Making the Nautilus box, Part 1 - Preparations

[wiseheart]

My maritime-themed explosion box - meant as a gift for our science teacher - is almost done. Only the lid is left, but the majority of the work is finished. I've worked on it for almost two months, and there were so many individual tasks to do that I thought I'd write up what I've done with it.

Part 1 - Preparations

Firstly, I selected the fitting cardboard pieces for the basic layers:
- a lovely, wave-patterned dark green and black one for the outer layer,
- a plain grey one for the middle layer, as it was supposed to be painted and applicated over with decorations;
- and a deep blue corrugated paper for the inner layer.

Then I selected the other papers, meant for decoration:
- maritime-patterned origami paper for the bottom of each layer as well as for the sides of the middle layer - 3 different patterns;
- gold-coloured cardboard (actually pieces of a chocolate box) for making the frame of the round windows of the outer layer;
- left-over cardboard pieces in plain grey and light blue that I cut away when making the basic boxes;
- lots and lots of cellophane for the various windows (I have 12 windows on the dratted box!);
- 2-coloured (blue and turquoise) and vintage-patterned (brown and ochre) cardboard pieces for the opening flaps in the inside of the ouoter layer.

Then I selected the decorative elements:
- acrylic stones to represent the doorknobs and the rivets around the round windows;
- foam stickers, in the shape of sea creatures;
- printed out lots of pencil drawings from the Internet (also sea creatures and ships and stuff) and hand-colured them with pencils and felt-tip pens.

Then I collected the necessary tools and other useful stuff:
- a pair of compasses;
- a cutter;
- a metal ruler;
- scissors in various sizes and forms;
- wet glue, double-sized sticky tapes, both the transparent and the foam ones, in various breadths;
- acrylic paint in 3 different colours, various paintbrushes and stamping utensils.

And finally I cut out the basic boxes:
- outer layer: 8x8 cm sides;
- middle layer: 7.5x7.5 cm sides;
- middle layer: 7x7 cm sides.
Little did I know back then that I should have left more difference between the individual layers when I wanted to work with foam tape and foam stickers!


Tomorrow I'll record the making of the outer layer, with pictures, I promise!

Oh, and I made some more Easter felt stuff:

Comments

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

They are all gorgeous.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)
I've made some more in the meantime. New pics will be posted or linked, soon.