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Turn photos of your favorites into a handmade gift.

How to Make a Pop-Up Photo Box for Your Special Shutterbug

How to Make a Pop-Up Photo Box for Your Special Shutterbug
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Can you imagine a life without photos? Pretty weird, right?! Photography has come such a long way in the past 150 years, to the point where we can now take and print photos instantaneously. Pictures with friends, loved ones, special moments, etc. deserve to displayed in a special way. This Valentine’s Day, create a special photo strip box for your loved one that calls attention to a special moment or moments in your life together.

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– wood stain

– paint

– ribbon

– photos

– black cardstock

Tools:

– ruler

– cutting mat

– Exacto knife

– wood burner

– paint brush

– pencil

– Scotch double-sided sticky tape

Instructions:

1. Apply stain to wooden box using a rag or a paper towel. Let that dry and then paint the inside red.

2. Once dry, use the wood burner to etch in your initials or favorite saying.

3. Cut strips of paper to fit inside your box. We cut ours 3.5 inches wide. Then fold your paper into a properly sized accordion. Ours folded into 3.5 x 3.5-inch squares.

4. Use the double-sided tape to attach photos to the accordion.

5. Create a loop with the ribbon and tape it to the top of your photos. Use extra black cardstock to cover up the edges.

6. Tape your photos into the bottom of the box.

Stain is extremely easy to use. Grab a paper towel or rag, dip it into the stain and wipe it on. You’ll never want the stain to run, so use an extra paper towel to remove any excess. Your box should feel almost dry after staining. Then paint the inside of your box red.

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Once dry, use a wood burner to engrave initials or your favorite saying. Don’t know where to find a wood burner? Try our wood burning kit.

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Our box measured 4 x 4 inches. We created an accordion that measured 3.5 x 3.5 inches, which fit perfectly into our box. Cut and tape more strips together to display more and more photos!

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This is a great gift to give your newlywed for Valentine’s Day. Oh Alex, you are so gorgeous!

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Use the double-sided sticky tape to arrange your photos.

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Create a pull for the top of the accordion using ribbon. Cover up the ends with another piece of cardstock.

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Tape the last photo to the bottom of the box.

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Couldn’t find a tree to carve your initials into for V-day? This is a great alternative =)

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Old school photo stream. We love how the reel of photos just pulls out of the box and (in this case) tells a story.

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If stain isn’t your style, try using paint or decoupage.

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For this effect we used painters tape to mark off the shapes, filled them in with paint, and then used a paint pen to create patterns.

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Ladies, this is a great gift for Galentine’s day. Shout out to my gals that I miss everyday!!

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For the decoupage box we used some of our favorite heart confetti, found at Paper Source, and applied it with Modpodge.

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New babe in the family? Create this photo box as a way to remember his cutest years. You could gift this to his proud mama, grandma, or the babe himself.

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We painted the insides of the boxes to relate to rose colors and meanings. Of course we all know red means love and passion. Therefore we paired it with Alex and Ryan, the newlyweds. Yellow means friendship, joy, and good health which is perfect for our galentine’s. And our little babe gets pink for love, gratitude, and appreciation.

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Want an extra special gift to pair with your new DIY photo box? We definitely recommend our 3D printed roses in the Brit Shop.

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