A BOX OF DELIGHTS
Recently I decided to make a gift for my artist friend Caroline on the ArtKula forum, who continually inspires me with her fabulous art, her encouragement and her wonderful sense of humour and fun. I had several tiny gifts I wanted to send her, which were trivial and amusing and which I thought would make her laugh. Rather than just popping them in an envelope, I decided to make a pretty box for them, and one thing led to another and I also ended up making a small sketchbook for her (details in a separate post).
The original plan
I spent ages making mock-ups of a really fun exploding box which I’d seen posted by numerous people on Pinterest. When you lift the lid on this box, it turns itself inside out as it jumps off the table, and settles down with the little gift on top, which you had previously stuck to the bottom inside the box. I could not get this to explode properly and to sit correctly on the table. My hubby gave me his input and we tried a few different things, all without success. I don’t know how people managed to do this, or whether perhaps the short videos were AI generated? Anyway I got thoroughly demoralised about all this and eventually gave up completely. I took my mock-up and covered all surfaces with pretty papers and made it into a regular explosion box which looks normal until you lift the lid, and then the sides fall outwards till the whole thing ends up flat.
The final design
Once I got going with the rethink, it all went very smoothly. This wasn’t the first explosion box I had made – many years ago I made several as gifts, and they were all very well received. This was a relatively simple one.
The outside of the box
The outside of the box is covered with some of my favourite gift wrapping paper which has touches of gold. I covered all the edges of the box with gold washi tape – the full roll ran out with a couple of inches to spare as I finished!!
Again, the green fabric trim with tassels was just long enough to go round the lid of the box. This scrap has been in my stash for ages and it was perfect for this project.
I used a piece of brown paper with gold foil stars on it to cover the bottom. It also covers the satin ribbon which is glued onto the bottom of the box.
Inside the box
Here is the box duly exploded after the lid was removed. The inside is lined with some gorgeous textured wallpaper with gold – I bought this roll of wallpaper on a recent shopping expedition and I know it is going to appear in a lot of projects!
I also made her a little card which just fits inside the bottom of the box, which I will show at the end of this post.
Here is the box showing the inside of the lid.
I found a piece of plain white tissue paper and scrumpled it up and then laid it out reasonably flat. I spattered tea onto it, and when this was dry, I spattered some Payne’s Grey water – I made this up in a jar, putting a small amount of acrylic paint in the jar and topping it up with water and mixing it well. This solution is quite strong and I can dilute it for a more subtle shade if I want, and it can also be sprayed.
I think it makes the paper a lot more interesting with the irregular spattering. It is intriguing how a dark line has formed around the tea spatters as they dried.
The little gifts
I scrumpled up the paper, and as I did so, I inserted the four little gifts into the folds. Each was wrapped with recycled gift wrap and tied with ribbons. (I had to use recycled wrapping paper, didn’t I… had to maintain my reputation as the Recycling Queen lol!)
The card
Here is the small card I made for her. It is based on an Islamic design in the Arabesque style – something I have been pursuing of late. I put it in a plain white envelope that I made to fit the card, adding one of Luise Heinzl’s butterflies as an embellishment.
I know now that my Box of Delights has really delighted my friend! She sent me a truly wonderful message of thanks. She gives so much with her art and I wanted to say thank you for all the joy she brings.
To get the full effect of the ASMR-like audio in the following video, use headphones.
