S.O.S. - Save Our Mini Saucepans!

Even mini cooks and cleaners need the power of S.O.S.! These are a wonderful little scene prop. Have fun!

For the boxes you'll need:

• S.O.S. box graphic printed on Cardstock or thick paper. I used Canon Matte Photo Paper because I like the thickness and the vibrancy of the printer ink with this paper. Having trouble with the Google Drive link? The single graphic and graphic sheet with inch square calibrator are at the bottom of the tutorial.
• Metal ruler
• Xacto knife or scalpel 
• Fine point stylus
• Toothpicks
• Tacky Glue
• Tweezers
• Scrap 1/8" x 1/4" basswood (helpful but not essential)

For the S.O.S. pads you'll need:

• 0000 Super Fine Steel Wool
• Blue Chalk Pastel
• Scissors
• Paintbrush
• Pump hairspray (aerosol may work, too, I haven't tried it)

Use the ruler and Xacto to cut out your box patterns. 

Using the ball stylus and your ruler, scribe the fold lines into the pattern on the back side. This makes the folds much nicer.

Fold the flaps before the glue comes out to make sure you know how to assemble and like how things are going.

Apply glue to the the long flap on the side of the box.

Press and hold with your tweezers until the glue has set.

Apply glue to the short flaps and the the plain long flap on the bottom of the box.

To make the box's bottom as flat as possible (so the box sits nicely without falling over) press the basswood scrap into the box and flatten the bottom flaps to the table.

Flat bottoms are good on boxes! 😜

If you just want the S.O.S. boxes, seal the top the same way as the bottom and you're done!

But if you want to make S.O.S. pads, please continue...

Pull off a piece of steel wool and compress it into a tight snake shape roughly 1/4" thick. Then, using your scissors, cut several pads about 1/4" thick. Shape them roughly like balls, or like the real S.O.S. pad below.

Pick a blue chalk pastel that resembles the S.O.S. pad and scrape it with your Xacto blade into a cup or onto waxed paper. Using your paintbrush load up the balls with lots of chalk dust.

Once you're happy with the coverage, mist with the hairspray. You can continue adding layers of chalk and hairspray until you like the look.

Load your pads into the box in pairs, side by side, using a little Tacky glue to hold them in place. I was able to fit six into each box but you're really only trying to make an impression with the illusion. You can dirty your box up, leave the open box on the counter or have the pads spilling out for your scene. Just have fun!