Exploding Picture Boxes

Exploding Picture Box

This was my first attempt at making one of these exploding picture boxes. This project was a lot of fun. Friends and family will love receiving these exploding picture boxes with some special events from their lives.

I started by cutting my box from cardstock, you can use any color that you would like to use. If you want to create a theme you could choose the cardstock that best fits around that theme.

The first thing I did was to take a 12 x 12 sheet and cut into 1 (one) 9 x 9 square, the next color was cut at 8 5/8 x 8 5/8, the third sheet was cut at 8 ¼ x 8 ¼. Scoring was done on the 9 inch at 3 inches all sides, 8 5/8 inch was scored at 2 7/8 inch, and 8 ¼ inch was scored at 2 ¾ inch. Next I cut out the corner pieces to make my flaps on the box for all the cards that were cut, then using your bone crease all the sections, I did both sides just to make it more flexible when the box collapses.

Lid section was cut at 6 ¼ in square, then scoring at 1 ½ in on all sides. Then I only slit the one side of the corner to make my flap for lid to fold over on one side. I actually did this twice just to make my lid sturdier.

Ready to start your design I then started with my first sheet for the box and cut paper for my inside pages and also cut to make my envelop pockets for my little note cards. After gluing all my papers on each page I used a Walnut stamp pad and sponged around the edges of each page and also did the same thing on my tag inserts for some added texture. Next I added some embellishments to the pages and left some pages blank to add more pictures later, there is no need to add anything to the center section except on your top section. I had some cute little butterflies and other rub-ons that I used also. I continued working my way around my different pages until I was completely finished then using very strong glue, I attached each section together in the center and lay something on top to weigh your pages down. After glue has dried couple hours, you can enjoy your creation.

Finishing up my box top, I punched 2 holes on the lid to insert my ribbon and any other item you would like to hid from the top. Tied my bow and inserted some paper flowers on the top. I also added some ribbon around the sides using dots to adhere to my lid.

I hope that you will try one of these exploding picture boxes for yourself.