Living in a foriegn country can trying – mountains of paperwork and new language – however, one of the upsides is learning different traditions. One Italian tradition that I love is the giving of bomboniere. Bomboniere are small gifts given at special occasions such as weddings, graduations, baptisms and first communions. Bomboniere come in all different shapes and sizes – the only unifying item are Jordan almonds. This post is dedicated two things – designing a homemade bomboniere that can be made together with a little crafter and heat shaping craft foam. I have watched lots of you tube videos about heat shaping craft foam but I was always a little bit worried about using the iron when the kids were involved with the project. We tried out the embosser to heat our foam and it worked perfectly! No iron needed. In order to make our cutting easier, more precise and faster (essential when working with kids!) we used the Spellbinders nestabilities die cut system (Standard Circles Large) in my Sizzix Big Shot. The best part of these cute homemade bomboniere is that they were made TOGETHER and turned out cute!
You will need:
Set of Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles larget set
Yellow craft foam
Green craft foam
Candies
Tulle
Ribbon
Embosser
Let’s get started:
Step 1: Cut out round circles using the largest die. Kids are great at this – just show them how to line up the craft foam and form the cutting sandwich! You can cut two circles at a time using this system. It seems like magic each time you take apart the die! There are a ton of posts dedicated to how to work the sizzix so I am not going to go into too much detail.
Step 2: Using the second cirlce size as a guide cut into the center in order to create 8 equal sized flaps.
Step 3: Heat the circle of craft foam with your embosser for around a second. The craft foam will start to change color and texture immediately. Turn off embosser and shape the basket. To do so fold the flaps into the center two at a time as shown in the image below. Try to do so while the foam is still warm.
Step 4: Turn over and heat the bottom of the basket again with the embosser for a couple of seconds. Hold until cooled off.
Step 5: Open up the flaps and overlap to create a basket. Use the hot glue gun to hold flaps in place.
Step 6: Cut out three strips of green craft foam. Glue two pieces perpendicular to the other.
Step 7: Braid until the desired length. Use hot glue to hold the braid closed. Trim.
Step 8: Glue the braided handle onto the basket.
Step 9: Create a little bag of candy using a round piece of tulle and ribbon.
We used yellow and green craft foam for our baskets because these colors seem to capture the spring spirit of rebirth but these baskets can be made out of any color for ANY EVENT.
Have fun and remember that if you try it at home send us pictures!
Alison
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