Exploding Box with Layers

Here is one of my latest creations and I couldn't show it until now. This was my birthday gift to Susan, my partner in crafty crime. It is an exploding box with multiple layers and a gift bag I also made (with only 12 x 12 paper). I filled her exploding box with pictures of Susan and her family, the most challenging part was finding pictures (by stalking her facebook page btw) that would be small enough to fit on the layers.

 Box and coordinating gift bag which btw had a cartridge she really wanted!

the box "exploding"

 the box opened up all the way 

 some of the layers and silly pictures

flower and tag on the lid of the box.

I made both projects using patterns I downloaded from SVG Cuts. I saw this exploding box pattern one day and fell in love with it! Of course I used Sure Cuts A Lot to make all the cuts. The paper was a collection by K&Co. It was not double sided, I just figured out what paper I wanted where and used a spray adhesive to adhere the papers back to back, it worked like a dream! The thickness the two papers created was just perfect for this box. I've got to say this was so much fun to make and it was very hard not to tell Susan about it! I had the hardest time picking out the paper for this project and I almost called her from the store (a usual occurrence when I can't make up my mind-all the time!) to get her opinion. I'm so proud of myself for not ruining the surprise.  :)