Exploding Box

This tutorial will explain how to make the fun and versatile gift of a Exploding Box. Here I have pictured how it looks as a regular box.

For this project you will need:

• 3 sheets of 12 x 12 card stock (2 will be trimmed down a little bit)
• 3 coordinating pieces of designer paper 
• 7 1/8 x 7 1/8 cardstock for the cover
• 25 inch of ribbon 
• Rhinestones, brads, Candy dots with candy dot brad bases page 171
• Your favorite stamp set for your saying. I used the Layered Labels with matching framelit page 104 and 187
• Multi Purpose liquid glue on page 175
• Sticky Strip on page 175
• Embossing folder of your choice
• 7/8 inch scallop circle to add cute flowers on page 182
• Scoring tool of some kind. I used the simply scorer on page 178
• Corner rounder sold on page 181
• Snail adhesive sold on page 174

So let's get started.

1. Starting with your 3 sheets of solid cardstock. Choose which order you would like them in. I have used Smokey Slate, Gumball Green, and Calypso Coral.

• The Smoke Slate will be my bottom layer 
•  so that will stay a 12 x 12.
• Gumball Green is my next layer. I will trim this one to measure 11 3/4 x 11 3/4
• Calypso Coral is my top or third layer. I will trim that to measure 11 1/2 x 11 1/2.

Next Step is the Scoring. Score each piece at 4 inches, then rotate and score again at 4 inches, rotate again and score at 4 inches, and rotate and score again at 4 inches. You should end up with 9 different squares on each piece of cardstock. 

• Now there is a little cutting involved. On all three pieces of cardstock, cut out the corner squares, so you end up with a cross or plus sign. They should look like the photo above. 
• Using the corner rounder punch, round all of the corners of all three layers.

Next we want to add our splash of fun with your coordinating designer paper. I used the beautiful Watercolor Paper sold on page 23 of the current Mini Catalog.
Here are the sizes for those papers.

• 1st layer on my Smokey Slate. 4 pieces of 3  3/4 x 3  3/4.
• Middle layer on my Gumball Green. 4 pieces of 3  1/2  x  3  3/4
• Top layer on my Calypso Coral. 4 pieces of  3  1/4  x  3  3/4.
• Round just two of the corners on these pieces that will be on the top part
• Glue designer papers on to the appropriate card stock using our snail adhesive.

Using the liquid glue, apply glue to the back center square of the second layer and glue it to the center of the bottom or gray layer.
Apply glue then to the top or Coral layer and apply that to the center of the 2nd layer to look like this when finished.

Next, we will start adding some embellishments to our box. I used the 2  1/2 inch circle punch sold on page 182 and cut out a Daffadil Delight circle and then embossed it with one of the many cute ones that Stampin Up has featured on page 191.
I then stamped the saying "For You" with our Label Love stamp set and Gumball Green. Using the Big Shot and framelits that coordinate with the stamp set, cut out our cute label to top off the circle as shown. Make another set just like this to put on the top of your box cover too.

Next comes our cover.

Using the 7 1/8  x 7  1/8 piece of Gumball Green cardstock, score it on all four sides at 1 1/2. On two of the sides, make a slit up to the score line.

Fold the edges up on the score lines and tuck the corner tabs in to form the lid. This is where I use my the sticky strip on those corner tabs to keep your lid together. Sticky Strip is great for this kind of project that gets a lot of use.

We will now decorate the outside of our box. Using some of the cardstock from the Squares that you cut out way back on step one, cut 4 strips of 1 1/2 x 4. Also using any of the coordinating designer paper, cut 4 strips of 1 x 4. Glue these together. I then added a brad on each end and glued them on the four backsides of the bottom layer. Make sure to have them fairly close to the bottom score line of your four tabs so that when you close your box and put your cover on, there will be a slight space between your cover and this cute decoration.

One more thing before we close the box!! 

 Using some of the left over cardstock from those squares you cut out, cut some cute little scallop circles to make some cute flowers. I cut two and kind of ruffles them up before I put my brad in. I then attached them to my flap using one of our dimensionals sold on page 175. You can put them on all the flaps or space them out whichever you prefer!!  Fun, Fun!

Using another one of your left over squares, use one of your favorite emboss folders and attach it to the top of your box cover. Remember to round the corners. Attach your circle and cute saying too. Ooops almost forgot. I added some rhinestones to the ends of the For You label for a little bling.

Attach your ribbon around the cover. I like to add a little snail to hold it in place.

Well I hope you have fun making this fun project. Fill it with goodies for a fun gift that will "explode" before their very eyes!

Enjoy and thanks for stopping.

Paulette