This was a long time in the making. I got this box forever ago, it was filled with retro rubber stamps that I wanted and I think we paid like $2 for the whole thing. Ever since then, I've wanted to do something with the box itself because its a pretty neat, old, wooden cigar box. I didn't paint it or age it, all the paint and aging you see is just how I picked it up. I've thought of painting it, or maybe decoden, but in the end I just kind of like how perfectly age-worn the old paint job on it is and can't really bring myself to mess with it.
This was its first incarnation. I'd seen a "make a ring box with a sweater" thing on pinterest and gave it a try. It worked, but the one I'd seen looked much better. I couldn't get my sweater lines all straight and pretty, so I wanted to think of something else.
Ignore the messy stove. I have no idea which kitchen project needs scraping off the stove, but if you cook without making any mess whatsoever then you may not actually be human at all.
Also, the Tony Cacherie's will not be being used in this tutorial. I'm sorry for any disappointment or inconvenience this may have caused you.
So I pulled all the rings out and dumped them into a wooden saucer and got to work!
First, I cut a rectangle of foam that would fit inside the box. You may not have to do this, but my box was pretty deep so I wanted a platform to sort of start with. I was using 1-inch thick foam.
YAAAY it fits!
Next, I cut another rectangle the first size as the first, then cut it into strips. I wasn't too worried about them being perfectly uniform as I have some huge, bulky rings and some small ones, so I figured if they weren't all the same size, then all the rings would have a place. Anywho, once your strips are all cut, take them back out leaving in just the bottom large rectangle.
Now, we just need something to cover that ugly foam with!
Enter: 25-cent thrifted red velvet pants.
I cut a strip off of the pants that left about an inch on either side of the box width-wise and was about 2.5 times as long as the box is length wise. For clarification, "width-wise" is, to me, on a cigar box, the widest part and length-wise is the shorter part.
Now is where it gets fun. Pick what end you want to start on and take one of your little foam strippy-things and glue the velvet to one side of it, then glue the bottom of the foam strippy-thing to the large rectangle.
This shot is so you can see just the foam with the velvet glued onto one side of it and the foam part glued to the big foam part. The excess on the edges, I just tucked in with a butter knife as I went along.
Next, run a bead of hot glue down the crack there where the small strip of foam meets the large piece. Then, pull the fabric taught and stick it to the glue in the crack. You should end up with a velvet-covered foam piece.
Take your next piece of foam strip, glue it to the big one as close as you can get it to the first one, then stretch the fabric over that piece and stick it to the pre-glued crevice just like you did the first one.
Repeat that. A lot.
Once you get going with it, its pretty quick, you can just sort of start accordion-ing that shit together like there's no tomorrow.
Once I got to the end, I smooshed the final foam strip down and ran a bead of hot glue on the inside of the cigar box, tucked the ends in, and when I let it go, it just sort of sprung up to the top and it all just stuck together. Woot for foam springiness.
Here it is, storing stuff as it should. ^_^ Still a bit lumpy, I'd really like it to look a bit better, but it is what it is and it definitely works like a charm. Best ring storage to date, especially since some of my rings are oddly-shaped the foam tends to just conform to whatever I stuff in it.
I love it! <3
Wookie Wifey
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