Tag Archives: Explosion box

Gatefold Micro Album in a Box

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Back in 2015 I came up with a cute little micro album in a box. That was years before I made tutorials, and at the time I got many requests to do one. It took some time, but I finally came around to it and this week I’m sharing the end result.

The box that holds the gatefold micro album opens like an explosion box, so there’s a bonus for you. The album itself sports four updated page designs, since I’ve learned a lot since then 🙂

You can of course choose any theme for your project; mine is romantic vintage, with Rose Fields papers by 13@rts.

So enjoy the video and if you’d like to make this yourself, now you can for you can find the tutorial in my shop.

1-Layer Explosion Box with only 2 sheets of design paper

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Up until now my explosion boxes had always had at least two layers of decorated cardstock, oftentimes even three. This week however I’m sharing a different kind of explosion box:

  • it has only one layer;
  • it only needs two sheets of double-sided design paper to make and decorate

The two sheets I used were from the Vintage Circus collection by Scrapberry’s, which has beautiful muted tones, giving it a vintage yet colorful atmosphere. I decorated with fussy-cut bits from the design paper – and, I admit, a tiny little bit of colored cardstock to diecut some curls.

In its center it sports a tiny paper box with some birds and butterflies ‘flying away’ from it, and in its center there’s a ‘floating’ micro book with some actual pages!

So there’s an idea for an alternative birthday card, which mine is going for. You can’t mail it of course, you’ll have to hand it out yourself – but that only adds to the fun! 🙂

If you’d like to make one yourself, I offer a very elaborate pdf tutorial with dozens and dozens of clear pictures in my webshop.

Hidden Treasures: an Explosion Boxed Mini Album (new!)

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Hi you all! Time for a spring & summer project! 

This is what would happen if a mini album and an explosion box married and had a baby. 🙂 It’s an… Explosion Boxed Mini Album!

This lovely box can hold over 55 pictures and sports LOTS of embellisments on the pages. And it’s its own gift box to boot, so a double bonus!

I designed it around a Prima Marketing collection (called Free Spirit), so a 48-sheet 6×6″ paper pad, an ATC card pad, some 12×12″ sheets and lots and lots of flowers. My goal was to have as little leftovers as possible, so it is also doubling as a destashing project 🙂 (triple bonus, yea!)

Check out my (written) tutorial if you can’t wait to destash work with your own lovely papers and create, for instance, a nursery gift, a wedding gift, a birthday gift, or simply a stunning way to present your own holiday or Christmas pictures.

And for those of you who prefer complete kits, that is to say everything you need to create this project, including materials AND my tutorial, go to the Photographs and Memories (USA-based!) online store and have at it 🙂

But first, let me know what you think!


Photo Explosion Box: Golden Wedding Anniversary

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An explosion box is a really great gift to surprise someone with. You can make it interactive with tags & pockets, using design paper to decorate. There are several examples of these on this blog, and there’s a tutorial in my Etsy shop.

Another way to decorate is to use pictures only. This way it will become a treasure trove of someone’s dearest memories, always easy to keep nearby and peruse them. This kind I’ve dubbed a 100% Photo Explosion Box. And this week I’m sharing one of these, which I created for some people’s golden wedding anniversary.

So enjoy the video & pictures! Please like this post – and of course subscribe if you’d like to receive weekly updates of my work. 🙂

 

 

30th Wedding Anniversary Explosion Box

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A short while ago a lady asked me to create an explosion box to suprise her husband for their 30th wedding anniversary. She had seen my Still in Love explosion box, and hoped I could create a similar one, but of course customized to her specific likes and wishes.

Since I still had enough of DCWV’s Natural stack, I set out to create another one of my explosion boxes. It has two layers with an altered miniature treasure chest hidden inside. The lady sent me some thoughts and feelings about her beloved husband, and some pictures of her family and their dog, all of which I incorporated as creatively as I could.

I was very happy to hear that the lady and her beloved loved it and are continually adding little personal memorabilia to it!

Like to create an explosion box yourself? Check out my tutorial, explaining the process of creating a three-layer explosion box in 80 pages and 190 pictures!

So, here’s the end result, enjoy!

 

The first two tags of these three were made with some tag die sets by Crealies:

 

BewarenBewaren

Explosion Box for a Man – Still in Love

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Recently a lovely lady ordered a customized explosion box as a gift for her beloved, to celebrate their love. Today I’m sharing the end results with you, for not only is this the first love-themed explosion box I created, it’s also the first that is intended for a man!

It’s a two-layer explosion box, created out of cardstock and decorated with the Natural paper collection by DCWV. It has several quotes and sentiments about love and family; some I came up with myself, based on what she shared with me about her beloved and their relationship. Others were copied from the Heirloom sticker sheet by Kaisercraft, which is a great source of inspiration for projects about family.

In the center of the explosion box is a tiny wooden treasure chest, super cute, that I altered with papers from the same Natural stack, on top of a copper-colored paint base.

If you feel inspired to create one yourself but don’t know where to start, check out my explosion box tutorial in my Etsy shop, based on my Explosion of Joy version. As a bonus, this tutorial covers a three-layer explosion box, so that’s a whole extra layer compared to this one!

Enjoy the video!

 

Curly die by Crealies:

These tags were made with some tag die sets by Crealies:


Group Gift Explosion Box

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This style of explosion box combines two of my previous styles of decorating: 1. designpaper only; 2. photos only.
This one makes for a great gift idea if you’re giving this as a group of people, like your entire family, or a group of colleagues – like in this case with this particular explosion box. For it has both design paper and photos, and a new element: several personalized messages, printed onto the design paper itself!

