Box for Floral Mini-Album–Lid Construction

Today I finished constructing the lids for the two boxes.

After mulling over whether to leave the insides of the lid flaps plain black or whether to try to match the inside of the box, I decided in the end not to be lazy but to refer back to my previous post on the subject and try to replicate the same appearance. Of course, I’d used up all the table napkin fragments, but these flaps are so narrow that they didn’t really need them. I am glad I took the trouble to do this because it will give a better finish in the long run.

On the right in the above photo, you can see one of the clasps lined up against the pattern I made for the front flap mat. This was trimmed down from the original pattern for the front flap. From the outset, I wanted the mats to be trimmed away from the clasp pieces so they would have a nice black border, as there would be around the edges.

Here are the front flaps with the clasps attached. I used small antique brass coloured brads, and also a fairly thick layer of Pinflair gel glue to fill the concave back of the clasp, to ensure that it remains firmly in place.

I cut all the mat pieces for the lids – the tops, the side flaps and the front flaps, and double-distressed them with Vintage Photo, and then Black Soot Distress Inks.

After assembling the boxes, I added the mats to each piece. These covered the construction strips, leaving just a 1/8 inch border all round.

I cut a similar mat for the bottom of each box, this time from plain black cardstock, and stuck them down. All the mats were stuck with a combination of double sided tape and glue stick.

I put the lid in place on the box and lined up the second part of the clasp so that it was engaged with the first part (already attached to the lid front flap). Holding it in place, I marked the position of the three holes on the front of the box, for securing the clasp piece. After this, I painted the area with black acrylic paint, because again, a small border of black will be showing around the clasp when I cut the shape from the box front mat.

The boxes so far.

I have not yet attached the lids. I made the hinges from 1-inch wide strips of Tyvek painted with black acrylic paint and they will be attached with double-sided tape as before.

All that remains to finish the basic boxes is to cut and stick the mats for the front, back and sides of the box. I also want to cut small pieces of card (offcuts from the lid mats as they are a reasonable match) to glue over the backs of the brads on the inside of the box and lid, to give a better finish and to prevent them catching.

Once the construction is completed, I shall add some embellishments to the tops of the boxes, and also the metal feet that I bought on Ebay.