Make your own treasure chest

This week I made a small treasure chest, a little wooden trunk, using some paper and boxes that I had at home.

This is a treasure box to be found at the end of a scavenger hunt, to contain a gift for a friend, a prize for a tournament winner, and can be many many othe things…

Making papier maché with 30 childrennot easy, but with fewer of them, it would be surely fun to see who creates the most beautiful or original trunk. 🙂

Happy crafting!

You will need:

a box

construction paper, cardboard, newspaper

toilet paper, flour, water, white glue

acrilyc paint

black permanent marker, shissors, tape

1) To make the chest’s lid, use the construction paper. Make measurents, bend it around the box lid, ad shown in the pic, and secure it with tape.

2) Draw two outlines on the thicker cardboard, as big as the lid’s side. Secure with tape.

3) Make the flour glue (as here): make a “sauce” withe water, flour and just a little bit of white glue. Flour glue is way stronger that just water and glue! Cheaper, stronger, harder.

4) Lay a thin layer of glue, then cover the entire box and its lid with shredded pieces of paper, soaked in flour-glue. You want to use newspaper, and NOT magazine paper, because Vogue’s and Marie Claire’s  glossy paper doesn’t stick well and it’s harder to be painted. 🙂

5) When the box is dry, draw the details. The drawings will help us to shape the 3D garnishments.

6) Make the real papier maché: soak toilet paper stripes in flour-glue, then squeeze them. Place this pulp on the box. Be careful: if the cardboard was too thin, you may shrink it while covering it with newspaper and papier maché, and the lid may not fit the box anymore. So choose you box wisely, it must be quite strong

7) Let dry (24h), then color with paint. I used gold, silver and brown paper; then I drew the details with a black marker.

What will you fill you trasure chest with?

See you soon,

Cecilia

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