Streampunk Treasure Chest

Steampunk Treasure Chest made from recycled materials.

I’ve designed (translate: made up as I went along) this treasure chest for my youngest’s upcoming 3rd birthday. He’s mad about pirates, and treasures and pirate ships so I thought I’d make him something unique. The rest of the family are making/getting him small presents to fill the chest with (including >100 foil wrapped gold and silver coins!). There is a treasure map affixed to the inside of the lid and the gear on the front rotates.

Materials:
Trunk base:
1 Huggies nappy box
1 UHT full fat milk box
circular bits of wood salvaged from the OHs homemade broadband absorption panels
newspaper
PVA glue
2 x polystyrene pizza bases (for gear embellishment on front and sides)
salvaged beach rope (for rope handles)
thick cardboard from a Usborne puzzle book (the puzzle pieces have long since disappeared)
duct tape
yellow split peas for the studs
papier mache paste

Trunk lid:
1 laptop box (for the lid itself)
packaging foam from the laptop (used as filler for trunk lid)
newspaper
papier mache paste
duct tape
yellow split peas
Treasure Island map print out
PVA glue
varnish to hold map in place

Hinges:
1 Amazon box (nice long pieces of cardboard)
2 x cardboard thread inner tubes
plastic dowel rod (leftover from a fairy princess wand party favour, the top of which was long since lost)
4 wooden beads

Rotating gear on front of chest:
cardboard
plastic dowel rod (reinforcement)
papier mache
1 wood screw
1/2 cork from a bottle of wine (which I had to buy specifically to make the chest as I needed the cork!
2 x washers
1 bit from a capgun (does this have a name? It should. It looks fabulous!)

Paint, etc:
white matte vinyl paint
black model primer spray
cinnamon brown acrylic paint
gold acrylic paint
acrylic varnish spray
craft knife
scissors
plenty of masking tape!
super glue
gear template generator

See below for a photo journey through the process (put there for those of you interested in this sort of thing). If you have any questions just ask! 🙂