Washi Box

We had a great enrichment a week ago by a sweet sister in our branch, Naomi Clark. She taught a dozen of us how to make a washi box! Here is a link on washi!
You will need 6 one half gallon cartons of milk (yes, you heard me right. Start saving them!). Rinse them out and let them dry.

You will need the side panels from 4 of the cartons of milk; just cut off the top of the carton and cut off the bottoms. Save two bottoms for the washi box. You will also need a bit of cardboard for the lid and leaf shaped sides.

Next, you need either a great friend to show you how to make these boxes or a nice set of directions like these!

And these! The "box" down in the corner of the page is showing you how many pieces of a washi box you could get out of one FULL sheet of washi paper; several large boxes (of this style).

You will need a bag of this glue that can be bought at the Schilling Center's (On Kadena) Gift Shop. It is about a 1/2 cup of glue to 1/2 cup of water ratio.

You need a sharp pair of scissors, a LOT of tape, a roll of double sided tape (not pictured but you can buy it at the 100Yen store), glue and a ruler that shows centimeters.

So, I became very busy hastily creating my box with 4 extra little hands flinging glue around. I missed out on taking several pictures (crucial ones, sorry) due to trying to do damage control on the glue...refer to directions at this point or call Naomi. :) The box (lots of glue) now needs to dry for at least 24 hours.

You then will want to laquer it to harden and protect it. Apparently, this is the best laquer and can be bought at the Schilling Grift Shop(under the kokeshi dolls). Though, at the moment they are out and hope to get some "next month." Yikes! The cost was about $10.

This is another laquer that can be bought at Makeman (monkey store); it is around 700Yen.

You will want to add a couple of coats of laquer (do this outside!) to cover your box.

Notes:
* Washi paper is gorgeous and expensive! The Schilling Center has a huge variety and I wanted 1 of each; I settled for two 1/4 sheets which should make me 2 boxes.
*Naomi went to great effort to measure all of our washi paper for us to make it easy. You will need to refer to the directions to get the measurements.
*The inside of the box is covered in wrapping paper (again, right measurements) though you can also use washi on the inside.
*This box took me about 3 hours to build, though I am craft impaired so it might take you 20 minutes.
*This is an addictive craft, even for the craft impaired. I will now be hoarding any milk cartons we use and I might plead for a few of my friends (you have been warned).