DIY II and a mystery box....!

Inspired by the success and your comments of my first DIY, as well as the fun I got out of it, I am embarking on my second DIY project! Some of you may recall my mentioning an old wooden trunk my mom unearthed from her attic and brought over during Navratri. It had some really really old mud dolls, including a Dasavatara set. But the box excited me more than the dolls! Its wooden, about 60 years old, a bit scratched, dinged and dented, it has some paint marks, a really old metal latch...and definitely showing its age! How many homes it has lived in? How many dolls has it transported back and forth? How many Golus has its contents decorated? It excites me just thinking about it.....and anything that has lived in our family for that long deserves to live on forever! But it needs a bit of a makeover.

 I have been contemplating decoupaging it. I have never dc'ed before, but from what I have read about it, it seems fairly straightforward. My mom who is always collecting arts and crafts materials for projects, just happens to have some of that glue needed for dc'ing! I want to give it a sort of rustic, tribal, villagey look, so last weekend I bought this Madhubani painting which I am thinking of decoupaging on the top. The trunk measures 26" x 16", the painting is a bit smaller. So before doing that, I will sand and scrape the box and give it a border of black paint. Then glue the painting on top.

I got some wood paint in colors to complement the painting....

 .....with which I am going to borrow some ideas from this tribal motif on Matsya's blog (from their trip to Kutch last month), and paint the 4 sides.

 I am not going for a refined, sophisticated look here. I want it to be loud, colorful and vibrant, like those storage trunks we see being used in rural India! So wish me luck....am hoping to start this weekend with the sanding!

Speaking of boxes, here is another 100 year old box that my mom handed down to me a few years ago. It has my great grandmother's name on it- RAJAM - and it has remained locked for the past 50-60 years ever since she passed away! Its sort of heavy and feels like it definitely has something in it and I am told my great grandma used it to keep some money. Anyway, I had a locksmith come by a couple of days ago to look at it and he has promised to come back Sunday with all the appropriate keys needed to try and open it!

 I wonder what I will find inside? Secret compartments? Jewellry? Letters? Photographs? Maybe nothing??? I'll let you know......