Last night I had my downline group meeting and as part of our meeting I wanted to do a cookie exchange – so everyone brought cookies to share. With the idea of the cookie exchange in mind I decided that one of our projects that we make should be a cookie box. So I sat down this weekend to design a cookie box. While making my box I had my new Stampin’ Up! punches out on my craft table so I decided to use those to dress up my box a bit. I love the look of these new punches – there is a corner punch with a matching border punch. There are two sets that will be available in January. I used the Scallop Trim Corner (it will be in the new Occaions Mini Catalog) and the Scallop Trim Border (it will be in the new Sale-A-Bration Brochure – so you can earn this one FREE). The other set is called Pinking Hearts. These are the new punch style and they look more like a stapler, the lock shut and you can store them by standing them on their ends or stacking them. They punch very nicely too – I can even do it with my left hand and I’m not left handed.
Here is my finished cookie box. See the nicely scalloped trim around the top. I also scalloped the edge of the lid.
The bottom of the box is Chocolate Chip and only a little bit shows at the bottom under the scallop border but if you wanted more to show then you just need to make the side panels on the lid smaller.
For my box base I used a 12″ x 12″ piece of Chocolate Chip card stock. Scored on all four sides at 2″. I snipped two sides to form tabs and then glued it together to make the bottom of the box. I have started using the Tombow MultiPurpose Adhesive for my boxes and it seems to be working well. You only need a small amount and it costs much less than Sticky Strip.
The lid is Real Red card stock – also a 12″ x 12″ piece and it is scored just less than 2″ on all four sides. This is so that the lid will fit over the base – I did about 1/16″ less for a snug fit. I snipped two sides to form tabs and then punched all four edges with the Scallop Trim Border punch. I glued the lid together at the corners, trimming where needed so nothing showed behind my pretty scallop edge.
The top piece is Whisper White – stamped with the large swirl from Baroque Motifs in Garden Green and Old Olive. Stamped with the ornaments from Tree Trimmings – using Garden Green and Real Red ink. The “Season’s Greetings” is from Many Merry Messages stamp set. I sponged around the edges and added some Rhinestone Brads.
To create the Chocolate Chip mat with the scallop trim border was not working out as easily as I had hoped. I worked with my corner and border punches trying to create the perfect square and after rounding the third corner somehow I was always crooked. I’ll have to work on that some more but until then I came up with a cheater method to create the perfect square (you could also do a rectangle). Besides it used less card stock this way too. Do you want to know how I did it?
Monika’s Cheater Scallop Trim Square Tutorial:
Step 1 - four strips
1. Start with 4 strips of card stock at least as long as you want your side to be – you can always trim of the extra if it is too long. The width should be enough to punch the scallop trim corner punch and get the two scallops on one side. On each strip punch one corner and then all the way down one long edge with the Scallop Trim punches.
Step 2 - match corner to end
2. Then you are going to match up one corner to an end of each strip. You will trim at an angle up to the second scallop on the corner so you don’t have any extra card stock showing behind the next scallop. You are going to match the scallops up at a right angle and glue the corner together.
Step 2 - glue together at a right angle
3. Now if you need to lay your piece that will be on top of the scallops and see how long you need your pieces to be – or complete your square and then measure for your top piece. You will create a square by repeating step 2 for the other three corners.
Step 3 - make a square
Make sure you are at a right angle at each corner so that you end up with a square (or rectangle) in the end. It might be easier to punch one more scallop around each corner so that you are matching up two instead of only one to help you stay straight.
4. Then add your layer on top of your square. Or if you prefer – have your layer and glue your corners and strips to the back of it. Since mine was very big for my cookie box I saved card stock this way because I don’t have any in the middle of my mat.
Step 4 - add layer on your square
close up of a corner
You really can’t tell that the scallop trim is made up of two pieces. It is just barely visible in the close up photo on the left side.
So this was my cheater method for creating a nice square with the new scallop trim corner and border punches. I’ll keep working with them on a full piece of card stock too and let you know if I figure out anything with that. I have one theory that I am working on now that worked for me once – but that could have been luck – I need to be able to do it more than once for it to be a helpful hint.
Last night was fun. This cookie box could also be used as a gift for a neighbor – of course you’ll want to fill it with cookies. To give the box some extra support I cut a piece of the cardboard backer from our Designer Series Paper to sit inside the box. I also laid some wax paper inside so I could put cookies in there – cut the wax paper to 12 x 12 and it fits inside and covers the sides too. Or put your cookies in a plastic bag before putting them in the box. Yesterday I made Snickerdoodles for my cookie for our exchange. Yum Yum!
Thanks for stopping by today – I really need to finish my Christmas cards….. I do think I have just about all my shopping done – only a couple of little things left to find. I put ornaments on our tree this morning. I bought wrapping paper too – I thought I had some but apparently I used most of it up last year.
Have a Happy Day!
Trackbacks/Pingbacks