Matchbox Treasure Chest

Hi everyone! LuAnn here with a fun little project that I created in a few hours. Wouldn’t this be super cute sitting on your daughter’s dresser collecting her ponytail holders, barrettes, and other girlie girl stuff? Or how about sitting on your son’s dresser to hold those rocks, rubber bands, and other treasures little boys love to stick in their pockets to keep?

Let’s get started with our supplies! Here’s what you will need:

Digital Kit – I used the Sweet’n Sassy kit by Mira Designs
Empty matchboxes – I used 4 large sized boxes that I picked up at our local dollar store.
Avery Inkjet Labels, Full Sheet, White
Scotch Brand Scrapbooker’s Glue with 2-way Applicator (or a glue stick)
Kilz Spray Primer
Crop-A-Dile Eyelet & Snap Punch
Scrap Essentials Mini Heart Brad
Round wood craft beads
Tape measure
Scissors
Wooden skewers (optional)
Acrylic paint and small paint brush(optional)

A matchbox consists of two parts – the drawer (which holds the matches) and the sleeve (the part that the drawer slides into). For the rest of the tutorial, I will refer to the parts as the drawer and the sleeve. Matchbox will refer to working with the drawer part inside the sleeve.

To start, remove all of the matches out of the matchboxes. I put these in a small storage container and put them up high, well out of reach of little hands.

Next, you will need to decide on how you want your treasure box to look. You can stack your four empty matchboxes on top of each other to create a tall treasure box or you can do two stacks of two matchboxes side by side to create a treasure box like mine.

Remove all of the drawers from the boxes. I chose to spray my empty matchboxes with Kilz. This step is optional though because most of the surfaces of your boxes will be covered with paper. I didn’t want the original box colors showing along the edges of my project. You can also paint your boxes and drawers with acrylic paint to coordinate with the digital kit that you will be using. Allow to dry.

The brads I had here did not match the color of my project so I also sprayed them white with Kilz. To do this, I pushed the brads through a folded sheet of paper and then simply sprayed them.

Next stack your matchboxes (with the drawers in the sleeves) and glue the sleeves together. For this I used Scotch Brand Scrapbooker’s Glue. I love to use this glue because it has a dauber end for easy application. Make sure the edges of the matchboxes are flush with each other for a nice straight treasure box. Allow to dry.

To create “feet” for the treasure chest (beads can be left natural if you choose):
Take four small sized wood beads and thread them onto a wooden skewer. Spray with Kilz sealer and allow to dry – this will help the acrylic paint cover the smooth bead better. You can leave them white after spraying with the Kilz or paint with an acrylic paint that coordinates with your papers. Allow to dry.

Measure the inside of a drawer and measure the front surface of a drawer. Stack your matchboxes and measure the distance around the outside of the boxes as well as how deep the stacked matchboxes are. Mine was 15” around allowing for some overlap on the bottom of the treasure chest and 5” deep. I’ll explain how I printed this in a little bit.

Open your software. Open an 11 x 8.5” white canvas

To create the Drawer liners:
Using the Rectangle Marqee tool, draw out a rectangle the size of the inside of your drawer (refer to your measurements). Add a new layer and paste in a digital paper of your choice. Resize and rotate the digital paper to your liking. Select none.

If you want all of your drawers to have the same paper liner, simply duplicate this layer until you have as many as needed for your drawers – move the duplicated layer from over the original layer. If you want your drawers to have different liners, repeat the above steps to create them.

To create the front panel of the drawer:
Using your Rectangle Marquee tool, draw out a rectangle the size of the front panel of the drawer (refer to your measurements). Add a new layer and paste in a digital paper of your choice. Resize and rotate the digital paper to your liking. Select none.

Again, if you want all of your drawers to have the paper on the front of the drawer, simply duplicate this layer until you have as many as needed – move the duplicated layer from over the original layer. If you want the front of your drawers to have different papers, repeat the above steps to create them.

This is what you should have so far:

Print on a full sheet of Avery sticker paper using your printer’s best print option. For Avery sticker paper, I chose Matte Presentation Paper option for a brighter print.

Next we’re going to create the piece that goes around the outside of the stacked matchboxes.

Open a new blank canvas the size of the measurements of your stacked matchboxes (mine was 15 x 5”).

Copy and paste a digital paper of your choice. Resize and rotate to your liking. I ended up duplicating my floral paper twice and piecing it to cover the 15” canvas. Merge layers.

To print such a long label required some creative thinking on my part.

I knew I was going to print my covering piece on full sheets of sticker paper. I chose an area near the end of my label where I could easily piece it together. Crop the first 10” of the covering and print using your printer’s best print option. For Avery sticker paper, I chose Matte Presentation Paper option for a brighter print. Once printed, hit un-do.

Crop the last 6”of the covering piece (start at the 9” mark) and print as above.

Allow ink to dry and then cut around all of your pieces.

To assemble:

**I use a small amount of Scotch Brand Scrapbooker’s Glue on all surfaces before applying my sticker paper. This allows for a quick and strong bond without the mess of mod podge or other glues.**

Check the fit of your drawer liners and trim as necessary. Apply glue to the insides of your drawers. Remove the paper backing from your sticker paper pieces and press in place.

Check the fit of the printed pieces against the front of your drawers. Trim as necessary. Apply glue to the front panel of your drawer. Remove the paper backing from your sticker paper pieces and press in place.

Allow to dry. Place drawers back inside matchbox frame before starting the next step.

Starting with the covering piece that is 10” long, position it overtop of the matchbox frame so that a ¼” wraps around to the underside of the chest. By positioning the piece this way, it allows for a fuller coverage with only one overlap area showing on the side of the chest. Apply a small amount of glue where your first piece is going to cover. Remove the paper backing and press in place.

Repeat using the second piece, positioning it so that it partially overlaps the first piece and wraps around to the bottom of the chest. Allow to dry.

Remove all 4 drawers from the chest. On the inside of the front panel of the drawer, place a pencil mark in the center. Use your Crop-o-dile to make a small hole. Insert your mini heart brad and press the brad prongs flush against the inside of the front of the drawer. Replace the drawers into the chest.

Glue the painted beads to the underside of the treasure chest. Allow to dry.

And there you have it! Your own mini treasure chest! Here’s mine again showing the treasure chest with an open drawer showing the drawer liner:

Please note: there are several different ways you can go about creating a treasure chest of your own. You can use computer paper and a glue stick if you choose. This tutorial is how I created mine.

And as always, if you have questions, please feel free to email me at wildblueeyez at Comcast dot net.

If you create your own treasure chest, I’d love to see it! Please send me an email at the address above!

Matchbox Treasure Chest

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