And the Winner Is.....

KATIE!  That is the Katie of Katie's Clay Corner blog. http://katiesclaycorner.blogspot.com/  She is an avid miniaturist and does lots of different things. I am an admirer of her aging and woodworking.
Congratulations Katie!

Now on to other things.  I'll bet that you thought that the boxes were something new that I just thought up.  Not quite.  They started with a kid's cardboard pencil box back around 1990.  At least that is when I started doing them.  I taught a class on how to do them back then.

You can still find the cardboard pencil boxes on line, but they aren't nearly as nice as they used to be.  Not as thick.

I woke up about 2:30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so I thought about what I could do to make it easy for the rest of you that were interested, to build your own box.  I decided to show you how I did the original one.

You can take it from there. It can be made into anything that you want. 

I am going to do it the way that I did it originally for the class.  Only this time I am using a wooden cigar box that I had handy.

You will have to take your own measurements and make your own plan, but it is really simple.

The first thing that I did was sit the box on a piece of GOOD foam core.  Not the kind that you get at the dollar store.  It needs to have a hard finish so that it won't warp as much.

I lined the back edge of the box up with the edge of the board. Then I used the lid as a compass and drew a semi-circle on the surface of the foam core.

As you can see, the first blade that I found was not exactly sharp.  No worries.  The surface will be covered. 

With this box, I had to cut off the lid and treat it as a separate piece.  Your box may not have to be done this way.  With mine, the lid fit down inside, flush with the top edges of the box on both sides.

I cut it off and slid it into the side at a 45 degree angle.  If your box top overlaps the box all around, this step is unnecessary.

I cut a piece of wood to fill in the far edge and two small pieces to fill beneath the sides of the arch.

I cut out the arch by making a paper pattern.  The paper was cut to the size of the lid and folded in half.  The arch was cut from that.  Then I traced around it on the lid and, in this case, I cut it out on the jig saw.

The only one of these that I have left is the mini, mini one that Tessie is holding in the second photo....Did I mention that, when I was taking that photo, she hissed at me.  "This one is MINE!" 

She wasn't talking about the little one she is holding... She is keeping the big one she is standing in.  Typical Tessie.

Anyway, here's the little one up close.  I will start doing the spackling, landscaping and flooring next.

As I said, the indoor outdoor thing is nothing new.  You can do it many different ways. You can put a door or window in the wall, instead of the arch.  You could possibly make it two rooms by using two box bottoms.  It is really easy and a lot of fun. 

Back to work.  Again, congrats Katie!

See you tomorrow.