Ten Two Studios

To make your matchbox book, you’ll need:

• From Ten Two Studios, a matchbox book sheet. For my sample, I used the Leonardo’s Matchbox Book sheet.

• A matchbox, also available from Ten Two Studios, at the link above.
• A scrap of cardstock.
• A glue stick.
• Acrylic paints to match, if you wish.

Remove the tray from the matchbox, and paint it to match your sheet if you wish. Set it aside to dry.

At the left side of the sheet are the pieces required to decorate the matchbox and tray. Start by cutting out the wrapper, which has an image already positioned on a background.

Apply glue to the back of the wrapper piece, and centering the image on one large side of the matchbox sleeve, cover it completely, overlapping edges on a short side.

Trim away any excess wrapper from the top and bottom of the matchbox sleeve.

There’s an extra large image on the sheet, which you can use on the front of the matchbox sleeve if you wish. Just cut it out…

…and glue it over the wrapper image, covering it completely. (If you like the image that’s printed on the wrapper, just skip this step.)

There are a handful of long, narrow side labels included on the sheet. Cut out the two you’d like to use, and glue them to the sides of the sleeve. Trim away any excess at the top and bottom edges.

The printed rectangle is the tray liner. Just cut it out, and glue it to the interior of the tray.

Cut out the back label, and glue it to the back of the sleeve. Slide the tray into the sleeve, and set the box aside for the moment.

Now, let’s work on the book. Start with the cover, which is a piece with two register marks at each corner. Cut this piece out, and use the marks as guides to fold a narrow piece at either side.

Unfold, and use the other set of marks to fold a narrow piece at the top and bottom.

Trim away a tiny diagonal section at each corner of the cover.

Use the guide piece provided to trace two pieces on cardstock. Cut them out.

Using the folds as guides, glue the two cardstock pieces inside the cover. These will make the book a little more rigid.

Apply glue to the narrow folded sections, and press them down over the cardstock.

Fold the cover in half at the spine, between the two cardstock pieces.

Cut out the long strip of pages. It has guide pieces along each long side, which you can leave attached for now, or trim away if you feel confident in your folding abilities.

Starting at one sort edge, fold up on the first set of guidelines, matching the cut edge to the second set, creating matching facing pages.

Continue folding pages upward in an accordion, making sets of matching, facing pages.

If you left the guides in place for folding, now’s the time to trim them away.

Apply glue to the back side of the page strip/

Press pages together back to back, leaving the two end pages loose, to create the pages of the book.

Apply glue to the two end flaps of the pages.

Press the page block between the covers, pushing it agains the spine.

Use the remaining small images and words to decorate the cover of the book…

…and the interior pages as you wish. You might also use some of the words to decorate the front of the matchbox.

Place the finished book in the tray section of the matchbox…

…and slide the sleeve over it.

Don’t forget to sign and date your work, on the back label!