Birthday Party in a Box

With thanks and credit to Dawn Griffith at Dawn's Stamping Thoughts , I made two Birthday Party in a Box surprises for friends today. Each box holds a balloon, a string to tie on the balloon, a candle, a book of matches, and a battery operated votive candle made up as a birthday cake. The box could also hold birthday trinkets or gift cards. Click on the link above to find a video link of this construction by Dawn. If you are comfortable with basic instructions and measurements, I have them below.

The box begins with a sheet of cardstock cut at 6.5" x 9". With the 6.5" edge at the top of your score board, score at 1.5" and 5".  Rotate the cardstock so that the 9" edge is at the top and score at 1.5", 3.75", 5.25" and 7.5"

After folding on your scored lines, cut in to the 1.5" line on each long side. The middle and end tabs don't have to be cut shorter (as shown) but that may help you remember which parts will received the glue, tape or sticky dots. I have mitered the cuts on these tabs but not on the larger tabs which will form the sides of the box bottom and top. Mitering, in this case, just means trimming the cut edge on an angle so that the inner tab is less likely to show on the finished box.

Before finishing the box top, I cut a half circle (1/2") for the box top opening. Again, not necessary but I like that look.

I used tape runners on the shortened tabs and adhered them to the inner sides of the top and bottom side flaps.

Next I cut a piece of designer paper at 2" x 3.25" and the solid mat paper at 2.125" (2 and 1/8") x 3.375" (3 and 3/8").

Glued (taped) together and in place on the box lid, you have the box shown below before embellishment. 

I made both cupcake embellishments before I started the boxes and didn't photograph stamping, punching and cutting them out. I used Stampin' Up Sprinkles of Life #139971 stamp set and Tree Builder Punch #138295 shown below.

Shout out the Paper Whores....thanks ladies, now I'm a Stampin' Up junkie too. 

Ignoring the matchbook in the above photo for a minute, I used dimensionals (pop dots is another name) when layering the cupcake assembly. I used a 2 3/8" scallop circle punch and a 2" round punch behind the cupcake. The heart on top of the icing is also a Stampin' Up punch, Itty Bitty Accents #133787 with some tiny rhinestones added.  I added the heart after the cupcakes were on the boxes. The cupcakes were elevated from the circle background and that was elevated from the box by thicker dimensionals, seen here in this odd  angle photo. 

The strip of paper behind the cupcake assembly is roughly 3" long by 1" wide with the ends dovetailed. I eyeballed that. 

Now onto the matchbook and candle decorating.  Last November, I posted here about making a battery operated tealight into a birthday cake. This one was even easier, thanks to Washi tape. The first candle cake got plain yellow Washi tape along with a striped paper layered over a solid and small ring around the flame that matched the base of the cake. 

In the second cake, I forgot about layering the cake top but used a cupcake themed tape around the candle.  The candle is on in this photo. Hold your breath unless it is your birthday!

The top layers used 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches for the layered top,  only the larger one in the cake below. Each has a 7/8" scallop circle around the flame with a 1/2" circle punched in the center. Each circle has that 7/8" punch done first, then the larger circle punch used on the cardstock with the hole eyeballed as to being centered.  

The switch for the candle is not centered on the bottom, I made a pencil mark where I thought the hole should be go on a 1 3/4" scallop circle. I was off a bit, so I moved the punch over a bit and punched again. 

Want to know what the hardest part of this project was? Finding matchbooks! I could order them online, but I decided on Thursday to do this for Saturday morning. I looked at grocery stores, drug stores, hardware stores, dollar and craft stores. Then my husband, a smoker, asked if I had gone to a smoke shop. 

I went in to the smoke shop which is closer to home than all those other stores, asked for six of them (in case the mood strikes to make more) and the gentleman wouldn't take any money for them. He just smiled and waved me away. 

The width of matchbooks will vary, so just cut your strip of paper to fit and adhere it, leaving the strike area exposed. If I hadn't found the matchbooks, I was going to tie three wooden kitchen matches together in a bundle. That would have worked, but the paper on the matchbook seems to tie everything together nicely. 

If you're thinking this is too much work, you probably don't enjoying playing with paper the way I do. If you don't have punches, you could do most of this with purchased embellishments and just a bit of paper to tie the matches, box and candle together. But honestly...if you don't have punches and decorated paper, let me tell you about Stampin' Up.......