While I can and do make my own boxes and bags, sometimes it’s nice to have the work done for me. So I was easily drawn to the Little Treat Box Dies in the Stampin’ Up! August To December 2020 Mini Catalogue. The set consists of one main die that cuts and scores the actual treat box plus nine more dies for various embellishments and labels. So now I’ve had the chance to play with the Little Treat Box Dies I thought I’d share a few tips and tricks.

TIPS FOR DIRECTIONAL PATTERNS

You can use the main Little Treat Box Die to cut card and paper, and I’ve done both. First up I made one with plain card and used stamps from the coordinating Little Treats Stamp Set to decorate it. Then I made a box using patterned paper with a pattern that could work in any direction.

But then I thought… what if the pattern needed to be a certain way, like trees growing up? The fact that the die cuts the whole treat box in one piece makes this a little problematic. The pattern would be fine on the front, but upside down on the back, and that wouldn’t do at all! So to solve that I filmed a way to get around that problem, instead of trees I used Christmas decorations to illustrate my point.

So as you can see in the video, by cutting part of the die twice I have solved the directionality issue.

To complete my Christmas treat package I used the coordinating Little Treats Stamp Set and Night of Navy ink. I stamped the “Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas” sentiment into some Thick Very Vanilla Card. Then I cut it out using a die from the Little Treat Box Dies.

After that I added a little more interest by cutting a single ornament image from the DSP scraps using Paper Snips. Then I attached the bottom of it to the sentiment with a dot of Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow). Finally using Stampin’ Dimensionals I attached the assembled sentiment to the front of the package.

HOW MANY FROM A SHEET?

So now you know how to deal with the directionality issue I thought you might appreciate some tips to get the most from a sheet of card or patterned paper.

With the main die being 5-1/2″ x 7″ it’s possible to cut two from an 8-1/2″ x 11″ piece of cardstock. Simply cut your card to 5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″, trim it to 7″ if you want, and you’re good to go.

As we’ve discovered though, things aren’t quite so straightforward with patterned paper.

From a 12″ x 12″ piece of paper with no definite direction you could simply cut two pieces 5-1/2″ x 7″ and make two treat boxes. But you can get a third box from the sheet with a little extra work.

After cutting your two 5-1/2″ x 7″ pieces you’ll be left with a piece 5″ x 11″ or 12″ (depending on how you make your first cut). Then from the piece that’s left you can cut two part boxes as I showed in my video and use these to make a third box.

But what if the paper has a direction? Well you can still get 3 boxes from your 12″ x 12″ sheet. This time cut the sheet into six 4″ x 5-1/2″ pieces and cut the half box from each piece. Just make sure that the ‘top’ of the paper is always at the rounded part of the die.

Now here’s the best part. If you can cut half a box from a 4″ x 5-1/2″ piece of paper, you can make a box with 6″ x 6″ paper. You’ll just need to use two sheets and die-cut one half box from each sheet. Then you’ll have two 2″ x 6″ strips left over that you can use for other projects.

TREAT BOXES FOR ANY OCCASION

Being able to create these little treat packages from any card or paper I have in my studio is a huge bonus. Suddenly that treat box die reveals a whole new set of possibilities for so many occasions. What do you think?

For the other two treat boxes I’ve made so far using the Little Treats Dies, see these previous blog posts:

• Here’s a Little Treat sneak peek
• Spider season is almost here

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Little Treats Stamp Set and Little Treat Box Dies using a single ‘bundle’ item number. This meant I saved 10% off the cost of buying the two products separately. I’ve included links for both options so you can explore these for yourself if you wish.