Explosion Box

Here's what I have been busy with this week, amongst a lot of other things. I had a commission to do an explosion box for a 30 year old. The top of the box wasn't finished when I took the photo, it now has the name, and black gems on the letters. There are lacey punched borders around the sides as well...

The boxes themselves don't take me long at all, but putting the photos in takes AGES............

I always make the first pages, the ones you see when the box flops open, to match each other. If you don't do this you get a bizarre sort of lopsided look to the box. After that, each page is treated as an entity in it's own right. Even if you no longer mat and layer photos on scrapbook pages, it still looks perfect for these little pages, and cropping the photos into circles or ovals still works as well.................

I had enough photos to put them on the back of the pages as well, which I always like, as it makes the box that much more substantial............


I always tie the colour scheme in with the papers I have chosen, in this case hot pink, acid green and black............

and I am always on the lookout for tiny embellishments to add to these boxes. I use a lot of tiny buttons, gems and those dress it up buttons that come in packs (I particularly love the crayon ones for children's boxes)

If anyone hasn't had a go at making one of these, scroll down to labels, there is a photo tutorial on there giving the measurements.

So I suddenly remembered that it is Twelfth Night tomorrow - in the UK, that is the day we traditionally take down our Christmas decorations. We live in a three storey house, and the decorations are kept in the attic. After lugging numerous boxes upstairs, I remembered why I was reluctant to decorate in the first place. Doesn't the house look bare when they come down? I will clean and polish and buy fresh flowers tomorrow and pretend that I am a perfect, instead of desperate, housewife for a whole day.

Exploding Box

I have been busy making an exploding box for a commission for the past couple of days.

Here's the lid, I used cuts from A Child's Year for all the external decoration. The letters are DCWV chipboard

I cut tiny figures of children playing to go all around the sides like a frieze..............

Here it is opened, the papers are K & Company

Just one of the tiny pages, I love doing these boxes, it's always a challenge to find embellishments tiny enough to look in scale

The cutting sizes for the boxes are on the blog - look under labels for tutorial for exploding box. I took the photos at night, so they are a bit rubbish, sorry about that, but you get the general idea. The box has been delivered, so I can't re-take them.

Baby Girl Exploding Box

Here is a completed exploding box, made to take photos of a baby girl. I always leave some pages blank for journalling, just like a tiny scrapbook. This one was decorated with cuts made with the new arrival cartridge. There is a tutorial on how to make these boxes in the next post.

Wedding Exploding Box

An exploding box made to take wedding photos, so I threw everything at this one - lace, flowers, bling!