Before and After: Altered Cigar Box

My latest creation to come out of my workshop is an altered cigar box. I found the cigar box in a local smoke shop and loved the shape of the box and the quality of the wood. Because the outside of the box already had a thick, glossy varnish, I did not sand it down and wanted the wood itself to be a part of the overall aesthetic. 

The cigar box was first decorated with torn pieces of vintage Wuthering Heights novel pages that had a lovely, natural patina. I then separated the top tissue layer of a soft green floral napkin and decoupaged torn fragments over the book pages. Beneath the box latch, I glued a portion of a vintage earring that has real pressed flowers inside. 

The cigar box lid consists of antique-inspired scrapbooking paper with torn edges, more torn pieces of Wuthering Heights pages, nature collage images, ink-stamped flourishes and a pendant I created and repurposed. The woman in the glass dome pendant is the beautiful Arlette Dorgere, a French stage actress, famous in the early 20th century.

The cigar box "feet" consist of four wood blocks that were covered with Wuthering Heights novel pages. They were adhered to the bottom with super-strong contact adhesive. 

The inside top lid was covered with vintage wallpaper. The outside of the cigar box was sealed with layers of acrylic varnish and Mod Podge.

This was such a fun project to make! This was my first altered cigar box where I experimented with adding "legs". Besides wood blocks, I have seen altered wood doll heads and thread spools used as legs to prop up keepsake boxes. 

This altered cigar box has been added to my Etsy Shop, Lovely Fever : https://www.etsy.com/listing/101405464/mixed-media-altered-cigar-box-nature