Mother’s day is THIS Sunday!! Do you have a special gift for your mom? Pretty much anything with grandkids photos is a winner in my mom’s book so I created this really fun little accordion photo box. Its perfect to sit on her coffee table and then when friends come to visit out pop the grandchildren! After creating this I realized I need to take more photos of my kids! I’ve been slacking. This DIY is simple, only calls for a few basic supplies and your recipient will love it!
-Paper Slicer & Scorer – (I have THIS one, only $9 on amazon what a deal! i use it all the time and you’d be surprised how often i use the scoring feature. i picked it up at office max so if you are wanting to pick one up when you are out make sure it has a cutting blade and scoring feature. )
-1 sheet of 11×17″ white cardstock – (instead of purchasing a whole ream i just went to the photo copy center at office max and asked to buy a few sheets)
-Regular scotch tape & double sided tape
-Ruler
-Scissors
-2 inches of thin ribbon
-Adhesive to attach photos- your preference- glue stick, glue tape, regular tape, etc
-Photo corners
-Scrapbooking paper (only a few sheets)
-13 photos
-4 x 4″ wooden box (found at craft stores)
-Decorative stickers if desired
So I gave up scrapbooking a long time ago because it takes a lot of time and can get really expensive but I loved creating this little mini “scrapbook” box. It gave me a little dose of that scrabooking/paper crafting high and was fast! I hope you enjoy creating one!
1. Measure your wooden box. I purchased a 4×4 box, the inside was slightly bigger it measured 4.25″ so i was able to make my paper exactly 4″ squares. You want at least 1/4″ difference so your paper slides out easily when pulled from the top. After figuring out what size your squares will be you will want to cut long strips out of the 11×17 paper that are the width of your box, so mine were 4″. It is easiest to measure with a ruler and draw a line all the way down, then cut it with scissors. You will be able to get 2 strips from your paper that are 17″ long.
2. Measure out where you will be scoring. Scoring is important with card stock so that you have a clean fold and not a rugged edge. I measured every 4″ and made a small hash mark with a pencil to tell me where to line it up to score it. Score at those marks all the way across to create your boxes. Because I made 4″ boxes I had 1″ left at the bottom of both of my strips. On one of the strips i cut off the excess and on the other i used it to attach the two strips together.
3. To attach the strips together place the 1″ extra on the back of the end of the top strip and tape from behind. As you can see in the photo below it will gape open so you will want to take a piece of double stick tape to close that.
Now for the fun part! Add the photos and pretty stuff 🙂
4. If you want to add paper behind the photos as I did you will cut out 13 3.5″ squares. Attach them in the center of each square on your accordion folded sheet. Before attaching the top piece fold the piece of ribbon in half and place it under the 1st sheet of pretty paper and glue it with the decorative paper to the folded white paper. This acts as your “pull” to open up the accordion.
5. Cut your photos to 3″ squares. Attach them to the center with the photo corners and a little extra adhesive. Finish off with a few decorative stickers if desired.
6. If you want to pretty up your plain wood box you can paint it like I did. I used cream chalk paint and after it dried attached a few of the stickers that I also used on the inside.
If you end up making an accordion photo box please let me see it! I love to see your creations, just tag me on instagram @handmadeintheheartland Happy Crafting!
