Hotel Chocolat Slab Box

Happy New Year! Today’s project is a box to contain one of my favourite chocolates. These slabs from Hotel Chocolat don’t normally last very long in our house and I have to hide them from Tom or they would all be eaten. The bars are perfect for little presents, however after Christmas and Birthdays, in December the thought of wrapping presents scares me. So I decided to create a box to put the slab/block in. I have previously created a thin bag but thought it did not look right.

Box using Flirty Flamingo Card and the Pattern Party DSP with a belly band using the Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon colour altered with Flirty Flamingo blends.

Measurements

Metric

Base - 16.5 x 13 cm (score at 2)

Lid - 16cm x 12cm (score at 1 1/2)

Imperial

Base - 6 1/2 x 5 inches (score at 3/4 inch on all 4 sides)

Lid - 6 x 4 1/2 inches (score at 1/2 inch on all 4 sides)

1st box using Flirty Flamingo Card and the Pattern Party DSP with a belly band using the Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon colour altered with Flirty Flamingo blends. 2nd box using Basic Black card and the Pattern Party DSP with a belly band using Basic Black Bakers Twine with a sentiment from the Wish for Everything stamp set.

Tips and Tricks

• you can use any card for the base (please do not use DSP as it is not strong enough to hold a weight

• for a snug fit ensure that the lid is slightly larger by adding a shim when scoring the lid (I use a piece of the same card

• windmill the box by making each tab on a different side

• if you are not confident with sticking the tabs down use wet glue as it gives you wiggle room

Box to hold Hotel Chocolat slab using a retired paper and the Highland Heather Grossgrain Ribbon

This is a super simple cute box, which is perfect to practice your box making skills. Pull out your card stash and give it ago. You don’t have to use the Hotel Chocolat slabs, I am sure it will fit lots of different items. What have you managed to fit in yours?

Dreaming of a peaceful place!

Hi all, something slightly different for me today. I was silly earlier this week and fell over (being super clumsy is not good sometimes!) I rehurt my arm and have been unable to make it into my craft room so don’t have a card to share with you today. instead I thought I would share one of the items that I have fallen in love with in the Mini Catalogue.

The papers that I am longing to play with are the Peaceful Place speciality DSP. There are some gorgeous items in the suite and the video below shows the overview from Stampin’ Up! of the whole suite which includes these papers. I love the colours!

Hopefully I will make it back into the craft room soon. What is your favourite suite from the new catalogue?

How I choose and use Designer Series Paper

When it comes to choosing Designer Series Paper, I look through the catalogue to identify DSP which I can use and also which is versatile. I also where possible sign up for a paper share to receive a taster of all the papers as it can be difficult to judge papers from the catalogue.

 I love the Playing with Patterns paper as it has made gorgeous cards for birthdays, Easter and Christmas (although Non – Traditional for Christmas.)

I love the colours and also that some of the patterns are suitable for stamping on rather than just using them as background to add layers on to. I love the appearance of the dark night of navy on the patterns,

When I order a pack of DSP, I check to ensure that I have card stock and inks in the co-ordinating colours (I have nearly all the colours although Pumpkin Pie is one, I never remember to add to my order). When receive a pack of DSP, I check the colours recorded on the packaging and also in the catalogue (the packets do not always have all the colours on.)  I go through looking at the colours in the papers, sometimes there are some extras. I pull out all the co-ordinating papers and make card blanks and layers for all the colours.

I also pull out all the ink, Stampin’ write markers and also blends, so when I begin creating I do not need to start looking for them.

Next, I look for sketches which will work with the papers and then choose a stamp set which will work with those sketches. My favourite birthday set was Itty Bitty Birthdays, but it is retiring on May 3rd. I have included some of my favourite sketches on here.

Sketch 2 and 3 are my go to Sketches. I love the simplicity of them and they don’t take a lot of brain power to create a beautiful card.

How do you choose and prepare your designer series paper?

Hotel Chocolat Ribbon Bag

I haven’t met very many people who are not keen on chocolate. I know that a few chocolates will cheer anyone up and are greatly appreciated. My favourite are the Gems and my parents favourite Dark Chocolate Brazil nuts are from Hotel Chocolat., they come packaged in the Ribbon bags, they look super pretty. Although they are prettily wrapped, I like to add to the beauty by using gorgeous paper to wrap them in. I try to change the packaging for every celebration.

The original bag uses the gorgeous In Good Taste DSP, I made the second bag with the gorgeous Fine Art Floral DSP from the January to June Mini Catalogue (available from 5th Jan). It is a gorgeous combination of stunning painted flowers and abstract patterns. I love the colours and that the flowers are a large design perfect for large bags and creations.

One of my favourite packages is this gorgeous bag. The video below shows how I have created this bag, I have used the Fine Art Floral DSP but any designer series paper will work.

Instructions

Imperial -

Piece of DSP measuring 9.75” x 11.5”

Score on long side (11.5”) at: - 1.75”, 5.5”, 7.25” and 11”

Score on short side (9.75”) at: - 1.75” flip the paper and score at 2”

Metric -

Piece of DSP measuring 25cm x29cm

Score on long side 29cm at: - 4.5cm, 14cm, 18.5cm and 28cm

Score on short side 25cm at: 4.5cm flip the paper and score at 5 cm

I need to restock up on Ribbon bags, but I hope that you like these which do you prefer, the masculine version or the floral version?

Botanical Butterflies

I adore this Sale-a-bration item, I may have a few packets of this 12"x 12”  designer series paper. The pack contains twelve sheets, two each of six different double-sided designs.

I love all the sides of the paper, they are Coloured on one side but black and white on the other, so you can add colour if you wish to. I have used Blends, Stampin’ Write markers and Water colour pencils, they all look amazing!

Some of the papers also have designs with butterfly which co-ordinate with the Butterfly Duet Punch. The punch is still un-orderable, however, it should be orderable soon. The images are quite simple to fussy cut. I don’t normally fussy cut images but these were simple. Alternatively you could use a cutting machine if you have one.

The videos below give an overview of the suite and also shows some of the examples that I have made using the papers.

I have another video showing how to make the Hershey holder, it is so cute. I hope that you like my examples I adore this paper.