“Many people store photographs in familiar albums, but now special photo boxes have begun to come into fashion. They have many advantages: spaciousness, compactness, and the most pleasant thing is the feeling of a living photograph in your hands when viewing, not covered with film and without a base. You can easily make such a box with your own hands, and I will describe all the details of working with it below.

This master class will help you make a box covered with leatherette to store 150 photographs in a format of 10x15 cm. The base is 1.75 mm thick binding cardboard, and all the given sizes are suitable only for it. But you can easily convert the diagram to other formats, cover the box with fabric or paper, make it higher or lower.

To begin, we cut out the base of the box from binding cardboard:

To glue the frame together, I apply Korfix glue (similar to PVA) directly to the edge of the cardboard and glue the long sides on top of the base first.

Regarding glue and materials, I’ll immediately make a reservation: I always write which ones I use, but in no case do I insist on using them. You can try the means that are familiar to you, I think this is unlikely to have a significant effect on the result.

On the short walls we apply glue to 3 ribs and insert them between the long ones:

The frame is ready, but it does not hold very securely. Therefore, I glue each rib from the inside with strips of craft paper folded in half, cutting off its edges at 45 degrees.

Apply glue to craft strips...

And this is how we glue each joint.

It is not always possible to cut and glue cardboard so that the ribs are perfectly even. At this stage we can file the frame with a rough saw, smoothing out the places and joints that we don’t like.

Now you can start covering the frame with leatherette binding. Apply glue to one of the outer long walls of the box, starting approximately from its middle and grabbing a couple of centimeters after the corner.

We glue the leatherette (a 605x75 mm strip is enough at this stage) so that the distance at the top and bottom of the box remains approximately equal.

When we glue it to the corner, we stretch the leatherette a little.

So we gradually glue the entire box around the perimeter.

As a result, there should be a small reserve at the junction.

It is necessary to cut the material so that it can then be neatly laid end-to-end in the upper part of the box. We are not interested in what happens at the back; we will seal this part anyway.

Now turn the box upside down and cut off the excess from the corners like this:

Ideally, the corners should also lie end to end so that there is no overlap. Next, glue the resulting valves one at a time:

For greater accuracy, I press the corners into place with a scoring bone. If you don’t have one, you can use here and below scissors, the base of a brush, or something else that will be convenient.

The bottom is ready:

On the reverse side, cutting off the corners is a little more difficult. They should be cut to about the thickness of the cardboard or a little further from the corner, but not so much that the cardboard itself is exposed. It’s better to cut them off in stages, try them on, and cut them again if necessary.

And also from the gap in the middle, we begin to seal the valves one by one inside the box.

The corners should lie like this:

And when I reach the joint on the back wall, I glue it also without overlap:

The base is ready, you can start working on the lid. The same binding cardboard is cut out for the lid. Dimensions are shown below. But because During the work process, everyone stretches the material differently and glues the frames together, so there may be deviations. Therefore, you can try the lid on to your frame during the process.

For the lid we need a piece of leatherette measuring about 370x200 mm. We glue our cardboard onto it from the wrong side in the order shown in the diagram above. On each of the 4 sides we leave approximately equal distance from the edge to the fold. I apply glue to the entire surface of the cardboard in an even layer.

Afterwards I also cut off the excess around the corners. Here the angle is cut at 45 degrees, and approximately its thickness is removed from the cardboard. I also advise you to act gradually and try on how well the material fits.

After we have glued the cardboard to the leatherette, we apply glue to the long sides of the leatherette...

And glue each piece of it to the cardboard.

Using a scoring bone, I “drive the leatherette into the holes between the cardboards:

These are the “streamlets” you should get:

To achieve accuracy in forming the corners, we glue the small metric we have at the very tip of the corner, also on the opposite side:

Then we seal the valve itself. On the other side we do the same.

The lid is ready, that's all the “dirty” :) the work with glue is finished.

Now you need to install magnets in the box so that the lid slams shut happily. For them, we make a hole in the cardboard from the inside of the box, but do not cut through all the cardboard, but only remove its layer. It is advisable to remove it so that the magnet “sinks” well into the hole and does not protrude. I used magnets about 1.5 mm thick and 12 mm in diameter. The place where exactly the magnets will be placed is not important, because... they won't be visible. The main thing is to place them on the front side of the box, where there is no seam.

