House Box Paper Luminaries

I have been house building! It took me 3 obsessed days to work out the perfect measurements to make a house box luminary out of one 8.5 x 11 inch paper. And then, I spent another 2 days making it bigger. I was inspired by a gingerbread house die by Tonic Studios which then lead me to the Sizzix Village Dwelling die by Tim Holtz. That die set is what ultimately inspired my final prototype. (That die is the base for a bunch of add-on dies which transform the base house into different themes and additional shapes, like a dormer or bell tower. It's a seriously genius product!)

Several things contributed to the way I figured out how to make these from scratch:

1. A tutorial on how to make a house box with the envelope punch board by Paper Passions. This is what started it all. Seriously clever!
2. I have an envelope punch board but what if you don't? I love watching videos by Pootles Papercraft (a UK Stampin' Up! Demonstrator). I've seen her make milk carton boxes before and she shows how to get the angled top. I decided to follow that instead of using the punch board.
3. The Sizzix Village Die set (including add ons). People have created amazing stuff with them. I was going to purchase it but I didn't want to wait for shipping! I wanted to see if I could DIY my own version.

At the end of the experiments, I have 10 prototypes to show you! Let me take you on my journey.

During the prototype sizing stage, I was working only on sizing: how big of a box I could get from a full sheet of paper. Then I went down to half-sheets of 8.5 x 11 inch paper. How big could I get those? Therefore, there was pretty much no decorating at this point.

Here are the combinations I came up with:

I did a few with the flat of the roof as front-facing (boxes 1 and 5). The rest have a side-facing roof. I also did a few with the chimney to one side and some with the chimney straddling the roof fold. Keep in mind, these are totally unfinished. I was just going for size here.

However, just to show how it might start to look like a house, I put windows and a door on one. The door is actually a little foyer (a mini house attached to the front) with a little roof of its own. The porch posts are designed the same as the side chimney, only up-side down so that the angle part attaches to the underside of the roof.

Imagine! Here are some possibilities:

• Decorate the side-facing roof lines with a border punched trim (boxes 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7)
• Add a porch step
• Add window boxes
• Add snow to the chimney tops and roof tops
• Add cotton coming out of the chimney as smoke
• Use paper straws, mini dowels or even round toothpicks as porch posts

Of course, there are a myriad of finishing touches too (e.g. use embossing folders, create a base for the house to sit on so that you can put a fence around the yard and greenery in the yard, use patterned paper to create a theme: gingerbread, Christmas, cottage, beach, haunted house) but there are too many to list.

Here's how the sizing worked out. Once I determined the size of the base I liked best, I could then experiment with the height. The heights shown in the previous picture are what you get when you maximize the paper you started with (8.5 x 11 inches or 5.5 x 8.5 inches).

8.5 x 11 inch sheets:

Box 1: Base 2.5 inches square, Height 6 inches to highest point of roof

Box 2: Base 2.25 x 3 inches, Height 6.25 inches to highest point of roof

Box 3: Base 2 x 3 inches, Height 6.5 inches to highest point of roof

Box 4: Base 2.5 x 2 inches, Height 6.75 inches to highest point of roof

5.5 x 8.5 inch sheets:

Box 5: Base 1.75 inches square, Height 3.75 inches to highest point of roof

Box 6: Base 2.25 x 1.75 inches, Height 3.75 inches to highest point of roof

Box 7: Base 2.25 x 1.5 inches, Height 4 inches to highest point of roof

My favourites were boxes 2 and 4.

So, I started with box 2 (2.25 x 3) and made this prototype at 3.75 inches tall.

Again, this is largely unfinished! I just took the prototype a little further by embossing the roof, cutting out the doors and windows, and adding a porch step. The windows are covered with vellum.

I wanted my boxes to open. So, on this prototype, I used magnets on the back of the roof. I had to use a side chimney because a centre chimney (that straddles the roof) would block the roof from unfolding to open the box.

I was very very happy with this box! However, it felt a wee bit small to me. It is hard to reach in there - and I have little fingers!

