DIY: MatchPix

Hello, hello! I got back from Zurich and I'm here to share some silliness. This is a little project my dad and I used to do when I was little. I realize that in the day and age of toddlers having cell phones making a matchstick camera is somewhat redundant, but I still have hope for the innocence of childhood and the amazement that comes from silly little things.

To start off, you will need the following:

• matchbox devoid of matches
• needle and thread
• pencil, pen, maybe some colour pencils as well
• two different sized coins
• small piece of regular paper
• bigger piece of harder paper in a colour you like
• images from a magazine
• glue
• maybe a ruler

1) Place the inner box on the small sheet of paper and draw the contour of the matchbox. Make sure the cutout can fit into the box comfortably and can also be removed without much (or any effort). If you draw the bottom of the box, you will get a paper that is slightly bigger than it needs to be, so take off about 2mm from the top and one side and you should have it right. If you're giving this as a present to somebody (with images that they like), you may want to stick some cardboard on the back, of every image you cut out.

2) Use the white bit of paper as a template for your magazine images. I found pictures of Barbies through the years and they are like little portraits, so I used those, but you can really use anything you like. When I was little, I preferred images from comic books because they had more motion.

 You know, the more I look at these Barbies, the more I think of creeps in crime shows who hang and tie up and gods-know-what-else dolls... Hmmm... Anyway, back to the task at hand!

4) Use a threaded needle to poke a hole through the sheath of the box (is that what it's called?) about 1.5 cm (slightly more than a half inch) from one of the edges. Don't tie the thread off before you do this, you want it going through both sides. Once it is, then you can tie it off.

5) Somehow my photos for this step disappeared, so I will try to talk your though it to the best of my abilities.

• Place the matchbox sheath on the edge of an A4 piece of coloured paper, so that the striking surface is on the paper and aligned to one corner. 
• Mark out the length of the entire box and cut out a band of paper as wide as the matchbox is long. The shorter side of the A4 is more than enough for this.
• Now mark out the width of the striking surface, folding the paper so there's a lip on the paper that matches this.
• Press the paper along the face of the box.
• Place a thick pen or marker that is about the same width as the box and fold the paper over it.
• Press the paper back down along the other face of the box.
• Make another lip that will close everything off.

I'm in the middle of preparing for an exam now, but as soon as I have an hour to spare, I'll make a drawing for this.

6) Use the coins to draw two circles. This will be your lens. I made mine a bit to the side. I trust your creativity to make something cool. And if you have drawing skills, even better!

That's my end result. Looks a bit like an iPod, doesn't it? See at the bottom and top where the paper is somewhat folded? That's that lip I keep mentioning!

 7) Now comes the gluing. Start with the striking surface and the lip of the paper you cut out. Move on to the face, careful not to put glue on your thread. Then proceed to glue the other face of the matchbox, leaving the second striking surface glue-free. Finally, place the second lip over the first, to close everything off.

You may want to use clothes pins at this point to hold the glue in place. I used regular glue (because I couldn't find my glue-stick) so the paper shifted a lot.

 While you wait for the glue to dry, look for any spills and clean them up. The hole where the thread goes is especially prone to leaking.

 8) Something that I should have mentioned earlier is that the thread should go out to the side to which the hole is closer. The box containing the "photos" goes in on that side too. When you wish to "take a picture", tug on the string and the box will slide out, almost all the way.

 Have fun with it, place any image you like, the box can hold a whole lot of paper. I hope you have enjoyed this trip into childhood memories and if you make this, I would love to see how it turns out. :)

-Tasha