Creation Station Christmas Traditions

Welcome to another Creation Station blog hop!  This month's theme is Christmas Traditions, and since I always make a treat holder for the place settings at my family holiday table, this was the perfect chance to settle on this year's design.

Two weeks ago I decorated the outside of my house for Christmas, and one of my favourite decor pieces is this candle lantern that sits at my front door.  

I decided to use it as inspiration for my treat holders this year, and made this fun paper lantern stuffed with peppermint kisses.

This isn't a new idea, but when I was searching around for how-to details I found that the templates were complicated due to the tapered top of the lantern--and that's just not for me!  So instead, I created my own version that actually comes together really easily, and is very forgiving if your measurements aren't quite perfect all the time ;)

The lantern assembles in two pieces:  the base (holder) and the top (beveled).  

Lantern Base
The base of the lantern is created from one piece of Thick Basic White Cardstock 5" x 8.5" and scored as follows:

    - with the 5" side at the top, score at 3"
    - with the 8.5" side at the top, score at 0.5", 2.5", 4.5"and 6.5"

    - die cut the windows from each of the four larger panels

    - "antique" the paper by adding colour with my Stampin' Blends SU800 marker, and then flick some

       Bronze Stampin' Blends all over too.

    - cut four pieces of window sheets to fit your die cut windows and adhere with Tear-and-Tape

    - form the box and glue into place

Beveled Top

The top of the lantern is made from 4 pieces of cardstock and 4 "hinges", that bring it together on an angle to form the beveled top.  This was so much easier for me to wrap my head around, I hope you'll find it easy too!

- cut 4 pieces of Thick Basic White Cardstock 1.75" x 2" to create the topper

- score on the 1.75" at 0.5"

- mark 0.5" in on the left and the right, and cut from the score line out to the mark as shown in the picture below.  Note:  I drew the lines in for illustrative purposes, but I just used the tick mark and the score line as my guides and cut the angle with my Stampin' Trimmer without any issues.

- antique these pieces with the same technique as above

- cut 4 pieces of Thick Basic White Cardstock 1" x 1.25" to create the hinges

- score on the 1" side at 0.5"

- line the edge of one topper with the edge of one half of the hinge, as shown in the picture below; repeat for all four pieces until a semi-circle forms.

And that's pretty much it!  Add the topper to the base with Tear-and-Tape at the back using one of the topper tabs, and leave the other three tabs to help hold the topper closed.  This allows the treat box to be opened and closed over and over to get at the goodies inside without having ruining the lantern.

I added a cardstock handle with a piece of Thick Basic White Cardstock cut to 3/8" x 8" and added to the lantern base with brads from my stash.  I also antiqued it in the same way as described above.

To decorate my paper lantern I used the holly dies from the Reindeer Days Dies, cut from Granny Apple Green, Old Olive and Real Red Cardstock.  I also used the greenery die from the Sophisticated Sled Dies in Mossy Meadow Cardstock, and then I used some retired greenery dies and Brass Sheets to add some glimmer and shine.   The final touch is a bow, and then the whole pieces was added to the lantern base with dimensionals.

Thank you so much for dropping by my blog today!  Please be sure to keep the fun going by visiting Teri West, who is next in the hop.

Happy Crafting,

Barb