Medieval Prison - Room Box Walk-Through

Jess here and it's July and here in Southern Ontario it's hot, hot hot! This month I'm working with the Arched Room Box on another full-out diorama. I'm going to walk you through the process, with pictures in each step to show you what I've done and how I've done it. If you have any questions as we go along, don't hesitate to leave me a comment so I can give you a hand.

This diorama is based on a stone cell from a fantasy novel or from the medieval period. We're going to make it look ancient and very well used.

I started with a quick Google search for an arched window, found one that would work and printed it out on a piece of cardstock. 

Once cut out, it can be used as a template for the back of the box to add a window detail. it will give the cell dimension.

I marked out the whole piece with a ruler so that I knew it would be going on straight and then using a box cutter (a craft knife will also work) I cut out my chosen shape.

To keep things neat and tidy, I like to use a nail file to sand down the edges.

I use pink insulation foam quite a lot. I like how easy it is to cut and work with, though it does take up quite a lot of space in my craft room before it's cut. Using the chip board you've already cut, trace the same arch set onto the pink foam with a box cutter.

Then I took a ruler and my trusty red pen to create a brick pattern.

I made myself a "texturizer" using some craft stones and hot glue - I use this to press into the foam to create a brick texture.

Next we jump to another kind of foam - white foam. It's from the Dollar store, but you can also get it at Michaels. I like the dollar store foam because it's way easier to take the paper off. I cut them into small squares and beveled the edges of each piece.

I arranged them like so on top of the pink foam...

Once that's done, I used hot glue (it doesn't warp anything) to fasten the pink foam to the chip board back. 

Then I attached the walls to the box...

Back to the white foam! I cut strips to fit each wall and then drew on the brick pattern again.

Here's two wall pieces next to each other, one textured, one not textured. You can see the big difference that texturing the foam does and how it really gives it a stone-like look.

And lastly for today, I used the hot glue to fasten each wall to the matching chip board. 

Join me next week for the floor, the bars and more! 

Don't forget to pick up your Arched Window Room Box Here!