Treasure chest :)

So a while back I picked up a bag of miscellaneous world coins a the ANDA coin show. They're all relatively worthless but a bitta fun to sort though and look at all the difference denominations.

And what better to store treasure in than a treasure chest?

I brought (mostly) everything I needed to make my coins a treasure chest from Riot Art & Craft on a whim ages ago. It's all been living on the living-room table till inspiration struck. For some reason that was this weekend/Monday. 

Stuff I used:
An unfinished wooden treasure chest
Art Culture acrylic paints, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, and Burnt Umber
Random 3/4inch paint brush
Hemp rope (it calls itself 'rope' but it's really string)
< Red sparkly felt
Black felt + free cat fur
Craft glue
Mod Podge (water based sealer)
Copper Slug and Snail tape

First I painted the raw timber chest with Burnt Sienna all over except the straps. Then after that had soaked in and dried I painted a few random spots with Raw Sienna. I didn't really like the Raw Sienna colour and was pretty worried that I'd stuffed it at that point.  But the last layer of Burnt Umber evened it all out and finished it up well. Lucky!

I've never done much painting.  But this was relatively straight forward and enjoyable with nice results, I think I like messing around with acrylic paints. After the painting was done I sealed it with Mod Podge then filled the groves with string lengths of the hemp rope to add some definition and highlights.  I fixed each string lenght with some craft glue. 

I stuck a random bit of black felt on the inside of the lid of the chest with more of the craft glue. I didn't really measure it well or worry too much about the placement.  I'll live with the odd edges and rough positioning.  Then the red sparkly felt was used for the rest of the chest inside.  Also not measured particularly well. I love felt just for the abuse you can heap on it and still get a good outcome. 

The felt had actually been running around the living-room with the cats for almost 12 months so before I used it there was some cat de-furing to be done. It was nice to finally use the stuff. I originally brought it to make a Christmas gift for someone but she's managed to significantly annoy me (there are places you don't invite other peoples partners/boyfriends - a strip club is one such place.)

And moving on;

Lastly I used some copper tape I had left from gardening for the straps around the chest. The tape is basically a thin layer of adhesive copper. It was a rough start as can be seen in the finished product pictures. I put too much on one side several times but in the end product looks pretty good and I'm optimistic that once the copper tarnishes up it'll look rustic and blend in nicely. It's a fair bit too shiny at the moment.

And I only glued the chest lid down once. After I pried it reopen with a pair of little scissors I didn't have any further sticking issues. 

No progress pictures but here's my finished treasure chest. All that's left is to dig up my world coins and fill it (the bottom at least, it's a good excuse to buy some more next time I get the chance)