Hello! It’s Meghann Andrew here, and recently one of my desk drawers has become FULL of ephemera from my family’s recent travels—business cards, menus, tickets and brochures filled the desk. What was also in my desk was a Union Jack Montezuma chocolate box from the U.K. that I received from a friend, which I stored some of my U.K. ephemera in. Once my drawer was so full that I couldn’t close it anymore, I knewI had to do something, and decided to make the chocolate box a mini album to store photos and ephemera from our last trip to the U.K. in 2017.

Supplies: Patterned paper, stamps, die-cuts, digital journaling labels, journaling tags, puffy stickers, cardstock stickers, chipboard stickers, wood veneer:  Elle’s Studio;

Patterned paper, die-cuts, rubber sticker: Pinkfresh Studio; Binder mechanism: Tim Holtz; Page protectors: Becky Higgins; Cardstock: Bazzill; Ink: Stampin’ Up!

I started by cutting the top and bottom sides of the box off with an X-Acto knife along the joints, to open up the sides. I wanted my album to be a rectangle, not a square, so I kept both edges of the right side, the base and the flap that closed off the box. To make them ridged instead of folding over each other, I glued chipboard to the inside of the cover and covered it with lined patterned paper. This also covered up the raw edge from cutting off the box sides. The album now measured 6” x  7-1/4”. To cover up the chocolate manufacturer’s logo, I added a red, blank label and added “UK 2017” for my title.

I found a small binder mechanism at my local art store to add to the inside of my up-cycled album, and it’s 5” length fit perfectly! My lined paper created the perfect neutral pattern for the inside cover and I took my color scheme, dark blue, red and teal, from the swirl motif from the inside of the original chocolate box, and which you can still see around the binder.

Inside, I made my pages 5” x 6-3/8” by using 6” x 6” patterned papers, topping them with a different pattern at the inside to extend its length, created with a 2” x 5” pattern folded in half and adhered to the page. I also added single 4” x 6” photos and adhered journaling cards to the back to add more journaling, and to make them more ridged for turning the pages.

Each page included the stamped date—month and day, a printed journaling label with the typed story from that day, as well as a few simple embellishments. This album was all about the photos, stories, and ephemera, so not much embellishment was needed.

The point of this album was to remember what we did each day on our trip—where we went, and the friends and family we spent time with. Because we go to the U.K. every year, the things that we do seem to blend together over the years, and it is great to have a record of each individual trip.

The ephemera pieces that I collected from our travels were stored in 4” x 4” Project Life page protectors next to the day that it corresponded to. Tickets, maps, and brochures, as well as a tag from a piece of clothing, purchased at my favorite shop, all told more pieces of the story.

I couldn’t forget to document some of my favorite British treats, and I even added a business card from our favorite pub that we ate at on the trip. I’m already looking forward to my cream tea in 2018!

Even if the brochure that I wanted to include was too large for the album, I cut it into a more manageable size and hole-punched it, adding it directly to the album. The informational brochure for this large, Victorian home we toured was added directly behind this page from the day.

There are so many details included in this album that I would have forgotten otherwise—like how terrified my daughter was of the robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex at the Natural History Museum in London.

My album turned out to be the perfect thickness for its spine, 1-3/4”, and it is filled with cherished memories from our trip. I was so happy to up-cycle this beautiful box to create my album—I guess you really never know what you’re going to get from a box of chocolates!

Thanks for stopping by the SCT blog today! What items do you have in your desk drawers that you can use for your memory keeping?

~ Meghann Andrew

Want to know more about Meghann and where she looks for inspiration?

Be sure to visit her profile HERE!