Above is the finished sample of a nifty little treat box that's easy to make, and perfectly fits 3 peppermint patty candies inside! The sample basket above contains 3 candies, so you can see how high they stack in the basket--the extra one leaning on the front is another sample. This basket is great for Halloween, using the Batty for You set. It would also be great for any other holiday, spruced up with appropriate colors and any of the other seasonal Stampin' Up!® sets with images that can be punched with the 1-1/4" and/or 1-3/8" Circle Punches.
To make the basket, you'll want to start off with an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of card stock. Trim your sheet so that it is 8-1/2" square. (Keep the 2-1/2" x 8-1/2" strip, you'll use it for basket handles!) Then take your 8-1/2" square sheet and cut it into 4 even 4-1/4" squares. You'll end up with all the pieces shown below, which will make 4 complete baskets:
Take one 4-1/4" square, and score it at 1-1/4" on each side. You will then use your Paper Snips to make two cuts opposite each other, as marked by the white lines on the picture below:
At this point, you will want to trim each of the 4 corners at a 45 degree angle. You can do this on your Paper Cutter by lining up the score marks at each corner with the groove of your Paper Cutter, as shown by the arrows in the picture below on the right.
The picture on the left, below, shows the octagon you will end up with after trimming all 4 corners correctly. The next step is to apply adhesive to the triangle shaped pieces. I used SNAIL, and ran two strips of adhesive on each triangle, as shown by the grey lines on the picture on the right below:
You will then turn your octagon over so that the adhesive is facing down. Do this on a table or cutting mat so that your SNAIL doesn't adhere to any paper. Take two of the triangles and pull them up as shown below on the left, to meet at the bottom. Then take the squared off flap behind the triangles, and pull it up to adhere over the triangles, as shown below on the right. Do this with the remaining triangles, and you will end up with a little box that's open on the top. This is the bottom of your basket.
If you intend to decorate the entire basket bottom, you may choose to cover your card stock with stamping or with Designer Series paper before cutting, scoring and assembling. I wanted the color of the card stock to show, and chose instead to place a strip of Creepy Crawly Designer Series Paper around the basket bottom. I cut the strip 1" wide, and 8" long, in order to wrap around the box and overlap a little at the end. I then placed the paper face down on the pattern I wanted to have showing, and put SNAIL adhesive on it as shown below by the grey lines.
Start wrapping your paper around the box from the center of the back of the box, as shown on the left below, so that your overlap ends up in the back. Do not choose either of the sides with triangles as the "back" of the box, we're going to use those for our handles later. As you wrap around the box, try to keep your paper centered on each side, and carefully bend it over each corner. When you get to the end, your paper strip will overlap itself slightly.
Now, you'll want to grab that 8-1/2" x 2-1/2" strip, and cut it into 4 even strips of 8-1/2" x 5/8". Each of these strips will be the handle for a basket. Take one strip, and place it down to the bottom of the box, along the inside of one of the sides with triangles, as shown below. Holding the strip there, make a light pencil mark at the top of the box edge, as shown by the black line in the picture below. Mark both ends of the strip in this manner.
Lay the strip on your table with the pencil marks facing up. Apply adhesive from a point just below the line you marked, to the end of the strip, on each end. Then, erase the pencil marks (carefully, to avoid eraser gunk getting stuck to your adhesive) and place each end of the strip back into the box, in the center of each side with triangles. Using the 1/16" Circle Punch, punch a small hole through the handle on each side of the basket, and place a coordinating brad in each hole, as shown below:
The reason we put the handles in on the sides of the basket with the triangles, is to give each of those sides a little more card stock support. Now, your basket is done...but I happened to notice that a scalloped piece of Designer Series Paper folds in half perfectly over the edge of the box, so I used the Scallop Punch to add more variety to the front and back of the box, as shown below:
I had my Scallop Circle Punch handy, because this is what you'll use to create the "covers" for the peppermint patty candies. Simply take one piece of scallop punched paper, place adhesive on the side you DON'T want showing, and place a peppermint patty in the center. Take a second scallop punched piece, again place adhesive on the side with the pattern you DON'T want facing out, and place that piece on top of the peppermint patty, as shown in the photos below.
The only thing left to do at this point is to add some decoration to your peppermint patties, if you so desire. The images from the Batty for You set are perfect for this, as they can be punched out with the 1-1/4" Circle Punch, as shown on the left below. And, a backing circle of coordinating card stock can be punched with the 1-3/8" Circle Punch, for mounting behind the image, as shown on the right below:
You can color coordinate the images and layers on the front of your peppermint patties...mix 'em up or make 'em all the same. Have fun with it, and try not to eat the whole bag of candy before you get all the baskets made for your friends!
Stampin' Supplies: Pumpkin Pie card stock, Creepy Crawly Designer Series Paper, Whisper White card stock, Garden Green card stock and marker, Lovely Lilac card stock and ink pad, Bold Brights® Brads, Blender Pens (to color in the ghost a little), 1/16" Handheld Circle Punch, 1-1/4" Circle Punch, 1-3/8" Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Paper Cutter (with scoring blade), Paper Snips, SNAIL.
