Are You Ready for 2011?

Happy New Year, Almost

and the DIRECTIONS FOR 13TH BIRTHDAY SURPRISE BOX :)




I'm now in the process of packing and getting ready to leave Beijing by February and then head home to the good ole USA. Having dragged all my SU goodies with me, I now have to take them home. LOL First I have a stop to go to in Hong Kong for New Year's holiday with my hubby. He is doing some business there, so lucky me, I get to go along. Yea!! Naturally, what grammy doesn't shop for her grands. My husband thinks I could skip it, but I don't think so.  LOL



The weather here is really cold now but I'm sure not as cold as is upstate New York! Yikes. My grands have kept me informed as to how much snow they have. Too much for me as we have no snow here in Beijing. My only grand daughter has a birthday Friday, the last day of the year. Just think forever, she will have lights andcelebrations on her birthday. I made her a special card for her first teenage year. So here goes, keeping my fingers crossed. Wow! I did it! I hope she likes it. Unfortunately she will not have it by Friday. She actually will be lucky to get it my Spring, since through miscommunications it was not sent swiftly should I say. Rats! Do men really hear us I wonder sometimes.

DIRECTIONS FOR 13TH BIRTHDAY SURPRISE BOX  :)

I have been asked the directions for this. Mine is custom made with lots of readjustments that perhaps others don't want to go through, but out there somewhere on SU and splitcoast there are instructions on surprise boxes. That is how I found mine, I just didn't save a link--sorry.



I will do my best to rely what I did however.



I cut out first a 8.5 in square of cardstock as it has to be sturdy, then I scored the width of each panel to 2.5 or 3 inches, whatever fits the 8.5 square. Next I cut out the corners, scored the edges for folding and viola, there is the basic box without the lid.



2. Add as many panel insets both on the front and the inside as you want. I did incriments of three both inside and out, with embossing on the white panels. I glued everything with my hot glue gun as I wanted this puppy to stay together for shipping.



3. I then punched out leaves for each flower, then out of various dsp I punched flowers with eight layers together, held by a brad. I used my Big Shot to do the flowers using several dsp paper layers at one time to go faster. Now curl the flowers or scrunch each set up so it gathers. Attach each braded flower cluster to a clear heavy acrylic stem and insert the scored tab through a slit you have made for each insert through the three layers you will be glueing to the bottom of the box. (Each stem is pushed through the three layers then it will be hot glued to the inside bottom of the box). You need three layers to firmly hold the flower stems and grass you will be cutting out. Measure your stems to make sure they are not too tall to fit inside the box. That is the mistake I did and had to do the flowers and box over. Yuk. That is then hot glued to the bottom of the box. The 3 panels on the bottom give the flowers strength to stand vertical of course along with the plastic acrylic stem covered with glued on green paper grass. Looks like a flower bed doesn't it?

Make any type of card insert, attach to a clear acrylic post and there you have it. I know I keep repeating myself about the stems but it is very important they can stand by themselves. One slit for each inserted item. I cut my slits at angles so they all would fit, afterall, I had to make thirteen blossoms remember. Perhaps you will not need as many layers.



I had colored the butterfly that I meticuleously cut out by had AFTER I COLORED IT!!! I did several as the antenna somehow didn't quite make it on the first couple. Be sure to use sharp, sharp sizzors my friends otherwise, well, you know.



THE LID:

Cut 1/4 inch larger than the width of the box panels so it will fit over the top of the box. You can make your multi-colored panel layers however you want. I used a drop-down incriment of 1/8 inch on all panels including the lid. Then I hot glued multiple extra flowers, punched out from various punches and gathered on the lid. A tiny small acrylic folded stem holds the butterfly above the flowers.



Okay, now it is your turn.