Envelope Memory Box (Design Team Project)

by Kris Hankins

Ever need a special little gift to give someone for a bridal shower, birthday, or other memorable occasion? I came up with this nice little “envelope” memory box. It can hold special photos, notes, journaled tags, and other personal mementos from a special event. I have seen similar items made with chipboard as it’s base. Yes, that would make it quite sturdy, but also bulkier (I would definitely recommend the chipboard for a larger/deeper “box”). I wanted to try making a box that was only about an 1 ½” thick, and used only heavy cardstock as the base.

Well, the heavy cardstock worked perfectly! It gave this size of box enough strength and structure.

Envelope Memory Box

Here is how I made it…

I first cut my heavy cardstock in the following sized pieces –



I used coordinating papers from the Hot Off The Press “Roses In Harmony” paper pack. It includes some beautiful floral, music, text, dotted and striped papers. Just perfect for this type of project.

I cut a sheet of floral, green dotted, and music papers in half (two 6” wide pieces in each).

I layed out a piece of green dotted paper and a piece of floral print paper, end-to-end (print side down). I then layed out the sturdy cardstock pieces in the layout shown above (leaving about 1/8” between cardstock pieces).



The seam of the two papers was placed at 3.25” down from the top of “back” piece. There needs to be about 3/8” overhang of paper on all sides that is folded over the edge of the cardstock pieces.

Once all this was fitted, I adhered the cardstock pieces to the cut paper pieces. I used a good quality glue stick for this. I took time to make sure the edge were straight and lined up with each other.



Next, I folded the edges over and glued them down.



I lined the box with the music paper. I trimmed both of the 6” wide pieces down to approximately 5” wide. I glued these two strips in place making sure they covered the previously folded over edges. At this point, I scored between the cardstock pieces so the box would uniformily bend.



Next, I took (6) 4 ¾” x 6 ½” (A6 size) sealed linen envelopes, and I cut off ½” from the ends of each of the envelopes. This gave me (6) 4 3/4” x 5 ½” envelope “tubes”. I glued the first envelope tube to the back of the box, lining up the bottom edge of the envelope with the bottom/back edge of box. I made sure NOT to apply any glue to the outer 1” edge of each envelope. If I did, I would NOT get the according feature. (I ran three rows of adhesive tape down the centers of the envelopes.)



I did this with each envelope, stacking them as I went. I glued the final front envelope to the inside of the box front.

I punched some 1” circles from other coordinating/scrap papers and made “tabs” for each envelope pocket.

I embellished the front of the box with scalloped punched flowers (coordinating papers), a handmade ribbon flower, and a pearly hat pin.

I used May Arts Sheer Loop trim to make the ribbon flower. I covered a 1 ½” chipboard circle (Maya Road) with quality double sided tape. On the outside edge of the circle I adhered one end of the ribbon. I wound it in circles sticking the ribbon to the adhesive as yI went, working my way to the center of the circle. I made 3 or 4 cirles around the chipboard. I embellished the center of my flower with a small inked chipboard circle.

The box closure was made using two beautiful resin rose brads from American Crafts, and some thin twine. I just attached one brad to front lid and one to the front of box, then knotted the end of the thin twine around one of the brads.



As an “extra”, I took some manila tags and made them into journaling tags. This gives a place to jot down notes and memories of the event. I simply use coordinating papers and scraps to decorate the tags. I added stripes, circles, flower punches, etc. to the tags to add some interest. I didn’t want to cover them too much, as I wanted to make sure there would be plenty of room for journaling.

The end product was a very nice accordian envelope memory box. Truly a place to store cherished photos, notes and guests lists, memorabilia, etc. … from a memorable occasion.

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