Explore Beyond for Spellbinders

Hello everyone and thank you so much for dropping by.

Today it is my turn to blog for Spellbinders. They have changed their system slightly, in that we now give the details of our projects on our own blogs and they promote our projects on their Facebook page and Explore Beyond section of their blog. So I am now a member of the so called Spellbinders Explore Beyond Team as an International Blog Ambassador and this project will appear there on the 9th of May.

I decided to make a set of four coasters and a box to hold them in, I used the beautiful Graphics 45 French Country papers (the 8 x 8 pack) and just two die sets: The Creative Bookpages Two set, by designer Donna Salazar and the Labels Seventeen Nestabilities set. I also used a bezel and die from the new Media Mixage line, the smallest of the Squares One and its matching Squares One die

For the box I used a tutorial and instruction video I found on Splitcoast Stampers. HERE  is a link to the tutorial in case you are interested, but I adapted it slightly to fit my purpose.
Here are a few instructions on how to make it:
1. Take a piece of strong A4 or 5" x 12" card stock (I used Kraft card)
2. If using A4, cut it to 5" along the long side and then score at 4 1/2, 6 1/2 and 11" You will create the front flap separately and glue it onto the thin strip, seen here on the left.

3. Cover the two biggest panels with your chosen papers cut to 4 3/4 by 4 1/4. I inked the edges first with Vintage Photo Distress ink for a more distressed look and decorated with a strip from one of the papers..

4. The next step is to create the decorative flap that will close your holder. For this I used these dies from the two sets mentioned above:

The two on the left are from the Book Plate set and the other is the largest of the labels Seventeen. First cut a square with the bookplate die, then put this through the labels die so that it will just cut the edge, (it just fits perfectly); this gives you the basic flap shape, then cut strips with the other die, both from craft card and your chosen papers and layer and decorate as you can see below, then glue it to the thin strip.

5. Now for the concertina bits: Cut two bits of 4 x 4 and score every 1/2", fold concertina style and put your little box together. (This is clearly shown in the video).

Front

Back

6. I decorated the front flap with an element from the papers matted onto a smaller die cut from the labels 17 set. I also added a bezel from the new Media Mixage line. As the bezel has a matching little die, I cut a little square of the papers. Because I don't have the recommended Ice Resin to fill the bezel I just used Glossy Accents, which for the small bezels works just fine. 

When adding the bezel, I had a little accident in that the hole I had punched for my jumpring tore. At first I thought I had to abandon the whole flap, but then I punched a little heart both from the papers and the Kraft card. I glued them together for strength, glued it to the flap and fastened by bezel to that and I quite like the look.

Alright, now for the coasters: For that I took 4 beer mats, coated them in black Gesso and when that was dry decorated them with elements from the papers, using Mod Podge to glue them down and seal them and matted on labels 17 dies again as you can see from the photos. The dies seem to match the paper elements just perfectly.

Before sealing I also edged everything with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and a bit of Treasure Gold gilding wax.

Here you can see how I decorated the inside of the flap and how the coasters fit inside it. The closure is a little velcro circle. Because of the weight of the bezel the flap almost closes by itself.

Hope you liked this little project and thank you so much for stopping by.