My Journey-My First Large, Handmade Book Order - Pt. 3
As I stated in part 1 of this series, I wanted to produce my own box to house the two journals. I really liked the idea of a matchbook style box. I like the idea of the recipient sliding the cover off and revealing the contents. So, I set out to create my template the box.
Could I have searched the internet or my design software for premade box? Yes, I could have. But, I knew that anything I purchased would need to be reworked to fit my journals and I felt it would be just as fast to just do it myself. Plus, I wanted the dimensions to perfectly fit the content and the tabs to mostly hidden inside the box flaps.
I sketched out my design using Adobe Illustrator ®. It works directly with my Silhouette Cameo ® through their software called Silhouette Connect. Therefore, anything I design in Illustrator, is able to be sent directly to the machine. Of course, before I started cutting it with my Cameo, I printing the design out on paper first and hand cut the design until it was perfect.
Once my design was finalized, I cut down my press sheets of card stock to fit my 12 x 24 mat. Then, I just let the machine do the work for me. I was able to fit two box bottoms per sheet but that did mean a lot of loading and reloading of the machine. Fortunately, I own two mats this size, so I was able to alternate between cuts. It was well worth it to get the look I wanted. Once the boxes were cut, I scored, folded and glued each tray, using double sided adhesive.
After the box bottoms, or trays were done, I worked on the sleeve wrapper. Once again, I made a paper mockup first and then loaded the design into Illustrator and got to cutting. I added a diagonal cut to the top left and bottom right corners of the sleeve. This was to house a personalized, postcard size card that held message for each recipient and also included their name.
That’s it! This was a really fun project. I got to flex my creative muscles and work with my hands to produce something I was proud of. And it was the perfect balance of computer and handmade elements; my favorite type of project. If you have any questions about anything discussed in any parts of the project, just leave a comment below. And if you are not already, sign up for my email list, so you can be the first know when I post new projects to my blog.
Happy Book Binding!
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