Polished to Perfection

Directions for Exploding Box Topper/ornament

I'd like to thank everyone who has been patiently waiting for my design fever to slow down long enough for me to finally get a chance to post directions for the Exploding Box Topper/Ornament.  This design works great for an ornament as well as a box topper. The topper can be made from the leftover pieces of your exploding box.

Directions for Exploding Box Topper/Ornament:

1.      Cut out 12 squares of paper (2” x 2”).  Turn the square 45 degrees so the corners are facing North/South/East/West.  Now take the eastern corner and roll it toward the center of the square without creasing the outside.  Now bring the western corner in to meet it and adhere these together to make your cone.

2.      Cut out 8 squares of paper ( 1 ½ x 1 ½ ).  Make cones as described above.

3.      Using your Spellbinders Nestabilities Circles cut out a 2 ¼ inch circle from a piece of scrap paper.  Find and mark the center of the circle.  Now take the first 12 cones and adhere them to the circle making sure that the cone points are touching the center mark. For this project you want inside of the cones to be showing as in the photo.

4.      Apply Designer Dries Clear Adhesive to the inside of the 2 x 2 cones and sprinkle the inside of the cone with Glitter from the Art Institute ( I love this glitter). Glitter can also be added to the smaller cones if desired.

5.      Next take the 8- 1 ½ “squares and adhere them on top of the 12 squares making sure that the cone points are touching the center mark.

6.      Cut pieces of ½” wide ribbon to place in between the smaller cones.

7.      Add small flower and brad to center.

8.      Use dimensional paint to add small red dots to tips of cones. Use stickles to decorate the seam of the smaller cones.

These look great with only one layer of cones as well.  I will post directions for the exploding box tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting!!

And the winner is......

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Well -the voting was really close and came down to the wire on Saturday ...I had to count the votes 3 times!!  And the winner is Tree number 1 ...followed very closely by tree number 7.  For those of you who had a hard time choosing...my mom specifically came to my house to see all the trees and she still couldn't decide!! Tons of people voted for tree number 7 - because they thought it was SASSY!!

Thanks to everyone who visited my blog this week and thanks for commenting on my posts!! I would love to see the trees that everyone makes...if you would like to share your tree with me send your photos to kfortin@megalink.net.

A few designing tips:--both of the trees are so gorgeous in large part due to this fabulous double sided Christmas Paper from American Crafts - the prints I used were as follows:

Calling Birds 34409/ Red

Maids a Milking 34413/ Light green

Ladies Dancing 34414/dark green

And Rudolph(the red and white Polka Dot) from their 2006 Christmas Collection. 

The fifth paper is from Pebbles Inc. (and was not double sided).  You will also noticed that I always placed the Maids a Milking- design on the top!!  Since this is a traditional Christmas tree color.  I also alternated the dark and light paper designs so that your eye would look at the whole tree and not stop in one spot of the tree.

Now as for the winner of my Christmas Blog Candy....The winner is Joyce Gleason....Joyce is from Pittsburgh PA !!

For those you anxiously awaiting Turkey directions - they will be posted by early this evening...I am still working on them.

Christmas Tree #2 from American Crafts Christmas Scraps

 

Well, I'm now working on creating a small forest...I just can't stop the wheels from turning.  Remember that when I was creating the first tree, Angela was teaching an exploding box class.  Every time we teach this class we come up with a new twist.  Last week Angela came to my studio with this really cute flower/bow/ornament and I saw it and told her it would great on the top of the exploding box she was teaching that day. We agreed since it could be made from the scraps leftover from the exploding box. The box topper was a huge hit.  So we decided to make a Christmas exploding box with the great topper and the great addition of embellishments using my circle nestabilities dies. Tons of directions for these boxes have been on other blogs, so today I won't write directions today...since I have a ton of stuff to cover.  If you would like for me to post directions for the exploding box, just leave me a comment at the end of the post.  If you have not left a comment before on a post but would like to-simple click on the comment button at the end of this article and add a comment. Here is the box:

 

I love using the nestabilities on the side of the box for an embellishment. The snowflake in the center is a button. Since some of you may not know what an exploding box is - here is a photo of what happens when you take the lid off the box: You can put a ton of photos in this box - It's a great gift for dad's desk!!

Here is the box when you add the bow:

Doesn't it look great!!  Thanks Angela for letting me share it!!  Here is just the bow - which actually is also a great ornament too!!

I will post directions on how to make this bow/ornament later this week because after all this is a blog about Christmas Tree #2 ( The beginning of the forest).  Angela was finishing her bow - when the light bulbs went off and I could see how the parts to her bow would be just perfect for the next tree if I used them upside down.  To make Christmas tree #2 - You will need 2" x 2" scraps of Christmas Paper.  We used American Crafts and Pebbles Inc paper for this tree too!! Turn your square 45 degrees so the corners are facing North/South/East/West.  Now take the eastern corner and roll it toward the center of the square without creasing the outside.  Now bring the western corner in to meet it and adhere these together to make your cone.  I recommend making all your cones first and then assembling the tree.

Starting at the bottom of your cone add the first layer of cones using 1 1/2" straight pins about 1/2" from the top to the point of the cone. I used  2 7/8" x 7 7/8" cone to make your tree. Which took a total of 59 cones.

1. Layer 1- is 12 cones-tips should be even with the base of the styrofoam cone.
2. Layer 2 is 12 cones- place the following rows about 1 1/4" above the previous row.
3. layer 3 is 10 cones
4. layer 4 is 10 cones
5. Layer 5 is 9 cones
6. layer 6 is 6 cones

I bought red pearlized pins for the layer 6 of the tree since these pins will show.  When you get to the last layer of your tree place the tip of your paper cone 3/4" above the top of the styrofoam cone (if yours is flat at the top like mine was).  This layer should complete the point of the tree.  The pin tops will look like ornaments. The 3-d Snowflake was a piece of an ornament from the Dollar Tree store- it came with a large 3-d Snowflake and 2 small 3-d snowflakes - the topper is the smaller 3-d snowflake. For added decoration I used a Snow writer from Deco Art to decorate the boughs of the tree, while it was wet I added crystal glitter from the Art Institute.  For embellishments I added self adhesive rhinestones from KaiserCrafts and snowflake buttons. And my husband insisted that the tree needed a tree skirt.  So I have added a doilie which I backed with red cardstock so that you could see the lace work. Check back in tomorrow for Christmas Tree # 3.  Thanks for visting!!

One Heart One Mind Christmas Ornament made from scraps of paper

These were inspired by a post of Trudee Sauder's blog earlier this fall.  They are so adorable and easy to make that I thought I would share them with you.  You need a clear 2 5/8" Christmas ornament, sheer ribbon, a funnel, some faux snow and leftover scraps from your Christmas Cards or projects. Remove the ornament topper. Using a funnel insert a couple of tablespoons of faux snow into the base of the ornament. Now trim your scraps into 1/2" x 6" strips. Roll the scraps of paper around a pencil and insert the rolled paper into the ornament one at a time.  Continue rolling and inserting paper until you fill your ornament. Allow some of you rolled paper to unroll.  Next I added this beautiful sheer swirled ribbon from Creative Expressions.  My scraps of paper were from One Heart One Mind and Pebbles Inc.  I loved the believe scrap of paper added to the top of the ornament.

This is a great project to do with your students, Girl Scouts, your children and your grandchildren and a great way to use your scraps!! Have fun and don't throw anything away!!  I am still trying to use all my paper scraps from my One Heart One Mind -Merry Merry and Merry Merry 2 Marathon.