Picture a Day Cigar Box Purse

Every year I get one or sometimes, if I've been a particularly good girl, two day by day Elvis desktop calendars. The joy of this kind of calendar is I get to look at a new fantastic picture of a beautiful man every single day. Problem is I can't bear to part with the pictures once the day is done. Most people would rip the page off crumple it up and toss it in the recycle pile. Occasionally you see one tacked up somewhere that someone found particularly compelling. I have yet to see a picture of Elvis I don't find compelling in some way.

As you can imagine over the years I have amassed quite a pile of these calendar pages. Recently I decided I better do something with them besides thumb through and drool every once in a while. Keeping in my current crafting vein I got out my scissors, a cigar box, a Xyron machine with permanent adhesive and a razor knife and went to town.

First thing to do was to cut the pictures out. Luckily they were all framed in the same size block on the calendar. I trimmed inside the black line and soon had a huge stack ready to go.

Second step was to run them all through the Xyron machine. I have found that rubbing the back side rigorously with a bone folder is helpful in making sure you get full adhesion on your pieces and the edges come away clean. Luckily for me I have the largest machine, which allowed me to put two at time through. I ended up with a six-foot roll of black and white Elvis stickers. More than enough to cover one cigar box, however I discovered in the next step that I should have chosen the images a little more carefully based on how they would be placed on the box. You want to have some that are oriented to each side as well as some with top and bottom space. This will help with the overlapping and the placement around hinges and latches. You would hate to have to cut into his nose or chop off his pompadour to make it around a corner.

The cigar box I chose was unfinished, no shiny lacquer, as I have learned these allow for better sticking. I started placing images on the front side letting them fall over the edges. I used the razor knife to slice through the images where they over lapped the opening. By placing one image at a time I was able to slide the blade in the seam just in front of it and slice right through. I also cut slits in the pieces at the corners so I could lay down one strip at a time and form a clean edge. Like wise I did my best to trim around the hinges and latches that already existed on the box as I worked my way around the sides and across the back. Some places became tight and to avoid overlapping important parts of images I perused the rest of the calendar shots glued them up and trimmed them to fit the necessary areas. There were a few little gaps I filled with either black or white scraps left over from the trimmed images depending on their surroundings.

I used the bone folder to be sure full contact was reached between the box and the stickers. I also used it along the edges to make crisp folds. Once the box was fully covered I added a clear acrylic topcoat to protect it. I found by putting this water-based acrylic on with a small foam brush I have very few bubbles. I also use a plastic coat hanger to hold the box while it dries. This allows me to hang it out of everyone's way from the ceiling fan while holding it open so it doesn't stick shut. I open the top and slide it over the hanger so it hangs like a pair of pants at the hinges.

The final step is to add a handle. There are hundreds of these available at your local craft or hobby shop. Better than that there are hundreds of potential options at your local hardware store, from drawer pulls and cabinet handles to chandelier chains. Leather thongs, gross grain ribbons, belt webbing, the list is endless. I chose a craft store handle you can bead yourself and put on my own pink and blue hand painted wooden beads to add a touch of color.