Milk Carton Box Tutorial

As promised, today's Fab Friday post is a tutorial for a milk carton box. Let me give credit where credit is due. I totally stole , um I mean, was inspired by this milk carton on Kerry's blog. Kerry has a wonderful tutorial on her blog. But, unfortunately the measurements are all in centimeters. Not much for those of us on this side of the pond. ;-)

Supplies:
8.5 X 11" piece of cardstock
Scor-Pal
printed paper, stamped image, etc. for decorating
ink & sponge (optional)
small binder clip
adhesive

Directions:
Along short side of paper, score at 2.5", 5.5" and 7.5"
Turn paper and score along long side at 2.5", 5", 7.5" and 10". Cut out bottom right hand corner and notch bottom tabs as shown in photo below. Add 1" scores halfway between 2.5" & 5" scores and halfway between the 7.5" and 10" scores, as shown below

To find the half way point, align your scores along the 3" and 5.5" marks as shown below. Score at the 4.25" mark. repeat for other 1" score.

Using your bone folder, go over all of your score marks. This will make your box much easier to assemble!

If you're going to ink the edges of your box, the easiest time to do this is before assembling your box. Also, this is the easiest time to add any decorative paper and/or images. Cut your printed paper to 2.25" X 2.75".

Next, add adhesive as shown below. I recommend using a dry adhesive since it grabs right away and you don't have to hold or clamp the box together while a wet glue dries. The second section is the best one to place your image on. The first and third panels are notched to form the sides of the box. The panel all the way on the right is where the sides of the paper are joined to form the box. This is best hidden at the back of the box.

The fourth bottom section has adhesive on the other side. This is the bottom flap of your box.and will cover the other flaps.

How to assemble the box is a matter of personal choice. I find it easiest to adhere the 3 inner bottom flaps to each other as I fold my paper into a box shape, then adhere the side seam of the box, leaving the last bottom flap as a final step. Some people may prefer to adhere the long side first and then worry about the bottom. (Kerry does it this way.) Experiment with how the box folds together before trying to glue it.

Use a binder clip to hold your box closed. You can find decorative ones in the store. Or, use your paper scraps and some adhesive to cover your clip. (This is a great way to use up any super skinny strips of paper.) Add a bow, if desired.

Voila!

Image: Penny Black
Paper: River Rock (SU!), My Minds Eye dp, pink cs (Bazzill)

One last tip. If you are making a lot of these, I would suggest scoring all the pieces of paper in one direction (i.e., along the short side of the paper or along the long side of the paper) and then score all of them again in the other direction. Once you get into the groove of scoring at certain intervals (no pun intended) it's easiest to keep scoring all the papers that way and then score them all in the other pattern. (As opposed to score, turn, score for each piece of 8.5 X 11 cardstock.)

Give these a try! They are a lot of fun.

Lisa

Fab Friday: Paper Bag Albums

It's back to school time for many of us. And don't brown paper bags remind you of school lunches? So, this week's Fab Friday is all about paper bag albums. Remember those? They were really popular a few years ago. They've had sort of a rebirth, apparently, and all I can say is - wow, paper bag albums have come a long way! It's hard to tell that some of them are actually made from paper bags.

This is one of the best tutorials I saw:



This is a different variation of the album. Supposedly this is easy enough for beginners - she certainly makes it look easy! I may have to try this one.



 Have a great weekend! Hope you find some time to do something creative. I'll see you on Sunday with another DigiStamp Boutique card.

Lisa

Fab Friday Tutorial

Yikes, what a busy yet unproductive day! Took Ali to her clarinet lesson - with drive time, 1.5 hours. "Stopped' by work - left 1 hour later. Took Jess to her 1:30 doctor's appointment - he was running late, so we didn't get out until 4:00 PM. Went to work picnic - had a great time, but was gone 2 hours. I did walk the dog and color my hair. (Just would've been nice to remember before 10 PM that I planned to color it tonight!)

So, without further ado, here is my promised tutorial for making my mini-notepads. Excuse the photography - it was late so I had to use flash.

Supplies needed:
cardboard/chipboard
printed paper for covers
cardstock for matting image on front of notepad
paper for notepad pages (I buy copier/printer paper when Staples has it on sale really cheap)
adhesive (I prefer some kind of tape runner or other dry adhesive)
stamped image or other decoration
binding equipment (I use a Bind It All and o-rings)

1. First, cut your covers, printed paper and inner pages.

What sizes? Well, assuming your cardboard is an 8.5 X 11" sheet, cut that into quarters (4.25 X 5.5") for your covers. Your covers determine the size of everything else. General rule of thumb:
- inner pages should be .25" smaller on both sides (e.g., 4 X 5.25" for our 4.25 X 5.5" covers)
- the paper for covering your covers should be 1" bigger on both sides (e.g., 5.25 " X 6.5" for 4.25 X 5.5" covers)

2. Place adhesive on cover, then center on the back of the printed paper. Miter corners as shown below.

3. Use adhesive to glue down flaps. Then cover the back with a piece of paper (cardstock or printed paper, it doesn't matter) that is 1/8" smaller on both sides than the cover.

4. Punch both covers and all of your pages with your Bind It All or other binding system. I don't have a set amount of pages that I include. Your pad's thickness will be determined by what size o-ring (or other fastener) that you use. My pads are usually approximately 1/4" thick.

5. Assemble your cover and pages and bind them together. If you're using a Bind It All and have trouble remembering what order to put your covers in before you bind them, check out this great tutorial: Bind-It-All Basics Part 2. In short, put your pad in order of the finished order (front cover on top of pages on top of back cover), flip the back cover up on top of the top cover, then insert your o-rings.

If you're using a Bind It All, remember these 4 things:
- pull out the black "T" on the back of the BIA. It serves to stabilize it against your surface as you pull down on the lever
- make sure your using the right setting based on the size of your o-rings (that's what those white lines on the binding surface are for - they correspond to o-ring sizes)
- be sure to hold your o-rings flat against the surface of your BIA to help ensure that your rings close evenly/properly
- occasionally clean out your BIA (there's a little "hatch" on the side) because it doesn't punch well when it gets full

6. Next, add your desired image and any embellishments to the front of your notepad. Voila!

I used this cute little Olivia image from DigiStamp Boutique and colored her with Copics (of course). The dp is from the "Simply Delightful" stack by My Minds Eye. It's a great stack because it has so many different patterns and color schemes!

And don't forget that Sally-Ann is still running a 20% off sale at the DigiStamp Boutique site. The discount is good on all the images in the shop.

Lisa