Gingerbread treats . . .

. . . after undergoing some creative summer surgery . . .

This super cute Gingerbread Belly Box is part of the Christmas Belly Boxes cut file set from My Scrap Chick HOWEVER, I must warn you, the original file comes wearing a warm woolly winter cap (see image of the original file under the store link store below).  I gave mine some snippy summer surgery so that it didn't overheat during our HOT Christmas celebrations.

I have to admit, I'm not so good drawing "freestyle" faces, so I planned ahead for my cutting and added a cut out smile to the face panel.  Instead of adhering the eyes on, I welded them with the face panel, along with the nose, so that they would all be cut out from the face panel.  I punched some 2" circles from black cardstock and adhered them behind the face so that his cute smiling face really popped.  I kept the "nose" pieces, inked the edges with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink, the sides with Picked Raspberry Distress Ink then popped back in place with a foam dot.

Before assembly, I inked all the edges of the brown body panels with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  To get a good even coverage along his arms, I tucked some release paper under his arms and over his face.

The rosy pink cheeks are Worn Lipstick Distress Ink.  I used an ink dauber, dabbed off the excess ink, positioned it on the cheek and rotated firmly to get good ink coverage.  This was one of the first ones I made, I wasn't going to ink the cheeks in case I messed them up but he just didn't look complete without them.  The ink dauber was the perfect size and it made the process "Tracy-proof".  After the first eight boxes (yes, I made more, lots more), I inked the cheeks before assembling the boxes.

These cuties made me smile, from start to finish.

I used a thin line of Tombow Mono Multi Adhesive to secure the wibbly wobbly icing in place.  The bottom of the box overlaps to join the front and back panels.  Helmar 450 Quick Dry worked perfectly for that job.  I used a strong book binding glue (Helmar Acid Free Professional) to secure the sides to the front and back panels, forming the box.  Lucky last came the feet.  I popped them in place with foam dots.

They make me feel like Buddy the Elf . . .

"I just like to smile - smiling's my favourite"

   

. . . I can't resist, here's one last smile just for you . . .

NOTE: I didn't adjust the size of these treats.  I set up my pieces to cut from 12" x 12" textured cardstock.  One white sheet fitted just enough icing for eight Gingerbread Belly Boxes.  Five sheets of brown textured cardstock later and there were enough pieces to assemble EIGHT Gingerbread Belly Boxes.  ... that was my first eight ... I repeated this a couple of times and made 24 ... they're so addictive.

I'm impressed with how many treats they hold too.

NINE individually wrapped treats fitted neatly in each one.

I've made three different Christmas treat boxes and 

ALL three treat boxes hold the same number of treats,

You can read all about the Reindeer Party Box HERE

and the Reindeer Belly Box HERE.

*** INGREDIENTS ***

Christmas Belly Boxes - cut file set - My Scrap Chick

Silhouette Cameo

12" x 12" textured cardstock

Tombow Mono Multi Adhesive - to adhere icing

Helmar 450 Quick Dry - to glue bottom of box
Helmar Acid Free Professional - to glue sides of box

Distress Ink - Vintage Photo + Worn Lipstick + Picked Raspberry

ink blending brush

ink dauber