After a stressful day at work, I headed off to my atelier with the my plain brown box. I didn't have a clear vision of the finished project before I started. I knew I wanted a Panda scene and worked from there. I fired up the Cricut and cut the Pandas, bamboo and the pagoda. Next I pulled several sheets of paper and card stock-for the sky and ground and placed the images against the papers that I had chosen until I found the paper that worked well with my images. I placed the paper on the shipping box and marked the measurements for the ground and sky on the paper. I constructed the entire scene before gluing anything down. The scene needed some elements in the sky, so I hand cut a sun and some clouds. When I was satisfied, I glued everything in place and then covered the entire scene with clear shipping tape to protect it. By the time that I had finished my project I was no longer stressed out. Art is such a great way to relieve stress. I get so absorbed in my projects, whether it is painting or Cricut, that I lose all track of time.
Directions for Panda Box:
Medium size brown shipping box- I recycled a box.
Prima Marketing Sasha Paper Collection- green background paper with flowers
Blue paper for sky
White, black, brown, red, yellow, light green and olive card stock
Cricut Paisley Cartridge
Circle cutter or small round object to cut the sun
Martha Stewart Bangle Chain border punch
Aleene's Clear Tack craft glue
1. Cut the Sasha green flower print paper to approximately 6 inches. Cut the blue paper to approximately 6 inches. Position the blue paper so that one inch is under the edge of the green flower paper. The blue sky should measure approximately 5 inches high. Glue the paper so that the flower paper over laps the blue paper by one inch.
2. Using the Cricut paisley cartridge cut one 2 inch sitting Panda out of the black and white card stock. Cut a 1 1/2 inch sitting Panda and a 1 1/2 inch standing Panda out of the black and white card stock. Assemble the Panda's.
3. Cut the bonsai tree out of the brown and olive card stock at 1 1/2 inches and the Pagoda out of the red and black card stock at 1 1/2 inches. Using scissors cut a small branch from the bamboo for the Panda to hold. Cut the bamboo at 1 1/2 inches out of light green and olive card stock. Assemble the bonsai tree, bamboo and the Pagoda. Glue the hand cut bamboo branch in the Panda's hands.
4. Use the Martha Stewart Bangle Chain border punch to punch a border the length of a 12 x 12 inch piece of brown card stock.
5. Position the background green flower/blue sky paper on the box. Once you like the placement glue it in place with Aleene's Clear Tack craft glue. Position the large and small sitting Panda's so that they are sitting in a field with flowers and glue in place.
6. Position the brown bangle chain border so that it covers the seam between the ground and the sky and glue in place.
7. Center the bonsai tree on the top part of the border and glue in place.
8. Glue the Pagoda on top of the border just to the right of the bonsai tree. Glue the small standing Panda to the left of the bonsai tree. Position the Panda on the center of the chain just above the bottom loops.
9. Use a small round object or a circle cutter to cut a small sun out of yellow card stock. Glue the sun to the upper right of the picture. Lightly draw free form clouds, with a pencil, on white card stock. Cut the clouds out with scissors. The clouds don't have to perfect, in fact it's better if they are not. Glue the clouds to the upper left portion of the picture.
10. Once all of the glue is dry cover the entire picture with clear shipping tape. Position the tape so that the edges meet and no portion of the picture is left unprotected. This step is necessary to make sure that your decorated box arrives at it's destination in tact. My box traveled to Connecticut via UPS and arrived unharmed. The box was in such good shape that Brittany's room-mate wanted to use it to pack some of her clothing to take back to Turkey for the summer break.
