Or nightmares, as the case may be. If this chocolate box were to actually be filled with chocolate, it would be somewhere in the neighborhood of eighteen pounds of chocolate. Let’s not even go there, shall we?

The “chocolate box” received its name because it would house the sword of chocolate at a dramatic point in iSundae. I wanted to build something that was enough of a visual impact to generate some ooohs and ahhhs.

First I drew a design. I wanted the box to be as tantalizing as possible, with holes just big enough for a hand to go through, but not the sword. (That idea kind of flopped because I accidentally made the hole in the top too big. During filming, Stelen just reached in and pulled the sword out.)

Once I had my design, I began cutting the cardboard. I used a medium weight because it gave me greater stability, but none of those huge, annoying corrugation holes. The best part of this stage is that, whenever possible, I use a rotary cutter, mat, and ruler for cardboard instead of scissors. I just stick an old blade in and cut away. The worst part of the project is that I cut all 125 pieces hunched over on the cold, tile floor of our craftroom.

Once all the pieces were cut and mitered in the corners, I began the long process of hot-gluing the parts together. Just a tiny dab along the edge of the cardboard or it’ll show later.

Finally, everything’s together. It looks like a fancy cardboard structure. Two or three coats of black paint helped quite a bit, all done while hunched over on the craftroom floor.

A little addition of green velvet in the bottom, and a gorgeous prop is done. And so was I. A total of six hours on the floor of the craftoom, in one day. Thankfully, the prop turned out well worth it.