Thread: Wonderland Expedition

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My girlfriend's favorite movie is Alice in Wonderland, and since she puts up with my Halloween OBSESSION with such a good spirt, I decided to make her a gift using skills I have picked up making Halloween related items! The idea of a Wonderland Expedition box is not mine (http://absinthetic.livejournal.com/776713.html), but I decided to put my own spin on it! (and while mine will never be as good as the inspirations its the thought that counts!) This is an on going project, but in the end it will play the tea cups song when she opens the lid, and the box will be lined with purple velvet which is her favorite color. Inside the box are going to be "artifacts" collected from Wonderland. My favorite part of the entire box is the lid! It's supposed to look like a distorted chess board. It's made up of three different kinds of wood to get the effect!

I also used a sun jar idea to make the bottle glow.. there is a solar light in the lid and if set on a window sill.. it will make an awesome night light! The sun jar is eventually going to have a Pool of Tears sample label on it, but I have loads more work to do, but here is the start!

This is totally awesome! The box is stunningly beautiful so far.

If she doesn't like it, I'll gladly take it off her hands

That is such a sweet idea THe box is gorgeous!!! Im sure she will love it you must post pics when you give it to her

Aw...really cool!

Fantastic. I love the lid. Did you cut your mating pieces with a template or freehand them. It must have been some job to mate them up tight. Great work.

Great job!!!

@soundmankkc

The lid is actually made up of two same size lids of opposite colors. You tape them together and you make S shape cuts and opposite S shape cuts and when you're done you have the same size pieces but opposite colors. You basically take one piece of darker wood and one piece of lighter wood and it makes two lids with alternating colors. At this point they almost look like tiger stripes. Then you glue them together again this time having the colors mismatch and you make the length wise cuts. You once again alternate the pieces and you end up with two distorted lids. The pieces come out close enough to put back together somewhat ok! Mine's not perfect, but some patience and sanding and everything is ok!

Been working on lining the box with velvet, so I can get an idea of how many more props I need to put in the inside.. haha. This thing is more like a small chest than a box, lol. Oh well. Go big or go home! Going to try and be efficient and finish the bottles and small details in this box and the vials from my vampire killing kit at the same time! Going to make a bottle etching assembly line! The liner is not glued down inside yet, so that's why it pokes out a bit! One of these days I'll get around to making a tutorial on both this and my vampire killing kit For now enjoy the pics!

Almost done with this! Going to make another one, but themed a little darker. My inspiration is going to be American McGee's Alice! One of my favorite video games growing up! Loved the soundtrack too and while it was done by a few members of NIN.. I think my box will play NIN - Into the Void because that would be very fitting :P Next version is going to be a lot darker, I promise! But here is the rest of my GF's present! I'll do one last update once the sound is working and I finish up the rest of the details and I'll post a video and this bad boy is done!

how did you get the velvet to stay so nice and smooth