Hello crafters, Dawny P here and welcome to this month’s Designer Choice step by step tutorial. This month, our Designer Choice is the absolutely beautiful Exquisite Censer Gift Box. It looks complicated but it’s really not and the finished project is stunning.
There are 22 dies in total in this set. You have the main die which will create the basic box and as always, all the measuring and scoring have been done for you, so all you have to do is the fun bit, ie putting it together. Even the locking mechanism is done for you, making it super easy to open and close. This is a verso set so you have outside and inside edges to decorate your box, but these can also be used on your other cards and projects. And if you have some nice design paper, you can just use the outside edges. There are sentiments, including the cutest ‘thank you’ strip, and this will get a lot of use from me because I really like it’s simple design. There’s also ‘for you’ and ‘enjoy’ sentiments as well. One of the 2 main inside edge panels says ‘with love’ and because of the shape, you could use this on its own as a vase or plant pot on another project, as well as on the box. And if you don’t have flowers, don’t worry because they’re included in the set as well.
So what I’ll do is show you the basic construction of the box first and then we will go on and put an actual project together.
Step 1
Firstly, cut out 2 pieces using the main die.
All the crease lines have been put in so there’s no measuring or scoring. It’s all done for you (don’t you just love Tonic!!).
Step 2
Now you need to reinforce the score lines.
There’s a few of them but they are mostly mountain folds, apart from the 2 I’ve dotted here which are valley folds.
Helpful Tip
If you are just starting out and you’re wondering what on earth I’m talking about, this pic shows you the difference between the 2.
It’s self-explanatory really but I hope this will help.
So the 2 folds that I’ve drawn are your valley folds and the rest are mountain.
Step 3
Go over each crease on both pieces with a bone folder.
If you don’t have one, you can use an old credit card or even just your thumbnail, but a bone folder is the man for the job for best results.
Once you’re done, they should look like this.
Step 4
Now add your tape on both pieces as shown.
You can use wet glue if you prefer, I’m just a red tape person really.
I call it ‘once it’s stuck, it’s stuck’ tape!!
This is the right side….
Step 5
… and this is the wrong side.
You only need to put tape on one of the larger tabs, but you’ll need it on both of the smaller ones.
Step 6
Now remove the backing tape and join them together, first on one side and then the other.
Here’s a tip. Adding a bit of glue over the tape will give you a bit of extra time to get it all lined up and you can move it about until you’re happy.
That red tape is fabulous but not very forgiving if you don’t get it right first time, so this will help.
Step 7
When both sides are joined, it will look like this.
Step 8
Now let’s deal with the bottom of the box.
Bend in the larger tab without the tape on first and bend the other one with the tape out of the way.
Remove the backing tape from the smaller tabs and bring them in over the larger un-taped tab as shown. You’ll know it’s right if the smaller tab sits in the middle of the larger tab.
It’ll help you if you push the sides in first.
Step 9
Now do the same on the other side so that it looks like this.
Step 10
Finally, remove the tape from the larger tab and adhere it as shown.
Doing it this way means that the inside and the outside of your box will look nice and neat.
Step 11
Just one more step now.
Push in the sides at the top. Now bend one of the little flaps at the top by the handle into the inside of the box and bring the other one over, between the handles.
Tuck the notch on the flap into the notch on the box and it will hold everything together and keep the box shut.
Genius!!
Ok so now that we’ve seen the basic construction, let’s make a real one!!
Firstly, this is what you’ll need to cut
Step 1
Cut 2 main pieces using the largest die.
Step 2
Cut 2 outside edges.
Step 3
Cut 2 using the outside and inside edge dies.
Save the little centre bits for later.
Step 4
Cut 2 outside edges.
Step 5
Cut 2 using the outside and inside edge dies.
Step 6
Cut 2 outside edges.
Step 7
Cut 2 using the outside and inside edge dies.
Step 8
Cut 2. If you added a strip of card at the back of this, it would make a good arrow to point at things with.
Step 9
Cut 1. This will be paired up later with the centre bit you saved from the main inside edge die cut
Step 10
Cut 2 of each side.
Step 11
Cut 2 of each side.
That’s the cutting done. So machines away and out with the glue and tape because it’s on to assembly now.
Step 1
Glue together your outside and inside edge die cuts as shown here
Step 2
Glue them to each main die cut piece as shown here, and add your tape.
Now you just have to assemble as per the basic construction above. Once done, add your little sentiment to the center of the box. I used foam pads for this but you can glue it flat if you’d prefer.
And that’s it all done. All that’s left to do now is to fill it with something nice.
What will you put in yours?
