A (Match)box Full of Love

Hello i-Crafters! Justin here, and today I am sharing with you a really fun take on the Matchbox Stories die set that would make for a really different take on a Valentine’s Day Card!

With the Matchbox Stories, I wanted to give some sort of play on the “on-top” sentiment, and, for this project, I chose the sentiment “LOVE”. I know that sometimes, people like to use the phrase of something being full of love. So I took that idea and ran with it!

First, I constructed my slide out matchbox base, using the designated die from the Matchbox Stories set. I just cut this out of sturdy red cardstock, and put the item together to form a topless box of sorts. It’s super easy to put together. I recommend using a liquid adhesive to adhere the panels together, and holding the adhered areas firmly until you can tell that your adhesive has dried (don’t worry, this shouldn’t take more than maybe 10-15 seconds per spot at the most).

Note: when die-cutting both the sleeve and topless box portion, I highly recommend scoring every side of the box to help it fold cleanly.

For my matchbox sleeve (as I call it), I cut the sleeve shape from white blending cardstock, which also has a nice sturdy weight to it. I then die cut out (2) of the “LOVE” sentiments inside of the oval sentiment holder (one in red, the other in white), and then, my final die cut was of the rectangular panel to put on the front of the sleeve, which I also die cut from white blending cardstock.

Taking my rectangular panel and my pink i-Brush Blending Brush, I distressed the edges of this box in a mid-tone pink color. I then took the Fern Berries stencil, placed it over the panel, and ink blended a darker pink ink. I removed the stencil. Using the same pink i-Brush Blending Brush, but in a light pink ink, I distressed the edges of the front of the sleeve so it was no longer white. I then took the 2 sentiment pieces and adhered them so the red was directly on top of the white piece. I then adhered the rectangular panel with liquid adhesive to the top portion of the sleeve, then adhering the sentiment directly on top of the panel. I also added a couple clay heart embellishments to the top to tease the inside of my matchbox.

To begin finishing my project, I took my sleeve, folded it into place, and adhered it together using the one tab. Using the same clay heart embellishments that I adhered to the top of the sleeve, I filled the inside of my matchbox entirely with the clay hearts as well, truly making it full of love! And that’s how I put my matchbox together!

I hope my Valentine’s Day Matchbox gets your creative juices flowing for all the fun ways there are to use the new Matchbox Stories set! We’d love to see what you create with your i-Crafter projects, so please always make sure to share them in the i-Crafter Fan Club!

To stay up-to-date on all of my latest creations, be sure to follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and my blog as well for even more detailed card tutorials!

Until next time! Happy crafting!

Justin