First project for The Cutting Cafe'

My first project for The Cutting Cafe' is a card in a box.  I absolutely love these! They are 3D, but they fold flat so you can still send them in the mail=) 

The balloons are from the card in a box embellishments that come with the Card in a Box Template. There are sizes and instructions listed on The Cutting Cafe's site if you need a little extra help putting it together.

I used the Cricut Explore (my favorite crafting tool) To cut the card and embellishments. I sized the card to 11.5x11.5 inches so that it would be taller and look more like a pineapple. (Once you have the box sized the way you want make sure you select all, right click and attach so your cut and score lines are on the same mat as your paper) After the box was cut I folded the paper along the lines to make a box. I inked the edges and then taped it into box form. Then I cut out a bunch of little hexagons (sized at aprox 1in) and glued them onto the 3 flaps. That didn't look "real" enough to me so I decided to cut (by hand) tiny, skinny triangles, curled them with my scissors so they would stick out from the hexagons, glued them on and then put green chalk around the hexagons. After chalking I used an ink pad and pom pom to add shading around the hexagons. For the pineapple leaves I cut them out, separated them from their base (as shown below), scored them down the center, chalked the edges, and curled them with my scissors. 

To attach the embellishments inside the box I use hot glue and  floral wire (you can also use paper or scraps of plastic) I really like the wire because I can bend it and move the balloons around a bit. After I had everything attached I added glitter glue to a few spots to make it sparkle...because everything is better with sparkles! 

Where the embellishments for this card are from...

Banner - Formal Occasions Cartridge 

Happy Birthday - Birthday Cakes Cartridge

Hexagon - My Quiet Book Cartridge

Pineapple leaves - Preserves Cartridge 

Spongebob - svg from http://www.frontiernet.net/~mardenz/ 

Hope you enjoy this project as much as I did! Happy Crafting!