Rose Blossom Blog Hop: A Short Tutorial in Creating Kindness (part 1)

Hi All! Welcome to the Rose Blossom Blog Hop celebrating kindness! If you just hopped over from the always-inspiring Lynn Darda's blog, From My Bungalow, you're in the right place. If you're just starting with me, I'll have a list of participants at the end of this post.

This month, Close To My Heart has a limited edition card kit called Create Kindness. The kit includes nearly everything you need to create 24 3x3 inch note cards including ink, a stamping block, 24 card bases, 24 envelopes, cardstock circles for stamping on, and 8 (EIGHT!) stamps. And to top it off, it all comes neatly packed into one of our small stamp organizers. (All that you need to provide is adhesive!) Here's a look:

But, you say, I don't really need all that. Well, one of the coolest things about this special is that you can buy the components separately! Want to make more than 24 cards? No problem, you can buy more bases and envelopes. Just want one or two of the stamps? Great! They are sold individually for $2.95 each. The only item not sold separately is the ink cube. BUT you can buy a full-sized Archival Black stamp pad--or whatever color suits your fancy. My point: it's a hugely flexible, extremely user-friendly kit that you don't want to miss.

But, Kim, you say, I want to do something a little bigger than just a note to share some kindness. Well, read on, dear friend!

If you want to go beyond card making with this kit, I've created four little treat boxes from the card bases that will certainly brighten someone's day. Following is a tutorial on the triangle box (I'll have tutorials on the other three boxes over the next week or so). If you want to come back for the tutorial later, you can hop on over and see what amazing goodness Morgan has for you at Tweetscraps! Otherwise, on we go! 

Here's what we'll be creating:

Here's what you'll need:

Shall we begin?

Start by placing your card base into your scoring board in the vertical position. Make a small mark with you stylus at the 1 1/2 inch mark. (Note: the card bases come pre-scored at 3 inches to make it easier to fold.)
Rotate your paper 180 degrees and repeat the step.

Using your stylus, create another score line that joins the center point mark that you made with both the left and right edges of the 3 inch score line, forming a triangle. Rotate your paper 180 degrees and repeat the process.

 If you have the now-retired CTMH Scoring Board, this is easily done in the outside groove. If you do not have that board, you can create the lines with your stylus and a ruler, or in your paper trimmer--lining the marks up in the cutting groove and using your stylus or scoring blade instead of the cutting blade.

Once you finish making your score lines, you should have a diamond bisected by a score line as shown to the left. Using your bone folder to burnish your creases, fold your card base along all the scored lines.

 Don't forget to fold the paper in half along the 3-inch line!

Once you have your box folded and scored, determine how you want your edges to overlap.

Using a hole punch, punch through the two overlapping layers on each side.

When you're finished with the hole punch, your box should now look like this.

To close the box, thread your ribbon or twine through the outside of one of the sides then through the middle of the box and back out the other two sides.

Fold your flaps in so that your ribbon ends up coming out through the other side.

 Your ribbon should now look like this.

Open up your box and fill it with goodies. Because it tapers at the bottom, flat candies work best. I didn't have any on hand so I used Rolos and Hershey Nuggets instead.

Since my candy wasn't flat, I got a little gaping at the bottom points, but I'm okay with that. (I'm sure the recipient will be too.) ;-)

 Once your box is filled, tie the top closed with the ribbon.






Next, stamp your greeting on one of the white cardstock circles and color it as you choose. (I used PrismaColor pencils on this one.)




Attach your circle to the front of the box using your favorite adhesive. (I ended up using foam tape instead of the ATG tape [shown in the supplies picture] that I had intended to use.)

And that's it!

Here's a look at the one we just made along with the original:

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Just think 24 treat boxes! That's spreading A LOT of kindness! Now hop on over to see what Morgan has for you.

Here's a list of participants:

Lynn

Kim {that's ME!}

Morgan

Don't forget to stop back in and join me for tutorials for the other three boxes! In the meantime, have a wonderfully creative day!

CTMH Create Kindness Card Kit	CTMH Create Kindness Card Bases & Envelopes	CTMH Create Kindness Stamp--Hello	CTMH Create Kindness Stamp--Smile
CTMH Archival Black Ink	CTMH 3D Foam Tape	CTMH Piercing & Embossing Tool Kit	WRMK Crop-A-Dile Hole Punch
Prismacolor Colored Pencils

InLinkz.com

Sharing Handmade Kindness

Hi All! Sorry it's been awhile. (I'm trying to resist the urge to pull the Moriarty-esque "Did you miss me?" thing...but it's tough!) ;)

This month, Jennifer Mcguire is hosting a challenge called "Share Handmade Kindness." It's a chance to take all those cards we make and pile on our desk, in our drawers or wherever, and get them sent.(That IS why we make them, right?) This week's challenge is to make something for friends and/or family.

SO today I'm showcasing a card I made to thank one of my friends for hosting a fantastic cooking class. Let's take a look:

For this card, I used a Colonial White card base and layered it with strips of Fern and Poppy cardstock from Close To My Heart's Enchantment Fundamentals collection. I also added a strip of Gold Shimmer Trim for some extra bling, and to tie in the gold on the front layer.

For that front layer, I used Close To My Heart's Harvest Wreath stamp set. I stamped the wreath in VersaMark ink on a 3 1/2 x 3 1/2-inch piece of Colonial White cardstock and heat embossed it with Gold embossing powder. I stamped the fruit on a scrap of Colonial white cardstock using the rock & roll stamping method and fussy cut them. (The ink colors I used for the fruit are: Lemons, Canary and Saffron; Pears, Saffron and Fern; Orange, Saffron and Poppy; and Pomegranate, Poppy and Pomegranate.) I stamped the small leaves in Fern and the larger leaves in New England Ivy, and fussy cut those as well. After arranging the fruit on the wreath, I added a gold bow using multiple strands of DMC gold embroidery thread. However, the gold on gold kinda got lost, so I added a bow of Poppy Thick Twine. I then stamped the greeting in Pomegranate ink on a little hand-cut tag and added it under the bow with gold thread and glue dots.

Finally, I layered the Colonial White panel onto a piece of Poppy cardstock and lifted the whole thing up using a 3x3-inch piece of craft foam.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

You can see the resist pattern on the Enchantment Fundamentals paper.
The other side has this same pattern in white.

And that's it! I can't wait for my friend to receive this in the mail! I have a couple of other cards to send this week as well. (Love this motivation!)

I hope this gives you a little inspiration to create and share some kindness this week. Make sure to stop by Jennifer Maguire's blog and get the details on this fantastic challenge!

Have a fabulously creative day!