This is the white poinsettia on the lid. I was quite pleased with how this came out, because it actually shows the iridescence of the perfect pearls, and also the Diamond Stickles along the edges of the petals. The final touch was to add a few dots of Fruit Cocktail Stickles onto the centre after the thick layer of Diamond Stickles had set – it took over 24 hours, which was probably partly due to the extremely cold weather we’ve been having.
This next picture shows a detail of the other two poinsettias on the lid.
Both these pictures show up the hand embossing on the petals quite nicely.
The next picture is a detail of a couple of the side panels of the box, showing the Ornamental Iron embossing design, inked in black.
This detail shows the hand-embossing on the poinsettia petals inside the box. I did this with a ball-ended embossing tool onto a piece of funky foam; I did the veins first, from the front, and then turned the petal over and embossed the spaces between the veins. Finally I went back over the veins from the front again. Unfortunately the delicate crazed pattern that I rubber stamped onto the bright red petals hasn’t shown up at all in the photos or the video, but believe me, it’s there, and it does enhance the look of the project!
My final picture is a detail of the centre, which I made from a collection of bits from a cake decorating shop; little crystals and silver beads mounted on wire, and small pink and white stamens, which are double-ended; I folded them in half, and wired everything together at the base. After attaching two little flowers I’d cut from green card on Jiminy Cricut, and decorated with gold Perfect Pearls, I pierced a hole right through the octagon forming the base of the inside of the box, and spread out the ends underneath, glueing them well to prevent them from moving. I was pleased that they were not as lumpy as I’d expected.
Now for the video:
I am going to make a second Poinsettia Explosion Box, during the course of which I shall be amending some of the instructions given in earlier posts on this project – I need to alter the original layout plans to incorporate side strengtheners for the lid panels, for instance. Once this is done, I will change the post titles to indicate that this has been done – so if anyone is planning to follow these instructions, please bear with me until this has been done! Doing a second box will help me iron out any problems I experienced, and hopefully will give a better final result. (These amendments have now been done.)
I hope you have enjoyed this project! I really enjoyed making it, and again I’d like to thank Laura of the Paper Trail blog (http://followingthepapertrail.blogspot.com) for allowing me to post my interpretation of her lovely design, and also Penny Duncan for so generously sharing her extensive collection of lovely cut files – her own designs for many flowers and other items too, which are all available for free download via her blog (http://pennyduncancreations.blogspot.com).
