recommend two sparkly polishes. For more contrast next time I will use a darker, solid base with the gold sparkle.
-the first piece of washi tape I tried was far too long (see picture 1 & 2 in the collage)
-the first cut I made, the heart was too big; it really needs to be the tiniest heart you can cut
-don't cut clear down to the edge of the washi tape with your point, or it is hard to make your heart shape on your nail
-patience (waiting for paint to dry) is a virtue I do not possess
-it is really hard to take pictures one handed
-I took 21 pictures trying to get clear ones to post
-my hands are in worse shape that I realized...hello lotion!

It really wasn't hard to do. I hope you'll give it a shot! Happy Valentine's Day! 

Bursting With Thanks

Do you have those stamp sets that really don't move you the first time you look at it in a catalog? For me it was Starburst Sayings in the Occasions Catalog. However, I started seeing really cute things made with this set and it started growing on me. Now that I own it, it is quickly becoming my favorite. You might have guessed that, since I'm using it two days in a row!

This card features a technique I have struggled with in the past, Embedded Embossing. I just never felt it looked quite right when I tried it. Today, I think I mastered it! I used the starburst stamp to create a background. To give it some extra dimension, I also used the stamp-off technique. In this case, I stamped twice before inking up again. Next, I used the smallest Starburst framelit to cut pieces from the Kaleidoscope Designer Series Paper. Once I glued those down, I ran the whole layer through the Big Shot with the Honeycomb embossing folder.

I felt that the card needed a little contrast so that my sentiment would stand out. The Basic Black Chevron ribbon came to the rescue. I knew I wanted to use the "Thank you so much" sentiment from Starburst Sayings. (Side note, I love the coordinating framelits! Could you imagine how frustrating it would be cutting THAT out by hand?) I knew I wanted a layer behind the thank you, but the next size up Starburst felt a little too big for this card. Then it hit me, "hexagon punch!" It was the perfect size and tied in with the embossing folder.

A note about adhering everything together. I used glue dots to glue the ribbon to the back of the Whisper White layer. This leaves the front loose and gives the illusion of the sentiment floating. The Crushed Curry Hexagon is attached to the ribbon using Sticky Strip. This way I am sure it is not going to fall off. When gluing down an embossing layer, I always use the Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue. Otherwise you could flatten some of the embossing by pushing too hard if you were using SNAIL or a glue stick.

My favorite thing about this card is that it is one big optical illusion! If I look long enough the starbursts seem to be rocking back and forth. While I love the chevron ribbon, it is not nice to my eyes while putting it on a card! My eyes play lots of tricks on me, which could be lupus-related, caused by the lupus meds, or just attributed to the fact that I'm getting old! Does anyone else think the ribbon is wider in the middle than it is on the left side? Oh, and while the ribbon is actually black and white; mixed with the Smoky Slate and Basic Grey on this card, it appears to be black and grey.

Basic Black 3/4" Chevron Ribbon

Hexagon Punch

Kaleidoscope DSP

Starburst Sayings Framelits Bundle

Honeycomb Embossing Folder

Other supplies used:
  Cardstock: Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Crushed Curry
  Ink: Bermuda Bay
  Tools: Paper Trimmer, Simply Scored, Bone Folder, Big Shot, Magnetic Platform
  Adhesive: SNAIL, Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue, Glue Dots, Sticky Strip

Card Sketch

Do you struggle with creating using a card sketch? Sometimes they are harder for me than starting with a blank canvas. Thankfully that was not the case this month! I was instantly inspired when I saw this month's sketch.

My order arrived last week with many fun new products that I couldn't wait to get my hands on. However, since I started working full time last week, I had to wait until the weekend to get inky!

I knew that the birthday greeting from Another Great Year would be perfect in the open space. Initially, I was going to use three of the small Starburst cut-outs in the upper right corner for the banner, but it just didn't look right. So I edited it a little bit.

