A Few Tips about Making Boxes

When I saw this cute take-out style box on the Art Philosophy cartridge, I knew I had to give it a try.  This is a fairly unusual shape and it isn't found on very many cartridges. 

I first cut the the box using the cartridge directly in the Expression machine set at "fit to page" on some blue cardstock.  The size the machine would cut was 11 inches.  This makes a fairly small box but I knew that I could use Design Studio, the Gypsy or even the Cricut Craftroom online design tool to manipulate the image and cut a larger size.

By rotating the cut about 45 degrees, I was able to cut the box at 13 1/4 inches.  Those two inches make a big difference in the finished box.

Here is the side by side comparison of the two boxes.

This view shows the tops of the boxes.  You can see that the brown box is much larger.

I find the little "tick" marks that show you where to score a box or card to be unattractive and generally unnecessary.  For most cards, there is no reason you can figure out where to fold the card - just fold it in half!  Boxes and bags can be a little trickier to figure out.  If I am not sure about all of the folds, I will cut a box from surplus cardstock with the tick marks and fold it up.  This sample box then serves as a guideline for folding and assembling the finished box in my chosen cardstock color.

Even if you fold directly on the lines indicated by the tick marks you will still see the little cuts.

I much prefer the smoother look as seen on this box.  I scored all of the lines so it would fold nicely using the blue trial box as my guide for the fold lines.

There are two ways to get rid of the tick marks.  If you check "weld" on the item in Design Studio or on the Gypsy, the lines will not cut.  You can also hide all of the lines individually using "hide selected contour."

Here you can see the scored and folded larger box - with no distracting little cuts in the sides of the folds.
I assembled the box using Scor-Tape - any sort of strong adhesive will do.  I generally avoid liquid adhesives because they can  get messy and leave marks on the project.

I did have to slightly enlarge the slit for the two top flaps to join evenly and give the box the proper shape.

I tied a wide, wired ribbon around the box.  I thought that the colors looked very nice for Autumn.

 I wanted to use another stamp from the CTMH Art Philosphy bundle for a tag.  It was a little but difficult to tell which cut was the correct one for the stamp.  I would recommend marking the page in the book for the shape that corresponds to each stamp shape to save time.

The stamp sheet does tell you the size to make the cut for the stamp to fit properly.  In this case that size was two inches.  The first shape I chose was "almost right" but the stamp was a little too large and didn't line up nicely to the shape.  I then found another shape which turned out to be the correct one for the stamp I had chosen.

I added a tiny gem to mark the "friend" category and then used one of the stamps from the double set that was available as a gift with purchase from CTMH last month.  I only inked the section that said "thanks" to fill in the label for my box.

It is very handy to have the stamps and the Cricut cuts coordinate so easily.

I used some foam squares to pop up the tag and a small leaf that I stamped and cut when I first tried the set.

I also added a few gem stickers to the leaf cut.

This is a perfect little box to hold a gift card along with a few candy treats for a friend.  Who says Halloween is just for kids!

The Art Philosophy cartridge is available exclusively through a Close To My Heart consultant.  My friend Melanie is a consultant and she sent me this bundle to review.  I have to say it is a great overall cartridge.  There are so many types of things included - 3D projects like boxes and flowers, mesh pages for backgrounds, lots and lots of cards and tags, two fonts and lots of labels and medallions.

Melanie has posted photos of the entire cartridge handbook on her blog - click HERE to go directly to that post.  You will be amazed at all that this cartridge has to offer.

You can visit Melanie's Close to My Heart website by clicking HERE.  To go directly to the page for the Cricut Art Philosophy bundle click HERE.  You will find many more sample projects and tutorials on Melanie's blog, Courtney Lane Designs, and you can contact Melanie directly with any questions at melliemel77@gmail.com (just tell her I sent you!).

Our floors are still not finished so I am a crafter in search of a place to work for the next few days.  I hope that by the end of the week things might be back to normal!

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