A Photo Box Gift for Father’s Day

My husband is a hard person to buy for.  He doesn’t really need anything and doesn’t ever want anything—except for underwear, plain white t-shirts and thick socks.  (Who is this guy?)  And since it’s too hot to wear heavy, hand-knitted socks, I always resort to photo gifts for Father’s Day.

When I saved the faux leather box from T.J.’s wallet (Nathan’s Christmas gift to Dada), I didn’t know what I’d use it for, but I knew it would be something good.  And I was right!

  

I made this awesome photo box in one short night in my craft room while Nathan slept and T.J. played computer games. 

It’s essentially a paper accordion with photos of Nathan and T.J. glued to each panel, folded up into the faux leather box. 

I made the paper strips for the accordion out of scrapbooking paper cut slightly smaller than the box and folded them over themselves lengthwise back and forth to create the accordion. 

 

I then glued a new strip to the old strip until I had enough folds to fill the box.  (Note:  When checking for strip length, take into account that you’ll have photos glued to each panel, taking up more space in the box.  I chose to only glue photos to the “right” side of the accordion, but you could also glue photos to the “wrong” side if using double-sided paper.)

I measured and cut my photos so they’re all the same size and the patterned borders around them are even.  A little measuring and a good deal of eyeballing and glueing later, I had 21 photos glued to my accordion. 

I then glued the first panel of the accordion to the inside of the faux leather wallet box and cut out a thin piece of corrugated cardboard to serve as the cover.  The cover should be the same size as the exterior dimensions of the box.  The cardboard was salvaged from a box one of Nathan’s toys came in (I save all kinds of useful stuff like that), so I covered both sides with scrapbooking paper to make it look nicer, glued a family photo to the outside and glued the accordion to the inside.

I hot glued a piece of yarn to the back of the box and tied it in a bow around the front to keep the photo box closed when it’s not being used.

T.J. had barely taken a sip of his morning coffee when Nathan and I bombarded him with Happy Father’s Day wishes and he had to “read” the photo box to Nathan as if it was a book. 

It was a cute moment, and for us, this little photo box holds recent memories that we’ll be able to recall any time we pick it up.  It lives on our TV cabinet for now, and I hope it stays there for a very long time.