Valentine's Day Box Card Tutorial

I have created a tutorial for this Box Card over on the MyMakes forum - do pop over and check it out! I made it into a Valentine's card as it's February, but once you have mastered the construction you can decorate it any way you like.  And it folds flat for posting too.

It's a great little stash-buster for odds and ends of paper and die cuts: even the acetate strips are recycled from packaging materials.

Change the colours and it's good for a wedding. I made a couple of Christmas boxes last year and I have an idea for using some hot air balloon dies sometime soon... would also be good with flowers for Mother's Day.... hmm that's coming up soon isn't it - watch this space!

Upcycled canvas memo board

Memo board made from charity shop canvas

I decided my craft room needed an "inspiration board" and when I saw a large square canvas picture in a charity shop I knew exactly what I was going to do with it!

The canvas is 16" square so a Fat Quarter was just the right size for this project. I couldn't resist this adorable kitten fabric, and paired it with some pink satin ribbon for a pop of colour.

I gave the canvas a coat of gesso to make sure the rather bright picture wouldn't show through the fabric, then cut wadding to the size of the canvas and temporarily tacked it in place with a bit of double sided tape so it wouldn't slip out of position.  I cut the fabric with enough overlap to wrap round to the back of the canvas with a bit to spare, then attached it with a staple gun to the wooden frame of the canvas.  The easiest way is to staple the top centre and bottom centre to fix it in place, work along the rest of the top and bottom, then turn it 90 degrees and repeat, checking to make sure the fabric stays smooth and stretching out any wrinkles as you go.

I then pinned ribbon diagonally from corner to corner and stapled to the reverse of the frame, and then from the midpoint of each side to form a grid.  I sewed mother of pearl buttons to each pont where the ribbons crossed, which makes nice "dimples" in the wadding.  I then attached a couple of eyes to the frame at the back and stretched some cord across for hanging.