Sunday, January 29, 2017

January 2017

Oh...my poor, neglected blog.  It's been years since I've given it any attention...life got in the way of crafting.  But...2017 is my year to get back to doing what I love and I'm excited to get back to sharing my little crafting world!

Let's start it off with my first project of the New Year...Mini Houses with Matching Boxes!  I recently moved my crafting space from my dining room into my very own craft room and as I was organizing all my stuff, I realized I have an unhealthy obsession with all things Anna Griffin and all things Tim Holtz...two designers at complete opposite edges of style.  So...I thought I'd challenge myself to come up with a project that embraces both designers and this was the result.


This is my very first project using a Sizzix machine.  My birthday and Christmas are near each other so this year I asked for Amazon gift cards as gifts...as I knew I was finally going to get my first Sizzix (the Vagabond 2) and, the first dies I wanted were the Tim Holtz Village Dies.    


Once I had my mini houses created I knew they needed something else...so, matching boxes was what I came up.  The houses fit inside the boxes so that now I can include a little tea light, and maybe a gift card, and use them as little gifts for family friends.  I used my Cricut to make the boxes and, in Cricut Design Space, welded on a different edge to the box lid to create 4 unique boxes.  To create the bow (also using the Cricut), I used leftover scraps of the same paper that matched each house.

Here's what the house looks like in the box.  The bottom of the box was a little too short (at the maximum size of a 12x12" piece of paper)...the little chimney stuck out too high...so I cut 4 additional rectangles of paper and lined the inside of the box to add the height that I needed.  It also gave extra strength to the box, which was an added benefit.


The little tags say:  Home is where your story begins.  It's from a sign I have in my house.  I used my Cricut to make the tags and also do the writing on the tags...which is a wonderful feature available on the Cricut Explores!