Wooden Cupcake Box - Octagon Walls

My fiancée loves cupcakes. To present her with an engagement ring, I decided to build her a box shaped like a cupcake.

I used these Christmas ornaments as inspiration.

I bought a 2 foot x 3 inch x 1/2 inch plank of basswood and a small 1 inch hinge. My intention was to cut and rough out a basic box. Then, I would carve the final shape. I thought to use a triangular file to cut ridges around the cupcake "paper."

Basswood is used a lot in carving. I was a little afraid to use it at first because it was in the same section of the store as balsa wood.

Basswood is extremely easy to cut. I've literally had a harder time cutting butter. It's actually more rigid than I expected when handled, but it's very easy to work with. I can see why carvers use it.

It's also expensive. If I remember correctly, this board was $4 or $5. For comparison, a 8 foot x 1 inch x 2 inch stick of pine is $1.

At first, I decided to make a box the size of a typical ring box. I draw up a design plan, did the calculations, and found how big each side should be. I set up a stop block and started cutting.

Oops! I forgot about the hinge itself. Luckily I didn't waste too much.

So, I changed my mind. I grabbed a piece of pine that I had, figured out how big of a top I could make if I have three layers, and made the bottom as big as I could.

Each basswood wall section of the box came out to be about 2 1/2 inches on the external side.

Then, I glued this together with a strap clamp. I saved the sawdust in a plastic bag to fill in the gaps in the glue joints, something I learned from when I built her the incense tower.

Then, I needed to figure out what to do about the base...