Anna Griffin Extra Special Trinket Box

Project 2  

Trinket Box from Anna Griffin papers and card

This pretty trinket box is made from 2 sheets of 12 x 12 Anna Griffin papers, and one sheet of 12 x 12 card for the lid.

4 pearl decorations and a glass bead for the lid. I also added 4 metal corner to strengthen the lid.

I have made many of these trinket boxes in different sizes this is the largest size. They are made using an origami fold and instructions can be found on YouTube I am adding a link, as video tuitions are much easier to follow when making origami folds. 

https://youtu.be/VcIwXXOYnB4

The video will give you the folds for any size I have used 6” squares, 8” and 12”  for previous makes and this one is 12 x12.

You then measure the opening square and make a lid to fit.

Make your base box as shown in the video with the first page of the 12 x 12 paper

Until you get to the part where you have pushed out the base of the box and the flaps are loose

Leave the base box and start to make the lid.

From a 12 x 12 sheet folded for the trinket box base, the opening is 3” square. Therefore a piece of card 5.5” square. Scored at 1/4”, 3/4”. 1 1/4” on all four sides

Cut the ends to make a box and fold the score lines with the outside edge folded back as this forms the inside liner to the box,

Next cut a piece of matching card 4.5” square and stick on top so the box sits inside the base and the 4.5” square becomes the lid. 

You can line the inside of the lid with a 2.75” square in the same card or contrasting plain colour.

And a 3” piece of card to add a layer to the top 

This is the lid upside down 

I have added metal corners to the top and and glad bead to lift the top off. The glass bead has been added using a hot glue gun.

This trinket box itself is not my own idea, as I said before I found this on YouTube and have adapted it for the sizes I wanted.

However this particular box has my own twist as Anna Griffin papers are one sided and I did not want cream flaps showing, I also wanted it to be a little stronger .

I therefore made a lining for the box by cutting a coordinating piece of paper, from the Anna Griffin stash, down to 11.5” square and folding it in the same origami folds, but with the pattern on the inside.  When you get to the end of the folding and before you push out the bottom of the box, pull out the flaps, which will be the patterned paper, and tuck the main area of the box into the first box, this will give you a patterned lining and flaps that cover the plain flaps of the original base, with a small amount of plain edging.

I inked the edges of the plain flaps to blend in the top flaps and the added some wet glue between the two layers of the box base before gluing each of the flaps together. The flaps were then glued down on the outside with the hot glue gun. I also added a pearl and gilt embellishment to each flap.

You then have a very pretty trinket box that will hold jewellery, cosmetics, hair bands or anything you want to keep handy in a pretty box.

Here I am showing this lined box alongside another box made previously (not lined) using pearlised paper 12 x 12. In this box I keep all my broken jewellery pieces that I collect and use to decorate my projects.

I am so pleased that doing this Anna Griffin month has given me this design idea to improve a project that I loved,  and at the same time allows me carry my “Use Your Stash”  theme. 

Hope you enjoyed this 2nd Anna Griffin project and keep dropping by to see the next item made with her materials. 

Happy Crafting

Dee 

Anna Griffin in July

 Anna Griffin in July

Project 1 - Die Cutting

Thanks for stopping by for my first share of projects made using ideas from Anna Griffin products and designs.

Of all the dies I have purchased from Anna Griffin range this is my most used die. It is a Easel card die that cuts a base card the top layer to add to the easel base, and a pretty inset that matches the outer shape, There are also some flourishes in the set to add to the decorations you use on the card, and a couple of layering greeting bases. 

It is relatively easy to cut (although you do need a machine with an A4 platform, and the first time I made the card I needed to check out a video to see how it went together as the base card is slightly different to standard easel, you can see in the picture it finishes half way up the card and has a tab end that attaches to the top card layer. 

