Birthday Toy Train Tutorial

Birthday Toy Train

Hi crafters...sharing a huge birthday present I made for my little niece who is celebrating her 5th birthday this month. Her favourite colour is pink and so I went really overboard on the  "pinkness" here!!
This project was made exclusively using Crealies  dies. I used the Crealies  train Cardzz die to make the cute train and lots of other dies from Crealies  to add the  fun elements

Birthday Toy Train

    Since I am going to be taking this all the  way to Kerala my hometown where my niece resides I needed the  whole ensemble to safely fit in my suitcase...so I came up with an idea to have the  individual parts fit together with  tiny magnets in the  wheel bars.
So this is like a real toy which you can assemble and then take apart and store! 

Birthday Toy Train

The first wagon 2 wagons had balloons galore for the  birthday girl and this one which is my favourite has floating glittery clouds and the birthday girl's name in matching letters .

Birthday Toy Train

On the  4th wagon I added elements you may see in a typical little girl's birthday : lots of pink ...pink frocks, toy balls, cameras , pink bows and hearts!

Birthday Toy Train

On the last wagon I added something yummy---strawberries!

And more balloons and buttons and a giant 5!!

Birthday Toy Train

Don't you just love those strawberries.

Birthday Toy Train

Ok ...here is how you can make a Toy Train Treat Box/ display for a special occasion.

Make a Shaker Number

The new Crealies number dies in the Cardzz category are really huge and are perfect to make banners and huge decorations. For my toy train I made 2 big number 5 's 

Here is how you can easily make a shaker number.

Die cut your base using the largest shadow number.

Tape the inner 2 numbers together and die cut double sided adhesive foam.

Shaker Number Tutorial 

Stick the number frame cut with the  adhesive foam onto your base.

Shaker Number Tutorial 

Add shaker elements.

Die cut an acetate sheet using the  middle number.

Shaker Number Tutorial 

Stick this onto your adhesive number frame.

Shaker Number Tutorial 

Press well to stick

Shaker Number Tutorial 

Add a frame made using the inner 2 numbers and add it over your shaker

Shaker Number Tutorial 

And you have a quick and easy Shaker number.

Birthday Toy Train

Make Toy Train wagons

Toy Train Tutorial 

If you want to make a sturdy but lightweight toy train you can use foam to give strength your paper train.

For each train wagon/engine 

Die cut 3 pieces [1 in pattern paper, 1 in card stock and 1 in foam- to be sandwiched between pattern paper and cardstock] for the front and 3 pieces for the  back.

To make the  wagon boxes

You can make the boxes from chipboard  or make the  wagons using cardstock like I did for this project

Toy Train Tutorial 

To make one wagon you need just one 18 x 12 cm paper.

Toy Train Tutorial 

Score it on all its edges [ by turning the  paper as you go] at 4 cm from the  edge[ = 1 3 /4 inches]

Toy Train Tutorial 

Once your paper is scored make 4 cuts as shown to enable you to fold your paper into a box.

Toy Train Tutorial 

Snip off a bit of paper to create gluing tabs

Toy Train Tutorial 

It will look like this:

Toy Train Tutorial 

Optionally snip off triangles from the  outer end of your gluing tab as shown below...this is not compulsory...it just gives a neater finish to your gluing

Your paper will look like this now...all ready to fold and glue into a box

Toy Train Tutorial 

Fold all score lines and you will get a shape as shown below

Toy Train Tutorial 

Apply glue to your gluing tabs and glue.Use paper clips to help keep your parts together as your glue dries

Toy Train Tutorial 

My toy train has 5 wagons as the  birthday girl is celebrating her 5th birthday!

Toy Train Tutorial 

Stick the  boxes onto your wagons and your train boxes are ready to add little toys, candy etc

Toy Train Tutorial 

Since the toy train is very big with 5 parts I wanted a mechanism to take apart the pieces and put them back together like a real toy...I made magnetic parts to join the wheels of the train

Toy Train Tutorial  

Cut 3 strips [in cardstock, foam and silver paper] and 2 wheels using the dies in the Train Cardzz set.

Stick the  foam in between the pink cardstock and silver paper...this makes your part sturdy and prevents it from buckling while keeping it lightweight

Toy Train Tutorial 

I made 8 strips to join 5 of my train wagons

Toy Train Tutorial 

You can simply glue the  wheels on to your strips or if you want a really good adhesion use brads. Poke holes on either end of the strips and through the center of your wheel and join the wheel to your strip using the  brads. I added magnets to the  backside of the  strips under the wheel and magnets onto the wagon wheels as you can see in the  toy train individual pieces below

Birthday Toy Train

As a final touch I will be adding photos of the  birthday girl and her family

in each of the wagons and in the  windows!

I hope you like some of the  ideas I have shared in this post

Here are the  supplies used

Crealies Dies:

Cardzz no. 256

Cardzz no. 20

Alfies : For Journalzz and Plannerzz no. 609

Alfies no. 3

Crea-Nest-Lies small no.22

Crea-Nest-Lies small no. 15

Crea-Nest-Lies small no. 9

Partzz No. 39

Uno no.56

X-tra no.40

Set of 3 no.41

Duo Dies no.41

Duo Dies no.29

Partzz no. 25

Crea-Nest-Lies XXL No. 84