I glue the magnets themselves with superglue.

Now that there are already magnets inside, I magnetized the remaining couple to them from the outside. This is done in order to accurately mark the place where to poke holes in the lid for them.

I colored them with an easy-to-wash marker...

And she closed the future box with a lid. The mark from the marker moved onto the lid, showing us exactly where there should be more magnets.

Using these marks, I made the same holes and glued magnets there, paying attention to their polarity: so that the lid would be attracted to the box when closing, and not repelled.

Now we will cover the inside of the box with beautiful paper. I use scrapbooking paper. The diagram below shows the parts that need to be cut out for gluing. There may be differences in sizes of a millimeter or two, so it is better to try on before gluing. Solid lines indicate cut points, dotted lines indicate fold points.

First of all, we glue the walls of the box; 4 parts with folds are used for them.

This diagram will be useful for thrifty craftswomen :) Here we show how to cut out all the parts for a photo box from one sheet of scrap paper 30.5x30.5 cm.

Before gluing, I tint the white sections of the paper:

First we glue the long walls, which have 3 valves:

Here I use UHU Twist&Glue glue. Does not lead to paper, transparent and convenient. But there is a minus - if you mess with leatherette, you can’t erase it, so it’s better to try to work very carefully.

Then I glued the short walls; they already have only one flap at the bottom. And I used a hot glue gun to glue a tape that makes it easy to pull out the stack of photos. I glued it, placing the box with the front part facing me, on the left side. When the photos are placed on it, the loop for pulling them out will be on the right.

And you can glue a small loop to the front of the lid so that the box can be opened easily.

After this you can glue the bottom.

It's time to decorate the lid. I used a stamp and Stazon ink, they do not wash off from leatherette and smooth surfaces.

Now all that remains is to cover the inside of the lid with paper. While without glue, I use a scoring stick to mark the contours on the paper so that in places where we have “rivulets” between the cardboards, it will fit right into them.

This is the form the marked paper takes:

Next, we do the same with the glue applied to the paper: glue a part, use a stick to push the paper into the stream, glue the next part, push it into the stream again, and glue the remaining valve. This is how she should lie:

Now the lid will open and close with a bang, and generally bend in all directions.

Now we apply glue to the bottom of the box and glue it to the largest part of the lid. We should still have some indentation from the edge. Ideally, it turns out to be equal to the thickness of cardboard covered with leatherette, but you can measure your indentation just in case.

Apply glue to the back wall of the box...

And close the product. I also glued one of my favorite giant rhinestones on top. For ease of use, it is better to glue voluminous decorations at the very end.

● Empty cardboard shoe box
● Artificial leather (soft)
● Pencil and ruler
● Scissors
● Universal glue.

The pictures below show how the bottom of the box and its lid are glued first, and then the end sides.

Description of work

Step 1: cut out the leather parts

Place the box on the wrong side of the leather. Use a pencil to draw the outline of the box. Extend the lines so that they are equal to double the height of the sides; for the end sides, add 2 cm for allowances.

Step 2: cover the box

Cut out the part. First, coat the bottom of the box with glue and place the bottom on the leather piece. Then lubricate the end and sides from the outside and inside with glue, and fix the leather part on them. Wrap the allowances onto the sides of the box and glue them. Now glue the artificial leather to the sides of the box in the same way.
Repeat with the box lid. ● You can similarly cover cardboard shoe boxes not only with leather, but with any fabric. Before doing this, check on a piece of fabric to see if the glue will show through on the front side.
● Make sure that the corners are cut out and pasted over very carefully - the appearance of your box depends on this.
● If desired, cut out a piece for the inside of the lid and glue it on last.

Photo: Jan Schmiedel.
How to replace leather for decoration. Master class from fljuida.

We use vinyl wallpaper to decorate the box.

Hello, dear readers:) This time, let's look at how you can use wallpaper that imitates the skin of an animal (probably a hippopotamus) to decorate the surface of an object. This method is good because it perfectly imitates skin, we save the lives of animals and work with them is done quickly enough. If you are lucky and can buy such wallpaper, then imagine how long it will last you, and the price is very affordable. For Riga residents - this wallpaper is sold at the Depot :) And here is the box, which I decorated using film, which I easily peeled off from the canvas itself.

