Handmade Box

Several years ago, while also dabbling with handmade books, I made this box that I have used quite a bit for storing my most-used scrap-booking supplies.

The front of my box

While I had a good idea of how this would go, I used the book, Decorative Boxes, by Susanne Klojgard, as my main resource for help with construction tips and ideas.

There are a lot of decisions to make, like size, shape, whether to have a lid and whether the lid should be attached, the type of covering - paper or fabric, for example, whether to line the box and with what. It goes on and on.  My decisions were narrowed down since I had an idea of what purpose my box would serve.

I decided on this foiled paper with a music theme, which wasn't the best decision. There are places where the paper overlaps and must be glued down, however the foil did not take the glue very well. So, over time, these overlapping places have started to come apart. I like the look, but some of my decisions weren't practical.

Lined with brown paper

I decided on an attached lid, using the brown paper as both the hinge and the lining.  Most box and book making resources call for using a strip of linen or linen tape for the hinge, but the extra layers of brown paper (acid-free, of course) have held up well over the years, though I've been careful not to stress the hinge.  I applied several layers of glue to the brown paper to give it a nice shine and I like how it coordinates with the gold in the theme paper.

If I had decided on an unattached lid, the whole thing would have been more complicated because the box would need inner walls (also called a lining) so the lid would slide down over these inner walls to stay on.

I painted some wood "pegs" a coordinating color and used one as the knob on the lid and four as feet to give it a nice look.  I even put felt on the bottom of the feet.

In this picture above, you can see that the lid has just started to sag.  I frequently rested things on top of the box, which caused it to sag over time.  I also believe that the size of the box contributed to this, as well.  I wanted a box that would hold a 12 inch ruler, so this one is slightly larger than that.  Perhaps a thicker board would have prevented that.

Check out the knob and feet