Monster Box

This is my first attempt at making a leather bound monster jewelry/craft box! I haven't really done much work with leather, so I thought I'd try a couple "simple" projects. I mostly used what I had sitting around the Lab (my Halloween work area), and the rest I bought at Tandy's Leather. The leather I used was cheap because this was just going to be a curiousity piece that sat on my shelf with the other experiments.
I know there are better leather smiths than I, but I always try to keep things as simple as I can. Always remember, if someone else did it, then its possible for you too!
So, shall we?

So here we have pics to help with what you need.
I found the eyes at JoAnnes fabric store. 3 or 4 dollars for a set of 18 mm.
The leather was from Tandy's Leather as well as the 1/2 inch spikes.

www.tandyleatherfactory.com

The 3rd pic I just used the scissors, marker and Personna razor. Can't tell you enough how great these blades are for MANY projects!
Rubber cement seemed to do a great job of holding everything in place.
The teeth are Buffalo from eBay (bleached).
SteelStik can be found in any auto parts store and lastly, but most useful is the hot glue gun!

The first pic is something I saw online and decided I wanted one! I have a bad habit of collecting pics and obsessing how to make my own.
I found a couple boxes and set the eyes on them to see how they would look. I chose the wooden box over the metal. (May find a box at many/any craft store)
The buffalo teeth were drilled, so I used a piece of wire and hot glue to make the set and more hot glue to put them on the box.

So, I didn't get pics, but I wrapped the bottom of the box first. I swabbed the bottom with rubber cement, placed it on the leather. Trimmed the corners and used more glue to complete it.
The top, well that was a bit more difficult. I used hot glue and the epoxy to form the eyebrows. I put the screw heads into the eyebrows with the intent to poke holes so the spikes would screw on later.
More epoxy to make the eyes stand up and out better so it'd have a more definition (as you see in the pics).
Wrapping the leather was a bit harder. I started from the back and worked towards the face. Poked holes to get the screws through and draped the leather over the face. I trimmed the holes where the eyes are. I made a slit where the teeth would go and another slit that allowed me to work around the teeth better and hide the seem under the teeth.

Finally, hammered the hinge on the back. Screwed the spikes on the screws that were sticking out and added hot glue to the mouth to make it look like it was drooling...and it hides the bad seems a little better. 2 for 1! Added a bit of red and more hot glue to give it a bit more dimension.

So working with leather takes a bit of practice. It's best to start small-ish.
My first project was the pocket sized spiked spine journal (instructable coming soon) and I took it with me to a comic con. Won't lie, I would whip it out (pocket journal...) and make notes just to see if what people would say about it. Positive responses!
Hopefully the journal will work for you guys as well! Much simpler than the box too!
As always, thank you for checking out my stuff and hopefully it helps you as well!