Pillowy Hips! Sweeter than Apple Pie...

Hey, check it out: Donna gave me a nomination for the "Great Tip Award" on her blog! Now THAT's cool, cuz I loooves me a good tip!! (I really like HER tip this day , she made something to frame her corners out of scrap rubber , a total DIY stamp! too cool) I don't think she mentioned exactly which tip of mine she had in mind, so let's just assume she thinks they're all great! ;) Today I plan to update all my post labels so you can find the tips easily! (I also have a bunch in mind that are NSR (non- stamping related) I plan to share in the future, some money saving, time saving, some crafty decorating, ya know...) I'll pass the tip award on to others this weekend after I've done a little write up of the best recent jaw droppingly clever tips I've seen out there!Today I thought I'd share kind of a "reverse" window box that was pretty easy to make, and you need less supplies than the previous window box: just CS, acetate, hybrid ink and a hobby knife. I still had a few Valentine M&Ms left (yeah, I chowed through almost the whole bag making "gifts", and V day is still two weeks away!) and thought it would be a cute show-through pattern on the body, and that a pillow box would be a good size and shape for this project becuase of the long narrow giraffe image.
Find a template for a pillowbox online(or use the one below). The first one I found actually just told me to make it "a little taller than my image and a little more than twice as wide". Well, this worked(and I liked that it makes you realize it it pretty easy to make a custom one sized to fit your image), but if you are not comfortable with a sort of "just fold and go" approach like I am (lazy patternmaker/internet searcher), I recommend printing one out, laying it on your CS, tracing with an embossing tool, and cutting and scoring, I think you'll get better results! Here, try this: http://www.dianescraftcorner.com/FlatBoxPattern.html

Stamp the giraffe on one side on the box and on a piece of acetate using Palette Hybrid Ink (I used a piece of a clear envelope here). You'll either need to allow drying time or heat set (quickly!) on the actetate. Carefully cut out the inside of the giraffe with your hobby blade. It's a little tedious but if you're careful and do it in one piece, you have a cutout you can use on another project!* So this makes it worth the time and effort, I think. I left the hooves.
Flip your CS and acetate over and put adhesive around the edges of the CS, then lay the acetate on top, lining up the image. (Ack! I just realized I did not upload this image, oh well, cna't go back(lazyeditor) Decorate the outside as you wish. Then fold up the box and adhere the side flap with Terrifically Tacky Tape. This will hold, trust me!
After I loaded up my M&Ms, I decided I wanted the heart pattern to pop a little more, so I colored the hearts in (along with the eyes) with my white gel pen.
All done! Pretty cute. It holds quite a bit of candy and is reusable, so I'm thinking my DH and I might get a lot of mileage out of this one sneaking various contraband sweets into the movies! (yeah, we do that, don't you..?)

Hope your day is SWEET! :)

DOH! I only realized AFTER I'd taken all the pics that one of the kids stamped a purple monkey on the DP I used for my backdrop!! HA ha! It's like a little subliminal message!("you know you want that MONKEY, TOO!") Oh well, can't redo, (lazyphotographer) so I just stuck my watermark over it!

*That was a TIP. ;)

PS: THIS IS FUNNY: On my daily hippy spotting quest yesterday I went to leave a message on one blogger's page when I found a new project, and the word verification prompt was "Xbutt"!! I thought, "How does it know it's ME?? LOL! TRUE STORY!!!