Craft a Box

Happy Monday readers! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. On Friday night Greg and the boys drove me to Rochester for an ornament exchange with some old friends. One of my friends took over the tradition I started many, many years ago when we still lived in the area. It has become such a wonderful time to connect with friends and it also kicks off the holiday season.

My FIL has long been a woodworker and in the last year has also gotten into turning wood projects. The ornament I gave was one he turned and sadly I don't have a photo of it since we picked it up on the way to the party. But I knew the dimensions ahead of time so I could make a custom box for it. Gotta love paper crafting for occasions just like this!

The box is 6" long by 2 1/2" square. I made the lid a half inch shorter so the bottom box was visible, making the top easier to remove. The bottom and top pieces were both done in red card stock but I used some Echo Park paper to cover the top piece.

Our ornaments are always to be unmarked so a simple piece of red ribbon is all I added. But the fact that I made it did kinda give me away ;). The recipient can either use the box to store the ornament or reuse it for a different gift.

A couple of years ago I wrote a detailed tutorial on box making for the Scor-Pal website. You can find part 1 here, and part 2 here if you want to know how to create a box of a specific size. They are really pretty simple, and addictive once you get started!

The only bummer about the exchange was that I forgot my purse which meant I spent a good deal of my Saturday driving back to get it. Not how I was planning to spend my day but some friends came along for the ride and we did a bit of shopping along the way. I have some pretty awesome friends!

Posting is going to be a bit sparse for the rest of the month. Like many of you, the list of things to do is long and time is short. I want to make sure I enjoy my time with family these next few weeks. When I have something though, I will be sure to share it!