Another Design with a Step Box!

Aloha, all!

     Finally I'm getting back into some crafting after a totally hectic August 2012!  But I had to because the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge starts today!!  If the SUO Challenge Coordinator can't get her act together to make a project, then we're all in a bit of hot water!

     The challenge this time around is to make a project that's either a box or a bag.  We're all stepping out of the "box" for a bit this fall, and this is the second time we've done something different for us in as many challenges.  But I struggled to figure out which of the many boxes I have in my repertoire would be a good one for this week.  Then I woke up yesterday morning and Kirsteen Gill's step box popped into my memory, and I was off to the races with this one.

     This is the box when it's opened up.  If I would ever keep one of these for myself, I'd probably just leave it out on display all opened up because that really shows off the beauty of this design.  This time around I even did a bit more in the way of embellishments to accent the Comfort Cafe Designer Series Paper and Midnight Muse card stock I used to construct the box.  So I punched a set of little scalloped circles using the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Punch Pack and the Midnight Muse, Cajun Craze and Summer Starfruit colors that are in the Designer Series Paper.

      This is the closed box, with all those little Very Vanilla inside boxes neatly tucked away, with the box held closed by the neatly constructed lid.  I didn't go back to see what I did with the first one of these I shared with you.  But Stampin' Up! has some pretty fabulous Sizzix Framelits available now which weren't around back then.  I thought that perhaps one of the Holiday Ornament Framelits might make a pretty topper for this box.  After I got it all set up and embellished, I decided I thought correctly!  What I did was to cut five ornaments out of both the Comfort Cafe Paper and one of the sheets from the Patterns Stack/Midnight Muse color. 

     I adhered them together at the sides to create a sort of pinnacle that could even serve as a handle to remove the box lid.  But I couldn't leave it by itself, so I added a base of two different shapes cut with the Window Frames Collection Framelits Dies and then embossed with the Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder.  All of these three Sizzix products, by the way, are in the Stampin' Up! 2012 Holiday Catalog.

     Once I got them all put together, I decided that even these needed some embellishment.  So I broke out the Cajun Craze Brads to accent the bottoms where the ornament shapes met, and then finally at the top.  For the top brad, I squeezed a bit of Tombow Multipurpose Glue into the teensy opening at the top and then inserted the brad.  With that Glue all dried up, that brad's not going anywhere!

     Of course, even with a 3-D project, I love tying things together with some ribbon.  This time it's the Summer Starfruit 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon.  Gorgeous accent color for this project!

     I hope you liked this project – and I'll be sharing another project with you on Thursday as part of the blog hop of my Stampin' Up! Demonstrators online group, SUDSOL  It should be a fun blog tour, so be sure to come back!

     Oh, and Kirsteen Gill has a free tutorial for this Step Box on her blog!  These are SOOOO easy to make, especially if you have a Stampin' Up! Simply Scored tool with the Diagonal Plate.  The only change that I made *besides decorating the top) was to put a liner in the bottom of the inside boxes, and also in the lid of the step box.  Other than that, there's not a thing to be changed!  You should try it!