So, I decided to abandon my obsession with making it fit on one piece of paper. I went with 1.5 pieces. Doing this allowed me to make a bigger base. This house box is 3.25 x 3.5 inches and 4.25 inches tall.

Using separate pieces of paper also allowed me to have one wall totally separate from the house. By doing that, I could attach it at the floor and have the whole back of the house open up! (You can still choose to adhere it shut, however.)

Magnets are expensive though. So, I also experimented with tabs to tuck the back wall and the roof in as a closure. Lastly, I wanted to use a centre chimney, so I also used tabs to hold it on. The chimney pops out to open the box.

I liked this size much better! But... I felt like this house was "fat". The side wall was too wide. So, I played with the dimensions once more. This is it. This is the size I like the best!

I also experimented with my own doors. The windows and doors to this point came from a Top Dog die set. (Top Dog dies was the wafer-thin die arm of Accucut Craft but it has since closed down.) I used free clipart online and altered it in Inkscape to create my own die cut door to cut on my Brother Scan'N'Cut. I made matching round-top windows, but I didn't cut those for my prototype. (If the door worked, the windows should work.)

(By the way, you can DIY your own round top door using a circle punch and cutting only one end of a rectangle - the same way I made my Popsicle shape. You can use a small circle or square punch to make a hole for a door window, if you want too. And you can use a score board to emboss some planks in the door.)

I also did up the roof differently. I know I plan to use my scalloped border punch to make scalloped shingles (especially for a gingerbread house!) but I liked the whimsical look from odd-sized shingles. (It is an add-on to the Sizzix house die.) I used my Accucut Craft 3/8ths strip maker die to cut evenly spaced slits in paper strips. Then I randomly cut the ends shorter and longer to get this textured roof. I also "beat up" the paper a little before sticking it down. (This roof took a really long time.)

Lastly, I didn't want the chimney to get lost when you open the box. So, I attached it with ribbon. You can pull it up to open the roof, but the tabs won't come all the way out.

There you have it! My final prototype! Here's the best part. I put battery-operated flickering tea-light candles inside!

Of course, if you want to make it a gift box, you don't need to cut out the windows and doors. You can just adhere them straight on to the house so that your box will be solid for whatever it holds. (Looking at them this way, I'm liking the side chimney more.) Here's the back view of the houses:

Now that I have 10 pages of notes, sizes and diagrams so that I can make a whole village of various-sized house boxes, my obsession has subsided. (Once the idea is made real, I can let it go.) Maybe (just maybe) I might make one house per year and slowly build a village. (I have a prototype for a pyramid topped roof tower percolating in my mind - to mimic the church bell tower add-on in the Sizzix set.)

You could seriously go to town decorating these things. Again, these are my prototypes with pretty much no decoration - just structure. Google search for the Village Dwelling die. You will see amazing things. Tim Holtz also has a house box called the Brownstone. My tall, skinny box #3 looks like it. One person attached one of those to the squatter house as an addition. It's so cool. Oh, the possibilities!

Husky Treat Bags

When I make a batch of dog cookies for our Husky, I always get more than I think I will use in the two weeks they are good for. (She could eat them all but she shouldn't!) So, I give some away to my fellow doggie parents at work and at my husband's work. I was really enthusiastic the first time and made these baggies.

I used a tutorial from Pootles for the treat bag. It's actually quite a decent size. It looks so good when made out of patterned paper!

I used the fox from Your Next Stamp's Woodland Cuties stamp set (with matching dies) and coloured it like my Husky. (I am going to get SO much use of out this image!)

I was pretty pleased with it. It holds 5 to 10 cookies. I made the cookies with a dog bone cookie cutter but we always break it into smaller pieces when we give her some as treats. I'm thinking that the next time I make these cookies, I will just cut the dough up into little, bite size squares. (I keep looking for a mini heart-shaped cookie cutter, but I can never find little ones.)

How did I do colouring Shadow? Here is my muse:

Merry Christmas 2015

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope your Christmas/Holidays are filled with family, friends, hugs and smiles!

