Tutorials: Christmas Tree Treat Boxes and Luminaries Using Tim Holtz's Petal Drop Die

It's time to bring the bling with this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge theme of "Shine Bright Like a Diamond."  We're also featuring Tim Holtz products, so I used his Petal Drop Die to make some glittery tree treat boxes and luminaries.

 

I started by cutting four petal drop panels out of Strathmore Mixed Media paper (it's sturdy enough to create a solid structure) then I glued the four panels onto a lighter-weight card stock.  Why glue the panels onto card stock?  I tried connecting just the panels together first, but there were gaps between the panels.  By gluing them to a background paper, the paper underneath fills in any gaps that may emerge when you fold it together.  It makes it one unified structure instead of four panels with cracks between the seams.  If you're going to be coloring the panels on top, you should also color the background paper where it will show through the seams before gluing the panels down.  Otherwise, they'll show up white when you fold it.  I learned this the hard way and had to color in my seams after it was connected.

These would look cute done with colored paper, too, but I went ahead and inked them up with various colors of Distress Ink, then blended the colors with a little white paint on top. 

Since this die was not made to be a box, you'll need to sketch out a tab on the long straight edge of the panel so you'll have something to fold over and connect this all together at the back.  Cut out your panel shape (along with the tab) and sketch some lines across the bottom of the petals to represent where you'll fold them in at the base.

Using a scoring board, make fold lines on the lines you penciled in, then along all of the cut petal lines.

At this point, I added some more texture by applying texture paste through a stencil, but that is totally optional.

All that was left to do was fill this tree with candy and fold it up!  This is easy to do with the tab in place, which you can glue down.  Ditto with the bottom tabs.  

And the last step?  Decorate!  Enjoy covering your tree with glitter or snowflakes or wrapping it in tinsel or yarn.  I added seasonal sentiments with Tim Holtz's Small Occasions and Big Chat stickers.

Here's another of the same style in a different color palette:

I also made a luminary out of this same shape (using an color-changing candle light instead of an actual candle, of course).  You follow the exact same instructions, but instead of leaving the rounded petal panels, you cut it flat along the bottom so you can just set it over the light.  

I used a die to cut shapes into my panels so that the light would shine through and didn't even punch out all of the die holes.  I liked the randomness of just popping a few of them out.

I inked the outside in just a few places and added glitter and a star to the top.  Here's how it looks with the light inside during the day:

And at night!

These boxes were a lot of fun to make and if you don't have time to ink and paint every one of them, you could easily make them out of colored paper or patterned paper, too.  Just use something nice and sturdy!

Here are the supplies I used which you can find at Simon Says Stamp:

Tim Holtz Sizzix Petal Drop Die	Tim Holtz Sizzix Mixed Media Thinlits Die	Tim Holtz Sizzix Stacked Stars Die	Simon Says Stamp Snowflake Banner die	Simon Says Stamp Maryanne Snowflake Die
Sizzix Big Shot	Strathmore Mixed Media Paper	Martha Stewart Scoring Board	Ranger TEXTURE PASTE	Tim Holtz Layering Stencil BUBBLE
Tim Holtz Occasions Small Talk Stickers	Tim Holtz Big Chat Stickers	Aleene′s Turbo Dry Glue	Salty Ocean - Distress Ink	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad WILTED VIOLET
Tim Holtz Distress Twisted Citron Ink Pad	Peacock Feathers - Distress Ink	Picked Raspberry - Distress Ink	Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paints

I'm excited to see how you incorporate some shine this week!  Upload your creations to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $50 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store!