Paper Tardis

So I have this fantastic co-worker. How fantastic? The other day we discovered that someone had planned a department potluck and already invited people and her response was, "Well! It's a parfait accompli!" Hahahahahaha. For this joke alone she deserves a big thank-you, but she has also been a really great friend lately, and is also my source for new Doctor Who episodes. So I thought it would be nice to make her a Tardis-shaped card to say thanks.

As with most cards, this turned out to be a serious project. It required re-thinking several times, and in fact several of the pieces pictured below didn't even end up in the final product. But you can see generally where I was going with it.

I was working off of a picture I got from the interwebs, which I traced on the paper. Thank goodness I finally found my Exacto knife, which was hiding in plain sight for three months in spite of the fact that I searched my entire apartment several times. I would not have been able to do those windows with a box-cutter, which I have been known to resort to.

I wasn't originally planning to add as many layers as I did, but it ended up looking much more realistic with more texture. The trickiest part is gluing pieces on in the right order, because there is no ungluing. The whole time I was very very nervous I was going to do something backwards and have to start over.

I started to get kind of giddy at this point. It looks like a Tardis!

The windows are translucent paper. Most worthwhile ninety-nine cents I ever spent in my life. Also, thank goodness somebody else has recreated the instructions on the door, and the St. John's Ambulance sign, because I wouldn't have gotten them right. The St. John's Ambulance sign makes this definitively an Eleventh-Doctor tardis, because the set decorators added it back for him. For the handle and the lock, I had to use tweezers. Let us just say I do not have the hands of a surgeon.

Here's the finished product! I very nearly forgot the police box sign, because it's not like it's an identifying feature or anything. And it's a little ripply from the glue, even though I used as little as I could. But overall, I have to admit, I'm quite pleased with it. I never know how these projects are going to come out, but this one was actually better than I was hoping for.

To compare, a picture of the real tardis:

Now, if only I can figure out how to make it bigger on the inside . . .