Accordion Album Box

• To create an accordion album box, adapted from a project from Better Homes and Gardens magazine, start with a plain, square-shaped papier maché box, available at craft supply stores in sizes ranging from about 4 inches to 9 inches square. Collect the photographs you want to use---you may need to re-size them, depending on the size of the box. Each photograph needs to be slightly smaller than the box. Use photo-editing software or have them re-sized at a lab.
  
  Decorate your box using craft paints and any other embellishments you like. To give your box an antique look, use crackle medium and apply it over the paint. Other surface decorating options include stickers, bits of paper, mesh and antique buttons. Attach a small photograph to the top of the box, and create a frame for it out of card stock to glue on top of the image.
  
  The finished box will open as an accordion-style album. To make the album's pages, use card stock in a color that coordinates with your box. Trim the card stock into oblong pieces slightly narrower than the width of the box. Fold each piece of card stock into a zigzag pattern to create a series of square pages that expand and contract like an accordion. Create more pages by attaching the folded pieces of card stock with glue, overlapping the end pages.
  
  Adorn the pages with your photographs and words. A gel pen is ideal for writing your words, particularly with dark-colored card stock. Attach the last page of the accordion to the bottom of the box and the first page to the inside of the box cover.
  
  

Hinged Frame Box

• To make a box to hold standard 4-by-6-inch photographs, as seen in Martha Stewart Living magazine, purchase two unpainted 5-by-7-inch wood frames. Remove the glass and cardboard backing from the frames. Select a photograph to use as the cover image for your box. Paint the frames in a color that coordinates with your cover photograph. Attach the two frames, back to back, with small hinges, creating a box.
  
  Take the cardboard backing that came with the frames, and use it as a pattern to cut two pieces of thin cork sheeting. Place your cover image inside the top frame and secure it in place with the cardboard backing and hardware that came with the frame. Install the second piece of cardboard backing into the bottom frame. Line the inside top and bottom of the box with the cork, using double-sided carpet tape to secure.