Wow, what a weekend that was with lots of great projects shared in the Royal Blog Tour!  I appreciate all the visits and comments folks let for my projects.  Its a lot of fun to hear from people who stop by.  As promised, I’ll be sharing the details for the Northern Hearts gift box today.

If you are a member of my mailing list, you will receive a link to a pdf tutorial for this box will full step-by-step instructions tomorrow when I send out the November newsletter.  Not a member of my mailing list?  There is still time to sign up and receive the full tutorial as well.

Making the Gift Box

To create this box, you need two pieces of cardstock:
– one 9 3/4” x 9 3/4” piece of  bashful blue cardstock for the base of the box
– one 5 3/8” x 5 3/8” piece of bashful blue cardstock for the lid of the box

Stamp the 9 3/4” square piece of cardstock with the snowflakes from the Northern Hearts stamp set in a random pattern.  I stamped using bashful blue ink and chose not to stamp the lid.

Score the large square at 3 1/4” from each side.  Score the small square 1” from each side.  Crease your score lines using a bone folder.  Then, using the score lines as a guide, cut along the score lines to allow you to fold each square into a box.  Specifically, you want to cut from the top edge of the paper to the first horizontal score line in the middle of the page, repeat that only cutting from the bottom of the paper to the first horizontal score line you come to.

You will want to use sticky strip to adhere the flaps you just cut to form the box.  Because this is a 3D project, most tape runners and glue sticks don’t give you a strong enough hold to support being picked up and used to hold weight.  Here is a photo showing where I cut my paper and placed the sticky strip pieces:

Remove the backing of the sticky strip and fold the sides in to create your box and lid.  Now to embellish!

I first used the Northern Trim letterpress die to create two strips of colored debossing.  One cool thing about the dimensions of this box, is that you can use one debossed strip for two sides of the lid.  So, I used Confetti White paper with Always Artichoke and Rose Red craft ink to create my two strips.  I trimmed the strips down to make four 3/4” x 3 3/8” strips.  Adhere these strips to each side of the box lid; they should fit exactly as long as each side of the lid and be centered vertically so that you see some Bashful Blue above and below the trim.

Next I stamped the birds image from the Northern Hearts stamp set and matted that with some Always Artichoke paper (the Whisper White paper is popped up on dimensionals).  Adhere to your “front” of your box.  Then, I decided to add a little bling, and so I placed some of the adhesive-backed Rhinestones to the center flower on each side of the lid and in the upper corners of the bird stamped image.

Finally, to create the handle, I used my Crop-a-dile to punch a hole on the sides adjacent to the “front” of the box.  Because I used jumbo eyelets, you will want to use the bigger of the two hole punches (3/16″) with the Crop-a-dile set to let you punch as deep as possible.  Once you’ve punched the hole, use the Crop-a-dile to set a jumbo pewter eyelet to finish it off.  Thread some Whisper White Organza ribbon through the eyelet and knot on the inside of the box to create your handle (I had to knot the ribbon twice on each side to ensure the know was big enough to not slip through the hole in the eyelet.

Overall, this is a very easy project to complete and can be completed fairly quickly.

As I mentioned before, mailing list subscribers will get the full PDF tutorial for this project which include step-by-step instructions with more photos, so if you are not a subscriber, I invite you to join now and I’ll be sure you get a copy..

If you have any questions about this project, please feel free to leave me a comment or send me an email and I’d be happy to help you out!

Also, if you need any supplies for this project, contact me or shop the online store now.

If you entered my Blog Candy for a chance to win this box full of goodies, check back later today when I will be announcing the winner!  Until then, happy stamping!