Explosion box: Wow factor!

The sun is not yet up on this winter's morning, but a little "personal summer" (that is *HOT FLASH* grin) woke me up waaaayyyy too early today.

Thankfully, there is not much exciting in my e-mail and the dogs are still asleep, so I will take this opportunity to share a little springtime sunshine ... with this Explosion Box of fun.

I hope you'll see more of these sorts of projects on the upcoming Motions & Folds Card Hop (Feb.26), starting here at CardMonkey and traveling on to another 14 fabulous hop stops. 

To make an Explosion Box, start with a 12x12" sheet of cardstock -- the heavier weight, the better. Cut off 4" squares at each of the four corners, leaving a "cross" shape.  Score for folding the inside 4" square so the "arms" of the cross will fold up/down in your explosion.

You can fill the center of your explosion box with just about anything you can imagine. 

Here, in an Explosion Box I made for my Mother, I built a paper flower box and filled it with all sorts of flowers on springs (saved from old click-pens) and bees on floral wire.

I found the image "Bloom Where You Are Planted" online and scaled/printed to size.  The birthday sentiment was cut using a Cricut cartridge. 

I experimented in making the box lid and wound up basically making a trimmed-down version of the box bottom for the lid.  I created a punched loop trim for the bottom of the box, pulled up the four corners of the box bottom and tied it all with a cute coordinating ribbon. 

For more information on the upcoming Motions and Folds Card Hop, please click HERE.

Enjoy your day ... hope yours is as "warm" as mine is, whether your summers are "personal" or otherwise!

Would you like to participate as a Blog Hop Stop on February 26??

Good afternoon, Crafters! 

I hope you all have enjoyed the "Feel the Love" Blog Hop sponsored by Jaime at Glitter Stamps and Paper Oh My.  If you're here to see my post on Cricut Cake, please scroll down one more posting.

Today, I am seeking Blog Stops for an upcoming Hop that I am hosting on February 26.  In this Hop, I'm asking participants to please show or feature a card or layout that has a unique fold or some sort of motion.  I hope you'll join me! 

If you're interested in joining this list of incredible cardmakers, please either leave a comment here or send me an e-mail at cardmonkey@comcast.net. 

Here are some ideas of cards I've made that include a unique fold and/or motion that would "qualify" for this Fold And Motion Challenge Blog Hop:

This is a slider card:

This card features an "M" fold to keep the flowers upright:

This get well card is really a folded box:

This notecard features a wrap fold:

This is a "spinning" card:

This is a pocket card (size is that of a credit card):

This card has a unique fold and pocket:

This is an Explosuion Box!!

This is a pocket blanket:  

Another pop-up card:

I didn't make this card, I found it as an idea on a blog. It uses a trifold shutter method:

Another cute card I found on a blog (Creative Moments with Sandy). It shows the side-step feature:

This is a wedding portfolion/invitation, using a pocket:

"Motion" of butterflies:

If you choose to participate, GREAT!!  Please let me know!  If you'd rather just hop along, please do put February 26 on your calendar.



Tata, June!

The month of June is almost history -- it was a busy one in which I celebrated the best parents in the world! On June 9, my mom Dorothy celebrated her 80th birthday -- a special day that in 2009, none of us ever thought she'd live to see. And less than 2 weeks later, we toasted Dad on Father's Day ... honoring him for the role he played in raising us 4 kids to the people we are today.

There's Mom, upper left here, looking gorgeous at Emily's October 2008 wedding ... and just four months later, Mom suffered a near-fatal brain stem stroke. Most people don't survive an occlusion in the basilar artery; Mom not only survived, but she's come all the way back to her vibrant, beautiful, able self. In September, she and Dad will celebrate 59 years together!

Mom taught me over the years to "bloom where you are planted." And she's instilled an eye for art and has placed value on creativity. So for "BIG-O" birthday, I wanted to give Mom a garden. Mr. Smiley and I flew to Florida for a five-day weekend with Mom and Dad, and bought Mom a large ceramic planter for her patio, crammed full with flowers. And here is the card I made for her:

The card is an "Explosion Box" that I've seen done on several of the inspirational blogs I've followed over the past few months. The base (royal blue, here) is cut from a 12"x12" piece of cardstock. I made a "party favor" box from brick-colored paper to serve as the flower box. I hot-glued it into the center of the base, then cut dozens of assorted flowers to glue into the box. The leftover paper from which I cut the flowers (I call them "gadribbles") were so pretty that I stacked them together to use to decorate the inside of the box. I found a nice card print/clip-art picture online that applied ("Bloom Where You Are Planted"), so I used it for the center rear of the box. Happy Birthday text was cut from Cricut's Calligraphy cartridge.

I kind of guessed at a box lid (didn't follow any templates), and decorated its edges by cutting it with one of my go-to Martha Stewart Around-the-Corner punches, this one in double loops. Folded up the edges, capped it with the lid, tied it with some ribbon and VOILA!

I hope you like it as much as I had fun remembering how Mom's helped me blossom throughout the years.