project: TARDIS pencil cup
For those of you familiar with Doctor Who, you'll know what a TARDIS is. For those of you who aren't familiar, it stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space, and it's the Doctor's time machine. Shaped like a 1960s British police box, it's much bigger on the inside. But for this project, I had to make do with a tin cup from the 99-cent store, and it would hold pencils instead of a whole lot of space.
First I coated the tin cup with Mod Podge, which is a glue that can also be used as a sealant. I wanted to have a smooth base to paint on instead of the rough, bare tin.
After the Mod Podge dried, with a broad flat brush I painted the cup a shade of blue that came as close to TARDIS-blue as I could find. With straight up-and-down strokes, the brush created a grain that resembled wood, which is what the outside of the TARDIS is made of, so I thought that was a nice effect. I put on two coats.
It took a while for me to continue because of the lack of proper supplies to get the results I wanted. I still needed to make signs and windows. So I had to make another trip to my favorite art supplies store...
Cutting out thin strips of cardstock painted black, and using a white gel ink pen for the lettering, I glued on the signs, one on each side. Sure, the lettering might have been a little lopsided here and there, but hey, this was my first try. By the fourth side, it actually came out pretty straight and even.
Also, while wandering around the art store, I came upon mosaic tiles! I had been wondering how to do the windows, and when I saw the white glass ones, I though they were perfect! They even had ridges that would serve for the bars on the windows.
So I glued them on, two on each side. They give it such a dorky, handcrafted beginner's look. This is the "test" side where I tried out painting and glueing techniques to get the initial first-time sloppiness out of the way.
I decided that painting the tiles first before glueing them on was much better. I had to let the tiles dry one side at a time or else they might end up crooked.
I then had to make a decision: how do I make the series of square panels that are on each side of the TARDIS? At first I thought about cutting thin pieces of wood and glueing them on, but after trying that it was just too complicated, and I wasn't feeling that ambitious. So I decided to just paint them on.
Finally, all I needed to do was draw a police box sign for the front. I used the same thin cardstock, cut out a square, and gave it a coat of white paint. Then with a very thin-tipped marker, I wrote out the words that are on the actual sign, except leaving a few phrases off for space constraints. Then I glued that on. And FINALLY finally, I covered the whole thing with a coat of glossy Mod Podge to give it a sheen.
Voila! The TARDIS pencil cup!
I even glued felt on the bottom so it won't damage surfaces.
Here's what it looks like in low light. The blue is actually much darker, and you can see the gloss and the imitation wood grain.
Overall this was a really fun project! I've got a few more tin cups in stock and a few more ideas in my head, so there will probably be more of these kinds of things to come.
