Gifting Crafts

Hi there crafty friends! I’m back on the Dare 2B Artzy blog today with a fun project that would make a great gift to give someone and you can customize it numerous ways to suit the recipient.

I started by creating a thin box using some of the gorgeous new Dare 2B Artzy paper from the Fields of Joy collection. This one is the Butterflies paper.  You can get the entire Fields of Joy paper pack which is 16 pieces or if you just like a particular paper, like the Butterflies you can simply order the ones you like.

A quick search of the internet will result in a plethora of different shapes and sizes of paper box templates. The template for my box came from Gina K Designs and uses a piece of paper that is 8 ½ x 11. Scoring the paper as follows:

LONG SIDE (11 inches): Scored at 3 inches, 3 ½ inches and 8 inches and 8 ½ inches.

SHORT SIDE (8 1/2 inches): Scored  at ½ inch, 1 inch, 7 ½ inches and 8 inches.

Once you have all of your score lines done, you’ll want to turn the paper so that it’s facing portrait with the short side along the top. At the 3 ½ inch horizontal score line from the top you’ll want to make a 1 inch cut into the second vertical score line from either side. Turning your paper, you’ll cut down from the top at the 1 inch and 7 ½ inch score lines. I’ve taken a picture of a piece of kraft cardstock with the score lines on it so you can see for reference. Then on the left side I’ve made the cuts at the appropriate score lines for reference as well.  You’d make the same cuts at the 7 ½ inch score line at the top and bottom as well.

With all my scoring and cutting done, I was ready to assemble my little box with a sturdy permanent adhesive and set it aside. The finished size of the box is 6 ½ x 4 ½. I really loved that the finished box has patterned paper on the inside as well. It’s kind of a nice touch to open the box and see the beautiful butterflies.

For the inserts that would go into my box, there were lots of options. You could create many different types of templates or even just a nice set of cards to go into the box. I decided on recipe cards.

 For my cards, I wanted to save a bit of time by using a pre-made recipe card template. There were so many styles to choose from but I finally settled on one that I found from www.feelingsomelove.blogspot.com. I liked this style because they allowed a lot of space to write the ingredients and the recipe instructions. The cards measure 6 inch x 4 inches.

I added some little strips of patterned paper from the Dare 2B Artzy fields of Joy collection again. You could easily add some stamped images and color them or add some die cut images to dress up the recipe cards as much or as little as you like.

I wanted to add a fun element to my little recipe card pack so I created some page markers. I figured these clever little page markers would be a nice add on for the recipient to mark the pages in a cookbook or even when browsing a magazine that had an interesting recipe. They could also be used as planner bookmarks.  

To create my bookmarks, I stamped and colored 3 of the new owls from the Dare 2B Artzy Hoot Hoot stamp set. Once they were colored, I cut them out using my Brother Scan-n-cut machine. I created a second outline of each owl by tracing them onto some scrap white cardstock and cutting out the traced image as well. Once they were cut I was able to glue into place a paperclip between the front image and the back, making sure to use a good liquid adhesive to hold them together. I used the rubber coated paperclips as I figured it would hold better than the metal ones – plus they come in fun colors.

I needed to add a closure to my card box. I went back and added some grommets to the back flap and bottom using a Crop-A-Dile. With the grommets in place I was able to thread my orange ribbon through the holes to form a tie closure.

On the front side of the box, I added another colorful Dare 2B Artzy paper from the Fields of Joy set. This one is called Owls & Flowers. I just love these colors together as they’re so eye catching.

For the front label I printed the word Recipes onto some white cardstock using a laser printer. I cut the piece down using a fancy cut die and ran it through my MINC foiling machine with some pink foil so that the word Recipe would have a nice pink shimmer to it. I die cut a second piece of blue cardstock with a larger fancy cut die and layered both onto the front of the box. I added some dimensional dots in white as an accent.

As I mentioned, you could customize this gift to suit most anyone. You could create a box of cards to be used for journaling and decorate them with stamps or even cut out the gorgeous flowers from some of the Dare 2B Artzy papers and use them to embellish the contents. Have a friend that likes to color? You could stamp some fun Dare 2B Artzy images onto cardstock and add in a small box of colored pencils for a coloring project on the go. Lots of possibilities for creating unique gift ideas for almost anyone.

Hope this has inspired you to make some crafty gifts to share.

Please stay tuned to the blog as we’re having a fun HOP this weekend to introduce the new Dare 2B Artzy DT. In addition to a prize, there’s going to be a special discount available just for the HOP. However, you’re going to have to hop along to find out the discount code. You’re going to love what we have in store for you!! Lots of inspiration from some amazingly talented ladies!

Have a wonderful day!

Hugs

Tonya