Crazicards Crafty Blog

We have all seen the conventional exploding boxes which contain several layers decorated up and which fall open once the box lid is removed. I wanted to try the exploding box but I also wanted to do something a little bit different inside instead of the layers.

So I decided that as I love butterflies so much I would have to incorporate them  in the design of my box. The though of floating butterflies was quite intriguing too. By the end of this two part tutorial I am hoping that you will be able to create your own exploding box with a difference.

What you will need

• Coloured card for making your box and for matting and layering.
• Card for stamping.
• Stamps of your choice - I chose Elusive Images Eastern Grasses and Gina K Take Flight
• Ink pads in your chosen colours
• Acetate sheet
• Waxed thread
• Glossy accents
• Glitter or Sakura gel pens
• Promarkers
• Wet glue and small pegs or paper clips

 Getting Started

Step 1

The hardest part for me was to choose the right colour combinations of card and the stamps I want to use. I eventually decided on Lime Green plain card stock for the main box and shiny black mirror board for the matting. I chose super smooth white card for my stamping surface as I find this always gives a good impression.

Step 2


As the Eastern Grasses stamps from Elusive Images  are quite long I needed to make my box large enough to accept the full image of each stamp. To do this I simply measured the largest stamp from the set. After measuring and adding a little for matting and layering it worked out that I needed a box that had sides of 4.5" tall and at least 3" wide. This worked out great as it meant that I could use a 12" x 12" sheet of card for the base of the box. My card looked something like this:


Next I made the lid using the same principle but I added 1mm to two adjacent sides to ensure the lid fit snugly onto the box base.

The depth of the lid sides is entirely up to you. The image to the right is what I had by the time I had cut out the base and lid. At this point to make life easier label each side of your box and lid. This will make life much easier for you when you create your matting an layering as you will label each piece as you go along.

The next step is to make all your mat and layers for each side of your box base and your lid. This takes a lot of time depending on how many layers you go for but take your time as you want the layers to look great. So choose the colours that match your main design as well as your box colour.

I wanted to make my stamped layers pop so I made a mat from glossy black mirror board to sit between my stamped layer and the box base. You can miss this part out if you prefer and just use distressed inks to highlight the edges of your stamped panels.

Tip: Don't forget to make enough panels for both the inside and the outside of your box base. By the time you have made all your panels it should look something like this.

Step 3 

Now you need to glue your box lid together making sure all the edges are lined up, use your little pegs or paper clips to hold the corners in place whilst the glue dries. (I am presuming that you will know how to make up your box lid so please feel free to contact me if you have never made a box before, I am always happy to to help).

Step 4

Next comes the fun bit - decorating your panels. There are so many possibilities when it comes to decorating your box panels. You can stamp them, you can paint them and you can even decoupage them if you wish, the choice is entirely yours, the main thing is to have fun and enjoy what your doing.

I decided to ink my panels with Tim Holtz Distressed Inks and then I stamped them with my Elusive Images Eastern Grasses stamp set. At this point you can add highlights to your stamped images or you can mount them onto your matting layers and them add embellishments, glitter and highlights if you wish.

I added small amounts of glossy accents and I also used my Sakura Glitter pens to add highlights. Once you have finished all you panels mount them up onto your matting layers, matching each numbered or lettered layer together, (did you remember to number them?).

Once you have finished you will have something like this image to the right. In total you should have 14 panels depending on whether you decided to cover each panel or not.

Step 5

The last step for making the box is to put all your panels onto their corresponding box flap, base and lid. Inside and out. Now you can just keep your box as it is or you can add a little twist so that when the box opens you get a lovely surprise. There are many different things you can do such as flowers, butterflies, dragonflies, balloons etc.


As I mentioned previously I decided on butterflies so here is a sneaky peak, I will show you how to make these floating butterflies in the next newsletter.


I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings,  until next time happy crafting :O)