Monday 19 November 2012

KEEPSAKES - Cat in a Box

Hello Little Roos,

Stephen and I have never been known as conventional so when it came to our friend’s wedding we weren’t likely to buy them a standard wedding present. This was decided by knowing the interest of the bride and a theme that had developed during the wedding planning.

[caption id="attachment_63" align="aligncenter" width="672"] Cat in a Box - Finished[/caption]

Presenting Lucky and Hope (the names I decided to call the cat and butterfly).

Since the wedding gazebo and the fairy princess castle I wanted a new challenge. I had rediscovered a japanese site that has a section for papercrafting. The Japanese are amazing when it comes to papercrafting but I wasn’t quite prepared for the kinds of websites that have
papercrafting sections. Amazing!

Lucky the cat and Hope the Butterfly can be found at Canon’s Creative Park along with other breeds and some of the most wonderful things I’ve ever seen. I am sure I will be uploading photos of more soon. The Butterfly was slightly adapted (size and without the flower).

[caption id="attachment_64" align="aligncenter" width="651"] Lucky the Cat out of the box[/caption]

First of all I put the cat together using 300gsm white card and experimenting with different glues. However, this is more of a manipulation process and therefore the 300gsm card was far far too heavy. I would recommend 160-200gsm. As for the adhesives, I used double sided tape, superglue (naughty, I know), and craft -acid free- glue in a glue pen form. The double sided tape did not hold so I wouldn’t suggest this one (I also used the mouse tape roller for the fairy princess castle when I ran out of craft glue and that didn’t work either), the superglue was used on the muzzle of the cat as nothing else would work – this was because the weight of the card was so heavy that a craft glue was not strong enough.

[caption id="attachment_62" align="aligncenter" width="622"] Hope the Butterfly sitting next to Lucky the Cat's foot[/caption]

Then I made up the Butterfly using 300gsm white card again. This was great for this particular 3D item. The box is the same one as I used for the wedding gazebo, however I made it slightly taller and sealed the lid closed. I used a different backing paper – gold butterflies – and only had
windows in three of the four walls and a window in the lid. I then used ribbon to decorate the box and added some 3D effect butterflies to the front corners.

[caption id="attachment_61" align="aligncenter" width="672"] Looking down on the Cat in the Box[/caption]

I found a beautiful butterfly on a download site that was part of a card topper kit. I printed off six. Three make up each butterfly and this can be done by sticking one left wing to another right wing.

Rating:-
Design: Original
Level: Intermediate/Advanced
Additional: Take your time. Don’t rush. For this particular gift I didn’t attach the tail to the cat until the end as I altered it so it would lie further round the cat’s feet.

TIP: For the cat use 160-200gsm white card and craft glue in a pen.

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