Gift for Christmas/Advent Calendar Box Tutorial

I have had MANY e-mails and comments about the projects I posted for the Control Freaks November 2010 Blog Tour where I was asked for dimensions/ instructions. I will do my best to hook y'all up here!

This is another sample of the Christmas Gift card I made HERE. These cards are really very simple to make. AND you could adapt them for to look like a present for ANY time of the year, which makes it a double bonus!!

First of all, cut a piece of cardstock to 8 1/2" x 4 1/4" to serve as the base. Fold it in half at the 4 1/4" point on the long side of the card stock (as pictured here). Cut a piece of cardstock to 4" x 4"; stamp/embellish and adhere to the card base.






Next, a half-cirlce "notch" along the top front edge of the card. Use adhesive to seal up the sides of your little "present" ...








For the flap (which we serve as the giftbox "lid") cut a piece of cardstock to 3" x 5 1/4". Fold in half lengthwise.





To create the "inside" of the present, cut a piece of cardstock to 3 1/4" by 4 3/4". I trimmed the Whisper White cardstock to 3" x 4 1/2" and then stamped my images on it (use the folded flap as a guideline to help you with the placement of your images so that they are not all "hidden" under the flap once you assemble the card). Use adhesive only along the bottom and halfway up each side of the top piece of cardstock. If you adhere it across the top, the card "lid" will be too tight and won't slide into the "present" as easily.

To assemble the lid/card inside, put some adhesive along the top of the top layer of cardstock that serves as the inside of the card (Whisper White for this card) and the top BACK of the bottom layer of cardstock (Cherry Cobbler for this card). Slide this layer into the flap you created earlier. You can see in this photo that if you look at the lid/inside of the card from the side that the top layer of cardstock sticks to the front inside flap of the lid, and the bottom layer of cardstock sticks to the back inside flap of the lid. I hope that this makes sense!! This is so that when you slide this piece into the "box" that it will have a little bit of give and slide in more easily.

Embellish the card as you wish. I did this card for TLC300 over on SCS, where we were asked to use two techniques we have learned over the years doing the TLC challenges. I chose to glitter up a background stamp (I added some Iridescent Ice embossing powder to some Whisper White embossing powder to emboss the Medallion ... too bad you can't see how sparkly it is in this photo!). I also used the Melted Ribbon technique on my satin/organza ribbon, which just kinda crinkled the edges. Pretty cool, eh??

Stamps: Medallion, Serene Snowflakes, Joy of the Season
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Old Olive
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Versamark
Accessories: Snowflake Punch, Northern Frost Die, 1/2" Circle Punch, Glimmer Brad, Rhinestone Sticker, Whisper White Satin/Organza Ribbon, Northern Flurry Textured Impression Folder, Whisper White and Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder

NOW ... as for the Advent Calendar Box pictured HERE ... it is pretty straight forward, actually. I used the Matchbox Die and cut out 24 little matchboxes. I then made stacks of boxes that were 6 boxes high. I wrapped each stack of 6 boxes down the sides and over the tops with patterned paper. You will then need a piece of patterned paper to come up the backside of the boxes and over the top and bottom. Make sure to only use adhesive on this piece where you adhere to the top of the stack and the bottom of the stack (if you put adhesive on the inside back of this piece it will stick to all the little drawers you have created, so DON'T do it!!). Then, you just put the boxes together as they are pictured ... the back (closed) side of one stack of boxes fits up next to the front (open) edge of the next stack of boxes ... gee whiz!! It is hard to explain what I mean so that it sounds like something resembling English!! I didn't want to have to go through and recreate an entire new Calendar Box so that I could do step-by-step photos for ya, but if you look at the completed thing you can probably figure out what it is I am trying to say. If not, sent me an email and I'll see if I can make it more clear to ya!! Then you just embellish the HECK out of it (with MORE patterned paper, numbers next to the boxes, ribbon, punches, glittery stuff) ... the sky is the limit!!