Doggy Exploding Box Tutorial by Janet (No Noise, Not Scary)

Hello, it’s Janet here with an exploding box tutorial. I like making these exploding boxes and they can be made for all occasions, you just need different supplies. They can be a challenge and get the little grey cells working hard. I decided to do a dog themed box in celebrating of Milly finding her forever home with us.

The Little Buddies stamp set and the New Best Friends stamp set both have dog and cat images so you are covered for making dog cards and cat cards. All the products I used are listed and linked below and available from the online shop.

To Make The Explosion Box

For this type of box card you need two pieces of 12×12″ cardstock and stamped images or embellishments to decorate all the inside flaps. You need to decide which colour will be inside the finished box and which colour will show outside.

On the outside (you will need 2 sheets of this colour) 12×12 cardstock, and using your score board score along the 4” line, turning the card around so all sides are marked, in 4″ squares.
The four corners will then be cut off, leaving a type of cross or plus sign (+). Fold over and reinforce the creases along the centre score-line.

The other card of this colour will need to be cut to 6” x 6”. Place to one side for now as this will be the lid.
The colour cardstock you will be using for inside ( I used yellow), will need to be cut to 28.5cm and again score along at 9.5cm each side and reinforce the folds using your bone folder. Place to one side.

Cut a piece of your scrap card or patterned paper to 3”x 2”and score along three sides 1/8” and 2/8” fold in a zig zag and place thin scor tape on each of the outside folds. Adhere to the inside of green card to make a pocket. This pocket can be used for tags, gift cards or small photographs.

Decorating The Box

I used some Avery Elle patterned paper and diecut the Avery Elle Photo Mat die four times from different papers. I distressed the sky, grass and hedges and adhered these to the off cuts of the yellow card.
On a panel of Strathmore Bristol Card I stamped all the dogs (8) from the Puppy Kisses stamp set and coloured them in using Zig markers. After using the co-ordinating die I adhered two dogs to each photo panel and then adhered two panels to the inside flaps of the (green) card/box. One is adhered to the outside of the box to show the ‘front’ and ‘back’ of the box.

Adding Tags

I also made 4 tags using an Avery Elle A Tag For All die. On two of them I added some cord through the holes in the top, I placed these in the pockets. On the other two I stamped a dog and added a diecut ball. These two tags were adhered to the inside of the yellow flaps. I also stamped a few sentiment banners alongside them to complete the look.
I stamped the boy and girl images from Little Buddies and New Best Friends on patterned paper and die cut out. They were adhered to the opposite side of the tags on the yellow card, with a little dog at their side.

Making The Lid

Now you need the 6×6″ piece of card for the lid of the box when closed. Score all around at approx. 1” and cut along the score line on one side only on all sides. Adhere with the cut line to the inside of the box, making a lid to cover your exploding box.
I decorated the sides of the lid using a small dog die cut from patterned paper and an image of dog with bones and ball on the top of the lid.

This is quite an advanced card to make and can take up your whole day, but once you have all the measurements and embellishments ready it is fun to do. If there aren’t any points that make sense to you, please leave a comment and I will get back to you.

Don’t forget to join and share your cards in our friendly and fun Facebook Group – The Little Paper Treehouse Tribe. All the products I used are listed below. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I’ll see you next time.