Agree, it looks very much like genuine leather :) Since vinyl wallpaper has a film coating, you don’t have to varnish the product, and this is also a plus for decoupage work and speeds up :)

You can see the wallpaper itself in the picture, as well as what you will need mainly for decorating an ordinary wooden box. As you can see, the arsenal is completely simple :)

We cut the wallpaper to the required size and peel it off in one fell swoop, first picking up a corner with a needle.

The enlarged photo shows the texture of the skin very clearly. Lovely, and that’s all :)) I’m writing to you, but I’m thinking about where else I could use this wealth :))

This film is glued very easily onto PVA construction adhesive evenly spread over the surface of the box.

For the top cap, a larger size is cut than the cap itself requires. About that much.

Once again admire the texture itself :))

While the glue is not high, we begin to assemble the film, creating artistic folds. It is advisable not to make intersecting lines, but to create air movement.

Once you are satisfied with the movement of the folds, cut off the edges with nail scissors and additionally coat the film with PVA glue along the edges.

Don't worry if the edge is a little uneven. It won’t be visible anyway, since it will be covered by the edge of the side. This is exactly what we will now proceed to :) Cut off a larger edging, taking into account the size of the bend.

We coat the bend with glue and glue it to the film itself.

We glue this strip to the side of the box so that the top edge hangs over the edging. We properly glue this edge to the edge of the artistically twisted canvas.

All that remains is for you to further decorate the box to your taste. I made flowers from the same film using hot glue, which I glued to the top and side surfaces of the box.

You can leave it this way, but I wanted to additionally decorate the box with rhinestones. You will see them a little later, and in the next photo the insides of the box are decorated :))

Since the bottom of the box will be lined with pink fur, I painted the bottom and all the sides inside the box with a slightly different shade of pink. And through a stencil I applied the exact color of the fur so that it would be visible only in reflections. But that is not all:)

Above the box I placed film and Mordan glue, which I will use to apply golden touches. I often use this sweet couple for decoration :)

We outline the outline of the stencil with a mordan.

In this photo you can already see how the Mordan glue applied with the contour dries a little (to the point of tack). And as soon as it dries slightly, I will put a film on top (the golden surface is on top, and the reverse side is towards the Mordan).

Oh, in this photo, which shows how I decorated the bottom part of the box, you can see how bald spots appear on the film after contact with the face :) It is reusable, so it will be enough for you to use it many times.

Today in the “Manuals” section we have a box made of vegetable tanned leather. What happened is hard to call a craft, it’s already a work of art.

Box size 30x20x11 cm. Weight 2 kg 300 g.

I completed the first part Andy1961— the entire artistic part, including sketching, carving, stamping, painting.

Second part for ieho- assembly, gluing, sewing.

Part one.

Materials, chemistry: Vegetable tanned leather, thickness 2.5 mm. Acrylic paints Pebeo. Medium brown Antique leather stain. Finish colorless Kezal.

Tools: Rotary knives with different angles of blade profiles, “jamb” knives, breadboard knives, stamps, slickers, cardins, mallets.

• Before starting to do anything with the leather, I created sketches of the design for the lid of the box and the sides according to the customer's wishes. There were three sketches - a lid 30x20 cm, front and back walls 30x10 cm, end walls 20x10 cm.

• I cut blanks from vegetable tanned leather - 6 pieces. Two - lid, bottom; two - facade, rear; two are sidewalls. I cut with reserve, i.e. plus a couple of centimeters on each side. I use different knives, the main thing is that they are well sharpened.

• I soak the skin and wait until air bubbles stop coming out, take it out and put it on the table, cover it with cling film on top and leave it overnight. In the morning I remove the film and wait until it dries until it’s ready - the color is a little darker, dry and cold to the touch.
• I note that if the skin is thinner than 3mm, then I glue it from the inner side with paper tape so that during work it does not lose its original shape and size due to its elasticity.
• I transfer the design onto the leather using a special film from TandyLeathercraft. This is much more convenient and accurate than from a sheet of paper, and makes it possible not to miss any detail when transferring. You can also use any matte film for printing on printers. I put a film with a pattern on the skin, fix it with pieces of tape and trace it with a thin stylus, pencil or pen.
• Next, I use a rotary knife to cut through the outline and those places in the drawing that will require deeper elaboration in the future. The cutting depth is 30-40% of the skin thickness.

