Feelin' Lovey Dovey - Valentines Goody Box and Arrow Pencils

Hello!

Yay for Wednesday... Boo for first post of the week on Wednesday!  Better late than never?  Anyone else hit hard with numerous bugs, virus, doctor trips this season?  I was thinking about it, we've had some sort of illness every. single. week. since the week before Christmas.  The stomach flu has gone through our house twice, I've lost track of colds, I'm pretty sure that someone in the house has been on some kind of antibiotic every week since Christmas and I've now decided that Lysol is my new BFF.  Cross your fingers that Lysol does that trick and we can all stop getting sick so I can keep on keeping on!

Today I wanted to share another project from CHA... a Valentines project!  Yep, somehow February came and with it, one of my favorite Holidays - Valentines Day!  Now, I know there's plenty of people out there who are anti-Valentines Day, who say that the Holiday is an "industry" Holiday but you know what?  I don't care!  I LOVE any holiday that is comprised of telling people close to you that you love them, a holiday that adorns everything with red, pink and hearts and a Holiday where it's expected to give or receive chocolate!  My kind of Holiday!  So when I saw the new Arrows Die from WeR/Lifestyle crafts, I knew I wanted to incorporate it into a Valentines Project.

I ended up using a lot of the new WeR/Lifestyle Crafts dies for this fun, sweet and simple Valentines Treat Box and Pencil Set.

I used the following supplies for this project:
WeR/Lifestyle Crafts Large Bakery Box
WeR/Lifestyle Crafts Arrows Die Cut
WeR/Lifestyle Crafts Cut Out Chevron Die Cut
WeR Chevron Washi Tape
WeR Bakers Twine
WeR Happy Campers in Flannel Shirt
WeR Textured Card stock in Leather
Crop-a-Dile
Dylusions Ink Spray by Ranger in Postbox Red
Printer
Pencils
Lifestyle Crafts Valentine Matchbox Die (unavailable on WeR Site)

First I decided to cut my Large Bakery Box from the WeR Textured Card stock and from there, I knew how large I wanted my tag.  I formatted the writing on my tag to fit on a 3"x5" rectangle, making sure to leave room in the wording for my arrow.  I printed the working on white card stock, cut it down to the desired size and then put a piece of Emerald Green Chevron Washi Tape down in the blank area I wanted my arrow to go in.  I then wrapped some red and white Bakers Twine around my white tag, overlapping the Chevron Washi a little.  I die cut my arrow using the Arrows Die and popped it off the tag using dimensional tape. I then glued it to my Happy Campers Flannel Shirt paper that was cut to be 3 1/8" x 5 1/8", just wide enough to frame the tag.  I then used my Crop-A-Dile to punch a hole in the top of my tag so I could hang it from my Baker Box.

For the Bakery Box, it was looking a little plain, so I decided to stencil on it with the negative of a die cut!  I love this, I've done it with actual metal dies (cookie cutter dies work the best for this) or by making a stencil from paper, which is what I did here.  I cut out the chevron pattern (mimicking another arrow... are you seeing a pattern here?  Or an unhealthy affinity for arrows?) using the Cut Out Chevron Die.  I tried to cut the pattern from the center of a 6" x 9" piece of card stock, leaving me enough room around the shapes so that when I sprayed it with my color, it would protect the area around it.  If your paper isn't large enough to cover the area you DON'T want color on, just layer some scrap paper over the area that's still exposed.  Note: You want a heavier paper so that you can spray onto your paper without it bleeding though and distorting the image.

Once you have created your negative (I didn't use the arrows it cut out, just the paper it cut it from), lay it over the bottom of the box, about 1.5" up from the bottom and spray your color over your stencil. Gently remove your stencil and admire your awesome image below!  I used the Dylusion Ink Spray in Postbox Red for my spray.  It has a nice mist, not too heavy and the color is really saturated.  If your hands hold your stencil down, you'll want to wear gloves so you don't stain your skin... yes, I had one red hand for a few days after this project!  Stencil all around the box, trying to keep your stencil even on all sides.

I love that some of the arrows are slightly darker or lighter, depending on how heavy I sprayed that area.  Also, I thought the little bit of over spray would bother me, but I like the way it looks a little distressed.

Once I was done stenciling my box I glued the edges together and created the actual box. I added 2 bands of card stock around the box, one below the stencil and one above.  The box was taller than I originally realized so it was nice to break up the tan color of the card stock.

Now lets turn our pencils into arrows of love.  You'll want to die cut enough arrow ends and heart points for each of the pencils your plan to give to your Valentine (BTW - you could do this with any round type of candy, like pixie sticks, if you wanted to give something sweet instead of practical).  Hot glue your arrow ends (feathers?) with hot glue to the end of your pencil, trying not to get glue on the eraser, and the hears with the points down at the bottom of your pencil.  I used unsharpend pencils for this project, but you could easily use sharpened one, or patterned ones - whatever you have on hand.

Cute, huh?  I love these Arrow Pencils... maybe they'll inspire your Valentine to pen you a sweet, lovely thank you note?

Fill your box with some shred (I always get mine from the Dollar Tree), your Arrow Pencils and some sweet treats and have your child take it to their teacher, give it to a co-worker, anyone that might have an affinity for office supplies...

If you decide to purchase any of the supplies that I included links to, use code KUTZPAPER at checkout and get 20% off in the WeShop! Hope you have a lovely day!

Andrea

** As a member of the Lifestyle Crafts Studio Design Team I do receive compensation for the projects I post using their products but all projects and opinion are all me!