I had so much fun with Pink Pirouette last week for our color challenge, that I wanted to use it again this week. I grabbed the Color Coach for inspiration for my other colors. It recommended Pool Party and Crumb Cake. Perfect! I used Crumb Cake to stamp the greeting on Pink Pirouette. The rest of the layers feature Tone-on-Tone stamping. (i.e.-Pool Party on Pool Party and Crumb Cake on Crumb Cake) The Celebrate banners across the top are "fussy" cut from one of the stamps from Starburst Sayings.

If today's sketch INKspires you to create, please link up with the post this week at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration.

Another Great Year

Perfect Pennants

Starburst Sayings Framelits Bundle

Gold Baker's Twine

Other supplies used:
  Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Pink Pirouette, Pool Party
  Ink: Crumb Cake, Pool Party
  Tools: Paper Trimmer, Simply Scored, Bone Folder, Paper Snips, Big Shot, Magnetic Platform
  Adhesive: SNAIL, Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue

Shape It Up

While I would say that 90% of my cards are the "standard" A2 card size (4.25" X 5.5"); I sometimes enjoy mixing it up and creating a shaped card. This is super simple to do with my Big Shot and any of the Framelits that Stampin' Up! has to offer. Today I chose the Banner Framelits currently available in the Occasions catalog through May 31st.

To create a shaped base, you score and fold your cardstock just as you would for any other card. Build your "sandwich" on your cutting platform. For the shaped cards, I highly recommend using the Magnetic Platform so it doesn't shift and you end up with a lopsided card. When placing your framelit on the cardstock, you want the end by your crease to actually be off the top of the crease. This way when it cuts, you still have a creased card.
Perhaps a picture will make it more clear. (Yes my cutting plates are well-loved!)

I used the largest banner in the set for the base. I used the next to smallest one to cut three different patterns from the Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack. The greeting is from the Perfect Pennants stamp set, which coordinates with the Banner Framelits. In fact, you can buy them together in a bundle and save 15%! I used the stamp-off technique on the greeting, which gave it more of a worn look to match the DSP. To stamp-off, ink up your stamp, stamp it on a piece of scratch paper and then stamp on your cardstock without reinking.

I made this card for our Design Team challenge today. That means you can jump over to Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration and find more shaped cards from the other designers!

Supplies used:
  Cardstock: Soft Sky, Whisper White
  DSP: Fresh Prints Stack
  Stamp set: Perfect Pennants
  Ink: Real Red
  Embellishments: White Baker's Twine
  Framelits: Banners
  Tools: Big Shot, Simply Scored, Paper Trimmer, Paper Snips
  Adhesive: SNAIL

Technique Tuesday

We've got a fun technique for you today at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration. It's called 3 In A Row. The idea behind this technique is that you ink your stamp once and then stamp three times.

I've used this technique before to give the illusion of falling leaves or a bouncing ball. If you want to line your images up in a perfect line, I recommend using the Stamp-A-Majig. There's a great tutorial featuring it today at SSINK. I'd also be happy to give you live demonstration of it, if you'd like. It really is a fabulous tool; once you figure out how to use it!

Today's card features many new items from the Occasions Catalog. The star and the greeting are both from the Perfect Pennants stamp set. The greeting was cut out using the Starburst Framelits. Of course, there's that yummy Retro Fresh This & That Designer Washi Tape. A new favorite is the Gold Sequin Trim. The sequins actually come on a string, but you can carefully pull them off and use them individually. They are the perfect size to use a Glue Dot to adhere them. I used the smallest Deco Labels framelits (found in the Annual Catalog) to layer the Tangerine Tango behind the greeting.

Deco Labels

Starburts

Gold Sequin Trim

Retro Fresh This & That Designer Washi Tape

Perfect Pennants

Other supplies used:
  Cardstock: Soft Suede, Whisper White, Tangerine Tango
  Ink: Tangerine Tango, Coastal Cabana
  Tools: Paper Trimmer, Simply Scored, Bone Folder, Big Shot, Magnetic Platform
  Adhesive: SNAIL, Stampin' Dimensionals, Glue Dots