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!

My Creativity is Ever Blooming!

Did I mention that my creativity was set ablaze (not merely "sparked") at the recent Creating Keepsakes Convention in Valley Forge?

At one of the booths I visited ... I'm pretty sure it was sponsored by Scrappily Ever After ... the exhibitor featured Punch Bunch paper punches. The punches cut out simple shapes such as a pear or an apple, a sun, a daisy, and a variety of leaves. You can use these shapes to build flowers that resemble something you might see in a garden, like the daisy top right (pic) ... or something seen only in your imagination (bottom left). Both are just as pretty, I think!

There was a demonstration of the use of a tool kit and steps used to create beautiful paper flowers using everyday cardstock. The tool kit consists of a stylus with interchangeable tips (some round, some pointed), a stylus and reverse tweezers. The tool kit is pictured here. The "trick" is to rub the cut-outs with a tool to soften the paper and to "give the leaf life." (Try saying "leaf life" 5 times quickly!)

To rub the cut-outs (or "punch" outs), one handy trick I learned was to use a hard foam piece as a support underneath the piece of paper you're softening. The demonstrator (Jeanne) recommended a mouse pad or a foam door hanger that you can get for $1 at any local crafts store.

A handy tip: Jeanne said she likes to use the door hanger because she tapes a piece of waxed paper in the opening of the door hanger. She uses the waxed paper as a place where she puts a glob of glue that she uses sparingly to assemble the paper flowers.

The punches are versatile! Who would think that a pear shape becomes a petal, and the sun can be "stirred" to form the puffy part of a stamen or a flower itself, like a clover flower. (See my picture of the flowers I made, upper left here. The green clover flower at the lower right was made scrunching up 5 punches of a sun!)

For the center of the daisies (upper right), I used a product I found at the same table. It's called Flower Soft and is pictured here, at right. It is acid-free pvc shavings that have been dyed a variety of colors. A little pinch goes a VERY long way!

I will be posting soon to show you how I use these beauties on cards, in shadow box frames, and more. Oh my, how I love paper crafting!