I Finally Created An Explosion Box!

Hi Friends and Fellow Crafters! Are you beating the heat? It's another scorcher here in the Northeast, the temp today is a balmy 102 degrees! I won't even venture from the cool ac into the swimming pool! I ran out early to freshen the water in my birdbath and was done with the great outdoors for the day! It's the perfect day for some catching up on my blog and getting some crafting done.

Today I am sharing my very 1st Explosion Box. I saw a fabulous Explosion Box on my Circle friend Nadia's blog. If you want to see some amazing works of paper art, check out the link to her blog, With Glittering Eyes, and have a look around. She is a very talented Paper Artist. On her blog, she gave a link for instructions from another Circle Member and fabulous crafter Enfys' blog, Going Buggy. This is one more blog worth browsing. She does truly wonderful coloring with Promarkers and has great tutorials. 

We were having a 50th Birthday party for my BFF, Elaine and I already had the banner ready from Colleen's Birthday. The birthday banner has been traveling around to our parties and has now become a bit of a tradition for us to use it. LOL! For Each birthday, I have been making a new name section. I really wanted to create a special card for Elaine's 50th Birthday, so armed with a great tutorial and inspiration, I went to work.

Here are the details:

Cricut Anniversary E 2, Cuttlebug & CCR

Carts:

Creative Memories Be Young, Over the Hill & CCR Basics

Die Cut With A View Glitzy Glitter Stacks - Neutrals & Brights

CTMH Hooray Bouquet & Unity Stamps

Stickles & Martha Stewart Coarse Glitter

Pop Dots

Ribbons & Flowers From My Stash

Black & White Cardstock

American Crafts Metallic Cardstock

Cuttlebug Happy Birthday Embossing Folder

I made the mistake of adhering the AC Metallic Cardstock to my outside layer before making sure I was really going to like it. Turned out, I didn't like it at all, but unfortunately, I was out of heavy black cardstock, so I was stuck with it. Other than that, I think it turned out swell.

The Top
The stamp on the top is from CTMH Hooray Bouquet.

 That is the the inside layer. I tried like mad to make a Birthday cake, but couldn't get a nice round cake happening, so I went with a square cake. Since I had never made one and didn't have any tutorials for one, I just layered the sizes, ran them through my cuttlebug and added some ribbon and flowers.  It kind of looks a little like a wedding cake, though, doesn't it? I cut the acetate strips from a Cricut Cart Package and sandwiched them between balloon cuts to hold up the balloons. I got this idea from a link on Nadia's blog to Magic Boxes. The Explosion Boxes there are unbelievable!

Here is a close up of the cake.

I used the CCR to create all the embellishments for this whole project. I still can't see me ever giving up my Gypsy for the CCR, but due to a problem with the new Gypsy update and my E-2 not communicating well, I was almost forced to go with the CCR. The scalloped mats and circles are from the CCR Basics. The Happy Birthday is from Over The Hill and I cut her name using the Creative Memories Be Young Cart. The font is called Be Happy. The balloons and the number 50 are also from Over The Hill.

Here is the middle layer

The Birthday Cake is from Over The Hill and I added some Stickles to the flames. The flower is a left over from my Art Philosophy Roses I had made for an earlier project, The leaves are a Martha Stewart punch. The stamp is from Unity Stamps. The base of the layer is white so the picture looked funny to me! LOL!

I'm not sure why I didn't take a full picture of the bottom layer, but at least I managed to take some of the mats on it. I can't remember where I found the Friends Always saying, lol, and it's not showing in the CCR. That will teach me to wait a couple of weeks to post a project!

The 50 mats alternated

This mat had a personal message on it for my BFF.

So there you have it! My first try at an Explosion Box. I was so terrified to try making one, but now I am so happy I did. If you haven't tried one yet, jump in and do it! The results are beautiful and your friends or family will love to receive one. I know Elaine was just thrilled with hers. I placed a gift card inside it so I had a card and present box all wrapped up into one!

Thanks for stopping by the blog today!

Keep cool and happy crafting!

Colleen