The Potting Shed Seed-Packet Box

Being as it was a NSD ‘weekender’ I thought I would find a little time to do a bit of crafting.

The Potting Shed by LouCee Creations and Wendy Page Designs was used for my project.

My sister has the most idyllic allotment where she grows her own vegetables and in between the rows of vegetables, she grows flowers for the vase. On her allotment she also has a greenhouse, a tool shed and a larger shed which has double doors and faces onto a tiny garden next to a stream, in this shed she has a little stove and a settee and her books, in between gardening she makes tea and shares bacon sandwiches with other allotment owners! This is her little piece of heaven.

I decided to make her a Seed-Packet box for her little shed.

Tools that you will need.

• printer
• matt photo paper
• wooden box ( a tea box would be ideal)
• pva glue
• cutting board, scissors
• stamping ink
• embellishments

Firstly you need to measure your box dimensions, do the box base and lid separately. Use either inches or centimetres. I use cm and always reduce the length by 1millimetre on each side, top and bottom.

My box base measured at 17cm x 5cm for the front and back of the base and 12cm x 5 cm on sides. So therefore I wrote down my printing measurement as 16.8 x 4.8cm and 11.8 x 4.8cm.

Do the same for the lid measurement.

Now for the top of the lid, if you have a glass top that’s a little more trickier. Measure as you would for a normal wooden top, mine measured at 16cm x 11cm, that’s because it has a bevelled top, I did not reduce the top by 1mm each side because of that.

In your scrapbooking programme ( I use Photoshop) use your new measurements to create little pages for your artwork.

In Photoshop, work on the two longest sides of your box base and lid first, decide how you want them to look and flatten the image. I use my patterned paper number 1 and Wendy’s paper number 4 for my project.

Now drag these images on to the other two smaller sizes you have.

The next step is to get these on another paper for printing. I worked in inches this time 8in x11in and at 300ppi like the box sides. I also added Wendy’s labels to the sides of the lid.

Now the top of the lid.

I used Wendy’s paper no4 for the top and reduced to a size I wanted to work with.

If you do not have a glass top, you can add more digital elements to it now or later.

Here’s how I worked out my lid frame. I made a frame by measuring the width of the lid, sized the frame lengths in Photoshop as 1.4cm x 16 cm, I then place these around the edge of the paper that I have for the lid, I merged them, selected the inside and then cut away the centre of the patterned paper, make sure you are on the paper layer when you do this.

Delete the temporary grey frame and now you are left with your box frame.

I chose my bunny and foxglove to decorate the side of the box, I duplicated each element and shadowed one foxglove and one bunny and clipped to the frame.

Flatten your image and drag on to another 8 x 11 paper ready for printing.

I made a little label titled ‘Seeds’ ready to go on the finished box and also used two of Wendy’s journal cards which are perfect for the seed box.

Print your two 11 x 8 in papers on matt photo paper for the best quality in colour.

Working on the actual box.

Take off the hinges and metal clasp and keep all those little screws safe in a pot till later.

Ink the edges of your box.

Cut out all your rectangular pieces and using pva glue, paste your box and then add your paper to the lid and base sides. (use a pin to mark where the holes are on the paper ready for when adding the hinges and clasp back on to the box)

Cut out your lid frame and paste pva glue on the top of your lid, now add your paper frame.

Ink around the paper just a little to finish off the edges nicely.

Allow to dry before fastening your hinges and clasp back on.

Now your box is ready for a little more embellishment if you desire.

All you need to do now is cut out your journal cards and add these with your seed packets!

This is the perfect gift for any gardener.

Here is a little taster of this pretty collection. Click the freebie preview to download.