Wedding Keep Sake/Card Box

A couple of months ago, I posted pics of a sign I made as a wedding shower gift, for a young couple, Wesley and Megan Kulcak. The sign was of a “Brand” WMK that they had on their Save the Date card.

Wesley is one of the hunters who lease our place. He’s the 3rd generation, along with his Dad and Grandpa. In fact, his Mom, Uncle, and two cousins also hunt the place, as does his soon to be wife. July 27, 2015.

I scored the Knotty Pine, while picking up plywood at the local Lowes. Six beautiful boards. My wife, Selena, says the knots look like deer tracks, so of course I had to use the wood in the Wesley and Megan’s box. The top insert is Walnut, with a pattern that reminded Selena of a running stream, complete with eddies.

I’ve built many a jewelry/keep sake box over the years, but this is the first time that I made one with this sort of “Captured” lid insert. I also “Captured” the bottom, Mahogany Plywood, between the base and the sides. I also clear coated the insides of the sides before gluing the box up, as well as the clear coating the base and the plywood floor, before gluing up the main part of the box. Sure makes coating and sanding the pieces easier, before everything is glued together.

Before spraying the box sides, and upper edges, I masked off the bottom and top openings. I also masked off the glue areas on the plywood and base, techniques I learned in my wooden airplane building days. I sprayed a Water Based Poly, which I sanded smooth and buffed out, somewhat, with auto paint finishing papers and a t-shirt sleeve. Not too shiny, which is what I wanted.

Learned a bunch from this project. Now I have another wedding keep sake box to do for a July wedding, and some other projects in the works. I’ll get onto those when I get back from the wedding trip this weekend.