Matchbox Box

I just love little boxes that hold all odds and ends that I do not know where to put. Last year I made an advent tower/box out of matchboxes that I had made, but I did not have a score board so I drew up a template to use and hand cut 24 boxes and covers and scored using a ruler and embossing tool, it took what felt like forever.

I have seen these matchbox kits on the internet for a long while and have always wanted to make one but have been too stingy to buy the kit, so my summer holiday challenge to myself was to make a matchbox using my Martha Stewart scoreboard. I know I could probably have done a web search to find instructions but I am not that good on a computer plus broadband is pretty pants in the area I live in, the connection keeps breaking up. 

I am pleased to say that once I had the pattern sorted in my head it was fairly easy to do. I have even managed to do the measurements so that each side is scored the same.

 But as yet I haven't been able to work out the cover in inches only in centimetres, so I mark where the score lines should be then line up the card on the MS board and do it that way.

This box is just the right size to keep four different sets of brads in, or Lucy could keep some of  her jewellery in it. Now I know I can make these  boxes easily I can make lots of storage towers, or mini desks, or sets of drawers. Then I can buy more brads to go in them!!  

Special Date Book

This book is like a birthday book but it holds all the extra dates you need as well, like anniversary's. I first saw this book  in  papercraft inspirations about two years ago and thought it looked amazing as well as extremely useful.

I made my book big enough to hold A6 cards but the book can be made to hold any size card. I decided to use book rings to hold my pages together but it could easily be made using the bind-it-all. I have now made four of these books for close friends.

To make this book:

I used chipboard

 book rings

 plain card stock

 patterned paper

 ribbon

 punches cricut to cut the top note shape

 The tabs are made from my 'stampin up' tab punch to which I have added a tiny oblong of white card to write the month on. I have also made 3 wallets to inside the book by cutting down A5 plastic wallets, these can hold slightly bigger cards than the pockets allow.

 As you can see I have put the printed out months on the left hand side and on the right hand side the patterned paper is the pocket for cards to be stored in. All I need to do now is fill the book with cards ready  for everyone's birthday.

I finished  the outside of the book by tying various types of ribbon around the book rings.

The lovely thing about making these books is that you can use any paper and card, it can be from a set or  paper that you would not necessarily use on a layout. If the card stock is not heavy enough you could glue or stitch two pieces together. 

Karen is making one of these books too, hers is bigger, it will hold A5 cards and she has matched the paper to the months, so for February the paper reflects valentines, for September the paper reflects the start of autumn.

Wedding Card

I was asked to make a Wedding Card for an Ethnic wedding. I was really pleased with the result but unfortunately the pictures do not do the colours justice. I chose to use really vibrant purple, pink and green with gold card and purple gems. I also added green, pink, purple and gold ribbon.    

The gold card for the backing looked too bright so I aged it using dark grey acrylic paint which I rubbed over the embossed panel with a piece of kitchen towel then buffed just small area's to let the gold colour really shine through. I used the sizzix paisley embossing folder for the background and hearts, you cannot see the shapes on the hearts but they looked so much better once I had embossed them. I used the cricut wedding cartridge for the hearts. I added the ribbon to bring the design altogether, then added the gems to some of the paisley patterns..

Love

Lucy has recently celebrated her birthday, she had a great time and her birthday was spread over a week as we went away the day before her actual birthday.

One of Lucy's presents was this love ornament. Lucy painted it blue then added her friend's names, I had to giggle to myself as when she added her boyfriend's name she attached it using magnetic tape just in case she goes off him, what a girl!!

The pink dots are candy from Craftwork Cards, Lucy added glitter to them to make them sparkle in her room. The lettering was cut using my old sizzix machine and the girls are weird font set.

Lucy is very pleased with how this project turned out, so as well as decopatching everything she will also be altering lots of things. Hope our cat can run fast as Lucy has always wanted a ginger cat.

Chistmas Book

 While sorting through my stash looking for a particular paper I found this blue sheet that reminded me of Christmas and snowfakes falling, I thought it was perfect for a Christmas Book so I matched it up with Bazzill Swiss Dots card and this is what I made.

Side View

 I have added gossy accents to the cover to give it texture that is in keeping with the swiss dots card. I used Faded Jeans distress ink, if I can find some blue ribbon I might add that to the binding.

Front

Divider

 

Divider for

menu's



Divider for receipts

These Christmas Books are great gifts for people who love to be organised, but the down side is the books I have made have been so loved that no one wants to write in them for fear of spoiling them. I must admit I have not liked to write in mine so I have put post-it notes on the pages!!!!

Basic Grey

Basic Grey is the maker of my favourite papers, I just love Basic Grey and have a whole stash of paper that is purely to look at and stroke.

So when I found this card making kit at a greatly reduced price it seemed rude not to buy it. This is the Baby Card Kit with Sugared/Archaic papers, it is just fab.

 When making the cards from this kit you can make the cards by following the instructions given or by adding extras such as gems, ink,glitter or whatever else you have stored away. In this case I have used my own card base so as to make the cards bigger and used glossy accents, added faux stitching, glitter and inked.

I know this is a very old Basic Grey kit but I am a believer in using what you like when you like not just because something is new and in fashion.

Male Card

To make these cards I used a Tim Holtz stamp and Tim Holtz film strip ribbon, along with Tim Holtz distress inks and perfect pearls mixed with water then spritzed onto the card using, yep you've guessed it, Tim Holtz mini misters.

On this card I blended two inks together then matted it onto green cardstock before attaching it to a card blank.

For this card I blended three inks together and used dark brown cardstock as a matt. To hold the film strip ribbon in place I used glossy accents which I then also used to highlight the clock.

 

To make these cards more personal you could stamp images behind the film strip ribbon that go with the person you are giving the card to or you could put photographs behind the film strip, they could be printed out using effects that match the colours used on the card front.