Book Box no.1 -The Tell-Tale Heart

Book boxes. I kept picking them up at my local craft store and wondering what the heck I could do with them. I love books, but the boxes aren't particularly well-made or pretty on their own. Staining them, as for a jewelry box, would not elevate them very much, as the wood is just not of a very high quality. And yet, they called to me. So I did what any good craft supply hoarder would do. I bought one. It sat around for a while. I'd pick it up, turn it over, slide the tray out, and then put it away again. It wasn't until I was playing with resin one day that I realized what I wanted to do with it.

"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe
Not the first tale one thinks of relating to Valentine's Day, but it does include hearts! This box was specifically made for a pair of my friends who have a Steampunk themed room. I "heart" them, so I gave them a heart.

I printed a suitable section of story and an unrelated quote that pertained to Valentine's Day on my inkjet printer. I didn't foresee that this might lead to a bleeding image when decoupaged, but I went with it when that cropped up. Originally, I was going to put a paper texture on the book edges, but I wound up using a light wash of paint to play up the wood grain as paper edges.

The resin heart was made using a two-part mix from the hobby store. I mixed in some glass stain to get the color, poured it into an Ikea heart shaped ice mold, and added some watch parts at various points in the setting process. After decoupaging the base text, I glued in the heart with E-6000. This stuff is almost akin to epoxy.

I used 3-4 shades of brown craft paint applied with a sea sponge in layers to get a suede-like finish on the outside.

Finally, I selected a font I liked, printed out the title, and used it as a reference to do the lettering on the spine in copper metallic craft paint.


Things to Remember:

• Inkjet printouts will run when decoupaged without prior prep.
• Be prepared to deal with some wiggle room when laying in the text background. No two book boxes are sized alike. And many of them are slightly askew.
• Careful careful careful when deciding how the box will open. Make note of this on the box and the "spine".

Unfortunately, I did not take very many pictures in process. I promise to do a better job of documenting in the future!