I wanted to make a wedding card and had all the elements in  my Anna Griffin box of goodies I just needed to add some card 

To make the card you will need:

2 piece of A4 cream smooth card

1 piece of gold card A5

An Anna Griffin Wedding Greeting 3D

Anna Griffin 3D Flowers in cream colour 

First I cut a base card from the outer die 

Then cut a single page topper from layering die

Then with the gold card cut the fancy inner layer 

II then cut some fo the flourishes from the dies that come with the set to add to the flowers when I decorate.

I layered the topper card onto the base glueing along the flap end and attaching the flap to the middle of the topper lining up the two pieces 

Then added the gold inner piece and it is ready to decorate 

         

Glue on the back of the gold panel

Then taking a couple of the 3D flowers and some  of the flourish die cuts lay them on the gold topper until you have a layout you are happy with tans glue them in place

On the base card add your greeting

 I also added a flourish under the greeting 

The card will stand tall tucked behind the greeting

Or lay flat for posting 

And will fit an C5 envelope

I love ethe quality of the finished card using these components. Now we need to see if items available in the Uk can make a similar style of card.

Here I have a set of nesting oval dies and a pretty frame die from my stash.

I used the 4th largest die to make the base card. This was done by folding an A4 piece of card in half and then placing the top of the oval over the edge so it did not cut a small area at the top allowing the 2 sides to remain attached. And then cut another single oval the same size for the top The  2 smallest  ovals were used for the base greeting, and the fancy frame cut in silver to go with the blue background card and flowers. 

The top of the base card is folded in half and the single top layer glued on top with the bottom half unattached so it folds. 

NB When I put these  layers together I did not like the amount of aqua blue on show so I cut another oval in white card one size smaller to give just a small edging of colour card. The silver frame was added to the top

Once the base card was put together the decorations used were from 3D Card Works embellishment packs and a printed card Happy Birthday

Here is the card complete

And folded flat ready to post 

Personally I like the soft cream and gold of the Anna Griffin card but the other easel card is very pretty and a good alternative.

I will be making a couple more Cards using Anna Griffin dies throughout the month, as well as  some projects from her designer papers. 

Happy Crafting 

Dee 

 

Coming Up In July

 Something New for July

Designer Series 

Hello everyone and thanks for stopping by. 

For July I want to try something new. Looking at a particular designer and sharing projects made from their ideas. The designer I have chosen is Anna Griffin. I love her designs, her dies, papers and card kits, although I do not always find them easy to use, not because there is anything wrong with the products, but because although I love her prints and dies, when it comes to making the cards myself I am in danger of making them too busy and I like a cleaner look to my finished card, so for me it is always about finding the right combination. 

In the Uk it is very difficult to get the new products from Anna’s range as we only have one outlet that i know of, QVC, and there we only get a small selection of products and usually this is long after they have been in circulation in the USA and Canada. 

I check out the kits and die sets on her website every so often and then try to source anything that is a “Must Have” from the UK as import duties and taxes make them too expensive otherwise. 

I appreciate not everyone will have the dies that I might use for a project I am sharing, so what I hope to do is show some projects where I share an item made using Anna Griffin dies and then a similar version using dies similar that you may have in your stash.

Please bear with me for July as this is an experiment.

The ideas seem exciting in my head so lets hope they translate onto the blog.

Back soon with one of my favourite dies from the range. 

Dee

Dee 

Round Up of June’s Small gifts from your Stash

Small Gifts & Using up your Stash

Hi everyone

Thank you for stopping by for this round up of ideas from the small gifts and smash you stash blogs posted in May & June.

I have really enjoyed sharing these projects with you. I found that collecting up my remnants and going through my craft boxes produced lots of ideas that organically spread to new projects.

In May we made all sorts of small gifts

Mini Books

Stationery sets

Little gift envelopes 

Tea Bag Gift pack

Small Gift Bags

And we finished with larger folio envelopes 

 

Whilst cleaning through the craft boxes and files I came across lots of lovely items I had forgotten and amongst them were a couple of belly bands from Santoro Gorjuss paper pads. As the pads were 12 x 12 the images from the covering band were large and I had placed them in the file unsure of what to do with them. But an idea grew as I looked at them and so I sat and fussy cut out the images, I took a sheet of A4 paper and cut to 15cm wide and folded it in half and then using a coordinating paper from the K & Co Stash I had used to make the folio envelopes I made an origami photo frame and then folded it in half to make a stand for my Gorjuss images. 

