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Sunday 29 May 2016

Tool Time Tool Box card

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all enjoying the bank holiday weekend (if you are having one where you are of course). I've not really noticed the weather as I've been holed up in my crudy sorting things out and trying to make some cards. I have plenty of ideas but getting them to turn out right in the real world is being rather challenging at the moment. *big sigh*

Tool Time Pop Up Tool Box


I'd like to share a masculine card with you today, it's based on one of my favourite cards - the pop up box card. I've been making these sort of cards for about a year and love them. I got an embossing folder from Crafters' Companion that's part of the Just for Men Signature Collection by Sara Davies (I got all of the embossing folders and although I have some similar, these folders are a different size to the ones in my collection). The one called 'Checkerplate' really caught my eye as it remind me of embossed steel. My father-in-law is the person I turn to when we need any handyman stuff doing so I thought a tool box card would be perfect for him either for Father's Day or when we want to say thanks. I didn't want to make the box the same dimensions as my usual pop up box cards as a tool box tends to be shallower and narrower than a cardboard box so I started off by making a paper template before I started to cut into my card. If you ever want to alter dimensions of cards then I'd suggest trying it out with copier paper first as it's a lot cheaper than card stock - your card won't stand up obviously but you can see if your measurements actually work.

Once I'd made a paper model of the tool box I cut a sheet of A4 card down to 14 cm but left it full length. I scored the card at 4cm, 14cm, 18cm and 28cm, then rotated the card so the short side was at the top of the scoring board and scored it at 6 cm. I then burnished the score lines well. I cut down the 28cm scoreline to the 6cm scoreline then tapered the cut on an angle to the edge of the card so that I could stick this card flap to the inside of the left hand side of the card once I'd decorated the box panels. I cut all the remaining score lines down to 6cm to make box flaps but removed the shortest flaps completely leaving just the flaps on the longest sides. I cut two pieces of pale blue pearlised metallic card to 3.5cm by 7.5cm, two pieces of the same card cut to 7.5cm x 9.5cm and finally two pieces of the card cut to 5.5cm by 9.5cm. I embossed these pieces of card with the 'Checkerplate' embossing folder. I went over the embossing with some silver gilding wax then buffed it up. I added these embossed panels to the relevant parts of the card. Once the card was decorated I stuck the flap to the inside of the left hand side of the card using double sided tape. Usually a pop up box card has two strips of card inside the box to float the elements from using acetate but because this tool box is narrower than a normal box card I only added a single strip of card that was cut to 14cm x 6cm (this is deeper than a normal strip to support the weight of the die cut tools.) I scored both ends 2cm in and added wet glue to the flaps and slid it into place inside the card - the bottom of the card strip is level with the box card bottom edges. I then die cut a load of tools using My Favorite Things Die'namics "Tool Time" dies. There are a similar set of tool dies in the CC Just for Men Signature Collection by Sara Davies but I haven't bought them yet as I already had the Tool Time. As much as I love the Signature Collection (and I really want it all) I have limited funds for crafting so can't justify paying full price for an item that's really similar to the one I've already got, saying that if it's ever on sale it's be straight in my basket assuming I have some money in my account lol. Most of the MFT tools come in at least two parts (some are three) so I die cut the whole tool in either Kraft card stock or silver mirror card then die cut the matching pieces in either a coloured card or more of the mirror card depending on what piece it was, I then stuck all the tool pieces together. It was at this point that I realised I would need a second tool for each one cut for the backs of the tools as they can be seen due to the way the tool box is fully opened. The hammer and saws had to be die cut on the reverse of the card so that the outlines matched. The screwdrivers and wrenches are symmetrical  so line up regardless of how they are die cut. Once the tools had backs I stuck them to the inside of the card as shown, I tried to angle the tools and placed them in different heights to make the layout look more appealing. I had a hammer left over so attached it to the outside of the tool box with it's head glued to the inside so it looks like someone's balanced it there until they need it. I haven't added a sentiment to this card yet as I'm not sure what occasion I'll use it for but I have added white card panels to the underside of the flaps. Here are some more photos of the finished card.








I really enjoyed making this card, it was quite time consuming die cutting all the parts to the tools but I'm very pleased with how they've turned out and they are certainly substantial! I really like the embossed metal effect I got using the Checkerplate embossing folder and I can see myself using it a lot for other masculine cards. I've got a few more cards to share with you but this has turned out to be a rather long blog post so I'll write about them another day. I hope you all enjoy your Bank Holiday Monday and I hope you have lots of crafty fun. As always if you have any comments or questions then please leave them in the comments section below and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

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Sarah xxx