More Exploding Boxes

I made two more as samples for a class I'm teaching in June. I used tacky glue on my lid corners and permanent double sided tape for the rest of it. It went together really fast using the tape but I only got two boxes out of one roll of tape. I like these a lot. The possibilities are endless for embellishments. I chose to keep it simple and let the photos get top billing in mine.

P.S. If you want your photos to have the black frame around them like mine have, go to Picnik's photo editor, upload your photo and choose "Frames" from the "Create" section. There you can adjust the color and size of the frames around the pictures. Then save them and send them for processing like normal. I have mine printed in wallet size, depending on the picture, so they are small enough for the boxes. My Germany box, however, just used normal old photos I had lying around in boxes, no online cropping, no editing, no wallet sizes, etc, just pictures that I could cut down with good old fashioned scissors.

Nauvoo Project

Going through photos on my computer I came across these pictures from a project I did awhile back. I was asked to paint a "log cabin" from Nauvoo for a church activity. I painted the Family Living Center of Historic Nauvoo, in two sections on brown contractor's paper (same stuff I used for the Fiesta decorations). I used the color of the paper to my advantage. Not bad...I didn't remember to get a photo of it finished, up on the wall at the church. Oh well. You get the idea.

Exploding Scrapbook Box

Here are some pictures of the exploding scrapbook box that I made my mom for Mother's Day this year. It was my first try and I had a lot of fun making it and will be making lots more. However in the future I will only use permanent double-stick tape instead of glue or glue sticks. I found when the glue dried, the pages, if flexed, popped the paper and photos off if you weren't careful. I am not putting up directions but I will provide a link from the place whose directions I liked best here. These are all over the web and lots of people have different ideas about how to make them. I personally wanted to maximize my use of the 12 x 12 paper size. I also sent my photos via the web to Wal-mart's one hour developer and had wallets printed so they would fit on the inside box flaps that were only about 3 inches wide. Had I planned further in advance I wouldn't have had to use the one-hour but it was okay and relatively inexpensive. Also, with the wallets you get two pictures per sheet so I can make another one for me! I forgot to take a photo of the box, glued together, with the lid removed so you could see why it was called an exploding box. -Next time... Oh, and my Mom LOVED it!!!! It made her cry (which was NOT my intention BTW.) She is still raving about it!

Fiesta!!

The same day as Corey's Prom we were in charge of the decorations for a quad-stake church dance with a Fiesta theme. Wanting to stick to a really cheap budget I volunteered to paint a lot of the decorations myself. I had a lot of fun doing them. I bought a huge roll of brown paper from Lowe's and used up a lot of old paint I had sitting around the house. We had help one night from the Young Women at church who made tissue paper flowers and decorated the piñatas. One of the ladies from church made about 50 more flowers at home for us. (WOW!) It looked cute and we only ended up spending about 20 bucks total. Job well done, I say!

Beaded Flowers

Forgot your contacts this morning?? Just joking. My sister borrowed my camera and so I had to use my cell-cam. Not great at taking detailed photos obviously. Still...I wanted step by step instructions so I would remember how to do this again since they turned out so cute. I'll be posting about the entire floral wristlet I'm making these for at a (very soon) future date. (And sorry about my line spacing issues...I still haven't figured out blogger's html coding so I can fix that. One day I will take the time to look at it more closely, but today is not that day. °Ü°)

First start with about 24 inches of 24 gauge non-tarnishing silver wire. This length will leave you with about a 7 inch stem. If you need more or less, you can adjust that measurement.

Fold The wire into a long U shape...

...and add the beads while holding both strands of wire.

I used 18 seed beads, 9 white, 9 black. Let the beads slide down into the center of the U bend.

Tightly twist 2 or 3 times to make your first petal.

Now you only need to hold 1 strand of wire to add 18 more beads. Let them slide down to the first petal.

And twist tightly, again 2 or 3 times, close to the first petal.

Now take the other strand of wire and make the third petal the same way.

Keep doing this until you have 5 flower petals. Then twist the two wires on the bottom side of the flower tightly 2 or 3 times.

Gently grasping under the flower, twist the remaining wires on themselves to creat one single stem. This only needs to be "pretty" if you are leaving the wire bare. Trim the ends of the wire to make even.

Pictured here is a flower on the left without floral tape and on the right with floral tape.

To wrap the floral tape, I find it to be easier to start at the base of the stem and work back up towards to flower. Wrap tightly, but don't worry too much about perfection. These aren't stand alone type flowers and the stem will most likely be covered up by greenery or ribbon or something else. These are just accent flowers.

When you get to the flower, tear the tape and wrap tightly as close to the base of the flower as possible. Smooth well.

For my wristlet I think I will need three flowers. These go pretty fast once you get the hang of it. Hope the photos aren't too blurry... :)

Paper Beads

This is just a cute little bracelet that I made for myself out of paper beads. I heard about them for the first time a few months ago and once I learned how to make them I was obsessed for a few weeks. I have a lot of beads just waiting to be put together into a necklace or bracelet for someone. I made a cute little bracelet out of leftover scrapbook paper for my sister-in-law Stacey but I neglected to get a photo before I gave it to her so I will update this when I can.

Basically, all you do is collect magazines, catalogs, etc... and cut the pages into long, thin triangular strips. Mine were about 1/4 inch wide [tapering down to a point] by 11 inches long. Begin by rolling the wide end of the triangle around a wooden skewer, I secure with a small dot of glue after the first wrap around (regular white Elmer's glue). Then roll tightly and glue the tip down, rolling the "bead" around to get a thin layer of glue all over the entire surface of the bead. Pop the bead off of the skewer and allow to dry completely. Then I paint a coat or two of acrylic varnish over the top. Thats most easily done on wire so it can easily slide off for use later. [They tend to stick to the wooden skewers and unravel if used in this step.] One site I saw used a styrofoam cup with wire stuck in the sides as a drying platform. That worked really well for me.

It was fun experimenting with different shapes, paper types, colors, etc. Now all my junk mail catalogs look like bracelets to me. (Wrapping paper too.) I did end up with a bead that had some lettering on it from a catalog that used to say "square assortment" and wouldn't it be my luck that completely unintentionally that phrase ended up on my bead with the last seven letters of assortment left off...Ohh...Can't use that bead in a gift bracelet now. Hee hee.

I'm sure I'll have a lot more fun making beads that, knowing me, will sit around in a box and never get made into anything. Oh well. I tell myself I'm recycling and then I don't feel so bad.

Do a google image search for "paper beads" and you'll be surprised at how creative people can get with these things!

Or even search for "recycled magazine". For example:



LOVE IT!!!!

So Easy!

These are the easiest magnets to make. Grab some clear stones (not iridescent) and a sticker, some E6000 glue and a heavy-duty magnet. Glue the sticker (can also use photos, art, etc) picture side down. Glue a magnet to the back. Allow to dry 24-48 hours. That's it. I told ya it was easy!

Cards & Paper Projects

Front, opened up inside, and back of my brother Josh and his wife Stacey's wedding card, complete with a miniature, readable wedding invitation. PS-they met over a CTR ring.

Christmas 2007 cardmaking.

Miscellaneous Projects

Here are just a couple of the projects that I've painted for my house over the years. Can you tell I really like wooden trays? -They're cheap. ;)

Family Home Evening chart from years ago. Once we had our last baby, we combined Mom & Dad and added a heart for Gabby. That marker faded though, so I'm going to have to re-touch it someday. The hearts are attached with Velcro circles.