A project for two afternoons: makeup chest!

 Today I found Kassandra very happy, opening a gift that someone had given her.

"Hello! What is that you are opening?"

"Hello dear!  Oh, I am overjoyed!  The principal dancer of a ballet company with which I work from time to time has given this to me."

"Oh, how cute!  Is it a makeup chest?"

"Yes!  Oh, Erika is such a dear!  I love her so much.  I have seen her progress from a novice dancer to a great ballerina.  She deserves all the success in the world."

"I am sure she does.  And I hope you enjoy your makeup box!"

"I am ready to fill it up!"

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Fantasy apart, I saw a similar box in Facebook, and very much wanted to make my own.   I am in a phase now that I love what I call the "dancer pink" color, so I wanted the box to place it in the ballet studio.  I started with an ordinary box made of plain, untreated wood, and painted it pink:

 

Then I decided to cover the inside with a textured paper.  I was going to use a tan suede paper, but my husband said that looked too dark, and suggested something in ivory.  So I used the same fabric paper that I used in the natural history cabinet:

 

Trying on the patterns

Bottom side...

... and lid

Since it was a makeup chest, I wanted to include a mirror.  At first I thought of using a spare mirror I had in 1:144 scale, but it was very small, and I didn't like it.  So instead, I cut a piece of an acrylic mirror (the same type I used to hang in the ballet studio):

Dry fit to check the size

Wonderful!

 

I did not want to paint the bottom, so instead I covered it with a black suede paper, so it wouln't slide on the surfaces:

 

Then, embellishments!  So naturally, gold brass corners and a functional hinge (I love it!):

It looks perfect!

Next step, to craft some tiny makeup!  It was easier than I thought, with some help from YouTube videos made by talented crafters:

 

The lashes box comes from Zenas Miniatures; the two nail polishes I made following this video; the eye shadow pallete I got from here, and simply glued it to a piece of black Eva foam.  The gold nail file I made with gold textured cardboard, and the mascara bottle is just a piece of black paper glued around a toothpick that was painted with gold paint.  I covered the paper with a piece of clear adhesive tape.

It looks lovely in the ballet studio!