Explosion Box

Here is a cute idea for the special people on your Christmas list this year. It is called an explosion box. It is a cute box on the outside and when you remove the lid, it explodes into an album! Decorate it with special photos and give it to Grandma! There are 21 places to add photos or journal. You can even put a gift inside. These are easy to make and can be personalized for every occasion. This is a girly one I made with TAC's "Pop Rockz" paper. The stamps I used on the inside were "Circle Sampler" and "Punctuation" from TAC. The "P is for Princess" is a Gift With Purchase stamp. These are really fun to make. Here's how!

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Start with 4 - 12x12 sheets of cardstock.

1. The first 12x12 sheet will be your outside of the box. Score 4" from each side to create 9 equal squares.

2. Trim the 2nd sheet to a 11 5/8" square. Score it 3 7/8" from each side.

3. Trim the 3rd sheet to a 11 1/4" square. Score it 3 3/4" from each side.

4. The forth sheet will be the lid. Trim it to 8x8". Score it 1 15/16" from each side and set aside.

5. Cut out the corner squares from the 1st 3 sheets.

6. Fold the cardstock up at the score lines.

7. Decorate the pages now or you can do that later if you prefer. * **

8. Adhere the sheets together by putting permanent adhesive in the center squares only.

9. To make the lid you will need to cut along every other score line to make flaps. The easiest way to do this is hold your paper up, look at the score line on the right and cut it just to where the score lines cross. Then rotate your paper and do the same on all sides.

10. Fold at the score lines and adhere the flap you created to the inside of the lid.

11. Embellish and Enjoy!!!

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*I use the scraps from cutting off the corners of the cardstock to decorate the inside.

**Make sure if you decorate before you assemble that you don't put anything over the score lines (which will make it difficult to fold) or in the center of the middle sheets (which will not show.)