I love love love the outcome. What do you think ??

A lovely card for the young person in your life.

I have popped these on Ebay as I want someone else to enjoy them too.

In June we  started with some lovely seed/coin wallets. I loved making them and enjoy giving them as Thank You’s and Happy Mail.

 We went on to make Birthday Files that could hold your birthday cards and I have popped in 6 cards made from my scraps to complete the small gift. The folder finishes at approximately 7.5” wide and 6” high. 

Again I found more items in the boxes that could be used to make the scrap cards shown earlier, as well as some odd bits of embellishments that I thought I would use up. So another 10 cards were made with these bits and pieces. 

Next came Mini waterfall albums - ideal for your baby and pet pictures

Clipboards with pens - Useful item and great teachers gift

And lastly a recipe box made using up paper pads, first the paper was made into envelopes and then I covered scrap card to make the file to hold the index cards. 

As well as Seed Wallets and Recipe box I have made similar Wallets using this method in a medium size that can be used for filing memorabilia, photographs or receipts etc, on this one I laminated the outer cover t make it sturdier.

That completes my round up of May and June’s projects.

Hope you will pop by for more ideas in July. I am busy working on my theme in preparation for the projects. 

Happy Crafting

Dee  

Small Gift June - Using up Your Stash

Using Your Stash

Project 5 - Mini Recipe Box

This is the last project in this series for small gifts made using your stash. It follows on from an idea I made in May 2020, only this time I have altered the size of the envelopes to fit the index cards that are readily available from the Pound Shop & The Works etc.

For this project you will need 4 sheets of light card- heavy paper 6 3/4” square 

2 pieces of hardboard or cereal box 3.5” H and 5.5” wide 

1 piece of hardboard 1” x 5.5” 

1 piece of ribbon coordinating

1 sheet of A4 paper to match 

Decorative front.

An envelope maker

I used DoCrafts Country Life papers which have a linen finish, as the decoupage sheets in the card kit had images of a range and and kitchen.

First make 4 envelopes with the 6 3/4” square paper and your envelope maker. I have a Making Memories board, and used the 2 3/4” line to make envelopes that fit the 5” x 3” cards perfectly. Close and glue down all the flaps then cut a tiny strip off the top, leaving them open for recipe cards.

Glue the middle of the back of each envelope and layer one on top the other 

Next lay out the cardboard front the 1” base panel with a small gap between front, base and back onto the A4 paper and cover over. 

Glue the envelopes to the front and back of the hardboard file

Glue the ribbon to the middle of the file and decorate the front or personalise.

The finished mini recipe files have 4 sections, each will hold up  4 recipe cards and can have a recipe on each side so that is a total of 32 recipes.

Perfect for:

FAMILY RECIPES - Handed down to family members

SLIMMING RECIPES - Favourite recipes to help keep you on plan

ECONOMIC RECIPES - To help students and those starting out in life

FAVOURITE CAKES - 

QUICK SNACKS - 

You get the idea.

So that is the last project for June 

Watch out for July.

Something a little different.

Happy Crafting

Dee

Small Gift June - Pretty & Useful Clipboard

 Use Your Stash June 

Project 4 Small Gift - Clipboard

Still using my stash, I came across some grey-board, and with plenty of 12 x 12 pads available I thought I would make some Clipboards. 

A couple of years ago I had seen some pen clips being used by The Posh Paper Lady and had to have some so bought them on Amazon, I had some pretty rose gold Bulldog Clips and so decided to make a few ready for my next Craft show. Each board will hold up to A4 paper pads 

These are so simple and make a great Teachers gift or summer fete item.

To cover the grey-board I have used Crafters Companion 12 x 12 sheets 

I made 2 with Vintage Dream and one with Victorian Diary.

