Here's a closer shot of the tall shelf thingie I have next to my desk, along with the new label I made for my paper scraps binder, which is also now sitting on my desk instead of the floor. The top row of folders is holding all of my pre-made cards and card blanks. That row of boxes underneath is holding basic things that used to be floating around in my drawers without a real home. Unfilled mini albums, unfinished projects, things I'm saving to cover later, etc. Freeing up all of the space in my drawers (from the cards and the random stuff) allowed me to move most of what was in these shelves before into drawers. Also, this is going with my new kick, right? The eco-crafting (ecological AND economical) by which I am using what I have ALREADY to do projects and whatnot. So instead of buying a bunch of expensive containers, I'm using what I have.
Notice the little plastic bin. The first decorated jar in there is holding punched shapes, and it used to be a bread machine yeast jar. The second bottle, the pill bottle, is holding pre decorated punched shapes, with glitter, or whatever. I haven't decorated it yet, but I will soon! The third and fourth jars up there are old spice jars that I didn't decorate because I thought they looked so pretty with their contents showing--the ribbon scrap jar and a jar full of tiny flower stems from some huge bunch of flowers I picked up on clearance one day months ago at JoAnn for, like, $1.00. You've probably seen little flower bunches like this around. I finally tore all the little flowers off for use in future projects. I saved the leaves, too, and threw the rest away. *gasp* This was one of those times when I KNEW I wasn't going to use what I had left over (all of the floral wires and whatnot), so I decided to go ahead and chuck it. You can think I'm a horrible person if you want to, but I have a slightly minimalist bent about my space and I like being able to actually WORK in it rather than letting it pile up with random crap I KNOW I'm not going to use. So some sacrifices must be made.
Anyway, anyway. I said there was a project and template here. So, here it is! This is a basic box template. You can follow this basic idea for creating a box of almost any size. Think of your finished box size (I wanted a box that was 2" wide from the front and 2" wide on the side and 3" high).
The measurements across the top of the box template represent side, front, side. The measurements down the length of the template represent height, side, height. If you wanted a box that was 4" wide from the front, 2" wide at the side, and 4" high, your template would stretch a bit. The panels across the top of the template would be 2", 4", 2". The measurements down the side of the template would be 4", 2", 4". SO... using some of that math you swore you'd never use as a kid, you can see your final template would need to be 8" wide and 10" long. You're always going to cut in the same place--those two middle lines that are outlined red in this template.
Now that I've explained (hopefully clearly) how you can create your own box template, we'll move forward with this specific size.
Kathy's Q-Tip Box
Here's the template:
Here is what-all you'll need for the project:Glue (tape runners really don't cut it for this)
Sanding block (optional)
Buttons (optional)
Paper trimmer with cutting and scoring blades
Glorious paper worthy of your project (here I am using BasicGrey... I LOVE BasicGrey!)
Scissors
Bone Folder
1. You'll be using the buttons (if you want to) as feet for the box to make it look cooler. I decided to stack two buttons for each foot. You can do this without sanding, but your joins will be much better and stronger if you sand. Start off by sanding the back of the button that will be on the bottom. It will take the shine off of the button and allow the glue to stick much better. You can see the difference between the back of an unsanded button (below left) and the back of a sanded button (below right).
2. Sand the back AND front of the button being used as the top of your feet.
3. Glue the buttons as you want them for your feet. I used a smaller button on top of a larger button because the larger button is what I'm gluing to the bottom of the box, and it will create a cool tapered look to the feet.
4. Cut your paper to size according to the template and score all of the lines where indicated. Until you're familiar with how your scoring blade works, use a very gentle pressure when scoring. It's better to be gentle and have to go over the line a few times than to push too hard and tear right through it.
5. Cut where indicated, then fold all of the lines. (It really is easier to cut the lines BEFORE they're folded.) When you've done that, your piece should look something like the picture below.
6. If your paper has a very large or a particularly pretty un-repeated pattern, like mine does, you might want to do a dry run of your box to see which panels you want to be on the outside. This is what I did because this particular paper from BasicGrey has this awesome pattern that is simply gorgeous and I wanted as much of it on the outside as possible.
7. Begin gluing the box together. You can try to hide the little cut portion in between the two sides if you want to, or just go with it. I've never found that it matters that much, so do whatever floats your boat. When you glue both of the larger panels in place, it can be hard to get your fingers in there to push, so you might want to lay the box down and use your bone folder to push the panels together and make sure you have a good join. Make sure you wipe away any glue you might get onto your bone folder.
8. Here is a picture of the glued box. So pretty, isn't it!? You can make it fancier, if the insides will be seen at all, by using double sided paper or by stamping all over the back of the paper before you use it. But I wouldn't be paranoid about it.
9. Time to glue your feet on! Turn the box over and glue them at the four points, as I've shown here. If you sanded the buttons, they should stick pretty well. Once they're not sliding around anymore, flip the box over and let them dry with the box sitting on top of them.
The finished box in its new habitat!
I'm going kind of box crazy over here. Pretty soon my entire house is going to be full of these boxes. It's a great way to use up old pieces of cardstock you bought that are either slightly out of style now or just no longer to your taste. Or, like me, you could actually use your most precious hoarded papers in this kind of project. This way they're not being shoved in some album or mailed away on some card to people who can never appreciate what a sacrifice it was to give that piece of paper away. They're being displayed beautifully and functionally, and they'll make you smile every time you see them. ^_^
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