I've been working all weekend on my project for the MFT SYTYCS contest. The competition is fierce and I am so thankful to have been chosen as one of the finalists. I am just thrilled with my final project! When I first started the project I had no idea just how much time it would take to complete it. Funny how that happens!
The project was based on a magazine article written by Kelli Purkey. She originally created a tutorial for this fabulous project back in 2001 in Stamping Arts & Crafts Magazine. I found the tutorial on Amy Celona's Blog, to view the original magazine article click here. I have been looking at Kelli's Trinket Boxes for the past few years, I've always wanted to make one and the SYTYCS finals seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it a whirl! I have a bunch of up photos to show you and then I have a mini tutorial showing the steps involved. I hope you enjoy it.
I changed up a few things from Kelli's original tutorial, so I thought I would share those changes with you here. I would highly recommend printing off her tutorial to use as a guide along with the information here.The box is basically two parts the top and the base. I'll start by explaining the top first.
I started out by cutting 16 circles using the Circle Scissor Plus. I decided to make my circles an inch larger than the original article calls for. My circles are each 4" in diameter. You need 8 for the base and 8 for the box top.
As per Kelli's instructions I cut a couple extra circles out of computer paper. To make the template for the top of the box you fold the circle in half and then bring the two ends towards the middle. Your folded piece should now be a perfect 1/4 of a circle. Unfold the circle and connect the three points made by folding to create an isosceles triangle ( a triangle with two equal sides). I traced this triangle template onto a piece of card stock and then I cut it out. I then took the triangle and placed it on one of the circles. I traced around the triangle using a pencil. I repeated this until all 8 circles had the triangle on them. I transferred each circle to my Scor Pal and I scored along the pencil lines I just drew.
Since my trinket box was going to be bigger than the one from the article I needed a way to create the triangle layers for the top of my box. I cut out the largest triangle from Kelli's templates. I used a bit of semi permanent adhesive and I adhered it to a piece of Pink card stock. I then used the Perfect Layers tool to cut a triangle that was 1/2" bigger than the original one. I cut 8 Pink triangles like this using the 1/4" ruler. I then cut 8 White triangles using the 1/8" ruler. Sampin' Up! no longer sells this item but I believe that you can purchase one from a number of other places. It really is a great tool for cutting layering mats like this. The Black triangles were cut the same size as the largest triangle from Kelli's Article.
I then stamped words from various MFT stamp sets on the Black triangles. Everything was stamped in Versamark ink and then embossed with White embossing powder. A true MFT fan will notice that the words on each triangle come from the stamp set that is featured in the square below it.
I adhered all the triangles in place on the circles. I then folded the the circles along the score lines to create the 8 large triangles. I placed Scor Tape along the right side piece of each of the circles. I then adhered the circles together one by one.
You can really see the box top shape start to come together. This is what the top will look like if you flip it over. The next step is to cut off the excess card stock. I trimmed it to about a 1/4". You do not want to cut the rounded end of each triangle.
The next step is to place the box top on a piece of Mat Board or Chip Board. I used a piece of cardboard that came with some 12x12 paper. Holding the top down in place, I traced the outline of the top onto the cardboard.
I labeled four sides of the cardboard so I knew which part it should line up with. Once I removed the top from the cardboard I transferred the names to inside the hexagon. I then used a paper cutter to cut out the hexagon shape that I had just traced. One the hexagon was cut out, I traced it onto two other pieces of cardboard. I made sure that I also transferred the labels as well. I covered each piece of cardboard with some yummy Black and White flocked wrapping paper that I found at my local scrapbook store. I couldn't find the right printed paper and the wrapping paper looked so yummy that I went with that!
I added a small piece of ribbon to the side of the hexagon that I wanted to be the front of my trinket box. I then added Scor Tape to the back of the circle pieces. Instead of adhering these pieces together, I put this aside for awhile until I finished the bottom of the box.
For the bottom of the box,I tried marking off the squares the way that Kelli suggested but my squares kept coming out a bit wonky. I found the perfect solution with my Nestabilities. I used the largest square, from the Small Classic Square Nestabilities. It was just the perfect size! I placed the die on the circle and I traced around the outside of the die with a pencil.
I then placed the circle on my Scor Pal and I scored along the pencil lines. The Scor Pal gives a nice crisp score line, which you really need for this project. I repeated this until I had 8 circles with the squares.
My next step was to stamp the images for the 8 main panels. I stamped each image with Versamark and then embossed it with White Embossing powder.
The Black layer that I stamped on is 2 1/2" square. It is layered on a Pink 2 5/8" square, then a 2 7/8" White square and finally a 3 1/4" square. I did a little paper piercing on the White layer on each of the panels. Using a bone folder fold the card stock on all the score lines. You will want to burnish each fold to make sure it is nice and crisp.
The next step is to adhere the circles together. I used Scor Tape tape on the right side of each circle. The right side of circle one is attached to the left side of circle two and so on until you have all 8 circles attached to each other. 
At this point you would normally adhere the last circle together with the first circle. Since this was the finals, I decided to take it one step further. I wanted to stamp the inside panels of the box as well! I glued down the side panels so the surface was nice and flat. I wanted the inside to look as good as the outside so I covered up all the seams by using a Black 3 1/2" square. On top of the black square I layered a Pink 3" square, a White 2 3/4" square, a Pink 2 1/2" square, followed by the Black 2" square that I stamped on. I also added some Scor Tape to the bottom part of each circle.
Before I glued the inside panels in, I decided which outside image would be at the front of my box, and which image would be at the back. I decided that the image that would be at the back of my project was the one from Window Shopping. I added a piece of Black card stock that was 3 1/2" x 8" to the inside of that back panel. About 3" or so of the card stock will be sticking up out of the box.This will be used as the hinge for the top of the trinket box.
I adhered all of the panels down except for the first one. I then attached the first and last circle together to form the octagon. I then adhered the last panel in place.
I decided not to attach the stamped pieces until after the floor of the box was in place. It is a little trickier to do it this way, but I didn't want to scratch the embossing powder when I was putting the floor of the box in place.
I removed the backing from the score Tape and placed the octagon bottom in place. You need to be really careful here to make sure you have the panels lined up correctly. It was so cool to finally have the floor of the box in place!
The next step was to turn the box over and add the final cover
ed octagon to the bottom of the box. Once the bottom piece was in place I used Crystal Effects to adhere the 8 Black round beads to the bottom of the box. I let them sit for a few hours to bond.
To adhere the top of the box to the bottom of the box I applied some Scor Tape to the extra piece of card stock that I added to the back panel of the box. I adhered the inside box top hexagon directly on this piece. I then adhered the box top to this hexagon. It was a little tricky to do it this way but I didn't want to use ribbon to hold the top in place. I then added the bead to the center of the box top. I added one Pink Swarovski Crystal to the center to finish it off.
My final step was to add in the 8 images to the inside of the box.
That's it, that's all it took! LOL I hope you all enjoy my entry and those of other five talented contestants. I know that I can speak for all of us when I say we all worked really hard on them! I for one can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with! Head on over to the MFT forum on SCS to hear all the current chatter about the contest.
Here are the stamp sets that I used to create my MFT Trinket box.
Outside Panels -Window Shopping, Hangin' with my Peeps, Call Me, Rain or Shine, Say Charge!, Here's the Scoop, Let's Go for a Walk, and Tote-ally Fantastic.
Inside Panels - Girls Day In, You Take the Cake, Digital Girl, Think Pink, Time for Bubbly, Baby It's Cold Outside, Meet Me at the Cafe, On the Pier
