Sunday, February 9, 2014

Life is Like a (Heart) Box of Chocolates



Life is like a (Heart) box of chocolates.  You never know what you might get, but at least it can come in cute box!  I am in LOVE with this heart image!  This is from a set of other equally in-love-with images called Lockets of Love Messages from Lettering Delights.

Now if you've ever put a heart box together, you might feel like I do:  I hate tabs!!!  So I decided I was going to try to make this box without tabs.  It turns out, that it works!  Very well, I might add.

To make a heart box without tabs, here's what you need:


I sized my hearts so that I could put three chocolates inside:  3 3/8 " across the widest part of the heart.  You'll need two.  If you have a cutting machine (I used Silhouette), it will cut the hearts out for you.  The decorative strip for the side is printed at 1" x 12" from Lockets of Love Borders on 80lb paper.  I used one decorative strip for the top of the box and cut one strip from plain 80 lb. paper for the bottom.  80 lb paper seems to be just right for the sides.  110 lb paper doesn't curve easy enough and 65 lb paper is just too flimsy.

I actually printed 4 decorative hearts so I could create patterns for the plain hearts.  

For the pattern for the bottom of the box, I cut out the word portion of the heart and for the top pattern, I left just a little pink showing.  So little that you can hardly see it in the top part of the above photo.  You don't want to leave a lot, because the top of your box will slip right off!

You will need to cut 4 hearts with the top pattern and 4 hearts with the bottom pattern.  Glue them together.  (I used 110lb paper.  This serves two purposes:  to create a short "wall" to glue the sides to and to create a very sturdy box.)

Be sure to glue the larger hearts to the backside of the top decorative heart and the smaller hearts right on top of the words of the other decorative heart.


Run a pencil from the middle out to the ends of the decorative strip to curve it.  

Here are a couple of tips to make sure the side fits perfectly.  Put one end of the strip at the top of the heart stack and wrap it around (without gluing).  Hold you finger where the point is and mark it on the strip with a pencil.  Score the point and erase your mark.  Next (without gluing), place the scored point in place and wrap the other side to the top.  Mark where it matches the inner dip on the heart.  Score and make the tab.  See bottom two photos above.

Glue the tab side on first, placing the glue (I found Aileen's to work best in this case) on the short wall of your stacked hearts.  Then glue the remaining side the same (add some glue to the tab).   Repeat with the top.  


The first one took me a little while to figure out, but then I made six more and they were a snap!  Trust me, these are really easy to do.   Do you see how smooth the sides are and fitted perfectly to the bottom - no icky tabs to deal with!  

 I pinked a piece of vellum to cover the chocolates.


I placed the chocolates in gold foil mini cupcake liners.  They look yummy and smell good, too!
That is definitely the way I want my chocolates (and life) - in a cute box!



9 comments:

  1. WOW, Lori - this is beautiful! Love love it and thanks for showing us how!

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  2. Very Beautiful....I agree with you on the tabs. I always have an issue with that.
    Love it!!
    TFS the how to with us.
    Have a wonderful day,
    Migdalia
    *Crafting With Creative M*

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  3. Your heart box looks soooo scrummy, both inside and out! Fabulous make Lori! Hugs, Ira x
    Ira’s Crea Corner

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  4. Your heart box is adorable, thanks for the how-to! Happy Valentines Day! ~Lorraine

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  5. Gorgeous valentines box Lori. I saw this on MIM..Loz

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  6. This is amazing! You are so creative. I just love to see what you create!

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  7. Beautiful little heart box Lori and wonderful tips and tutorial..
    Thanks for sharing with us at Make it Monday..

    Luv CHRISSYxx

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  8. LOL...loved reading and seeing this post. How romantic and adorable and cute to have such a cute box with fabulous hand picked chocolates inside. LOVE this!

    ReplyDelete

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