Altered Cigar Box

I've been working on this cigar box for a few days now. It's still not quite finished, but I was anxious to put it on my blog! This box had a very nice varnished finish, and I didn't really want to completely cover it, so I chose a paper that went well with the varnish color, and cut it a tiny bit smaller than each panel.


This is the top. The corners are Dresden trim, and the medallion is made with Spellbinders Labels Eight and Decorative Labels Eight. The paper is Gold Mirror Card, and Core'dinations Pearl in a pale gold shade. The very center layer of the medallion is the smallest oval from the Spellbinders Floral Oval Set. The center fllower was stenciled on using Delicata Golden Glitz, then I added pearls as accents.


This is the front of the box. After I decorated the top, the sides looked kind of plain, so I added Dresden trim to them. I am going to try little medallions of some kind in the center to see whether or not they add to the box, and whether I should only add one to the front, or some to each side as well.


I divided the inside of the box using basswood, and since it is quite deep, I added two layers. This is the top layer. It's one inch deep.


This is the bottom layer, which is one and a half inches deep. I did this layer first, and it isn't quite as neat as the top layer. I only have a small utility knife to cut it with, and the basswood is 3/32 thick, so it's kind of hard to cut. The top edges of both layers are colored by rubbing Memento Bamboo Leaves over them, then I covered all the exposed sides of each layer with this pretty CS.

I'm still trying to figure out what to use over it for Varnish. Water based varnish and Mod Podge aren't good around here. We have so much fog that they tend to ripple after a while, but I don't really want to darken it with regular varnish. I may try spraying it with Krylon and see what happens. I've got to find out whether or not the Krylon will react with the pearls or the dresden trim first though.

Photos of the finished box are here.