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Family Photo Projects

It's a book. It's a box. It's a book box!

That's right, it's a box that looks like a book.  And it's a unique way to display a small group of special, related photographs. Instead of assembling photos in an order you decide on, you leave them loose but mounted in the box.  This encourages a delightful interaction between viewer and photographs. There are many approaches you can use to make your very personal book box, but here's what I did for the one pictured here.  The title of my "book" is "Pictures at an Exhibition." and the eight photographs are scenes from three group-photography shows I was in.

• Unpainted book-shaped wood box, available in many craft stores
• Acrylic paint
• Paintbrush
• Charms and other decorative elements appropriate to the theme of the book
• Glue that will hold the embellishments, such as E6000
• Small graphics, words, and pictures
• Decoupage medium, gloss acrylic medium, or white glue
• Cardstock
• 6-8 related photographs, such as highlights of a party, vacation, visit with friends, etc.
• Glue or paste
• Yarn or decorative fibers (available in craft stores)
• Hole punch

The Box:

1. Sand the box, inside and out, so it is smooth.

2. Paint the outside and inside of the box with two coats of color of your choice, sanding lightly between coats.

3. Decorate the front "cover" with the title of your book as well as three-dimensional embellishments appropriate to the theme of your photos.

4. Use decoupage (or similar) medium to glue small pictures, line drawings, and words over the inside of the box.

5. Varnish the inside and outside of the box with one or two coats of the same medium.

The Pictures:

1. Measure the inside of box.

2. You will be mounting the photographs on cardstock "tags." Cut one piece of cardstock for each picture, making them about 1/4-inch smaller than the inside of the box.

3. Crop your photographs so they are smaller than the tags. For example, for a 4 x 5 1/4 -inch tag, make the photo about 3 1/2 x 4 3/4- inches.

5. Glue the photo to the center of the tag.

6. On each tag, punch a hole in the middle of one short end.

7. Cut about an eight-inch length of fiber for each tag and loop it through the tag holes.

Put one picture on each side of all or some of the cardstock tags.   Instead of punching the tags with a hole punch, use an eyelet and eyelet setter.

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