And now for something completely different! The Firefly Case!

Serenity

Here's a little something I threw together in one afternoon for a friend. He had a bunch of shiny new computer parts, but needed a shiny new case. Unfortunately all we had was a beat up older case. In its original form, the case was pretty cool, but kind of bland.

Spray paint to the rescue!
I primed the gutted case with a flat gray spray paint and then used a combination of bronze and aged bronze paints to get the weathered look I wanted. I removed the plexi side panel to keep it pristine and masked off the leds and face panels.

Using removable contact paper I created a stencil of the characters on the side of Serenity from the show Firefly. (Which is a brilliant show. If you haven't seen it, please give it a whirl.)

Being careful to avoid distortion, I applied the giant sticker stencil to the plexi, and then I sprayed the plexi with a "frosted" paint.

Put the pieces back together and we had a shiny new case!

And the plexi side nicely shows off the lovely inner workings of Serenity.

Things to remember:
Rome wasn't built in a day, but, with enough caffeine, Serenity could be.

Book Box no.7 - A Game of Thrones

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

I must admit, I'm a bit late to the A Song of Ice and Fire party. I've been told many times I would love the books, but I always seemed to pick up something else to read. HBO has me hooked on the story now, and it won't be long before I've devoured each volume of the books. Our house is now filled with George R. R. Martin fans, so I decided it was high time to make a book box for us! Focusing on the first volume, A Game of Thrones, I jumped in with a Stark family dire wolf theme.

I wanted to create a wolf print in snow, so I started by adding the base ground. Using dried tea leaves as dirt and green flock, I created a nice approximation of earth. I added in some finely cut bits of silk floral leaves for grass blades.


Next, I made a mixture of baking soda and elmer's glue for snow, leaving most of the paw uncovered. After the initial paste dried, I went back over all of the snow and area of the paw with a thin layer of glue. On top of this, I poured baking soda, shaking to spread, and pouring out excess. I also had to touch up some of the snow on top of the "earth" with white paint, as the tea leaves ended up staining some of the glue yellow.

I decided to include the family words, "Winter is coming" on a curled ribbon of paper, as if it had been sent via raven. I hand wrote the calligraphy and tea stained the paper. I glued the slip into the box and glued areas of overlap to reinforce the curl.

The outside was painted in progressively lighter shades of gray - the lightest being white - using a sponge, and the page edges were painted in a very bright platinum. Over the page edges, I used a wash of white paint to dull portions of the metallic paint and simulate frost.

Finally, I used dark gray and white to create "cracks" for the front and back images as well as the title on the spine.

Done!

Things to remember:

• Why buy expensive modeling snow mixture? Make it out of baking soda.
• Dried tea leaves do look like dirt, but any media put on top may absorb the color and become tea stained.
  

Book Box No.6 - The Diary of a Young Girl

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

My niece is in love with history. She loves it all - the good... and the bad. She has an unflinching passion for seeking out the events that shaped our world. The holocaust is one of those events, I must confess, that I can not delve into too deeply. I know my history. I honor those who witnessed and endured such horrors, but I do not have the will to study such times. So, I am very proud of my niece, who does. I knew that I needed to make a piece based on the diary of Anne Frank, and I wanted it to carry the great respect I have for Anne Frank's words.
I knew no one would appreciate the box more than Catherine, so I made it for her.

The concept for the box actually came to me before the title. I decided to make a box with walls that opened out. The resulting space, I realized would be a very claustrophobic one, which reminded me of the confines Anne resided in with her family while in hiding.

First, I planned out the box. Knowing this particular box would be somewhat of a puzzle to fit together, I sketched out the design and used paper templates to determine the fit of the "doors".
After much planning, I cut the doors out of balsa wood. The box and doors were painted with several coats of antique white paint. I then affixed miniature hinges (as for dollhouses) from the local hobby store to the box and doors with a combination of industrial glue and tiny nails that were included.

Balsa strips were used to maintain the proper distance between layers. A simple brass brad was used to keep the doors/walls upright.

The first doors were painted with stripes reminiscent of the striped uniforms of work camp prisoners.

A second layer, a dark wash, was used to illustrate the row of buildings which included the one Anne in which was housed. I wanted to emphasize that outside of the walls of her sanctuary things were bleak and dangerous.


On the last door, I painted a bookcase. It is a direct reference to the bookcase that hid the doorway to the secret hiding place. I glued black ribbons on either side of the bookcase to aid in lifting the last layer.


Lastly, the room itself was painted in warm tones, as it was her home, albeit for a short time, and a place of safety. The floor was painted in several washes of browns and then was painted with darker lines for texture. I included quotes on the walls, and later glued some small pieces of paper with quotes on the floor.


The outside of the box was painted as a faithful representation of her original diary using cream, red, and tan paints.


This project was undertaken with great love and respect for the subject matter. It weighed on my heart until I could complete it.

Book Box No.5 - Dracula

Dracula by Bram Stoker

My friend, Kitty Korvette, is helming a benefit this month, and when she put out the call for donations to the silent auction, I knew I had to send a few things. Kitty told me that the benefit would be held at Elysium in Austin, and that all things spooky were welcome. I figured that it was time to delve into the Dracula themed box for a good cause!

