Cut Out + Keep | How To » Matchbox Shrine With Shinto Twist

You Will Need

- PROJECT BUDGET
- Almost Nothing

Matchbox Shrine With Shinto Twist

Japanese Matchbox Shrine
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You can personalise this project completely. A matchbox shrine can make a great, cheap but special present.

I got the matchbox shrine idea from Punk Rock Domestics.

My theme is the Japanese religion 'Shinto' which focuses on honouring the spirits of things such as wind, trees, mountains etc so the theme of nature is entwined within it. There is sea (blue beads), a pearl, cliffs (green beads), the sun (gold hanging bead), the moon, stars, night sky (blue beads), a ladybug and leaves.

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Choose a theme and appropriate colour of paint for your matchbox shrine and begin painting. Sometimes the card is sort of laminated so it was easier to cover the box properly with paint by turning the outer cover of the box inside out.
Once the paint is dry glue in flakes of foil.

Draw on a word or pattern on the outer cover of the box. Fill in with ink or a marker. The front of my shrine says 'Earth' in Japanese (I couldn't find the word 'nature' as a collective term in Japanese).
Glue or sew in your beads/findings in a composition that you like the look of. Place glue on the inside of the outer cover and slot the inner part of the box part way into the outer cover. This will balance out the weight of the top and will help it stand independantly (hopefully).

For the cruved top part I used two bits of thin plastic packaging that were already curved and then I taped them together with masking tape and then painted over it.