• Using smooth beavers (B201, B200, B935, B197) I pass through the cut parts. It is advisable to move the stamp so that creases and folds do not occur along the cut. The mallet must be struck with equal force. After each blow, the stamp moves no more than half its width.

• I use cardboards to correct the edges of the cut and the finer details of the design.

• Using shaders (P975, P206, P367) and cardins we crush those places that should be deeper. Using lifters (B892, B60) we lift those areas that should be convex. We get the initial volume.

• Next, using cardins, we create the texture of the pattern on the leaves and background.
• Using a mesh beveler B205 I go along the edges to make the drawing more voluminous.
• After that, we use cardboard to finalize everything else.

• The next step is to break through the background. I used mesh backgrounds A98, A104, A105. You can use those stamps that meet your tasks and ideas. There is a complete flight of fancy here.

• After this, we pass the edges of the pattern with mesh beavers (B205, B936, PGF10-02). This allows you to ‘tighten’ the edges of the cut and make the pattern deeper. Let it dry completely. There is nothing complicated. Attentiveness and slowness.

• I will specifically focus on making flowers. I'm doing two things. The order of operations is almost the same - I draw a sketch of a flower and transfer it to the prepared skin. Using a rotating knife, I cut the flower along the contour of the petals.
• Using lifters (B892, B60) we raise those areas that should be convex, and using shaders (P975, P206, P367) and cardins we lower the relief of the petals. We get the initial volume.

• Next, we use bevelers to follow the cuts. Using cardinals we create the texture of the petal.

• We perform 'molding'. To obtain even greater volume, from the inner side we press the skin with cardins and slickers in the required places.

• I repeat these two operations until the desired result is obtained. That is, we press it in from the front side and squeeze it out from the back side.

• When repeating these operations, I also use smooth beavers to make the pattern more prominent. In general, molding occurs (as in the manufacture of a holster for a folding knife), but without a matrix.

• Then, using a thin breadboard knife or scalpel, I cut out the flower and grind the edges inward, at an angle of approximately 45 degrees. If it seems to you that the flower is not embossed enough, repeat all the operations again.

• Next comes painting. To do this, I use regular art brushes from kolinsky or synthetic (more durable) brushes of different numbers and shapes. Acrylic paints for leather Pebeo. First, we paint the background - blue and white (baked milk), then we paint the main drawing with gold according to the sketch.

• I let the paint dry and cover the drawing with a colorless Kezal finishing coat. To apply the finish I use an artist's brush.

• Again I wait for everything to dry and, trying not to get into the drawing, I apply medium brown Antique leather stain to the skin with a sponge.
• I wait for it to dry and then completely cover the entire workpiece with Kezal finishing.

• I don’t glue the flowers at this stage so that they don’t get in the way and get damaged during the subsequent assembly of the box.

Part two.

Materials, chemistry: Vegetable tanned leather, hard thickness 4.5-5.0 mm and 2.5-3.0 mm, crust crazy horst 1.3-1.5 mm. Supercolle neoprene contact adhesive. Medium brown Antique leather stain. Finish colorless Kezal. Threads brown 1.0 mm. Brass fittings - hinges with locking mechanism, mortise lock, legs.

Tools: Various jamb knives, clamps, ruler, groove cutter, end hammer, marking wheel, compass, dremel, sanding blocks, needles, slicker and smoothers, mallets, drills.

• I cut out 6 blanks from a thick (4.5-5.0 mm) rigid plant: a lid, a bottom and four sides. I cut with a margin, focusing approximately on the size of the blanks with drawings.
• I paste blanks with a pattern onto blanks made from thick plants. Supercolle neoprene contact adhesive. I do everything according to the instructions - I smear both parts, wait the allotted time and connect. It’s better to glue with an assistant (although everything was cut off with a margin, but still). After this I roll it with a rolling pin and press it. As a press, two sheets of chipboard and clamps.

