Introduction: Up-cycling Shoe Boxes to Pirate Treasure Chest With Secret Lock

About: Hello ! I'm Creative D2H, You can see in my posts how to make beautiful things, to create houses of history, fairy houses, recycling ideas, decorations, crafts,and paint. They use very cheap materials and alwa…

This instructable show you how I Up-cycling a Shoe Boxes to a Pirate Treasure Chest With Secret Lock. It’s fun to make and you can use it as a Jewelry Box or an awesome decoration.

What you need :

  • Shoe Boxes,
  • DAS Paper Clay 2kg - Link
  • Aluminium foil: Link
  • Cardboard 50x50cm,
  • Newspaper,
  • PVC Pipe - Length 10cm & diameter 10mm (the Chest Key)
  • PVC Pipe - Length 3cm & diameter 4mm (Lock mechanism)
  • Hot Glue,
  • Hot Glue gun: Link
  • Acrylic Paint: Link
  • Pop stick,
  • Cutter knife,
  • Clay sculpture tools: Link

Step 1: Building the Basic Shape

  1. I start by cutting a cardboard according to the width of the box.
  2. I cut light parallel lines using the cutter to have the accordion shape.
  3. I glued it using hot glue as shown in the pictures attached.
  4. Afterwards, I fill the empty part with the newspaper papers to make the upper part of the box stronger.
  5. in the same way, To form the side faces, I cut the cardboard according to the desired shape.
  6. I glued them using hot glue as shown in the pictures attached.

Step 2: Building Foot Chest

  1. For each foot, we start by cutting 6 pieces of cardboard with the shapes indicated in the attached picture.
  2. Afterwards, I glued them successively using hot glue to reach the final shape of the foot.
  3. we do the same thing for the other three feet.
  4. we stick each foot in one of the corners of the chest

Step 3: Cover With Paper Clay

After, I cover all the cardboard with paper clay. I used "DAS modelling material" but you can any paper clay or even a homemade paper clay. I don't use natural air dry clay, it will shrink and that will result in a lot of cracks around your jar. So paper clay is the best to use in this type of craft

Step 4: Making the Skull

  1. Using aluminum foil, I make the main form of the skull.
  2. I make a hole in the right eye, using soldering iron. This is the key entry.
  3. We cover everything with Paper Clay.

Step 5: Building Locking Mechanism

I cut two pieces of pop-stick of length 4cm and 1cm. I glued them as shown in the attached picture. Perfectly in the center, I fix a PVC tube, of length 4cm and diameter 4mm, using hot glue. I make a hole in the chest, using soldering iron. I used 2 washers to maintain the axis (PVC tube) into the hole. Follow the attached photos to understand the steps.

Step 6: Building Hands and Arms

I start by forming the fingers using aluminum paper. to build the arm, I use a steel wire (diam 1.5mm) to ensure more robustness, after I cover it with aluminum foil. Did the same thing for the second hand and arm. Finally, I cover everything by the clay paper. Follow the attached photos to understand the steps taken

Step 7: Building the Key

To make the key, I used a PVC tube with a diameter of 10mm and a length of 10cm. in one end, I make two symmetrical grooves of width and depth 3mm. after, I cover the key with clay to get to the shape of a dog bone.

Step 8: Cover and Make Storage Drawers

I cover the entire interior with self-adhesive paper. I make another cardboard box following the internal dimensions of the chest. I make four storage drawers with cardboard. after, I cover everything with adhesive paper. You can use it as a Jewelry Box :)

Step 9: Paint

I used acrylic paint for painting. You can also use watercolors and watercolor crayons. It's up to you. In the end you can seal the paint using some matte spray varnish.

Step 10: Finish

Finally, I ended up with a wonderful Pirate Treasure Chest With Secret Lock as shown in the attached photos :). It’s fun to make and you can use it as a Jewelry Box or an awesome decoration.

Step 11: Watch

In order to not miss any details and to follow all the real chain of the instructable, enjoy watching the video tutorial 👉 Link

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Trash to Treasure

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Trash to Treasure