Deck Box

By: Victoria Kulig

A few months ago, Kandis introduced me to Magic the Gathering. I have always been aware of the game, but had never played before.

After a few rounds... I started to really enjoy the game, and wanted to keep playing more. So, of course, since her room mates played as well - I joined in and we had a lot of fun together.

So when her roommate's birthday came up in January, I thought that making him a Cthulhu-Lovecraft themed deck box would be a perfect gift.

I started with a very simple, plain box. It even looks as cheap as it was in this photo. I figured I could stain it a darker color to make it much nicer - and then use my wood burner to etch some designs into the box.

The directions on the finish said to paint the stain on, and wipe off any excess that wasn't absorbed by the wood - then repeat that step in a few hours.

I applied three coats of stain to the box to give it a very rich, dark, cherry wood color.

After I had stained it and let it dry completely, I looked up some of the symbols surrounding Lovecraft horror stories, as well as Cthulhu. (We had also played a table-top RPG that he had designed before, which sort of help guide my selections in the symbols.)

Once I found the symbols I wanted to use, I need to trace them on to the box. For me, I found it easy enough to just flip the paper over, and scribble all over the back with a pencil.

Then I pressed the paper to the box, and traced over it while pressing firmly - to trace the design onto the box.

Once I had traced it onto the box, I went over it again with an ink pen to make the design easier to see.

When all designs had been traced, I got out my wood burner. There are a lot of different types of burners, and different brands but they all work the same way. They have a point, and they get very, very hot very quickly. I don't think I need to overly stress that this part should be done by an adult, or at least under very close supervision.

The next step is just to use the burner to etch your designs. The harder your press and the slower you move, the deeper your burns are going to go.

Once the designs are all etched into the box, your designs will really pop!

I also decided to throw in some nice Cthulhu card sleeves I had found, a few Magic cards, and wrapped it up in My Little Pony wrapping paper that I quickly put together.

The gift was incredibly well received, and although I gave it to him late, he really appreciated the work.

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