Lay Flat Boxes for Ephemera Storage
Ok, I admit it, I could be better organized. I’ve tried to be better organized! But I always have to try things out and see how they work for me – and believe me, not every solution is a home run for me. I know this because I’ve abandoned plenty of really great organizing ideas because they just didn’t work for me.
Whether they didn’t do what I needed them to do, or I just couldn’t get into the habit of using some organizational trick, I’ve tried a few methods for storing my small fussy cut bits of ephemera. I thought I found a good solution with the first lay flat box I made, and it really did pretty good for the larger bits of ephemera, but for the really small ones, or for things I had cut out of books with thin pages, I found that some things would fallout. Definitely not the way I wanted to stay organized!
But then I came across this amazing tutorial for a Chinese Thread book (Zhen Xian Bao), and well, now I think I’ve found something that will work!
Part 1 – Making the small box
In Part 1 of my tutorial, I’ve created a small square box to keep things like dictionary cutouts and small words and phrases. I’ve added a closure that helps keep the box closed while sitting in my larger ephemera holder journal. Interestingly enough, my first ephemera holder didn’t work out the way I wanted it to either, and you can see how I reworked the whole thing into a journal which I LOVE, right here.
For this smaller box, I used scrapbook paper that was only printed on one side, and I show you an easy technique to print on the blank side which I think really helps the overall look. If you’ve followed me for any amount of time, you know how I don’t like a bright white page staring at me in any journal I’ve made!
Part 2 – Making the large box
The larger box is a whole different tutorial and I like that I can put larger pieces in this one. I’ll show you how I added a twine wrap type closure to keep it closed and because of that, I definitely don’t have any worries about this one opening up and spilling the contents!
I also use scrapbook paper for this box, and I think I might love adding this style to a journal to act as a little hidden spot for ephemera!
I hope you enjoy my version of these fun lay flat boxes to use for your ephemera too!
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