My piece for The Virtual Crafting Challenge April 2009

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It’s been a very interesting day! I decided to make an origami box for this month’s Virtual Crafting Challenge. I saw Jen Lowe demonstrate it on You Tube, which inspired me and I was going to give her credit for the design until…I went into my loft.

As regular readers will know I have been seriously bitten by the bookbinding bug. Whilst reading Keith Smith’s books on the subject I noticed that he often quotes his former tutor who taught him stitches based on embroidery stitches. This got me thinking, back in the days when my hands worked better I used to do a little embroidery and a friend of the family gave me a book detailing many kinds of stitch. I knew I had the book in the loft so with encouragement of my DH I ventured into the loft to find it.

I found the book and also a selection of crafting magazines that my late mother had collected back in the 1970s. I brought these downstairs to look through and guess what… the exact box that I had just made was described in one of the magazines :0 

Here is a picture of the cover of the magazine circa 1972

Handicrafts (circa 1972)

 

Here is a picture of the origami box instructions from there

Origami Box described

 

And last by by no means least here are pictures of the boxes I created for the challenge

Origami Box

 

Origami Box

 

It just goes to show how hard it is to create something original Many of the origami models seen around today have been reproduced from models created many many years ago.

 

Links

If you would like to see the video that Jen Lowe created for You Tube on the model I made, please follow this link.

 

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

 

Billie

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Origami Peace Crane Earings

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I would like to share a picture of the origami Peace Crane earings that I made my good friend Lynn for Christmas.

 

Origami Peace Crane earings

 

They are made from gold coloured velum, this turned out to be a bit heavy to fold with but I got there in the end. This was another project I found in the Paper Fold It book that I bought some weeks ago.

 

Best wishes and thanks for reading

Billie

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Mini Bon Bon box

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Today I would like to share a tutorial for making great table decorations. You may remember some while ago I posted a tutorial on how to make a Bon Bon box, well this is the same idea on a smaller scale.

The finished piece will look something like this;

 

You Will Need

• Square Card stock; any size but 6×6″ is best for a table settings
• Scoring board ( I use a Scor It )or steel ruler and embossing tool
• Crop-A-Dile or other hole punch
• Cutting mat; to protect your worksurface
• Co-ordinating ribbon
• Scissors

 

Method

• Score your card into thirds
• Rotate card 90 degrees
• Score card into thirds again
• You now have 9 squares scored on your card
• On each of the four corner squares, score a line diagonally, from the corner of the square in toward the centre.

• Fold along the diagonal lines 

Folding in the corners

• Punch a hole in each of the four corner squares

Showing the holes in the corner squares

• Take a piece of co-ordinating ribbon and thread it through the punched holes.
• Draw the ends of the ribbon together and tie a bow. Your finished box will look like this;

 

Extras

Use cardstock that will suit your chosen theme, if you have craft CDs that print background papers try using those. The finished sample was created from papers printed from the Season’s Greetings CD in the Artylicious range produced by Glenda over on Graphicus. (see links below) One side printed green the other red using the Smudgy Holly design and the square background image, this prints a square just smaller than 6″. For this size I scored at 2″ and 4″. I edged the paper with gold metalic marker which finishes the edges nicely. You could use red or green pen as an alternative. It is best to ink the edge with something as without it you will be left with a white cut edge.

If you start with cardstock 6×6″ and add tags with your guests names and these make perfect place cards to which you can add the confectionary of your choice. Use a die cutting machine to create perfect tag shapes every time. I used a Cuttlebug and Nestabilities dies made by Wizard to create my tag. Embellish with additional artwork to your hearts content.

I have not included specific measurements with this tutorial as you can make this project any size you wish, as long as your starting cardstock is square. These are really quick and simple to make, and you can co-ordinate them to the rest of your table. With a little supervision even the kids could help make these keeps them busy during the holiday

 

Links

Graphicus; http://www.graphicus.co.uk/

Season’s Greetings CD; http://www.graphicus.co.uk/

Wizard; http://www.spellbinderspaperarts.com/

Cuttlebug; http://www.provocraft.com/products/index.php

Scor It; http://www.scorit.com/index.html

 

Have fun and I hope you have enjoyed this series of tutorials on boxes. Thanks for reading and see you soon.

Billie

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Origami Sachet made with Season’s Greetings CD

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I would like to share a picture with you of the origami sachet that I made using instructions from the Paper Fold It book that I reviewed a couple of weeks ago.

Add a name tag for a place setting for the Christmas table

I made the decorative paper using the Season’s Greetings CD from the Artylicious range made by Graphicus. I printed different designs on each side of the paper and used the preset square background paper from the CD. This prints out to just under 6″ square and is perfect for small projects like this.

Here is a different view of the sachet once it is open, if you want to fill it with confectionery it makes a wonderful open box. It’s an either or arrangement as if you want to tie it closed you can only put flat items inside, its a sachet not a TARDIS The alternative being having it as an open box which gives more opportunitues for gifts or treats inside.

As an open box filled with chocolates

 

This project could be used for all kinds of messages or gifts, co-ordinate your papers to what ever occassion you are using it for.

 

Links

Graphicus; http://www.graphicus.co.uk/prodpage.asp?ProdID=2262

Paper Fold It; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paper-Fold-Exquisite-Folding-Projects/dp/071532585X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226072228&sr=8-1

 

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

 

Billie

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