Each board uses 2 sheets of 12 x 12 

• Start by running a gold marker pen along the top and bottom. I do this as the 12 x 12 papers will not wrap all around the grey-board, so you see the base line.

• Choose a piece of 12 x12 that you want for the back of the clipboard, and the piece you want for the front, the front needs to have a print that will sit centrally on the 8 1/4” width.

You may need to cut half a centimetre off the top of your 12 x 12 sheets if the grey-board is a standard A4 size as they are just short of 12” 

• Add glue to the back of the grey-board and stick to  the centre of the paper chosen to be the back. 
• Stand the board up and crease the paper over the side edges, run your bone folder or crease with your fingers before gluing the sides over the front 
• Now cut the front sheet to 1/4” narrower than the width of the grey-board, centralising the pattern as best as possible and glue to the top of the board. Press the glued paper down using your bone-folder to smooth out the glue and ensure an even spread.
• Add the Bulldog clip to the top and if you have one a pen clip to the side of the board

This is the main board completed. 

You may wish to add a paper pad

Or some note-lets and envelopes 

You can also decorate the Bulldog clip with some dangly beads 

Make a variety of patterns suitable for all. I have made three so far but no masculine ones as yet, so I will a few of them later. 

The first one I made using Vintage dream papers featured a unicorn, so I used the more generic sheets front he pad for the next board

The last one shown in the picture (at the bottom) is from the Vintage Diary collection 

I will pop them into a cellophane bag and label them to sell on my stall.  

Dee

Gifts From Your Stash - Mini Flip Album

 June - Using Up Your Stash for Small Gifts

Project 3
Mini Flip Album

So todays project share is using up the papers left over from the last project, but of course you can make this from your stash anyway.

It comes from an idea shared by Positively Papercraft on YouTube, and I have placed the link below.

https://youtu.be/yT9Baw_cwAs

Confession time, my project has not been laminated uses less materials and therefore takes less time. It does use similar methods so you can choose which one you want to make.

You will need:

3 strips of 12 x 4.5” }

1 strip of 12 x 4” }  These use up the scraps from the last project

Also

1 piece of 9 x 6” for the outer cover

2 pieces of cardboard (i used the board from the back of the paper pad as I had now finished it)  3.5” x 4.5”

1 piece if cardboard 1” x 4.5”

A piece of elastic cord at least 8”

Place the pieces of card onto the back side of  the 9 x 6 paper with the 1” strip in the centre. Leave a small gap in between the front and back panels of cardboard and the 1” spine. 

Next glue down the 4 sides on the inside. I usually stand the project up and crease the edges turning it around until all 4 edges are pushed around the cardboard, before gluing the paper edges and a little glue on edges of the card. Or you can run your scoring tool around the cardboard edges. 

Now use a length of paper from the 12 x 4”scrap to line the inside. This will need to be 7.5” wide and it will naturally be 4” high. Glue down making sure you fold up the papers to crease the spine. Then find the middle of the spine and using your pokey tool, or similar, make a hole. 

This makes the outside cover.

Photo Mats

From the 12 x 4.5 pieces cut along the 12” side at 3,6,9” so you make 4 pieces from each making a total of 12

Score each piece at 1” at the top of the paper and fold over, and if you want to , round the bottom corners.

Now starting layering them onto the mini album by folding over the 1” top and gluing the outside of the flap and laying it as near to the top as possible and centres on the page.

Lay the next one slightly down. You should get 5 on each side giving you 10 photo mats on each side of the album. 

Take the elastic cord and feed each end through a button that will sit in the 1” spine. Then feed the 2 pieces through the hole. you can add an embellishment, charm or beads to the elastic before tying the ends together to make the album closure.

You can see in this last photo the elastic cord coming from through from the inside and a piece going each side of the album to make the closure.

This mini album wold be perfect for a pet album, or a birthday memory book or give to a new grandmother with pictures of the new baby. Again you could personalise it with a message inside and lettering/greeting outside. 

Happy Crafting 

Dee