Gift boxes - from old books, wood scraps, linen and paper

Another project from summer, a pretty new and challenging one.

There have been two old books, an old piece of wood (cheap plywood from a charity shop), a scrap of natural linen and paper scraps. They turned into those two boxes, which I've made for a friend, another friend leaving Finland. I wasn't in charge of filling, the big box contained pictures, quotes, keepsakes, and I didn't attend the farewell party, so I didn't come to see the end result. Other small box was filled with tea bags with handwritten quotes on them.

I have to get to make a couple more so that I can systematize the process and get to describe it better. For the time being it's just sharing with you some pics from behind-the-scene. It was fun and challenging, and actually I'm not quite sure I keep going this way, because all the fine adjustment which box making implies is probably not my cup of tea. Not that much, though designing the cover was the most appealing part for me AND that project was very different from all the sewing and paper stationery making from previous months, so YES, I loved it.

The "hardware" (book cover, wood) for the project have been thrifted. That's also the first time I've drawn the Moomins other than just for my little girl's colorings. First I've been thinking of using some existing book drawings, but I haven't found any of them that would match the idea. So I've made them myself, with ink on nice heavy paper, cut and watercolored them partially. They are bringing pretty much light onto the surface and are simply fun to look at.

That's it, I guess now I'm shifting towards one, at most two posts per week which I don't think is enough. I've debated about coming more often but that would mean I'd have to fill the gaps with some more randomness and watering down the purpose. I've been thinking about outsourcing more random "around-here"'s on Instagram or Twitter (nope, I'm not an Instagrammer yet, and my Twitter account is pretty silent), and just keep this blog more project-centered with "behind-the-scene" focused on work, less on life randomness.

This blog had lot of random content in previous years, some photographs, lot of random stuff around, but I don't like to look back at them right at the moment. I prefer this blog offers a nice and neat track of DIY projects, tutorials and peeks into behind-the scenes. On the other hand sometimes it feels good to share something more out-of-box. I just have to find the proper way to do it.

That means right now it is going to be less updated, but I hope to catch up soon.