craftgrrl | (no subject)

Hi,

I looked at the memories section in various communities and couldn’t really find an answer to my question, although I got lots of ideas so here goes...

I want to make a decorated box for a friend’s birthday, to put letters and such in as we live far (he’s in the US and I’m in the UK) and write each other a lot. So it has to be fairly big, I’m thinking A4 size or so. but not too heavy to send. I want it to be a sort of on-box scrapbook type thing about our friendship. So far I though of making a big collage picture on the lid, putting some funny passport size pictures of me on the side (holding up signs saying strange things or maybe making faces – alternatively I’m thinking of buying a single use camera and taking random pictures, then send it to him in the box to take the other half on his birthday), gluing on bits of conversations, song lyrics, sayings, inside jokes, etc.
I need some help though, pretty please, as I’m fairly crafty but haven’t done any crafts in a while and nothing like this before.
** What sort of box should I use? Wood or paper mache or another?
** Do I need to put some sort of coating on it before anything? (and if so what sort)
** What about glue? I am thinking of using a mix of paper, stamps, photos, etc. I don’t want the photos to get messed up so I’m not sure about white paper glue as I assume I would have to sort of put glue over everything as a coating (just a guess...I don’t really know)
** I was thinking of making the lid collage picture on a piece of card and then glue it on. Will it stick properly or should I really do it directly on the box?
** What about final coating? Do I need one? Varnish?
** Any general hints, opinions or help? I’m pretty clueless so don’t be afraid of stating the obvious (it’s likely not to be obvious to me)

Finally...Any idea what else I could include on my box? Has anyone ever done something similar?

I’m sorry for asking so many questions and being quite dim, but I really want this to turn out nicely but realised I don’t really know how to do it.

A huge THANK YOU!

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