And by the way, there’s an explosion box tutorial available in my brand spanking new Etsy shop – called Creator’s Image Studio! 🙂 This tutorial was based on the Explosion of Joy explosion box, but it resembles this one in most of the designs and techniques, so check it out in my Etsy shop!

I’ll post an “official” shop announcement video in my next blog of course, but I thought I might mention it now, since the first tutorial in the shop is on an explosion box 😉 .

So enjoy the video – please like if you do & feel free to leave a comment! And don’t forget to check out the explosion box tutorial in my Etsy shop!

 

 

New Design: A Micro Explosion Box!

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So, I have this thing: I can’t throw away paper. Any paper. Not even scraps, unless it’s the smallest of slivers.

As you may know, whenever you create an explosion box, you’ll have these squares of paper scraps left over. And of course I can’t throw those away either. So instead of adding them to my ever growing pile of Still-Useful-For-Some-Future-Project-Scraps, I decided to design a new project to use them.

And here it is! I’m happy to present you with the simplest, also cutest, of projects: a micro explosion box!

Materials needed: Five scraps of cardstock of about 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4 inches). And some very small pictures. That’s all! 🙂

Thank you for letting me know what you think by leaving a comment below, or by liking this post.

 

 

How to create a 100% Photo Explosion Box

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Recently I developed an explosion box for one of my workshops, that is completely matted with photos only – so no design paper this time! 🙂
By way of this video I’m sharing with you a short instruction as to how to make one yourself. You only need 4 sheets of 12×12 inch cardstock, scrapping materials (glue, craft knife or paper trimmer, corner rounder, ruler, scissors, bone folder), a circle stamp and two pieces of ribbon. Oh, and photos of course 🙂

Measurements:
1x 12×12 sheet
1x 11,5 x 11,5 sheet
1x 11 x 11 sheet
1x 8,25 x 8,25 sheet

 

 

Explosion of Joy – a springtime explosion box

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Don’t you love spring? The days are finally lengthening again, birds are coaxing potential mates to their side by singing to their hearts’ content, early flowers are blooming in happy colors and the sun is already tentatively testing the strength of it’s rays. I think God designed springtime to be an awesome reminder for us that their’s always New Life waiting for us after a period of death – no matter how long the winter in your heart may have lasted.

An explosion box is therefore an especially fitting springtime project: it’s literally an Explosion of Joy!  🙂

Enjoy the video – please like if you do & feel free to leave a comment! And – there’s a tutorial available in my Etsy shop!

 

 

BewarenBewaren

Explosion box with Uptown Flair design paper

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Here’s my second explosion box, decked in the gorgeous summer colors of The Paper Studio’s Uptown Flair design paper. Not only is an explosion box a great alternative for your usual birthday card or gift, it is also kind of a mini album since it will actually hold about 20 pictures!

I had so much fun creating my first explosion box, in the blue jeans colors of the Fiddlesticks paper pad, so I was very happy when I was commissioned to create a second one.

Uptown Flair’s color theme is so inspiring! Almost every sheet of its 12×12 inch paper stack has glitter in its design, which gives it a truly glamorous and festive look and feel. I had already used it on some other projects – two birthday cards, one a mini wallet and the other a photo wallet – but when you make an explosion box you really have to use each and every sheet of paper; which automatically means you get to enjoy working with each individual design.

Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think. If you’d like to create one yourself, please check out the tutorial in my Etsy shop. Oh, and for the link to the “Print your tags” (free) tutorial I refer to in the video, click here.

Click here if you can’t see the video.

 

Klik hier als je het filmpje niet kunt zien.

Dit explosiedoosje is een leuk alternatief voor een verjaardagskaart of zelfs een minialbum – er kunnen nl. ongeveer 20 foto’s in!

Ter inspiratie om zelf ook te maken – er is een Engelstalige werkinstructie beschikbaar in mijn Etsy shop. Ik kan ook een Nederlandse versie voor je maken, tegen dezelfde prijs. Geen tijd/zin om zelf te maken? Je kunt er ook eentje bestellen op dit blog, via de Showroom, papierkeuze/kleur/thema in overleg.

Explosion box with “Fiddlesticks” design paper

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I really love this western-like jeans, lace & wood design paper by My Mind’s Eye. This 6×6 inch (15×15 cm) paper shows fascinating combinations of colors, fabrics and textures and also comes with two sheets of tags. Check out my paper walkthrough to see what I mean; I loved working with it!

This is my first explosion box. The most difficult challenge was probably “how not to use the entire paper pad in one explosion box” – but I managed 😉

An explosion box is a lot of work but its rewards are as great: it really makes its recipients happy, their eyes widening with wonder and glee when they lift its lid! :-)The one I made here is probably its most simple form; I’m already contemplating more layers, more pockets, more doors, more… everything! So keep an eye out for my next design! 🙂

Click here if you don’t see the video below.

 

Klik hier als je het filmpje hieronder niet kunt zien.

Een explosiedoosje is veel werk, maar het is ook wel superleuk om aan iemand te geven door de verrassing die het doosje in zich bergt, en die tevoorschijn “springt” als de nieuwsgierige ontvanger het dekseltje optilt 🙂

Ook eentje bestellen? Kijk in mijn Showroom.