Cufflinks...

Brad and I spent the better part of a recent Saturday searching for a new suit for him and also gathering materials for me to make him a new cufflink box. Brad is obsessed with fancy cufflinks. When we first started dating, I made him a cufflink box (approximately 7 X 9) to store all of his pretty cufflinks, but he has long since outgrown it (the Tiffany cufflinks he got for his birthday deserve their own darn box heehee) and had been hinting that he needed a new one. I can’t possibly say “no” when someone comes up with a new crafty project for me, so of course I agreed.

We searched high and low for the perfect box and finally found a faux red crocodile leather letter box in Barnes and Noble (after we purchased a different box in Michael’s Arts & Craft Store which we later returned) and had to go to another craft store called the Rag Shop near our house to get a piece of soft foam to make the inside of the box.

After I got all my materials home, measured the inside of the box (height, width, depth) and then cut the soft foam to fit snuggly inside. I then measured the foam itself, and cut it into 8 long, equal width strips. I then pulled out this beautiful black silk velvet that I had left over from a skirt I made myself a while back, and cut the fabric into strips so each piece of foam could be completely covered in velvet before inserting it into the box. I got out my glue gun, and I was ready to roll! I glued the velvet onto each individual strip of foam. After the glue dried, I placed each velvet covered foam strip into the box to be sure of placement. When I was about halfway done, I realized that I was running out of space! There was no way that all eight strips of foam, covered in velvet, were going to fit inside the box. Seven strips, however, did fit perfectly. After all 7 were placed in the box and I checked to make sure they were snug, but not too snug, I glued each strip individually into the box. After all the glue dried, Brad had a grand ‘ole time placing his cufflinks into the box.

I was very pleased with the way this cufflink box turned out, and considering how much you’d have to spend on one of these babies in a shop or online, I’d say Brad and I go off pretty cheap. The crocodile leather letter box cost $20, the foam was $3, and the velvet originally cost me around $14 a yard when I bought it, but I only used around a ¼ of a yard. It took around an hour and a half to put it all together—and a day of running around gathering the materials. Not bad I tell ya!