I’m kind of obsessed with these right now, and have made quite a few. I will show a few pictures at the end of some others that I have done, but for now, I’m going to walk through how I made one of these for a baby shower.
I pretty much threw the kitchen sink in, and used a bunch of different dies on this one. I will do my best to say what I used, but I honestly don’t remember the name of every die (I’m not that organized!) but I really want to show the versatility of this die, and how you can use whatever dies trips your trigger in your stash. So let’s begin.
First, I cut out the box part of the die four times, then did the same with the accompany pieces:
With that done, it was time to glue the box together, well most of it. I left one side open so I would have an easier time of gluing in the “steps” that go inside, but we’ll get to that in a minute:
I used Cosmic Shimmer glue, it’s my favourite wet glue because it is very forgiving when dry, and also has a fairly quick drying time. Okay, so now that’s done, I moved on to the decorating of the box itself:
In the first picture I am showing how I put the glue on one side, then smush another of the same piece to quickly get glue on multiple pieces, because I’m impatient and this is, frankly, not my favourite part (but it’s coming soon). So, once all the decorations are glued on nicely, and I wiped off any excess glue, time to move onto the really fun bit – the inside!
Now for this, I die cut a bunch of different things, because I’m never sure how many, or few, I will want to use. I’m not saying it’s the best way, but it is nice to have leftover completed pieces to use later. I have a series of envelopes that hold all my different types of pre-cut dies, now if I could just remember to use them…anyway, once I cut out all my dies, I then got an old acrylic case a die set had come in (I always save those) so I could cut strips and make my “poles” that my newly cut accessories will be glued to. Here’s the acrylic:
I do end up cutting the edge off one end, but I use the other when gluing it to the inside of the “steps” in the box.
Now the really fun bit – deciding which cute accessories will go on the poles and in the box!
But first a bit about Press & Seal, this is A-Mazing! So, Press & Seal (P&S), if you’re not familiar with it, replaces cling wrap. It’s great because it’s sticky on one side but only once you press it down. So to use on dies, after you die cut anything, press the sticky side to the paper and release the cut paper out of the die. Pull the die out with the P&S, then, peel the die off and almost all the little bits you would normally have to pick out stick to the P&S! How cool is that?? Also, great for stamping and applying glue, then using it to “place” your die. If interested, comment below and I will do a much more in depth blog on just the uses of P&S. But here are a couple pictures to give you a better idea of what I mean:
In the first picture, you can see all the little bits still stuck in the die, the second picture shows how all but one was left on the P&S, love this stuff! You can reuse the same piece, or use it to clean up all the little pieces left on your work surface. Okay, enough about my new love affair with P&S, pushing on.
Now, the best part- adding the pieces I already attached to the acrylic “poles” to the inside of the now glued together box. I call these little pieces “steps” for lack of a better term. I attach the “poles” to those:
All the pieces were waving back and forth, I apologise for the blurry pictures. I just love it! Here are a few more, including a totally different type:
I hope you have enjoyed my pop-up boxes and that this will inspire you to see what you can do with these extremely versatile dies. Thank you for spending your time here, and I look forward to bringing you my next blog post: Tonic Waterfall dies. Stay tuned to Hochanda for all your crafting needs and inspiration, and if you are interested in chatting, I can be found most days on the Facebook Live Craft Price Drop chat – please do come say hi!