I know I've got big smiles! My Christmas wrapping WON the Accucut Craft November 2015 Project Challenge! Woohoo! Depending on what Santa brings, I've got some thinking to do on what to do with my store credit prize!

Here's the winning package:

It's a tall gable box die. I also used their ornament die. I coated the ornaments with Wink of Stella glitter and then put a paper punched snowflake in the middle. I cut the toppers from some scraps of gorgeous gold foil paper I have.

The branches are a Martha Stewart punch. I saw one at Scrapfest and resisted buying it. My friend bought it and I was glad. But... when I saw it two weeks later at Michaels and it was the last one and I had a 50% coupon, I caved and bought it. This punch was all the rage 1 or 2 years ago. I'm glad I've finally found it!

I made 2 other gable boxes for the contest too, both of which I am using to package some gifts this year. Here's the frosty Christmas Tree:

This was my favourite of the boxes. I die cut the box and then splattered watered down white acrylic paint on it. The splats came out way blobbier than I intended but it still looks fine. The tree is a Memory Box die I cut from purple metallic cardstock.

I have some tiny confetti starts so I glued those on (not easy). The snowflake has the "to" "from" on the back and I cut it from an Accucut Craft die. All the tags on these boxes has a little jingle bell from either the Dollar Store or Dollar Tree. They aren't the prettiest of jingle bells because they have just a single line on the bottom, not a "T" shape like other jingle bells. But, they still make a cute little tinkle and for something that is likely to get tossed, it does the job just fine!

Lastly, I have the gingerbread man box. This one was the easiest to do! I think it's super cute.

I got the ribbon on sale at Michael's during post-Thanks-giving clearance. It's quite thick but I think it was the perfect trim for this project. The Gingerbread man is another favourite holiday die I have from Accucut Craft. The Star over his hear is too.

Enjoy the holiday! Stay warm and safe!

Winter is Coming for 2015

I've been working on some Christmas / Holiday / Winter projects of late. Our last two card workshops were all Christmas / Seasonal cards. But first, I'd like to show you a decor piece I've made for myself.

I've been on an ornament kit this year too (not for the holidays but for another, future, secret project). While working on them, I bought extras to make snow globe scenes. I really wanted to do the ornament version, but I thought, why not try my gable box?

I made an acetate gable box. Then I lined the inside with the blue snowflake paper. I lined the outside with a silver embossed snowflake paper. Inside the box window I created, I spaced out 4 layers of snowy hillsides with Stardust Stickles glitter glue on their edges.

Then, I added my hillside fixings: a stag (Cottage Cutz), Evergreen Trees (Quickutz) and little houses (my own die cut design on my Brother Scan'N'Cut). It was not easy to work with the acetate. This display is staying home with me, as I am unlikely to make another!

I opened the top of the box and dumped in some fake snow. It's like shredded cellophane with a nice sheen.

What holiday crafts have you been up to? What ones are on your bucket list?

No Stick Halloween Treat Boxes

I found this "no stick" box design online by Linda Parker, a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. Cute box, but I wanted to get the biggest dimensions possible from an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock. So, following the pattern she shows, I re-worked the measurements to make my box. I used my Scor Pal eighths to make it. Man, am I glad they brought that version out because this box has LOTS of eighths measurements!

My finished box size measures 2.25 inches by 2 and 5/8th inches by 1 and 1/8th inches high. While the box itself doesn't need any glue or tape, the glittered doily on it did! I picked those up pretty cheap last year at the end-of-season-sales from Michaels Craft Stores. I put them on the top and then had to snip them to continue on the sides and front of the box.

My box can easily hold 3 Giradelli chocolates. (MAN those things are TASTY!)

I really liked Linda's style of box because the little lip at the front helps to keep the lid closed. I'm a big fan of UK Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, Sam Donald ("Pootles") too. She has a number of "no stick" boxes and a whole bunch of "fold flat" boxes too.

I'm entering this project into the Scor Pal "more than one score" October Challenge which is Treat Holder themed. These ones are going to my nephews this year. I might think about some Christmas themed ones to put in stockings though. I think those would be cute!