VALENTINES MINI FORTUNE COOKIE BOX

(Flower Pot Pop-up)

Wanted to take the Chinese take out box idea a bit further for Valentines. Was thinking about how to make tiny fortune cookies each with its love related fortune and be able to shake your fortune out of the box. In Asia, particularly in Japan, when you go to temples there are these containers holding long wooden sticks. You shake this thing until one of the sticks jump out onto the ground and look at the symbols carved on it. That will lead you to a wall where you find that matching symbol and there are rolled up paper holding your fortune. Americans are smarter, they created the Magic 8 Ball lol!

So first I had to make a bunch of tiny fortune cookies (see end of video), and found this tool from Sizzix very useful in curling paper. The next challenge was to make the flower pot pop-up a stand alone box with a see through window. Thankfully the included decorative die cuts out a perfect hole, while the flap folded inwards to provide a perfectly sized space to attach the pop-up trellis tabs.

I used the cut out part from the window to form the bottom and die cut out another 2 panel to make the top. I used a triple platform pop-up, cutting away the tabs and into four pieces for the two sides. Did you know this - I discovered this unbelievable fact when researching the shape of the folds of the box…

The Chinese take out box is also known as the oyster pail box because its original use was to hold freshly shucked oysters. As oysters became more expensive and Chinese food became popular after WW II, these boxes became the preferred containers for take out. Because while it cannot hold soup, it is covered with layer of wax and because of the way it folds together, was perfect for the sauce heavy cuisine (westernized style). And, get this, take out the wire holder and the box unfolds into a plate! So no digging and poking into the boxes with your sporks (or if you’re good, chopsticks), you eat it from a plate! Also related, those little wrinkled paper cups you used to hold ketchup and always used to dip French fries but can never for the life of you fit your burger into? Those also folds out into a small dish!!

Things I learn from making cards…