Bank Holiday Band Box

So, bank holiday weekend and it's cold and raining of course. Staying indoors with the central heating, thank you.

I bought a small bandbox in a charity shop, not a thing of beauty but you will have to take my word for that as I forgot to take a fotie of the unadulterated item. It's been sitting on a shelf staring at me in all its ugliness for a while now, and this weekend seemed the time to get on with it.  

I had intended to cover it in either Graphic 45 or Tim Holz papers but then I realised that it would take 3 sheets to go around the sides (30 inch circumference), and most of the papers I had come in sets of 2 so that would not work. Problem solved when I remembered the world map napkins that I've been shuffling about in my pantry for at least a year. Game on.

Taking it back to bare wood and stripping off the bands and hardware, the covering was canvas backed something or other.

Covering with a layer of gesso

Modpodge and delaminated napkins (you only use 1 layer of napkin, and these were 3 ply so had to be split apart before glueing)

Sorry, didn't take photos of laying on the napkins.  Basically what you do is paint a thick layer of mod podge on the part you want to cover, then carefully lay your layer of napkin on the mod podge  and VERY GENTLY smooth out any big air bubbles.  Leave to set for about 10 minutes then cover with another layer of modpodge. It will look a bit bubbly but will flatten out.  Then leave it to dry. This one is mat mod podged but you could use gloss I expect. There's very little strength in a one ply tissue so you have to be sure about correct placing before you lay the tissue on, and use hardly any pressure to smooth it down.  I made a mistake first time and had to scrape it all off with a knife.  Luckily I realised my mistake before it was dry or I would have been stuck with a wonky map 😮.  It's best to work in smallish sections if the pattern allows but I had to go with large sections because of the map size.

I had  intended to put back the original bands, but they were so obviously plastic and looked rather cheap and tacky so I made new ones from cream coloured leather.  I have a 'book' of different coloured leather sheets (originally from a DFS sofa shop!) so chose a nice cream colour to go with the maps.  Cut into strips and reattached using the original hardwear and strong glue, I think it looks much classier.

Cheap, plastic and tacky

Cream leather cut into 3/4 inch strips

Another thing I did was give the decorative pins and other hardwear a slight going over with some Treasure Gold metalic wax in sapphire colour.  Although I see the lid in the picture says emerald, which must mean I didn't put the right lid on last time I used it 😄.  Anyway, this just gives a very subtle blue tinge to the metal, which I like.

You can see before and after the wax rub, using a cotton bud.

I didn't do anything to the inside of the box.  It is covered in quite inoffensive brown 'velvet' which would have been a pain to rip out and replace. It did need a good hoover and going over with sticky tape though, having suffered a red glitter explosion at some point. It was everywhere.

After hammering the pins back in and replacing the hinges and clasp (note to self, next time take note of where the screw holes are before covering them up!) the job was done.

I Heart...

I bought a five aperture frame in the post xmas sale at M&S outlet store a couple of years ago (cheaper than cheap!) and immediately got inspired to create an 'I love...' piece, based around little polystyrene hearts I got in Hobbycraft, a different themed heart in each box.  It started well, decoupaged old map paper (from 7 gypsies) on one (for travel), music tissue paper on another, paper flowers (nature and wildlife) grungy metal (science and industry)...and then got stuck.  Couldn't think how I could do the night sky/space on a heart.  So it all got stuck away in a box, languishing for want of inspiration.

And then in December I went to Liberty of London and saw some fantastic beaded birds and animals

That's it! !  I covered the heart with stretch netting to represent the fabric of space and time (actually from inside the cushion covers of an old sofa we threw out- recycling at its best), painted it with mod podge and black paint, and then used pins to stivck various glass beads.  I made a telescope out of kebab sticks, rolled paper and jewellery findings, and covered a little plastic rocket with embossed metal tape which turned out a bit Wallace and Gromit, so very cute.

Here are all the frames:

Travel

The background papers are a mix of tim holtz and Graphic 45, and I made the battered suitcase out of foam rubber and strips of leather.  Wish my suitcase looked like that, but it is pristine as it hardly ever comes out of the storage cupboard due to me having married a reluctant traveller!

Science and Industry:

The background to this one is a bit of broken printed circuit board out of a redundant piece of audio equipment my hubby was ditching.  Light bulb is tim holtz ideaology as are die cut and embossed metal cogs.

Night sky/space

Quite proud of that telescope.  I used slightly glittery midnight blue paper behind this one. Hard to see in photo.

Music:

The music box is a die cast pencil sharpener (car boot), and the little dancer is from Prima.

And finally Nature and Wildlife:

Little plastic elephant and a cigarette card I got from car boot sale.  The butterflies are cut from Graphic45 Old Curiosity Shop and paper flowers are a mix, don't know makers.

Each frame has a related tim holtz ideaology word band attached.

Here's the whole thing

 

and some of the details

It took a while, but I really like it now it is finished.