Gingerbread Explosion Box

Those who know me well know that I would pick crafting over Christmas shopping any day. That's why practically everyone on our gift list (except my mom and our granddaughter who give us their wishlist) gets giftcards from us at Christmas. That may sound like a boring gift, but at Christmas I make every effort to make giving and receiving giftcards fun for me as well as the recipient.

The giftcard holder everyone received from us this Christmas was this gingerbread house explosion box. The basic pattern for the gingerbread house was adapted from a Birdhouse Explosion Box cutting file I picked up from My Scrap Chick. The decorative elements on the inside and outside of the house were created from a collection of new and old svg cutting files from Doodlebug, My Scrapchick and Lori Whitlock as well as a few old dies from Taylored Expressions and Quickutz. Not showing up too well in the photos but everything "snow" was edged with Stickles glue to add some sparkle.

Lifting the roof (lid) off the house"opens" the explosion box. I left one corner of the box attached so I could create a corner of the room to add a fireplace and window. I added pockets for the giftcards to the other two sides of the box that opened flat. 

It was so much fun decorating the inside of the box with fun little details like rhinestone ornaments on the tree, stockings on the chimney and the silhouette of santa and his reindeer in the window.

I used a Doodlebug print and cut clipart from the Lori Whitlock store to create giftcard holder inserts to slide into the pockets.

Doodlebug gingerbread girl clipart from the Lori Whitlock store was used to create these hang tags for the gingerbread houses.

Final step: wrapping in cellophane and red gingham ribbon. I amazed even myself that I was able to complete a dozen of these in time for Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Baby Explosion Box

Seems I've recently become fascinated with Explosion Box type cards that have 3 dimensional surprises tucked inside. The truth is these Explosion Boxes have always caught my eye... and happily now that I'm retired I have the extra time to spend needed to put these things together! Decided I would try and put one together for a nephew who was recently blessed with a beautiful baby boy.

The original idea for this baby Converse sneaker Explosion Box came from a German craft blog, Basteltante Doreen. I was pleasantly surprised to find quite a few templates for baby shoes and sneakers like on the internet; I used this one found on Pinterest and had Make the Cut render it into a cutting file. I did struggle a bit with gluing all the pieces together but after adding the eyelets and ribbon I thought it looked pretty much like a shoe should.

Had fun piecing together all the cute baby things to embellish the inside panels and cover of the box. Teddy bear comes from the Lori Whitlock store and his bow was cut from a Mama Elephant die; onsie was a freebie cutting file from the Quilling Patch; and the bib, bottle and sailboat are from Cricut's Baby Steps cartridge. I added a pocket to one of the panels to hold a gift card.

Here it is with the side panels all up and the cover fitted on top. Guess the one disadvantage about these Explosion Boxes is that they don't fold flat to fit into an envelope for mailing!

Fathers Day Explosion Box

It's Fathers Day, and believe it or not, I somehow managed to come up with yet another golf themed card for hubby. His Fathers Day card this year was an Explosion Box card... it's been quite awhile since I last made one of these, but have you noticed how creative and clever card makers have continued to evolve the look of the Explosion Box card by adding miniature 3 dimensional scenes inside? Of course I just had to try one with a golf course scene, right!

For the focal point of my golf course scene, I purchased a template for a very cool looking 3-D golf cart/gift card holder designed by Lorri Heiling from her blog, Confessions of A Stamping Addict. I'm not exactly sure on the actual size of  Lori's original golf cart, but I believe her template creates a cart approximately 5 inches long, and 3 inches high where the gift card sits on the roof of the cart. Lorri's cart even has a place on the back of the cart which can hold real golf tees! But for my purposes here, I needed the golf cart to be really, really tiny so it would fit inside my explosion box. I used Make the Cut design program to shrink the template so the finished size of the cart would not be more than 2 inches in length. I also replaced the tee holder from the original template with a miniature golf bag which I made by rolling cardstock into a tube and filling with mini golf clubs cut using  a cutting file created from a coloring book image.

Different than the usual Explosion Box cards where all four sides of the box fall open, I kept two  adjoining sides together so they would remain standing to create a corner for my scene. Luckily, golf course scenes are pretty simple to recreate, so most of the landscape was hand cut. The trees are a Doodlebug cutting file from the Lori Whitlock shop and the clouds were created in Make the Cut.  I added my sentiment to one of sides that falls open and a pocket for a gift card to the other.

Here's the finished box all put together with the lid on. Thought it looked a bit too plain so I snuck a couple of  tees from hubby's stash and added a bow to make it look a little more festive. Not a fancy card, but hoping hubby will like it!

Birthday Explosion Box

I've been totally in awe of the beautifully embellished explosion boxes created and shared by Monika on her blog, and was excited to try one for my mil's birthday.

I only wish I had the time and skills to have created my own paper roses for this card, but since I was pressed for time, I used Prima roses and blossoms and leaves from All Natural Accents from my stash instead.

Butterflies were cut from Cheery Lynn Designs Small Exotic Butterfly set and put to flight above the blossoms with a strips of clear acetate. Box sides were embellished using a Martha Stewart doily edge punch and fancy labels with sentiments cut on the Silhouette. On one of the sides I created a pocket with a tiny pink vellum envie for a gift card or cash. Very simple, but the element of surprise you get when the cover is lifted and the sides drop is very cool.

And here's the box closed up with it's lid in place...unfortunately I couldn't get the lid to fit snug enough so I ended up tying it up with some sheer ribbon and a bow to ensure the lid would stay put until it was ready to be opened. Had lots of fun putting this together...now I need to start practicing on making some paper roses so I can try this again!