quick and easy-box making

My best friend Claudia lives in Seattle with her american new husband ,and is her birthday on the 4th of july soooo...I ve made her a card of course lol.

I ve used my new set of stamps(I just loove those)and I m probably gonna make butterflies cards from now till the end of day.lolSo I ve decided to make it quite bulky so that I would have to make a box for it and guide you through the process.Make a quick simple box that you can do with a ruler and the groove in your paper trimmer(no need for fancy and expensive score boards).So my card is 5"x5" but by the end of this you will be able to make any kind of sizes and depths.So card is 5"x5" the measurements for the box would be 7.2"x7.2"can you see how I m doing this?I ve decided to have my box 1" deep and I ve allowed 0.1 of an inch for the card to fit in so you can easily take it out.Ok cut your card to this measurement then score on all four sides at the 1"mark(Like I said earlier just use the groove on your trimmer and a embossing tool ).You should have something like this

Now make a diagonal score line from the outside corner to where the straight lines meet like in picture

Ok all you have to do know is fold the edges inwards gluing into place to form you box,it should look something like this.

I forgot to say before you glue the box you can decorate it ,should you wish to,I ve stamped on mine.Does it make sense?I have to tell you that I m using the Art Institute glue for all my papercrafting is the one glue that glues instantly, the fine tip allows you to control the flow and you only need a very little amount for a very strong bond.If you do not use this glue just make sure you attach some paperclips to hold the sides until completly dry.Moving onto the lid wich is basically the same thing all over but this time we are gonna add another 0.1 of an inch to the size,so the lid measurement is now 7.3"x7.3" ,at this point add any background decoration and then basically the same happens again,score and fold all sides at 1" then score diagonally,and theres one extra thing you have to add,make a notch half way on two of the sides of the box(this is to enable you to easily remove the lid.I ve used the notch tool by Basic Grey but you could easily use a round punch or just cut a V with your scissors.Should look like this

Ok now fold glue and let it dry.You can now add your chosen topper,bows or just leave it as it is pop your card in and ...that s it!!

So do you get it?is basically the same pinciple every time,measure your card then add 0.1" plus how deep you want it and then for the lid take same measurement and add another 0.1". Now to make it easier I ve kept the depth the same(1") for the box and the lid ,but you could make the lid 1/5" deep and you will have a bit showing from the box(this looks effective when 2 contrasting colours are used)Right hope this is gonna help you make beautifull boxes for a long time to come and please leave me a coment if any of this made sense.I ll leave you with another picture of my cards from today.(((HUGS)))Monica