Christmas Advent Explosion Box for Mom - long post, lots of photos

The four Sunday evenings before Christmas, my family has the tradition of burning first one candle the first Sunday, then two on the second, then three, then four and reading Christmas stories, including the real one from the New Testament. While doing so, we eat Christmas goodies and drink hot chocolate or Pero, or Eggnog. Those are beautiful memories from my growing up years, and I did it again while raising my own family. Because those memories are dear to me I wanted to make something special for those future occassions still to be had by my Mom and Dad. So I've taken the Christmas story from the scriptures, found some paintings to go with it, and came up with a plan for a beautiful Christmas Advent Explosion Box. I chose Mom's favorite colours - Ivory and gold and added some navy blue that goes nicely with some of Mom's  fancy collection of porcelain pieces.

 I took some pictures throughout the creation of the box, but forgot at times to do so. That means some steps are left out in the series of photos.

1. To start, cut four squares: 12 X 12, 11.5 X 11.5 and 11 X 11 & the lid 6" x 6"
2. Score the 12 X 12 at 4 & 8- rotate and score again at 4 & 8; the 11.5 X 11.5 at 4 & 7.5-rotate and score again at 4 & 7.5; and the 11 X 11 at 4 & 7- rotate and score again at 4 & 7. DO NOT FOLD SCORE LINES - Makes it a little easier while putting the box together.
3. Score the lid - at 1.25 and 5.25- rotate and score again at 1.25 & 5.25
4. With your scissors cut down the score lines on the three box pieces only to where they meet getting rid of the four corners leaving a cross shape. On the lid cut only on two opposite sides, not all four, down to where the score lines meet. (This is one of the photos I forgot to take for you)
5. Now you prepare all of the embellishments (A few photos forgotten here too)
6. Apply all background materials.

Outside piece - 12 X 12



Stamped and heat embossed the side facing out.

On the flip side - interior - I attached gold foil. the outter 4 squares the exact size of the square minus a little on the side butted up to the base square. (photo forgotten) And the inside base square minus a little all the way around as to not hinder the scored fold. You may ask why you need to put a piece of decorative paper on the inside base when the other layers are just going over it. well, there will be a little corner showing at each corner, and I like having it look like the rest, plus it adds a little strength to the base.

11.5 X 11.5 Underside 

This is the underside that faces the upside of the larger outer piece. Therefore the center square doesn't need any decorative attention.

11.5 X 11.5 Upside

The flipside of this same piece will be facing uppward and does require the center square to be covered to match the flaps.

I used some very old gold doilies that I had left over from time in the early 1990's! You can see that I had two different sizes and found a way to make it work, and the background nicely for what I| have instore.

11 X 11 Underside

The last smallest piece is the inner part of the box. Again the center square needs no decorating as it will be facing down attached to the others. The entire side will face down facing the blue and gold so that when you lift up the flap all you see is blue and gold.

11 X 11 Upside or Innerside

The upper or inner side I'm leaving as is to embellish later.




outside dimesions-3.5" X 3.5"

Now, for some of the embellishments. Just a word here to let you know that all the evergreen branches used on this project were previously punched using scraps and ready for use whenever I want to use them. Here, in the not so clear photos, you can see the advent crown with tiny candles that I made. (Sorry, I forgot to take photos of it's construction for you)

Cutting the gold doilies up for embellishing the box lid corners and for gold accent under the mini advent crown to be in the center of the box when completed. For a more completed effect I found that I had to check out every inch of the doilie carefully and remove bits and pieces that hadn't come out when the doilie was originally punched out by the manufacturer. That was time consuming, but the doilies looked so much better for it.These pieces would have been so much easier to glue on using my Xyron sticker maker, but I had used up my refill for the RS Accordian handout and hadn't had the opportunity to purchase a new refill, so I painstakingly used liquid clue.

Using a Calligrapher gold metalic pen I hand wrote the title for each advent title page, so to speak, on the Spellbinders Beaded Ovals I cut and embossed on my Cuttlebug. Not seen here because I did it later, I used that same gold pen and put the Beaded Oval die frame back on each piece using it to trace a gold oval. This can be seen in later photos.

After stamping and heat embossing hese gold "Winter Borders" I hand cut them out u sing my detail scissors.(These I cut while watching an old favorite b&w movie)

Next I put together the lid, and once again forgot to take photos on how to assemble it. But, here is the end product. On the left you can see better the gold doilie medalions I put on the corners. The Poinsetia is heat embossed gold and cut out, then assembled in three layers. The blue leaves are die cut so I took my gold metalic calligraphers pen and drew the leaf viens as well as outlining them.

Adding the details and embellishments is getting to the fun part. At this point I was really looking forward to the seeing how the project looked completed and if it would look like I imagined it to look.

So there you have it; all done! Thanks for patiently going through this lengthy posting, but I've had some requests on how I put things together, and aticipating that with this project, I planned ahead for it.

I gave to Mom and Dad Sunday, and they loved it! Thank you so much for stopping by today. Hope you all have a great week and have some stamping & crafting planned for this week!

TOOLS & MATERIALS

ScorePal

Ink: Versa Magic

Stamps: Hero Arts Music Background, The stamp Barn Sunshine Designs Poinsettia,  Inkadinkadoo Winter Borders,
Gold embossing Powder

Spellbinders: Beaded Ovals Nestabilities

Provo Craft: Leaf  Die

Stickles: Gold

Liquid Pearls: Gold

Martha Stewart: Evergreen Punch

Calligrapher Quick Dry Gold Metallic Pen

Gold Doilies