Yesterday my friend Carol reminded me that was only 63 days to Christmas. That’s three months, but as crafters you and I know that time will simply fly by. So to get us all prepared I thought I should do a weekly series on gift packaging. Today I have a simple box. It’s essentially an open tray, and if you want a lid you make another slightly larger tray. The trick is to get the two trays to fit well.

MAKING THE SIMPLE BOX

Some time ago I made a video explaining how to make this simple box. Although the finished project in this video is different from today’s box, the process is exactly the same.

My box today is larger and has a finished size of 6″ x 6″ x 3″. To make this I cut and scored the card as follows:

• Base – Very Vanilla Card 11-31/32″ x 11-31/32″, scored at 3″ each side
• Top – Pretty Peacock Card 8-1/2″ x 8-1/2″, scored at 1-1/4″ each side
• Very Vanilla Card mat on the top – 5-3/4″ x 5-3/4″
• Brightly Gleaming DSP on the top – 5-5/8″ x 5-5/8″
• 4 Very Vanilla Card side panels – 1″ x 5-3/4″
• 4 Brightly Gleaming DSP side panels – 7/8″ x 5-3/4″

As promised, here’s a tidied up version of the diagram I drew in the video. You can use this to calculate the cutting and scoring measurements for any simple box you need to make. The process will work for both square and rectangular boxes too.

PRETTY PAPER AND SENTIMENT

So my simple box today uses Very Vanilla Card for the bottom and Pretty Peacock Card for the top. I decorated the top with pieces from the Brightly Gleaming 12″ x 12″ Specialty Designer Series Paper (DSP) Pack.

To make the DSP stand out I mounted it onto Very Vanilla Card using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow).

My “Let’s celebrate you” sentiment comes from the Bloom & Grow Stamp Set. First I wiped a piece of Very Vanilla Card with an Embossing Buddy to remove any oils and static. Then I stamped the sentiment with VersaMark ink and sprinkled it with Copper Stampin’ Emboss Powder. Next I tapped off the excess embossing powder and removed some stray specks. Finally I melted the remaining powder using my Heat Tool set on 2 (high).

With that done I cut out the sentiment using the #C4 die from the Stitched Rectangles Dies. That’s the group of 8 nesting dies in the set, numbered counting from the smallest up. I then used liquid glue to fix the sentiment to a piece of Pretty Peacock Card cut with the #C5 die.

I assembled my simple boxes using liquid glue and added the sentiment to the top with Stampin’ Dimensionals. Then I finished it off with a little bling in the form of three Rhinestone Basic Jewels.

So that’s my first box done. Watch out for my second box tutorial next week.

PRODUCT LIST

UPDATE 2020: Sadly the Embossing Buddy and Copper Stampin’ Emboss Powder have retired and are no longer available from Stampin’ Up!