The other day I sat at my stamping table trying to come up with a Sale-a-bration project for an upcoming workshop. I absolutely love Punch Bunch, so I decided to focus on that stamp set. I played around and created two cute embellishments, but then it was time for bed so I walked away without ever completing a project. As I thought about the project over the next couple of days I kept thinking that I needed to make a cute little box, or something, to put these embellishments on. That's when I ran across some boxes I had cut out last year using the Bitty Box & Envelope Die. I had borrowed the die a while back from my mother-in-law and cut out several boxes before returning it. Over time I have used most of them, but I still had a few that were just the right color for what I had in mind.
The project on the left was made with the original way with Only Orange CS (retired), but you can easily substitute Pumpkin Pie CS. I added some Old Olive polka dot DSP (Jolly Holiday collection) and layered it on Rose Red Card Stock. For the embellishment itself I stamped the image once in Rose Red on Whisper White CS and punched it out with the Scallop Circle punch. Then, I cleaned the stamp and used Rose Red, Old Olive, and Pumpkin Pie markers to color in image and then stamped it again. I repeted the process and stamped it a third time. I punched a 1 3/8" circle from Old Olive CS and then punched the stamped image using the 1 1/4" circle punch. I carefully trimmed out the flowers and added those using a small piece of a dimensional. For the tiny tag I used a Rose Red marker and colored only the words "true friend", I stamped it and punched it out using the Medium Jewerly Tag punch. If you look closely at the flowers, you will notice that I used a watercolor pencil to add some dimension to the flower petals.
Just as I finished the first box, I looked up and noticed that my Sale-a-bration catalog was laying there, opened to the page where this stamp set is featured. That's when I noticed a cute little shopping bag they created as a sample. I thought to myself, that looks alot like the box I just made without the end flaps...thus a new idea was hatched. I had one more box (in Real Red), so I cut off the end flaps, assembled it, and added some twine for handles. The rest of the project was made basically the same way as the first one, with variations in color.
I absolutely love how both of these projects turned out. Both are really easy to make, so I think I will be borrowing this die again very soon! Either way, they are the perfect size to add a piece of chocolate, some small candy packets, or even some 2"x2" note cards or tags.
