New Momenta projects

I've been busy lately.. sorry that I haven't blogged in a bit. We spent some awesome quality family time over Memorial Day weekend. It was great! =) We actually spent the day Monday in Santa Cruz at the boardwalk. Lots of fun to be had up there! And I can't believe how different the weather was there than here. It was like summer finally! It was nice!

Anyways, I have done a few Momenta projects lately.

Here's a take-out box using the Endless Summer pad. Oh and those crinkled black alphas.. those are Momenta too! I love them!!


This one uses the Family Ties pad and earth tones cardstock! Oh my! I absolutely love the family ties pad! I definitely recommend it!! The paper is beautiful!! Nice simple patterns.


And lastly, I have this one. It also uses the Family Ties pad. And I also did this layout for Scrap For Therapy. I did a tutorial on how to weave using embroidery floss. Head over there and check it out!!


I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!
-Dani

I'm not much of a floral designer.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderfully amazing mommies! I've had a great day so far. I got to sleep in until 10 this morning! Oh, it was awesome! It was especially good since we stayed up late last night with our friends that were visiting. We met them back when we lived in NC. The trouble with the military is that you always move away from all of the awesome friends you've made. I'm glad we've kept in touch with them though. And Jonah just loves his Katie! Here's a picture from this weekend of Jonah and Katie! It's too cute not to share!

We had a GREAT time! =)

Anyways, so today during my free time I finally finished up something I've been working on. At Scrapbook Challenges, Pamela always has a Pick of the Week, and there is a challenge to lift the pick of the week. This week's pick was a bouquet of handmade flowers by one of the members of the group. As soon as I saw it, I knew I could use a take-out box!! And you all know how much I love those take-out boxes! I've also been trying to learn new ways to make handmade paper flowers, too. So this was exciting!!

I was looking through tutorials for handmade flowers and saw some like these that were made out of fabric. And of course I thought they would be perfect with paper too! I love how they turned out!! And the little bow is made out of old book pages (I actually found the PERFECT old book from Goodwill... an encyclopedia from 1953.. P-E-R-F-E-C-T!). The tutorial for these can be found HERE. I just inked them to match my paper. And isn't the take-out box the perfect "vase"? Uh YEAH! =)

Well I hope you all have a great Mother's Day! =)

Day 1: Stop wasting those food containers!! =)

We waste a lot of food containers at our house. As I've mentioned before, we eat Chinese take-out (delivery, rather) A LOT. And my husband also has some weird obsession with chicken nuggets from McDonalds (those boxes would also be cute altered and I have some on my desk, I just haven't gotten around to it yet). The possibilities are endless really. You can turn old canned food cans into planters for herbs or other small plants. Use Egg cartons for paint cups. Cereal boxes make great cardboard for homemade embellishments. Anyways, you get the idea.

I've always thought that fry boxes were a little cute. Just slap some paper on there, and they would make VERY cute party favors, gift boxes, etc. From now on, I'm collecting every fry box we get when we eat fast food (which isn't very often now thanks to our new "healthy lifestyle".. phooey).



This is very simple. You will see on the back of the box that there are 2 flaps that can be easily undone (careful not to tear the box). Unfold the whole thing and cover both sides with patterned paper. Fold it back up and secure the 2 back flaps with glue dots or double sided tape. I always use Tacky Tape, and it works perfectly. Then just decorate the front!!

And here I've got yet another take-out box! This one is just in time for Mother's day.. it's the perfect little gift box for my mom!



You can find the tutorial that I posted a few weeks ago for take-out boxes here. The only difference with this one is that it's smaller. You will only need 1 sheet of pattered paper for the smaller boxes like this one. At our local restaurant, this box is the one they send the crab rangoon and egg rolls in, whereas the other box in the tutorial is the rice box. I'm not sure if there's any other way to explain the sizes to you..lol!

Don't forget about my giveaway!! Try one of these projects mentioned here for an extra entry! You have until Friday night to enter, as I am announcing the winner on Saturday!

I'm really feeling these Chinese boxes.

Oh my gosh! I love these little boxes! If anyone else wants to make one like mine, here's how.

You will need: one Chinese take-out box, 2 sheets of matching 12x12 paper, adhesive, pen, scissors, craft knife, ruler, hole punch, embellishments, 2 brads or eyelets

This is the box that I'm starting with.
First, you need to take off the handle. If you are really careful, you may be able to put it back on. I'm not careful though! Once you have it off, unfold your box and lay it flat on a 12x12 sheet of paper. Trace around the main part of the box. The flaps won't fit, but use your ruler to connect the lines from the "main" part of the box. (Ok, that sounds a little confusing.) It should look like this.

On the second sheet of paper, trace the flaps. You may want to leave about a half inch of extra space at the bottom of each flap to account for any space that may be in between the flaps and the main part of the box.Then, cut everything out. Turn your (still flattened) box over to where the outside is facing up. Adhere your paper flaps to the flaps on the box. The adhere your main paper to the main part of the box. Don't worry if there's a little paper hanging over; you can always trim or sand it down with a file to give it a more finished look. ***A SIDE NOTE*** If you plan on using a strip (or strips) of pattern paper as an embellishment across the front of your box, you may want to go ahead and glue that and trim now. I did, so this is what it looked like:

After that, turn your box over to where the inside is facing up. You will see the holes from the handle. If you plan on putting your handle back on, just pierce through the hole with a paper piercer all the way through the paper. If you plan on using brads or eyelets, punch through with a hole punch (but make sure it's small enough to fit your eyelet or brad). Also, find the slit on the one flap for the "hook" to close the box. Using a craft knife, cut the slit open through the paper.
It's time to fold your box up! You'll have to work each fold back and forth to get it loose, then it should fold right back up like it was. Then, line up the holes that were punched on the sides and attach with a brad or eyelet (or the handle if you plan on reusing that).
EMBELLISH!!!
These are so perfect for gift boxes or party favors! Maybe even home decor or as gifts themselves? You could even fill them with candy for Valentine's Day, Easter, Christmas, Halloween... ahh the possibilities are endless!

If you make one, I'd really love to see it!! I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!
-Dani

Why do we eat so much Chinese food??

Well, it's because those darn boxes are just way too cute! I've been "collecting" all of the boxes that our rice comes in (the others are too messy to clean.. ew). My collection has gotten a little out of control. Borderline obsessive really. They've been sitting for a while too. I kept telling my husband I would do something with them, but then just never did. I don't think he thinks that I need to be collecting any more Chinese boxes. Well... I finally altered one to prove that I'm going to something with them!
I think it's the perfect gift box for a thank you gift! Maybe a little gift card or something. Perfect. And the good news is... my husband also liked it. So I suppose I can keep collecting these adorable little boxes.

I think I may post a tutorial on this soon. It was super easy to make.. and I need to do something with those dang boxes!!

I hope everyone is having a great week!
-Dani