Inspire Me Monday: Sweets for your Sweeties!

Hello Peeps and Happy Monday! I don't know about you but every Valentine's Day, I go on the hunt for a cute little project to make for my lovelies -- hubby plus my darling son and daughter. This little project that I am showcasing today is perfect for a sweet little treat for those you love! 💗 The good news is, if you like this project, you can change the width of the box and make it just a smidge bigger or smaller.

Want to see? Here's a peek at my finished project so you know where we are going!

To start, let's take a look at the supplies you'll

need to grab to get ready!

• 2-1/2" circle punch or die with a slightly larger scalloped circle to create a mat
• 3 different decorative paper designs
• Paper cutter 
• 1/4" hole punch
• Coordinating ribbon, about 8" length
• Ruler
• Valentine or love-inspired stamp, I used Power Poppy's Va-Va-Valentines digital stamp set. (Pst. did you see this one is on SALE right now?) 
• Coloring medium of choice
• Corner rounder punch
• Strong adhesive, I used Scor-Tape in a 1/4" width
  

To create this box in a flash, I cut my decorative paper before I even got started. I dug deep into my decorative paper stash and pulled out three coordinating sheets of Echo Park paper that I had been holding on for quite some time!
 

• Start by cutting 2 strips of white card stock to measure 2-1/2” by 11”. From the long side, score at 1-3/4”, 4 - 1/4”, 6-3/4”, and 9-¼”. Do this to both pieces.
• Corner round all of the edges of your strips.
• Cut decorative paper #1 into 4 pieces that measure 2.5” by 1.25”
• Cut decorative paper #2 into 4 pieces that measure 2.5” by 2.5”
• Cut decorative paper #3 into 2 pieces that measure 2.5” by 1.75”

Let's Get Started!

Remember the two long strips that you created and scored? You'll want to criss-cross them adhering them in the center square. 

And, after you adhere the two pieces, here's what your project will look like so far! 

Next, adhere decorative paper #2 so that it looks like the picture below.

Adhere decorative paper #1 so that it overlaps decorative paper #2 and looks like the picture below.

Once you have all your paper layered, it's time to mark the center of each end and punch a 1/4" circle roughly 1/2" from the top. I started by finding the center of my box with all my flaps overlapped.

Then, after punching that hole, I started to line up each flap, one by one to make sure the next hole lined up perfectly before marking the hole and punching. 

From there, it's time to deck out the box! As you can see, on the top two flaps, I did add that third design of decorative paper. After adhering it, I punched the 1/4" hole in each flap and rounded the corners. 

Now, it's time to create your main image! I printed off the You Totally Rock image from the digital set, then used a 2-1/2" circle to punch the image. Next step, coloring it all up! I used a wide range of Red and grey Copic markers and accented with a white gel pen, once I was all done. 

Knot the coordinating ribbon and thread through all four flaps, starting with one at a time and folding the flaps in until you have the two that you want on top showing with the decorative paper edges.

To keep the flaps secure, I slid a few punched hearts over the top, like this. Of course, I had to have a sparkly heart! ;-)

And here's my project again! I liked adding the punched hearts and adhering them to fly off the edge just for a little extra pizazz! Now all I need is some fun treats to stuff inside!

This project is super fast and allows you to use up some coordinating decorative paper in a truly fun way! I can't wait to send one to my son at college and hide one in my daughter's room for her to find on Valentine's Day. Fun!

Thanks for stopping by and joining me for Inspire Me Monday! I'll be back tomorrow to usher in another Creative Confetti Challenge! See you then!

~Julie