• After the glue has dried, I cut out four walls exactly to size (based on the drawing): two 30x10 cm, two 20x10 cm. I also cut out the bottom 30x20 cm. The thickness of the blanks is approximately 7.5-8.0 mm.
• Along the perimeter of the workpieces, using a groove cutter, I cut grooves for the seam. Using a marker with a wheel in 5 mm increments, I mark the holes for the seam. To avoid jambs with the sides not matching the holes, I apply the markings in parallel to the two parts that will be sewn together.
• I will connect the outer sides and bottom of the box end-to-end at an angle of 45 degrees. I find it easier to first drill the holes at a 45 degree angle and only then trim the edge. I drill either with a Dremel or with a Dremel sleeve with an attachment, which I attached to the sharpener (the standard sleeve was not very good, I replaced it, but the engine has speed adjustment from 0 to 10 thousand). Drill diameter 1.5 mm.

• On the sides that will be joined, I cut the edges at an angle of 45 degrees. I don't use any devices. I measure the thickness of the leather, draw a line at the same distance from the edge and, focusing on it and the lower edge, cut off the leather.

• Now on the front wall I mark the place for the mortise lock. Using a scalpel, a Dremel with burs and sandpaper, I select the skin to a depth of half the thickness of the lock. At the same time I mark and make a key hole.

• I glue the box. The gluing technology is the same as above, but I don’t put it under a press. First I glue the perimeter, then I glue the bottom. When everything is dry, I take a thin awl and check the joining of the holes. A little cosmetics: I trim the ribs with sandpaper on a block, lightly moisten it with water and polish it with a smoothing iron, touch up the paint where I removed it with sandpaper and apply a finishing touch.
• Now the whole thing needs to be flashed. I sew with two needles. I follow the order of the needles and control the thread. First I sew the sides. I start from the top, go to the bottom, don’t fasten it - I put the threads inside the box and glue it. Then I stitch the bottom.

• I’m making a part - “inner bottom”))) I measure the internal dimensions of the perimeter of the box. I cut out a rectangle to size (plus extra) from a thick hard plant and the same from a crust crazy horst. I glue them together and cut them exactly to size. After that I glue it “bottom to bottom”))). In general, it turns out to be such a thick sandwich. In general, the total thickness of the bottom and walls turned out to be 15 mm, plus or minus a millimeter.

• Using the same principle (thick plant plus crust crazy horst) I make the inner walls of the front and back sides of the box. But I don’t paste it. I insert them and take measurements for the sides. I'm making the sides.

• On these four parts I mark holes for the firmware. I make markings along the top edge through existing holes on the outer side. On the bottom and sides - with a marking wheel. I'm drilling holes.

• On the part that will be glued to the front wall, I mark a place for a mortise lock. I choose leather to a depth of half the thickness of the lock.

• Now I’m making internal bulkheads into the box. They should be half the height (according to the internal size). I cut out two strips from a hard plant, 3 mm thick, and glue them with crust crazy horst. I make recesses in the center of the strips for joining them. I also mark and drill holes. I flash them right away.

• On four wall parts I cut out recesses for fixing the bulkheads. As planned, the interior space of the box should be divided into four equal compartments. I make markings for the firmware along their perimeter and drill holes.

• On two parts - the side walls, on the inside I mark grooves for the hinge limiter. The hinges must overlap the end and have an L-shaped fastening. I select the recesses for the lid opening limiter in the same way as in the case of the lock.

• I'm starting to install the firmware. First I make decorative seams on the four internal parts. These are those areas that do not go through all four layers, but only along the inner two. I do the same thing on the outer walls - in the areas where the lock and hinges will be installed, as well as where the seam will overlap with the end of the inner wall. Another point is that after stitching I always tap the seam with a hammer. This removes pimples on the skin around the holes, reduces the holes themselves and, as it were, smoothes out the stitches.

• Now step-by-step assembly with firmware along the upper perimeter. For clarity, I will write in more detail:

— I glue the inner part “1” to the wall of the facade, stitch it;
— I insert the transverse partition “B” into the groove of part “1”;
— I glue the inner part “2” to the back wall, stitch it;
— I insert the longitudinal partition “A” into the groove of the transverse partition “B”;
— I glue and stitch the internal parts “3” and “4”.

