Present box...

I really, really wanted to join in the Pollycraft challenge this fortnight, but seem to have spent most of the two weeks trying to decide what to do.

Then some paints arrived that I had ordered from ebay and as soon as I saw the packaging I realised it was just too good to throw in the bin.


My first thought was to use the acetate box and just put a decorated image on the front, but on closer inspection I found the acetate was a bit scratched and marked. Then it struck me - why not use the box as a template?!

I carefully cut down one side to open the box out flat. Then I layed it on a piece of 12" x 12" card. It just fit - wow - how lucky was that? It would have been more sensible to have drawn round the template on the wrong side, but by this time I was so taken up with trying it out that I never thought!

To be able to mark the flap parts I cut one from the main template and used it to mark my card - by now I had realised it would make more sense to mark the back rather than the patterned side of the card.
I carefully scored along the line and then turned the card over to fold in the flap. I used a circle punch to cut the semi circle.


As the template only just fit on the 12" x 12"card there was no space to add a tab to fasten the box closed. To solve this I cut a 1" wide strip the same length as the long edge of my box and folded this in half lengthways to make a hinge to fasten both long sides of the box together. As soon as this is done the box is rounded and the flaps at each end can be closed shut.

Then comes the fun decorating part - I used my new Pollycraft stamp Grace - I think she's getting used a lot because she's so much fun to add glitter and gems to.

I intend to put a couple of pairs of fancy socks in this box and even if you missed the name on the tag you probably guessed by the colour - PINK - that this is going to be a gift for Laura.

Of course my project is mainly for the challenge at Pollycraft where the theme is 'no cards allowed', but it also fits the challenges at...

• Creative Inspirations - 'sparkle'
• No time to stamp - 'All wrapped up'
• Cardvaarks - 'Colour a stamped image'

Thank you everyone for looking and leaving such fantastic comments. Everyone of them makes me smile.

Have a hoot at Christmas...

Here's Hoot the owl from the Joanna Sheen 'Hoot' collection of stamps flying in again. This time my card was for a swap on a forum I belong to and I know my forum friend has received her card so it's quite safe to show it here.

Hoot was stamped, coloured and then cut away from his candy cane so that he could perch on the snowy fence which is part of some rather useful background card by Kanban. I cut a slit at either side of one of the fence panels so that I could hang the Christmas message on real chain.

Ultra fine glitter tops off the fencing and Hoot's Santa hat is edged with flowersoft which I've had a little craze on using this week.


Inside the card I used another stamp from the Hoot collection and added Santa hats from another cute stamp set from my stash. The sentiment is also stamped and the corners were finished off using an X-cut snowflake corner punch and then embellished with tiny clear gem stones.

Challenges:

• Die Cut Dreams - Santa (I know this is really Hoot, but he has got a Santa hat and I'm running out of time for all the challenges I want to enter!)
• Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Animal antics (this includes our feathery friends fortunately)

Have a fantastic weekend everyone - I may be posting over the weekend as I haven't finished my Pollycraft challenge yet (okay I'll be honest I haven't started it) and that ends on Monday - yikes!

Christmas Pixie...

How gorgeous is this Pollycraft Christmas Pixie called Grace? I love her to bits - she is just so cute. I was very lucky to win the last fortnightly challenge at Pollycraft and this stamp was my prize - thank you Paula - if you haven't already guessed I do rather like her!

My card follows the sketch at Friday Sketchers - this was a great fun sketch to do and definitely one I will try again in a different colour way.

Additional materials:

• snowflake backing paper and white textured card
• Promarkers
• Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder
• silver mirri card
• quickcutz snowflake die
  
• diamond dust on acetate snowflakes
• gem brads, gems and ultrafine glitter from stash

Additional challenges:

• Creatalicious Challenges - make something for Christmas with snowflakes glitter and lots of sparkle
• Creative Inspirations - Sparkle
• Papercutz - hand stamped image
• The Corrosive Challenge - embossing (my diagonal panels are embossed)
• Three Clovers Challenge - no red or green