I started with the outside for this box, and, in a departure from previous boxes, I decided to make the edges look like silver gilded pages and the inside of the box black. I cut out a bat inspired stencil for the front and back covers and a small detail stencil for the corner pieces. Using several shades of grey, I sponge painted over the stencils.

Afterward, I added detail lines with a subdued metal and a bright silver. I used a dark wash of black paint (diluted with flow improver) over the entire outside to tone down the textured look. I also used the wash over the "gilded pages" to play up the grain and emphasize the "paper" edges.

Moving on to the interior, I cut a piece of cardboard the same size as the inside of the box. I covered the cardboard with an upholstery remnant and the glued it into the box as the background layer. Next, I printed out several passages from the Dracula text in various fonts, as if they were clippings. I also cut the corner from a folder to go on top of the clippings in order to stage a spilled folio.

Once I figured out the arrangement I wanted, I stained the clippings with tea. I was going for an aged look.

While waiting for the clippings to dry, I tested out the resin with various tints made with glass staining paint. In the end, none of these alone was enough to simulate spilled blood, and I would have to go over the resin, once dry, with straight red stain.


When I added resin to the box, I made sure to have some droplets on the upholstery as well as the papers.

With the inside complete, I moved on to the spine of the box. I chose a rather detailed font as a guide, but I had to adapt it somewhat to fit in the narrow confines of the spine.

Done!

Things to remember:

• Flow improver for acrylics works wonderfully to create a wash with consistent color
  

Book Box No.4 - Hansel and Gretel

***This box does NOT have a home yet. If you would like to purchase it, please check out my listing on Etsy.com. Thanks!***

Hansel and Gretel - recorded by The Brothers Grim

This particular box was inspired by a font. When I was picking a font for The Little Mermaid box, the font for *this* project just seemed so very gingerbread and icing.

I sealed the image in clear coat spray, and then I decoupaged it into the box on top of the portion of text I previously selected.

Using a silicone ice cube tray as a mold, I made a resin skull with candy embedded. The skull was then glued into the box using industrial glue. I used dimensional paint to simulate royal icing. The outside of the box was painted in three different shades of brown to resemble ginger bread.

Here is the gorgeous font I selected. So pretty! And kinda evil to freehand.

After painting the font and lines on the spine, I still wasn't satisfied with the finished look. It just seemed a little plain.
So, I decided to craft a suitably creepy looking scherenschnitte inspired stencil. After going over the stencil with a slightly darker brown, I was finally pleased with the end product.

Done!

Things to remember:

• Don't like how it's turning out? Set it aside. Don't stress. Daydream. Then go back to it with fresh eyes and ideas.
• Dimensional paint will shrink. Be prepared to reapply.
• When gluing a heavy item into/onto a project, allow it to set overnight or be prepared to deal with shifting.
  

Book Box No.3 - The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

My friend Asia is a multifaceted lady. She's a model, an artist, a mom, and a military spouse. Being a military spouse, she is no stranger to sudden separations from her husband for unpredictable amounts of time. Her favorite book, understandably, is the Time Traveler's Wife. It is a very moving account of an unusual relationship between two people. One, Clare, travels a normal course through time. The other, Henry, has fits of time travel due to a genetic disorder. He has no control over the travel, and it is very perilous.

Because this box was to be for Asia, I wanted to focus on Clare's experience. The quote seemed to choose itself. I knew I wanted to incorporate birds into the box, as they are a recurring theme for Clare. I also wanted to convey the sense of connection the two characters have throughout the book despite geographic, temporal, and, sometimes, communication distances.

My initial idea was to use red map pins, representative of Henry and Clare, and stretch a rubber band between them, thus creating a very physical representation of their bond. The time travel would be represented by stretching the rubber band between black map pins at random points. Good idea right? Ahh...the best laid plans....

I test painted a wooden heart to figure out the color scheme. I wanted to keep the palette close to the one on the predominant book cover - a sea foam blue/green. However, I know that Asia's decor leans more to the Goth side with red, grays, and black. I decided to play down the blue with silver in the hopes that it would tie in with the gray well. I also cut out a stencil to use when applying the silver. I figured an hour glass was appropriate.

I laid in the bottom text background consisting of the years in which Henry time travels.

Using my antique white paint and sea sponge, I muted the dates, and afterward I applied the quote on top using Mod Podge.

Holy cow. That is BLUE.
I won't lie.
A bit of panic was creeping up on me regarding the color.

Several layers of gray, blue, and metallic blue later, I was much more satisfied with the look.

Over the final finish, I applied the silver using the stencils and silver paint. I lightly went over some areas left untouched because of the stencil to tone down the blue even more.

After gluing in the map pins, I mixed up and poured the first layer of resin. The plans was to let one layer set, and then put in the rubber band and birds followed by another layer of resin to keep everything in place.

Alas. The rubber band proved too strong and pulled the map pins out of their resting spaces despite industrial glue and one layer of resin holding them in place. Talk about a strong bond!
In addition to thwarting my composition plans, the rubber band left a transfer of ink. The line was actually quite delicate, and, once I threw my initial tantrum, I liked it.

Here is an illustration of what was supposed to happen:

After playing a bit with string, I decided to reinforce the line with a stronger one of glass stain.

Last, but not least, the title.

First in silver

Followed by metallic blue

And there it is!

Things to remember:

• Rubber bands are really strong

• Don't worry. Keep painting.