Magic Mirror Box

In this Instructable, I will show you how to make a "Magic" mirror box. When viewed from one angle, you can see three gems. From another, four. As you rotate the box, you can see 6, 8, 12, and 24 gems! How many gems are there, really?

And of course, you can put other precious items in there and see it multiplies!

• 12 4"x4"e adhesive mirrors
• Foam board / cardboard (preferably solid color)
• Clear, flexible, cylindrical plastic container
• Double sided tape
• Washi tape
• Craft knife
• Compass (the tool for drawing circles, not the navigation tool)

Cut them out into connected pairs. You should have six pairs.

Cut out circles of board.

Make sure the radius is slightly bigger than the length of the mirrors (because the mirrors' thickness will take up space as well).

Repeat to make 3 circles. One for the top, one for the bottom, and one to make slices to stabilize the mirrors.

Print and cut out a circle divided into 15-degree sectors (24 pieces).

I found the image here:

http://artbyjean.blogspot.com/2007/03/circle-templ....

Take one cardboard circle and use the degree measurer and a marker to divide it into a 120-, 90-, 60-, 45-, 30-, and 15-degree section.

Cut along the marker lines to make the sectors.

Connect all of the mirror pairs into a strip of mirrors. Then connect the two ends of the strip.

Then, glue each original pair of mirrors together to form an star shape.

Now you have a mirror star with 6 flaps, where each flap is now a two-sided mirror.

Put the mirrors on a whole circle of cardboard. Make sure it is centralized. Then, place the sectors in between the mirrors. Secure the cardboard sectors with double-sided tape.

Separate the sides and the bottom of the plastic container.

Cut out a section of plastic to be the side of the mirror box. It should be about 4" wide and the length should be slightly more than the circumference of the bottom board (Leave out extra to glue together).

Wrap the plastic strip around the mirror box and tape to form the side. Glue on the side and bottom.

Take the base of the plastic container. Sketch out a circle slightly smaller on the last cardboard circle and cut this smaller circle out of the cardboard circle.

This "skylight" will allow for more light and therefore better viewing.

Tape the plastic bottom and foam board donut together with double sided tape.

Put washi tape strips at 15 degree intervals as shown. This will cover up the edges of the mirrors and make the illusion more believable. It also serves as decoration! You might want to print another paper degree model. It will be helpful here.

Tip: use tape to temporarily secure the parts.

Place strips of washi tape on the top (to cover the top mirror edges as well). The paper degree model will be helpful here as well, but make sure to remove it when you're done.

You may add additional decoration. We added a LED candle light on top.