Hidden Book Box Tutorial

Hello friends! Did you have a good weekend? We are still in summer mode here and I am waiting for our blackberries to ripen. We have been walking, swimming and had friends over. This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Try to Contain Yourself challenge. 

I love to make containers of various kinds and this week I made a container for a hidden little treasure. My Mom has a very old photo album and we don't know who a lot of the people in it are, which is such a pity. If only someone would have written down names and dates. I hope we can figure it out since we knew who it belonged to and therefore I made a little book to document family history details and photos, which is being kept inside this box. 

I scanned one of the photos in the album and you can see it here on the cover. The box itself was made by Tim Holtz Vignette Box and Panel.

Start by coating a Vignette Box and the corresponding Panel with gesso. You can do this with any of the four Vignette Boxes. I used the second biggest one (3.3 x 4.7 in). 

Next, I drilled holes for the hinges. You might want to wait with this step. If I redid the project, I would drill the holes later.

Paint with Bundled Sage, and add a little Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint. I wanted the box to have the colour of an old faded green book.

Stamp with the Linen background and Fern Green ink. This gives the box the look of fabric. 

Stamp the box on the inside cover, on all the sides, and on the inside. I used a mix of sentiment, postal and image stamps. 

Smear Distress Collage Medium Crazing all over the box and cover. You want to coat everything with the medium, but don't make it equally thick everywhere. The thicker the medium, the larger the cracks. I used a palette knife first, to make sure everything was covered, and then added thicker patches with my finger. Let dry.

When the crazing medium is dry, add colour to the cracks by rubbing Distress Crayon into them. Start with the white one and then continue with Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo. Remove excess with a slightly moist cloth. 

Sand a small Sophisticated Cabinet Card.

Ink the card and the ink will stick to the sanded parts. 

This is the little book that you'll find inside the box. Isn't it cute? You can customize it to work with any theme. My cover comes from a Tim Holtz ephemera card.

Use a paper trimmer to cut pages. The ATC sized panels from Tim's paper pads work really well for this, you just need to cut each panel a little thinner. The pages are 2.6 x 3.9 in.

Punch holes with a Crop-a-Dile. I love my Crop-a-Dile and I have had it for about nine years now. 

I also inked some manila cardstock and stamped with the ledger stamp from the School Desk set, for extra pages mainly for journaling. I use that same stamp for my December Daily tags. Some ephemera pieces were sanded and added to the book too.

Sand the edges and ink as many as you feel like (I didn't ink quite all of them).

I stamped some sentiments from the Simple Sayings set on the inside pages, using Fern Green ink.

The papers come from the Dapper, Correspondence and Wallflower paper pads.

There will be a combination of photos and words in the book, once it is filled.

The Cabinet cards are quite thick, and my pre-drilled holes weren't completely right because of that. It is better to drill the holes after you have glued the cabinet card to the cover.

I really like her expression in this photo and I liked using this photo of a still unknown relative of mine on the cover. The pretty Baroque Frame was given patina with Bundled Sage and Peacock Feathers Distress Paint.

I added some gold rub-ons to the cabinet cards. They come from a Christmas set, but the words I used, worked very well here. There are also some Chit Chat stickers.

The combined textures of the box and the cabinet card adds a lot of interest.

The Heirloom Roses were coloured by dropping first a drop of Mountain Rose alcohol ink on them, followed by a smaller drop of Mushroom.

I stamped all the sides of the box.

On the spine, I used one of my favourite sentiments.

Here's what the box looks like when it is open, with the book inside. The book was bound with Mini Book Ring Fasteners.

The white Distress Crayon adds a great effect to the crackles, as you can see over clock.

And a hand for writing down details, which will otherwise be forgotten.

On the inside, I used postal stamps from the Postcards and Correspondence sets. Use any stamps that fit with your theme. As you can see, I added the crazing medium to the thin edges of the box too.

The inside sides are stamped too.

Here's the box from the top.

You could make this project for any theme, by using different papers, stamps and embellishments. If you don't want to make a book, use the box for a small gift, or for a small family heirloom or important keepsake.

I hope you will join us in our Try to Contain Yourself challenge. A random participant will win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

If you want to, follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram ? If so please add#sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Tim Holtz Idea-ology VIGNETTE BOXES Structures	Tim Holtz VIGNETTE PANELS	Tim Holtz SOPHISTICATE Cabinet Card Frames	Tim Holtz BAROQUE FRAMES	Tim Holtz Idea-ology HINGES
Tim Holtz MESH AND LINEN	Tim Holtz CORRESPONDENCE	Tim Holtz SCHOOL DESK Stampers Anonymous	Tim Holtz POSTCARDS	Tim Holtz WORDS FOR THOUGHT
Tim Holtz CURIOSITIES	Tim Holtz SIMPLE SAYINGS	Tim Holtz MERCHANTILE	Tim Holtz GOING SOMEWHERE	Tim Holtz MINI MUSE
Tim Holtz Idea-ology CORRESPONDENCE	Tim Holtz 12 x 12 Paper Stash DAPPER	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Stash WALLFLOWER VELLUM	Tim Holtz Idea-ology POCKET CARDS	Ranger 8.5 X 11 MANILA CARDSTOCK
Tim Holtz HEIRLOOM ROSES	Tim Holtz MINI BOOK RINGS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology LONG FASTENERS	Tim Holtz LABEL LETTERS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology CHITCHAT STICKERS
Tim Holtz GILDED HOLIDAYS Remnant Rubs	Tim Holtz Ephemera Pack THRIFT SHOP	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ephemera Pack EMPORIUM	Tim Holtz Ephemera Pack EXPEDITION	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons SET 3
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons SET 2	Tim Holtz PEELED PAINT	Tim Holtz SHABBY SHUTTERS	Tim Holtz BUNDLED SAGE	Tim Holtz Distress Paint PEACOCK FEATHERS
Tim Holtz Distress Ink GROUND ESPRESSO	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival FERN GREEN	Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK	Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink MUSHROOM	Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink MOUNTAIN ROSE
Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium CRAZING	Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE GESSO	Ranger 4 Oz. MULTI MEDIUM MATTE	We R Memory Keepers CROPADILE	Tim Holtz Tonic GUILLOTINE COMFORT PAPER TRIMMER
Hero Arts CLEAR ACRYLIC BLOCK 3 by 3	Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET	Ranger Inkssentials GLOSSY ACCENTS	Ranger Inkssentials INK BLENDING TOOL	Tim Holtz SANDING GRIP

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