Finished project first.

I milled this beech down from a 5/4 board. It ended up a little thinner than I wanted (surprise). Turns out the thinness works well at the size of box I want.

I love my moving fillister plane. It's super fun to use.

This thin board is hard to rabbet so this looks fairly bad but I'm okay with it. I'm learning. :)

Some tape as clamps.

A little weight to keep things square.

The lid pieces laid out.

First coat of boiled linseed oil.

First coat of Soldier Blue milk paint.

This was my first time using milk paint and it didn't come out great. I'm definitely going to have to do some more practicing.

Another glamour shot.

I increased the size of the box to be able to hold pens and pencils. Hopefully this doesn't disqualify me from the contest but even if so, i made a cool box so it's fine. :)