Mixing It Up

Hello!

After a rather dismal week weather-wise, the sun is shining today and the Autumn colours are glowing again - well the leaves that are still on the trees, anyway!
I'm still trying to catch my tail after all the coming and going of recent weeks; every time I think I'm getting to grips with the to-do list, something else pops up - you know how it is!
It didn't help that I wasn't entirely happy with my project for the Daring Cardmakers this week and decided to have a second attempt!  

As we're well and truly in the run-up to Christmas (there, I said it!) we thought we'd have a bit of fun with a few non-card challenges thrown in among the usual card ones.  We've called this series "Step Away from the Cards" and this week's challenge is the first of them

Gift Bag or Box

We'd just like you to make or decorate a box or gift bag (it doesn't have to be Christmas-themed) then share your creations with us via the InLinkz gadget  on the blog as usual.  

In the end I'm sharing both of the things I made.  I managed to alter the depth of the box which made the proportions better, but I still think I should have used slightly smaller circles for the flat sections - or made the container part of rth box with a larger diameter

I made this box using s set of download papers which I printed onto card, plus some matching Bazzill Bling card.

I've made a couple of other shapes using the same kind of

 technique in the past.

Once the box was created I decorated it with ribbon and die cuts

 
My second project was a gift bag - over the years I've made loads of these gift bags as they are fairly simple to make to whatever size I need.  This one is about 17cm high.  

 I used a sheet of 12x12 paper from a lovely Kaisercraft paper pack.  I've never actually tried, but I think it would be fairly easy to size this up for a larger gift by using two sheets of identical paper.  

I have a tutorial for this gift bag {HERE}

To decorate:

Starry border (Joanna Sheen)

Pine cone and branch dies (also Joanna Sheen)

Baubles; Spellbinders, Memory Box and a Tonic circle 

MS Snowflake punch, Tonic border punch for tiny stars

 

 That's it for today.  I'm going to try really hard to spend some of the weekend catching up with what my crafting blog-mates have been up to recently - I've missed such a lot.  
I've about 15 Christmas cards made....ie. not enough, and I've not bought a single Christmas gift yet......panic is beginning to set in!

Hope you find time to join in with The Daring Cardmakers this week, it would be lovely to see your creations.

Have a great weekend, see you soon