• I level, smooth and grind the top end - the perimeter of the box. I put thick glass on top (larger than the box), noted the differences, removed it with a Dremel and a sanding block, checked again... checked and repeated many times. Then I stuck a healthy sheet of sandpaper to the table and rubbed it in.
• I used a hammer to remove the edges and lightly polished the end with a board and water. Crust crazy horst, the leather is very soft, but if you take care of the tool - straightening and aligning the cutting edges on the hammers and groove cutters, then there will be no problems.
• I marked the location of the hinges on the end and used a Dremel to select the grooves to the depth of the thickness of the mounting plate.
• I painted the end with a medium brown Antique leather stain and diluted it with water about 1:2. I polished it with a board and a flat trowel “on wet”. After everything had dried, I soaked the end with Kezal colorless finishing agent.

• I installed a lock in the groove on the front side of the box, secured it with holnitens and installed a decorative cover for the key hole. I installed the hinges on the end of the box.

• Finally you can work on the lid. As planned, it should protrude a couple of millimeters beyond the perimeter of the box. Well, so that the thickness is smaller than that of the walls. We decided that 10 mm would be just right. The gluing was made of three layers - top and bottom 2.5 and 3.0 mm, middle 4.5 mm. Size 304x202 mm.
• I cut the lid exactly to size. I walked a little along the ends with a block of sandpaper. I painted the inside with a medium brown Antique leather stain. I cut grooves for the seam, marked and drilled holes.
• I measured and marked the places where the hinges would be installed on the lid, as well as the place where the locking bar with an eyelet for locking the box would be installed. I used a Dremel to select grooves to the depth of the thickness of the fastening plates.
• I remove the edges with a hammer, grind the ends with sandpaper and paint them with a medium brown Antique leather stain.
• I stitched the lid around the perimeter, tapped the seam and polished the end with some water. After that I applied Kezal finishing.

• I install a locking bar with an eye on the lid, then the lid itself on the box. After that I screw the legs.
  Well, it seems like I’ve done everything that depends on me.

Finishing touch.

The last final steps are to stick the flowers in place and apply finishing makeup - tint, grease, comb... In general, this is what we got.

I recently discovered that I have a lot of different medicines and other medical supplies in my house. And I keep them in different boxes, bags, bags. Therefore, I decided to make a spacious container - a first aid kit. Of the several options, I settled on the simplest option, in my opinion - this is a box-box. But the box should be large, roomy and simple in shape. Square or rectangular.

To make a first aid kit, I needed thick and thin cardboard, artificial leather in black and burgundy colors, and glue. I decided that a cardboard shoe box would be quite suitable for the frame of the first aid kit box. Why shoe boxes - because such boxes are made of good thick cardboard. I found such a big box.

But the shoebox needed to be modified a little. The lid was placed on top of the box, and I needed the walls of the box and the walls of the lid to be in the same plane. To do this, I pasted over the walls of the box with one layer of thick thick cardboard on the outside, and the walls of the lid on the inside.

The frame is ready.

Now I start gluing the frame. I cut out parts from black artificial leather with allowances for gluing the frame.

I don’t indicate the dimensions on the pattern, because... they are individual in each specific case. First, I glued a long piece of leather to the front and side walls. I glued the allowances: the top one inside the box, the sides on the back wall, the bottom ones on the bottom.

Next I glued the lid. I turned the seam allowances to the wrong side and glued them to the lid on three sides. I glued a leather overlay to the fourth (back) side. I glued the overlay to the back wall along the gluing line.

I placed the lid with the back wall against the box so that the cover lay inside the box. I glued the back wall and seam allowance. When gluing the outer rear wall, the lid must be closed. Next, with the lid open, I glued the lining from the inside and the bottom from the outside.

I made box inserts for the walls from thin cardboard, covered them with burgundy leather, and glued them inside the box.

I made an inner bottom and an insert for the back of the lid from thin cardboard. I also covered them with burgundy leather and inserted them into the box.

The next step is the spacer inserts. I also cut them out of thick cardboard.

Well, basically the first aid kit is ready. But it turned out to be too boring. It should be decorated. It was decided that some kind of beautiful thematic drawing was needed. I’m not an artist, so I found a picture that suited the occasion on the Internet. I transferred the contours onto tracing paper.

I painted the picture with acrylic paints and contours.

The top of the drawing was covered with two layers of acrylic varnish. Well, the good doctor decorated the lid of the medicine cabinet. Now the first aid kit is completely ready and you can put things in order with the storage of medications.