Little Boxes...

Friendly warning: I'm about to stray a bit from my normal again...that happens when questions lead to ideas and then to creations. :) 

When small wooden printers' trays started appearing in craft and stamping stores a few years ago, I wanted some - not just one, but some - I was filled with ideas.  But I have a small crafting room, and I've already over-filled it with "stuff," so I restrained myself.  I'm still wondering if there's a place here in the Korner for one, but that will have to wait until the latest reorganization is completed - which may be a while yet.

In the meantime, I got to wondering one day last week if there was a way I could make a little printer's tray-like embellishment on the front of a standard sized card.  But, I'm not one of those lucky people who can take an abstract vision to a tangible product easily. In fact, it usually doesn't work at all and ends up being torn apart and/or scrapped.  But this time, I made myself finish it...and share it.

I found a way to make some cute boxes from patterned paper, but the height of the sides would have made it difficult to send the card in anything other than a box. I finally settled on "circle/squares" - punched circles with the sides folded up to form squares - and hoped they'd still look like little boxes after I "shabbied" them up a bit.

I punched nine 1-3/4" circles from some coordinating double-sided patterned papers, and folded the round sides up around a punched 1-1/4" square.  Then I folded the sides back one more time to make a shabbier-looking edge, and glued the 9 squares to the top of a 4" x 5-1/4" piece of cardstock...and it still left room for some trim and a sentiment beneath the boxes.

Here's how it looks after filling in the little boxes with small embellishments, and adding some lace trim and a stamped sentiment...

After bending the sides of the boxes back a second time, I added some dry-brushed white acrylic paint here and there for a shabby touch.  I dug through my button stash for a couple coordinating large buttons, and backed each one with a scalloped circle cardstock punch with some shabby inking around the edges. The flower sections have tea-dyed cheesecloth along with some die-cut leaves for greenery...

The upper right and lower left corner boxes have some leaves dropping in from adjoining boxes, and pearl clusters in the corners to finish them off...

And two squares are filled with punched, glittered, and pearled butterflies...

From the side view, you can see it's pretty dimensional, but no more than any of my other cards. :)

Supplies:

Patterned papers: Echo Park For The Record

Dies: Spellbinders Eyelet Circles; My Favorite Things Royal Leaves; Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves

Punches: Martha Stewart Classic Butterfly, Royal Butterfly, & Medium Branch      Paper roses: Prima

Lace: TheFunkieJunkie.com (tea-dyed)      Sentiment stamp: Paper Sweeties "So Sweet Of You" set 

Pearls: Recollections      Miscellaneous: cheesecloth (tea-dyed), buttons, crochet thread

Thanks so much for visiting today...have a wonderful weekend!