Friendship Box with Insert Tutorial

I tried out the box at ISC for their ISCC4 and filled it and gave it to Troy's soccer coach last night. Big rush (no surprise there!) so no picture, but I only used designer paper and stamped some soccer stamps I have from SU. It was simple, but nice! I did have some problems with where to score so I had been pondering this box.

Then late last night I came up with an idea. What if you used acetate for the box, then you could stamp an insert. You could actually make up a couple of these boxes and have the inserts already trimmed to size then just stamp when you needed them! Okay, probably not a new idea, but hey, I was excited! So today I started work on my idea to see if it was feasible.

First I made the acetate Friendship Box. It is acetate, so it is a bit difficult to take a good photo of when it is empty. Also, I am using my new portable lighting studio that I bought a couple of weeks ago from Radio Shack; (it was on sale for $19.99!) I'm still learning how to best use it. :D

I did use mini glue dots (from SU) to adhere the acetate together. I just love those little dots! Now the obvious question is can you see the dots? Yes, but since they are only located on the sides of the box you don't really notice them.

The next thing I did was figure out my size and score lines for the insert. Now I had a bit of a problem with scoring my box and had to cut off 1/2" from the "bottom" (that becomes the front of the box without the lid) so my calculations may differ if your box uses that 1/2". :)

Insert size: 8.5" x 4.75"
Score: ETA: .5" along both long sides then score along short side .5", (move forward) 3.75", (move forward again) .5".
You will not have any insert for the front portion of the flap.

I actually messed this up when I scored this insert and did the last 1/2" at the end of the insert instead of after the front fold so I had to fix it when I figured it out. (So ignore the faint score line at the bottom of the insert here.) ;)

Then I cut the bottom half of the sides since I didn't need it to overlap. Here is my insert (upside down.) I hadn't realized that my last 1/2" score was in the wrong spot yet. The score lines are pretty obvious here. I also trimmed out the extra corners for the lid and cut slits for the bottom. (This was when I finally realized my mistake.)

Now comes the fun; you get to stamp your insert. I tried Michelle Zindorf's technique of embossing stamped images and then brayering over them. My colors came from SCS's SCSCC167 of Sky Blue, Certainly Celery and Night of Navy. TIP: When you are stamping this remember that part of your insert will be upside down so you need to figure this out BEFORE stamping! Fortunately, I realized this before I stamped.

After I finished stamping and embossing I then used my foam brayer (to have a softer Night of Navy) to brayer color on the insert. I gently wiped away the ink from the embossed images.

I folded on the scored lines and placed the insert into my Friendship box!

Oh, I did round the corners of the lid to allow it to insert into the box a bit easier. I think that because I used acetate it was a bit stiffer than cardstock.

Please let me know what you think of my "bright idea"! Thanks!

Stamps: Friendship & Summer Flair (ISC); Ink: VersaMark, Sky Blue, Certainly Celery, Night of Navy; Paper: Whisper White; Accessories: Clear Emboss Powder; heat gun, mini glue dots, brayer with foam attachment, acetate.