YOUR MAN WILL LOVE TO DO HOUSEWORK NOW!

 

EXPLODING CHOCOLATE BOX

 Part of my Hubby's 60th Birthday present, I made an exploding chocolate box - this is the first time I had made one, although I have made smaller card greeting ones but this one was on a bigger scale.

I will admit though, I cheated .... I bought the boxes instead of making them. To hold the chocolate, I needed really strong boxes.

I did learn something though - no use decorating the sides or bottom of the boxes as you cant see it once the chocolate goes in! So next time, I will just use the cardstock without the decoration.

I used Washi Tape all around the edges where I cut the boxes open.

It does look like the boxes are not centred, but it is just the angle of the photo.

The small little box in the centre holds Skittle lollies.

Die Cut & Punches Class Workbook - Part 1

 

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE - One to remember:

 

DIE STORAGE

 There are so many ways you can store your dies that I cant cover everything here ... although I will try and update this post if new ideas come along.

First though, I am going to show you how I store my dies.

I use photo boxes that sit in a larger box:

They are all labelled and I have about 7 of these. I bought these when they were on special and they have worked extremely well. Some are more full than others but even with the Hexagons (above photo) only being the one set, it is easy to grab and more importantly, easy for me to put away.

Any larger dies that dont fit in these containers are stored in a larger box that sits next to these.

My Nesting Dies that I use regularly are on display, hung on a peg board. This makes it very easy for me to get to.

The following photos are different ideas that might suit you:

The above would be my second choice - they are kept flat and easy to access. They have tabs so that you can label each one, saving time when looking for a particular die. The black sheets are magnetic.

All of the above photos are using magnetic sheets which you can buy in black or white. These photos are not mine but wanted you to see alternative die storage.

CUBE NO.2

 This is what happens when you dont look at something close enough - we knew there was a little water damage to the second cube, but once we pulled it apart, there was a LOT of water damage.

There was too much so luckily, I was able to buy another one (actually, I bought another 2!) and they were much better, only needing cleaning.

The following photos are of the damage:

I will say that Hubby has some plans for the shelves and dividers that are not damaged, so at least we will get some use out of them. 

I will have three of these 4x4 cubes in my Studio, which will be fantastic! Just have to wait a while before we can gut it and re-line with gyprock. It will certainly look better when this is done!

TEXTURE PASTE & PATTERNED PAPER

When you use your die cutting machine with patterned paper, you may want to do something to the design to enhance it .... one way is to use texture paste.

The following photos show how I have cut out a butterfly out of patterned paper and then using a stencil, placed texture paste over the top.

This gives a bit of an oomph to your die cut - you can use pens to highlight, diamontes or pearls to decorate, even just backing your die cut with plain card to give it depth will give it dimension.