I made another box in an online class with ReConnecting. (Previous boxes are here and here.)
I deviated from the script somewhat and there was a lot of learning going on during its creation!
The original plan called for a lipped lid to hold the box closed as there is no closure on the box itself. I made that lid but I didn’t like it. I thought if I had one on both the top and bottom I would like it better so I made another lid. I still didn’t like it. So I opted to make a different kind of lid altogether and to create a closure of some kind.
There are many challenges with cutting the greyboard/chipboard as it is thick and dense. Previously I used a box cutter but each cut took a minimum of four passes and was very difficult. This box had a lot of pieces so I looked around for a better way. I bought an electric cutter on Amazon that didn’t work at all. I ended up using tin snips, which did a poor job with uneven edges, etc. Later, when I decided to make the new lid, I tried using my rotary cutter (which I don’t use for fabric because I prefer my fabric shears) and it worked beautifully! Lesson learned.
Most of the class is using fabric to cover their boxes but I wanted to use this beautiful marbled paper. It looked gorgeous when I first glued the outside piece, but it shrunk when it dried and split at the folded seams when the box was folded. So, I had to glue reinforcing strips on those edges, which interrupts the pattern. Sad about that but another lesson learned.
Then for the closure. I experimented with lots of different ideas and you can see here what I settled on. The orange piece is a wide elastic. The metal embellishment is an earring a friend made for me long ago. If I were to make this box again, I would probably add a tab on one of the free edges to make adding a closure much easier.
Throughout the process I also tried several different glues for different parts and I learned more about where each one works well and where it doesn’t. I am not a fan of hot glue so I am increasing my vocabulary of other types of glue.
Congratulations! Your Folding box is a Featured Project this week! 