deck the halls with milk cartons and a carrier

Hey there blog peeps!  How's your week going? I am still trying to catch up with the holidays, but they seem to be slipping through my fingers!  So, one thing I'm trying to make sure of is that my blog projects and holiday prep are doing double duty - in that I'll be using these projects for gifts I'll be giving! Today's share is something that I've always wanted to make - the mini milk cartons and carrier.  The milk cartons were my 12th week finale for my 12 Weeks of Christmas Projects Newsletter, and after I had made the four cute cartons, it seemed like they were missing something.  Of course, a carrier was in order! So, I thought it was only fitting to make one.  Now, let me just preface by saying that in my head, I always thought that the Box #2 die would fit the milk cartons, but boy, was I wrong!  {You'll see that project tomorrow...}  I went back to the drawing board and measured out my cartons to come up with the sizing for the carrier pictured above.  Here are a few more photos for you.

Isn't this such a cool little project?  I swear I've admired dozens of these for the longest time, but just hadn't gotten around to making them...does that happen to you guys?

A nice little discovery I made was the functional property that the placement of the stamped image on the carton had.  Notice that it's popped up on the dimensional.  It turns out, this allows for the milk cartons to "clip into" the carrier as you can see in the picture above with the reindeer image over the edge of the carrier.  Pretty nifty!

And here's a look at the pieces for the carrier:

You'll need:

*2 pieces of 5 1/2" x 3 3/4" Cherry Cobbler Cardstock  for the carrier base

*1 piece of 5 1/2" x 3 1/2" Cherry Cobbler Cardstock for the center handle

1. Score the 2 pieces of cardstock at 1" all the way around.  Then cut to the 1" scoreline at the creases along the 3 3/4" edge. 

2. Assemble the base and glue together using the Tombow Multi-Purpose glue.  Set aside to dry.

3. For the 5 1/2" x 3 1/2" piece of cardstock, round the top edges and then punch the handle using the wide oval punch.

4.  Assemble the carrier by placing the handle in between the 2 base boxes and gluing together using the Tombow Glue. 

5.  Embellish the carrier with DSP or cardstock.  I used  2 pieces of 3/4"x 7 1/2" DSP to decorate the base.  Score the pieces at 3 1/2", and then 7 1/16".  for the handle, I cut out 2 pieces of 3 1/4" x 5 1/4" DSP and adhered one piece at a time and punched the handle after adhering each one to the base handle piece, otherwise it gets too hard to punch!

{Deck The Halls with Jolly Bingo Bits Milk Carton and Carrier}

*Stamps: Jolly Bingo Bits

*Inks: Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Always Artichoke

*Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Deck The Halls DSP

*Accessories: Mini Milk Carton Bigz L Die, 1" and 1 1/4" circle punches, Wide Oval punch, corner rounder punch, Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, Library Clips; {non SU!} - jingle bells and baker's twine

Enjoy! This adorable carrier and milk carton packaging are great for any holiday or occasion, so have fun decorating these cute little treats year round!  It's definitely worth the try to make these...so cute and easy!

Bye for now!