A Christmas Explosion box !

Hi and thanks for visiting :-)

I did a workshop at a new local store about 10 days ago to make this 'Explosion Box'. About 2 years ago, I bought an Explosion Box kit from another place after seeing one made up, and was keen to open up the kit and get cracking - except that once I read the instructions and sat there and frowned alot and thought that my head would probably explode instead of the box, I packed it all up again and put it aside {sigh}. That's not to say that the instructions were hard to follow - I'm just not very good with instructions - I'm more of a visual person who needs to watch someone do it step-by-step, and then I'll be fine. Mine is a little rough - some panels aren't quite on straight and I smudged the sentiment, but I'm just keeping it as a sample so that doesn't matter. Using a Scor-Pal made the whole process very easy!

The designer paper is the new Basic Grey Jovial range and the bow on top was made using Sizzix Bigz Die - Bow, Create-a-Bow #656544. There are three different sized dies in the pack to make the bow - you diecut several of each size and then you use a brad to hold them in while you are putting it together (quite fiddly!). The workshop teacher put this die thru her Cuttlebug but I don't know what sandwich she used (I didn't even know you could use the Sizzix Bigz dies in the CB). Here is a link to the die on Sizzix and if you Google the name, it appears to be readily available in Australia as well as the UK and the USA.

The next pic of the box is after you take the lid off to (partially) reveal the folded layers of cardstock/designer paper.

And the next two pics are the inside once you open it right out. You will see that there are two layers of cardstock: the burgundy plus the brown - the brown cardstock is cut slighly smaller than the burgundy, otherwise the box won't close.

I'm not sure who made the sentiment - it may possibly be Stampin' Up. If you do know, drop me an email or leave a comment, and I'll update this post.

The tags are supposed to have little photos or a handwritten message on them - or whatever you like - and I have seen one of these boxes with lots of family photos instead of having the tags and the bit they tuck into. The tags were diecut with a Sizzix Bigz Die - Tag, Super Crescent #656341 which was also put through the Cuttlebug.

I did an Internet Search to find some instructions for you - as I don't think I could explain it without a step-by-step tutorial and accompanying photos.

Here is a tutorial by Marie Aviza (her lid is deeper than mine but the rest of the box is virtually the same), and here is a tutorial on Splitcoaststampers (you have to be a member of Splitcoasters to be able to view this tutorial). If you Google "Explosion Box tutorial", you will bring more variations on the theme and there seems to be some videos on You Tube (I haven't watched them so I can't vouch for them being easy to follow etc).

Thanks again for stopping by - back in a few days!