The Baby Train (An Angel's Landing Project)

Friends of ours are having a baby in a few months. I'd like to hop on board the baby train myself & start a family of our own, but for now I'll have to live vicariously through stamping baby gifts! heehee ;o)

The sweet animals in this Toys on Wheels set, from Angel's Landing, were perfect for making them a set of gift boxes--or a baby train. The Toys on Wheels images were such a delight to play with.

The fact that the images are digital made this project (with multiple images-4 of each animal) a lot faster than it would have been with stamping (for me at least, since I always make a lot of mistakes when I stamp.)

• Toys on Wheels digital image set-from Angel's Landing
• Cardstock (I prefer 80lb+) I used white, pink, blue, & yellow
  
• Acrylic Paint (white Kroma)
• Paint brush
• Computer & printer
• Background stamp
• Clear embossing powder & heat gun
• Scissors
• Adhesive (I used double-sided tape & Tombow Monomulti)
• Patterned paper
• Hole punch
• Eyelets & tools to set them
• Ribbon & lighter
• Easy felt
  
• EK Success punches (1 3/8" & 3/4" circle)
• Whitewash Core'dinations cardstock
• Copic Markers
  

...create the animals:

Step 1) Print & emboss the sweet Toys on Wheels images:

To achieve digital heat-embossing, I just printed the animals one at a time on cardstock (that had been quickly painted with white Acrylic paint)-- then sprinkled on some clear embossing powder on the wet printer ink (as soon as each image was out of the printer) and heated with a heat gun to melt the embossing powder.

Coredinations Whitewash cardstock, Vellum, & some metallic papers are embossable in an ink jet printer without painting anything on them.

Hopefully you can see the embossing in this photo:

You can also use these mediums to treat paper (patterned or not) for digital printing: any acrylic paint, digital ground, gesso, gel medium, matte medium.

Please note: Of course, I can't guarantee that it won't affect your printer in any way, but my printer was $50.00 so I play freely with it.



Step 2) Make sure you have 2 mirrored pairs of each animal: one mirrored pair with wheels and one mirrored pair with just the animal [The digital set is fantastic since it has both options (wheels & none) already made up & perfectly matched in size.]

Since these sweeties are digital images, they are super easy to 'flip horizontally' in any image editing program--which gives you animals from all angles and a finished look from all sides of the box. Of course, you can make the animals any size you like, but I used them as is, since they were already the perfect size to fit the boxes I wanted to make.



Step 3) Cut everything out roughly



Step 4) Adhere the rough cut animals-with-wheels to cardstock (it will make for quick reinforcing & create a thin chipboard thickness so the wheels are sturdy when the boxes are built.



Step 4) Finish the cutting in detail & cut the animals from the cardstock that you stuck them onto.



Step 5) Stamp a background pattern over the animals & emboss it with clear embossing powder for some added texture. Then, shade with Copic markers for a tinted effect.

Hopefully, you can see the clear embossing in this photo:

(click on it for a close look, if you like)

Step 6) Punch wheels out of Easy felt. (It's a stiffened felt I got at the local Michael's. I was really tickled pink when I found out it was punchable.) The punch is a 1 3/8 inch EK Success punch (It fits the wheel size of the digital images in Toys on Wheels perfectly!)



Step 7) Emboss some baby text on Core'dinations Whitewash cardstock & punch smaller circles to embellish the wheels (this is a 3/4 inch EK Success punch.)



Step 8) Adhere the 3/4 inch text circles onto the wheels.



Step 9) Pierce & stitch the wheels to embellish.



Step 10) Adhere the finished wheels to the image.

...build the boxes &
assemble the train:

Step 1) To make a finished box measuring 4x3 inches:

• Cut a piece of cardstock measuring 7 x 6 inches
• Score at 1 and 1/2 inches on all sides
• Cut 4 slits to make the flaps

Step 2) Assemble the box.



Step 3) Cut a liner & side-pieces for the box:

Liner for box bottom (shown here in patterned paper measuring just under 3 x 4 inches)
4 panels for the side (measuring 1 and 1/2 inches x 3 inches)



Step 4) Add eyelets to the side panels (to facilitate the ribbon that ties the train together):

• Mark the center at the bottom of a piece of cardstock the same size as the panels (1.5 x 3")
  
• Use this as a jig (to place over all the other panels & punch them in the exact same spot.)
  
• Add the eyelets to all the holes
  

Step 5) Adhere the side panels with the good side of the eyelets facing out. Add one panel to the inside & outside of each box side.



Step 6) Pierce a hole through the eyelets (for the ribbon to go through).



Step 7) Carefully, melt the end of the ribbon with a lighter & thread it through the holes. Leave extra ribbon at the front of the train as a pull & some to tie at the train's caboose.

(The lighter trick works best with ribbon that has polyester content. Some ribbons won't melt & some are rather flammable-please use caution). :o)



Step 8) Adhere the liner for the bottom of the box (patterned paper pieces measuring just under 3x4") to hide the ribbon.



Step 9) Adhere the wheeled animals onto the front & back of the box, so that the base of the wheel carriage lines up with the bottom of the box.



Step 10) Adhere the animals without wheels on the insides so they match up.



Step 11) As a finishing touch, you can cut pieces of the punched felt circles to fit the insides of the wheels.

Step 12) Add whatever you like to dress up the pull string. I added a glass bead & a butterfly (cut from patterned paper & reinforced with matching cardstock).

...and there you have it, a baby train:

You could make one with all 6 of the sweet animals in the
Toys on Wheels digital image set
&
fill it with wee baby gifts. I can't wait to shop for
those teeny weeny socks & mitties! :o)

Thank You so much for taking time out
of your busy day, :o)

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