Explosion Boxes

Todays post is about Explosion Boxes. Explosion Boxes have been around for a very long time, but it took me quite a while before I tried making one, as I thought that they were pretty hard to make. I couldn't have been more wrong! It is actually one of the easiest type of card I have made. It is, however, quite time consuming, since it requires a fair amount of measuring and cutting mats and layers. The "hot" thing right now is to have several boxes in the original outer explosion box, and depending on the amount of walls that need to be decorated, you can end up with a rather high number of panels to cut and decorate.

The first explosion box I made was for a newborn baby girl and her parents. I have just included a picture of the ouside of the box, as it was a bit too hard to anonymize. I recently caught bits and pieces of a live craft-along by Sam Calcott from Mixed Up craft, on how to make a slider card Explosion Box. The box consisted of three boxes, one inside the other, and it looked pretty cool. It certainly inspired a lot of beautiful Explosion boxes being shared on FB. I decided to make an Explosion Box as well, but rather than having three boxes and a slider card on the lid, I decided to go with just one, and concentrate on the decorations instead. I didn't really have a specific occassion to make the box for, but I was inspired by a fellow crafter in my FB group, who had decorated her box with flowers. She makes her own really stunning paper flowers, which I don't, so I decided to go for hobby-store bought paper roses in two sizes.

I chose three medium sized white roses and some rose leaves to decorate the lid. I also stamped a sentiment in Norwegian saying "Thank you for being you" on white cardstock and glued it onto silver metallic cardstock, and attached it in front of the roses.

As can be seen on the photo from inside the box, I chose to keep all the panels of the 12"x12" piece of cardstock that I started out with. On the first Explosion Box card I made, I just kept five panels; the one in the middle and then the four panels that are directly connected to the middle panel. Most of the boxes inspired by Mixed Up Craft's live, all kept the the whole 12"x12", but the corner panels were cut down tp a decorative shape. I chose the top of a big butterfly on mine.

For the decorative centerpiece, I made a "flowerpot" from Silver metallic cardstock, filled it with packingfoam, and stuck small roses into it to cover it up. I then tied a matching ribbon around it to make it a bit more decorated. The papers I chose for the panels are from "Craft Consortium", called "at home in the Wildflowers". I also added two sentiments inside the box.

While I was in an Explosion Box mode, I decided to make another one while I was at it. This time I wanted one that wasn't as elaborately decorated, but at the same time "fun"!

I went with a congratulatory theme, and chose papers from the "Party Papers Pad" from Sam Calcott's first release from her brand "Made to Surprise".

I kept the theme going inside the box as well, making a tiny gift wrapped box, that could hold a small gift like a ring or a pair of earrings, or something like that. I also made a small banner saying "Hurrah!", that I attached to some acetate, so that it seems like it is hanging in the air above the little gift box.

On this Explosion Box I chose to cut off the corner panels, which I found makes the box a little bit less sturdy, unfortunately. The inside panels were then decorated with pockets that each got its own stamped tag.

I have really been inspired to make more Explosion Boxes, and there is really no limit as to how you can decorate these boxes, as you can litterally make miniature cards of most shapes and tuck them down on the inside panels. This is defnitely make more of this style of card!