Charlotte writes things ...: box of delights

YAY! nearly done - and it didnt take me all that long - great it means i didnt get a chance to get bored and 'forget' about it. so the following a wee picture essay on the development

firstly, decided to paint the outside green (as mentioned) as i wanted to paint a football on the front. now, the last one i did i used a wide bruch for the background colour, but wished i had had a roller - TADAAA! mini roller (1.95€) and i mixed the green. this can cuase problems if you runout as you will NEVER match the colour. so make sure you mix enough.

for the last box i made i freestyled the teddy bear (that was the cover image on the last one) but footballs are surprisingly harder! so i downloaded a b/w image and traced on baking paper (much cheaper and JUST as effective as tracing paper) and then painted in. easy as pie. the lettering i freestyled though.

as there were no compartments to decorate like the last time - i decided to add a few images inside the box - i chose boyish themes - well transport, i hate to be quite so predictable but there you are. so i plunked for a locomotive and a plane. both of whom i made stensils for as i wanted to see if i could paint them that way. same trick as with the football - baking paper, then made the stensils out of normal paper (good for one careful use only) i had to make 4 layers for the train - here are the results of the first two layers.

the finished result - inside!! inside lid - plane (stensilled) and small wooden beads in the shape of cars, butterflies and dragon flies) i then hand wrote the list of my firsts - trip to tivoli, football match, campingtrip with grandma and grandpa (Mads' maternal grandoldies are avid caravanners) and finally first ROW ROW ROW YOUR BOAT. this will only makes sense to Mads' mum so no point going into it here. the inside bottom has the train, more wooden beads - this time of teddies, and then a tiny eiffel tower!

outside - the finished football, MADS in large lettters on to and front edge. then around the other three edges i had made another stencil of AbC. on the front and two side lid edges i have stuck more wooden beads (hears, flowers and teddies) this is helpful for grip when opening.

inside bottom detail

the 'bits' - booklets for first song and words (the words one has an additional line for 'translation' as i recently learned from my niece that cheese is in fact called SHYI - no-one knows why but that is what its called in the entire extended family now). the boxes are first birthday (heart shape with wooden teddy bead on front) first holiday - green oval xeample below, first JUL! milk teeth (i want to add some fabric or a little pouch inside. and another random box as you know it might come in handy (see below)

random box - with mini wooden car - i painted road markings on the box too. even if its not used its rather cool and i might just steal this idea for something else.

first holiday box - lots of mini travel related stickers round the edge. green for the globe. next time i will use a round one and try to paint the world map on the top as i think that would look cool

first steps (thanks C) this one is entirely made of card. it wasnt actually too fiddly, but involvedme getting wasted on superglue! excellent! i used three bits of card -its actual size is 3-4 cm in length. then i used a fine point calligraphy pen for the writing.